Category: Music

Still busy with the kids’ visit, but I’d planned ahead and gathered some tracks for Friday Music:

She Wants Revenge have just completed recording their follow-up album, and naturally, a track has already leaked to the internet (most likely by the band itself, or their marketing team). Good stuff — sounds like we’re in for another album of Bauhaus/New Order/80s-alternative Redux — She Wants Revenge – “Written in Blood.”

Venturing more into traditional “rock” than the earlier albums, here’s another track from UNKLE’s new album, War Stories, which was just released: UNKLE – “Chemistry.”

David Bowie’s Life on Mars is one of my favorite songs. It’s so good, it’s almost impossible to do a bad cover of it. It even sounds great accoustic, and in Portugese: Seu Jorge – “Life On Mars.”

A little bit of heart-pumping music to get you moving and launch you into the weekend: Juno Reactor – “High Energy Protons.”

Another track from M.I.A.’s new album, Kala, due out in August. Experimental grime, non-western rhythms — the more I hear, the more I want. M.I.A. – “Bird Flu.”

Sometimes, you just need a little bit of Johnny Rotten and Afrika Bambatta. A song which, sadly, is just as appropriate today as it was when it was released, 20 years ago: Time Zone – “World Destruction.”

A new band I’ve discovered during the past week — from Northeast London, mixing electronic sounds of retro analog synths with driving guitar. Love this. Quite a bit: The Ghost Frequency – “Money on the Fire.”

and I watched Zodiac this week, and oddly enough, it turned into a very musical experience for me. It led to two of those experiences where you hear a song that you had completely forgetten about.

The first one is a bit strange. Hearing a snippet of music in the movie, I was struck that I knew it. But a quick bit of digging revealed that the song (a 70s pop-country smash – “I Never Promised You a Rose Garden” by Lynn Anderson) wasn’t a song that I really knew. Puzzled, I kept digging. I found out that the lyrics that had struck me had been sampled in a late-80s dance track. The name wasn’t familiar, but I gave a listen…..and BANG! — I was transported to “Boys & Girls”, a dance club in Atlanta in 1988. I loved this song, and had completely forgotten it. Kon Kan – “I Beg Your Pardon.”

The second is a track from the 70s (playing in a diner scene in the film), which I loved when I was a kid. I used to sing along to it — completely oblivious to the racial-tension content of the lyrics: Stories – “Brother Louie.” (Or, as I used to call it as a kid – “Louie-Louie-Louie-LouEYE.”)

Lastly, the closing credits song from the film — nothing I’d forgotten, just something that I’ve always liked, for its unabashed psychedelia. Definitely has a creepier air to it, when used in a film about a serial killer. Context, I suppose, is everything. Donovan – “Hurdy Gurdy Man.”

I’m honored to have had the opportunity to meet William Burroughs briefly in the early 90s, as he lived out his final days here in Lawrence. A few years previous to our encounter (on a street outside a grocery store — I gave him a lift home), he collabortated with Material, who mixed in music surrounding his spoken-word recordings — Here’s my favorite of those tracks: Material (feat. William Burroughs) – “The Seven Souls.”

I was a big fan of the Dublin-based Hothouse Flowers, best known in the US for their “college radio” single of the late 80s/early 90s, “Don’t Go.” In 1993, they released this single, which didn’t do nearly as well for them here, but stands as my favorite song by the group. I’m not a big fan of pagan religious music — in my experience it’s almost all RenFest/Folk/NeoCeltic noodling with bad LOTR lyrics and awful drumming, or sub-standard singer/songwriter open-mic tripe — but occasionally, I find songs, never intended as “pagan”, which I consider to be religious epiphanies. This is one of them. Hothouse Flowers – “Thing of Beauty.”

In 2006, Róisín Murphy released Ruby Blue her debut solo album — which I posted tracks from extensively here on Friday Music. She’s now preparing to release her second album, Overpowered, this Fall. Here’s the first single from the album, and I’m loving it: Róisín Murphy – “Overpowered.”

Lastly, a nice bit of mash-up: Kanye West (with a bit of Jamie Foxx) mixed with Walter Murphy’s disco take on Ludwig Van – A plus D – “Beethoven’s Fifth Gold Digger.”

Git down, girl, go ‘head, git down.

As promised, Friday Music is back.

First up, for , I’ve tracked down the music used in the Absolut “pillow fight riot” commercial. It’s a French record from 1938: Charles Trenet – “Boum!”

Sticking with the European theme for a bit, here are two tracks in honor of The Minion’s return from Germany. These were her favorite groups when she was there: Die Ärzte – “Männer sind Schweine (Men are Pigs)” and Wir sind Helden – “Guten Tag.” I was familiar with the second track, as it appears on the soundtrack to the FIFA 2004 game I’ve been addicted to.

KT Tunstall is pretty cool — I liked “Black Horse & Cherry Tree,” and “Suddenly I See” — but she’s apparently even cooler live. Here is a live recording of Ms. Tunstall doing an accoustic cover of a Jackson 5 classic, and it’s pretty damned good: KT Tunstall – “I Want You Back.”

A sequel to an earlier Friday Music post, where I featured a track from the London trio Belleruche (singer, guitarist and DJ), whose album is forthcoming. Here’s another track from them — jazzy, smoky and noir: Belleruche – “It’ll Come.”

It had to happen sooner or later — some Harry Potter fans have come up with a grime track that “big ups” all things Potter while slamming The Lord of the Rings: Danny Dementor – “Where’s Your Hood At?” Favorite line: “LOTR fans, you talk a lot of smack — but guess where I’ve got yer boy Gandalf at? He’s locked in a tower up at Azkaban — Dumble-D kicked his ass, and he’ll do it again.”

(For those interested in even more musical efforts by Potter fans, check out the 17 tracks of “wizard rock” posted here, which include such groups as Draco & the Malfoys, The Ministry of Magic and The Mudbloods.)

Lastly, a bit of Kasabian. Their track “Club Foot” made a minor splash over here, but never really caught on. Shame, really, as the rest of their stuff is equally good. Kasabian – L.S.F. (Lost Souls Forever)”

More next week. Glad to be back.