Category: Music

I know, it’s been a while. Been busy. Good stuff this week, though:

First up, The Scissor Sisters have a new album coming out in June, and they’ve released the first single as a free download — which is why this entry looks a bit different. I figured if they’ve gone through the trouble to authorize a free download, I should reward that forward thinking by using the official Java widget. With this, you can choose to stream and listen, or click to download. I like this track — this time around, they appear to be flirting with an early-80s Duran Duran vibe a bit:

Next up: an absolutely blistering dancefloor remix of Disturb’s “Down With the Sickness.” (Not authorized or official, of course — just some brilliant chopping, mixing and knob-twiddling by an industrious DJ): Disturbed – “Down With The Sickness (Angie Remix).”

Chuck D of Public Enemy recorded a song that dealt with the ridiculousness of building a wall on the US-Mexico border in Arizona — and released it as a solo track (under the name Mistachuck) right after the “Papers, Please” law was passed. He even samples his own work — the classic PE track “By the Time I Get To Arizona” — Mistachuck – “Tear Down That Wall.”

Mark Ronson (currently working with Duran Duran on their next album) put together a side project specifically to record a track to accompany a shoe design from Gucci. Yes, a shoe. Now there is an artist who thinks outside the typical radio-play paradigm. His side project, with Sam Sparo and Theophilus London, is called Chauffeur (after Ronson’s favorite Duran Duran track). Here’s the track: Chauffeur – “Soles of Fire.”

Loved this track when it was released. Still love it now, and lament that the band never hit as big again: The Primitives – “Crash.”

Ah the last gasps of England’s 70s glam movement. This song, from the early 80s, will always remind me of moving to Kansas City (it was a fairly solid radio hit at the time we first came to look at houses). Slade – “Run Run Away.”

Here are both sides of the 12-inch version of my favorite track from Thomas Dolby:
Thomas Dolby – “Dissidents (The Search For Truth, Part 1 – Dub).”
and
Thomas Dolby – “Dissidents (The Search For Truth, Part 2 – Vocal).”

Dolby is currently recording a new album, in the form of three separate EPs: Amerikana, Urbanoia and Oceanea, which will later be compiled into one album, A Map of the Floating City. The sound is far from the synth work of his past — More steampunk, with jazz mixing with traditional world music instrumentation and more. If you’d like to get an advance glimpse, this link will take you to a TED talk video, where he performs one of the tracks from Amerikana: “Love is a Loaded Pistol.”

So there you go kids. Enjoy.

I’ve been meaning to post more to the new blog, but I’ve been busy as hell in the past week (finishing up ICONS, getting ready to launch FAR WEST, plus initial steps towards the ePulp thing I talked about last week, as well as the usual day-to-day stuff of handling Adamant), so I fell down in that regard.

Here we go with another Friday Music entry for you, though. Good stuff this week.

First up — posted a link to the brand new video via Twitter earlier this week, and so I had to track down an mp3. Really great stuff — brand new track from UK hip-hop act Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip – “Sick Tonight.”

Credit where credit is due — my oldest daughter introduced me to this track, and my younger daughter reminded me to post about it. An English synthpop duo who lists their influences as Yazoo, Erasure, and other 80s acts? Yes, please! La Roux – “Bulletproof.”

Speaking of the 80s, this song will forever remind me of summers on Long Island, listening to WBAB 102.3. This particular track has one of the best guitar hooks in the history of EVER, incidentally. Billy Squier – “Everybody Wants You.”

Sticking with the 80s — one of my last favorite songs of the decade, released in 89 during the cusp from “college rock” to “alternative.” The Ocean Blue – “Between Something & Nothing.”

We’ll go back even further for this one — stuff I was listening to in the 80s, though — some first-wave Ska from the 1960s, recorded by former members of The Skatalites. A ska instrumental version of a James Bond title song: Jackie Mittoo and the Soul Brothers – “From Russia With Love.”

I was introduced to this San Francisco-based funk-disco-synth band this week. I get a real Duran Duran vibe off them at times. Sugar & Gold – “Feels Like Fire.”

…and lastly, in honor of the forthcoming FAR WEST: The english version of Luis Bacalov’s classic theme. Luis Bacalov – “Django.”

Enjoy, kids.

I’m prepping a big post on pulp fiction ePublishing for later this afternoon, but I figured that first I’d post a Friday Music entry.

For readers new to this blog: Friday Music is a semi-weekly series that I’ve been posting since February 2005, where I present mp3 links that I’ve found on the internet, pointing out songs that I especially like. Sometimes it’s new music, sometimes it’s old. I usually have comments about each track. Think of it as an Internet Mixtape — If you find something you like, go on out and buy it.

This week:

Started watching HBO’s new series Treme, and I’m hooked. Of course, it’s by the creators of The Wire, and I’d watch them produce a game show. The music of New Orleans takes front and center in the show (as you’d expect), but it’s not the same stereotypical stuff that you hear over and over again (they’ve had characters blast the tendency toward “Iko Iko” and “When the Saints Go Marching In”, in-character). For example, the first episode features the following track by New Orleans native Louis Prima, played over a montage of life in the city: Louis Prima – “Buona Sera.”

Saw Kick-Ass over the last weekend, and enjoyed it. I would’ve preferred that the movie concentrate on Hit Girl and Big Daddy, since it’s their goals which drive the plot — the main character just sort of wanders through it. The best musical sequences in the film take place during their watch as well.

For example, the following track played beneath one of Hit Girl’s beautifully-if-ridiculously-choreographed HK-style ballets of carnage: Joan Jett – “Bad Reputation.”

And in a nice bit of postmodern sampling, the following snippet of the score to 28 Days Later is used as accompaniment to Big Daddy relentlessly working his way through a warehouse full of Mobsters: John Murphy – “In The House, In A Heartbeat.” Good stuff.

Completely shifting gears: I love Rufus Wainwright more than any straight man should. He’s got a new album, All Days Are Nights: Songs for Lulu, which feature his increasingly “chamber pop” style of singer-songwriter performance. I’m loving the track that his label has sent out to a few blogs: Rufus Wainwright – “Who Are You New York?”

Sometimes, you just need a little bit of Danzig, as a palate-cleanser. This is from his brilliant “Jim Morrison Resurrected As A Satantic Blues Singer” debut album, before he slipped into bad imitation of Nine Inch Nails and wallowed in self-parody. Danzig – “Am I Demon.”

This track remains, in my opinion, the best thing Ben Folds has ever done. With a cheeky tweak of the nose of the alternative scene (I still laugh at the disco-themed “It’s Industrial – Work It!” lyric) and topped off by some ridiculously proficient piano jazz at it closes, it hooked me instantly back when I first heard it. Ben Folds Five – “Underground.”

Got tickets for Muse in November. Looking very much forward to it — but a few minutes after purchase, I heard this song and thought about how amazing a Muse cover would be. They could KILL this: Cream – “I Feel Free.”

Lastly, an oldie — hearing “Buona Sera” put me in the mind of mobster movies, and this one was used to good effect to set an era in Goodfellas: The Cadillacs – “Speedo.”

There ya go, kids. Enjoy.

Back this afternoon.