Another mixtape of Teh Interwebs:
First, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the launching of Sputnik: Lou Reed – “Satellite of Love.”
Katerine Gierak is a French rock singer who records under the name Mademoiselle K. Her first album, Ça Me Vexe was released last year, and in addition to having a very sexy album cover, has the merit of featuring good music as well. Here is the title track, whose title, for the non-Francophones among you, means “That Upsets Me”: Mademoiselle K – “Ça Me Vexe.”
Kate Nash is a singer/songwriter from London whom I discovered earlier today, thanks to a post by
I’ve posted this before (waaaay back in the early days of Friday Music), but it came up in coversation last night, and it has a tendency to get stuck in my head, so here it is — a cover of a song from 1968. The original vocal version of the song (by Barbara Acklin) never became a hit, but the instrumental version, called “Soulful Strut” hit the top 10, and can still be heard on oldies radio today. This version is a cover of the vocal version, recorded in 1992, which was a minor success: Swing Out Sister – “Am I The Same Girl.”
Some goofiness in honor of Friday: Todd Rundgren – “Bang on the Drum All Day.”
A major gear-shift — away from goofy pop songs and into musical scores from film. This is my favorite piece from the score of Last of the Mohicans, which is the track that plays during the final chase up the mountain: Trevor Jones and Randy Edelman – “Promentory.”
Moving into the more modern, yet still instrumental — a really excellent bit of dub techno. The only nitpicking drawback: It is based around a sample of “Ja Ren Qu (The Beauty Song)” from House of Flying Daggers–which is a Chinese song–and yet the group decided to title their track with a Japanese name. Learn the difference, guys. Still, an excellent bit of music: The Others – “Bushido.”
One of my favorite tracks from Donald Fagen’s first solo album, 1982’s The Nightfly. The song is a synth-heavy version of Latin Jazz, with Fagen wryly providing sarcastic lyrics that mix the traditional caribbean-paradise expectations of the format with the realities of Juntas and Bannana Republics: Donald Fagen – “The Goodbye Look.”
Lastly, one of my favorite tracks of the early 70s soul movement — not very well known, outside of its occasional use in soundtracks (I first discovered it via the 1995 Hughes Brothers film, Dead Presidents).The Undisputed Truth – “Smiling Faces Sometimes.” (The file is mislabeled as “the Dramatics” — trust me, there were only two versions of this song, The Undisputed Truth, and a 12-minute version by the Temptations. This is the Undisputed Truth.)
There you go. Hope you liked this week’s selections.