Sunday , June 13, 2010
Heavy Rotation: The Lemonheads, Glen Campbell, Fredrik, Fever Ray, The Pleasure Seekers, 13th Floor Elevators
The Lemonheads, "6ix"
According to Kat Asharya, all paper bags by the side of the road probably contain severed heads. Which is a terrifying prospect, and the only way I can deal is to play "6ix" by the Lemonheads over and over and pretend all those severed heads belong to Gwyneth Paltrow (or at least her character in Se7en, who is make-believe). Also, if I were on the editorial team at Goop, I'd totally propose changing the weekly email's tagline from "Nourish the Inner Aspect" to "Here Comes Gwyneth's Head in a Box!" It's about a thousand times less clunky, and so much more on-point - don't you think? (Liz)
Glen Campbell, "Wichita Lineman"
Right now, this is the saddest song I've ever heard in my life. Apparently it's also "the first existential country song," according to Wikipedia.org. I heard it for the first time on "Morning Becomes Eclectic" last week, and mixed up "lineman" with "linebacker" and kept saying to myself "I really don't get how this is about football!" But it's not about football; it's about a man working on the telephone lines in Kansas and missing the hell out of someone who's long gone. It makes me think of Ennis Del Mar, and of that short story we read in 10th grade, about the train operator who drives past the same woman and her child everyday, and they always wave to him, and he always waves back, and then one day he goes to see them and it ends very heartbreakingly. Do you know what story I'm talking about? I can't remember the name. (Liz)
Fredrik, "Locked in the Basement"
Spiritual Scandinavia doesn't stop just 'cause it's a new year, you know. I still find the idea to be a useful organizing principle through which to guide a somewhat voracious, indiscriminate exploration and consumption of culture (i.e., meaning, I tend to just read, listen and watch everything based on whim, which is not so bad, of course...but there's something to be said about the power of a well-organized intellect.) I actually loved Malmo, Sweden-based Fredrik's debut album Na Na Ni, so I'm excited by the buckets for their new record, Trilogi, to come out later this month. They seem to be expanding their dreamy experimentalist pop leanings into something more mysterious and ineffable, and that is just fine with me. At first I thought this track would be a cover of the R. Kelly lunatic classic of the same name, but sadly, it is not! (Oh, I wish more bands would cover R. Kelly. It seems Will Oldham is one of the few brave souls to do this.) This "Locked in the Basement" is still beautiful, though, somehow both melancholy yet uplifting in that gorgeous Scandinavian way. (Kat)
Fever Ray, "Seven (Martyn's Seventh Remix)"
I'm going to shut up about Fever Ray, but I am not going to stop putting her songs on this blog. This is a pretty awesome, highly danceable remix, and I like doing that shuffling running-in-place thingie that Europeans do as a dance move to this song many times over. That Lady Gaga stumble-dance thing she does works really well for this song as well. Combine them both for hours of fun, or to look like a demented rave relic from 1996! (Kat)
The Pleasure Seekers, "What A Way To Die"
Some things, in life, are cool, and they are valuable for their coolness above all else. I guess "What A Way To Die" is cool because it is filthy and from Detroit in 1965 and all the Pleasure Seekers are girls and one of them is Suzi Quatro and the guitars are loud and it's about getting drunk, but I'd like to believe that it's also cool for some other reason- a smarter one. Mostly, I think it aged well. I think if I listened to this song in 1965, 1965 Laura would think, "These girls are retarded idiots and I am embarrassed both by and for them," and then I'd go read Nine Stories and listen to Ravi Shankar. And I think it all has something majorly semi-important to do with the sentence "Nostalgia is the midpoint between Real and Imaginary," but I don't actually care, because the Pleasure Seekers are not the Beatles. I was thinking I'd end this write-up with the sentence, "This song epitomizes my exact relationship with drinking," but really, that's such a huge lie. It's a silly, cutesy lie. I've already lived long past the age of twenty-one, I think Schlitz is yuck, and, if I died* of alcohol poisoning, that'd be a really fucking pathetic way to die. (Laura Jane)
* Speaking of my own death: yesterday, in an ill-fated attempt to perfectly synchronize the moment when I crossed the street to "the part of 'You Really Got Me' where the drums start", I came closer to getting hit by a car than I ever have in my life, and that's saying a lot, because I'm constantly almost getting hit by a car. What really "killed" me about this whole event is that, had I been run over by a car, and had I died, NOBODY EVER WOULD HAVE KNOWN THAT I DIED BECAUSE I WAS TRYING TO MATCH MY WALKING-PACE TO MY KINKS SONG, though that fact would have made my death kind of worth it, or at least well-suited to my life. So it's great, for a lot of reasons, that I didn't die yesterday.
13th Floor Elevators, "She Lives (In a Time of Her Own)"
Ever since I started writing for nogoodforme.com, I've been toying around with the idea of writing a self-indulgent blog post called "All-Time Top 5: Songs You Should Listen To If You Are In Love With Me," but I've vetoed the idea time and time again. Firstly, many of the choices are dead obvious (Did you know that I relate to the girl from "Girl" by the Beatles?!?); secondly, the whole deal sounds like the doings of one cocky motherfucker, something which I am not, anymore, I hope, I'm working on it. My greater point is that this song would have been number four or something, because I, like, live in a time of my own. That time is either a) the fanciful late-sixties Shangri-London of my dreams or, b) like, my art. (Laura Jane)
Tags: alcoholism, cockiness, coolness, death, Detroit, Ennis Del Mar, existential country songs, Glen Campbell, Goop, Gwyneth Paltrow, nourishing the inner aspect, severed heads, spiritually Scandinavian
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7 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..."
But why become uncocky?
By Claire on January 14, 2010 3:58 PM
Because cockiness is a terrible, terrible coping mechanism designed by my, or anybody's, subconscious to compensate for, but not deal with, feelings of insecurity/inferiority, various fears, and/or a general "lack of control" over the future, life, what other people are going to do, etc. Love thyself for SURE, but cockiness is the opposite of confidence and I'd rather be slightly less confident than slightly more cocky.
By Laura
on January 14, 2010 4:34 PM
the shop assistants' cover of what a way to die is also V V fucking GOOD!
By amy on January 14, 2010 6:30 PM
Now every time I see a paper bag I'm going to be thinking about Gwyneth's head in a bag.
By Chick on January 15, 2010 10:50 AM
I like to sing "6ix" when I wash the dishes.
This past summer I went to see the Lemonheads & while they didn't play "6ix," they did cover "Skulls" by the Misfits, which was even better.
Laura, I am really digging your rationale for becoming less cocky.
By K. on January 16, 2010 11:07 AM
thx K
By Laura
on January 17, 2010 3:14 AM
JEALOUS that you saw the lemonheads last summer, K. last time i saw evan was when he did that mc5 reunion thing in like 2004. i don't remember much about it except he looked so great. i love him.
By Liz
on January 17, 2010 5:30 PM