Sunday , June 13, 2010
Heavy Rotation: D.A.F., Beach House, Califone, Van Halen, Gong, The End
D.A.F., "Der Mussolini"
Ah, a song that Dieter from "Sprockets" would be proud of! Sometimes what you need in life is a little homoerotic proto-electropunk, you know? D.A.F. (which stands for Deutsch-Americkanische Freundschaft, whew, mouthful) released the seminal Alles Ist Gut in 1981, and this track pretty much lit up the dance floors across a million leather bars around the world. D.A.F. started off in Dusseldorf as a punk band in the late 1970s and then moved into electronic dance music, which explains the nihilistic aggression of the music and the grim sarcasm present in the lyrics. (I will have to take that latter aspect upon the word of one of the German dudes in my life, who listened to this and laughed and said, "What is this? This is not possible!") Apparently all the fascist and totalitarian dictators mentioned in the song have been reduced down to the level of a dance step in the song. It's a little odd and subversive, but it's irresistible in a "my body must dance" way. But alas: my setup has become tiresome. Liebe mein affe-monkey! Now is the time when we dance! (Kat)
Beach House, "Norway"
I'm a loyal girl. I big-upped Beach House at the beginning of their careers and have been a huge fan since, so naturally I leapt at the chance to put their latest song here, which will be on their new record, Teen Dream, coming out in January. Like their other stuff before, it's beautiful, dreamy and mellow, all shimmering keyboards and pretty guitars anchored by Victoria Legrand's theatrical yet tasteful alto. But this picks up the pace a bit in a way different from Beach House songs of the past -- I almost think I may be able to actually take this one out on a run. Or maybe not, because after all, Beach House will never be Technotronic. (The thoughts of that hypothetical collabo make the mind reel!) But I do think it's meant to be listened to when the leaves are falling upon the wet ground and the sky is that mauve-y shade, melancholy and misty. It makes sense in a strange way that this song was written on a train riding through Norway. Another example of the magic of spiritual Scandinavia? (Kat)
Califone, "Your Golden Ass"
This one goes out to MYSELF. (Liz)
Van Halen, "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love"
And this one goes out to someone who'll never read this. And also to Dave Navarro, whom I really, really want to read this. Please read this, Dave Navarro! I have some fuzzy memory of you saying "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love" is your favorite Van Halen song a few years back on the radio, and - get this! - it's my favorite Van Halen song too! I think it would be the most fun if you played it for me on your new Hello Kitty guitar and then we went to Pinkberry and talked about movies or something and then looked at weird shit on YouTube for a couple hours. Cool? It's sorta strange that you're a Gemini, but I feel like maybe we'd get along famously, swimmingly, beautifully, etc., etc. So: totally get in touch. I hope you're having a really amazing day so far. I love you, and stuff. (Liz)
Gong, "Glad To Sad To Say"
Gong's "Glad to Sad to Say" has been my #1 "pumping myself up" anthem for a long, long year. The lyrics "Yes we are, we're gonna change the world/Haven't any choice, yeah," make it ideal listening material for a person who feels as though they have no choice but to change the world, such as myself. The extent to which Daevid Allen & Gong did NOT change the world makes it a bit depresso-pathetic, though this is mostly remedied by how Daevid Allen was the person who Paul McCartney made tape loop recordings with in 1966, therefore enabling Paul McCartney to spend the rest of his life bragging about how he experimented with tape loops before John Lennon did. So that KIND OF counts as "changing the world," I guess. It's cool how Paul McCartney is so cool that if you spend but one day of your life doing anything with Paul McCartney, you end up changing the world by proxy. In conclusion: I LOVE PAUL McCARTNEY. (Laura Jane)
The End, "Cardboard Watch"
If an alien landed on this planet and asked me, "Laura Jane, what does '60s psych sound like?", I would play him (or her!) this song. It's solid. And peppy! On headphones while walking down the street, it makes me feel like I am the star of a movie about a girl named Laura Jane who is happy and carefree and her life is very fine, fine as in "fine china" and also fine as in "She feels good/She knows she's looking fine." Speaking of "Good Day Sunshine" by the Beatles, "Cardboard Watch" by the End scratches the same general itch as does "GDS", only the cool thing about "Cardboard Watch" is that I have zero emotional attachment to it, and never will. "Funny man say/Get on this couch and talk away" means nothing about my life, even if I'm walking to therapy, which I sometimes am. It's just a fun boppy pop song about intangible timepieces that I would play for an alien. And that's FINE. (Laura Jane)
Tags: 60s psych, aliens, Beach House, changing the world, D.A.F., Daevid Allen, Dave Navarro, dudes, homoerotic, John Lennon, Laura loves the Beatles, making fun of Germans, Paul McCartney, Pinkberry, spiritually Scandinavian, tape loops, Van Halen
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1 Comments!!
Say something so insightful and witty, it will blow us away. (No pressure.)
Got something to say? We'd love to hear it! Name, email and "type in the weirdo drunken text" thingie are all required to comment; don't worry, we won't email you or anything, we just want to make sure you're not an evil spambot. Keeping in mind the good-times mentality we like to keep going here, we've worked hard to keep NOGOODFORME.COM as fun as possible. We welcome all kinds of comments, but insults/abuse/general bitchery are not tolerated. In other words, we put the smackdown on evil troll posts. If you want to be a hater, please go elsewhere. Now, as Salt 'N Pepa say, "Only the sexy people..."
I HATE PAUL MCCARTNEY. jk!!!!
speaking of jk-ing, i hope dave navarro doesn't think i'm jk-ing here. i'm so sincerr.
kat, the other day 'gila' by beach house came up on my itunes and i was like 'why have i never listened to this before?????'
By Liz
on November 19, 2009 11:36 AM