Song(s) In My Head

It's a double-shot today. That's because they're essentially the same song:

Bryan Ferry's "The Right Stuff" from 1987's Bete Noire and "Money Changes Everything" by the Smiths.

Johnny Marr wrote "The Right Stuff" with Ferry based on the instrumental B-Side "Money Changes Everything." Look for Marr in the video -- he looks like he's about 12 years old. By the way, by my calculations, Ferry was 41 when Bete Noire came out.

Bryan Ferry, incidentally, is touring America. He'll be at the Wellmont Theatre in Montclair, NJ on October 4.

The Amoeba List

Well, I'm going. To Amoeba. The World's Greatest CD store. (Yes, I still buy CD's.) It's at most a once a year trip for me -- I just don't get to California as much as I used to -- and one of my favorite rituals in the weeks before I go is making the list of what I want to buy.

So what's on this year's list? Get ready -- it's all over the map. And I've saved the best for last.

I'll try to break it into a few categories:

1) Kid music -- stuff I can introduce my kids to and feel good about playing for them:
Beatles -- Any Beatles.
The only Beatles CD we own is the compilation titled 1. And my daughter already joyfully sings a long with most of it, but her favorite is "Hard Days Night". So it's on the list. As is Sgt. Pepper's, Rubber Soul and Revolver -- all must-have CDs for kids to explore.

The Ramones - Rocket to Russia
So much good stuff here -- starting with "Rockaway Beach" which seems like it would be great fun for kids. "Do You Wanna Dance" is good, too, but we'll have to wait on "Teenage Lobotomy" for now.

Bob Marley - Legend (or some compilation)
I'm specifically looking for "Three Little Birds" -- a perfect song for children. Chloe loves her Ziggy Marley CD -- and especially enjoys singing "Take Me to Jamaica". But it's hard to believe I don't have any Marley (or Beatles or Ramones for that matter) on CD. What I had was on cassette or LP -- I never bothered to buy any of it on CD because it was all so familiar. Now I want to share it with my kids -- so Amoeba here I come.

The Cure - Boys Don't Cry and/or Standing on the Beach
We have the Rockabye Baby Cure CD, and it's lovely, but I'd like to play the real thing. "Lovecats" would be fun for the kids, as would "Boys Don't Cry". Again, I have it on cassette, but a lot of good that does me.

Beach Boys - Pet Sounds
Another must-have CD -- there's at least a couple of tracks that are kid-friendly ("Wouldn't It Be Nice", "God Only Knows"). Hell, the whole record has a childlike quality to it. I just don't know how much of Brian Wilson's LSD trips really translate into music for my kids' ears.


2) New stuff - this is just stuff that's come out this year that I want.

Beirut - The Rip Tide
Beirut's new album comes out the week before I'll be shopping so I'll probably pick it up then.

Death Cab for Cutie - Codes and Keys
I haven't gotten around to getting this yet so I'll pick it up at Amoeba as well.

Radiohead - The King of Limbs
Ditto.


3) Stuff I want to catch up on... this is older stuff for me that is either familiar or stuff I had on cassette or LP that I want to hear again.
Talking Heads - Speaking in Tongues
I really want to hear "This Must be the Place" and MGMT's cover from back in their college days just doesn't cut it, though it is fun to watch:

Graham Coxon - The Spinming Top or Love Travels at Illegal Speeds
So I'm kind of catching up here. These two releases are at least from the last decade, and both are among the best of Coxon's solo work since leaving Blur. I must say I very much enjoyed his 2002 release Happiness in Magazines.

Suede - Suede
Okay, more Britpop. But this really is a seminal record in a lot of ways, and I missed it the first time around.

Johnny Marr & the Healers - Boomslang
Not a very good record, at least to the critics. I'm a huge Johnny Marr fan but I never picked this up and I want to hear it for myself.

The Smiths - The Smiths
It's the only Smiths CD I don't own on CD. I think I need it.

Peter Gabriel - So
I may or may not need this -- as I may have Shaking the Tree on CD. But there's so much good stuff here that it would be nice to have.


4) Random stuff. The final category is the best. This is the stuff that I'm most looking forward to.
Public Image Ltd - This is What You Want, Album, and/or Happy?
This could have been in the previous category -- but I just really have a jones to hear these guys again. I'd settle for the Best Of if need be.

The Kinks - The Kinks are the Village Preservation Society
The roots of Britpop -- about mundane life in a small, rural English hamlet. See my earlier post on the subject!
 

Anthology of American Folk Music, Harry Smith, ed.
Another must-have CD -- after hearing Dan Zanes' version of so many traditional American songs it would be nice to hear them in a more original state.

The Upsetters/Lee "Scratch" Perry - Super Ape or Blackboard Jungle

I want to buy some dub. I don't own any, and I've done a little research into the subject. The cut that makes me happiest is from Super Ape, Perry's outstanding 1976 release. Look at that cover - how great is that? It kind of explains much of the Beastie Boys aesthetic.

 

There's other dub that I'd be interested in, including:
The African Dub Almighty compilations
Dub Syndicate - Pounding System
Trojan Dub Massive collections
Prince Far I - Dub to Africa or Voice of Thunder (Prince Far I was name-checked in my at-bat song "Clash City Rockers." The guy has the greatest voice -- you can listen here.)
Scientist - Dub in the Roots Tradition
Linton Kweisi Johnson - Forces of Victory
King Tubby - Dub from the Roots
Groove Corporation - Dub Plates from the Elephant House
Twilight Circus - In Dub Vol. 1 (Twilight Circus is the bassist from Legendary Pink Dots)

Like I said, I did my research. (But honestly, who needs more than one dub CD?)

What else should I be buying at Amoeba this time around?

Song In My Head

Ok, with tonight's season finale of "Gene Simmons Family Jewels" (side note - this might be one of the greatest seasons of any reality show I have ever seen.  Gene, the super ego maniac, comes to terms with his reality of the destructiveness he has cause his common law wife, Shannon Tweed, and his two children, with the help of a psychiatrist - all in front of a TV camera!!!) I have chosen what KISS fans consider one of the worst moves the band ever made. (...and they have made plenty of bad moves - The Elder anyone?) The song in my head is the disco driven "I Was Made for Lovin' You."  I would have loved to see a band like Franz Ferdinand cover this.  ***Trivia note*** - Peter Criss, drummer for the band, for whatever reason, could not play this song, so on the studio recording, David Letterman drummer Anton Fig filled in for him.  Enjoy

I Was Made for Lovin You

Song In My Head

So I made my annual list of CDs to buy at Amoeba when I go out to LA next month, and in my endless quest for all things Britpop, I'm going back to the source: The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society. Critics scoffed at this 1968 release, which came at the height of psychedelia, and it wasn't a big seller. But time has been very kind -- it's been an inspiration for many Britpop artists and commercially, it's the Kinks best seller of all time.


Here's "Picture Book," today's Song in My Head, which was recently used in an HP commercial, if I recall correctly. And if you want to know what else is on this year's Amoeba list, stay tuned.

The 27 Club

Amy Winehouse's death this weekend at age 27 brought much attention to the so-called "27 Club", the group of rock musicians who died at the age of 27. The list is usually made up of luminaries like Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones, a founding member of the club. He was the first to die -- drowning in a swimming pool in 1969 in an incident the coroner's report famously referred to as "death by misadventure." A year later, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin joined the club -- just two weeks apart. The following Summer, Jim Morrison died at 27. In 1973, founding Grateful Dead keyboardist Pigpen drunk himself to death. Of course Kurt Cobain was 27 when he died in 1994. And a month after Cobain's death, Kristen Pfaff of Hole died from a heroin overdose at age 27. (I'd personally put Echo and the Bunnymen drummer Pete De Freitas in the club -- he was killed in a motorcycle crash in 1989, when I was very much into the Bunnymen.)

There's many more marginal musicians listed on Wikipedia's 27 Club page.

Sesame & the B Boys...does it get any better

This came right from the b-boys themselves.  I love it...Shout out to Sesame

Rough Trade Documentary

I watched a terrific BBC documentary on Rough Trade Records, you know, the outfit that brought us The Smiths in the 1980s, among others. The film is about 90 minutes long, and it really gives you a nice overview of independent music in Britain from the late 70s to the present. You can watch it here.

Where Are They Now?

I just found out that a guy I work with was the drummer for Elwood, who had a minor hit in 2000 with a cover of Gordon Lightfoot's "Sundown". So if you're wondering where they are now, well, the answer is the NBC News graphics department.

Song In My Head

The Murdoch family is closing down the scandal-plagued News of the World tabloid. I don't really care one way or the other, but it put The Jam song in my head.

Can a Video Ruin a Song?

One of the best songs of the past five years was "Furr" by Blitzen Trapper. At least that's my opinion. The song is fairly simple -- acoustic guitar, some nifty synth effects and a beautiful tale of a boy who becomes a wolf who becomes a man, and the challenges of slipping between both worlds. Anyway, I only recently began listening to it again because a few years ago, I watched the video and it ruined the song for me. It's like a bad art school project where everything is too literal. And it actually prevented me from enjoying the song -- even when I just listening to it on my iPod. See if you agree.

By the way, Blitzen Trapper songwriter Eric Earley is a certified genius in my book -- based solely on the strength of "Furr", "Black River Killer" and "God and Suicide." They're all phenomenal songs. Look for new Blitzen Trapper this fall -- just don't watch the videos.

Politicians Who Don't Get It...

Last week, Tom Petty called on Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann to stop using "American Girl" at campaign events. We've seen this before, most famously when Bruce Springsteen asked Ronald Reagan to stop using "Born in the USA" during the 1984 campaign. (Reagan didn't realize Bruce wasn't singing about blind patriotism with that one.)

Anyway, here's an interesting read that mixes my day job -- covering politics -- with the culture of music. And it helps shed light on the cultural divide between Republicans and the musicians whose songs they tend to co-opt for political purposes.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0711/58255.html

Video Vault Friday!

We're digging deep into the Video Vault today for a classic that will make a lot of folks very happy. Get those death stares ready, here's Gary Numan's "Down in the Park".