Ladies and gentlemen, may I present to you the hard rock supergroup Ratchell.As the cover makes clear, Ratchell combined four outstanding stars of the early '80s. Clockwise from the top left, we have (1) the always sexy Valerie Bertinelli, fresh from her starring role on "One Day at a Time"; (2) the always dangerous Christopher Lambert, right before his starring role in Highlander; (3) the always coked-up David Crosby, right during his starring role at the Betty Ford clinic (click that link for David's self-portrait); and, of course, (4) the always rugged good looks of Rocky Dennis, right at the moment I'm heading for hell.
The arrival of such a stellar supergroup can only mean that it's once again time for the Friday Random Ten. Lock and load, people. This is not -- repeat, not -- a drill.
1. TV on the Radio, "I Was a Lover" -- Oh, what a nice start. This may be my favorite track of their new album, The Return to Cookie Mountain. I'm not entirely sure what the song's about, but I'm positive it's absofuckinglutely brilliant. I missed seeing these kids at a free show in Brooklyn this summer, and it's quickly becoming my greatest regret. Well, that, and not finishing the world's biggest hoagie. 10/10
2. Pixies, "Wave of Mutilation (Live at the BBC)" -- A pretty nice version of one of their better-known tunes, though Black Francis (or Frank Black or Blackula or whatever he's called now) makes the lyrics a little too quiet. 7/10
3. Frank Sinatra, "Come Fly with Me" -- I have a soft spot for the Chairman of the Board, but this is a pretty standard, factory-issue arrangement from the Capitol Records conglomerate. Eh. 3/10
4. The Pretenders, "Back on the Chain Gang" -- I doubt I'll ever get tired of the sweet opening guitar hook or Chryssie Hynde's sultry voice, but I'm not sure anything featured on VH1 can be considered cool. (Except for him, of course.) 5/10
5. Kitty Love, "You Gotta Change" -- Some obscure soul strutting from a collection called Shakin' Fit. Really brassy vocals, with a fairly standard '60s R&B beat. I think I'm supposed to do the mashed potato to this song, or the home fries, or the scattered-covered-smothered hash browns. Some kind of starchy dance. 7/10
6. Earth, Wind and Fire, "Mighty Mighty" -- Some fairly early work by EWF, somewhere between the soundtrack they did for Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (billed as "The Film The MAN Doesn't Want You to See!") and the soundtrack song they did for Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (known as "The Film NO ONE Wants to See!") Pretty nice funk, all things considered. 8/10
7. Chic, "Good Times" -- I have no idea how to classify this song on the coolness scale, as it's both retro hip and old-school lame, sort of like bellbottoms and Bea Arthur. But I will give it credit for a lyric I've always loved: "Don't be a drag, participate / Clams on the half shell and roller-skates, roller-skates!" Sounds like a party to me. 4/10
8. Yo La Tengo, "Here Comes My Baby" -- Hoboken's finest do a fairly straightforward cover of the Cat Stevens classic. I really should love this. I really should. I don't. 2/10
9. Hank Williams, "Your Cold, Cold Heart" -- Classic country from the all-time master. Man, if old Hank had lived to see what a dumbfuck, drunk douchebag his son turned into, he would've never stopped throwing up. 7/10
10. Stereolab, "Ping Pong" -- Well, there was a lot of crap in between, but I'm ending on as strong a song as I began. This is electronica at its happy, loopy, moogy finest. 10/10
Not a great week for me, with a 6.3 average. Any worse and I'd wind up having to go to coolness summer school.
Let's see what the rest of you have. Kindly drop your own FRTs in the comments, with or without the coolness self-aduit. Or feel free to pick apart my choices, or reminisce about how hot Valerie Bertinelli was before she settled down with the Crypt Keeper.
12 comments:
Lordy, I'm going to have nightmares about those guys.
Speaking of nightmares, Armitage has leaked to Novak that my list this week isn't very good. You be the judge!
1) In the Flesh - Floyd. This is off the Under Construction release, a set of early recordings of the wall. no keyboards, pretty cool. 7/10
2) Living Sin - ELP. Least good song off an awesome album. 6/10
3) I Don't Mind the Pain - Danzig. Good, not great. 7/10
4) Down Under - Men at Work. Still searching for a vegemite sandwich. 8/10
5) Aqualung - Tull. Slightly overplayed. 6/10
6) Rusty Cage - Soundgarden. Also overplayed. 7/10
7) Heat of the Moment - Asia. Talk about supergroups! 9/10
8) Yesterday and Today - Yes. Even I don't like this song. 3/10
9) FreeWill - Rush. Just for you, Mike! Man, do I love the bass solo in this song. 9/10
10) When the Levee Breaks - Zeppelin. What a way to end. 11/10
Pretty strong finish, but Armitage was right. Not the best list.
Otto-
That Eddie VH pic is a WMD. To Gitmo for you, man. And I agree with your scoring, it wasn't your finest FR10.
You're the second guy with good musical taste to mention TV For Radio to me in two days. Gots to check it out.
Oh! And I finally got me the Raconteurs disc. Niiiiice. That Jack White kid, I think he can play some gee-tar.
Thrill-
If you choose not to decide you still have made a choice. Can't say how profound that line sounded to me when I was a wee lad.
But I think Neal wrote that song based on his interest in Ayn & friends, so this being a liberal blog & all. . .
And what an ending: When the Levee Breaks. Gotta love it. Almost makes up for Men at Work.
Almost.
Not really.
"...the always rugged good looks of Rocky Dennis, right at the moment I'm heading for hell."
[laughing] I'm right behind you.
"Oh! And I finally got me the Raconteurs disc. Niiiiice. That Jack White kid, I think he can play some gee-tar."
I'm loving that album. I'm a couple week hiatus becuase I had been overdoing it. Getting my Jack gee-tar fix with a Stripes mix I just burned the other day. All the crunciest/bluesiest tunes...he can definitely play.
Speaking of playing some gee-tar, you guys checked out John Mayer Trio? Or his new solo disc Continuum? That kid can play guitar. In fact on the live disc Try! he channels SRV to the point that he's indistiguishable.
My only problem with Mayer is that while he has the chops, he doesn't really have the creds to playing the blues. Jack White? He's a weirdo and gets into band-rivalry barfights. Goes old school with his blues—he's good. Mayer? What's he got to blue about? Downgrading from Jennifer Love Hewitt to Jessica Simpson? As good as he is, I can never get completely past the fact that he recorded "Your Body Is a Wonderland."
You're the second guy with good musical taste to mention TV For Radio to me in two days. Gots to check it out.
They're an unusual sound, a little more artsy than straight-out rocking, but they really grow on you.
I'd recommend starting with "Staring at the Sun," the single off their first album, and "I Was a Lover" and maybe "Wolf Like Me" off the new one. Give them a few listens and you won't be able to get them out of your head.
My only problem with Mayer is that while he has the chops, he doesn't really have the creds to playing the blues.
I haven't warmed up to Mayer yet -- the Wonderwall thing is going to take a few years -- but the fact that he appeared on Chappelle's Show twice (once with ?uestlove from the Roots) helps a bit.
Mike: If you haven't checked out Wolf Parade yet, I think you might like them even more than TVOTR. Great fucking indie rock.
Every time someone mentions TV on the Radio, I think of this time I was driving through Chatanooga and flipping through radio stations. I stopped on one and was like, "Hey, this guy's voice sounds sorta familiar ... is that ... oh my God, it is. That's Bob Saget, and this is America's Funniest Home Videos ... on the radio."
Needless to say, I listened to the rest of the episode, which was utterly fascinating. You can boil down the setup to approximately 90 percent of their clips thusly: Dog barks. Lady screams. People laugh.
You get the same results if you substitute the first part of the equation with "toilet flushes."
Good Lord, that is amazing. It's like one of the many albums I've found of a ventriloquist act on record.
I'm still waiting for the audio book of "Football in the Groin."
Otto,
VH1 may not be cool, but VH1 Classic is the coolest.
Pete Smith
If I could turn back time... Poor Eric Stoltz...
PS there's a couple of good videos in my youtube post from yesterday... fun stuff.
I'm not doing a music thing today.
I'm with you, Pedro. I was thinking of VH1 during its "adult contemporary" phase.
I can picture how they decided on the cover....
(STANLEY) - "Hey, fellas! My wife has a great idea. She's kinda an artist and she can, like, take our pictures, then totally paint cool stuff around it."
(BAND) - "Shuuure! Totally cool!" (Internal monologue - 'that bitch hates us practicing in her garage. We have no choice.')
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