This week's featured album was apparently the result of some Dadaist art collective, pulling random words out of a hat to produce the cover art ("... circus ... polka ... duck ... clown ..."), and then doing the same with the song titles. How else can you explain titles like "Slap Happy Polka" and "Meet the Missus Polka"? On second thought, the lead-off songs on side two might give a clue to their creative process: "Green Grass Polka" followed by "Dark Cloud Polka." Yeah, I think we're going to need a urine sample from Chuckles the Clown. Upon closer inspection, that might not be make-up after all.
Anyway.
The disturbing appearance of the clown from Stephen King's It and the Aflac duck can only mean that it's time for another exciting installment of the Friday Random Ten. You know what to do -- set the iPod to random, and give us the first ten songs that surface. And, if you're feeling competitive, toss in a Coolness Self-Audit, too. (And, no, don't worry -- you won't go blind if you self-audit.)
Here's mine:
1. Johnny Cash, "The Ballad of Ira Hayes" -- A Columbia era song-story about one of the four soldiers who raised the American flag on Iwo Jima. The story of what happened to those soldiers after their moment in the sun is a tragic one (soon to be a major motion picture, by the way) but the story of Hayes, a Pima Indian, is perhaps the saddest. Cash's song reveals a lot about his liberal sympathies, but it's not much of a tune. 3/10
2. Blondie, "Hanging on the Telephone" -- Classic. What more can I say? 8/10
3. Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, "Blues Explosion Attack" -- This is a collaboration with Calvin Johnson and, once again, I'm let down. This is pretty much Spencer shouting street-corner insanity over a snare drum. Pfft. 2/10
4. Radiohead, "Rhinestone Cowboy (live)" -- A nice gem of a cover from the B-Sides collection. It's hard to do a lot when your inspiration is schlock, but you've got to admire Thom Yorke for going after Glen Campbell and doing it with a straight face. 6/10
5. Shirley Horn, "Return to Paradise (Mark DeClive-Lowe Remix)" -- This is a fairly innocuous remixing of Horn's original jazz tune, the kind of thing you'd find on a Buddha Bar CD compilation. Nice, but not spectacular. 6/10
6. Southern Culture on the Skids, "Mexy-Melt" -- These folks don't normally do the whole surf guitar thing, but you'd never know from this tune. Guitarist Rick Miller is absofuckinglutely on fire here with some angry, unrelenting riffs. 9/10
7. Rocket from the Crypt, "UFO>UFO>UFO" -- Speaking of angry and unrelenting, here's some in-your-grill post-punk from San Diego. I liked "Sturdy Wrists," but this is the kind of screaming cacophony that my father would've referred to as "narcotic music." Bleh. 1/10
8. Ray Charles, "I Got a Woman" -- How's that for an awkward transition? Straightforward Atlantic-era Charles, this is a good song that I can't hear anymore without thinking of Kanye West's "Gold Digger," and, moreover, the "George Bush Doesn't Care about Black People" remix by Legendary K.O. 6/10
9. Sonic Youth, "Ca Plane Pour Moi" -- An interesting cover of the early '80s pseudo-hit by Belgium's very own Plastic Bertrand. The French lyrics seem fun, until you translate them and realize he's singing lines like "Wham! Bam! My cat Splash lies on my bed with his tongue puffed out by drinking all my whisky." That's very deep, Felicity. Thanks for sharing. 7/10
10. Jurassic 5, "Break" -- I was in Austin last spring for a wedding the same time that J5 was in town to play a show at Stubbs. Tragically, the show was the same night as the rehearsal dinner, so we couldn't go. Even worse, a friend managed to chat up Charlie Tuna in our hotel lobby just five minutes before I walked in. Stupid timing. Great song. 9/10
That gives me a pathetic 5.7 average. Since I've burned all of our permanent records, I can't say for sure that that's the lowest score I've ever gotten, but it would have to be close.
I know you folks can do better than that. Give us your own Random Ten, with or without your own Coolness Self-Audit, and with or without your own condolences on my incredible uncoolness.
6 comments:
1) So Damn Good, Jon Cleary. So damn good indeed. Amazing jazz piano player from England, transplated to New Orleans. Great smooth funk. 7/10.
2) Every Day I have the Blues, Count Basie. Yup. 9/10.
3) Fly Me to the Moon, Ray Brown, Monte Alexander and Russel Malone. Three jazz greats, bass, piano and guitar respectively, team up for a truly spectacular jazz album. This instrumental remake of the Sinatra tune is somehow...better. 8/10.
4) Clown, Korn. Ah, back from before Jonathon thought that whining was better than his rageful singing. Why do musicians go through that stage (a la Eddie Vetter)?? 7/10.
5) Walking By Myself, Freddie King. Guitar king, more like it. Best blues guitarist that most people (except the intelligent and wordly people on this blog) have never heard of. 7/10,
6) Tight Rope, SRV. Speaking of guitar greats...though this one, pretty much everyone has heard of. Not my favorite song of his, though. 6/10.
7) Leper Messiah, Metallica. With fist firmly in the air, I proclaim 8/10.
8) Blackened, Metallica. A two-fer! Dude! 8/10!
9) Rodney Yates, David Holmes. Yes, I do have some Ambient on the iPod for certain gatherings. This is the song that was used as background music in the recent version of Oceans 11. Cool and smooth. But 6/10 'cause it just doesn't fit right now.
10) Psalm 69, Ministry. Cool way to end. The Industrial Metal phase brings back happy memories. Of stuff. 7/10.
7.3. Not bad this week.
1) Show me the way to go home - ELP. Old British tune, featured in Jaws. Good, but not rockin. 6/10
2) The Wanton Song - Zeppelin. I ain't wanton it. But dammit, love the drums. 4/10
3) The Prophet - Yes. Not much going for this song. 4/10
4) Been a Son - Nirvana. Meh. 5/10
5) Positively Blind - Prong. Take that, CBGB fans! 8/10
6) Dyers Eve - Metallica. Building on Smitty's list here. 8/10
7) Over Now - Alice in Chains. Really good song. Probably about heroin. 8/10
8) Finding my Way - Rush. Back when Ayn Rand wasn't an influence. Sweet. 8/10
9) Dazed and Confused (live)- Zeppelin. Hard to believe it's as good live as it is on the album. Believe it! 9/10
10) Mr. Crowley - Ozzy. What a finish! Who else could use "polemically" in a rock song? 10/10
Not so hot, but dammit the last few got me going. Have a great weekend, y'all.
HOT finish, TH!!
Finding My Way
Ooooooooo, yeah! Comin out to gitcha . . .
Thrill, baby, can always count on you to bust out some ancient Rush song that I've neither heard, nor thought about, in 20+ years.
Thanks. I needed that today.
. . . ooooooo, yeah, ooooooo, yeah, I'm findin-my-way.
Wow, Otto, that's rough. At least you finished strong. And Smitty, I haven't heard Psalm 69 in FOREVER, but that reminds me to pull out my Ministry cds again.
I think I've been taking it easy on myself lately, so I'm going to be harsher and see what happens.
1. Different Names For The Same Thing – Death Cab for Cutie. A good enough song, and the slow build in the middle is nice, but Death Cab seems to be coming out of the cool umbrella lately. 6/10.
2. Michael – Franz Ferdinand. I rather like this song, but again, the fickle public takes the cool out of my wings. 6/10.
3. Trailer Park – Blur. Meh, nothing particularly good or devastatingly bad here. 6/10.
4. You Are Too Beautiful – Johnny Hartman. People kind of push Johnny Hartman aside in the grand scope of jazz, writing him off as a mere crooner. He was much more than that; smooth, stylish, and very cool. 8/10.
5. Recycled Air – The Postal Service. It’s a good song, I guess, but nothing spectacular. 6/10.
6. Black Star – Radiohead. Old school Radiohead! I think not enough people go back to the rock records, and that’s a shame because they’re just as good, if not better sometimes. 7/10.
7. Sexual Harassment In The Workplace – Frank Zappa. I think Frank Zappa’s cool, and this is a good song, but I’m taking one point off the score because it’s from a greatest hits collection. That’s not cool. 7/10.
8. I Don’t Want To Walk Around With You – The Ramones. A simple, straighforward song. If it was anyone but The Ramones, those would be detriments. As it stands, a kick-ass song. 8/10.
9. The Bends – Radiohead. Well, I’ll be damned. And this song’s even better. 8/10.
10. I’d Like To Know – Supergrass. Whoah, a blast from the past. Supergrass was the bee's knees back in the day, but they never really popped like Blur, Oasis, and Radiohead did. Still, this song's pretty catchy. 7/10.
My newer, harsher standards have me at a 6.9, which seems reasonable (if a little disappointing). Have a good weekend, everyone.
Doc-
I have to admit it . . .
{lightning bolts}
. . . but I prefer The Bends to OK Computer.
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