the sticking point

Pointcast One: Dry Mouth, Lip Smack and More!

Amtrak / en route to Providence.
Smile, you're traveling! It's Friday, it's the Fourth of July, and that could mean only one thing: the first of the Pointcast things I've been promising since March is here.

What goes up, must come down. I’m proving it today, heading up the eastern seaboard and back down again without so much as time for meal in between.

When I came home from the Yankees game last night I worked on the Pointcast and some other projects, hammering away until past 0300 hrs this morning. I finally got in bed and read the Dean Wareham book for a while, before lights out around 0400. I knew I could sleep in today, maybe as late as 0930, because all I had on the itinerary for this July 4 was to wrap up the last pieces of writing for the song list below, drink some coffee, get a good workout, and then wait for Mrs Sticking Point and the boys to arrive home from their week on Cape Cod. My comet of non-stop work and to-dos and errands would flame out, and I could relax today; well-rested and work completed.

Ha! My feeble "itinerary" is a mere yarn-ball between the giant paws of fate: toyed with, and ultimately swatted under a couch.

The phone woke me up at 0727. It was my wife. Feeling ill and feverish, the 5-hour-plus drive from the Cape (with our two Subaru-monkeys in the backseat) looked unmanageable in the least, unsafe at the worst. She asked, could I at least meet her and the boys in Providence to get them the rest of the way home?

I could, at least, so here I am. Sweaty, tired, and somewhere between Stamford and Bridgeport.

I bought a ticket on the Internets, packed stuff into a bag and hurried out to catch the subway to Penn Station. I had 70 minutes before the ticket, waiting for me somewhere in the cyber kingdom, became non-negotiable and utterly useless. My intensity and nervous froth eased up when I finally sat down on the E train.

It was short-lived comfort. At one stop, still in Queens, a creature boarded my train car. It would take a while before I could discern the lumped, hunched figure as female; what I knew immediately was fear.

It was dressed in a bright white shirt and bright white pants, the cuffs of which bunched up atop a pair of very new, very bright white shoes. Industrial white shoes like ER nurses wear. And, as I said, brand new. On its head was some sort of white cloth, a piece of apparel difficult to identify because the human-like entity was covered entirely with a plastic raincoat. Clear plastic, of course; and thin as Saran Wrap.

It had arrived on the train with two large and over-packed Duane Reade shopping bags that seemed quite heavy, and it stood in the center of the car. Nearly everyone stared warily at this stranger and I was relieved that even a pack of jaded New Yorkers might be as nervous and hyper-vigilant as I.

Nervous. Hyper-vigilant. Because… while this odd passenger stood, hunched over and incessantly adjusting and readjusting its head cloth and plastic hood, I patched together the details and wondered if maybe somebody woke up with Sarin gas attack on his itinerary for this holiday of American independence. The train crawled nearer to the underwater tunnel linking Queens and Manhattan, and I wondered if there were others; what if I looked through the doors and saw cellophane-covered creatures in the train cars ahead and behind? I decided, well -- that would make it time for some go get ‘em. Maybe I could stop something tragic, or diminish the horrendous aftermath, even a little. I conjured the inevitable press conference on the steps of City Hall. “No, no, no; I just did what anyone else would do. But my wife, she’s a hero. If she hadn’t been ill enough to suggest I meet her in Providence… Ha! It was providence! Does anyone else find that ironic? Hel-lo?! Is this on?!”

Idiot funboy can laugh now, but as we left the last subway station before the tunnel, and the featureless figure in white took down her hood to tie the white headscarf more firmly, I got about as fight-or-flight nervous as I’d been since September ’01.

The cult group that carried out the attack in the Tokyo subway was clad all in white and transported the Sarin in bags. They used the tips of umbrellas to puncture the bags and release the poison. There was something about the brand new white shoes keyed me up. They seemed more than just part of a uniform. The white headscarf up top and new white shoes down below lent a ritualized look to the wardrobe.

But. You already know the punch line to all this is that there is no punch line. No soap – radio, as they say. Without incident, the abominable terrorist and I both detrained at 34th Street/Penn and went separate ways.

*** ***

Before we cue the music, here's one quick note to the struggling couple:
I think it is a parental felony to leave your children (one of whom is about 90 days old) in Florida while mommy's in Paris going forth with the Lance Armstrong of Rock and daddy's in the Bronx batting fourth for the New York Mediocritees. But I'm sure you've got it under control.

*** ***

All aboard the kundalini express, here's the all-new Friday 10 Pointcast -- five songs at random, and five songs chosen. Every Friday that I can capably accomplish it, I'll record a podcast with all ten tracks and commentary. You can download it by clicking the link provided. Each 'cast will be available for one week. If you miss one, or discover the site weeks later, write me at TheStickingPoint@gmail.com and I'll get it to you.

Your feedback means a lot, so even if you don't share your own Friday 10 in the comments section, let me know you were here and what you think of the music.

Download this week's complete file (which will open in iTunes)
CLICK HERE:
TSP Pointcast 070408

01 Media Blitz - The Germs: From the must-have complete Germs anthology. What a cool place to start these Pointcast things, with "Media Blitz."
By the way, could Pat Smear be the Forrest Gump of punk rock? Befriended Darby Crash and formed the Germs (with original drummer Dottie Danger a.k.a. Belinda Carlisle). Joan Jett produces first album. Crash commits suicide. Smear joins the Adolescents. Leaves Adolescents, is asked to join Red Hot Chili Peppers (1992). Turns down offer. Befriends Courtney Love. Kurt Cobain asks Smear to join Nirvana. First gig with Nirvana is SNL (09.25.93). Cobain commits suicide. Smear joins Foo Fighters. Quits Foo Fighters (1997). Serves as Creative Consultant on the Germs film What We Do Is Secret. Rejoins Foo Fighters as touring guitarist.

02 Ghost Rider - Suicide: Track one, side one from the "oh-you-don't-have-it -- what's-your-problem" debut album. Suicide was part of that great New York No Wave scene in the 70s that included Lydia Lunch, Mars, James Chance, Theoretical Girls, and DNA. Rollins Band once throttled this song; find it on Do It.

03 Freddie Freeloader - Miles Davis. (Kind of Blue): Recorded at Columbia Studio on West 30th in Manhattan. If you look up all the lineups Miles assembled over the decades, it's like a who's who of top-shelf, mind-boggling jazz legends. People write volumes about albums like this, jams like this. They are experts, and I'm just the unwashed zoomtard from Podunk who knows nothing but I sure like them sawngs.
Brief Wynton Kelly writeup here.

04 Dirty Water - Jesus and Mary Chain. (Stoned and Dethroned): I have loved this group from day one, the first time I heard the "Never Understand" single, in 1984. I went certifiably over-the-top apeshit for it, and the unimpeachable Psychocandy album that followed. That year, my friend Liz and I saw them play the Ritz -- the best 30-minute concert I've ever witnessed. And where is that long-rumored JMC box set?

05 Illumination - Rollins Band: From Get Some Go Again, criminally overlooked and underappreciated. (GSGA is right near the very top of my LastFM charts.) Features "On The Day," which I've now listened to a few times a week for several years.

06 Shout Bamalama - Otis Redding with the Pinetoppers: From the Definitive Otis Redding collection, the sound of a man singing his pain away. On "Shout Bamalama" though, his 19-year old voice has twenty-five years of thuggin' in it. A great one from the great one.

The George Carlin piece is from a 1986 HBO special called "Playin' With Your Head." My brother-from-another-mother Neil and I used to watch it several times a month; it was on a well-worn VHS tape that had Animal House on it, too. With my caveman audio gear, I was able to take it from TV to CDR to The Sticking Point.

07 You Want The Candy - The Raveonettes. (Lust Lust Lust): I have three of their disks, but never really paid close attention. A few tracks from this new one put the hooks in me, so maybe I have something to gain by giving their back catalog the time of day.

08 Son - 5'nizza: Pronounced "pyat NITsa." And guess what? Their name means "Friday" in Ukrainian. It's a duo that played together for nearly eight years, broke up in 2007, and of course I only discovered them this past February while trolling mp3 blogs for new sounds. It's about the most fun Eastern European music I've ever heard. The layered vocals are amazing and that guitar... are you kidding me?!
Paying it forward: I bumped into this band on the redoubtable Aurgasm weblog. If you go to this well-informed site, you'll leave with a few new favorite songs.

09 Dethbryte - Dax Riggs. (We Sing of Only Blood or Love): "The fragile wave of days / They break against the shore / Of all these years." I'm going to play a lot of Riggs on these Pointcasts, because you have to hear it. Mrs Sticking Point gave it to me. A great album... but you knew I was going to say that.

• Check out the "Dethbryte" video here.
• Dax performs a swamp-ified version of the Misfits' "Skulls" here.

10 Plastika - Idoli: Belgrade Rock City! It's been hard to find info on this band, but I sometimes see their name published as "VIS Idoli." One thing I did learn, is that we all missed out on quite a scene in the former constituent republics of Yugolslavia. I mean it. The Killed By 7 Inch collection is on Redrum Records, the label that releases the endless, rewarding Killed By Death series of obscure punk. You can download the KB7I collection for your own self HERE.

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Now, do it yourself. Put your digital jukebox or mp3 player on "shuffle all songs," and let me know the first 10 tracks out the chute.

[posted with ecto]

On iTunes right now: Constant Pain from the album Corpse Love - The First Year by Pussy Galore

"With violence for a fix..."

Song lyrics | Kiss Me Deadly lyrics

Birth of a Stoop Sale

I'm still working on the full-on TSP relaunch, with those Friday 10 Sticking Pointcasts for you... but in the meantime I thought I'd soft-launch with an entry or three. Rather than go into a drawn-out story that ends with my (unknowing) consumption of a dozen or so sunflower seed weevils last week, I thought I'd throw a question your way, and maybe have an interactive discussion in the "comments" board.

Of which band or album were you once a huge fan, but now -- with passing time and increasing sensibility -- can no longer tolerate?

I'll start.

In 2001 (April, as my Amazon.com buying history shows), I bought the entire Everclear canon. I went from zero to five CDs in a single one-click purchase. I had just read an article about Art Alexakis and was swayed by its sycophantic portrait of the old man as an artist.

Fast forward 7-10 days, the CDs have arrived and I'm listening. Try to imagine my face; it resembled someone who takes a huge bite from a steak sandwich and discovers he's been served rat's asshole. Uncooked!

Maybe you like Everclear. That's fine. I'm sure I have and enjoy 100s of CDs that would make most people laugh snobbishly. (That's for another day.) The 'clear is just not for me. And it is SO not for me that I cannot believe I was bamboozled into clicking away my hard-earned for a 5-disk earful.

I still have those CDs. I can't explain why, other than to say I have a tendency to keep things for that day in the distant future when the need will arise. (Like the ratty old pair of chinos balled up in the corner of my closet: there for a day friends may invite me for a game of pickup football in the mud, like they always do on commercials and the pages of J. Crew catalogs.)


But that's beside the point. The question, once again: Of which band or album were you once a huge fan, but now -- with passing time and increasing sensibility -- can no longer tolerate?

Somebody Get Me a Reviewer

I was eager to read Jon Pareles's New York Times review of Van Halen's show in Philly this week. Unfortunately, Pareles includes practically nothing about... Van Halen's show in Philly this week. This is not a review, Jon, it's a long-winded caption. It could have been written while looking at some photos from the concert.

With my pal SO'C, I brainstormed some questions left unanswered by the "review." It took us less than a minute.

How did the band sound?
Did they play any songs you have heard of?

Was Michael Anthony's background vocal -- a key element of the VH sound -- missed at all?
How did Wolfgang Van Halen fare as Anthony's replacement?
Did David Lee Roth say anything on stage? [smirk] And, if so, what?
After all these years apart, with which song song did they choose to open the show?
What song closed the show?
Has Eddie lost anything off his skills?
Were any Van Hagar songs in the setlist?
How did fans react at various points of the concert?
The last line, "Van Halen still hurls zinger after zinger" ... what does that mean?
Was there an opening act?

[posted with ecto]

On iTunes right now: Smash It Up (Parts 1 & 2) from the album Machine Gun Etiquette [2004 Expanded] by Damned, The

Chin Music

I was reading the Jack Curry article in today's Times, about the owner of Barry Bonds's record-setting home run ball deciding to mark it with an asterisk before offering it to Cooperstown. That's sort of cool. I imagine the signage near the Hall of Fame's display will have language explaining why the "scarlet" ideogram is on there.

The article included a quote by a "baseball historian." I was surprised to see who it was. Pete Nash. Formerly known as Pete Nice. Formerly also known as Prime Minister Pete Nice of 3rd Bass. Did you know he was a baseball historian now? I didn't. He's written books about baseball. [1, 2]

Just stuff...
The Yankees are in the playoffs now. I'll be glad if they play the Indians in the first round, not only because they were 6-0 against Cleveland this season, but because it means the Red Sox and Angels get to bang each other's brains in. I hope that series goes the distance, and all five games are extra-inning ordeals. And I hope all that cross-country travel wears them out.

The Indians have a great pitching staff (and pitching rules October), but their lineup looks harmless.

* I watched the Yankees' postgame celebration last night, and couldn't help thinking how pointless and stupid the Champagne spraying is. It looks like the kind of thing you do because it's expected, but deep inside you feel silly.

* The National League doesn't have a team capable of beating the A.L. postseason contenders. The World Series could be a blowout.

* On the ballfield, Derek Jeter is unimpeachable. He's all hustle, and he consistently knows the right play to make. Last week, my brother-in-law asked if I'd rather have A-Rod or Jeter on Team Sticking Point. A-Rod's got more talent, strengths, and abilities, but Jeter's the guy to have. He's a hero and a future first-ballot Hall-of-Famer. But, off-the-field, Jeter's been annoying the shit out of me. He's become increasingly arrogant in post-game interviews, answering questions with snarky questions of his own. I just KNOW there are reporters wishing they could say, "Stop being a dick and just answer the question. Your night is over. I still have to write this piece. Two hours from now, while you're forking over cab fare for some model's ride home, I'll be raking over my second draft of this puffery." Not to mention that when he's not being a douche, Jeter's the most predictably boring interviewee in the clubhouse. For a while, this was good, as it helped the Yankees reshape their image from self-serving millionaires (1976-1994) to dutiful, blue-collar millionaires (1995-present). Now he's just a bore. (And for Christ's sake, stop beginning every other answer with, "Like I said..." Because you didn't. I don't know when you think you said it, but it wasn't in this interview!)

Secondly, Jeter's become a shill. Is there any endorsement deal he won't sign? Watch a Yankees game, and you'll see him on more commercials than the gecko and the cavemen combined. Colognes... deodorants... cars... trucks... credit cards, sneakers, colorful sports drinks, he hawks it all! It's obscene to watch him climb out of a $35,000 truck and brag that he just got one in red.
Thirdly... that hairstyle. Really? You're sticking with that, Jeet? It looks like someone glued a hairy rice cake to your head. (If such a thing doesn't exist, it should; if only to help make Derek Jeter halloween costumes more realistic.)

* A-Rod has become a boring and predictable interview, too. But I'll cut him some slack, because he must be shit scared that saying the wrong thing will bring the boo storms back to the Stadium. It was practically stop-the-presses earth-shattering to see him nod his head last night when a Yes reporter started a question with "With all this talk about you being the runaway MVP in the American League...".

Rodriguez is the first player to hit 50+ homers and drive in more than 150 runs in a single season since Sammy Sosa in 2001. And if you can barely see Sosa's numbers through the Stanozolol-stained glasses, you've got to look back to 1938, when the great Jimmie Foxx did it (50/175).

* Remember spring training, when Yankee fans and the New York media were sweating the How's Joe Torre Going To Get Melky Cabrera In The Lineup Dilemma? Now we look up and Melky's notched 147 games and 535 at bats so far. It's Lebowskian, how the baseball universe provides.

* I've been a Doug Mientkiewicz fan since '99, when he had a really hot week for my fantasy baseball team. He's a great fit on the Yankees, and exactly the kind of player that excels in the postseason: a smart situational hitter/great fielder. He's kind of a "discount" Paul O'Neill. (That's a compliment.)

He's a lot of fun to watch, but the ball-signing incident took the some of the polish off Shelly Duncan's shine. Mainly because he was signing for a kid. If that were an adult member of Red Sox Nation (or, best of all, that decrepit Robert Redford-clone season ticket holder behind the plate at Fenway), I'd be laughing my ass off.

* The Division Series starts Wednesday. If the Yankees remain the wild card team my tickets will be for Game 4, the following Monday.

[posted with ecto]

On iTunes right now: Mystery Achievement from the album Pretenders by Pretenders, The

Vout For Voutoreenees

I've been listening to a lot of good music this week, mostly stuff that I've just gotten. To share the wealth, I plucked select songs out of the bunch, and bundled them into a free download sampler for you. Let me know what you think.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE DOWNLOAD.

THURSTON MOORE
Trees Outside The Academy: I wonder if anyone expected this record to be so user-friendly. I'm sure the expectations were for 79 minutes and thirty seconds of experimental meanderings. Mine were. Instead, Thurston matches pop song structures with textured, easy-to-digest, idiophonic guitar. It is so good.
Sampler track: "Fri/End"

*

PUBLIC ENEMY
How You Sell Soul to a Soulless People Who Sold Their Soul???: Public Enemy are first-ballot inductees in the Bad-Album-Title Hall of Fame. They've sure had some shitty ones. (Muse Sick-N-Hour Mess Age resides in its very own category of ridiculous.) But here's the good news: How You Sell... is PE's best record in 15 years. The bad news, of course, is that its not as impressive a feat as you'd think. There are a lot of tracks worth hearing on this, and I'm really glad Chuck is back with a credible record after all this time.
Sampler track: "Black is Back"

*

WEEDEATER
God Luck and Good Speed: I just discovered this band last week. I was watching an online video of Jim Wendler, a powerlifter I admire. He had this CD in his bag. From what I've heard on various weight-training videos, gym phreaks listen to an awful lot of horseshit, but I figured I'd track the Weedeater down and give them a shot. Lucky me. I've been listening to it plenty. Finding good music this way is like making a new friend. I should have already been aware of Weedeater, via their connection with Billy Anderson, who's worked on High on Fire, Melvins, and Swans records I love. Their web address is weedeatertheband.com.
Sampler track: "God Luck and Good Speed"

*

FLOGGING MOLLY
Alive Behind The Green Door
Swagger
Drunken Lullabies
Within a Mile of Home
Whiskey on a Sunday
The only FM song I had heard was from a season-1 episode of Weeds, "If I Ever Leave This World Alive." I got curious about the group, and tracked down the five records above. (My curiosity manifests itself in obsession.) In reading up on the band, I discovered what you all probably already knew: the lead singer is Dave King, who was the voice of Fastway in the 80s. I'm not sure if any more than a few Flogging Molly tracks will end up on my iPod; there's a lot of music to sift through and it's all starting to blend together. (But I can dig a band who's first release is a live record.)
Sampler tracks: "Salty Dog" from Swagger and "If I Ever Leave This World Alive" from Drunken Lullabies.

*

DEERHOOF
Untitled: I'm crazy about this band, so I was happy when I checked out their website the other day and found a web-only offering of free mp3s. It's a collection of oddities and rarities. Interesting stuff.
Sampler track: "Holy Night Fever"

*

TINARIWEN
Amassakoul and Aman Iman: I have loved one of their tracks ("Tasskiwet") for a while, and reckoned it was time to find more. These two records were a good place for me to continue my education in Tinariwen music. The musicians are Malinese Tuareg rebels. I'm still tracking down as much web material as I can to learn more about them. The music is extraordinary.
Sampler tracks: "Assoul" from Amassakoul and "Awa Didjen" from Aman Iman

*

PEEPING TOM
Peeping Tom: Maybe I saved the best for last. I'd been jonesing the Peeping Tom stuff for awhile. I finally got hold of it last week and I can't let go. I put two tracks on the sampler, because you may already have heard "Mojo," which was the single/video. Peeping Tom is Mike Patton (of Faith No More, Mr. Bungle, Tomahawk, etc.) and a varied gang of contributors. The participants assembled these songs by mail.
Sampler track: "Caipirinha" (feat. Bebel Gilberto) and "Mojo" (feat. Rahzel & Dan The Automator)

[posted with ecto]

On iTunes right now: Fuck Was I from the album Batten The Hatches by Youngs, Jenny Owen

Small Figures on a Vast Expanse

Last night was Rilo Kiley at Webster Hall. As RK shows go, this one was pretty damn disappointing. I thought they were sleepwalking through it for a while. The band was passionless until the seventh song, “The Moneymaker,” which seemed like the first song they actually wanted to play. It was followed by four more exciting ones in a row. I thought they'd hit the pocket and would stay there, but there’s something about their new music, I think, that bogged them down onstage. The band seemed to still be working out the deeper arrangements, and couldn’t get loose at all.

Some of the songs, like “Dreamworld,” actually bored me. (But it bores me on the new record, too.) "Paint's Peeling" is one of my favorites; unfortunately, last night it got lacklustered it into a Scheib job. They performed one of Jenny’s solo songs from Rabbit Fur Coat, but why did they choose “Rise Up with Fists,” a song with such smart and funny lyrical interplay between the lead and background vocals, only to neglect the support vocals altogether? It was half-assed.

With each successive time I've seen them, Rilo Kiley has become more technically sound and less... fun.

The highlights surely included the acoustic version of “With Arms Outstretched” and (as always) “I Never.” "Wires and Waves," was nice to hear; I have it on a bunch of RK boots, but couldn't remember ever personally hearing them do it live.

Here's the setlist: It's a Hit, Close Call, Portions for Foxes, Paint’s Peeling, Breaking Up, Dreamworld, The Moneymaker, Wires and Waves, Ripchord, With Arms Outstretched, A Man/Me/Then Jim, "Blacklight Loop">Silver Lining, I Never, Smoke Detector, Rise Up w/ Fists!!, Greetings in Braille, Spectacular Views. [Encore: Give a Little Love, Does He Love You?].

[posted with ecto]

On iTunes right now: Twin killers by Deerhoof

Meat Hooks

Saw the mighty Meat Puppets at the Knitting Crappery last night. It couldn't have felt any less like a reunion show. They are as tight as ever, and look and sound like they never stopped playing. Cris and new drummer Ted Marcus fell right into the pocket. Great setlist; it's obvious the brothers still have a blast playing these songs.

Tonight's the second night of two. Tickets are here.

Here's the classic "Get On Down" video (from Mirage).

For the next 48 hours or so, I'll be immersing myself in all things Meat Puppetty.

The official band site, maintained by original drummer Derrick Bostrom, with links to amazing rarities and live show boots.

Derrick Bostrom has a weblog of his own.

Peter at Wohlers dot org maintains an invaluable site bursting over with live MP3s.

Scott Mervis did a great piece on the band in Pittsburgh Post-Gazette last week...

And followed it up with a review of their gig at Mr Small's.

If anyone finds last night's setlist, please email it to me or drop a hyperlink in the comments.

[posted with ecto]

On iTunes right now: I Just Want To Make Love To You from the album Out My Way by Meat Puppets

The Grid

I did this a while back, thought I'd give it another whirl...

Stuff I'm not supposed to like, but do...
The Sounds, uncomfortable shoes, Staples (and all stationery stores), Grey Goose & Red Bull, "It's Goin' Down" (), Countdown's substitute anchors Alison Stewart and Amy Robach, Major League Baseball's wild card system, kale, HotChicksWithDouchebags, the bus to Barnstable, the whole idea of Corey Feldman

Stuff I'm supposed to like, and do...
Yukio Mishima, Countdown with Keith Olbermann, Gore Vidal, Soupman's turkey chili, Flight of the Conchords, Van Halen's next tour, my 3-year-old climbing into our bed at 3AM, Mary-Louise Parker

Stuff I'm not supposed to like, and don't...
Televised talent competitions, Bob Murray, Dora the Explorer, U.S. military stop-loss policy, flip-flops, Perez Hilton, "the surge," evil clowns

Stuff I'm supposed to like, but don't...
Paste magazine, Talking Heads, high-waisted jeans (and the women who wear them), telephone conversations, The Corrections, sports talk radio, punctuation, iPhone, concerts at Roseland Ballroom, Ethan Hawke, selectively bred hybrid dogs, myspace, Big Love

Stuff I like the idea of, but don't really like...
Yoga, picnics, Dennis Kucinich, Barack Obama, Colbert Report, Jay-Z, "massage" parlors, You Tube Presidential Debates

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Here's this week's Friday 10. Made from the best stuff I like.

01 Tomorrow Belongs To Us - Discharge: All the early Discharge singles are perfection. I was a big fan of theirs in the early 80s, then forgot all about them for a long time, until last year when I started putting the vinyl on CDR and gathering up the CD comps. It's great stuff. This track is on the "Decontrol" EP and the Why comp.

02 You Got Too Many Boyfriends - The Equals: I'm ashamed to say that until a few months ago, all I knew about the Equals was: Eddy Grant was in the group, and they were responsible for "Police On My Back." Then my pal SO'C shared the Viva Equals! comp with me and set my head right in regard to this great, great band. I am a fan now, only three decades after the Equals stopped recording. Song after song after song, Viva delivers. I can't believe that "You Got Too Many Boyfriends" was a B-side.

03 Stretcher Case Baby - The Damned: Another great B-side ("Sick of Being Sick" is the A). It was on their second album, Music For Pleasure. I got this version from Skip Off School To See The Damned (The Stiff Singles A's & B's) on Demon.

04 Lose My Freedom - Go Home Productions: I've written it before; I am not a fan of mash-ups. I say, if the songs are great to begin with, who needs DJ Wicki Wicki making a novelty song out of them? But I make two exceptions to the rule. I really like what Eric Kleptone did with all the Queen tracks on Night at the Hip Hopera, and I always check out the Go Home Productions site for new material. Mark Vidler (who is GHP, I guess), created this track, which combines Devo's great "Freedom of Choice" with something by Destiny's Child.

05 Anyone Else But You - The Moldy Peaches: I bet you don't know who is the Moldy Peaches' biggest fan. I'll give you one guess. Go ahead. Wrong! It's this dude Matt, with whom I once shared an office. Strange guy. Nice guy. Matt was entirely into his own thing and that was that. But oh, the memories! The room we shared was larger than most offices, and there were lots of us in there, too. Sometimes as many as six people. It was a quote-Writer's Room-unquote. Which meant that the Powers That Be threw us all in there together, hoping we'd "bounce ideas off each other" and all the ridiculous stuff people who don't write think writers do when they sit shoulder to shoulder. Anyway, Matt, for as well as any of the rest of us could get to know him, had three main interests. First, there was (were) the Moldy Peaches. Twice a week he'd ask the room, "Do you guys want to listen to the Moldy Peaches?" And one of us would invariably say, "No, because they suck." (We liked him, but sometimes treated him as if he was Donny from Big Lebowski. Because he sort of was.) The second of his life's loves was yoga. Not regular yoga. Matt was into the Bikram type, where you go and do your moves and poses in a hellish Saharan hotbox while every liquid in your system exudes from your pores. Sweat? Of course. Salts? Sure. Plus possibly blood, butter, baking grease, K-Y, Gravy Master, crotch jam, old eggnog, and other multiphasic compounds, all settling back onto the skin and into the fibers of one's clothing. Like Matt's. I knew this (we all knew it), because he'd abstain from a post-Bikram shower in order to get back to our writer's room. He'd stride in, his body shining, with a towel hung rakishly from his neck and a hot breeze of moldy ass trailing his steps. By late afternoon, our shared workspace smelled like someone had shit out a book on how to throw up.
The third thing that seemed to make Matt happy was eating smelly lunches. Which he indulged in as soon as he got back from yoga.
But anyway, now there's an actual Moldies song I like. It's this one, from the Murderball soundtrack. Cheers, Matt.

06 Sonny's Burning - The Birthday Party: My favorite Birthday Party song. I can say, without fear of hyperbole, that the first six syllables of this track comprise the best opening lyric in the history of music, in this or any other universe. If you read this site regularly, you're familiar with the Birthday Party -- ancestors of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. I come back to their music often, and I usually hear things differently each time. I have to guess that bands like Jesus and Mary Chain and Dino Jr probably bumped into their share of BP records during their formative years. "Sonny's Burning" is from the Mutiny EP.

07 Hiromi - Squatweiler: If you've never heard this song, I hope it blows you away when you hear it. This is a great, great North Carolina band that deserves a lot more attention. I hope you track down every last morsel they've ever recorded. Maybe you'll start with New Motherstamper, which contains "Hiromi." Motherstamper is the band's third record, but their first after bassist Stacey Matarrese took over the vocals. Throttled the vocals.

08 Give Up The Funk - Parliament: It was just this past Tuesday when Burning Dervish told us "Give Up The Funk" would be his entrance music as he stepped into the batter's box at Yankee Stadium. And here it is on the very next F10.
How cool it was to grow up hearing Parliament, Stevie Wonder, Earth Wind & Fire, and Rufus on the radio all the time. I didn't realize how blessed I was. "Give Up The Funk" aka "Tear the Roof Off The Sucker" is from the classic Mothership Connection record. The Parliament/Funkadelic collective released 19 or 20 albums -- high-quality albums -- between 1970 and 1981. Think about that for a second. You think Ryan Adams is prolific? You think Steven Tyler did a lot of coke? In the 70s, George Clinton could fuel a 747 with a cup of his urine.

09 What Makes You Happy (L) - Liz Phair: I burned this off television program I'd recorded called Sessions at West 54th Street. I've forgotten most of the details about the series, but I copped some good performances from the show onto CDR. I have Phair, Sinéad O'Connor, Ben Folds Five, Beck, and a couple others. I like this song a lot. The version on whitechocolatespaceegg is one of my favorites of hers. It's got the great lines "I feel the sun on my neck / I smell the earth in my skin / I see the sky above me like a full recovery."

10 King's Lead Hat - Eno: The title is an anagram for "Talking Heads." The story that gets passed down through generations of Eno fans and scholars is that he hoped to record it with DByrne and the rest, but it never came to be. Soon after this album, Before and After Science, was released, the Man Himself collaborated with Talking Heads on a few albums. I don't know all of them, but the one TH album I actually like is among them. Getting back to Eno -- the Man Himself -- for a second, I think his reputation as an experimentalist might turn some people away. I'm sure plenty of folks hear "art rock" or "ambient music" and think, "Fuck that! Where are my Stooges records?!" Luckily, TMH's recorded output is as varied as the day is long, the summer is hot, and Dick Cheney is evil. There's plenty in his rewarding canon for everybody; dig in! October is just around the corner, and for me that means lots of Here Come The Warm Jets. His music is good for anytime, but there's something carried on a crisp fall breeze that tells me it's time listen to more Eno. (I have "October music;" I'll explain another time.)

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Tag, you're it. Set your mp3 player, digital jukebox, or Roomba to "shuffle all songs." Hear 10 songs randomly selected for you by the machine. Share them with us in the comments section below.

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Hear it for yourself. CLINK THIS LINK to download this week's Sticking Point Friday 10.

[posted with ecto]

"I willed our love to die."

Here's "Silver Lining," the second video from Rilo Kiley's Under The Blacklight. That lick at the beginning reminds me of Cowboy Junkies' "Anniversary Song," which itself reminded me of the Mad About You theme.

Under The Blacklight:
I disliked it at first.
I like it quite a bit now.
My hunch is I won't listen to it very much after another couple months or so.

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If there's a Friday 10 tomorrow -- and I believe I could probably hammer one out early in the AM -- I'm going to try something different. Think of it as "added value." See you here tomorrow.

[posted with ecto]

On iTunes right now: Lucille (Live) from the album Live At The Cafe Au Go-Go (And Soledad Prison) by Hooker, John Lee