Day: October 21, 2005

Facing my first post KCRF weekend, where I’m free to do whatever the hell I want! Here’s some music for the assembled throng:

First for : your reaction last week was so perfect, I have to give you some more Funk. This time, I went with the obvious: George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic – “We Want The Funk.”

I picked up the album Mexican Spaghetti Western by Robert Rodriguez’ band, Chingon (Spanish for “bad-ass”) this week, and it’s been a near-constant feature of my work play-list ever since. This stuff is GREAT. They just added the album to the iTunes Music Store, so if you have iTunes, buy the album. It’s worth it. Here’s the first track: Chingon – “Se Me Paro.” I love the band intro towards the end: “On the drums…On the guitar….On another guitar….On yet another guitar….”

If we’re going to have Spanish, we should also have some French, right ? :) And by French, of course, I don’t mean accordions and galuoise cigarettes….I mean Gallic early-80s post-punk, with bouncy guitars and Beachboys-esque “ooooeeeooo”s: Plastic Bertrand – “Ca Plane Pour Moi.”

I discovered this new group earlier in the week. The group is called Locksley, and hails from Madison Wisconsin, but travelled to NYC to be discovered in the clubs there. They do absolutely spot-on mid-60s Brit-pop (think the Kinks or some of the early Beatles tracks), complete with hand clapping and finishing up in under 2 minutes. Mark my words: This song is destined to be featured in an iPod ad. I can totally see it coming. Locksley – “She Does.”

Speaking of the 60s, one of my favorite groups from the period was the Velvet Underground. I could go on for pages and pages about Lou Reed and John Cale, but I’ll simply say that they were one of the worlds first true “alternative” groups….experimental and truly ahead of their time. This is one of my two favorite VU tracks: Velvet Underground – “Venus in Furs.”

Now for a song that will now always remind me of this season of the KCRF. Every morning, before the Opening cannon, and the rest of the Jolly Rogers would warm up their voices. On several occasions, they used this song. I still say that they should do an album of “The Jolly Rogers Sing Your Favorite Pop Hits”, complete with a cheesey K-Tel-ish album cover. The Rolling Stones – “Dead Flowers.”

Some more moody synth-goth from Dead Can Dance – “Anywhere Out Of The World.” I love Brendan Perry’s voice, and this song showcases it nicely.

Lastly, something high-energy to get you through the rest of the day. I miss bands with horn sections…and this group’s horn section would bounce around the stage like madmen during this song. The Urge – “Getting Hectic.” “I’m gettin’ vexed with the crap they project…they put it on wax and on the record-store racks….” This song never fails to get me moving.

There you go folks. Enjoy the weekend, and I’ll see some of you tonight!