Beastie Boys - Sabotage
video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sbglyeed4g
I remember buying the CD single of this song when I was a 15 year old metalhead. At that point, I viewed the Beastie Boys with the same kind of disdain that I reserved for all hip-hop, the certainty of absolutes, or binary good/bad-no gray area, them and us. Then this song came out, metal magazines all over the world gave it glowing reviews, I went out and bought it, and my life changed. I've been a Beastie Boys fan since I first heard it, but moreso when I heard the B-side, Get It Together, because that opened my eyes to how good hip-hop can be. And when you start hearing bands like Cypress Hill and House of Pain, it's very easy to recognise a kinship between alternative music and hip-hop.
So this song, which is essentially as punky a song as the Beasties have done since the Cookie Puss/Same Old Bullshit era, opened my, and I'm sure many other, eyes. And it's a great song. A great honking, growling slab of feedback and fuzz guitar from Ad Rock with more, MORE!, fuzz stacked on top of it, courtesy of MCAs gigantic fuzz bass. This is thrown into the mixer with Mike Ds competent punk drumming and Hurricane's screechy turntable and the traditional Beastie vocals - shouty, Brooklyn-y, snotty, almost call and response and delivered with what can only be a smile on their faces.
This was also the first music video that I remember as being a work of art on its own, as opposed to as an extension of a(n often mediocre) song. Spike Jonze's 70s cop show images meshed perfectly with the song and created a benchmark for a great music video.
So, all in all, this is a work of genius from a band who have grown from young, loud and snotty to elder statesmen. Now if only they'd release a new album..
Verdict: Fuzzing Cool
Tomorrow: Who cares, it won't be as good as this.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Saturday, May 30, 2009
The other Mick Jones
Foreigner - I Want To Know What Love Is
It sounds like Lou Gramm is grimacing through each word of this song. And what an awful song it is - 80s synth-keyboards alternately playing minor chord arpeggios and big swells of pseudo-string-organ-thingys with huge fade-ins and -outs. Vomit. . And on top of all of this, the backing vocals that encompass both castrato, courtesy of Jennifer Holliday, who has sung backup for Michael Jackson, Luther Vandross, and Barbara Streisand (enough said), and choralising from the New Jersey Mass Choir. Mick Jones (not THE Mick "I was in The Clash" Jones, but the other Mick Jones) should be blamed for this abomination of the ballad form.
Even Lou Gramm, who did something in Foreigner that I didn't really bother to research, felt that this song was not rock enough and unrepresentative of the band's output. Clearly he also had a problem with the swimming pools full of money that the song made the band.
I'd be happy if I never had to hear it again. Research done. This is one of those songs that really doesn't deserve to be anywhere near this list. It's execrable, detestable and basically just dreck . And not in a good way.
Verdict: Sometimes not knowing is better
Tomorrow: Beastie Boys - Sabotage
It sounds like Lou Gramm is grimacing through each word of this song. And what an awful song it is - 80s synth-keyboards alternately playing minor chord arpeggios and big swells of pseudo-string-organ-thingys with huge fade-ins and -outs. Vomit. . And on top of all of this, the backing vocals that encompass both castrato, courtesy of Jennifer Holliday, who has sung backup for Michael Jackson, Luther Vandross, and Barbara Streisand (enough said), and choralising from the New Jersey Mass Choir. Mick Jones (not THE Mick "I was in The Clash" Jones, but the other Mick Jones) should be blamed for this abomination of the ballad form.
Even Lou Gramm, who did something in Foreigner that I didn't really bother to research, felt that this song was not rock enough and unrepresentative of the band's output. Clearly he also had a problem with the swimming pools full of money that the song made the band.
I'd be happy if I never had to hear it again. Research done. This is one of those songs that really doesn't deserve to be anywhere near this list. It's execrable, detestable and basically just dreck . And not in a good way.
Verdict: Sometimes not knowing is better
Tomorrow: Beastie Boys - Sabotage
Thursday, May 28, 2009
I'm Rick James, bitch!
Rick James - Super Freak
video
As Onealbumaday.wordpress.com pointed out, today's song is highly appropriate given the artist's celebrated status as a rock nutter. But there are other things to note about Rick James. The first is that Nick St Nicholas, who, despite sounding like a character from Spinal Tap, was later a member of Steppenwolf, Neil Young and Bruce Palmer (Buffalo Springfield) were members of his first band, a Canadian (more on that later) motown band The Mynah Birds. He also guest starred in the A-Team, along with Isaac Hayes. But back to the Rock Nutter Scale (tm).
As introduced yesterday, criteria that need to be met to be considered a recognised rock and roll nutter are:
(1) Must have done enough drugs to kill a regiment of dutch soldiers
(2) Must have been to prison more times than the neck tattoo fairy
(3) Must be reknowned for wild and destructive behavior
(4) Should have a proper pseudonym
(5) Should have a suitably weird history
If you've ever watched Dave Chappelle's "Rick James: Charlie Murphy's True Hollywood Stories" skit, you'll know that Mr James ably ticks the boxes for (1) and (3). When it comes to drugs, what better reference than Afroman (he of "Because I Got High" fame) stating something along the lines of 'doing more drugs than Rick James'. Some benchmark. He's also well-remembered as a poster child for misogyny and "smacking up his bitches". Go Rick.
In terms of time in the big house, James spent time in the Brooklyn Brig, for deserting the US army (see point 5) and two years in Folsom Prison for the kidnapping and assault (With a crack pipe) of two women. This was during the period that he was spending $7000 a week on cocaine.
It's a pity that his pseudonym is a bit weak? Rick James? My grandmother could do better than that. On the rock and roll scale, it doesn't really sit at the top, along with Blag Dahlia, The Fresh Prince of Darkness (ok, or almost any of The Dwarves), Johnny Rotten or Flavor Flav. That said, now that "I'm Rick James, bitch" has become a catch phrase, it will become the basis of a good pseudonym or two.
On to the song. The first thing that hit me was "so that's where MC Hammer sampled U Can't Touch This from!". Basically, it's Rick panto-sex-funking about a slutty woman with dubious sexual tastes. It sounds like they stole the synths for The Ghostbusters theme. That's about all I can say. I'm not a fan. This is early 80s pop/funk at its most trivial, most coked up and worst. Prince probably didn't ever worry about his status as vanguard of that movement very much.
Verdict: Freak must be a synonym for bad.
Tomorrow: Foreigner - I Want To Know What Love Is.
video
As Onealbumaday.wordpress.com pointed out, today's song is highly appropriate given the artist's celebrated status as a rock nutter. But there are other things to note about Rick James. The first is that Nick St Nicholas, who, despite sounding like a character from Spinal Tap, was later a member of Steppenwolf, Neil Young and Bruce Palmer (Buffalo Springfield) were members of his first band, a Canadian (more on that later) motown band The Mynah Birds. He also guest starred in the A-Team, along with Isaac Hayes. But back to the Rock Nutter Scale (tm).
As introduced yesterday, criteria that need to be met to be considered a recognised rock and roll nutter are:
(1) Must have done enough drugs to kill a regiment of dutch soldiers
(2) Must have been to prison more times than the neck tattoo fairy
(3) Must be reknowned for wild and destructive behavior
(4) Should have a proper pseudonym
(5) Should have a suitably weird history
If you've ever watched Dave Chappelle's "Rick James: Charlie Murphy's True Hollywood Stories" skit, you'll know that Mr James ably ticks the boxes for (1) and (3). When it comes to drugs, what better reference than Afroman (he of "Because I Got High" fame) stating something along the lines of 'doing more drugs than Rick James'. Some benchmark. He's also well-remembered as a poster child for misogyny and "smacking up his bitches". Go Rick.
In terms of time in the big house, James spent time in the Brooklyn Brig, for deserting the US army (see point 5) and two years in Folsom Prison for the kidnapping and assault (With a crack pipe) of two women. This was during the period that he was spending $7000 a week on cocaine.
It's a pity that his pseudonym is a bit weak? Rick James? My grandmother could do better than that. On the rock and roll scale, it doesn't really sit at the top, along with Blag Dahlia, The Fresh Prince of Darkness (ok, or almost any of The Dwarves), Johnny Rotten or Flavor Flav. That said, now that "I'm Rick James, bitch" has become a catch phrase, it will become the basis of a good pseudonym or two.
On to the song. The first thing that hit me was "so that's where MC Hammer sampled U Can't Touch This from!". Basically, it's Rick panto-sex-funking about a slutty woman with dubious sexual tastes. It sounds like they stole the synths for The Ghostbusters theme. That's about all I can say. I'm not a fan. This is early 80s pop/funk at its most trivial, most coked up and worst. Prince probably didn't ever worry about his status as vanguard of that movement very much.
Verdict: Freak must be a synonym for bad.
Tomorrow: Foreigner - I Want To Know What Love Is.
Down the rabbit hole
Holy crap, it's a TRIPLE DOSE thursday
Jefferson Airplane - White Rabbit
Video
I have a suspicion that this song has some references to narcotics within its lyrics. I'm not sure why, but it's quite a strong suspicion. It may have something to do with the fact that, if she possibly could, Grace Slick would be holding you down and pouring liquid LSD down your throat while this song plays. And, let's face it, Slick is one of rock and roll's least celebrated nutters. The criteria that need to be met to be considered a recognised rock and roll nutter are, obviously, as follows:
(1) Must have done enough drugs to kill a regiment of dutch soldiers (see variously Keith Richards, Gibby Haynes, GG Allin etc. Not a short list)
(2) Must have been to prison more times than the neck tattoo fairy (GG Allin, check! Johnny Cash doesn't count.)
(3) Must be reknowned for wild and destructive behavior (i.e. Ramones, Sex Pistols, Rick James. GG Allin, check!)
(4) Should have a proper pseudonym (i.e. Flavour Flav. GG Allin, check!)
(5) Should have a suitably weird history (i.e. Gogol Bordello's Eugene Hutz. GG Allin, check!)
Suprisingly, Slick checks all these boxes. She's practically synonymous with irresponsible LSD use (beware: this can lead to the wearing of flares and paisley), has been arrested numerous times, tried to dose Richard Nixon with LSD, pointed a gun at a police office and, I'm sure, Slick may not be her real surname. Plus she's older than Jesus and pre-dates the Haight-Ashbury scene which means she probably grew up somewhere staid like Milwaukee. And that's a lot weirded than being a child of a child of the 60s.
my point is that the Rock Nutter Scale (tm) will be used as input into the general ranking of songs from now on (basically because I just make it up). Which means that White Rabbit is pretty good. And it is, allusory references to drugs and over references to Through the Looking Glass aside. It's based on a Bolero-like figure of repetition and rising tension that builds up to the point where you throw the radio into the tub and electrocute a Samoan attorney played by a rather fat Benicio Del Toro.
If that doesn't make the song cool, I don't know what does.
Verdict: Slicker than a greased-up penguin.
Tomorrow: Rick James - Super Freak.
Jefferson Airplane - White Rabbit
Video
I have a suspicion that this song has some references to narcotics within its lyrics. I'm not sure why, but it's quite a strong suspicion. It may have something to do with the fact that, if she possibly could, Grace Slick would be holding you down and pouring liquid LSD down your throat while this song plays. And, let's face it, Slick is one of rock and roll's least celebrated nutters. The criteria that need to be met to be considered a recognised rock and roll nutter are, obviously, as follows:
(1) Must have done enough drugs to kill a regiment of dutch soldiers (see variously Keith Richards, Gibby Haynes, GG Allin etc. Not a short list)
(2) Must have been to prison more times than the neck tattoo fairy (GG Allin, check! Johnny Cash doesn't count.)
(3) Must be reknowned for wild and destructive behavior (i.e. Ramones, Sex Pistols, Rick James. GG Allin, check!)
(4) Should have a proper pseudonym (i.e. Flavour Flav. GG Allin, check!)
(5) Should have a suitably weird history (i.e. Gogol Bordello's Eugene Hutz. GG Allin, check!)
Suprisingly, Slick checks all these boxes. She's practically synonymous with irresponsible LSD use (beware: this can lead to the wearing of flares and paisley), has been arrested numerous times, tried to dose Richard Nixon with LSD, pointed a gun at a police office and, I'm sure, Slick may not be her real surname. Plus she's older than Jesus and pre-dates the Haight-Ashbury scene which means she probably grew up somewhere staid like Milwaukee. And that's a lot weirded than being a child of a child of the 60s.
my point is that the Rock Nutter Scale (tm) will be used as input into the general ranking of songs from now on (basically because I just make it up). Which means that White Rabbit is pretty good. And it is, allusory references to drugs and over references to Through the Looking Glass aside. It's based on a Bolero-like figure of repetition and rising tension that builds up to the point where you throw the radio into the tub and electrocute a Samoan attorney played by a rather fat Benicio Del Toro.
If that doesn't make the song cool, I don't know what does.
Verdict: Slicker than a greased-up penguin.
Tomorrow: Rick James - Super Freak.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
I've always preferred jam
It's a double dose thursday!!
LaBelle - Lady Marmalade
I can't. I'm sorry, I just can't. I really hate disco too much to be objective. Don't listen to this unless you are either (a) camper than a row of pink velvet tents or (b) a rabid Christina Aguileira fan intent on returning to the source. Note that a venn diagram of (a) and (b) would not exactly look like an 8. You could build a soccer stadium in the intersection thereof, in fact. Weimar Republic Germany would be invading it for lebensraum.
Oh, and apparently it's pronounced Lady Marmahlahd. See, I even listened to it. Well, actually only the first minute or so. It's also responsible for making countless generations of adolescent males think they're sophisticated because they can drunkenly slur "Voulez vous couchez avec moi?" to the nearest young lady.
Note to all artists: Sprinkling French into your songs/writing/speeches does not make you "arty" or "sophisticated". It makes you pretentious. Unless you're NOFX covering Champs Elysee, in which case it just makes you look like a parade of clowns. The jury's out on MC Solaar.
Verdict: J'accuse.
Tomorrow: Jefferson Airplane - White Rabbit
LaBelle - Lady Marmalade
I can't. I'm sorry, I just can't. I really hate disco too much to be objective. Don't listen to this unless you are either (a) camper than a row of pink velvet tents or (b) a rabid Christina Aguileira fan intent on returning to the source. Note that a venn diagram of (a) and (b) would not exactly look like an 8. You could build a soccer stadium in the intersection thereof, in fact. Weimar Republic Germany would be invading it for lebensraum.
Oh, and apparently it's pronounced Lady Marmahlahd. See, I even listened to it. Well, actually only the first minute or so. It's also responsible for making countless generations of adolescent males think they're sophisticated because they can drunkenly slur "Voulez vous couchez avec moi?" to the nearest young lady.
Note to all artists: Sprinkling French into your songs/writing/speeches does not make you "arty" or "sophisticated". It makes you pretentious. Unless you're NOFX covering Champs Elysee, in which case it just makes you look like a parade of clowns. The jury's out on MC Solaar.
Verdict: J'accuse.
Tomorrow: Jefferson Airplane - White Rabbit
How does the mystic feel about this? (hur hur)
Van Morrison - Into The Mystic
No video, as they didn't exist in those days. The best i could find on youtube were some halfass cover versions which don't exactly do it justice.
From Bowie's upbeat boogie to an entirely different can of worms - Van Morrison's Celt-spriritual folk blues. I want to hate this. I tend to hate anything that has any kind of spiritual pretense and this should be crying out for ridicule - it's folky, it's made by a short, fat Irishman and it's intentionally spiritual music. But annoyingly it's rather good, entirely due to Morrison's baritone - at times plaintive but always drenched in soul. This mix of his voice, spirit and Belfast roots has been referred to as Morrison's 'yarrrrragh' - his uniquely Irish synthesis of Leadbelly, jazz, blues and poetry. And it's on show on Into The Mystic in a gigantic way. As much as you may want to dismiss Morrison for his more poppy output, songs like Into The Mystic make a lot of the songs that I've listened to during this process sound artificial and manufactured. (Ironically enough, it seems like evn Morrison wasn't sure about the lyrics - he tinkered with them a lot during the process of writing them, but could never decide on, for example, whether the first line would be "We were born into the wind" or "we were borne into the wind".)
Which is a scary realisation. It's Van Morrison, god damn it. The author of a song that taunted me throughout my youth - a song that I despised: Brown Eyed Girl. I feel conflicted.
Back to the song, which begins with two tracks of folky guitar and Morrison's voice at roughly half volume and emotion. At this point you can understand why, according to a BBC survey, this song’s soothing, soulful vibe makes it one of the most popular songs for surgeons to listen to whilst performing operations (better that than, say, Cannibal Corpse, I suppose). During the first verse it's pretty ballad-y and not really anything special, but then he starts humming a little, the volume rises and you can hear the emotion build. A hint of strings, a hint of brass, Morrison goes full bore and *whoah* you didn't see that one coming..
In conclusion, listen to it. It's suprisingly excellent. Unless, of course, you've been hip enough to listen to Morrison all the years, in which case you're probably thinking "told you so". And I deserve it. I will be going out to buy Moondance very soon. Also, at some point we'll get to Gloria by Them, Morrison's first band, which will, if you haven't heard it before, blow.. your.. mind.
Verdict: If I were a pirate, I'd be saying "Yarrrrrrr(agh)!"
Tomorrow: LaBelle - Lady Marmalade
No video, as they didn't exist in those days. The best i could find on youtube were some halfass cover versions which don't exactly do it justice.
From Bowie's upbeat boogie to an entirely different can of worms - Van Morrison's Celt-spriritual folk blues. I want to hate this. I tend to hate anything that has any kind of spiritual pretense and this should be crying out for ridicule - it's folky, it's made by a short, fat Irishman and it's intentionally spiritual music. But annoyingly it's rather good, entirely due to Morrison's baritone - at times plaintive but always drenched in soul. This mix of his voice, spirit and Belfast roots has been referred to as Morrison's 'yarrrrragh' - his uniquely Irish synthesis of Leadbelly, jazz, blues and poetry. And it's on show on Into The Mystic in a gigantic way. As much as you may want to dismiss Morrison for his more poppy output, songs like Into The Mystic make a lot of the songs that I've listened to during this process sound artificial and manufactured. (Ironically enough, it seems like evn Morrison wasn't sure about the lyrics - he tinkered with them a lot during the process of writing them, but could never decide on, for example, whether the first line would be "We were born into the wind" or "we were borne into the wind".)
Which is a scary realisation. It's Van Morrison, god damn it. The author of a song that taunted me throughout my youth - a song that I despised: Brown Eyed Girl. I feel conflicted.
Back to the song, which begins with two tracks of folky guitar and Morrison's voice at roughly half volume and emotion. At this point you can understand why, according to a BBC survey, this song’s soothing, soulful vibe makes it one of the most popular songs for surgeons to listen to whilst performing operations (better that than, say, Cannibal Corpse, I suppose). During the first verse it's pretty ballad-y and not really anything special, but then he starts humming a little, the volume rises and you can hear the emotion build. A hint of strings, a hint of brass, Morrison goes full bore and *whoah* you didn't see that one coming..
In conclusion, listen to it. It's suprisingly excellent. Unless, of course, you've been hip enough to listen to Morrison all the years, in which case you're probably thinking "told you so". And I deserve it. I will be going out to buy Moondance very soon. Also, at some point we'll get to Gloria by Them, Morrison's first band, which will, if you haven't heard it before, blow.. your.. mind.
Verdict: If I were a pirate, I'd be saying "Yarrrrrrr(agh)!"
Tomorrow: LaBelle - Lady Marmalade
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
American Psycho
David Bowie - Young Americans
So here we have a young Brit writing a song about young Americans. Actually, I'm not entirely sure what the song is about because the lyrics are really just a pastiche of Americanisations. The cynical amongst you will be saying "It's Bowie, don't expect sincerity". Which is probably accurate to a degree, because Bowie made his name as a chameleon with an imagination, and this song typifies the fascination that the rest of the world holds for the young Americans.
Background vocal oohs and aahs abound, with Bowie's breathy vocals slightly reverbed over over a pretty standard, if entirely unremarkable, R&B musical backing, all bouncing piano, horns and bass, led by a sax line. There are a couple of notable points. Luther Vandross (yes, THE Luther Vandross) is singing backing vocals. There's also a direct theft of a line from the Beatles' A Day In The Life ("I heard the news today / oh boy").
So, on balance? Cool song. Pretty upbeat R&B fare. Not as camp as his later output. It doesn't really grab me by the naughty bits and make me want to dance, but it's not offensively bad in any way. I've never really gotten into Bowie (probably for that reason), but songs like this help you understand the influence that he wields and the respect that he is shown by modern alternative bands. Everyone from Radiohead to Nine Inch Nails have sworn fealty at the altar of Bowie and it's not hard to see why - opaque, if pseudo-deep, lyrical content; catchy choruses, highly competent musicianship, a dark pop feel but minimal evidence of the ugliness and warts of punk - all hallmarks, to one or another degree, of his acolytes. That said, he did contribute to the breakup of the Stooges, which would be considered unforgivable were it not for the fact that it's entirely understandable that not even his closest friends wanted anything to do with Iggy at that point in time.
Oh, and The Cure covered it at some point. Small world.
Verdict: Ziggy Nixon
Tomorrow: Van Morrison - Into The Mystic
So here we have a young Brit writing a song about young Americans. Actually, I'm not entirely sure what the song is about because the lyrics are really just a pastiche of Americanisations. The cynical amongst you will be saying "It's Bowie, don't expect sincerity". Which is probably accurate to a degree, because Bowie made his name as a chameleon with an imagination, and this song typifies the fascination that the rest of the world holds for the young Americans.
Background vocal oohs and aahs abound, with Bowie's breathy vocals slightly reverbed over over a pretty standard, if entirely unremarkable, R&B musical backing, all bouncing piano, horns and bass, led by a sax line. There are a couple of notable points. Luther Vandross (yes, THE Luther Vandross) is singing backing vocals. There's also a direct theft of a line from the Beatles' A Day In The Life ("I heard the news today / oh boy").
So, on balance? Cool song. Pretty upbeat R&B fare. Not as camp as his later output. It doesn't really grab me by the naughty bits and make me want to dance, but it's not offensively bad in any way. I've never really gotten into Bowie (probably for that reason), but songs like this help you understand the influence that he wields and the respect that he is shown by modern alternative bands. Everyone from Radiohead to Nine Inch Nails have sworn fealty at the altar of Bowie and it's not hard to see why - opaque, if pseudo-deep, lyrical content; catchy choruses, highly competent musicianship, a dark pop feel but minimal evidence of the ugliness and warts of punk - all hallmarks, to one or another degree, of his acolytes. That said, he did contribute to the breakup of the Stooges, which would be considered unforgivable were it not for the fact that it's entirely understandable that not even his closest friends wanted anything to do with Iggy at that point in time.
Oh, and The Cure covered it at some point. Small world.
Verdict: Ziggy Nixon
Tomorrow: Van Morrison - Into The Mystic
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