Records

No Thanks! (this is good)

 

Rhino put together a 4 CD, 100-song definitive overview of 70’s punk rock called No Thanks!: The 70s Punk Rebellion. Pitchfork gave it a 10 and from the looks of it it probably deserves it. While a lot of us have heard most of the songs, it’s gonna be a blast to put together that fifth CD ourselves. Picking gems from the Pebbles series and other random punk comps, fun stuff you’ve stumbled upon on SoulSeek, stuff that came too soon or a little too late to make the cut. The Pitchfork review will give you a few ideas (Misfits). Come to think of it, several years back my friend Dan snagged one of his dad’s incoming Time-Life Music cassettes Sounds of the Seventies: Punk and New Wave that turned out to be a pretty good intro to all the stuff you miss growing up on a diet of mostly hip-hop, stuff from skate videos and the Cure.

Meanwhile, I’m still a big softie for love songs.

Don’t Sing Love Songs

 
[pic of the Caravelles]the Caravelles  

"Don’t Sing Love Songs" (mp3)—here sung by the Caravelles—is a traditional American song called "Silver Dagger" dating back to at least 1907. The reverb-heavy production on the Caravelles’ version is creepy enough without the lines "you’ll wake my mother / She’s sleeping here, right by my side / And in her right hand, a silver dagger". This was to be on my Halloween mixCD that I never got around to making…

The Caravelles also sing one of my favorite pop songs of all time: The Other Side of Love (.wma clip at Amazon.com). It appears on Volume 8 of the terrific "Here Comes the Girls" compilation series. I just ordered volumes 8 and 10 from Amazon.co.uk since the girl group comps seem hard to come by in the US. "The Girls’ Scene" has another one I’ve been looking for: Lulu’s "Try to Understand," so I couldn’t pass it up.

Don’t sing love songs, you’ll wake my mother
She’s sleeping here, right by my side
And in her right hand, a silver dagger
She says that I can’t be your bride
All men are false, so says my mother
They’ll tell you wicked, and sinful lies
And the very next day, they’ll court another
Leave you alone to pine inside
Go court another fair, young maiden
And hope that she will be your wife
For I’ve been warned and I desire
To sleep alone all my life
All my life

Treats

 

Lately I’ve been treating myself to some new gadgets, the big ones being a CD/mp3 player for my car (I love the comfortable knobs instead of buttons) and a cable modem (we’ve been watching a lot of Family Guy episodes lately). I held out for quite awhile on both, but I finally caved. Also on the way is a headphone amp and mic cables that will complete the recording setup we have in the rock room and allow me to finish up some of these new MrClay tracks (and start work on the next batch I’ve been writing). By the way, Josh and I hereby reserve the name “The French Horns” for future use.

I’m loving the new April March album “Triggers”. Musically all over the place, but mainly candy pop in the vein of France Gall/Stereolab (half the album is in French) with Beck’s “Mutation”-era production and touches of electropop. I think it’s the musical equivalent of a smile. Also playing lately: Pep Love (from the unstoppable Hieroglyphics crew) and Al Green’s “Back Up Train”. Eagerly awaiting a CD from Sweden’s the Radio Dept and the U.K.’s I Am Kloot.

Soon I’d like to get around to linking up all my Javascript/CSS experiments so someone else might find them useful. I make these things all the time but never link them to the site, because I’m lazy

Of all the stories I’ve read on this war, this interview struck me as very interesting. You’ll hear no more from me about it.