Behold, my Spotify Wrapped! Yes, that brilliant marketing gimmick that gives us all an opportunity to do a little navel-gazing, and I'm here for it.
My genre sandwich for 2023 (on multi-grain bread, natch):
Top 5 artists:
My top song is no surprise to me, since I've been playing it at least once a day since its release:
Speaking of.....
More selections from my Top 20:
You know how once in a while an artist comes along that makes you think, "Holy shit, I must now listen to everything they've ever recorded?" This year Noah Kahan (see above) was that artist for me. His catalog does not disappoint; he's like the love child of Paul Simon and John Prine, if such a union were possible.
Psst, wanna guess the Velveeta in my Indie/Classic Rock/Country/New Wave/Indie Pop sandwich? Buried way down my Top 100 playlist, number 82 to be exact....
You don't have to guess, I've got it circled. Hey, if digging the occasional hair metal power ballad is wrong, I don't want to be right.
Thursday, June 15, 2023
IN HONOR OF PRIDE MONTH: TOM ROBINSON BAND
Tom Robinson Band is the best punk band most Yanks have never heard of.
Their debut single, the radio-friendly "2-4-6-8 Motorway," peaked at number five on the UK charts in October 1977. This is their appearance on Top of the Pops that same year.
Note the pink triangle badge on Tom Robinson's shirt. It was a brave statement in 1977, especially on a mainstream primetime show like TotP. But it wasn't just a statement of support for the gay community; it was a declaration of the singer's identity. As the narrator of the band's 1978 documentary quaintly puts it, Tom Robinson "freely admits he is homosexual."
TRB's next single, "Glad to be Gay," peaked at number 18 in the UK. Wikipedia says the song has been called "Britain's national gay anthem," which is funny because I don't think it's what millennial and Gen Z kids would consider an anthem. The song is slow, acerbic, and angry--not the kind of feel-good "YAAAS QUEEN" sort of thing you get nowadays with Sam Smith and Lizzo--but it only makes it that much more powerful. Would the irony-deficient youngsters of today agree?
But their best song, "Power in the Darkness," goes even further. In the documentary (posted below, see part 3 for this particular clip) there is an epic live performance of this track:
Power in the darkness Frightening lies from the other side Power in the darkness Stand up and fight for your rights
Freedom, we're talking 'bout your freedom Freedom to choose what you do with your body Freedom to believe what you like Freedom for brothers to love one another Freedom for black and white Freedom from harassment, intimidation Freedom for the mother and wife Freedom from Big Brother's interrogation Freedom to live your own life, I'm talking 'bout
Power in the darkness Frightening lies from the other side Power in the darkness Stand up and fight for your rights
At this point in the song, Tom "interrupts" Danny Kustow's guitar solo and approaches the mic, having donned a tweed sport coat and a large rubber nose. Now the nose might look problematic these days with its antisemitic connotations and all, but it's soon clear that the singer is mocking toffee-nosed conservative types who were then (and now) railing against gays, immigrants, people of color, the poor, and basically anyone outside the mainstream, while extolling the virtues of traditional morals, law and order, Christian values, et cetera. (SOUND FAMILIAR?!)
"Shut up! Stop this bloody noise at once! Good grief, I said shut up, you bunch of long-haired hippie communist perverts! This noise level in this hall is unacceptably loud, these damn speaker things. We've been measuring them with a decibel meter; you young people will be deaf by the time you're 30. (crowd cheers) The Oxford Distressed Gentlefolks Association, just over the road, has been severely upset by the vase vibrating on the mantelpiece. (crowd cheers) Shut up! Have you no respect for your elders and betters anymore? Be quiet. Good grief, look at you. I thought Oxford was the seat of learning. Look like you could do with a good bath, some of you. Do you mean to say you paid money to come and listen to this drivel? Good God.
"What we need to do is see a return to the traditional British values. Bring back the cane at the grammar schools. Church on Sundays. A spell in the army would do you all a lot of good. National Service. We need to see a return to discipline, obedience, morality, virtue, and freedom."
And the song continues....
What we want is Freedom from the reds and the blacks and the criminals Prostitutes, pansies and punks Football hooligans, juvenile delinquents Lesbians and left wing scum Freedom from the n------ and the P---- and the unions Freedom from the Gypsies and the Jews Freedom from longhaired layabouts and students Freedom from the likes of you(whips off rubber nose) ....and me
Power in the darkness Frightening lies from the other side Power in the darkness Stand up and fight for your rights
The entire documentary runs about 45 minutes and is broken up into four parts on YouTube. I highly recommend it.
FIGHT FASCISM!
Monday, September 16, 2019
RIC OCASEK
:-(
I've said it many times and I'll say it again: one of the things that really blows about getting older is losing idols from your youth. I'm not ready for that. Sure, Ric was 75 (75! That's weird too! My mom is 75 this year. And BTW how is my mom 75?) so you know, it's not like he was 30 years old and passed out with a needle in his arm or whatever, BUT STILL. I'm so not ready for this to keep happening.
Probably my favorite Cars song ever, and the greatest video they made, IMHO. I love the part with the shoes escaping out the door.
I know they got a lot of attention for You Might Think, with all the expensive visual effects and whatnot, but that song is so overplayed. And I got sick of seeing the video all the time. "Since You're Gone" is where it's at, man, and don't let anyone tell you different. Nothing compares to early MTV. That channel was golden circa 1981-1983.
Tuesday, August 13, 2019
RESCUED FROM OBSCURITY "Don't let it get me, don't let it get me, don't let it get me...."
Perhaps this is a little-known symptom of memory loss in aging Gen Xers: you start mixing up your Martha Coolidge movies. Then before too long, you're confusing Amy Heckerling movies. And by the time you get to where you're mistaking Say Anything for Singles, you're well on your way to an early Alzheimer's diagnosis. But I'm probably over-thinking this.
At any rate, I woke up with this song in my head the other morning and now I'm kind of obsessed with it. For some reason, I was convinced that it was featured in a scene from the 1984 Martha Coolidge flick Joy of Sex, where a horny teenage boy is seen pedaling a 10-speed bike down the street to his girlfriend's house, psyching himself up to get laid for the first time. The thing is, I don't know why I thought the song was from Joy of Sex, a movie I only had vague recollections of from clandestine late night HBO viewings as a preteen. Plus, Joy of Sex was pretty lame, so it's not a film that I would've sought out all that much back in the day. It's definitely no Valley Girl, which is the movie that Martha Coolidge is (rightfully) remembered for, because Valley Girl kicks ass. Better story, better actors, and a KILLER soundtrack. I've also seen Valley Girl like, WAY more times than I ever saw Joy of Sex, for all the reasons mentioned above. And, it starred Nicolas Cage back when he was still badass. Yes children, long, long ago in another time, another place, another dimension known as the early '80s, Nic Cage was really fucking cool.
I love this movie. Love it. One of my favorite scenes is the one where Julie, the titular "valley girl," flips out at her hippie mom for refusing to yell at her after she stays out all night. "Like, why can't you guys just punish me like other parents do?" "Bad karma, dear." I love that line. The hippie mom was played by Colleen Camp, by the way. I only recently found out that she was the same actress who played the sexy French maid in Clue. Random bit of trivia there.
But back to the rather joyless Joy of Sex movie and the song I was so desperate to find. I had no idea what the song title was, so I couldn't Google it. I could only remember the familiar refrain: "Don't let it get me, don't let it get me," along with the image of that preppy kid riding his bike down the street. Like I said, I was somehow convinced that it was from JoS. Why? I have no idea. But I did manage to find the full movie on YouTube, and decided to watch it the other day while I got some unpacking done. I found out a few things:
Colleen Camp (hippie mom/French maid) was also in JoS but she was truly awful in it, horribly miscast in a "comic relief" role as a narcotics officer going undercover trying to sniff out all the stoners at the high school. It was a really dumb subplot that, like most of the movie, fell totally flat.
Christopher Lloyd played the main character's surly gym coach father, and he was actually pretty funny in it. One of the film's few bright spots.
There was this one part in the movie that my brain had somehow retained after all these years, although I was beginning to think I'd imagined it. It was a scene at a drive-in with a carload of teenage boys sticking their asses in the air and lighting their farts on fire while screaming "Blue flame!" Their combustible flatulence finally succeeds in blowing out the car windows, causing mass pandemonium among the teenage couples making out in the surrounding vehicles. Okay I'll admit it, that made me laugh. I'm not made of stone, people.
And the song. The song! It was nowhere to be found in Joy of Sex. Frustrated, I Googled "songs featured in Valley Girl," but there was nothing titled "Don't Let it Get Me." There was, however, a Sparks song called "Eaten By the Monster of Love." I found a recording on YouTube, and yep! That's it. And it WAS in the bike riding scene from Valley Girl, after all. Why did I think it was from Joy of Sex? Early onset Alzheimer's? I'll be 46 next week. Still a bit young for that, but who knows?
No matter. Here is the full version of the song, and it's all kinds of awesome.
The only reason I knew the name Sparks is because of "Cool Places," that song they recorded with Jane Wiedlin of the Go-Go's, which also happens to be the jam. (Jane Wiedlin can do no wrong in my book.) Bonus! Here it is:
Tuesday, September 24, 2013
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!
I'm writing this on September 24th (the day before our 1-year wedding anniversary!) but John and I are busy prepping for another cross-country move, so I'm getting this done now!
I can't believe it's been a year! The time has flown by. It's been a great first year. I love being married. Leos can seem quite weird and wild on the surface, but deep down we crave normality (John's words) and stability (mine). We like a good, solid partnership. We like having someone to come home to. And we are in LOVE with love. John and I are on the same page with all of that, and that's why we've had such a great first year together as a married couple. And here's to many more!
As I've mentioned before, we met in January, 2009. There was an immediate attraction straight away, but I think it's fair to say that John and I were both sort of cynical about love when we met. John had been married twice before, and I had just gone through the whole Simon Reid ordeal a mere five months earlier. Talk about dating anxiety! But we soldiered on obviously, and so here we are today.
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And since I'm relating EVERYTHING these days to my musical memories....John says that in the very beginning of our relationship, he used to listen to the Split Enz song "I Got You." It's a song about, basically, relationship paranoia.
I'm on a HUGE Split Enz kick right now, so I've been listening to this song quite a bit. It's a fabulous track, one of my favorites from the New Wave era. Neil does a nice bit of stage acting, particularly from 3:14 to the 3:24 mark (I'm not being facetious--he's really good).
I have a bit of a history with the Finns. Did you know?
Me and Neil after the Crowded House show in Minneapolis, 2007.
Neil signing the photo I took with him at the Guthrie in 2004.
Here's that photo. How meta!
Me with Tim at the Guthrie, 2004 *
*When I met Tim Finn after their show at the Vogue in 2005 (Indianapolis--I went with my friends Marcus and Aggie) Tim gave me a once-over and a smile. Thanks Tim! How YOU doin'?
I'm just a huge fan. The Finns have done such amazing work, as solo artists, as The Finn Brothers, in Crowded House and--of course--in Split Enz.
Here's another of my favorite Split Enz songs, Dirty Creature, (I've blogged about that one before), which also a song about paranoia. SO many Enz songs are about anxiety and paranoia. Tim has said in interviews that he used to suffer from horrible panic attacks, and that definitely reflected in the lyrics he was writing at the time.
So did I cover it all? Love, marriage, anniversary, the Finns, and Split Enz? I think I did.
"(Growing up in Birmingham) you could either escape through football or music.
And I wasn't much good at football."
Funny guy. Great musician too. He's known for being the quiet, mysterious Duran who left the music biz in 1985 (just after DD's Live Aid performance) and sought refuge in the English countryside. A true introvert, I think his circuits were just completely fried after seven straight years of having to be "on" all the time, and I imagine the Duran Duran's 1984 tour was the whale that broke the camel's back, to turn a phrase. He was also a newlywed and wanted to spend time with his wife, Giovanna, which is another typically Roger Taylor-ish reason for craving anonymity. Speaking of Giovanna, one of the things I dug about Roger was his love of edgy women. Instead of the Platonicideals pursued by his bandmates, he was taken by his future first wife's shaved head/purple mohawk (accounts differ) back when she was working the cloakroom at the Rum Runner, where Duran Duran got their start as the house band.
Although they split in 2004, these crazy kids were married for 20 years! No small achievement in pop stardom.
Fun fact: Roger's son is tight with Andy Taylor's son, and they hung out a lot as kids. Now they're all grown up and they've started their own band together! How cool is that?
Roger, of course, did eventually come back to the DD fold. The first time was in 1995, when he was coaxed out of hiding to play drums on the track "Perfect Day" for DD's album of covers, entitled Thank You. Then Roger saw his shadow or something and disappeared yet again.
You can watch the video here (EMI is pissy about embedding).
Roger rejoined Duran Duran for the second time in 2001, when all five original members reunited for a new album and tour. He's stuck with them ever since (knock on wood), perhaps deciding that the pop life isn't so bad after all.
Roger Taylor turns 53 today. And he's aging quite nicely, I might add.
Monday, July 23, 2012
“And I laughed like I always do, and I cried like I cry for you.”
It's the summer of 1989, and I'm just shy of my sixteenth birthday. I'm parked on the floor in front of the living room TV with a pint of Cherry Garcia, keeping the volume painfully low so as to not wake my mom, who doesn't care how late I stay up but is an annoyingly light sleeper. Still, I'm determined not to let that interfere with my late night TV habit. I'm glued to Post Modern MTV, one of the shows that I live for during my summers home from boarding school (my other favorites are Late Night With David Letterman, Welcome Back Kotter reruns, and 120 Minutes--MTV's other "alternative" music show). Post Modern MTV is where I get to see the videos from the artists and bands that I worship, the ones deemed too quirky for the channel's daytime programming, which during the summer of '89 was saturated with the likes of Milli Vanilli, Paula Abdul, Richard Marx, and Bon Jovi....music that (to quote the Smiths) said nothing to me about my life. Post Modern is how MTV redeems itself to viewers who prefer the Dead Milkmen to Debbie Gibson, and I drink it in like a fine wine cooler, eager for an antidote to the generic dance music and dull pop metal that ruled the mainstream airwaves at the time. Some of the videos that were in heavy rotation on Post Modern MTV that summer included gems like Tin Machine's “Under the God”, the Pixies' “Here Comes Your Man”, and Morrissey's “Interesting Drug”. And then one night they threw in this 4-minute slice of awesomeness that blew my mind.
Robyn Hitchcock himself introduces the video with a weird ramble about gardening tips (?). He comes off fairly eccentric and a bit cocky, which is pretty much what you’d expect from a post-punk British artist on late night MTV.
I'd never heard of Robyn Hitchcock before, but I liked him right away and I loved this song. I didn't (and don't) know who the Balloon Man is meant to be, or why it’s presumed that his name is Bruce. Balloon Man may or may not be a metaphor for….something, probably sex or drugs or perhaps nothing at all. But check out the fun nonsensical lyrics and the goofy, student film-y effects in the video and just TRY not to love it.
Bonus: a promo for MTV’s “Good News Bad News Contest” which I don’t remember at all (surprising, given the amount of late night MTV I was devouring at the time).
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
You're about as easy as a nuclear war...
If "terrorists" (presumably of the generic Islamic/Middle Eastern variety) are the boogeymen of today, Russians or "Commies" (they were interchangeable) were the scary evil villains of my eighties childhood. Cold War paranoia was everywhere in the eighties. It showed up in films like WarGames, Red Dawn, White Nights, Rocky IV, and Invasion USA; made for TV movies like The Day After and Testament (I saw that last one as a kid and it scared the holy hell out of me), and especially pop music. Some of the more famous examples of this are Nena's "99 Luftballoons," Sting's "Russians," Prince's "1999," Weird Al's (awesome) "Christmas At Ground Zero," Frankie Goes To Hollywood's "Two Tribes," The Smith's "Ask," Duran Duran's "Planet Earth," "Generals and Majors" by XTC, and this classic by Ultravox:
Some of the awesomeness in this video:
00:33 -- This fellow can only muster mild disappointment at the prospect of a nuclear meltdown. "Oh bollocks, I'll miss EastEnders!"
01:19 -- Newsflash: Nuclear Explosion Imminent (on an ATM screen?)
01:36 -- FUCK!!!!
01:57 -- What's with the framed American flag in Midge Ure's apartment? Dude, you're British! (Is he a Yankophile? Is there such a thing?)
02:12 -- Wall-mounted turntable?
02:29 -- Aw, come on. Just when things couldn't get more tragic, they gotta throw in a cute kid!
02:40 -- Might as well get it on while we still can. (You randy Brits!)
03:25 -- Did they escape or get neutralized?
03:40 -- "Daaaaaaaancin....in Cosby sweaters!"
03:50 -- Those sweaters! They make my eyes all hurty.
04:15 -- Okay, the fried egg/melted filmstrip effect? Pretty cool.
Lately I've discovered (and rediscovered) a lot of songs that I love from back in the day, and I'd like to start posting some of the more obscure/weird/awesome videos here on my beloved bloggy thing. I will try my best to make this a regular feature...for as long as I remember to, anyway. How's that for vague promises?
I'll start with Martha and the Muffins, because I absolutely love this song.
This video is from Top of the Pops, my favorite repository of long-forgotten British hits. "Echo Beach" failed to make the Hot 100 here in the States, but it climbed to #10 on the UK charts and peaked in the band's native Canada at #5.
Visually, the band is almost avant-garde in their frumpiness. Lead singer Martha Johnson looks as if she really did just punch out of her "very boring" office clerk job. But I love her deadpan delivery, the pensive lyrics, and of course the kick-ass synthesizer riff. The saxophone solo I can do without, but saxophone solos were hard to avoid back then.
With this new maybe-regular feature, I will try my best to post more than just obscure eighties new wave, but I can't promise anything.
