Song Of The Day

Datarock - True Stories

One of my favorite records of 2009 is Datarock's Red. It is a sublime set of '80s dance rock that hits absolutely all of the right notes with me. One of my favorite songs on it is True Stories. The lyrics are all Talking Heads song titles. Sounds like a cliched joke, but it actually works out fantastically well - really! Musically it is also a pretty good facsimile of the Talking Heads style - plenty of groove and chikka-chikka guitars. I really like this song. The album is out digitally, and gets a physical release later this year. Buy it!
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Born Under Punches
Crosseyed And painless
Slippery People
I’m Not In Love

Houses In Motion
A Road To Nowhere
Once In A Lifetime
I’m Not In Love

Don’t Worry About The Government
The Democratic Circus
Cause Mommy Daddy You and I
Are Burning Down The House

Psycho Killer
Radiohead
Television Man
I’m Not In Love

Puzzling Evidence
Seen And Not Seen
This Must Be The Place
I’m Not In Love

Don’t Worry 'Bout The Government
The Democratic Circus
Cause Mommy Daddy You and I
Are Burning Down The House

I Get wild
Wild Gravity
Wild Wild Life
The Big Country

Don’t Worry 'Bout The Government
The Democratic Circus
Cause Mommy Daddy You and I
Are Burning Down The House

I Get Wild
Wild Gravity
Wild Wild Life
The Big Country

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MIIKE SNOW - BURIAL


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Black Moth Super Rainbow - Born On A Day The Sun Didn't Shine

Mega creepy...

Song Of The Day

Colourbox - Baby I Love You So
(Augustus Pablo)
12" A Side - 1986
This is probably one of my top 10 favorite 12" singles ever. IMO Colourbox should have been huge. Their 4AD recordings were proto-trip hop. They laced their beats with rock guitars and slathered them in dub. I am still amazed at how good this particular track sounds considering it is 23 years old. It is a seriously spaced out dub, a cover of an oldie by Augustus Pablo. It has an all time classic bass line and some huge rim shots, all topped off with Lorita Graham's sweet vocals. I have heard a few different versions of this song and I always come back to this version. Added bonus - the flip side is just as good, with two more dub excursions filled with spaghetti western samples.

Song Of The Day

I'm a big fan of Jill Scott. Her honey tone is sweet and soulful, and she specializes in quiet storm moments. I didn't realize she was an actor too. A few weeks ago HBO premiered a new show called The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency - it's actually a BBC/HBO production and has already aired in the UK. It stars Jill as Precious Ramotswe, a Botswanan woman who leaves her abusive husband and sets up a detective agency. It has been a highly entertaining show so far, and is quite different from HBO's usual fare in that it is kinder, gentler and a bit more family oriented. There is a sweetness to her character, lots of interesting co-stars and a real reverence for Africa. I have really been enjoying it, and it has had me digging out my Jill Scott records. This track is a remix featuring Mos Def, taken from an old Mixmag comp. Like it says, it is all about the head nodding goodness...
Jill Scott featuring Mos Def - Love Rain (Head Nod Remix)

Song Of The Day

School Of Seven Bells - Half Asleep
School Of Seven Bells is ex Secret Machines-er Benjamin Curtis and On!Air!Library!'s Alejandra and Claudia Deheza. They released their debut album Alpinisms (“the art of climbing mountains.”) last fall on Ghostly International. It is a great record of shoegaze-y dream pop, blending the lines between electronics and organic instrumentation. It is Can meets the Cocteaus, a kinder, gentler My Bloody Valentine. The mountain climbing analogy of the title fits well here as the record climbs to soaring heights and falls into deep, ethereal moments of quiet. The sisters handle the vocals, full of lush harmonizing. Brandon constructs shimmery tracks that mix the prog rock background of his old band with glitchy electronics, glacial synths and occasional tribal beats. Half Asleep is the perfect synthesis of all of it.

Song Of The Day

Today at work I listened to one of my all time favorite electronic music albums, Subliminal Sandwich by Meat Beat Manifesto. A double disc set released in 1996 - the heat of the "electronica" moment - it is big and sprawling. Dub bass lines and reggae toasting rub against gritty electro beats and nightmarish sonic sample mash ups. Big rumbling break beats clatter around post-apocalyptic soundscapes. Subject matter runs from man's fascination with nukes and science and chemistry to it's effects on him - Cancer. It is dark stuff, but oh so enjoyably presented. Buried in the small print at the back of the CD booklet is this simple instruction -

IMPORTANT - Play twice before listening.

I love that.

Meat Beat Manifesto - Future Worlds
Meat Beat Manifesto - United Nations (E.T.C.)

Song(s) Of The Day

I have been listening to The Teardrop Explodes' Wilder a bunch lately. It is of course the remastered expanded version that includes the US mini LP Buff Vanilla. This 1981 album, the band's second, is a classic in my books. It is filled with Julian Cope's mad genius in full on psych pop mode. There are songs that deserved to be smash hits, with huge hooks and choruses. There are low key ambient moments. And there are loads of quirky, mad moments. Pundits had them poised for great UK chart success. Of course the public (idiots!) didn't buy it (the singles placed at #25,#57,#41), and it signaled the end of the band. I had a hard time picking a single song so you get to listen to three. A highly recommended purchase.
Colours Fly Away
Tiny Children
You Disappear From View

Song Of The Day

Bill Nelson - Flaming Desire
(1982)
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Flaming desire, flaming desire,
open your heart to my flaming desire,
love turns to lust, ice into fire,
open your heart to my flaming desire…

How quickly, how quickly desire returns,
I open your hand and the weapon still burns,
hold me and turn me in circles again,
dance in the space between pleasure and pain.

Flaming desire, flaming desire,
open your heart to my flaming desire,
love turns to lust, ice into fire,
open your heart to my flaming desire…

Sea creature/sex creature, woman in love,
a slip of the tongue or the hand in the glove,
kiss me and wound me again and again,
faster than beauty our beast is unchained…

Flaming desire, flaming desire,
open your heart to my flaming desire.
Love turns to lust, ice into fire,
open your heart to my flaming desire…

Song Of The Day

Althea & Donna - Uptown Top Ranking
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It is dreary and cold and gray here today. This is the sonic opposite of that. It was a UK #1 in February of 1978.

Song Of The Day

Chin Chin are an NYC party band. They are signed to Def Jux. Their new single is a cover of one of my favorite '80s classics - The Power Station's Some Like It Hot. Where the original was all thundering gated snares and twitchy funk rock, Chin Chin smoooove it out and make it into a much more relaxed beast, a nice and spacy bit of g-funk.
Chin Chin - Some Like It Hot

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MORE '80s 4U
Got a hankering for some bad '80s music video? Check out the HUGE library at 80's Music Videos, all nicely alphabetized for ease of use. Fantastic. Thanks to D'Ruffalo for the link.

HONORARY AUSTRALIAN
The Australian music, marketing and social media blog Way Cool Jnr has compiled a list of the top 25 Australian music blogs. To my pleasant surprise SIART is listed at #6! I am honored to be listed, and now consider myself an honorary Aussie. Don't worry, I promise - no jokes about shrimps on the barbie...

Song Of The Day

This is a repost. Blog-Google deleted this post without warning on 2/7/09. They gave no indication as to which track was the offender so the audio content has been removed.

Eagles of Death Metal are an absolute favorite of mine. Their latest album Heart On came out in October of last year and I am still playing it at least once a week. It's glamtastic - gritty, dirty and sexy, full of Stones-y riffs and stomping beats. Nothing new, but so much fun it is hard to resist. Today's song of the day is a great example...
Eagles of Death Metal - Prissy Prancin'

FURTHERMORE

I have been a bit obsessed with Beyond The Wizards Sleeve lately. The duo of Erol Alkan and Richard Norris are active in music on their own - Erol as remixer (Klaxons/Goldfrapp/Hot Chip) and producer (Late Of The Pier) and Norris as member of Psychic TV and The Grid. The self released bootleg Ark 1 is a collection of their cut and paste jobs, where they rework old psychedelic rock tunes or Krautrock jams and add a bit of their own instrumentation. It is great - I have been playing it to death. I have also been rocking their reanimation of the track Ulysses from the new Franz Ferdinand album. Come on, let's get high.
Franz Ferdinand - Ulysses (Beyond The Wizards Sleeve Re-Animation)