Category: Music

OK, back to the no-theme grab-bag collection method:

First off — something special, that I guarantee you’ve never heard. Kate Bush has a new album, Aerial, coming out November 7th (her first in years). A single has been released (“King of the Mountain”), but this week, other tracks were leaked to the internet (I suspect by her label, to drum up publicity in blog entries like these). This is the title track from the new album, which I like quite a bit: Kate Bush – “Aerial.”

Last week’s posting of “Ghost Town” reminded me of how much I love The Specials, so I decided to post my favorite tune from them. I’m sure most of you know it already, but who cares– it’s good. The Specials – “A Message To You Rudy.”

A little bit of Spanish for : Some of you will recognize this track from its use in various TV shows like Alias and the theme of the cancelled NBC drama Kingpin. This is a great tune to dance to: Kinky – “Mas y mas.” “Vamos queriendo mas y mas…” (“We want more and more.”)

In NYC, there’s a local group called Luminescent Orchestrii who play what they call “Romanian Gypsy-Punk.” This is a great track by them (there are a few others available from the website for free as well, so check it out): Luminescent Orchestrii – “Warsaw.”

I know a lot of you don’t care for hip-hop. It is my goal to try to show you the best of it…the intellectual, the moving, the stuff that moves beyond the gangsta bling and the posturing. For example: Digable Planets. They were playing here in Lawrence this week, and unfortunately, I found out far too late. The Planets are known for their immersion in Jazz — their first single, “Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat)” was a reference to Miles Davis’ album, Rebirth of the Cool, and when they tour, they use a live jazz band for their backing, rather than samples. This track is less well-known than the single, but I love it, as it is the perfect distillation of a relaxed Sunday morning in NYC: Digable Planets – “Pacifics.”

A while back I posted a track from Ladytron called “Destroy Everything You Touch.” In the meantime, I’ve picked up the album that it came from, called Witching Hour, and it’s really good. This is the opening track from the album: Ladytron – “High Rise.”

This is an interesting song from a new band that I found while stumbling around the various music blogs out there in the intarwebnets. I really like the piano progression and strings in this. World Leader Pretend – “Bang Theory.”

Lastly, here’s a song that I’ll admit I listened to simply because of the name of the artist – Crazy Penis. What I found, though, is a tight dance track which really, really grew on me. The lyrics tell the story of a girl being slipped a mickey by a much older guy at a club, and the music manages to simulateously bring across the sleazy feel, reference the Bee-Gees and Michael Jackson, and still ends up being a seriously danceable piece of work. Give it a listen: Crazy Penis – “Lady T.”

There you go, kids. Another week down. Enjoy.

Boo, etc.

This week, we’re going with a theme here at Friday Music. All of the songs are spooky, kooky, ooky, or otherwise Halloween-related.

First up: You know I had to start with this. The grand-daddy of Goth tunes: Bauhaus – “Bela Lugosi’s Dead.”

To switch gears just a bit, here’s a short bit of music, originally composed for the Cliver Barker computer game, Undying. I’m a sucker for creepy choruses singing in Latin, so this one is a very effective mood-setter: Bill Brown – “Undying Main Theme.”

To switch gears even more drastically: I have a two-disc collection called “Ghouls With Attitude”, which is a collection of largely-awful late-50s to mid-60s Halloween novelty songs, forgotten by time. There are a few gems, however, and this is one of them. A tribute to LA-area horror host and Ed Wood troupe member Vampira, via a shakin’ little rockabilly tune: Bobby Bare – “Vampira.”

Now a little bit of blues-tinged metal from everyone’s favorite Satanist Who Sounds Uncannily Like Jim Morrison: Danzig – “Her Black Wings.” I really do prefer his early stuff, where it was all horror-themed wailing rock like this, rather than the sub-Trent-Reznor industrial he started experimenting with later.

One of my favorite second-wave Ska groups, with a spooky song that was used to great effect at the beginning of Sean of the Dead: The Specials – “Ghost Town.” Love the horns.

Hey, what would a Halloween-themed playlist be without some incredibly cheese-tastic German goth electronica? Let’s not answer that, and give a listen to Blutengel – “Vampire Romance.” Something tells me this song might be better if they had sung in German, rather than English…that way I wouldn’t be wincing at the lyrics. I like the music quite a bit, though.

A nice bit of semi-industrial which was used in the recent film Constantine–as I’ve said before: the film isn’t too bad, and the soundtrack kicks ass. This song isn’t included on the soundtrack (which concentrates on the brilliant score), but for those of you who have seen the film, it’s playing in the nightclub when Constantine visits. Celldweller – “Frozen.”

Another “Ghouls With Attitude” selection– I love it for the ‘bad girl’ vocalist. You can practically see the capri pants and heels. And a fuzzy sweater. Yeah. A tight sweater over an industrial-strength rocket-cone 50s bra. Er….where was I? Oh yeah, the song: Tarantula Ghoul and the Gravediggers – “Graveyard Rock.”

Some new-wave halloween goodness: I spent years trying to find this one, and a guy online had it, so I traded mp3s with him. This song was used in the goofy mid-80s sequel, Howling II: Your Sister Is A Werewolf. There’s a lot that’s bad about that movie. It stars the actor Reb Brown, who I will forever know as “Big McLargeHuge”, thanks to MST3K. The main villainess is Sybil “gratuitous tit shot” Danning. However, there are exactly two things I like about the movie. One: It has Christopher Lee as an occult expert who hunts werewolves, and two, there’s a scene in a “punk club” where Lee is watching some werewolves hunt their prey. On the stage of the club is a band, and they’re performing this song: Babel – “Howling.”

…and lastly a bit more new wave…sorta. This band started as a new wave act, and over the course of their career, morphed through goth, metal (ish) and industrial. This is one of the better-known songs, and it’s too perfect not to include: Ministry – “Every Day Is Halloween.”

There you go, kids. Don’t take any apples or unwrapped candy.

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!