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.

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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.

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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

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?

"Love is a Heap of Failure" - Googlebot

Here's this thing I tried. I took one of my favorite Einsturzende Neubauten songs (from the dazzling Halber Mensch record) and pasted the official lyrics into Google's translation tool. Below are the two "proper" texts, then the Google version at the bottom.

Original German text from the official E.N. website

Seele Brennt

Ich bin die umstürzlerische Liebe
der Gegensex
Jeder Tag kostet mich Wunden
dabei bin ich schon jetzt
zerschunden und völlig blutverschmiert

Du fängst im Taxi an zu heulen
bloss weil ich sage
dass ich bei dem Konsum
in zwei Jahren tot bin
Alle Idole müssen sterben (Lachen)

meine Seele brennt
Ich versteck mich, sitz in meinem Loch
und warte auf die Träume, die mich retten (Kommen nicht)
Liebe ist ein Scheiterhaufen
auf dem ich langsam aber sicher
von innen her zum Rand verbrenne

Ich hab gekostet
bin zu weit gegangen
werd den Geschmack nicht los
Vielleicht ist nur entzündet
vielleicht ist nur entzündet, was da brennt
An Stelle meiner Seele
an der Stelle meiner Seele
meine Seele brennt!

English translation from the official E.N. website

Soul Burning

I am the subversive love
the counter-sex
every day costs me wounds
though I’m now already
wrecked and festooned with blood

You start crying inside the taxi
Just because I say
that I will be dead within two years
consuming these amounts
all idols have to die (laughter)

…my soul is burning
I go and hide, sit in my hole
and wait for the dreams to save me
(they don’t come)
slowly but surely
I burn at the stake of love
from deep within to without

I have savoured
have gone far too far
can’t get rid of the taste
perhaps it’s just inflamed
perhaps it’s just inflamed what’s already burning
instead of my soul
in the stead of my soul
my soul is burning!

English translation from Google

Soul Burns

I am the umstürzlerische love
the Gegensex
Each day costs me to wounds
am I already
zerschunden and completely blood-smeared

You begin to howl in the taxi
only because I legend
that I with the consumption
in two years are dead
All Idols must die (to laugh)

my soul burns
I hiding place me, seat in my hole
and wait for the dreams, me save (do not come)
Love is a heap of failure
on which I slowly however surely
to the edge burn ago from the inside

I cost
too far went
do not become loose the taste
Perhaps is only ignited
perhaps is only ignited, which burns there
In place of my soul
in the place of my soul
my soul burns!

Final score:
Although there are some nice alternate phrasings assembled by the Google brain ("All idols must die," "I, with the consumption, in two years are dead"), and one great line that doesn't even have a seed in the original ("Love is a heap of failure"), this is way off mark. It sounds like an American tourist in an Idstein Kaffeehaus armed with a English-to-German dictionary and an extra chromosome. The most potent line in the entire lyric ("I go and hide, sit in my hole and wait for the dreams to save me") is made a convoluted mess by the Googlebot.

Furthermore...
Here's an abbreviated (1:14) live performance of the track from 1990.

[posted with ecto]

On iTunes right now: Summer Lovin' from the album Fear of a Punk Planet by Vandals, The

Return To Sender

So, the Yankees finally ship the Big Useless out of town after two seasons, 34 wins, and 0 World Series appearances. It's a good move to get him off the team, but, personally, I'm not convinced the Yankees are building a better starting rotation for 2007 than they've had in any of the last four seasons.

This week's Friday 10 has a 95 mile-an-hour heater and some wicked breaking stuff.

01 Crude Bomb - The Evens: For what it's worth, the first Evens CD was the first album I listened to in 2007. I brought the disk along for the families drive into Manhattan and back for a 3-year-old's birthday party on New Year's Day. The party was at an UWS Pizzeria Uno, where H got the chance to make his own pizza-for-one. It was... awesome. His first layer of sauce was a splatter that resembled a fish. Then he added a huge pile of cheese to the right side of the dough platter. The next layer of sauce he spread out to look like a sun. And then a little more cheese on the other side of the pie. Fifteen minutes later, the waiter brought it back all baked up, and H and I chowed down. It was damn good. The Evens album? Also DAMN GOOD. By now, you know the band is indie rock demi-god Ian MacKaye and his girlfriend Amy Farina, formerly of Mr. Candyeater and The Warmers. There's a new Evens disk out, and what I've heard is real good, but I'm still stuck on this first one. There's a fantastic, nearly two-year-old article from LA Weekly here. (Written by Brendan Mullen. Rather than bore you further with a tangent, I'll let you Google him at your leisure.) Check out NPR's website, it also has a bunch of Evens/Ian/Fugazi material.

02 Polly - Nirvana: From Nevermind; maybe you have it. The video Live! Tonight! Sold Out! is finally on DVD. I really really wanted it years ago, but it took forever to come out, and now I couldn't care less.

03 EMI - Sex Pistols: Speaking of DVDs, the Julien Temple-directed documentary The Filth and The Fury is fantastic. I Netflicked it last year to see it again, and I liked it even more the second time around. It's so interesting to see the part near the end when Lydon is nearly in tears over what the scene (and Malcolm) "did" to his old mate, Sid. Lydon seems to forget about the camera and speaks informally to his friend, the director, like "Oh, Julien, it was horrible...." Captivating. The version of "EMI" I heard today was the plain jane one from Bollocks.

04 Hay Wrap - Saw Doctors: A fine song on record and a great song live. They're almost always on tour, and soon they'll be in the USA. (New York show is March 10 at Nokia Theatre.) From All The Way From Tuam.

05 ESP - Buzzcocks: from their second album, 1978's Love Bites, the one with "Ever Fallen in Love" on it. Their debut, Another Music in a Different Kitchen, had come out only about seven months earlier, and they followed it up with this. That's momentum! Everywhere Love Bites was released, it came out with slight variations to the cover. To collectors, this is like a Crack/Viagra speedball. There's a cool website with all the different jackets and labels of practically every Buzzcocks release. Apparently, the rarest version of this record is a two-LP white-label test-pressing with side A on one LP and side B on the other. I've never seen it listed anywhere, but I'm looking. (Along with thousands of fanatic a-holes just like me.) This is a great album, and deserves some time in your ears.

06 Image of Me - Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys: I always loved the idea behind this song. The narrator is a guy asking his ex if she's remaking her new boyfriend "in the image of me." Badass and arrogant. It's a late-career Wills song, a cover song, and I think you'll only find it on a pair of anthologies. Mine is from the good-but-not-great-or-thorough Curb Records' Greatest Hits. A few seconds of scrolling Amazon could find you a much better comp than that one. Wills and his band were pretty amazing. As you listen, you can hear inspiration from Louis Armstrong and Tex Ritter in equal doses. The best description of BW&HTP that I've seen is from AllMusic.com, who described them as a "dance band with a country string section that played pop songs as if they were jazz numbers."

GEEK ALERT!!
07 Barbed Wire - Youth Brigade: There was a Youth Brigade that formed in SoCal in the mid 80s by the Stern brothers. They played cool punk rock that would often turn up on the soundtrack of Vision and Powell skate videos. They had great songs like "Did You Wanna Die" and "Sink With Kalifornia." This is not THAT BAND. These guys are the east coast Youth Brigade, from Washington, D.C. specifically. Which automatically means we can play the six degrees of Ian MacKaye game. The easiest angle would be that they were on Dischord Records, the label run by MacKaye, but we won't go that way. How about this one: Youth Brigade singer Nathan Strejcek was (in 1980) singer for Teen Idles, which had Ian MacKaye on bass; Youth Brigade bassist Bert Quieiroz was (in 1981) in a band called the Untouchables with Alec MacKaye, brother of Ian. This song, a really hot slice of DCHC, is from Youth Brigade's Possible EP. The title was a reference to one of the first Dischord ads, where, in a list of future releases, the small print read, "possible EP by Youth Brigade." I have the EP on Dischord #14, a vinyl comp that features the first EPs from Teen Idles, Government Issue, State of Alert, and Youth Brigade.

08 Love Will Tear Us Apart (alt) - Joy Division: I think I've gotten this one on a Friday 10 before, maybe a few months ago. This is the alt version from the b-side of the "Love Will Tear Us Apart" seven-inch on Factory Records. It's a little treblier than the A-side, with a thinner vocal. Overall, the tempo of the alt is slightly faster than the A-side. This is a great version, but the be-all, end-all version of "LWTUA" is from the band's second John Peel session, November 1979. It's out there and in print. Another great Manchester band with a brilliant and intense lead singer.

09 Have a Cuppa Tea - The Kinks: From Muswell Hillbillies. I am such a fanatic about the Kinks. As anyone who knows me already knows, I've never been a Beatles fan. They just never got to me. I could listen to about three or four of their songs, but the rest... were just OK. Where other people heard genius, I merely heard simplicity (and inferior backing vocals). When I was younger, dumber, and full of... piss and vinegar, I'd tweak people by saying I hated the Beatles and that they flat-out SUCKED. I'm older, and I've melllowed, and now I can at least just say, sure -- they were adequate, but not for my ears. Why am I writing all this in an entry for a Kinks song? Because then and now, the Kinks are the band I always throw in the ring against Beatles fans. Far superior songwriting and musicianship. And if they could have just gotten back into the U.S. after their 1965 tour (they were banned from re-entering by the U.S. government at the request of the AFM), instead of four years later, Kinkmania would be the universal descriptor. There's a great Pete Townshend quote from The History of Rock n Roll: "I always think that Ray Davies should one day be Poet Laureate. He invented a new kind of poetry and a new kind of language for pop writing that influenced me from the very, very, very beginning." There are 74 Kinks songs on my iPod. That's not nearly enough.

10 Fake Tales of San Francisco - Arctic Monkeys: I kept seeing them written up in papers and magazines, and was curious, so I stole a bunch of their songs online. Should have known better: I wasn't impressed. This song was the biggest surprise of this week's F10, as I thought I'd exterminated all the Arctic Monkeys inhabiting my hard drive.

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Do it yourself: Put your digital jukebox or mp3 player on "shuffle all songs," and let us know the first 10 out the box. Because it's Friday.
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[posted with ecto]

On iTunes right now: Stranglehold from the album Burning Ambitions (A History of Punk) by U.K. Subs

Whoa, 'Mama! F10

My wife and I are totally thunderstruck by the kindness of ChicagoMama. Yesterday, we received a big box of amazing from her, filled with toys and other goodies for our boys (and for us!). Included among the gifts was even a DVD, and a note suggesting we let it get us through those hours when our days start in the middle of night. So, ChicagoMama isn't just super kind and uber-thoughtful, she also remembers what she reads on The Sticking Point and bestows gifts accordingly. Wow. Too, too nice.

Of course, the 'Mama and her family will be receiving a proper, formal (non-Internet) thank you, but I wanted to let everyone here know how she rolls. Thank you.

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I bought my first-ever entire "album" off the iTunes store yesterday. They'd sent me one of those update emails that mentioned full performances from Austin City Limits. I know some great acts have played there this year, like Cat Power, Jenny Lewis, and deadboy & the Elephantmen. Sure enough, they had an 11-track recording of deadboy that Fat Possum Records didn't even have listed, so I brought it all back home with a download. Ten bucks for eleven awesome songs. I've been listening to that one ALOT in the last 20 hours. (I think I like the live version of "Evil Friend" better than the version on the album.) I immediately burned a copy of these songs, so's the family and I can listen in the car this weekend.

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The 20th Time's a Charm, Dept: On Wednesday night, baby W's twentieth night at home in New York, he slept through the night for the very first time. This followed right on the heels of some particularly wakeful nights, so it came as quite a shock. Such a shock, in fact, that I spent much of that -- my first night to sleep straight through -- awake, waiting for the crying to come. It's like I'm shell-shocked.

Today's Friday 10, now with 30% less irritability.

01 Come On Now - Ramones: Pleasant Dreams is a really cool and often overlooked Ramones album. So good. I think if your collection consists of only the mandatory Ramones releases, those first four from '76 to '78, it's time to do a good thing for yourself. Get another one of their releases every six months or so. It'll take you about seven years to get to ¡Adios Amigos!, and you will have gotten an education for your brain and your earholes. Trust me, those albums you think are sub-par? Check 'em. Every second of the Ramones musical canon is worth hearing, early and often.

02 City Baby Attacked By Rats - GBH: Oh, these Birmingham guys are just hilarious, and not in a good way. In the early 80s, their name started showing up on jackets of local punks, so my friends and I checked them out. We saw them at the Ritz, and giggled our asses off through most of the show. They seemed so insincere. The band was copping all these hot "rock star" poses while struggling to find the right frets on their guitars. For years, we told anyone who asked that G.B.H. was "British slang for poser." All in all, though, as British "punk/metal" goes, they are twice as good as Exploited, and half as good as Discharge. "City Baby..." was their first single, I think. It's also on the debut album.

03 The Wait - The Pretenders: The great Pretenders. You probably know as much as I do (or more) about the Pretenders. Chrissie shows up in a lot of punk rock documentaries, and I think it surprises a lot of people to learn that she was there, then. Yes, she hung with the Pistols, Gen X, UK Subs, and the kids from Eater, worked at McLaren's Sex store, wrote for the NME, and was almost in a band that later became the Clash. Some righteous lineage, for sure. (And let's not forget she conceived a child with Ray Davies.) I KNOW you don't need me to tell you how amazing that first Pretenders record is, because you're probably already thinking that you'd like to pull it out and listen to it today. (If you're a fanatic like me, you already know that Rhino released a blown-out version of the debut, with 28 tracks, including some demos and alts. "The Wait" is a great song. Not one of the upper-tier, everyone's favorite tracks, but it oughta be. When you listen to the album later today, dig what James Honeyman-Scott is doing to that guitar on "The Wait." Sick!

04 Shanghai-A-Go-Go - Squirm: I only have a handful of Squirm songs, off singles and comps. They range from mediocre ("Shanghai A-Go-Go") to good ("Dead Girls Don't Say No," "Fuck You Brooke Shields"). The band were part of the very first wave of New York City Hardcore bands, along with Ism, Butch Lust and the Headlickers, and The Mob. This is going back to around '80-'81. The very first comp to capture the scene is the now legendary Big Apple: Rotten to the Core from 1982. Pretty tricky to find now. There's a very short writeup here.

05 Dildos, Bondage, and Toys - Artless Entanglements: A right, snappy song from a classic SST Records sampler called Chunks. Worth getting your hands on. It's got some major punk rock on it, including some songs by bands no one's ever heard of like Black Flag, Minutemen, and Descendents. Artless Entanglements, as it happens, is the one-off project of SST's resident knob-twiddler, Spot.

06 Candy Says - Velvet Underground: I don't know how to write about the Velvet Underground. Flat-out brilliant, and there I stall. This, as you know, is track one, side one of the great self-titled album.
By the way: If you're ever trolling the peer-to-peer directories looking for great music to steal, you might search for a deadboy & the Elephantmen version of this song. They'd play it live, and that's how you'll find it. The version I have is from a January 2004 show at the Renaissance in Lafayette. At the end, Dax says, "That's the Velvet Underground... sorta."

07 World Love - Magnetic Fields: I have never listened to the 69 Love Songs cd. But I've got all the songs on my iTunes, and they fall out of the sky like magic every now and then. I am sure this is one of my favorite albums of the last 10 years.

08 Step Aside - Sleater-Kinney: Hi, we're Sleater-Kinney and we broke up waaaaay before our music went bad. In fact, many say it was still getting better. We released seven not-good-but-great CDs. "Step Aside" is from One Beat. We hear that Tommy Himself is nuts for Corin's Rickenbacher.

09 Alice Springs - Liz Phair: Good old Liz Phair, huh? She still gets 'em out to the shows, still generates our interest with the new music, but nothing matches that Exile album.

10 Absence of God - Rilo Kiley: Is Jenny Lewis one of the best living American songwriters, male or female? Probably. I met her once and literally thanked her for writing "A Better Son/Daughter." I think I might have even done a totally dorky, I'm a mouth-breathing shut-in thing and asked her if I could hug her. Fuck you. I'm not ashamed. I hugged the woman who wrote "A Better Son/Daughter." This track, "Absence of God" is from the More Adventurous disk, which I think is fantastic, but even more amazing once you've heard the records that led up to it. Every Rilo Kiley release has taken a giant step forward. They've been making music for, what? Six years? And yet, they're already one of my all-time favorite bands. Check out what I listen to the most. The Rilos are rubbing weenies with acts like Black Flag, X, and Rollins Band.

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Now do it yourself: Put your digital jukebox or mp3 player on "shuffle all songs." What are the first ten you hear?

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[posted with ecto]

On iTunes right now: Patience from the album All Through a Life by Rites of Spring

Meme Work

I found this meme on ChicagoMama today. Thought I'd give it a shot, too.

1. When you looked at yourself in the mirror today, what was the first thing you thought?
"I didn't have those gray hairs last week."

2. How much cash do you have on you?
$11.33

3. What's a word that rhymes with “DOOR?”
SPORE. (For some reason, I have had in my head the line from Ghostbusters: "I collect mold, spores, and fungus.")

4. Favorite planet?
This one? (Least favorite: Planet Hollywood.)

5. Who is the 4th person on your missed call list on your cell phone?
My wife's older sister's husband.

6. What is your favorite ringtone on your phone?
"Los Angeles," by X

7. What shirt are you wearing?
Navy-check pattern buttondown by J. Crew. It's got persistent sweat stains inside the collar. And I am wearing a Black Flag T underneath.

8. Do you “label” yourself?
Yes. And the label is four feet long.

9. Name the brand of your shoes you're currently wearing.
Biltrite? Or is that just who makes the sole? These are pretty generic black wingtips.

10. Bright or Dark Room?
Dark. Getting darker every second.

11. What do you think about the person who took this survey before you?
I enjoy her weblog, but don't read it often enough. I think her musical taste reminds me of Brian Last Stop's.

12. What does your watch look like?
It looks like a Swiss Army Watch by Swiss Army.

13. What were you doing at midnight last night?
Whining. And hoping for just 20 consecutive minutes of sleep.

14. What did your last text message you received on your cell say?
Why would it be my last?! What do you know that you're not telling me?! (My most recent message read thusly: "Sheff to Tigers.")

15. Where is your nearest 7-11?
About 300-400 feet from my building.

16. What's a word that you say a lot?
"Great." Everything I like is "great." Even spectacular things.

17. Who told you he/she loved you last?
S.

18. Last furry thing you touched?
That's personal.

19. How many drugs have you done in the last three days?
One. Caffeine. Vitamins and herbal supplements, but no other medications or drugs.

20. How many rolls of film do you need developed?
Zero.

21. Favorite age you have been so far?
Four was real good. No school. No work. I was unaware of the world's evils. "Chick-A-Boom (Don't Ya Jes' Love It)" by Daddy Dewdrop was on the radio all the time.

22. Your worst enemy?
Attention Deficit Disorder.

23. What is your current desktop picture?
A most amazing photo of my wife and our oldest son. They are lying side by side, she is kissing his head. It's an action shot. It's beautiful and exudes love, like photos John and Yoko used to take of each other.

24. What was the last thing you said to someone?
"I'll talk to you in a bit."

25. If you had to choose between a million bucks or to be able to fly what would it be?
Give me the money. Why fly?

26. Do you like someone?
Are we eleven?

27. The last song you listened to...?
Voodoo Child (Slight Return) by Jimi Hendrix Experience

28. What time of day were you born?
15:24.

29. What's your favorite number?
18

30. Where did you live in 1987?
Yonkers, N.Y.

31. Are you jealous of anyone?
Yes.

32. Is anyone jealous of you?
I hope so.

33. Where were you when 9/11 happened?
First, in bed in Brooklyn, NY; then sobbing on my rooftop deck.

34. What do you do when vending machines steal your money?
Blame myself.

35. Do you consider yourself kind?
Yes.

36. If you had to get a tattoo, where would it be?
My next will be on the in-side of my right lower leg.

37. If you could be fluent in any other language, what would it be?
Korean.

38. Would you move for the person you loved?
From one city or country to another, yes. From the couch to the door to pay the delivery guy, maybe.

39. Are you touchy-feely?
No. But I have a hard time NOT kissing my 2-year old son's head and neck.

40. What's your life motto?
"I Don't Have One." It's a stupid motto, but the woman who begs for quarters on Court Street always understood me.

41. Name three things that you have on you at all times.
Wallet, wedding ring, tattoos.

42. What's your favorite town/city?
So many: London, Seoul, San Gimignano, Philly, Toronto, Providence, Indianapolis, Chicago.

43. What was the last thing you paid for with cash?
Lunch: turkey burger deluxe (with cheddar), Met-Rx protein drink, slice of marble pound cake.

44. When was the last time you wrote a letter to someone on paper and mailed it?
Around 2002, to my sister-in-law staying in Pennsylvania.

45. Can you change the oil on a car?
No. But I know how to get it changed.

46. Your first love: what is the last thing you heard about him/her?
That she was overweight and living in Florida. I believe the story, however, to be apocryphal.

47. How far back do you know your ancestry?
I know I had great grandparents. (Or: "spectacular" grandparents.)

48. The last time you dressed fancy, what did you wear and why did you dress fancy?
Sorry. As I am not a dandy, I do not dress "fancy."

49. Does anything hurt on your body right now?
My nerves.

50. Have you been burned by love?
Of course. But getting burned by hate is worse, every time.

[posted with ecto]

On iTunes right now: God Only Knows from the album Pet Sounds by Beach Boys, The

"I Feel Like Metal Is My Culture"

My Yankees playoff tickets arrived yesterday. I've got "home game 2" for the ALDS (which will be against either Minnesota or Detroit), "home game 3" for the ALCS, and World Series game 6. Nice set, there. (Unfortunately, if the Yankees have home field advantage throughout, and they probably will, that ALDS game will conflict with Tilly and the Wall at Bowery Ballroom. I was really looking forward to seeing them again.)

I've only been half-interested in the first two episodes of the new series of Survivor, When Races Collide, but even half listening to last night's episode, I heard one guy spew an (unintentionally) hysterical and great line: "I feel like metal is my culture, instead of Hispanic being my culture."

Maybe today we'll get the travel call from the adoption agency. If that were the case, we figure we'd fly out of NY on Wednesday. We don't know when this call is coming, so we don't know when we're leaving. We just have to be ready. Later today, we'll drop H off at my mother and father's house to chill with them for a day and a half while S and I buy furniture, build furniture, get the crib ready, and turn the office/guest bedroom into the nursery/office. It's pretty wild to think that in five days I might be in Seoul, Korea, and I don't even know yet.

Today's Friday 10...

01 The Unheard Music - X: I saw them again last month, one night in NYC and once out in Sayreville, NJ. In New York, I thought they might have been a bit off their game. Of course they were tight, and sounded awesome, but the performance in Jersey was the better of the two. But who's complaining? A mediocre X concert is still better than a great show by _______. (How far do you want to go? Nickelback? Talking Heads? U2? Yes, yes, and yes.) The version of Unheard Music I heard was off the criminally out-of-print Live at the Whiskey A Go-Go disk.

02 It's Getting Late - Galaxie 500: I'll probably never delete Galaxie 500 tracks from my iPod. Though I rarely seek them out, I'm always happy to hear them when they come on. "It's Getting Late" is from Today. That, This Is Our Music, and On Fire are the entire officially released studio output of this great band. All three records, plus b-sides and outtakes are compiled in the box set. Dean from G500 went on to form Luna, as you know; Naomi and Damon continued recording as Damon and Naomi. I think I'm going to break a lazy habit, and pull out some Galaxie 500 disks to hear today. A Head Full of Wishes is far and away one of the best fan sites you will ever visit. It's put together flawlessly and has everything you need or need to know about Galaxie 500, Luna, and all the solo permutations (including Weeds of Eden!).

03 Lady Coca-Cola - Métal Urbain: The album this is on, Les Hommes Mort Est Dangereux, is the only one the band ever made while they were together (though I think it's a compilation of their singles). French noise terrorist Eric Débris went on to form Dr. Mix and the Remix with one or two other members of Urbain. While Dr. Mix is sort of a rock and roll noise outfit, Urbain is for sure a noise noise ensemble. Not easy listening, but great music isn't easy. Nevertheless, "Lady Coca Cola" will empty a room, if you need to be alone. Great! You can also get "Lady Coca Cola" on the Anarchy in Paris disk from Acute. Wikipedia has some Métal Urbain info, as does TrakMarx.

04 Monolith - T-Rex: From the great Electric Warrior. I must have been about ten years old when I "bought" that album. I loved it so much; cool wordplay, great riffs, and all the songs sounded like different genres. I was enthralled. (It wasn't like Kiss or the Stones or the Beach Boys at all!) When this song came on this morning, I was trying to remember how it was that I started listening to T-Rex. By the late 70s, there sure wasn't much coverage of Bolan and the group in any of the magazines I read, like Creem, Circus, and Hit Parader. I can't remember any of my friends or my older sister's friends listening to them. I honestly don't know how I started listening. Maybe I heard "Get It On" on the radio and just started tracking down the records on my own. When I was about 11, I wrote a letter to a UK address on one of the albums, and ended up joining the T-Rex Fan Club. Every month or two I'd get a newsletter and an EP or single that was only available to fan club members. I remember that one of the greatest songs I got was called "Sing Me A Song," and the sleeve said Bolan write and recorded it as the theme to a BBC television special. By now, all that fan club-only music has found the light of day on comps and reissues, but the vinyl singles I got from the club are among the most rare and valuable stuff in my collection.

05 Four Thousand Days - Luna: This is a good song from Days of Our Nights. I remember when that came out, thinking it just wasn't on par with any of the Luna records before it. It was the beginning of the era of diminishing returns for the band. I guess that makes DoON the last Luna record worth having. It's too bad they started sucking so hard; at their peak -- their Slide to Pup Tent streak -- they were among the best.

06 One Shot - Rollins Band: "You get one shot / Don't miss me" is a couplet from the Badass Hall of Fame, I think. The Nice album was pretty much kicked to the curb by critics and fans and, admittedly, it took me some time to come around to it. I kept my ears on it, and I've grown to love it. What serious fucking grooves got laid down on it! It was engineered by Clif Norrell -- a master. In the last year, I've probably listened to Nice more than any other Rollins Band record. It's still in print, but I'm sure you can find it for little more than shipping costs on eBay.

07 Perfect Circle - REM: I actually won that first REM record. I was in Seaside Heights, it was the summer of 1983, and I put a quarter down on one of those boardwalk wheel games and won the album of my choice. It was something that would happen a lot in the early 80s, because I spent so much time down the shore and when I did, I never left those album stands. Are you kidding?! The chance to win new records for just a few quarters?! I came home with armloads. Anyway, it's not hard to figure out why, even more than half my life later, a week doesn't go by when I don't listen to a song of this perfect album. I don't know if there's a remaster out there, but the mix on the CD is far inferior to the vinyl. That's not elitism or thumbing my nose at anything, it's just... there are notes and entire layers of sound that I loved on the record that are noticeably lost in the digital mix I have. Whatever. I read somewhere that the band chose to call the album Murmur because it's the easiest word to speak in the English language. That is, science has proven that saying murmur requires the least effort of the tongue, throat, lips, and larynx.
On a tangent: Did anyone else know that forty is the only number that, when spelled out in English, has its letters in alphabetical order?

08 It's A Long Way Back To Germany - Ramones: Tell me: Why was there an image of Joey Ramone on the screen during the open of FOX's Saturday afternoon game last weekend? It was part of an Audioslave music video intro that made very little sense it was an audio and video non sequiter. Maybe using Joey in the visual was someone's way of grasping for credibility. I just can't find my way to Audioslave. Can't explain why.

09 All Tomorrow's Parties - Velvet Underground: What a vocal. What a band. What an album. Henry Rollins once described Nico as "darkness and cold distance on two legs. The enchantress of the Abyss." That's perfect. I haven't seen Icon yet, but we've got it Netflixed. I'm sure it'll ship sometime after we watch the 11th season of Lost.

10 Baghdad - High On Fire: This is Matt Pike (from Sleep)'s newer band. A seriously ass-whomping outfit and a heavy record from start to finish. If you've never heard Sleep, start there with the amazing, DNA-distorting Dopesmoker cd. (It's loud, slow and low -- the guy in the apartment above mine told my wife he can hear me playing my bass. I don't play bass, but I was recently listening to Dopesmoker everyday for weeks.) Then work your way through the spinoff bands: High on Fire, Om, and Kalas. You won't be disappointed; they'll smash your mind to pieces -- in a good way.

.
Now you do it: Put your mp3 player or digital jukebox on "shuffle all songs." It's Friday, so let us know the first 10 songs you hear.

.
[posted with ecto]

On iTunes right now: Buggin' Out from the album The Anthology by Tribe Called Quest, A

Chin Music

I'm happy with the Yankees Abreu/Lidle acquisitions this weekend. Not because Abreu will add "pop" to the lineup as many say (he might, but he may not be that type of hitter anymore), but for two other reasons: 1) his tendency to draw walks will stretch innings (and opposing pitchers) and 2) Lidle is a big improvement over Sidney Ponson.

But I am especially glad they made the trade for Wilson yesterday. They added offense, deepened their squadron of pinch hitters, and didn't lose an arm to do it. Very nice deal. I hope the lineup tonight (and until Cano comes back) looks like this:
CF Damon
SS Jeter
DH Giambi
3B Rodriguez
RF Abreu
C Posada
1B Wilson
LF Cabrera
2B Cairo

They can win with that lineup, I think. Plus, it gives their bench some depth. Remember the late 90s, when pinch hitters like Strawberry, Raines, or Davis could come off the bench and worry the opposition? Bernie's no Straw, for sure... but I love him coming in against lefties. And, on those days when Bernie is DH, you've got Wilson -- who's a very good pinch hitter -- on the bench, to tighten up the defense late in the game. I'd like to see Phillips stick around, because I think he'll be a good player... it just won't happen this season.

I hope Torre doesn't occasionally put Bernie back in center as he hints he might. I love Bernie. Love everything about him. But he shouldn't play centerfield again until Old Timer's Day.

.
And also? My son said "coffee" this morning. Je suis un papa fier!

.

[posted with ecto]

On iTunes right now: Out Of The Question from the album Wall Of Noise by Doctor Mix And The Remix

What A Year Sounds Like

A lot has happened in the last 12 months. A lot has happened to me, I mean. Bought a car, got a new apartment in a different NYC borough, lost my job, was forced to give my dog away, diversified the résumé with some cool projects, and I'm inching ever closer to seeing my family grow one larger. And during all of these more-up-than-down moments, I was listening to an earload of great music.

That's what AudioScrobbler tells me. (I use its original name, even though it's owned and run by LastFM now.) One Friday last summer, late in the afternoon, while Hurricane Dennis swirled its way toward the Gulf and the 2005 hurricane season got underway, I sat out on the deck of the Brooklyn Heights apartment mousing around the so-called Internet. I found this AudioScrobbler thing and signed up.

Basically, it's like Big Brother for your iPod and iTunes. You listen to a song and the track's ID and tag info is sent to the AudioScrobbler database and entered into a page of your listening stats/habits. I'm all about this kind of shit. When I was about eight years old, I began writing down every song I'd play on my little plug-in record player. In time, the notebook I used evolved into blank daily playlist sheets I created and Xeroxed at my grandmother's office. I'd dutifully fill these out every day: song, artist, album or single, time of day it got played. Eight years old! At the end of the week, the month, the year, I'd tally up the results and make charts of my listening preferences.

Why? Because I... am... a... fucking... freak. Or is it "nerd"? Or "geek"? (SO'C always schools me on the difference.)

By high school, I realized that printing up these sheets and making blank copies to fill out every time I listened to music was utterly ridiculous. Sad, even.

So I switched back to the notebook.

Anyway, when I found the 'Scrobbler thing, I was more excited than the Sean Penn character in I Am Sam after inhaling paint fumes. So now that it has been exactly one year since I signed up, it's a good time to look over the Year In (My) Music.

>>> WARNING: Extreme weblog narcissism to follow. <<<

Take a look at the site. (Signing up for your own self is not a bad idea, too.) It keeps a log of tracks that I've heard recently, as well as the top artists of the week and the most oft-played songs. But the real holy grail -- for me -- is the overall artists chart.

At fast glance, it seems I'm a bit of a throwback; my old listening habits die hard. Most of these acts are somewhat off the radar -- many are long gone and others haven't recorded since prior to the first Gulf War. Some of them, though, still make the rounds on the occasional tour.

Tommy Himself's Top Artists, July 8, 2005 - July 8, 2006

#1 -- Rollins Band
Touring. Last studio release: 2/29/2000. From the numbers, it seems (on average) I listen to more than 10 Rollins Band songs per week. Can't choose a favorite album, as my tastes shift every couple months or so.

#2 -- X
Touring (currently with Rollins Band!). Last studio release: 6/8/93.

#3 -- Rilo Kiley
Touring. Last studio release: 8/17/04.

#4 -- Black Flag
Disbanded. Last studio release: 1985.

#5 -- Minutemen
Disbanded. Last studio release: 10/85.

#6 -- The Fall
Touring. Last studio release: 10/4/2005.

#7 -- The Clash
Disbanded. Last studio release: 5/14/82. So, yeah, I'm considering Combat Rock their last studio release. Face it, Cut The Crap (1985) wasn't The Clash. Even Joe himself pretended that didn't happen.

#8 -- Ramones
Disbanded. Last studio release: 7/18/95.

#9 -- Misfits
Let's call them disbanded, shall we? They did officially breakup in 1983, and every subsequent lineup since Danzig left has just been one more revolution as they spin down the drain. Just... not... the Misfits. Last studio release (with Danzig): 1983.

#10 Beastie Boys
Touring. Last studio release: 6/15/04.

#11 -- The Replacements
Disbanded. Last studio release: 9/25/90.

#12 -- Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins
Touring. Last studio release: 1/24/06. Yeah. I got their one recording last fall -- and I've played the shit out of it. But AudioScrobbler is also counting the bootleg of a San Fran show (03.04.06) and the BBC Sessions (02.06.06) that I have.

#13 -- Buzzcocks
Touring (after a long hiatus). Last studio release: 3/7/06.

#14 -- The Knitters
Touring. Last studio release: 7/12/2005. Wait, what? An explanation: For some reason, Knitters tracks are tagged two different ways in my system. (They are listed as both "Knitters, The" and "The Knitters.") So, they show up twice in my overall list. If you add the number of plays, it's 148 -- landing them in 14th place.

#15 -- The Jesus and Mary Chain
Disbanded. Last studio release: 6/9/98. 

Tommy Himself's Top Tracks, July 8, 2005 - July 8, 2006

#1
You Are What You Love - Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins
Holy shit. For an aging throwback like me, it's shocking that I've listened to a new (2006!) song so often. But check it out yourself; let me know if you don't think it deserves to be heard at least once a day. The melody is like a freight train that chugs along to the end of the track. It's Dylanesque, circa Highway 61. 

#2
Laughing at You - Detroit Cobras
This is a cover of a Guardinias song, from the Cobras' great Life, Love and Leaving disk. I can't find anything online about the Guardinias; if you know anything, please write. 

#3
More Adventurous (live) - Rilo Kiley
From a recording I have of their in-store at Good Records in Dallas on 10-23-04. I didn't realize I'd listened to this all that much but, well, there it is.

#4 (tie)
Always - Rilo Kiley
No Values - Hank III
Last Caress - Misfits
The Rilos is the Take-Offs and Landings version. It's my favorite version. The vocal is pure sex, pure seduction. The Hank III is a Black Flag cover off the WM3 record. I wouldn't imagine a Black Flag cover charting higher than an original -- but again, there it is; "Last Caress" is godhead.

#7
Pata Pata - Miriam Makeba
This Makeba track is a no-doubter. If you've never heard it, then you've probably never spent any time with me.

#8
Absence of God (live) - Rilo Kiley
From their 1-21-04 show at SUNY Purchase.

#9 (tie)
Bite - Kleptones
Ancient Man - deadboy and the Elephantmen
Fix Me - Black Flag
The Kleptones are Eric Kleptone. He put out an mp3 "album" called A Night at the Hip Hopera that I lusted over for a while. It's a bundle of Queen songs mashed with hip hop classics. (Info and downloads here.) "Bite" uses "Another One Bites The Dust" as its jumping-off point. If you go out and blindly buy one CD by a band you've never heard (and why would you, since you can hear or steal anything on the Internet?), it should be We Are Night Sky. Trust me. If you buy it and don't like it, I'm sure someone with ears and a brain will buy it from you. "Fix Me" is classic Black Flag -- with Keith Morris strangling the lyrics into submission and Greg Ginn doing some otherworldly magic on guitar.

#12 (tie)
Revenge - Black Flag
Life of Pain - Black Flag
Rabbit Fur Coat - Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins
Solitary Confinement - The Weirdos
On The Day - Rollins Band
Nobody knows the greatness of that Rollins Band track like I do. Jenny Lew -- well, yeah, it's a bulletproof song. "Revenge" is the single version; "Life of Pain" is the one from the Desperate Teenage Lovedolls soundtrack. Two minutes and thirty seconds after saying they've never heard of the Weirdos, most L.A. punk rock fans declare "Solitary Confinement" their all-time favorite song.

#17 (tie)
Depression - Black Flag
Police Story - Black Flag
Phobias - L.A.L.
Los Angeles - X 
Almost everyone who got a mixed CD from me in the last 12 months now has that L.A.L. song. Man, that's a great one. I heard it for the first time when I bought a great Rough Trade comp in Williamsburg last summer and I've been listening the shit out of it ever since. (Seriously, this is one of the best compilations you will ever hear. Trust your friend Tommy Himself. Get yourself one as soon as you can.) Oh, and X -- it's fucking "Los Angeles," the song about Farrah-Fawcett Minor, Exene's one-time roommate, who had to leave Los Angeles. Amazing track, and the only thing I like about getting phone calls these days is that "Los Angeles" is my ringtone. Those two Black Flag songs are both the versions from the Damaged album.

.

[posted with ecto]

On iTunes right now: Don't Marry Her from the album Blue is the Colour by Beautiful South, The 

Foursome? I Hardly Know 'Em!

I don't know why, I don't know why, I don't know WHY I haven't shared this news on here yet, but here it is: I'm going to be a dad again. Or still, but to a whole 'nother person. Though H is oblivious to his mom and dad's excitement, he will soon be a big brother. And by "soon," I mean sometime between this July and October, the whole Sticking Point family will be heading back to Korea for to bring home our newest addition.

We don't know "boy or girl?" yet, and we pretty much don't care one way or the other. I just hope the baby is at least half as charming and sweet as H, and sleeps twice as much as he did as an infant.

Does anyone have any tips on handling 15+ hours of travel time, most of it spent sitting in coach with a spirited young boy of about 26 months old?

.

Here's this week's Friday 10.

01 Joey - Concrete Blonde: This is a song a lot of people like, apparently. Every time it came on in my old office, people would walk by and give me an emphatic "Grrreeeat song!" I love Concrete Blonde. Great voice on Johnette Napolitano, and she wrote a lot of songs that -- wisely -- allowed her to air out her pipes. They never really got the critical acclaim or the huge sales they deserved, but there were a hell of a lot of good songs on those first three albums. I lost sight of their ship after that, but I know Napolitano is still making music with or without the band. They seem like the kind of band that will forever turn up on compilations; I wonder if there's a good official release of their outtakes, alternates, and demos -- it might be worth a listen.
My Memory's Not Gone Yet Dept.: I always remember she had a short sharp quote once; when asked about recording her duet with Paul Westerberg on "My Little Problem," she just said, "He had bad breath."
Fazed had a really good interview with Johnette N here.

02 Lady Godiva's Operation - Velvet Underground: From the White Light White Heat album. They were OK, I guess. No Yellowcard, but OK. I got a lot of Velvet Underground on me between 1987 and 1993. I had a TDK SA-100 cassette of VU stuff that I had with me in all towns at all times. I remember once I was in Arlington, Virginia and got invited to some girl's house for a party. I put my cassette in the stereo and some fingers went in some ears. People asked me "Who is this?!" Can you believe it? I told them it was demo recordings of the new direction the Sugarcubes were going in. Boy, were they bummed. Tears fell into their red plastic beer cups.

03 The Move - Beastie Boys: The other night, StereoMic was playing a Beastie Boys bootleg from a Manchester show in 2004, and I was like yo I just gotta have that. Good show, great sound. Hopefully I can get my hands on a CDR of it soon. This version of "The Move" is the one from the Hello Nasty album, the one you've heard plenty of times, with the cool harpsichord part and that fun sample from Los Ångeles Negros. (Most of whose stuff isn't hard to find. I have had 20 Exitos Originales de los Ångeles Negros for about 15 years and dig it. Weird coincidence: I was listening to it yesterday in the office. I just looked at Amazon, and they don't have that one, but there are plenty of comps of the Negros other exitos out there.)

04 Parades Go By - Magnetic Fields: Last week, TSP friend and reader Nick got the Magnetic Fields' "Asleep and Dreaming" on his Friday 10 and wrote that Stephin Merritt is the "best lyricist today." For quality, consistency, and quantity -- it is hard to argue with that. I have a lot of Merritt's work -- the 6ths stuff, the Pieces of April soundtrack, some stray mp3s, and the complete 69 Love Songs set that pal Jake turned me onto a few years ago. This is all fine music, so complex it sounds simple. Merritt makes songs that make you run, not walk, to the CD burner to put on mixes for your friends. "Parades" and "Asleep" are both on 69 Love Songs.
Not Just That, But... Dept.: Nick doesn't just enjoy great music, he also writes great stuff for the YanksFan vs. SoxFan site. And this was a key week to be reading that. Here's a typically sharp entry he wrote recently.

05 Sunrise Sunset - Miriam Makeba: This is from the Magic of Makeba CD. I have written plenty on TSP over the years about my love for Makeba, but this is not one of my preferred tracks. I'm not a big fan of her recording of more contemporary Western stuff. It just seems like a waste of genius to me. "Sunrise Sunset" is a good enough song, for what it is, but when Makeba puts her voice on it, it's like getting Aretha Franklin, Diamanda Galas, and the Three Tenors in for a McDonald's "I'm Lovin' It" recording session. I read somewhere that the Magic of Makeba record included pop songs (and songs she sings in Yiddish) in part as an effect of the Beatles' changing the face of music. By that time, she -- with her dynamic voice, who sang predominantly African Xhosa tribal songs in the native language -- was getting pushed to the fringes of the recording industry. So, I guess it's the 1960s equivalent of when the Kinks tried disco with "Wish I Could Fly Like Superman," or that entire Matrix-formulated self-titled Liz Phair album: more a sign of current trends than a step forward for the artist. On this record, she sort of sidestepped the South African material and slummed it with lesser songs. Regardless, Magic of Makeba still has one of my all-time faves of hers, "Oxgam."

06 Mother Mary - Eels: I don't know much about the Eels. OK, nothing. I know this song was put on a very thoughtful mixed CD made for me and Mrs. Sticking Point by Brian Last Stop called "The Year 1 Mix." If I remember properly, it was given to us to kick off our first year as parents and all of the songs are suited to that thematic purpose. I've got to say... I don't dig this Eels track. It's a little blah for my tastes, but hey, can't look a gift horse in the mouth, and that's why the track is still in my iTunes. I don't like many of the same artists and bands as Brian does, but I admire that he's got such confidence in his musical taste. If he wants to listen to ten consecutive songs by Def Leppard, Beach Boys, Pat Benatar, David Bowie, Guns N Roses, Public Enemy, Toad The Wet Sprocket, Ramones, Naked Eyes, and Bjork, and you don't like it? -- Fuck you, it's your problem, not his. Right on. (But when he asked me this year to put the first two Stooges records on CDR for him, I thought, alright -- now we're getting somewhere.) Look at that -- I wrote an Eels entry on a Friday 10!

07 Naked Dutch Painter - Stew: It starts, "The naked Dutch painter in the kitchen does not want to fuck you / She's got 17 boyfriends and an 8 o'clock class to get to" and just gets better from there. Years ago, I read a small write-up about Stew in a magazine, and it sounded like my kind of thing so I went right out to Amazon website and bought the Naked Dutch Painter disk. (And yet, somehow I got a promo copy -- weird.) It's a gem and I treasure it. Highly recommended. Stew is what you'd hear if Randy Newman were jazzy and Captain Beefheart were lounge-y. He's pop music like Burt Bacharach is pop music. Stew is the leader of a group you've probably heard of called The Negro Problem (or "TNP" in some far too sensitive magazines and newspapers). Some of the Naked Dutch Painter album was recorded live at the AlterKnit Lounge in Hollywood and the rest was done down in Panorama City. The players are of blue ribbon heritage: bass player Heidi Rodewald was in Wednesday Week and The Novaks; pianist Morley Bartnoff of Burning Sensations, Cosmo Topper, and Dramarama plays on a few songs on the album, as do the great drummers Nelson Bragg (Cosmo Topper, Brian Wilson's band) and Blondie-man Clem Burke. (See, now? In all the time you wasted reading that, you could have already bought the Naked Dutch Painter disk!) Go to negroproblem.com to get "lifted," as they say.

08 Me Heart is Livin' in the Sixties Still - Saw Doctors: From the All The Way From Tuam disk, their best album IMO. You've probably noticed that I get a lot of Saw Doctors house calls on my Friday 10s. I have about four dozen Saw Docs songs on the iTunes. I dig them. I can't vouch for much of the last couple years-worth of their music as it's missed me, but the first four albums and the Sing A Powerful Song comp that Shamtown released to introduce the band in the U.S., are well worth your time. And, as I've mentioned before, if you've ever got 20 bucks in your pocket and a couple hours free, go find a Saw Doctors concert. Amazing.
Minor Lifelong Dream Dept.: One day, I've got to see them play in Ireland.

09 Wild Thing - X: The version I heard was the 7" single edit. I also have a 12" that has a longer fade-in and sustain on the opening note, a repeated verse and chorus, and an extended solo break. That one's a "wasty" one; this is the better version if you ask me. Short and to the point like a Karate chop to the windpipe. I remember when "Wild Thing" came out (it was first on the soundtrack of a Charlie Sheen baseball movie), I thought I could finally get more of my friends listening to the almighty X. They make this song really hard to dislike. A cover of the Troggs' song (but you knew that when you woke up this morning), I'd say "Wild Thing" has made its way around pop culture. How about the fact that the year it was written (1966, by Chip Taylor -- a Yonkers, NY boy) it appeared on five (5!) different albums by five different acts? (Do you think that'd happen today? Do you think Rihanna or Yellowcard are gonna be that gregarious? Fuck no, they're not.) It's been in countless movies as a kind of a signifier song; you know, when the director uses the music as shorthand for describing a character or the mood of a scene. (See also: "Bone, Bad to the.") You've heard it in the Sheen movie, and because of that movie a handful of self-important MLB relief pitchers have adopted the X version as their entrance themes; and it was the song Jimi was playing when he set his guitar on fire at the Monterey Pop in 1967. If you told me "Wild Thing" was playing when Bobby Kennedy got shot, I'd believe it; that song is the Forrest Gump of rock and roll.

10 Don't Lay It On Me - Paybacks: Do I get the Paybacks every week? That's alright by me. Great band, great rock and roll voice on Wendy Case, as I have written so many times already. Before the Paybacks, she was in a band called Ten High that released one record called Party Store. There's a song on it that Case co-wrote with Kim Fowley ("Sins of the Family"), which reminds me that when I saw the Paybacks live at a festival on Randall's Island a couple years ago, Fowley introduced them. I just got Party Store used off Amazon for $2.56. Can't wait to hear it; when it gets here, I'll let you know how it is. By the way, it's phenomenal that the Paybacks show up on these Friday 10s with such regularity. I have only six of their songs on the iPod. Out of 5,554 songs, that's 1%.

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Now... you! Put your mp3 player or digital jukebox on "shuffle all songs," and tell us the first ten songs you hear. (Idiot fanboy annotations are optional.)

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