Shot Through The Heart

I have a new podcast up, Shot Through The Heart, and I think you might like it. Why? Well, first off it's a reasonable length, clocking in under 45 minutes (album size!), and second off, I forced myself to not include any of the obnoxious crap that I favor. In fact, I even removed a track that was too noisy. Was I successful? You be the judge.

This podcast is bookended by one of my early favoritest (no, that's not real word) groups, Barnes & Barnes. Regrettably, B&B are known primarily for their song "Fish Heads," thus marginalizing them as a novelty band. And while most of their songs are rather puerile, it doesn't negate that they wrote good music and had an fantastic trippy sound. I only have their first two LPs, Voobaha and Spazchow, both represented on this album. BTW, don't buy Voobaha off of iTunes. It doesn't include "Fish Heads" (no loss) or their extraordinary spit-take of the Beatles' "Please Please Me," which is worth the full album alone. Fun fact: one of the Barnes is Billy Mumy, aka Will Robinson of Lost in Space and Anthony from that creepy-ass Twilight Zone episode.

1. Barnes & Barnes "Fletchy's Revenge" Off their second and darker LP, Spazchow. The voice is the other Barnes (not Mumy) and his ex from his answering machine. I love tape vocals, a la My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts. Note the "Yeah" at the conclusion. Their trademark was to find a way to say "Yeah" at the end of every song they recorded.
   
2. The Chameleons "Don't Fall" Proving that big, ostentatious passion rock doesn't have to be self-righteous and overblown. First track off the debut album by the Chameleons, who were, by way, way better than U2.
   
3. U2 "Celebration" That said, I was once a big U2 fan, but not so much these days. This was a post-October/pre-War single, back when Adam Clayton had a 'fro.
   
4. The Wedding Present "Loving You" The Weddoes do amazing covers, and this is no exception. I was curious to hear how they'd hit the original vocal's cascading high notes, and their solution was perfect. Off of a session of cover songs from the 50's, 60's, 70's, and 80's, including a non-Beatles Lennon-McCartney song and the Go-Go's "Our Lips Are Sealed." That last one will show up on a future podcast.
   
5. HollAnd "Mint Missiles" I'm pretty sure all this guy's stuff was recorded direct to the board on ProTools, but it sounds terrific.
   
6. Stephin Merritt "The Meaning of Lice" From the Plague Songs compilation. There's an Eno song, "Flies," on that I'd like to post, but the first two minutes are far too annoying.
   
7. The Fiery Furnaces "Benton Harbor Blues (Remix)" Speaking of annoying, the Fiery Furnaces are a great band that drive me nuts. They write excellent songs and make some crazy sounds, but then they cut up the recordings and paste them back together in what appears to be no discernible order. Intentionally. When I found that they'd done a song with an Optigan, I was excited, but once again they chopped it up with inexplicable starts and stops and it just wasn't podcastable. Except, in someones wisdom, they released a more radio-friendly version of the song, included here. Hooray!
   
8. TV On The Radio "Ambulance" The looped vocal backing hooks me on this beauty.
   
9. The Velvet Underground "Lisa Says" I'll admit, the only reason this song is here is it gave me an opportunity to lead it off with a recording I made of my wife, Lisa, extolling the virtues of her pants. "I don't have a calculator, but if you do the math..."
   
10. Electralane "The Valley" I'm not fond of this band, but including the amazing choir on this song was brilliant.
    
11. Low "Dinosaur Act" For some stupid reason I ignored Low for years, and for that I am nothing more than a fool. Good god they make some beautiful sounds. More bands should be this good. Coincidentally and for whatever it's worth, this and the track prior were both recorded by Steve Albini.
    
12. Barnes & Barnes "Linoleum" Obviously, a song with "Linoleum" as the title had to be included, but this is also my favorite B&B song. Goofy, trippy, and beautiful all at once. Those processed drums totally do it for me.