Heavy Rotation: Alice Cooper, Bell Biv Devoe, Lizzy Mercier Descloux

This edition of Heavy Rotation is brought to you by the springtime sunshine and the voices of 1990s alt-rock angels. And of course, all songs are located in the jukebox there on the top right of our homepage.

Alice Cooper, "Sun Arise"
Here's what I used to think of when I thought of Alice Cooper: Milwaukee is Algonquin for "the good land"; that Marriott commerical where Alice is jumping rope with the little kids; and the episode of Freaks and Geeks where Mr. Rosso (who I sometimes run into at the bank and the health-food store) sings "I'm Eighteen." Then I read Laurel Canyon: The Inside Story of Rock-and-Roll's Legendary Neighborhood by Michael Walker (who we never got to thank for deeming us foxy - thank you, Michael!) and discovered that Alice's got some serious Laurel Canyon roots. So last week I bought Love it to Death used at Amoeba and quickly became obsessed with "Sun Arise," the mellowed-out closing track. I'm guessing it's one of most Laurel Canyon-y songs in the Alice Cooper catalogue, as it's wicked sing-along-able and full of "whoa-oh-oh"s and so lyrically perfect for welcoming the springtime sunshine. (Liz)

The Lemonheads, "My Drug Buddy"
One of my unrealized goals for SXSW was to catch one of the Lemonheads' shows. I've seen them lotsa times, but the most exciting one was at Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel in the fall of 1996: My friend and I accidentally met Evan Dando beforehand and asked him to play "My Drug Buddy" and he said surrrrre and was just generally a cutie-pie dollface dreamboat. And then we met him again a few months later and he was far less adorable and sort of sexually harassed a 15-year-old. And then the next time we saw him he was so out of his mind he fell off the stage mid-show. So it was all kind of grisly downward spiral, but last time I saw him - singing for the MC5 in 2004 - he totally had it together and all was pretty much forgiven. Anyway, "My Drug Buddy" will forever have a special place in my heart; I still get a little goosebumpy when Juliana Hatfield comes in on the second verse. (Liz)

Ultra Vivid Scene, "Special One"
I have fond memories of taping episode upon episode of "120 Minutes" on MTV and trading the videocassettes (!!!) back and forth with friends throughout early junior high and high school. There's a certain kind of band that I associate with the seminal alternative music show, the kind where the guitars jangle amiably and the vocals are sort of wispy and imperfect and wry and witty: Kitchens of Distinction, Aztec Camera, that sort of thing. But the video for this song stands out the most for me in that grainy blur of memory, if only for the perfection of Kurt Ralske's early-90s floppy quasi-skater haircut and a beaming, adorable Kim Deal sitting and singing along next to him, resting her head on his shoulder and being cool and completely fucking cute. Ah, how things change: Ralske went on to become a fancy video artist and a visual art professor and Kim Deal went on to be a bit of a mess, but for a shining moment in 1990 they sang together on this valentine-in-a-bottle and were everything I wanted in love. (Kat)

The Move, "Fire Brigade"
Roy Wood, the singer/songwriter/wacky-pants genius behind The Move, is a household name in the United Kingdom. This is one of the many billion reasons why Great Britain is cooler than North America (another one is that their Diet Cherry Coke tastes waybetter.) The Move are one of the only groups of the late-sixties that came close to hitting McCartney-level catchiness. Actually, they're one of the only groups who even bothered to try, so extra kudos for that, Roy. Songs as good as "Fire Brigade" are the reason why pop music was invented. This song is as delightful as British Diet Cherry Coke, American Diet Cherry Coke, Regular Cherry Coke (both British and American), regular cherries, maraschino cherries, and a decadent chocolate sundae mixed together. With a cherry on top. (Laura)

Lizzy Mercier Descloux, "Mais Ou Sont Passes Les Gazelles?"
My love for this song is somewhat dogged by my belief that it was playing in the background for the entire duration of the vacation my family took to Orlando when I was six years old. I am incapable of listening to it without my mind's eye insisting on visualizing my childhood self sitting poolside beneath palm trees and wearing a Mickey Mouse t-shirt that changes color from neon purple to neon orange when you breathe on it. Realistically, it is highly doubtful that "Mais Ou Sont Passes Les Gazelles?" was playing at any point during said Disneyworld vacay, but it should have been. Lizzy invented Worldbeat five years before glimmers of "Graceland" even appeared in Paul Simon's mind. I listened to this song over and over a few nights ago when Montreal was subjected to a mid-March blizzard of epic proportions, and it granted me momentary respite from Winter Hell. It makes you feel like you just drank a Pina Colada, rode Space Mountain, and swam with the dolphins, even though all you really did was rent Season Two of Veronica Mars from the video store and get snow in your boot. (Laura)

Bell Biv Devoe, "Do Me"
A friend of mine was visiting last week, and as what happens often, our conversation often turned to music. In between discussing Finnish avant-rock and whether or not Motorhead is better than AC/DC, talk turned to what Bell Biv Devoe song was better: "Do Me" or "Poison." He picked "Poison," and while I wasn't really ready to commit to an opinion, I can't deny that "Do Me" was always my favorite of the two. "Poison" does have that awesomely skittering beat and a proper song structure, and the harmonies between these former members of New Edition make the track a new jack swing classic. But "Do Me" is kind of sweatier with a dead-proper groove, and the way the boys just sort of lose their shit or get preoccupied with all the things they want to do to your (hypothetical) body sort of hint at a libidinal agony that transformed their image from scrubbed-clean bubblegum kids to dudes who really, really, really like girls. "Do Me" has just enough cheesiness and perv factor to keep things eternally interesting. And points for mentioning the Swatch watch, too. (Kat)

Posted by Kat, Liz and Laura in Heavy Rotation
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