all the music that took my attention in february. listen, won’t you?
radio loways may / june 2015
01. Don’t Change – INXS
02 Blonde Redhead – DNA
03. Suicide – Spacemen 3
04. Clockwise – Notekillers
05. Seven – Thundercat
06. There was a Time / Feel Alright – James Brown
07. Methods – Charizma and Peanut Butter Wolf
08. The Works II – Alvin Curran
09. Shadow – Ernst Reijseger
10. Tuff Gnarl – Mike Watt
Unhelpful Notes
When I was a kid I loved INXS. Especially the albums Kick and X. Suicide Blonde was all the rage as were New Sensation, I Need You Tonight, etc. As I got older and into weirder musics, INXS fell by the wayside and seemed cheesy and pointless. But then I got even older, and I learned that they are cheesy, but not pointless. As far as pop goes, they’re pretty alright. And this song from when they were still largely babies, is pretty alright too. Babies making anthems. Bonus props for them for figuring out how to get the Heroes guitar sound.
The rhythm on Blonde Redhead is fantastic. The bass slow motion reverse duck walk in the video is pretty awesome too.
This, I think is my favorite Spacemen 3 song of all time. For me they are at their best when they do the long, drawn out, rave up, psych jams. Their flirtation with americana and more stripped down songs is alright, but this is where they thrive. Clearly. All they need is a synth drone and one riff and they are monstrous. I have no original opinions about this band.
I love, love, love, prog future soul. I feel like this is the type of music that should’ve been used in any future based movie to show what music would sound like in the future. It has such a weird sensibility and yet it’s totally palatable and easy and poppy. Delicious, Thundercat, delicious.
These two tracks from James Brown I think are my favorite. The beat and riff and endless loop repetition of the horns is amazing. I could listen to it for hours. I think this is the best version of these two, cuz it just goes on and on. Someone please remix this so that it goes on for like twenty minutes at least.
The Ernst Reijseger piece is perfection. Cello and organ. Beautiful. That’s all.
Usually I would say the original is better, but this cover of Tuff Gnarl I think is better. Maybe it’s cuz I’ve heard the original so many times that to hear it new is to hear it better. I feel like there’s more expression in this one. More emotion. More weirdness even. Sister is probably my least favorite Sonic Youth album. Maybe cuz the production is so shit. Everything sounds muffled and muddy. There are some good songs on there but overall they’re buried in the mix. So maybe hearing this one sound bright and clean helps too.
This edition was a dude fest sausage party. Apologies for that.
radio loways april 2015
01. I’maman – Jobriath
02. Rattled Call – Grass Widow
03. Innocent and Vain – Nico
04. United – Throbbing Gristle
05. Escupir 3 – Qeei
06. Treefort – Henry’s Dress
07. Itching Around – Shana Cleveland
08. I’maman – Jobriath
How did I not know who Jobriath was for all these years? I only just learned about him when my partner and I went to see Todd Haynes talk at the MCA as part of their David Bowie show. And we were both like, who is this Jobriath of which he speaks? And lo and behold, Jobriath is this massive gaping hole in my knowledge of glam rock and some of the references and inspirations in Hayne’s Velvet Goldmine Go read about Jobriath, if he’s new to you. This I’maman song is fucking massive!
Where did Nico come from? For real?
My note for this Throbbing Gristle song is, if you are a soccer/football team with united in their name, and you’re not using this song as a song to support your team, you have failed.
There is a certain type of electronic weirdo pop music that appeals to me and Escupir by Qeei fits the bill. Qeei is the electronic weirdo pop project of Tatiana Heuman, drummer for the weirdo lurch rock group Ricarda Cometa. She is based in Buenos Aires.
Henry’s Dress was fabulous and Treefort is their masterpiece. The greatest use of this riff, ever.
I love La Luz and apparently I love this song by Shana Cleveland of La Luz. There’s an official version of it on her recently officially re-released solo album that features a full band. But it doesn’t hold a candle to this one. This is perfection. I don’t say that lightly. Acoustic drone.
And to end everything with a mellow and earlier version of I’maman. Less rockish, but still fucking massive.
radio loways march 2015
01. Tina this is Mathew Stone – Prolapse
02. Casa Abandonada – Julieta Venegas
03. Untitled Duet – Albert Ayler
04. Asheed – Luke Vibert
05. Untitled – LuthPi
06. Easily Persuaded – Martha and the Vandellas
07. Matt-Alec – Melvins
08. A Little God in My Hands (To Be Kind) – Swans
09. Wake Up Dolores – Los Lobos
I have increasingly less to say about these Radio Loways things, for better or for worse. It’s harder to take the time or find the time to come up with some decent notes for this. I’d be a horrible dj.
Anyways, I kind of stumbled across Prolapse at some point and I don’t even remember when. Recently-ish. In the past few years. I kind of love them. I like that this one is an argument set to music.
I listened to Julieta Venegas a lot when I was in Guadalajara studying Spanish. Her album Sí had just come out and she was all over the place. I really like Sí, but I think bueninvento is even better. It has a little more edge to it. She’s a good one to listen to when you’re learning Spanish, cuz her lyrics are easy to sing along to.
This Untitled Duet totally surprised me cuz it sounds nothing like Albert Ayler. For one thing the guitar sounds like Sunn O))) or Earth or something. When it first came on, I thought it was some Arrington De Dionyso project or something until I saw what it was. Pretty awesome.
My note for Luke Vibert is that I love acid. Also, I saw him dj at an Aphex Twin show at the Vic I think. Many years ago. He was set up in a box seat off of stage left. I could see him a little bit in the dark.
Matt-Alec is the first song by the Melvins that I liked, there was some old footage of them doing this song on a cable access show on youtube like ten years ago that did it. Baby Melvins.
I like the idea of Los Lobos more than I like most of their music. But I checked out Kiko from the library when I was like 14 and both Kiko and Wake Up Dolores still haunt me in their way. They would be an awesome 7″.
Now that I finished writing that. That’s not too bad.
LuthPi
radio loways february 2015
01. Nainanainana – La Merelu
02. Unyileding Conditioning – Fishbone
03. Flutter – John Lurie
04. My Legendary Girlfriend – Pulp
05. Pants Vs. Dress – Lizzo
06. Hotel Suicide – Erase Errata
07. Unexpected Delight – Flying Lotus
08. Wall – John Cale
09. Salton City – Hot Snakes
10. Mortes – Monarch!
11. Tickly Flanks – µ-ziq
12. Phill 2 – KTL
I got nothing to say about these. Actually, I probably do. But I ran out of time and now February is almost over and I’d rather not get behind. So, here’s the music. Wait here’s some quick notes. My old roommate and I would watch Fishing with John before going to bed and we’d end up just zoning out on the title menu once it was over and Flutter would be on a loop and it was nighttime perfection. John Cale is so amazing at drones, I wish his entire career was that. I love Hot Snakes’ guitar tone and drum thunder. Now, listen.
radio loways – november december 2014 spectacular!
the songs that took my attention in november and december of 2014. listen, won’t you?
01. andar conmigo – julieta venegas
02. friend catcher – the birthday party
03. nemoj/pečati – disciplina kičme
04. armagh – the au pairs
05. dance apocalyptic – janelle monae
06. all of us – devo
07. spooky – skinny girl diet
08. end of the world – anika
09. ponerte en cuatro – los amigos invisibles
10. the queen is dead – bambu
11. pussy kills – rocky rivera
12. gordon – aylu
13. fungle junk – dj food
14. eu vou torcer – jorge ben
bonus track –
15. htr1a – conquering animal sound
unhelpful notes –
andar conmigo – this song was blowing up all over the radio and music tv stations in mexico when i did my stint in guadalajara. many years ago. for some reason it clicked with me. there was a rolling stone interview with her at the time where she said something like – yeah, i’m corny, so what. that’s kinda how i feel about this album. the sound is right on.
i give you armagh, well the au pairs give it to you, but i present it here to give a shout out to the release of the united states’ torture report. or here’s the wikipedia.
i’ve played janelle monae on here before. i think she rules. pop perfection action.
i’ve loved devo since i was wee. very wee. and a friend gave me a tape of hardcore devo volume 1. then i went out and got hardcore devo volume 2. and this song is on that one. it’s really good. it’s kind of crazy to me how different devo were when they started out. this sort of art punk proto industrial primitive noise outfit with lots of wink wink irony. and then they fully transformed into eighties new wave dance pop. and while i know their schtick transitioned into subvert from the inside, i wish they had continued down their original path. at least for a bit longer. i once wrote devo on the back of every chair in one of my high school english class rooms. did i tell that already?
speaking of right on sound – the sound of skinny girl diet’s cover of spooky is fucking. right. on. that bass is so good. and the whole recording is warm. fabs.
and speaking of corny. los amigos invisibles. pure corn. vendors of corn. corn merchants. corny pop. pop corn? yes! ponerte en cuatro is pop corn.
and that’s about all i have to say.
that is rocky rivera down there, go visit her site here
radio loways – september 2014
01. sympathy for the strawberry – sonic youth
02. watch that grandad go – bauhaus
03. 122 hours of fear – the screamers
04. un uomo da rispettare (titoli) – ennio morricone
05. the autumn wind is a pirate – cheer accident
06. sombre reptiles – brian eno
07. more than a feeling – sleater kinney
08. side b – aluk todolo
the songs that took my attention in september of 2014. listen, won’t you?
unhelpful notes –
sympathy for the strawberry – yeah, that’s a sonic youth song two months in a row. i love this one. mellow noise constraint action. and i think my absolute favorite part of the song is lee ranaldo’s organ bit. i love that.
watch that grandad go – i first heard bauhaus on a tape that i found in one of the art rooms in high school. perfect, right? i think it was the sky’s gone out on one side and burning from the inside on the other side. i was curious and listened to it and eventually it grew on me. then i didn’t listen to them for like ten years and it wasn’t until the last five years or so that i’ve been really listening to bauhaus. i like most of their output – but i really like when they get kinda dubbed out and danceish. so this track is actually one of my favorite songs of theirs.
122 hours of fear – you’ll have to turn this one up, cuz it’s quiet. and it should be loud. i’m so fascinated by singers/front people who so completely believe in their part and can put on this amazing entertaining show. it’s so not how i am. i can play guitar in a band and just kinda be the guitar player in a band in the background. but i can’t conceive of being the focal point of the show. and yet there are all these people who can do it. who can emote and act and embody characters and have a particular persona on stage. aside from being an awesome band – the screamer’s singer is definitely one of those front people types.
the autumn wind is a pirate – for years i had been trying to figure out which song it was that i loved so much by cheer accident. ever since i saw them play at the hideout on the occasion of dylan posa’s last show with them. they had a horn section. and all these insane tech-prog parts. and yet they were goofing around and doing silly dances and laughing and making faces and laughing. very un-prog. or maybe very chicago prog or something. but anyways. they played this song and i loved it. completely. and in that fade part where the guitar gets quieter and quieter and then it’s gone – when they did that live they got completely quiet and all you could hear was the sound of people talking through the doors at the bar. and yet the musicians kept moving and playing their parts just so quietly you couldn’t hear them. and then they brought it all back. it was a brilliant set. brilliant song. i’m gonna say it’s one of my all time favorite songs of all time.
more than a feeling – not my favorite sleater kinney, but i’d never heard this before until i stumbled across it a couple weeks ago. i hate the original version of this song. mostly cuz it’s such a fucking earworm. it’s always in my head. always. always when i’m doing dishes. or cooking. or walking home from work. or at work. i’m always – more than a feeling, that i’m feeling for you! bah bah – bahm bahm – bahm bahm bahm bahm bahm – bah bah. just like that. annoying.
side b – i seem to like french metal. it’s interesting. and yeah – that’s aluk todolo up on top.
and yeah – that’s the screamers down below.
radio loways – august 2014
01. 90s music – kimbra
02. ambitious people – negative scanner
03. everytime you touch me (1995 nyc jungle mix) – moby
04. balada de la trompeta – raphael
05. deo – amon tobin
06. jazz – mick jenkins
07. jams run free – sonic youth
08. voodoo ray – a guy called gerald
09. lodge freeway – eddie “flashin” fowlkes
10. wear clean draws – the coup
11. push it – the chalice
the songs that took my attention in august of 2014. listen, won’t you?
unhelpful notes –
90s music. i am straight up out of my mind full on fucking obsessed with this song. the whole album is good, but this song is fiercely good. i have such a small window of tolerance for pop music that very few things sneak in, but when they do, they do. and this did. i wish more pop music was musically interesting, but maybe that’s what makes interesting pop good and interesting in the first place – that it exists within and against a backdrop of boring standardness. and the interesting is made interesting by playing against that standardness. maybe if it was all like this, i wouldn’t be into it anyways. who knows. what i do know, is that i like this song. way to go kimbra.
ambitious people. negative scanner is from chicago. they have a good sound. they have a good chicago sound. garagey, post-punk-ish, rough, stripped down. also – i like the shout singy thing that’s going on.
everytime you touch me (1995 nyc jungle mix). speaking of 90’s music. i used to be so into moby. specifically his output from like 1991 to 1997. i was way into techno and electronic music and his happy vibes were always welcome. i also finally figured out what constituted jungle and drum and bass from this particular version of (1995 nyc jungle mix). and i realized that i loved jungle. it was something that i had read about and was fascinated by even though i hadn’t heard anything. and then, once i heard this, i had a point of entry. access. and i began to explore it – feverishly tracking down comps and solo works of jungle/drum and bass artists. the beats and rhythms sounded so random and crazy at the time. i couldn’t figure them out and couldn’t imagine how anyone could dance to it. after almost twenty years of hearing the rhythm and hearing the evolution of the beat patterns, it doesn’t sound quite so insane, but i still love it. and i have a massive place in my heart for the breakbeats of the early nineties.
balada de la trompeta. holy shit is raphael dramatic. i love dramatic crooners. he seems to be kind of like a spanish jacques brel chanson interpreter. as with most dramatic crooners his output is all over the place and a lot of it isn’t to my liking. a lot of it veers into schmaltz, corn and cheese. but some of it is right on perfection. and this is one of them.
deo. i told you i like breakbeats.
jazz. i’m always happy to discover truly awesome hip hop that comes from chicago. and mick jenkins seems to be onto something. this song is truly awesome. when i first heard this one i had to listen to it five times in a row cuz it was so good.
jams run free. if you’ve known me for a long time, you already know that i’ve loved sonic youth since i was fourteen. and while i was sad that they broke up, i realize it was prolly for the best artistically cuz this second to last album of theirs was something of a stinker by their standards – or my standards for their output. very safe and npr edgy. yawn. but this track has a great sound. i do like this one.
voodoo ray and lodge freeway. did i already mention that i like acid house/techno? i do. so here’s two more.
wear clean draws. here’s some corniness – i always liked this song cuz of the positive dad to daughter words, but then after my partner and i had our son, it resonated even more and now i get a little emotional every time i hear this one. i can’t help it.
push it . i like the chalice, i played them on here before. i don’t have too much to say about them right now, but i wanted to write something since i did for all the other tracks. word.
ps – that’s mick jenkins up there. you can download the mixtape that includes jazz here.
radio loways 2014
01. forget me not – dark time sunshine
02. somos sur – ana tijoux
03. nad krajem – lucie vítková
04. the trees – pulp
05. improvisation – linda sharrock, mario rechtem, margaret unknown, katharina ernst
06. chicago – dj rashad
07. effusive melange – sam rivers
08. the minstrel – philip cohran and the artistic heritage ensemble
09. heaven tonight – the coup
10. every day – afx
11. up in flames – koko taylor
12. liquid crystals – yo la tengo
13. torpedo – julian cope
14. in the summer – terry riley
15. the kid was a killer – keith west
16. martin fierro – juana molina
17. mi nah wanna – abstract random
18. antipatriarca – ana tijoux
19. fujiyama 2 – moondog
20. cold cold ground – tom waits
21. sonamos el tango – silvana deluigi
the songs that took my attention in june of 2014. listen, won’t you?
up top is abstract random, dig em!
and down below is lucie vítková, dig her!
radio loways may 2014
01. editions of you – roxy music
02. tu turu turu tara tara – naheed akhtar
03. spear core – kaoru abe, motuharu yoshizawa, toshinori kondo, derek bailey
04. maus mobil – mouse on mars
05. no words / no thoughts – swans
06. el fandanguito – antonio garcía de león
07. fantastic freaks at the dixie – fantastic freaks
08. radiogig in torino/italy – the jist
09. clothed in the skin of the dead – colin stetson
10. the street and babe shadow – t. rex
the songs that took my attention in may of 2014, listen, won’t you?
unhelpful notes
i didn’t get into roxy music until after i saw velvet goldmine by todd haynes. i had heard of them, and knew of their relation to eno and bowie and glam, etc. but it wasn’t until after i saw that movie that i investigated. and when i did, i was hooked. the first five albums are all solid, but my favorites are their first three i think. this is off their second and final with eno. after their fifth album they went on hiatus for the second half of the seventies. when they reformed, for my money, they were worthless. for the ultimate expression of editions of you, look up roxy music’s appearance on musiklaaden. oh, my. the fabulocity cannot be contained.
mouse on mars blew my mind when i heard them sometime in 1995 or 1996, i can’t remember which. it was on a cheesy techno comp called trance europe express. but i was into cheesy acidy trance at the time. the sounds were new to me and i was intrigued and fascinated. this song was easily the standout. there was something about the soundworld that these guys created. that sort of liquidy, bubbly action that is present through out. the dubby bass and drum sections. the mellowness of it. it’s a beautiful song. also – andi and jan (mouse on mars) are one of the most adorable live acts i’ve ever seen. the way they kind of climb all over each other while they stand in front of their machines and computers, twisting knobs, sliding faders, etc. they seemed so genuinely into what they were making. heads bobbing in time, smiling and looking at each other like – yeah, yeah, that’s awesome!
swans. massive. i didn’t like them when i first heard their earlier stuff back when i was in college and living with room mates. it gave me the same feeling as when i listened to big black. i just didn’t feel it. and i felt a little frustrated that i didn’t like it considering how much i had read about them and other bands that i liked liking them. sonic youth especially praised swans, so i thought well of course i’ll like them. but i didn’t. but then in the past year or so i listened to their newish post angels of light, let’s get the band back together stuff and i love it! it’s so good. droning massiveness. it’s like i needed them to age and mature and figure out their current sound so that i could get into them and then work my way backwards to understand a bit more what they were doing in the past.
hi. did you know i went to mexico one time. for five months. i did. while i was there i got into a lot of rock ish music from monterrey. but my favorite two purchases were a compilation of sones veracruzanos and an album by a group called son de madera of other sones veracruzanos. guadalajara – where i was living – is the birth place of mariachi, which i’m not a huge fan of. although i’m more into it when it’s one person and a guitar. it was ubiquitous though. even on the bus – individual musicians would get on and perform a song or two, busking, before getting off. on the radio at home however, i heard this music that caught my attention. the chords and the singing, the guitars, the instrumentation. the sound was beautiful and sad and joyful. kind of all at the same time. it mesmerized me. i investigated and learned that the music was a folk music from veracruz. and sadly for me at the time, veracruz is a long way from guadalajara.
that’s the jist, check them out!