I Love Having Birthdays

Here's more info on the tracks found in my latest podcast, I Love Having Birthdays, a mix done for me this February by my incredible friend Jim.

1. The Johnny Depth "I Love Having Birthdays" Who doesn't love having birthdays? Not this guy. This is one of my favorite songs that Jim's ever recorded. He's got the built-in lo-fi from his four-track working for him on this, even though the vocals are a little squished. Then there's the rap/ skat in the middle section. And the iPod reference, just like in one of my first posts. Jim's got a dark side, and when it comes out in a song like this, it's pure gold.
2. Lady Sovereign "Love Me Or Hate Me" Oddly, this version has the "fuck you" censored. What the?
3. The White Stripes "Walking With a Ghost" I sit on the fence with the White Stripes. Jack White is clearly a brilliant performer and musician, both technically and technologically (I love the use of his pitch shifting whammy pedal). But as much as I dig me my messed-up, no bass, lo-fi bluesy garage noise bands (see: The Gories, Pussy Galore), I think what really ruins the WS for me is Meg White's GODAWFUL WEAKASS DRUMMING. I will post a track off an Upholsterers single soon, which finds Jack in the familiar two-person line-up, but this time with a real drummer. It freaking rocks. And no, I have not listened to the Raconteurs yet, nor am I particlurly interested.
4. The Coup "We Are The Ones" This track totally sounds like a cross between Vanilla Ice and AC/DC's "Big Balls," doesn't it?
5. Le Tigre - "Mediocrity Rules" Le Tigre kicks so much ass. Kathleen Hannah has got the best female punk rock vocals in the biz, hands down. No one else can anyone scream in perfect pitch like her (not, however, showcased in this song). This tune's off Le Tigre's first, damn near perfect, album. Unfortunately, I really don't care for their last effort, but I keep out hope for the next.
6. Gustavo Santaolalla "The Wings" From, I believe, Brokeback Mountain. Jim didn't tell me how this fits in to the mix, nor did I ask.
7. Low "Pissing" Low was one of those bands I heard lots about and never got around to, despite the fact that even Steve Albini recorded them once. Then I heard their Optigan-backed track off of their Christmas EP on my buddy Scott's podcast, and realized these guys rule. This song is no exception. Beautiful harmonies + meloncholic melody + dramatic build-up + lush guitar feedback = great music in my book.
8. Nina Simone "How I Feel" I vaguely remember Simone's cover of Screamin' Jay Hawkins' "I Put A Spell On You." I remember it being pretty good, although, really, how can you top the original? I mean, that song is just INSANE. I one of the few who believe that CCR's version of that song was patently wretched, even though Fogerty really screamed that sucker out.
9. Noonday Underground "Put You Back Together" Hm, driving 60's style beat, Peter Gunn guitar, and four octace Nancy Sinatra-esque vocals? OK, I'm in. I understand these guys are club darlings. I'll have to investigate further.
10. The Paragons "The Tide Is High" The original, although I'm sure you're much more familiar with that very famous version by, who else, Atomic Kitten. Some other band had a hit with this too.
11. Copycat "Fade To Pretty Vacant" As a freshman in college I was convinced that the Sex Pistols had the same impact on contemporary music as The Beatles. While there is some merit to the argument, I've since revised most of those opinions. I like the tasteful use in this song of Steve Jones' guitar riff and Lydon's original chorus. I also enjoy the perverse marriage of Mr. Rotten and cheezy 80's glamsynthpop. But that's the whole point, innit?
12. Tegan & Sarah "Walking With A Ghost" I assume the only reason for this song from the White Stripes catalog earlier and the inclusion of Tegan & Sarah at all was for the nice bookending of this mix.
13. Unknown "Love Me On The Wild Side" And again with tasteful bookending. Well played, Jim. I'm not familiar enough with 80's buttrock to know for certain, but the original "Wild Side" was Motley Crue, correct? Fortunately, this version of Lady Sovereign's song includes the all important F word. As foretold by the prophesy. I don't know what that means.

(Gonna Have A) Happy Birthday

Check out my latest podcast, (Gonna Have A) Happy Birthday. These are the tracks off of the birthday CD Jim, aka The Johnny Depth, gave me in 2006. 'Nuff said.

1. The Johnny Depth "(Gonna Have A) Happy Birthday" One of probably a dozen of great birthday songs from Jim. From 2006, this mentions Lisa and our bun in the oven, our not yet introduced to the world son, Cooper. Jim also references our former band, The Bad Days, of which I plan on posting a mix of our demo recordings. I'd point you to our website, but that's long since gone. Remember, the lo-fi sound quality of the song adds to the ambiance.
2. The Go! Team "The Power Is On" I wish these guys would come out with a new album. They satisfy so many of my needs: solid beats, lo-fi/ retro sampling, and girls singing double-dutch songs.
   
3. Chow Nasty "Ungawa" I was shocked to discover that this is a) by a contemporary group, and b) the singer is a white dude. I honestly thought this was some old off-the-track R&B nugget, like from the "Savage Kick" comps, and I not so secretly still wish it was. Bitchin' song.
   
4. JJ Barnes "Chains Of Love" For a rockin' good take on this, check out The Dirtbombs' godhead soul song cover album, Ultraglide In Black.
   
5. Jon Auer "Gold Star For Robot Boy" Nice cover of a Guided by Voices song, off of arguably one of GbV's most accessible, if not best, albums, Bee Thousand.
   
6. Enon "Shave" This is what Jim's songs would sound like if he access to a well-equipped studio and session musicians.
   
7. Little Milton "Lovin Stick" Jim listens to a lot of good soul and R&B. I have concluded, besides talent, this is why he is such a good vocalist.
   
8. Marco & Rita "Golden Years" Mom? Dad?
   
9. Dick Rivers "Things We Said" Yeah, Dick Rivers. That's not his given name. Foreign versions of pop songs like this remind me of this terrible compilation I heard of Mexican garage bands from the 60's doing "Mother's Little Helper" and covers of other hits of the day. The best track was one that was sung in English, but the accent was so impenetrable that you would have never know it unless you were told.
   
10. Arctic Monkeys "Cigarette Smoke" There's a category for bands like these guys and, say, Franz Ferdinand, where I think they're decent enough groups, and have absolutely no interest in ever listening to them. Weird. This is a nice song, though.
    
11. The Monkees "No Time" Regardless if they played their instruments or not, The Monkees had a halfway decent catalog of songs, but that goddamn show of theirs overshadows any of that. Like "Porpoise Song." That's a nice trippy slice o' psyche.
    
12. Mark Lanegan "Clear Spot" Jim and I both went to Central Washington University in Ellensburg, WA, home of The Screaming Trees. At the time, they had just released their first LP, Clairvoyance, produced by one of my oft-mentioned idols, Steve Fisk, who was also local at the time, working out of his Velvetone Studios. Steve invited me over once to see the studio and played me a bunch of source material from his masterpiece, 448 Deathless Days. I was ga-ga like a little girl at her sweet sixteen. Anyway, our good friend Jena, (who was also The Bad Days first drummer) and Mark, singer for the Screaming Trees, were very much in love at the time. She's even mentioned by name in one song, and is in the thanks yous for at least the first three albums. Jim was always a big fan of the Screaming Trees and of Mark's solo work. You can't tell on this song so much, but Mark has one great damn voice.
    
13. The Catheters "Pale Horse" These guys played once under the name "The Cat Heaters." That is funny.
    
14. The Raspberries "Overnight Sensation" Is it my imagination, or does this remind you of Journey playing a Beach Boys song too?

Seriously, Feel My Rock

Due to my seemingly endless string of technological roadblocks (latest target: Roxio, who decided to remove the basic features I used to enjoy on their previous releases with their new, "improved" Creator 9 software. WTF's up with that, Roxi?), I have not been able to post any podcasts recently. Well, I've finally leapt that last hurdle and will be posting three (count 'em, three!) podcasts soon. There is one new original mix and two really stellar birthday mixes from this year and last by my dear friend Jim. The fun thing about these mixes is the lead tracks on each mix are birthday songs addressed to me by The Johnny Depth, Jim's nom de home recording (mine being Linoleum Blownapart, and occasionally Nick Scrape). They're great, and I'm sure you'll like them.

I should have the next podcast up tomorrow. Stay tuned!

Shake It Like A Baby

First I start a blog, now I got a podcast. What's next? Home videos on YouTube? Not likely.

You can check out my podcast over here at linoleumblownapart.podomatic.com. I was inspired by my friend Scott, whose podcasts can be heard over here at babyfeet.podomatic.com. As a music junkie, I've been thinking for awhile I'd like to do a What I'm Listening To list, but that seemed weak and uninteresting. But, a podcast/ mix-tape? OK, now we're on to something.

Just to get my feet wet, I uploaded a mix I made in August for my buddy Jim's birthday. Aside from the birthday song I performed and recorded for him, I thought it was one of my better mixes. So, sans birthday song, I elected to share that with the greater public as podcast #1. The track list is as follows:

1. New Fangs - "Paper Skulls" from their debut, Bayonets. The guitarist, Dave, and bassist, Karlis, are both veterans of local bands The Blow Up and Tractor Sex Fatality. I like TSF, but boy howdy were The Blow Up great. Find and purchase True Noise. Karlis was an old buddy of mine from college, but we haven't talked in ages. You out there, Karlis?
2. Go-Betweens - "Lee Remick" I think this is their first single. I got turned on to these guys after hearing The Wedding Present's cover of the their beautiful song "Cattle and Cane."
3. Suicide - "Fast Money Music" off Suicide's second album. God, I love these guys!
   
4. DJ Frenchbloke and Son - "Sexy Model" A mash-up of Kraftwerk's "The Model" and Right Said Fred's "I'm Too Sexy". Nice.
5. Cheap Trick - "He's A Whore" Bonus points for those of you who know why this song is here. And no, it has nothing to do with the title.
6. Unnatural Helpers - "Your Way Back Down" from The Funhouse Comp Thing. There's at least one guy, the singer/ drummer, from Popular Shapes. If you don't have Popular Shapes' Bikini Style, go get it. While you're there, pick up anything by The Intelligence, especially Boredom & Terror on vinyl, because you get a bonus CD with more music. A couple guys from Popular Shapes now play in that band. Then snag anything by A-Frames and get The Dipers album. Both feature Lars, who is basically The Intelligence. That's a good start. Go ahead, go. I'll wait.
7. Stephin Merritt - "Ukele Me!" Merritt is the man behind The Magnetic Fields, Future Bible Heroes, The Gothic Archies, and The 6ths. This track is one of two songs here from his "Showtunes" album, a collection of music he penned for three different theatre productions and performed by the casts.
8. Delta 5 - "Mind Your Own Business"
9. E.S.G. - "My Love For You" The Dirtbombs did a bang-up cover of this tune.
10. Puffy Amiyumi - "Can-Nana Fever" from the Guitar Wolf tribute album, I Love Guitar Wolf...Very Much. Guitar Wolf song with an accordion solo? I'm in.
11. The Wedding Present - "Shivers" A B-side from The Wedding Present's recent work with Steve Fisk. Fisk's 448 Deathless Days is one of the best records ever made. This is the second of two tracks the Weddoes did using Steve's Optigan. "Spangle" off their other Fisk-produced and out-of-print record, Watusi, was the first.
12. Peter Gabriel - "The Book Of Love" A Magnetic Fields song. Taken from the (gag) "Shall We Dance" soundtrack. My wife and I had the lyrics to this song read at our wedding. Awww.
13. Stephin Merritt - "What A Fucking Lovely Day!"
14. The Country Teasers - "Please Ban Music/ Gegen Alles" What a fantastic band! This is off their latest, The Empire Strikes Back.
15. The Fiery Furnaces - "I'm Leaving" from the Sunday Nights: The Songs of Junior Kimbrough tribute album.
16. Optiganally Yours - "Empire State Human" More Optigan magic. This is from the Reproductions: Songs of the Human League album (which I think Stephin Merritt put together). I'll post this group's outrageously good cover of OMD's "Genetic Engineering" in a future podcast.
17. Beck - "Everbody's Gotta Learn Sometime" I still have the Korgis' single of this song I bought when it came out in the 70's. I was thrilled when I heard Beck's cover of it at the end of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, more than anything because someone else had heard of it. I'll post the original later.
18. Duran Duran - "The Chauffeur" I'm not a fan of Duran Duran. I like Japan much better, whose music and hairstyles (!) Duran Duran clearly ripped off. But this song is a stand out from their album, Rio. Sexy, lush, and super creepy. I love it.