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Saturday, August 30, 2008

When you are asked to make 135 CDs for someone..

you can't stop yourself from sharing it with your blog reader(s). So apologies, but yes, I will inflict upon you Ron Clark's President's Rap.

But since it's a non-partisan song and this was a very Partisan week, I feel a kind of duty to represent the opposing sides in our debates here in the US. While the Pup might squawk over any serious political banter on our blog (well, not really, since we all know I get away with pretty much anything I want here, hehehe) I did spend some quality time with the television and the Obamas, soaking up the love.
Queen Latifah might not have had politics in mind when she penned this song, but the title brought Barack's message to mind. Incidentally, this is the reason that some feminists embraced rap in the '80s. Artists like Queen Latifah took it back and allowed women to become a force in a scene that had only profited from their bodies instead of with their full talents.


U.N.I.T.Y. Queen Latifah: Black Reign buy it , go to her website
********************
Yes, I know that Sarah Palin (McCain's choice for V.P. for those of you out of the U.S. news loop) is not actually from Anchorage, but it's the only Alaska song I've got, ok! And, uh... no comment on that whole affair, I'll leave it to the political bloggers to dissect (hint, hint, if you want a great left wing analysis of politics of this country go over to the Huffington Post) we'll stick to music and an occasional political jab here and there on these pages ;)

I certainly wouldn't mention here how much that button looks like a Harry Potter book ad as I imagine it 30 years from now (minus the White House, of course), Harry old and grey, owl-less, musing over old spells. He poses with some sprightly new wizard just flown in from somewhere and ready to take over the school, awaiting the new budding genius, by his side! I would never think to pollute this blog with my musings over how much McCain appears to be trying to remember who that crazed, smiling hockey-mom is next to him and if he has to maybe explain her to his wife, no I wouldn't want to talk about that here. We'll simply stick to music, thank you very much. But just in case, I am kinda curious if any of you also think that perhaps he's wondering if she's from Czechoslovakia? That's pretty close to Alaska, no?

If anyone, anyone at all (!) has info on where this song comes from, please leave me a comment. I got it from an organized friend who never labels his mp3's properly. So yes, it's an acoustic version and no, I've googled and not found any single or album listing for it. Perhaps its a U.K. release? Edit: Thanks to DavyH, I've identified and re-tagged this track correctly :)


Anchorage mp3 Michelle Shocked

And the reason for this horrid post .... Apparently school children learn things if they can sing them, and children these days do not sing. They only rap. That's just one more reason we need drastic and mandatory steps right now towards re-education camps (oh, alright, that's a joke!). But, honest to god, I am making 135 CDs to be checked out of a teacher's library so that the little monsters can take them home and memorize all the presidents of the U.S. from Washington to Bush II. I can't listen to the wretched song, but maybe someone out there will find it amusing. I've got to admit, this Ron Clark guy has amazing talent and is a fantastic educator. Other tracks on the album include: "The Essential 55" (his kind of rules of engagement), "Solar System Experience," and "Be Like King" (I'm assuming MLK).

The President's Rap mp3 Ron Clark The Essential Raps buy it , go to his website

Friday, August 29, 2008

Just close your eyes and listen....



cause this song is gooooooood, but the video is absolutely horrid. No, I mean, this is a much better band than that. I'm choosing to think they just made a really bad management decision here. Perhaps that also explains why I can't find any information on upcoming tour dates? Damn, I hate when I find a great band and then discover they've broken up. Fans, tell me it ain't so!

Described as lo-fi garage rock or even something reminiscent of early glam rock (their NYC origins?), Suffrajett is a powerful trio, fronted by Simi Sernaker who has a true rock-and-roll woman's voice. She's a violinist and the band features her on electric violin (!) Yeah it's another act that stems from the riot grrl days but there's obviously some positive sex power in this group and I give it a "hell yeah" vote of approval, for whatever that's worth to you :)

Closer mp3, Suffrajett: SXSW 2008 Showcasing Artists
Suffrajett's website
Suffrajett on MySpace
buy Suffrajett's Black Glitter, 2007

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Confessions Day, (Part Two: Wherein the Tart reveals the true nature of her dilettantism)

Well as my co-blogger Puppet Show last posted his confessions I guess with some behind the scenes arm twisting (oh kidding!) I'll oblige and do the same. It's true, when we were just becoming friends, I asked the Pup what his secret sins were in terms of music? What did he like to listen to that his friends would tease him for or that people generally wouldn't expect a guy like him to be into? I love knowing other people's secrets! It's interesting to know what the secrets are and also to think about what they're willing to really tell you. So here we go (and in the interest of keeping this "short") MY Top 5 musical skeleton confessions and why.


5. Tell Me Something Good mp3, Rufus: Rufus, 1973. Now once you get to know me, and especially if you realize my weirdo intra generational existence you'll understand this, but at first glance it seems odd. I'm 44, so technically I came of age in the late 70s, early 80s and was a bit young for the real age of funk music. But all my siblings were much older than me, and my brother was a huge influence on me, so Funk hit me hard. In my mind the best, most get-down-and-dance Funk is the early 70s, epitomized here by Rufus' Tell Me Something Good, with the wonderful Chaka Kahn on vocals and written by Stevie Wonder.




















4. Billy Bragg: The Peel Sessions, 1988(?). Ok, cultural whiplash, sorry! I'm obsessed with this man. It's almost shameful but I take comfort in the fact that I agree with most of his politics and his roots are in some fine punk music. So while he may have mellowed in our collective middle age, Bragg is still a great musician and an amazing lyricist. And no, he's never claimed to be a first rate vocalist so that just blows all my claims to what makes a great song, oh well! The Short Answer is so bittersweet, I love the story it tells and I love the way this version presents it so simply. Also kudos to the best opening line in any song ever! "Between Marx and Marzipan in the dictionary there was Mary..."

3.Light The Skies (Retrobyte's Classic Electrobounce Mix) mp3, Armin Van Buuren, A State Of Trance 2007 [CD1]: I was totally shocked at myself when I discovered trance music! Being an old flapper who gave up the club scene ages ago, I somehow missed all this. A friend gave me a mp3 track last year and said, what do you think of this? It was love at first listen. After hearing a lot more trance music (about 5G more!) Light The Skies is still my favorite track. (yeah, the first 20 secs or so are silent/quiet, sorry for that!)


2. Green Grass and High Tides mp3, The Outlaws: The Outlaws, 1975. Biography might help here (oh god, I'm hoping!), I spent the second half of my youth in the South, the deep South of the U.S.A., and well, we were barely removed from being hillbillies before that. So, whatever you want to call this song, be it Southern Rock, Country-Rock, or just Rock (which if you live in the South is what we called it), this is the quintessential song. Dual lead guitars, one on each stereo channel, and beautiful vocal harmonies make this a classic track of Americana. I remember hearing it on the radio a few times a day for years, they probably still play it down there. I can't help but hear this as "normal" music though I think it might sound weird to you indie fans out there.

1. The Sky is Crying mp3, Steveie Ray Vaughn and Double Trouble: The Sky Is Crying, 1990. How can I live in Chicago and not be a blues fan? I actually came to this city long ago, from the South and the transition was made so much easier because of the Blues. There's nothing like standing on the corner, waiting for a bus, in the cold and rainy early Sunday morning with Stevie Ray wailing out The Sky is Crying. Nothing like it.

It's all good stuff that I listen to, it's just not the kind of music that you might expect ;) Although as this blog takes shape, I'm beginning to realize that even I don't know what to expect on these pages!

P.S. Welcome Elbows readers :)

buy Rufus
buy Billy Bragg
buy State of Trance 2007
buy The Outlaws
buy Stevie Ray Vaughn

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

15 Years Is a Really Long Time And Yet No Time AT ALL!

August, 1993:
So yeah, that's the origins of a 15-year-and-counting collaboration, folks. To say I wooed her with music is an understatement. I downright tested her with tunes, like in that scene in Diner where Levinson has his character Steve subject Elise, his fiance, to a football quiz before the marriage. I trained my little Meatpocket to recognize my music, to trace the transition from punk to post-punk to grunge. I quizzed her on the difference between The Violent Femmes, The Ramones, and The Smiths. The poor little Madonna fan didn't have a chance, really.

But I had to know if she could tolerate and come to love it/me, ya see. Would she be welcome in my world? I'm not ashamed to name my insecurities, I worried about it! There were real barriers between us, like the barriers between men and women in Levinson's Diner.

And well, music was my litmus test. She came from a world where life looked pretty easy: a happy family, loads of opportunities, well-traveled, well-educated, well-bred. In a word, she has very upper-class tastes and she came by them honestly. Luckily my sweetie had a bit of a working-class fetish.

We drove for hours in the countryside at night, just listening to music -- my music. Cassette after cassette was popped into the car player. I threw all the raw, basic, hard-edged and meaningful stuff I had at the time, asking with false bravado if she was sure she didn't mind the volume being up so high. Within a few days a mixtape appeared on my doorstep, love songs: Bonnie Raitt, Sweet Honey In The Rock, Aretha Franklin, Queen Latifa, Billy Holiday, Simon and Garfunkle, etc. Over the years, I learned to soften the edges on my soul with her love and her music, to let people in quicker, and deeper. She learned to not try so hard with mine, and just shake her booty to whatever beat she liked, deep down. Over the years we've learned to merge. We're still learning, it's a process.

If you want advice on how to make it to 15 years and keep going strong, how to be even better than when you first met, do two things:
  1. Don't insist on being alike or having something in common, that's just bullshit.
  2. Marry a woman who wants to be called Meatpocket and has the sex drive of a "working girl" with the breeding of a princess ;)

photo credit: jan_et_

Happy Anniversary, Darling! Let's have 150 more, ok? xoxooxoxox!

Here's basically what I wooed my girl with back in '93, forgive me for the Mellencamp, it was 15 years ago, ok!? But they're all exactly not the kind of music a girl like Meatpocket was listening to at the time, I assure you.

So, welcome to the first ever Tart mixtape :) I'll give em to ya one by one and then zipped just in case you would like a single download :).... and uh yeah, if you do wish to listen to the whole thing, the order matters.

Add It Up, Violent Femmes, Add It Up (1981-1993) buy it
Pink Houses, John Mellencamp, Uh Huh buy it
Lola, The Kinks, Lola versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One buy it
Whole Lotta Love, Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin II buy it
Crazy On You, Heart, Dream Boat Annie buy it
Anarchy In The U.K, Sex Pistols, Never Mind The Bollocks Here's The Sex Pistols buy it
Wargasm, Bricks Are Heavy buy it
Sex Type Thing, Stone Temple Pilots, Core buy it
Bad Reputation, Joan Jett, Bad Reputation, buy it
It's Different For Girls, Joe Jackson, I'm The Man buy it
I Love You, Steve Miller Band, Anthology buy it
Blue Sky, Allman Brothers, Allman Brothers - A Decade of hits 1969-1979 buy it
There Is a Light That Never Goes Out, The Smiths, The Queen Is Dead, buy it
The Milkman of Human Kindness, Billy Bragg, Back To Basics, buy it
anniversary.zip

Monday, August 25, 2008

While you were away...

Well since Ive been tied up on other items, it seems Tart has kept everyone entertained. I decided before I read any of her posts I should probably lay down some stuff so she doesn't yell or throw old discarded fruit at me. So I have been thinking, I need something good to write, hmmm as I am no freelance journalist, and spell check keeps me looking good what can I do as part of the "team". So I got it...

CONFESSIONS DAY - so kids it's time to open your closet and confess your musical skeletons, don't think this an original idea by me, as it was one of Tarts first questions she asked me. So here we go (and in the interest of keeping this "short") my Top 5 musical skeleton confessions and why.

5.) Just about any House/Techno groove song ever made- I grew up rock and roll, metal, and thrash all the way and as I started to grow musically I got a heap of shit from my friends for even thinking of walking down this road. I can't quite explain why I love it, other then a real decent house song can be so sonically layered, and if done properly it can take you places, almost like a soundtrack to life. It can be with or without a singer, though I find myself drawn to some driven song with an obscure singer no ones heard of.
(Link is to - Above and Beyond - Alone Tonight off of Melodic Trance) (2006)

4.) B52's - Planet Clair - Why, well it brings back some old friends. One which I will quickly share cause it goes with the story... A good friend of mine did the frat house in college, and as most frat houses have a sister sorority house. Well of course in this sorority there was a girl named Clair, and she was a rather "robust" woman who rode a scooter around campus (insert big girl scooter joke here) well, the story gets pretty long and out of sorts from here, and it's much better after drinking a few and reminiscing about old times... lets just say... ya I like the song, so there.

3.) Weird Al Yankovic - Confessions part III - The man is a musical hack genius, though I have several reasons to LOVE this song, I will stick to the most obvious. It was the most beautiful spoof of R.Kelly and his confessions series, and the sad thing is there is so much truth in it too. Admit it you peed in your girlfriends sink...

2.) John Cameron Mitchell - Angry Inch - This song was part of the soundtrack for "Hedwig and the Angry Inch". The song, like the movie, is hard to admit you like it if your a straight white male, but damn... I love this freaking movie and soundtrack. For those of you unfamiliar with Hedwig and the Angry Inch, well its a musical journey of a man becoming a woman in musical form, a rather awesome spectacle, that actually has one of the BEST soundtracks around, so yes I suggest you go find a copy of the movie before you ridicule me. Plus I want that hair.

1.) Lazy Town - You are a Pirate - Take a 30something Icelandic gym guy, add a girl with pink hair that every pedophile in town wants to bang while she's in costume (oh please, you know it's true) throw in some unusual puppets and a bad guy and you have a basic kids show.
But why stop there, we need more, what can we do... lets add a technoesque beat with catchy lyrics, there now you have "Lazy Town"

But why the Pirate song, it's techno (see #5) and also because it was probably one of the first ring tones I put on my phone that my daughter loved. Then again I got a kick out of (fine I'm a little kid too) the hacker or "online pirate" (insert arrrgh) undertones, it's not the first time I've been called a pirate. Well not that the song was about that, but you can make any typical song into anything you want to anyway.

So lets hear it folks, skeletons avast ye!

Links to buy the cool stuff above -
Lazy Town
Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Weird Al
B-52's
Melodic Trance

What Has Blogging (and you bloggers!)Done To Me?

  1. kept me up way past my bedtime
  2. caused Meatpocket (Mrs. Tart) some concern for my well-being -- yes sympathies JC
  3. increased the size of my fucktunes library by at least 10 G in the past 3 months, aaack
  4. brought me back to the world of live shows, yay!
So, while I bent your ear about the gigs I was missing in lieu of some great sex in September I should, in the interest of full disclosure (and to whet your appetite for upcoming posts to cheer your dreary Monday morning!), give you a picture of shows I do have tickets for. :)

September 6, The Wedding Present
September 12, Holy Fuck
September 19, Magic Slim and the Teardrops
October 4, My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult
October 10, Ben Folds
October 29, Amy Ray

Wheee! So yeah, some reviews to come! Sorry for bragging, but here's two great tracks from El Rey to give you a giggle, quirky choices I know. But that's the best thing about the Weddoes, they're quintessentially quirky and yet as much as we make fun of pop music we love it deep down, eh?

Soup mp3, The Wedding Present, El Rey.... If you can tell me what this song means I'll send you a cool track of your choice! Honest to god, I'm mystified, but I can't get the chorus out of my head.

Swingers mp3, The Wedding Present, El Rey.... Um, yeah for most people, the question, "Is self control too much to expect?" is a really bad sign. Thankfully Meatpocket and I got that all worked out, 15 years on Tuesday and I finally found a place to purchase the requested (ok, demanded) present, lol!

buy El Rey on MySpace

photo credit: Swansea Photographer

Sunday, August 24, 2008

wherein a Tart gives you movie music, ....meh


Mrs. Tart, aka MeatPocket, and I truly enjoy bad movies. Especially with monsters and cute guys and beautiful women and the like. So we were especially pleased by all the corniness that was The Mummy 3. There was even a yakking yak, (insert groan here), but with the gratuitous Brendan Fraser bare chest scene (yes I googled for it, and the internets failed me, dear reader!) and the debut of a beautiful Chinese actress, Isabella Leong, we were ready to forgive them their sorry jokes. (MeatPocket insists that I note that she is "much more enamored of the classic beauty and intense presence of Michelle Yeoh" and adds that Jet Li is also still a hottie. Whatever).
The music was not particularly memorable I must add. However, the graphics and titles were spectacular. MeatPocket reads a bit of Chinese and she was ecstatic to see how beautifully and er, correctly they were done. She said the historical details like armor, weaponry, architecture, etc. were also largely accurate as well which, to our minds, is quite refreshing in mainstream Hollywood films. But honestly, Isabella Leong, was so, so, gorgeous in those snow scenes! Oh, I'm such a philistine! xoxoxo



A Call To Adventure (Theme from The Mummy 3 mp3, Randy Edleman, from The Mummy 3 OST

The Reign of Terror mp3, Randy Edleman, from The Mummy 3 OST

Buy it if you must, but I'm warning you, it's movie music, meh.... nothing else really to say.
Now the Yeti! The were FANTASTIC, oh I so want a YETI for xmas!