39 posts tagged “pop”
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).
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!
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!
I recently burned a new disc for me to listen to on my way to and from work. (I'd been getting slightly sick of the old one, though it was a very good mix of albums, as it turned out.) Anyway, one of the albums burned-and-shuffled on the mp3 disc is Andy Prieboy's Sins Of Our Fathers. I actually haven't heard this album before, I'd ripped it when Aila wanted to play a cut from it on the radio show I used to do for Steve.Fm, 50 Skidillion Watts Of Good Will. I really dug the track she chose ("Who Do You Think We're Coming For"), and I have been digging his work with Wall Of Voodoo lately, so I figured it'd be a safe bet that I would dig the album, AND it'd give me an excuse to finally listen to the damn thing.
SO, ANYWAY -- I was on my way to work, and this song came on, and I
couldn't figure out who it was -- it almost had a Scissor Sisters vibe
(for a minute I wondered if I'd put Ta-Dah on and forgot -- by the way,
I've finally come around on them, sorry I was late to that party), but
I couldn't place it. I liked the really strange disco-ish feel to
it, and the lyrics. I did a google search for the lyrics as soon
as I arrived at work, but no dice. I'd actually _forgotten_ I'd
put the Andy Prieboy album on the disc and was trying to figure it out
-- none of the other acts (Chumbawamba, Sufjan Stevens, Rilo Kiley, the
Minus 5, Cracker) I knew I'd put on fit at all -- about the closest was
maaaaybe Republica, like, perhaps that one cut from the other album
that I had downloaded but listened to only once or so. (Speaking
of Republica, anyone catch the mention of them on this week's Venture
Brothers? The Monarch claimed that when they first met, Dr.
Girlfriend looked like Saffron from Republica.) But anyway, so
about halfway through my busride home, another Andy Prieboy cut came
on, and I realized it pretty much had to be him, but I still wanted to
know what the cut WAS -- and after all, if it was indeed him; the
vocals didn't have his usual almost-kinda-Stan-Ridgway-kind-of-sound...
I suppose I could have dropped in another song by accident or
somethin'. So, I got home, ran up to look, and it's this
one. So, here. Enjoy this song, because I did.
Since it's Halloween and all, I figured I might
as well post a halloweenish song! This is a not terribly inspired
choice, but it is a wicked awesome song, so I'm gonna go with it,
because I saw it on a LJ post comment off of this post by calamityjon,
whose LJ you should probably be reading anyway, but whatever!
Someone mentioned this song, and then included a note along the lines
of "even though it sucks", then clarified that they weren't being
clever, they actually didn't like this song. Which is strange,
because it's really, really awesome. I am surprised that folks
don't like it. Oh well! Their loss, i suppose! But
anyway, if you don't agree with that dude, you win, and you win the
opportunity to listen to this song now! Hooray! It is the
best prize ever.
This is one of my favorite Elvis Costello songs,
and I figured I may as well share it for everyone. It's from the
second album, and the first with the Attractions, This Year's Model,
which may also be my favorite Elvis record. Either that or
Imperial Bedroom, probably. Both of those are outstanding.
This has a lot more edges to it, though, and a really great drum
part. Some of it reminds me a bit of Drums & Wires-era XTC,
though it adds the one thing that that era XTC lacked -- really awesome
organ, played here by Steve Nieve. Such a great song,
really.
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.)
