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Thursday , March 11, 2010

Heavy Rotation: The Smiths, Depeche Mode, Liars/Devendra Banhart & The Grogs, Ted Nugent, Ol' Dirty Bastard, The Beatles

The Smiths, "London"

Morrissey was a Gemini (well, Taurus-Gemini cusp) and Johnny Marr was a Scorpio. Such a promising, genius pairing, but eventually doomed because of innate volatility and incompatibility. On the good side, this lead to Morrissey's genius, brilliant lyrics paired with Marr's unexpectedly agile, ferocious guitar playing. On the more interpersonal side, Morrissey's probably hogged all the interviews and Johnny liked to brood in annoyance; that's what happens when you mix air with a fixed water sign. After a solid two-plus decades, my favorite Smiths album recently changed from The Queen Is Dead to Louder Than Bombs. What does this mean? I think it means I am finally grown-up, right? (Kat)

+ Continue reading "Heavy Rotation: The Smiths, Depeche Mode, Liars/Devendra Banhart & The Grogs, Ted Nugent, Ol' Dirty Bastard, The Beatles"

Tags: Anthology versions, astrology, astrology-themed everything, Cadbury Creme Eggs, Cancerians, Chandler Bing, Dave Gahan, Depeche Mode, Devendra Banhart, Johnny Marr, Laura loves the Beatles, Martin Gore, morning, Morrissey, Norwegian Wood, ODB, self-acceptance, springtime, sucking on Ted Nugent's soul, sweaty socks, Syd Barrett, Ted Nugent, The Beatles, the Smiths, Uma Thurman, yin-yangs

Thursday , March 4, 2010

Heavy Rotation: The Replacements, Spoon, John Frusciante, Evan Dando, Trees, Lauryn Hill

The Replacements, "Kiss Me On the Bus"

My portion of Heavy Rotation this week is dedicated to what I like to call "amiable white dude music." Pavement is kind of the apotheosis of this made-up genre in my mind, but something about the Replacements' sloppy, bouncy drunken take on college rock makes them the progenitor of amiable white dudeness. Lately I'm on a huge Replacements kick, and I've concluded that their genius lies in how they can be so quasi-obnoxiously rawk and write songs about boners, like on Let It Be, but then they can write such a sweetie-pie song like "Kiss Me On the Bus." It's kind of the "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" of Midwestern post-punk, all boyish and impatient and "boppy." I like to surmise that the key to amiable white dude music is the willingness to be "boppy," and to be man enough to realize that boppiness doesn't compromise dudeness in the least. It only makes you cuter and girls like you more. (Kat)

+ Continue reading "Heavy Rotation: The Replacements, Spoon, John Frusciante, Evan Dando, Trees, Lauryn Hill"

Tags: 1998, archetypal Georges, beautifully damaged boys, birthday boys, Evan Dando, Hey Ya, John Frusciante, Jude Law, Lauryn Hill, Nerd Barker, Pisceans, River Phoenix, springer spaniels, Will Smith

Thursday , February 25, 2010

Heavy Rotation: Fishbone, Danzig, Sara Schiralli, Patients, A Beatles Double-Header from LJ

Fishbone, "Subliminal Fascism"

The one thing I know for sure about Fishbone is that John Cusack loved them, which is a funny thing to know about a band. Supposedly in that famous iconic Lloyd Dobler moment in Say Anything, he was playing Fishbone in the boombox as he held it over his head. John Cusack is also a Cancer, which is why that moment is so believable because only a Cancer guy would so something so cheesy with such authentic angst. No one really talks about Fishbone anymore, and honestly, I've never been able to get through an entire record by them, though I am told they are really good. But I always liked this song and conjecture that early exposure to it set me up for a lifetime of loud, fast noise, and so I am grateful. (Kat)

+ Continue reading "Heavy Rotation: Fishbone, Danzig, Sara Schiralli, Patients, A Beatles Double-Header from LJ"

Tags: breakfast, Cancers, Capricorns, dancing, emotional manipulation, John Cusack, Laura loves the Beatles, molasses, Nancy Botwin, Patti Smith, Ringo, Ringo Rising, Ringo Starr, talking like Pete Campbell, Weeds, work

Thursday , February 18, 2010

Heavy Rotation: R.E.M., Junip feat. Jose Gonzalez, The Doors, INXS, More Gems from the Wu-Tang/Beatles Mash-up

R.E.M., "Fall on Me"

My recent nostalgia riff on the Columbia Record House Club has oddly kicked off a spate of concentrated listening to more bands that I remember being under the "college rock" flag at that time. (It's amazing what you remember as an eight-year old; I think whatever you cram into your brain at that age will stick in your head forever, which explains my fluent command of early Madonna lore, Choose Your Own Adventure plotlines and selected quotations from episodes of "Golden Girls.") The Replacements, of course, are in there, as is the Church, Midnight Oil, 10,000 Maniacs, Robyn Hitchcock, XTC, the Housemartins...so much good stuff! But I'd remiss in my sonic travels through time if I didn't include the king of college rock bands, R.E.M., who of course became so big they transcended the category. In a weird way, I'm a bigger fan now of records like Lifes Rich Pageant and Document and Murmur than I was back then. It's easy to take R.E.M.'s output for granted, but sometimes you just have to listen to the early records and be kind of amazed at how timelessly rich and beautiful a lot of those songs are. Cryptic, elusive lyrics a la Stipe always help, of course, but for me it is really about Peter Buck's amazing guitar playing. "Fall on Me" has my favorite little guitar intro by Buck; I could listen to the first 5 seconds over and over again, that's how pristine and lovely it is to me. (Kat)

+ Continue reading "Heavy Rotation: R.E.M., Junip feat. Jose Gonzalez, The Doors, INXS, More Gems from the Wu-Tang/Beatles Mash-up"

Tags: clocks, college rock, Columbia Record Club, face being eaten off by raccoons, fear, gentlemanism, INXS, JD Salinger, Laura Loves the Beatles, lip-sync parties, Paul Simon, R.E.M., radio, spiritually Scandinavian, the 20th century, The Doors, tragic beauty

Wednesday , February 10, 2010

nogoodforme ix: Beloved Odes to Female Independence

Fiona Apple, "Paper Bag"

WARNING: This song is NOT an ode to female independence. "Come and put a little love here in my void," begs Fiona. "I want him so bad oh it kills," Fiona continues, desperately. I like the part when she sigh-sings, "I thought he was a man but he was just a little boy," and you say "Oh Fi-OH-na!" in your head. You say, "It's just so hard, isn't it, Fi-OH-na?"

I'm here to tell you about a night I lived. This is the "female independence" part. Jenny left two bottles of Molson Stock Ale on my balcony and, because it is February, they stay ice-cold out there. There are so few types of beer in the world I'd even consider drinking; it all comes down to label design. I drank them. "I should download Fiona Apple's first two albums," I thought. Connect to my adolescent self. You need to do that sometimes. These songs are good. Jon Brion was so obviously the George Martin of the late 1990s. There are no downsides to having put that mirror up on my windowsill. I look at myself constantly. Give myself a wave and a wink. I thought I was done my beer but found out I wasn't, when I spilled it on myself. I wore platform sandals and a high-waisted pencil skirt and the hotter of my two red bras and watched myself sing Fiona Apple into my now-empty beer bottle. When you're cool, everything you do is cool. You can't do this kind of thing, when someone else is in the room. All women need to do this, though not necessarily with Fiona Apple. Anyone from Lilith Fair will do. Shawn Colvin, The Indigo Girls, Erykah Badu. Though not Sarah McLachlan. That's just fucking LAME. (LJ)

Salt-n-Pepa, "None Of Your Business"

Something I keep forgetting about myself is that Sandra "Pepa" Denton is my fucking hero."BE MORE LIKE PEP," I wrote, in orange pencil crayon, in my notebook. I'm trying. I'm trying really, really hard. We all need to be more like Pep. I'm iffy about Salt. She kind of creeps me out. She reminds me of a bull terrier. Also, by the time The Salt-n-Pepa Show rolled around, she'd found God and renounced her past awesomeness, so that's lame, Salt. The best thing to do is fast-forward "None Of Your Business" to 2:05, just in time for "Never mind who's the guy I took home... to BONE." And then it becomes Pep's part. Pep's beautiful, amazing, empowering, badass, cayenne pepper-soaked beautiful gorgeous miracle of a part. Maybe "SO, YO, SO-YO-HO" should be my next musician-worship-tribute tattoo. I think that Pepa and I should co-star in our own reality TV show, where Pep teaches me how to be cooler. Please forward this paragraph along to Pep, please. If you happen to know Pep. (LJ)

+ Continue reading "nogoodforme ix: Beloved Odes to Female Independence"

Tags: BE MORE LIKE PEP, being awesome all day long, Charliebro, controlling famous musicians, cunnilingus, dance, drinking alone, dudes, Erykah Badu, Fiona Apple, Huggy Bear, Jimi Hendrix, Lilith Fair, music, Neneh Cherry, pancakes, Pebbles, preteen girls need sex-posi anthems too, Prince, Ringo, riot grrrl, romance, Salt-n-Pepa, sex, Tony Alva, vehicular sex

Thursday , February 4, 2010

Heavy Rotation: D.Lissvik, The Replacements, Patti Smith, Them, Jill & the Boulevards, Margo Guryan

D.Lissvik, "B2"

Sometimes pursuing a musical interest is like climbing up a tree. You start branching out, going here and there and up and up -- and then suddenly you look around and realize that there's no way you're going to get back down to earth easily. Tortured metaphors aside, lately I'm obsessed with anything and everything related to Studio, the Swedish electro duo I HR'd awhile back. Dan Lissvick is one half of Studio, and clearly he bringing a more meditative take to the Balearic good times. This is kind of shroomtastic, but it's also perfectly graphic-designercore, what with the pristine production and overall sleekness. Not to mention the latest entry into my ongoing Spiritual Scandinavia project. (Kat)

+ Continue reading "Heavy Rotation: D.Lissvik, The Replacements, Patti Smith, Them, Jill & the Boulevards, Margo Guryan"

Tags: 8-year olds, akfadjfakjdf, chocolate caramel marshmallow hearts, Columbia Record Club, crushes, D.Lissvick, D.Lissvik, dating, ex-dudes, faking it till you make it, good love karma, graphic-designercore, jack knives, Jill & the Boulevards, love, Margo Guryan, misheard lyrics, Patti Smith, Russia, shrooms, Studio, The Replacements, the Replacements, Them, Twitter

Thursday , January 28, 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)

+ Continue reading "Heavy Rotation: Studio, This Heat, Mike Watt, The Replacements, Utopia, The Rutles"

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

Thursday , January 21, 2010

Heavy Rotation: Scientist, Swell Maps, Guns N' Roses, Jeannie C. Riley, Wu-Tang Clan & the Beatles, The New Seekers

g n r - spaghetti incident.jpg

Scientist, "Cry of the Werewolf"

If you listen to dub really hard in the middle of winter, you can almost pretend it's summer. But if you listen to the dub of Scientist really hard in the middle of any season, you can almost pretend your way through an entire imaginary movie--that's how cinematically potent his work is. This is from my favorite dub album of all-time, Scientist Rids the World of the Curse of the Evil Vampires. I posted a track from it ages ago, and I predict that by the time my run with nogoodforme has come to an end, I will have posted the album in its entirety, because it is really that good. It's also the only dub record than any self-respecting semi-Goth needs to own. Just in case, you know, anyone is making such a checklist... (Kat)

+ Continue reading "Heavy Rotation: Scientist, Swell Maps, Guns N' Roses, Jeannie C. Riley, Wu-Tang Clan & the Beatles, The New Seekers"

Tags: airing my dirty laundry in public, assholes suck, baby animals, Barker loves the Beatles, Duff McKagan, Friedberger, Guns N' Roses, in praise of single moms, Joan Holloway, Laura loves the Beatles, Method Man, Mika Miko, The Misfits, vegan cobb salad, White Castle

Thursday , January 14, 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)

+ Continue reading "Heavy Rotation: The Lemonheads, Glen Campbell, Fredrik, Fever Ray, The Pleasure Seekers, 13th Floor Elevators"

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

Thursday , January 7, 2010

Heavy Rotation: Madonna, Twilight Singers, Ringo Starr, Dr. Hook, Paul McCartney, The Zombies

Madonna, "Angel"

One of the biggest mysteries of 2009 for me was why Madonna put "Dress You Up" on her Celebration greatest hits double-CD set. Yes, "Dress You Up" is a perfectly fun song, but everyone knows that it's really "Angel" that is the greatest unheralded Madonnski track ever. It manages the feat of being joyous and bouncy, but it's got a strange bit of ethereal melancholy in it that I can't quite pinpoint. Maybe it's because Madonna knows that love is a devil sometimes, and the song is really just unanswered wish fulfillment for a dude that's innocent and uncomplicated. "Angel" is really a minor yet brilliant piece of pop candy, and if 2010 is all "NO JUSTICE NO PEACE," then the least I can do is start an unofficial campaign to give the song the recognition it deserves within the Madonna canon. First stop: Heavy Rotation, and here it is. (Kat)

+ Continue reading "Heavy Rotation: Madonna, Twilight Singers, Ringo Starr, Dr. Hook, Paul McCartney, The Zombies"

Tags: 1973, 2010, Almost Famous, cosmic consciousness, Daddy Warbucks, dancing, Geminis, Jason Lee, Madonna, omens, Paul McCartney, Polexia Aphrodisia, Ringo Starr, The Cuban Roll, The Zombies, Twilight Singers, your actual self

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