Thursday , July 22, 2010
Heavy Rotation: Studio, This Heat, Mike Watt, The Replacements, Utopia, The Rutles
Studio, "Origin"
One thing that highly appeals to me about Studio (besides their being Swedish, of course) is how they manage to blend that dub-y, Balearic beat and Spanish-y guitar flourishes with the occasional perfect quasi-New Wave groove. The result is almost exactly like Duran Duran, only without the faux-arty ("farty") lyrics and Patrick Nagel cover art. This track is from their superb West Coast record, which I highly recommend for those needing a bit of a mid-winter pick-up in the form of songs that sound like ingesting MDMA on Ibiza holidays. Not that I know about such things. Oh no. (Kat)
This Heat, "Sleep"
There's a type of dude in my life that WORSHIPS at the altar of Can, Faust, C Cat Trance and other avant-prog thingies. These guys either worked for many years at a record store, were music directors at their college radio station or most likely were both. They have intensely erotic relationships to records and would be more excited to get a first pressing of some random obscure album than have the hottest human being on the planet arrive naked at their doorstep, wrapped in a cellophane bow. A paragon of this dude-type made me listen to This Heat's Deceit once. It was a very good record, although large swaths of it make me queasy-feeling when I listen to it too much. But I love this song because it is Can-like and fairly unqueased in nature. But if some dude tries to make you listen to Deceit two times in a row and then eat a burrito, RUN FOR YOUR LIFE. (Kat)
Mike Watt, "Heartbeat"
"Heartbeat" is maybe my third favorite song on Ball-Hog or Tugboat? by Mike Watt, whom I hereby promise to forever love with the fire of a thousand suns. Tiffany Anders sings it all honey-like, but the real prize is the Kathleen Hanna voicemail that starts up on the second half of the track. Wapner and I used to spend a lotta time trying to figure out who the mystery rapist might be, and our two main suspects were Eddie Vedder and Evan Dando. Listening now, I'm no longer chomping at the bit to crack that case. Probably it's all just a stunt. But probably it's Evan Dando. (Liz)
The Replacements, "Androgynous"
Another big mystery of the universe is: why does this song always put the pep back in my step whenever I'm feeling blue? It's got very little relevance to my life experience, and it's pretty damn downbeat, but it never ever fails to save me on those days when I fall into some death-black mood. The best I can figure is it sounds like a song I would've loved when I was about half the age I am now: like Kurt, I miss the comfort in being sad, and indulging in that cozy kinda gloominess for three minutes takes me back to the sweetest part of being 16. It's silly to make melancholy the emotional ideal, but letting it happen for just a moment is real good medicine for us Pollyanna Jerkface types. And I bet you thought we didn't need medicine! (Liz)
Utopia, "Everybody Else Is Wrong"
This song is Todd Rundgren-affiliated in some way, but I forget how or why. If there's one thing I'll never be, it's "a completist," unless we're talking about the Beatles here, which we're not. We're talking about "songs that sound like the Beatles on purpose," which is the theme of my contributions to this week's installment to Heavy Rotation. My friend Jack sent me an mp3 of this song back in May, but I never listened to it until a few days ago, because if there's one surefire way to guarantee that I will never listen to a song, it's by telling me I should. This is because, like Todd Rundgren, I believe that everybody else is wrong. Such a great sentiment! "Everybody Else Is Wrong" sounds a lot like "I Am The Walrus", only I haven't already listened to it like seventeen billion times. Don't you wish they would invent some machine that told you the exact amount of times you've ever listened to every Beatles song? I do. I just did some math, on a calculator, literally, and reached the conclusion that I have listened to "I Am The Walrus" approx. 2,700 times in my life. Great. (Laura Jane)
The Rutles, "Cheese & Onions"
If you like the Beatles and haven't watched The Rutles yet, you should probably go kill yourself. Or, alternately: watch The Rutles. It's funny, and the more you know about the Beatles, the more jokes you'll get. I am better at singing this song than I am at singing any other song, except for "Tired Of Waiting For You" by the Kinks. It's a draw. Galaxie 500 do a really sick cover of it too, so there's another one we can add to the list of Things Laura Jane Faulds & Dean Wareham Have In Common. It's #2 on the list, after "an uncompromising sexual magnetism." This song is beautiful. If it weren't about cheese and onions, which is totally yucky, it would be better than every single real Beatles song, not counting "Hey Jude" and "Strawberry Fields Forever." That being said, "I'll be a has-been, like a dinosaur," is a pretty brilliant lyric. I've listened to this song a ton this week, while reflecting upon a mistake I once made that is so stupidly huge, it doesn't even deserve to be dignified by a real Beatles song as soundtrackage. That sounds so self-deprecating, but honestly, broskies, don't y'all even worry. If there's one thing I'll never be, it's that one. (LJ)
Tags: codename: Pollyanna Jerkface, Dean Wareham, Evan Dando, fake Beatles songs, indignity, Kathleen Hanna, Mike Watt, The Replacements, Todd Rundgren, unsolved mysteries, when Barker gets the blues
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Liz -- I always thought it was J. Mascis.
But Evan Dando makes more sense.
By Masonic Youth on January 28, 2010 12:05 PM
mason, i can't believe i dropped the ball on mentioning that time you left me a totally brilliant parody of that voicemail on my voicemail!
By Liz
on January 28, 2010 12:16 PM
Erotic relationships with... records? I don't like the sound of this one bit.
By ben on January 28, 2010 1:46 PM
Don't say that about J. Mascis! Definitely Evan Dando. Thanks for posting these, you guys, always, but especially today, when Liz's choices are making my workday 100% better, although there's a lot of ground to make up after this Morning of Death. I agree that Androgynous is topically obscure but oddly uplifting.
By Genevieve on January 28, 2010 2:38 PM
you're very welcome, genevieve! and no, there's no way it's j mascis.
a new thought: MAYBE IT'S GROHL! maybe it's grohl.
By Liz
on January 28, 2010 4:15 PM