I don't know if it's the Champale talking, but I think I could just get lost in Jim Post's eyes for days. He's just so damn dreamy.What with the water-sculpted physique,the carefully-cultivated porn mustache, and the patented puppy-dog staredown from the Alan Alda School for Sensitive Men, he's the poster boy for the plague of singer-songwriters who ravaged this country's music charts and suburban Turtle Records throughout the late 1970s. At the time, it just seemed like harmless fun. We didn't know this was going to lead to the Christopher Cross tragedy of 1980. In retrospect, it seems like a tragic folly. But who could resist that 'stache?
If I can tear myself away from Jim's watery come-hither stare, it's time for the Friday Random Ten. Here goes:
1. King Floyd, "Woman Don't Go Astray" -- A fairly standard R&B tune from the man who's best known for "Groove Me." This isn't quite as good, but not exactly bad. Eh. 5/10
2. Moby, "Porcelain" -- While I liked the tracks on the Play album that made use of the old Alan Lomax field recordings of folk songs in the South, the more standard Mobyish stuff like this song never really did it for me. 6/10
3. Common featuring Laetitia Sadier, "New Wave" -- I never would've dreamed of pairing the Stereolab vocalist with Common, but this works extremely well. The hiphop verses are standard, but the chorus that Sadier builds is phenomenal. 10/10
4. Clarence Reid, "Master Piece" -- A nice bit of soul strutting from Oliver Wang's Soul Sides compilation. If you're into soul and aren't checking out his blog on a regular basis, you're missing out on goodies like this one. Go. 8/10
5. Junior Varisty KM, "You're Fabulous!" -- Brilliant drum 'n' bass work from San Francisco's Kenric McDowell. Catchy as hell. 10/10
6. Earth, Wind and Fire, "Mighty Mighty" -- A mediocre tune from the '70s supergroup. In recognition of that, and in honor of Jim Post, I'm going to give his radio rivals a middling grade. 7/10
7. Radiohead, "Motion Picture Soundtrack" -- I know some fans were iffy about the mellow electronica of Kid A, but I love that album. A nice, slow, lush one here. 8/10
8. Link Wray and the Wraymen, "Rumble Mambo" -- The original "Rumble" was Link's biggest and most notorious hit, an instrumental that somehow managed to get banned in some American cities because its title supposedly referred to gang violence. While that song's great, the mambo variation isn't. 4/10
9. The Replacements, "Androgynous" -- This is the one 'Mats song that I can always remember clearly from the concerts of theirs I've seen. It's not that it's my favorite, but this was always the time where the crowd calmed down and drunkenly sang along. Never a disappointment. 8/10
10. The Stonecutters, "We Do!" -- The Simpsons' classic tribute to the Freemasons. "Who keeps down the electric car? Who made Steve Guttenberg a star? We do, we do!" This song and more, all available for your listening and downloading pleasure from this site. Have fun. 6/10
Alright, that gives me a perfect 7.0 score on the coolness scales. Apparently, I'm just barely passing. I can't remember if that's cool or not.
Let's see what you've got. Drop your own FRTs, with or without a coolness audit, in the comments below.
4 comments:
1. Ray Charles, “You Be My Baby”- He was blind, people. Blind! I don’t care who you are, you’re feeling unaccomplished right now, and if you’re not, you’re kidding yourself. This song is part oldies, part jazz, and part silky smooth soul. He couldn’t see for God’s sake! 8/10
2. Snow Patrol, “Chocolate”- Is this song about making love to a black woman? Formulaic Coldplay-like rockin’, and lucky for them this one’s ‘A Rush of Blood to the Head’ style, not X&Y (aka ASS). I like, don’t love, which is to say I feel for them exactly like every girl I wanted to “date” in junior high felt about me. 7/10
3. Starsailor, “Way to Fall”- What an apt transition. Consecutive Coldplayish tracks. This one’s packs more emo into the vocals. I never listen to them, but this is a decent song. I still probably won’t listen to them. So it’s not that good. 6/10
4. Miles Davis, “Buzzard Song”- Miles is one of them peoples who I have way too much stuff of, and thus am not familiar with most of it. You know when you first hear Miles was the bitchingest jazz fella in all the land, and you think, “I like jazz, because I’m cultured,” and it’s right after you learned you could burn CDs at the school library, so you burned everything they had, not realizing until years later that though you recognize it’s greatness you have more than you could ever wrap your head around. CD-Rs: a blessing… and a curse. 6/10
5. Ol’ Dirty Bastard, “Dirty Dancin’”- I still remember where I was when I learned he passed. I was in a monastery, and word quickly spread from nun to nun to me. I overheard one nun say, “Ol’ Dirty Bastard? Who? I don’t know nothing about nothing, but maybe the death of someone called Ol’ Dirty Bastard isn’t such a bad thing.” Needless to say, me and the other nuns beat her ass. There are a lot of people for whom you can speculate, “If they hadn’t made it as a [athlete, singer, rapper, etc.] they probably would’ve led a life of crime.” For ODB, though, you can say that definitively, because not only did he make it as a rapper, he kept living his criminal lifestyle. Inspired. The day he realized he could use non-words was the day his job got twice as easy. “I’m the Old Dirty Bas-, I came to kick your ass.” This one’s w/ Meth and from the Wu’s golden era. 7/10
6. Elliott Smith, “Waltz #2 (Xo)”- A dead twofer! Oh, hell, this is so good I’ll tear up if I talk about it. 10/10
7. The Who, “Streets of London 1961-63 (Dialogue)/Miracle Cure”- Quickie from Tommy. I propose a FRT amendment that allows FRTers to disinclude tracks less than one minute. We shouldn’t be faulted for the indulgences of an artist, even though this one is justified given the whole rock opera thing. Still, pretty worthless out of context. 4/10
8. GnR, “It’s So Easy”- I spent a summer working in West Lafayette, Indiana. I stayed in an apartment complex called “The Brownstone.” Axl Rose also lived there once. He wrote a song about it. True story. 7/10
9. Fugazi, “Floating Boy”- I lived in DC for 2.5 golsh darn years and saw zero Fugazi concerts. C’mon, fellas! I did live close to Guy, who frequently walked past my place w/ a baby (presumably his) strapped to him. If there was an indie rock hall of fame, these cats would be first ballot no doubters. Inconceivable, their last album might have been there best, and there’s nary a bad album in that bunch. 7/10
10. Cat Power, “You May Know Him”- Apparently she’s finally pulled her live show together, which is great news except for the fact that I skipped her at Coachella and in NYC. Whenever I hear stories like this about the heartwarming effects of going sober, I wonder if maybe I should give up the bottle. Then I have a drink and forget what I was wondering about. 7/10
69! Dammit! So close to seventy. I’m crappin’ you negative when I say counting up my FRT score is the most dramatic ten minutes of my week.
Alas, I can't do an FRT until much later, so let me just suggest that everyone go listen to Diary of a Madman today.
1. Feel Good, Inc. - Gorillaz featuring De La Soul. Awesome song - and you have to love the De La Soul - but a little overplayed. 6/10.
2. Rocket - The Smashing Pumpkins. Hiiiiiiigh scoooooooool! Not a bad song, but kind of just "there". 6/10.
3. This Fire - Franz Ferdinand. A good tune. But I have to give it a relatively low score because of the trendiness and the saturation rate! If this is the way my FRT is going to go, I'm afraid to look at the final rating. 7/10.
4. Starlings in the Slipstream - Pavement. Ugh. My god, can anyone tell me why I like Pavement again? Because with songs like this, I'm not sure I should. 3/10.
5. There's No Home For You Here - The White Stripes. Could be my favourite White Stripes song. Love that three-part harmony towards the end. 9/10.
6. Look-Ka Py Py - The Meters. A good little funk song, but nothing I'd take home to my mom's place for dinner. 6/10.
7. Begin The Begin - R.E.M. Back in the day when Stipe, Berry, Buck, & Mills actually put out some rocking good tunes once in a while. Unlike the last song, this one's a keeper. 8/10.
8. Two Lips, Two Lungs & One Tongue - NoMeansNo. Ah yes. Good old punk-rock gets me back on the train to awesometown. 9/10.
9. Melt Into The Walls - Pilate. Canadian rock group that really blew me away with their first album. Comparisons to U2 and Radiohead, but in a good way. 7/10.
10. Idioteque - Radiohead. Another strong song to finish up. I really dig this song, with the beats and the creepy lyrics. 9/10.
Grand total of 70/100. Whew, dodged a bullet with that one!
I was out of commission this weekend, but nice work on the FRTs, doctors.
Thrillhous, I can't wait much longer. I'm dying to know which three Scorpions songs came up this week.
Post a Comment