'splosion

Crystal Castles - Air War

Image via Flickr
Another one of my favorites, saw this at the Brooklyn Museum's pulp show a few years ago
mmm, pulpy

It's been done, and done again

A friend recently gave me a CD with a generally awesome mishmash of stuff on it. It also, however, had a cover of Queens of the Stone Age's "No One Knows" that is hands-down the most unlistenable thing I have ever heard in my life. It's by Mark Ronson, and although his first album was excellent and I found his show at Highline last year generally delightful, I skipped "Version" because I've never wondered what some of my favorite songs would sound like if they also had a heavy horns section. You like the brass, I get it, jeez. The one standout on "Version" for me is "Oh My God," because it does for me what a cover is supposed to do, which is to depart enough from the source material to make the new uh, version more than the sum of its parts. I'm meh on Lily Allen and even meh-er on the Kaiser Chiefs, yet they're two meh tastes that taste great together.

Anyway, here are my five favorite covers, in no particular order. The Elbow track's faithfulness to the original contradicts my statement about needing a reinterpretation of sorts, but I love his voice, I love Massive Attack, and I love the song, so there it is. I'm also posting the original of "The 15th" just for funsies.

Elbow - Teardrop

The Raincoats - Lola

Kronos Quartet - Marquee Moon

Elliot Smith - Trouble

Fischerspooner - The 15th

Wire - The 15th (original)

Whoa whoa whoa. Back up.

I just got back from a much needed winter break in Puerto Rico, and I'm semi-dreading going back to work on Monday as I'll be faced with the consequences of leaving for vacation without finishing an assignment. By "consequences," I mean a quasi-abusive verbal dressing down from my boss, one in a series I've received from him over the years. Aside from a few coworkers, the only person I know who can identify with this is a friend employed by a megalomaniac whose tirades are so inappropriate that she actually had to say "you better back up OFF me" the last time he invaded her space with his yelling. Are bosses like this purely a New York phenomenon, or is it at least considered more acceptable here because we're in a city that has long celebrated the archetype of the ambitious, aggressive careerist? In both my case and my friend's case, any attempts to point out this behavior has essentially been met with "that's just the way I am, love it or shove it"; it certainly does seem to be viewed as an asset from their vantage point. And maybe that's what I have the hardest time getting past, the fact that negative behavior is so often rewarded. Fuck it — if I am to be serious about success, my 08 persona will have to be less Andy Sachs, more Omarosa.

The Bluetones - Baby, Back Up
(the Bluetones)

Don Rimini - Let Me Back Up (Crookers Tetsujin Mix)
(myspace)

A Dry Eye in the House

I've used this forum, this safe space, to complain about my weird eye maladies before. For real, though: Something is interfering with my body's ability to produce natural tears! I think I have Janine Turner Disease. Pray for me.

My favorite "oldie" of all time:
? and the Mysterians - 96 Tears

One of my favorite covers of all time:
Big Maybelle - 96 Tears

This Space Left Intentionally Blank

Amanda Blank - Get It Now


Yo go to this for me, I'll be out of town.

Rainy Day Music

Due to computer problems, I had to come into work today — a slap in the face and nothing less. If this was a regular Friday, I'd be listening to these songs wrapped up like a burrito in bed.

Massive Attack - Blue Lines

Kimya Dawson - It's Been Raining

Cat Power - Say

The The - Uncertain Smile

It's On and Poppin'

This past Monday I had a nightcap with three of my sessy ladyfriends, one married, one practically married, and one single like me. After a brief debate over whether the bar we were in was once a club that hosted jungle weeklies in our misspent youth (that night I'd realized Midway was once Save the Robots, fuuuck we're old), the subject turned to sex, as it often does. We covered anal, the evils of lube, birth control and lack thereof, the morning-after pill, abortions, all the hits. After a brief pause in the conversation, Practically Married says, "Since we're being candid, I'll say that a friend of mine came back from England with something that kind of changed my life." We were all, what, a new vibrator, schnoozers...I should've known no friend of mine would come weak like that. "They're called poppers. It comes in a tube, and you sniff it, and it makes you crazy horny. It's amazing." We all took a moment to absorb the exciting new world of possibilities that had just opened up before us, and then we had a million questions. My dad told me about poppers when I was in high school, but he made it sound like one of those things you couldn't get anymore, like Quaaludes. Nay nay, my friend. I forgot that we live in the city of one thousand shady sex shops, and what you can't find here you can get on the Internets. Forget everything you thought you knew about inhalants. And 1970s gay male culture. Poppers, so retro, so now. Let's try 'em! You first.

Felix Da Housecat - Like Something 4 Porno!

Deesco Deesco Deesco! (You in My House Now)

My love for disco was born before I was: I'd do somersaults in my mother's stomach whenever she would play it, though at the time she didn't know if I wanted her to turn it off or up. In junior high I was saddened to realize that through a cruel trick of cosmic timing I would never get to enjoy the glittery gold lamé heyday my parents did; Mom helpfully informed me that someday I could find the really good music by hitting the gay clubs. I was sixteen when my dad gave me a mix by Dave "The Wave" Dresden and told me check out the raves he was throwing around New Haven, and that was pretty much it for me. Soon I was discovering my own hedonistic heyday and remembering that dance music has always been my favorite thing, ever. These three songs were all released in the past year but they sure take me back.

Ultracity - Twelve Year Drive
Slick Swedish perfection (myspace)

Puzique - Don't Go
Boys Noize + D.I.M. queen-out

White Girl Lust - Tail Light Bump

Back to Grindin' Fer Papes

Winter break funtimes are over and it's back to work today. On one hand I'm depressed to return to the office and lose all of this time for loafing and alcohol abuse, but on the other I'm basically pickled from all the revelry and could probably use the structured environment again, frankly. Anyway here are ten songs I really liked this past year, in order of my discovering them.

Battles - Leyendecker
Battles' ex-jazz bandtastic technical proficiency has already gained them a bro-tingent of Phishhead type fans. I saw them twice this year and they were amazing both times, five stars, would do business with again, recommended.

DJ STV SLV - Drop the Icebox Pressure
(Mylo vs. Omarian) I heart the Hood Internet.

Sea Wolf - You're A Wolf
via KEXP podcast (subscribe)

Charlotte Gainsbourg - Everything I Cannot See
Lyrics by Jarvis Cocker, music by AirEWWWW Lemon Incest!!!

The Shivers - Half Invisible

Menomena - Wet and Rusting
Another good band I saw at Pitchfork, three beardos who each play a lot of instruments.

Pitbull feat. Trina - Go Girl
God, how to pick just one Pitbull song, he is the greatest guilty pleasure ever. Nope, I can't, here's another off "The Boatlift":
Pitbull feat. Lil Jon - The Anthem

Atmosphere - Sunshine

Sam Sparro - Black and Gold
(myspace)
Previously on GPB: Mmm, white chocolate.

Fergie - Clumsy Remix Feat. LMFAO (Redfoo)
How this got on Hot97 at 1 am on Christmas Eve I have no idea, but I'm so glad it did.

Riskay feat: Aviance & Real - Smell Yo Dick
My favorite song of 2007 and I find it on the very last day. A melodic treatise on matters of trust and infidelity.

Back to work.