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Michael Bennett writes

iPod/MP3 Friday Shuffle — Happy Birthday Tyra Banks Edition

Let’s give it up for the supermodel who’s become a super talk show mogul. The one and only Tyra Banks. In honor of the woman who will pull almost any stunt to get people to watch her show (as the accompanying picture shows), you go girls (and boys) and get your iPod/MP3 player, hit shuffle and share the first 10 tunes that come up.

  1. Guided By Voices — The Official Ironmen Rally Song (Under The Bushes, Under The Stars): Sure, Robert Pollard has released way too much material, but boy, he certainly had a ton of great songs. This majestic mid-tempo song, which was also released as a single, is nearly up there with GBV classics like “Motor Away” in the hierarchy of Mid-Fi Arena Rock Classics.
  2. Queen — Killer Queen (Sheer Heart Attack): This was the song that broke Queen big as a pop act. They had devoted a lot of their first two albums to being a poofier, sleeker alternative to Led Zeppelin, with some success. But this led them to being one of the biggest bands in the world. On this playful pop number, Queen shows off the influence of Roxy Music and Sparks, but the campy flash and high energy is just dialed down a little bit.
  3. The Hives — Main Offender (Veni Vidi Vicious): The Hives aren’t the best garage band around, but they are really good and very few bands have as much flair or personality. This song sounds like the New York Dolls meet The Move, and that’s fine with me.
  4. The Young Nashvillians — Follow That Girl (The Sad Smiles Of The Young Nashvillians): A second appearance from this rag tag group of college students from, you guessed it, Nashville, who recorded in the mid-‘80s. This is one of their later recordings, as evidenced by the polished. This is goofy retro pop, with a prominent Farfisa organ and alternatively scratchy and twangy guitars in the vein of early XTC and The B-52s.
  5. Sagittarius — Artificial Light (Of All The Living Lies) (Present Tense): This ’60s studio band was the brainchild of Gary Usher, who co-wrote songs with Brian Wilson and produced The Byrds and Simon & Garfunkel. He collaborated on this awesome psychedelic soft pop effort with Curt Boettcher. The result is something akin to The Free Design, The Association and The Beach Boys, but with unique dense arrangements, and a general trippier vibe. Listening to the myriad instruments on headphones, perfectly placed in the mix, is a real treat.
  6. The Hollies — You Need Love (Evolution): This is a proto-power pop number from one of the underrated bands of the ’60s. They may have been the best harmony vocalists of all of the British Invasion, with Graham Nash always stacked on top with an angelic voice. If you are in a power pop band, and have some good singers, cover this number. You’ll be glad you did.
  7. The Rolling Stones — Lies (Some Girls): I’d rather listen to Some Girls than Exile On Main Street. On Some Girls, the band established a new type of groove that carried them for about five or six years until it was impossible to stop the rot. This is not one of the stellar tracks from this album, but it still sounds good. Charlie Watts effortlessly taps out a beat that is metronomic, and yet it still swings, while Ron Wood and Keith Richards just fill the track with cool blues guitar tomfoolery.
  8. The dB’s — Working For Somebody Else (The Sound Of Music): Peter Holsapple has such a great hangdog voice and it is perfect for this bitch session about having to have a job. After all, as someone smarter than me once asked, if work is so great, why do they have to pay you to do it? This song has a wobbly R & B foundation, while Holsapple’s melody pushes him near the top of his range. There’s lots of great guitar business going on here, but this song would work if it were just Peter on an acoustic.
  9. The Merry-Go-Round — On Your Way Out (The Merry-Go-Round): This ’60s band was led by Emmit Rhodes, who went on to become a cult figure in pop/power pop circles for McCartney-esque solo albums. On this band’s sole LP, Rhodes showed proficiency for melodic folk-rock in the vein of The Byrds and The Youngbloods. I think there is a best of for these guys, and Rhodes was a really good songwriter, so if you like this sort of stuff, look for the compilation.
  10. Myracle Brah — Hearts On Fire (Plate Spinner): What started as a side project for Baltimore’s Andy Bopp (of Love Nut) became a favorite of the power pop underground in the late ’90s/early ’00s. Bopp mastered the canon of The Beatles, Badfinger and Cheap Trick, and then created bittersweet gems by the fistful. He’s vacillated from more classically retro material and attempts to take power pop into more contemporary directions without losing its roots. He did that latter thing quite well on Plate Spinner, which had creative production and compositions and arrangements that connected dots. This sounds like Paul McCartney fronting Radiohead in an “Eleanor Rigby”-“Karma Police” mash up. Great tune.

Posted on December 4, 2009 • Permalink • 6 Comments

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Mike Gibson, on Dec 4, 10:37 AM, wrote:

Ugh, between trying to get up to speed at work, pre-post some more CHIRP best of lists, avoiding the CEO and getting properly caffeinated, today’s been a real “treat”. No worries, it’s Friday, so that means there’s be music going all day.

1. Navel – Wish (Depend)
This makes me happy as the original version of this was on a split 7” that I released back when i was still doing my record label. Still my favorite record as it saw me finally putting out something from two of my favorite bands from Japan. This newly recorded version smokes though.

2. Pedro The Lion – Song A [Shut Up] (Sub Pop Singles Club Single)
The worst thing Pedro The Lion ever did was leave the bedroom and go to a “proper” recording studio.

3. Yaphet Kotto – Syncopated Synthetic (Syncopated Synthetic Laments for Love)
My favorite band ever to release something on Ebullition Records, a label that did quite a bit for my musical development. This album is the textbook example of West Coast emotional hardcore.

4. North Lincoln – White River Blood River (Viaje EP)
An early track from this Florida punk band that is breaking up next month. Sad that I never got to see them play.

5. F.Y.P. – Diseases (Toys That Kill)
This is from the last F.Y.P. CD and it shows that their time had come to an end, but the Dance My Dunce album is still one of the most spazztic, childish, smile inducing records in existence.

6. Torche – Hellion (In Return)
I finally got around to listening to Torche this summer when I saw them play with Young Widows the Saturday of P4K fest at Subterranean. Damn were they awesome. I missed out on lots of fine listening hours.

7. Piebald – Grace Kelly With Wings (If It Weren’t For Venetian Blinds It’d Be Curtains For Us All)
Piebald went through three distinct phases. The first was their hardcore phase, which I loved, but most of my friends didn’t get into. Then, with this album, they entered their pop phase which lasted a few albums and cemented them as one of the best of the early-2000’s “pop-emo” scene. Whatevs. It’s pop, get over it. But the first time I heard this song, fuck yeah I was hooked.I won’t even talk about what happened to them at the end of their run. Horrendous.

8. Jawbox – Low Strung (My Scrapbook of Fatal Accidents)
More J. Robbins today, yes please. Fuck this song smokes.

9. Banner Pilot – Skeleton Key (Collapser)
This made Chris Siuty’s best of the year list. I’m about a week away from deleting it from my iPod. But, this did fit in nicely to the mix.

10. The Changes – No One Needs To know (Florida)
Darren from the Changes used to try to cheat off me in high school math. True story.

OK, meetings, lunch, work, pizza, rock band, sleep. Yay Fridays!!!

Billy Kalb, on Dec 4, 11:36 AM, wrote:

1) Public Enemy — “Incident at 66.6 FM” (Fear of a Black Planet): Twenty years on, it’s interesting to look at just how feared and vilified hip hop groups like Public Enemy were in their day. Sure, Chuck D was and is a force you wouldn’t want to mess with, but today it all seems kind of… well, almost wholesome? Way to overreact, America.

2) Bob Dylan — “Baby, Let Me Follow You Down” (s/t): I can’t get over how baby-faced and innocent Robert Zimmerman looks on the cover of his debut record. Clearly, he hadn’t tried drugs yet.

3) Johnny Cash — “Don’t Take Your Guns to Town” (The Essential Johnny Cash): Good advice for anyone. Next time you watch a Western, if you’ll notice, it’s always the guys with guns who are getting shot. It’s like an invitation for other people to pick a fight with you.

4) Best Fwends — “Zwzzt” (Alphabetically Arranged): I have absolutely no idea what to make of these guys, they’re so all over the place. However, the track list IS alphabetically arranged, so that deserves some credit. Naturally, this one comes near the end.

5) Deerhunter — “Heatherwood” (Cryptograms): I like Bradford Cox’s music, whether with Deerhunter or as Atlas Sound, and I recognize its appeal. I am still waiting, however, for it to knock my socks off the way it seems to do for others.

6) Talking Heads — “Heaven” (The Name of This Band Is Talking Heads): Superior to Stop Making Sense in just about every way, especially now that it’s been expanded to a two-disc set. The essential live Heads comp, and a sneaky clarification on the band’s name: there’s no “the” in front of “Talking,” folks.

7) New Young Pony Club — “The Bomb” (Fantastic Playroom): Late-to-the-party post-punk / dance rock that absolutely kills. I figured they’d blow up after licensing “Ice Cream” for that Intel commercial, but they never really took off. It’s too bad.

8) Clap Your Hands Say Yeah — “Upon Encountering the Crippled Elephant” (Some Loud Thunder): The second record was nowhere near as good as the first. This interlude, a needless, tossed-off bit of waltzy accordian, is one of the reasons why.

9) Billie Holiday — “Lover Man (Oh, Where Can You Be?)” (The Definitive Collection): Practically perfect in every way.

10) Caribou — “Bees” (The Milk of Human Kindness): A groovy guitar strut in the “Green Onions” mold, climaxing with some frantic jazz drumming and psyched-out swirls. Dan Snaith’s third record plays around with rhythmic concepts a lot more than the other three do, from krautrock to hip hop to chitlin-circuit R&B, which might be why it’s my favorite of his.

DJ Bylamplight, on Dec 4, 11:53 AM, wrote:

1. Funki Porcini — Poseathon
This is off of Hed Phone Sex which is a pretty cool early 90s trip hop album and I found the CD for $1 not too long ago.

2. The Beatles — Rain
Beatles remasters! These just prove how amazing the Abbey Road engineers are. In fact they may be some of the best audio engineers in the world.

3. Shuggie Otis — XL-30
This is a mix from my friend Brad Loving’s website http://birdandwhale.com/ He still hasn’t gotten an RSS feed so I always forget about it but the mixes are usually pretty great.

4. Common — Come Close
This is one of my favorite Common songs from his more “pop” sounding work.

5. SA-RA Creative Partners — Move Your Ass
I haven’t really been able to get into this album but I’m going to give it a few more tries.

6. Little Janice — Texas Woman
Powerful sister soul from the 70s

7. Lb — Be Near Me (Backup Read Error)
Le Pop Artificelle, aka Atom Heart! Superb early 00s album of electronic / Vocoders of classic rock songs.

8. Willie Nelson — How Long Is Forever
Oh, Willie

9. Cornelius — Fit Song (The Books Remix – “Eat White Paint”)
From Gum, yet another amazing Cornelius piece of work.

10. Sam Prekop — Between Outside
Sam Prekop solo work is really great

11. Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings — Give Me A Chance
From Dap-Dippin’, the birth of a new Brooklyn funk scene

Mike Scales, on Dec 4, 12:06 PM, wrote:

Nothing like starting off a nice Friday shuffle with one of my all-time favorite stoner boogie bands at their boogiest! A pretty in-your-face (Magrudergrind!) shuffle in general cut nicely with some quality hiphop courtesy of anticon beatsmith Jel, young UK grime rapper Tinchy Stryder and two from ridiculously slept-on Cali emcee AWOL One (“Make” is one of my faves: “We make money, money doesn’t make us!”)

1. Clutch – Electric Worry
2. Fucked Up – Twice Born
3. Jel – Know You Don’t
4. Helmet – He Feels Bad
5. Tinchy Stryder – Stereotype (feat. Goldielocks)
6. AWOL One – Get You
7. Everytime I Die – Bored Stiff
8. Magrudergrind – Assimiliated Pollutants
9. Soundgarden – Rusty Cage
10. AWOL One – Make

Andy Weber, on Dec 4, 02:04 PM, wrote:

I am on a train in the wonderful city of Denver right now…. Here it goes….

1. Higher Learning – Sam Roberts
2. Room 29 – Something Happnens
3. Just Like Us – The Connells
4. Convalescing In Spain – The Judybats
5. Hate It Here – Wilco
6. She’s Leaving Home – The Beatles
7. Little Too Clean – Soul Asylum
8. Hootenanny – The Replacements
9. Fresh Country Jam (Live) – Duster Bennett
10. If You Want Blood – Matt Pond PA

Eric Sinclair, on Dec 5, 10:56 AM, wrote:

Actually created a day early, and posted a day late. There’s a maxim in there, someplace….

1. David Bowie – Waiting for the Man – Live in Santa Monica ’72

Given the era, a bit of an obvious choice for Bowie to cover, but well
acquitted in this beautifully recorded live set.

2. Camper Van Beethoven – Tina – Telephone Free Landslide Victory

Wow. Freshman Year all over again. Sandals. KANM.

3. Gnarls Barkley – Storm Coming – St Elsewhere

It’s summer again? But they said snow!

4. Alexkid – Luna (Full Moon Remixed) – Astor Piazzolla Remixed

I’m a sucker for that tango accordion.

5. Radiohead – Knives Out – Amnesiac

Given that yesterday the phrase Paranoid Android kept running around
my presence, this seems oddly appropriate.

6. Sufjian Stevens – Renford (for Yia Yia and Pappo) – Michigan

I’m glad for Sufjian that he’s decided he shouldn’t pursue jokes, but
MI and IL are beautiful albums, and he should continue to mine the
importance of place to personal impressions.

7. Evolution Control Committee – Breakfast – Plagiarhythm Nation

One of his great pieces in the food series.

8. kno vs hov – Moment of Clarity – the white albulum

Remember when everyone was doing the Black Album turned different
colors? Dangermouse has a lot to answer for, but thankfully some of it
turned out to be pretty good. This piece is marred slightly by some
recording problems, but still comes across strong, mixing a nice vocal
loop with Jay’s bravado.

9. Silkworm – Parsons – In the West

Silkworm. I miss them, I miss the full sound. I’m glad for Bottomless
Pit, and I’m glad I have the recordings to get me through the tough
afternoons at high volume.

10. Yo La Tengo – Barnaby, Hardly Working – Genius + Love = Yo La Tengo

My wife refers to YLT shows and songs as either the somber/mellow, or the
Ira-banging-his-head-on-the-stage. This is the former, and lovely, and
classic.

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