23 posts tagged “naughts”
This is quite possibly the most awesome thing I've heard in a long time.
I've got a real soft spot for this sort of faux-50s pop kinda stuff. There's this one, and one of the biggest that comes to mind is the only Cranberries song I can stand (it actually even made me try to go BACK to them after initially hating all the other stuff I'd heard from them, and then discovering that, yep, the rest of it does indeed still suck hardcore), "When You're Gone" from, um, To The Faithful Departed I think. The weird thing with that is that I first found it when I was beginning my Zappa phase (stage one: Downloading a few testers before buying a record) and it was mislabelled as "Peaches En Regalia" -- I liked it, but it didn't sound terribly Zappa to me (and he rarely used female vocalists for the lead if, well, ever), but I knew that he was kinda all over the map and had a great affinity for 50s kinda stuff, so there you go. I remember when I mentioned it in an IRC chat room that I really liked the lyrics to "Peaches En Regalia". You can probably imagine the reaction.
Anyway, though, this is NOT that song, and it's by a band I actually
LIKE, instead of the one fluke song they wrote that happened to be good
like after getting hit in the head or something and deciding not to
write idiotic songs that'd end up being caterwauled by a woman whose
voice is that of a dying cat. Garbage, on the other hand, write a
lot of good songs that are sung by someone who is good at it, so there
you go. I found this one in my "Stuff to put on a mix later"
directory and had actually forgotten what it was until I heard the
first 2 or so seconds and was all like "OH YEAH! This one!
This is AWESOME!", so here you go. It's from Beautiful Garbage,
which I dug (and was actually my first Garbage record when we got it in
at my college station and I listened to it as the MD and dug it then,
too), though I guess a lot of fans hate this record. (And,
admittedly, compared to the first couple, is a bit lacking, but
hey.) I wasn't into Bleed Like Me much, though, but it does have
its moments too. So there you go. This is kind of an
oddball cut from the record, but it's pretty awesome. Just
sayin', though, if you're going to go try to buy this record based on
this song, you'll be disappointed sound-wise (but probably not too bad
quality-wise).
Souljacker's probably the best eels album, and
this is one of my favorite cuts from it (though not my favorite -- that
honor goes to "Fresh Feeling", which I've probably either shared
already or will share in the future. Either way, though. I
wasn't sure what I was going to post tonight, since I am actually
pretty tired so I started doing a few random searches. "Sleep"
was one so here we are. I just really dig this song, particularly
the bridgey bit, about the Man's dream. Also, just the imagery of
the lyrics -- "metal box under the stars" for one. E's a great
lyricist/composer. More folks should be E, really.
So, it's kind of a common thing to do a standards
album now. Harry Nilsson was one of the first with his "A Little
Touch of Schmilsson In The Night", and, well, there've been some other
cool people who've done them, I'm sure. Granted, they mostly seem
to be lame folks like Rod Stewart and Barry Manilow and alla them, but
whatever. Perhaps one of the oddest standards albums is The Way I
Feel Today, a limited edition type one from the former Wall Of Voodoo
frontman Stan Ridgway. It's a really cool album -- for the most
part, it's performed straight, though it's got a few synth washes and
blips and bleeps in the mixes too. And, well, it really
works. Ridgway's got a very unique voice -- but don't confuse
"unique" with "bad"; he's got a great voice and, well, it surprisingly
really suits this material really well. As for this song -- it's
one of the odder standards, which is one of the reasons why it stood
out to me. I don't think Amazon has this one, but I do believe
that CDBaby still has some in stock, so go pick it up. Hooray!
Whoa! I am BACK! Finally!
Hooray! I've also ripped in almost all of my CD library, so I'll
have even more stuff to choose from and all sorts of other stuff.
Anyway, by request -- here's a cut from Sgt. Major, one of the most
awesome bands in the Seattle area. If you're in town, check them
out. If you're not, pick up their first record. Either
way. This cut is a cover of the classic Who song, and it's so far
unreleased, but it looks like it's slated for their second album,
tenatively titled "On Green Battery Street". Whether or not it
appears will remain to be seen, but hopefully it does, because the Who
are awesome, and Sgt. Major is awesome, and they basically nail this
song. And it's kinda cool hearing it sung by a woman
anyway. So there you go! Rock!
As for the Knife, I don't know a whole lot about them. My friend Lindsey gave me a burn of Deep Cuts a little while ago, mentioning the Ween-sound, and also that they're apparently a brother/sister combo from Sweden who go around in various masks. I'm not sure if they're anonymous or just the Daft Punk type of anonymous where everyone knows their names but you never see their faces. I thought originally that they only wore Luchadore masks, but I saw another picture where they were wearing cool bird mask things. So, I guess they're open. I should really get around to picking up one of their records for real. Like maybe this one, Silent Shout!
By the way, I'm thinking the Hiatus will be ending pretty soon. Part of it was that I've been busy updating my iTunes with Album Artwork because I am just that lame, but also that work has had me kinda slammed lately. But I'm thinking it'll be OK again soon!
Here's a rare cut for y'all -- this is the flip
to the 7"-only "Good Day" single, although it also appeared on the
100th release from Important Records, a compilation
that was given free with any order. I don't know if they still
have copies, but you can check it out. There's actually quite a
bit of good stuff on that compilation, too -- I'm probably going to
have to order some more stuff from them. Anyway, to tell you the
truth? This isn't the best Dresden Dolls song in the world -- in fact,
it's in the "Oh, this was a b-side for a reason" category, but hey,
it's still neat to hear, particularly since it's actually -- gasp --
guitar driven. It's just odd to hear from the Dresden
Dolls. If you want this, go to the Important Records link -- the
original single is way, way out of print, but hey, the comp is
cool. The Amazon link goes to their first record, just because
that's from the same era as this album, and it's a very good
record. And the A-side of the original single both a) Rules and
b) Is on this album, so there you go. Check it out. (Also,
I keep wanting to call this song "A Good Night At The Roses", which I
think is conflating the title with both the A-side as well as "A Good
Year For The Roses" by Elvis Costello (and, well, George Jones, but I
like Elvis way more than No-Show Jones.)
I really, really dug Cracker's last album for
Virgin Records, Forever, though I guess not a lot of people did.
I always thought they should have released this song as a single, too,
although listening to it in the car today with my mother made her turn
down the solo part and say "Well, that's hardly annoying", which
perhaps is why it wasn't a single. Still, though, it was better
than "Shine". And I don't find the solo annoying, so there.
Also, this song is keen because it references encryption. More
songs should reference encryption. Anyway, though, I dig this one
a lot. Check it out, and pick up the record. Cracker is
keen.
This one is By Request, one of my favorite cuts
from the Jenny Lewis solo album, Rabbit Fur Coat. This was
actually the first song I'd heard, too -- on an LJ community, it was
posted as a teaser, and, well, after hearing it, I really dug it.
Later, I heard the full record and was blown away. My favorite
cut is probably "Rise Up With Fists!!", but, well, almost everything on
there is great. (Oddly enough, the only track I'm more lukewarm
on is the title track.) There's a really great video for "Rise Up
With Fists!!" too, which is definitely worth seeking out.
YouTube'll be your friend in this case. Or maybe I'll post the
video here. I don't know! But anyway, here's Born Secular,
which is kind of like Born Slippy, only completely different.
I just got back from a Midnight Screening of
Faster Pussycat, Kill Kill which had Tura Satana in attendance which
was really really awesome. However I haena posted an mp3 yet
today. I have decided to define today as "time between sleep
cycles" since it is still technically tomorrow, but whatever.
Anyway, I listened to this album today. The entire album kicked
ass. This song in particular. Buy the record, get the song,
whatever. I'm gonna sleep.
