Tuesday , June 22, 2010
Heavy Rotation: Veruca Salt, The Fall, The Shins, Pitbull, Graham Nash, George Harrison
If you frame Veruca Salt within the great 90s tradition of grrrl/girl/lady awesomecore, then even I have to admit that they pale a bit in comparison to their contemporaries. However, if you look at them as bubblegum disguised as grunge, then they were really good at what they were doing at the time: writing insanely hook-y pop songs with distortion pedals. It's weird, because I listen to a record like American Thighs now and I can't quite take it seriously in the way they probably wanted me to (though I do dig the AC/DC reference in the title.) But I can still appreciate the fact that it was fashionable at some point in time to sing about corduroy and lemon drops and possibly weird vehicular sex in pretty girly voices. That's all I ever wanted in life, and for a brief moment in music history I got it! (Kat)
I love the Fall to pieces, but it is sometimes brutal murder on the soul to be a Fall fan. With someone as volatile, irascible and epically soused as Mark E. Smith can be, you just never know what you're going to get: brilliant wordplay, sheer fucking chaos or a bottle to the head. Or sometimes all three at once! It's like you hear a new Fall record for the first time and you have to brace yourself: Is this going to be post-punk genius, or is this going to be an unmitigated disaster? It's really up to how Mark E. Smith feels, and perhaps some weird rare astrological configuration of Mercury, Neptune and Uranus in the shape of a guitar. Happily for Fall fans, the new record Your Future Our Clutter is that wonderful thing, an interesting album where you can hear Mark E. Smith and his merry interchangeable band trying new things and just going for quality, excitement and challenge. They sound genuinely interested in the songs they're playing, which brings a fascinatingly mad scientist-like aspect to the record. I daresay this could be up in there in the ranks of the Fall discography-- and totally worth taking a bottle to the head for. (Kat)
If you had to pick four lines of lyrics that capture some thorny contradiction at the heart of your emotional selfhood with creepy accuracy, which lyrics would you choose? Mine would be from a Shins song! This Shins song, in fact. It's the lyrics at the chorus, the part that goes: "But I learned fast how to keep my head up 'cause I know there is this side of me that wants to grab the yoke from the pilot and just fly the whole mess into the sea." It was weird for me to figure that out, because of that gross problem where loving the Shins always makes me feel like I'm feeling Zach Braff's feelings. But I got over it fast, the gross weirdness, and remembered I love the Shins' first two records very truly, and Chutes Too Narrow is a nearly perfect album, and I'm not Zach Braff. The only person who is Zach Braff is Zach Braff. And the only person who is Paul McCartney is Paul McCartney and also me, especially when I'm listening to those four lines of lyrics from "Young Pilgrims" by the Shins. They make me understand the Paul McCartney element of my emotional selfhood about a thousand times better than before, which is just so beautifully lame/cool of me. (Liz)
Speaking of lyrics, which is the better lyric: "You got to pretend your face is a Maserati" (from "Wango Tango" by Ted Nugent) or "Let me valet in your face" (from "Ay Chico" by Pitbull)? I think about that all the time, way more than I think about my "emotional selfhood" and "Paul McCartney" and "the dark twisted underbelly of the pathologically optimistic spirit." And I still don't have an answer but I think it's probably: "Both. Both are the greatest lyrics from any song ever written." But my favorite "Ay Chico" bit is to sing along with is "Yo no quiero agua, yo quiero bebida, Mami, tu eres loca, no te hagas la fina," because it makes me feel like I can still speak Spanish. I was going to translate that for you but I don't know what "no te hagas la fina" means. (Liz)
Graham Nash, "Hey You (Looking At The Moon)"
For about two days at the beginning of this past week, Graham Nash was my boyfriend. I was sitting outside on my patio, and then Graham came out to say "Hey You," so he said "Hey You," and I said "Hey You!" and he said "What are you doing right now?" and I said "Looking at the moon, Graham!" And that's the incredibly interesting story of how my ex-boyfriend Graham Nash came to write this song about me on Monday. I think that if you mixed Graham Nash with Lee Hazlewood, you'd get the C&W-tinged male solo artist of my DREAMS. (Laura Jane)
George Harrison, "Party Seacombe"
Mercury is no longer in retrograde and I want to throw a "Mercury being out of retrograde" party and I want the guests of that party to be me and George Harrison, but this week Rob Breszny told me that I need to tell myself, "I have the courage to see life as it really is," so I suppose I'll have to settle for "getting stoned and listening to Wonderwall Music by George Harrison," with myself, which also sounds awesome. BTW, "Party Seacombe" is one of the only songs a Beatle ever wrote that is non-distracting to have sex to. PS: This week I caught Bieber Fever and I'm so excited to find out what the Wonderwall Music of Justin Bieber will be!!!! Because Justin Bieber is the Beatles of our day. (LJ)
Tags: Bieber Fever, emotional selfhood, Graham Nash, Mark E. Smith, Paul McCartney, Pitbull, Spanish, Ted Nugent, the dark twisted underbelly of the pathologically optimistic, The Fall, The Shins, vehicular sex, Veruca Salt, Wonderwall Music, Zach Braff
Share | 
| 
| 
|
|
Posted by Kat in Heavy Rotation |
Permalink |
Leave a comment |
Comments (12)
+ Contact Us
+ HOME
12 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..."
Haha I love what you said about Zach Braff. That's exactly how I feel sometimes when I over-identify with The Shins. Also doesn't help that I do have a J.D.-esque monologue running through my head most of my life.
I've been reading your blog for a while and like how you guys write so would be cool if you could take a look at my blog. www.coldcoconuticecream.blogspot.com
By Alex on May 13, 2010 4:38 PM
whoa i totes forgot about 'spiderman 79'! that was always my favorite song of theirs, next to 'volcano girls.'
the AC/DC reference in the title was a genius move on their part.
By Liz
on May 13, 2010 5:13 PM
thanks, alex! and i REALLY DIG YOUR BLOG. we understand each other, i think.
By Liz
on May 13, 2010 5:15 PM
Not to mention "Eight Arms To Hold You"(What HELP! was going to be named) and "The seether's Louise"-
Brilliant Beatles references, Ladies!
By Laura
on May 13, 2010 7:17 PM
Hahaha.whatever.u r just jelous because life was not easy for you.
Thanks for posting this. Would be intrested to read more or possibly please contact me by email thank you
By Party Koozies on May 13, 2010 11:43 PM
my mom knew graham nash and i smoked his weed in his trailer thing after a crosby stills and nash concert when i was 18. i'll scan the pic when i find it.
By Andrea on May 14, 2010 12:23 AM
I take a look your blog and its so nice...
Animal Rings
By Nick on May 14, 2010 5:27 AM
WHOA ANDREA
yes, please scan!
By Liz
on May 14, 2010 4:06 PM
Band of Horses' "Infinite Arms" is out now! So, if you wanna give it a listen before you go out and buy it, listen here: http://stream.bandofhorses.com/
By Kathy on May 23, 2010 6:08 PM
here you go. i'm high in this picture (looking down). those are my parents and my friend (roommate) aja (steely dan hah). SO WEIRD!
http://archivescollections.com/random/famwithgraham.jpg
By Andrea on June 21, 2010 7:37 PM
WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOA ANDREA! thanks so much for sharing.
By Liz
on June 21, 2010 10:20 PM
NICE
By Laura
on June 22, 2010 12:26 PM