To Back-Up or Not?? "Quitters Raga" & "Take That"

Here's 2 videos I just found this morning, and I'm pretty sure they're both fucking stupidly awesome, but I'm not 100% sure just yet... What I'm loving about both is I'm pretty sure they were both highly influenced by drug experimentation... (perhaps try watching the videos first before reading my reviews... I wouldn't want to skew anyone's opinion prior to their first viewing of these...)

First up is "Quitters Raga" by Gold Panda. Imagine the weirdest song from Aphex Twin's Richard D James LP getting remixed by Animal Collective and licensed for a 2-minute commercial for Urban Outfitters (or American Apparel, whatever..). There's far too many "cute" or "good-looking" "indie-rock" kids in this video for me to outright initially express love... But somehow the precise amount of weirdness matches in both song and video.



And next up is "Take That" by Wiley & Chew Fu which has the craziest intro for a single I've heard in a long time.. on the verge of matching the insanity of the most abrasive singles from Alec Empire (and oddly enough one of the chicks in this video KINDA looks like the girl from Atari Teenage Riot). The only possibly turn-off about this song is that it's almost all intensity build-up, and I think less than half of this is actually the "song" part. The video is a simple enough concept, but the craaaazy nature of "Take That" somehow makes Wiley's 2 girlfriends look like how club girls look after dropping acid.

OMG WHY THEY JEANS SO TIGHT??!

NEW PILL VIDEO!! "Hear Somebody Comin'"

Record Store Day

http://pitchfork.com/news/38480-the-pitchfork-guide-to-record-store-day-2010/

If I didn't have to work all day, here's what I would have searched for at Record Store Day...

1. Sonic Youth's EVOL (being reissued tomorrow)
   
2. of Montreal "Subtext Read" (new song being released on 7-inch vinyl)
   
3. Rolling Stones "Plundered My Soul" (unreleased song from 1971 on 7-inch vinyl)

Hm.. I assumed there'd be more cool stuff to search for... But I do know the new Beak> song is being released on vinyl today also.. which is probably in my 5 favorite songs of 2010 so far. It's called "Wulfstan" and you can stream it at Beak>'s myspace. And hey, lookit that.. Beak> is actually appearing at some record store in the UK tomorrow in celebration.

I also thought this was kind of interesting...

The first 100 people who visit Hospital Productions, the noise store owned by Dominick Fernow of Prurient and Cold Cave, will be invited to record their own one-minute noise cassettes.

Noise fucking wins. There's nothing more DIY or punk in the whole world right now.

"Beeswax"

I found a really good quality recording of the song posted below, which I actually like better than the Incesticide version. I had to look this one up... They played in Argentina for 50,000 people, which was one of the largest shows Cobain ever agreed to.. At one point, the crowd got angry as fuck after they were teased with the intro of "Teen Spirit" but never finished it. After being somewhat blown away by the audio of the performance, I was surprised by the contrast of its video, with Kurt's minimal movement, and visibly struggling to make it to the end.

R.I.P. Peter Steele

Type O Negative was a live experience unlike any other I've encountered, and they're likely the only band I've ever seen who encouraged the audience to boo and heckle. Peter Steele was normally quick to retaliate and mock the audience right back.. I'll probably never forget hearing him ranking on one specific audience member for an entire show, at one point calling out, in his baritone Brooklyn accent, "Hey, if I was as ugly as you, I'd be pissed off too," just before busting into the intro of "Kill All The White People." Here's our Youtube tribute to a very large dude...

Supergrass split up

Search their first 2 albums... They're one of the bands I wanted to see in concert the most when I was about 18 to 21 years old, but they so rarely played anywhere near where I live... I'd post more videos but A) embedding is disabled for literally all of them, and B) the great music on the first 2 albums is 100x better than the 8 or 9 videos produced to help promote them.. (their videos generally suck, except for "Pumping On Your Stereo").

Bieber & Timbo

http://lesbianswholooklikejustinbieber.tumblr.com/

While 2009 was one of the most unexpected high points in the past 5 years of pop music, it still remains a year in which the U.S. singles charts were dominated by 2 Black Eyed Peas songs for over half of the year.. That's 2 songs by the same group, at #1 for over 6 months, neither of which have proven to be particularly rewarding listens, sounding just as bland with 6 months of hindsight as they did upon their radio debuts last summer. And this seems to be the trend of the moment for 2010's latest pop music: Complete lack of all substance. Bland hooks and performances with shimmering production and style.. All dressed up with nobody behind the wheel.

Of course, this is nothing that hasn't happened a million times over the past 50 years, except April 2010 seems to be one of those lulls in which there is truly nothing else on the radio besides this...

Timbaland's response to this trend shows him indulging his inevitable lowest-common-denominator approach, which was bound to happen anyway. However, this isn't simply a case of "jumping the shark..." Less than 4 years ago, FutureSex/LoveSounds was one of the best albums of the decade. And now he appears to be completely out of his mind... Over the past few years, it seems he's put himself in the spotlight more so than between 1995 and 2005. Perhaps the persistent spotlight drove him to this... Here's 2 examples of his most recent video appearances.. looking badshit crazy in his Justin Timberlake collab, and strangely unable to remove his hands from his chin in the video with Katy Perry..

This is probably more like crashing straight into the shark than jumping over it, with shark guts flying everywhere...

WXCI Playlist 4-5-10

I don't usually do this, but I'm pretty sure I just spun one of the best radio shifts I've done in a long time, and I wanted to post the playlist in celebration...

7:00
Nirvana "Hairspray Queen"
Nirvana "Serve The Servants"
Happy Birthday "2 Shy"
Japandroids "Art Czars"
The Cure "Friday I'm In Love"
Kris Kross "Warm It Up"
Marky Mark & The Funky Bunch "Music For The People"
Devo "Fresh"
Prince "If I Was Your Girlfriend"
Prince "I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man"
Prince "U Got The Look"
Nine Inch Nails "March Of The Pigs"
Daniel Johnston "Casper The Friendly Ghost"
MGMT "Flash Delirium"
Trail Of Dead "Relative Ways"

8:00
Kraftwerk "Computer World"
Kraftwerk "Pocket Calculator"
High On Fire "Frost Hammer"
Pantera "Mouth For War"
Deftones "Rocket Skates"
Run DMC "Peter Piper"
Run DMC "It's Tricky"
Run DMC "My Adidas"
Lil Wayne f/ Babyface "Comfortable"
Bel Biv Devoe "Gangsta"
Nirvana "Oh The Guilt"
Nirvana "Turnaround"
Nirvana "Dive (Live)"

9:00
Happy Birthday "Subliminal Message"
Duran Duran "Ordinary World"
Cowboy Junkies "Sweet Jane"
Motorhead "No Voices In The Sky"
The Replacements "Bastards Of Young"
Suicidal Tendencies "Institutionalized"
Beastie Boys "Posse In Effect"
Beastie Boys "Hold It Now, Hit It"

I was not allowed time to play Depeche Mode "I Feel You" or 2Pac "Death Around The Corner" but those will be saved for next week. Taste My Kids encourages listening on Mondays between 7:00 and 9:30 at http://www.wxci.org.

90's Guilty Pleasures: Complete List

We finally made it. Your support matters. Rock the vote, and Clinton in '96. Unless Gerry Brown runs again. Honorable mentions coming soon...

60. Jesus Jones "Right Here Right Now" (1991) / EMF "Unbelievable" (1991)
59. Soul Asylum "Somebody To Shove" (1992)
58. The New Radicals "You Get What You Give" (1998)
57. Whitney Houston "I'm Your Baby Tonight" (1990)
56. Ben Folds Five "Brick" (1997)
55. Quad City DJ's "C'Mon And Ride It (The Train)" (1996)
54. Marilyn Manson "Sweet Dreams" (1996)
53. Eve 6 "Inside Out" (1998) / Eve 6 "Leech" (1998)
52. Janet Jackson "Escapade" (1990) / Janet Jackson "Come Back To Me" (1990)
51. Toad The Wet Sprocket "All I Want" (1992)
50. Positive K "I Got A Man" (1993)
49. Len "Steal My Sunshine" (1999)
48. The Wallflowers "Sixth Avenue Heartache" (1996)
47. TLC "Baby Baby Baby" (1992) / TLC "Red Light Special" (1995)
46. The Presidents Of The United States Of America "Peaches" (1996)
45. Silverchair "Ana's Song (Open Fire)" (1999)
44. Michael Jackson "Stranger In Moscow" (1996)
43. Aerosmith "What It Takes" (1991)
42. Nada Surf "Popular" (1996)
41. Montell Jordan "Get It On Tonite" (1999)
40. Metallica "Hero Of The Day" (1996)
39. M.C. Hammer "U Can't Touch This" (1990)
38. Prince & The New Power Generation "Diamonds And Pearls" (1991) / "Money Don't Matter 2 Night" (1992) / "7" (1992)
37. Crash Test Dummies "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm" (1994)
36. Seal "Kiss From A Rose" (1995)
35. U2 "Lemon" (1993)
34. Lisa Loeb & Nine Stories "Stay (I Missed You)" (1994)
33. Jordan Knight "Give It To You" (1999)
32. Green Jelly "Three Little Pigs" (1993)
31. K-Ci & JoJo "All My Life" (1998)
30. Sugar Ray "Someday" (1999)
29. The Flaming Lips "She Don't Use Jelly" (1993)
28. Boyz II Men "Motownphilly" (1991)
27. Keith Sweat "Nobody" (1996) / Dru Hill "In My Bed" (1997)
26. Sophie B. Hawkins "Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover" (1992)
25. P.M. Dawn "I'd Die Without You" (1992)
24. Marcy Playground "Sex And Candy" (1997) / The Flys "Got You (Where I Want You)" (1998)
23. Soul For Real "Candy Rain" (1995) / Next "Too Close" (1998)
22. Powerman 5000 "When Worlds Collide" (1999)
21. Del Amitri "Roll To Me" (1995)
20. Bush "Everything Zen" (1995) / Bush "Greedy Fly" (1997)
19. Mariah Carey "All I Want For Christmas Is You" (1994)
18. Mark Morrison "Return Of The Mack" (1996)
17. Chris Isaak "Wicked Game" (1990)
16. Groove Theory "Tell Me" (1995)
15. Third Eye Blind "Never Let You Go" (1999)
14. Sting "If I Ever Lose My Faith In You" (1993)
13. Phish "Down With Disease" (1994)
12. LFO (Lyte Funky Ones) "Summer Girls" (1999)
11. George Michael "Freedom '90" (1990)
10. Van Halen "Poundcake" (1991)
9. Usher "You Make Me Wanna" (1997)
8. Londonbeat "I've Been Thinking About You" (1991)
7. S.W.V. "Right Here/Human Nature" (1993)
6. Queensryche "Silent Lucidity" (1991)
5. Limp Bizkit "Nookie" (1999)
4. Ghost Town DJ's "My Boo" (1996)
3. Stroke 9 "Little Black Backpack" (1999)
2. Marky Mark & The Funky Bunch "Wildside" (1991)
1. Mr. Big "To Be With You" (1992)

90's Guilty Pleasures #1: Mr. Big "To Be With You" (1992)

Its various inconsistencies and contradictions have proven this to be one of those rare phenomenon among the pop radio canon. Elements that normally never come together in the correct manner somehow are perfectly aligned in this context. In an effort to keep this concise, we'll be listing these reasons individually...

1. The vocal performance: Outstandingly irritating, and yet somehow it completely works within this context. The delivery of "Stand up little girl" is especially lol-tastic, and yet so on-point...

2. The lyrics: Not particularly memorable on their own, but somehow the irritating vocal performance helps them to become outstandingly memorable. Upon this song's peak in popularity, I knew all the words despite never owning a physical copy. How does this happen?

3. The guitar solo: Halfway through the song, we reach a completely inane and hilarious moment, similar in style to the closing credits of The Wonder Years, which featured an annoying-as-fuck acoustic-guitar version of "With A Little Help From My Friends." On The Wonder Years, it was simply annoying. But in "To Be With You," it's both annoying and funny, and yet somehow even THIS even gets turned around within the context of Mr. Big's arrangement. The question returns: How does this happen??

4. Handclaps: One of the key factors of its arrangement is the whole no-drums thing. "Handclaps = fun" is one of those equations that's not incredibly difficult to disprove, but anyone who would want to probably hates fun to begin with.

5. Its success probably had a lot to do with Extreme's "More Than Words," and similar acoustic ballads of the era (listed earlier in the "Silent Lucidity" entry). However, "To Be With You" is mid-tempo, and not necessarily a ballad. It's hard to say where this fit on pop radio, but this was certainly the last #1 single of its type, and possibly even the last charting song that had anything to do with hair metal. The 80's hair "Monster Ballad" category deserved a song like this to cap things off. It was a poppy, singalong-style one-hit-wonder - very fun, and not to be taken seriously - which is exactly what hair metal deserved.

The lipsynch is off for this video... Bummer.

90's Guilty Pleasures #2: Marky Mark & The Funky Bunch "Wildside" (1991)

In his signature song "Good Vibrations," Marky Mark extends a shout-out: "Donnie D's on the backup." I always had a suspicion this was referring to Donnie Wahlberg. After reading into this, I was impressed upon learning that Donnie actually produced the album Music For The People, going by the pseudonym Donnie D, which explains a lot. For whatever reason, Mark and Donnie have since disowned this period of their showbiz careers, and I've never been exactly sure why. Considering the context, it's not bad (especially the production).

"Wildside" is Marky Mark's significantly less-heralded 2nd most popular song, sampling Lou Reed (less than a year after Tribe's "Can I Kick It") which happens to perfectly accompany the tone Mark is striving for. If only his rhymes weren't so endearingly hilarious, tackling hard "street" issues such as drugs and gang violence, but with the poignancy and flow of an 18-year-old white dude from Boston...

Money, before you know it he's a rich man / Gold on every finger of his hand
A brand new BMW, a condo / Ron ended up a John Doe

The whole plot was an insurance scam / Charles and his brother came up with a plan
Kill Carol, collect the big checks / Blame it on the black man, What the heck!

Donnie's production also inserts a slight key-change between the verses and choruses, a pleasingly unexpected element considering the source. I'm actually considering giving this album a complete listen at some point very soon, not only for extreme ironic lols, but also for extreme musical enjoyment. Music For The People may be one of the rare cases when these two areas intersect so nicely.

90's Guilty Pleasures #3: Stroke 9 "Little Black Backpack" (1999)

A certain level of freshness and excitement was pushed into mainstream music upon the breakthrough of bands like Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Beck, Green Day, Oasis, Weezer, and dozens more who gave "underground music" fans an overwhelming sensation that "we've won," albeit temporarily. If the big labels were ever masters of anything, it's how to spoil a great thing. By the end of the decade, the corporates did their best to weaken this excitement, in the interest of keeping themselves in control, and keeping listeners away from those wacky indie-labels. This opened up some doors for alt-rock marketing, searching for bands who could easily crossover onto Top 40 and Adult-Oriented Radio (AOR), and lessening listener standards to the lowest common denominator. Matchbox 20, 3 Doors Down and Train weren't necessarily shitty bands; they just sounded completely out of place on the same stations playing A Perfect Circle, At.The.Drive.In and Queens Of The Stone Age. This is ultimately what killed modern rock radio.

The Silver Lining: Practically every mainstream radio trend, no matter how mundane, produced a few outstanding singles. In the case of late-90's/early-00's AOR, "Little Black Backpack" is that shining moment, mostly thanks to its contagiously catchy punch and impenetrable darkness. Lyrical allusions such as "up-smack" and "Your mind is lined with layers of lead" suggest drugs playing a big part in its narrative. But its most obvious layer of darkness is that of extreme violence: "I think I'm gonna bash his head in," and the image of a "bloody" backpack. Radio listeners didn't seem to mind; around the same time, Eminem was releasing songs like "Stan" and "Kim," so violent lyrics seemed to be within the norm of the moment.

Its structuring is also noteworthy, with 2 "monster ballad" verses of heartbreak giving way to a huge pre-chorus build, leading into the angry, up-tempo major-key chorus. Heartbreak and anger then congeal for a strong bridge and solo section. Stroke 9 were formed out of a "rock band" college course, and have stuck together for the past 20 years, so they had time to tweak and strengthen their formulaic songwriting just in time for this AOR giant to be ripe for heavy airplay.

90's Guilty Pleasures #4: Ghost Town DJ's "My Boo" (1996)

Before 2-step, before UK Garage, before M.I.A., there was... that weird R&B sub-genre with drums that sampled Kraftwerk (or used very similar electro-beats), which is possibly called "bass music R&B," or "booty bass." In 2006, Yo Majesty made a dent in the undergroup hiphop landscape by adding huge helpings of raunch to this combination. However, back in the mid-90's, the appeal of this sub-genre's most popular songs lie within their innocence, such as INOJ's "Love You Down," KP & Envyi's "Shawty Swing My Way," and especially the Mack Daddy of them all, the understated 90's classic "My Boo." There's definitely something distinctively "classic 90's" about a song whose drums are encouraging grind-dancing, but whose innocent lyrics, playful keyboards, and simplistic vocal melody paint images of 7th graders dreaming about their crushes while they're supposed to be workin' on their studies.

I've never seen this video before, but upon my first viewing, it's not exactly matching up with what I had envisioned earlier... But pool parties are fun too. Whatever. And hey... at 1:40.. is that Jermaine Dupri again?? Making his 2nd appearance in the Top 10??? Right on, Jermaine is clearly the master of the 90's guilty pleasure... (Unfortunately this shortened "video edit" doesn't do the song as much justice as the full version, available here..)


INOJ "Love You Down" (1997) Youtube

KP & Envyi "Shawty Swing My Way" (1997) Youtube

Freak Nasty "Da Dip" (1997) Youtube

90's Guilty Pleasures #5: Limp Bizkit "Nookie" (1999)

This entry was originally supposed to be for "Re-Arranged," because of its decent bassline. "Break Stuff" was also considered for similar reasons to why "Nookie" ended up winning, but from what I can tell, "Nookie" is more embarrassing simply based on its TERRIBLE refrain.. specifically rhyming "nookie" with "cookie." Jesus...

Since their breakthrough, The Durst has remained one of modern rock's most compelling fixtures, as most view him as a complete jerk with a terrible singing voice, advocating misogyny and creating music with a specific niche in mind, that being music for SUV-driving meatheads. His extreme "jerk superstar" status places him on a shortlist of celebs alongside Axl Rose, P Diddy, Eminem and Dr. Dre. As a songwriter, his pop tenancies helped to give a bad name for the term "rap-metal," essentially creating a mockery of early 90's classics such as Public Enemy & Anthrax's "Bring The Noise" collaboration, Faith No More's "Epic," and Rage Against The Machine's first album.

The singles were also incredibly hooky & poppy party nu-metal, with various guitar-weirdness thanks to Wes Borland helping to keep things interesting.. And the guitar parts in "Nookie" are no exception. And in the tradition of Vanilla Ice, so-bad-its-good rapping on a hit single is pretty much the definition of fun.. although that should be "fun" in quotes, signifying some hardcore irony.

Try and pause the video on Wes Borland's face at 2:08.. Definitely the best part...


Limp Bizkit "Re-Arranged" (1999) Youtube

Limp Bizkit "Break Stuff" (1999) Youtube

Happy Fools Day America

Adult Swim played The Room last night in celebration of April Fools Day which is one of the most amazingly incredibly terrible movies I've ever seen in my life. (Technically I only watched about 30 minutes of it, but I'm pretty sure I got the jist.)

Speaking of "jist," April Fools Day is normally the day when Taste My Kids posts something about "Mister Jizz," because back in like 2001 or 2002, I thought it would be a funny joke to report that Mister Glue had changed its name to Mister Jizz, and then right afterward report that this was not an April Fools joke. Upon every passing year, I exponentially "get" the joke far less than the year before, and yet I still receive the urge to reference it in some form every year on April 1st. So there ya go.. I filled my quota.

I'm supposed to be at work but I'm using 2 hours of vacation time to enjoy the sunshine and write 150 words about Limp Bizkit, which I'm gonna do right now...