Quarantined

from the LP Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See but Cannot Feel, Kranky Records, 2008



So, if you hadn’t already gleaned this, I had myself an adventurous and, some might say, tumultuous adolescence; this took me all across our country, getting kicked out of schools, running away, jail, rehab, et al… The most difficult and surreal of those obstacles came in the form of a severe boot camp I was finally sent to as a last resort, where I was held for over 2 years in captivity, part of that time outside the country, by individuals who thought they had been put there by God to heal us naughty kids of our wicked ways. We weren’t allowed any contact with the outside world, no letters, no communication with your friends, no music, no TV…not even mentioning the above without facing severe punishments. I suffered through a mentally deranged & abusive housefather who prayed every night at dinner that God would let him be a martyr, and who beat us if he thought we were channeling the devil. There was never any light at the end of the tunnel, as they told us that our progress (as determined by them) would govern our departure date, and some kids had been there over 3 years, an eternity when you’re a teenager. That whole time, the songs I had stored in my memory, which I had once loved and danced to, served as my sanity and touchstone---so when I heard this track last year, you can imagine the magnitude of a wallop I felt, connecting to it, reeling backwards to a period in my life I don’t often think about anymore. Although this song was inspired by the story of AIDS orphans in Russia, the phrases hit awfully close to home for me, flooding my head with emotions that I'd sometimes rather forget…the strangest life I’ve ever known…

Willin'

from the LP Little Feat, Warner Bros Records, 1971



By some accounts, most notably of band founder Lowell George himself, this is the song that got him kicked out of the Mothers of Invention, leading to the formation of Little Feat and everything which came after; Zappa, of course, always refuted this version and insisted that he was totally encouraging of George to record due to the high quality of the tracks he’d played for him---considering the drug references herein (Zappa was a notorious teetotaler, excepting for coffee & cigarettes) and the simplistic, country-based demeanor of the song, I’d take George’s version as closer to probable fact. Whatever the truth about Little Feat’s genesis may be, one thing is for certain: throngs of stoners and music lovers the world over are sure as hell happy that George and other former-Mothers Roy Estrada and Richie Hayward made the split, gracing us with some of the rootsiest, organic rock music ever put to wax! This first album of theirs rides a little heavy on the over-the-road trucking theme, but I suppose touring musicians had some idea of what that lifestyle was like, so, “…if you give me weed, whites & wine, and you show me a sign, I’ll be willin’, to keep movin’…” This song remains an absolute classic, covered by too many artists to name here, the next great step for country-rock following behind legends like Gram Parsons and the New Riders.

White & Green Place

from the 12” single, Y Records, 1982



Perhaps no other band better espoused the carefree aesthetic and endless array of possibilities the post-punk scene had inherited than did Bristol, England’s own Maximum Joy; for real, they sound like they were having so much fun on every one of their recordings! Max Joy formed from the ashes of two other fairly well-known post-punk bands, Glaxo Babies and the ironically named Pop Group (they were anything but), coming together under the tutelage of multi-instrumentalist Tony Wrafter and singer Janine Rainforth. Always grounded in a firm percussive groove, this song is a great example of how expansive and boundless their music was---if this doesn’t make you start moving around, well, I hope an injury is your excuse! Rainforth’s processed vocals echo back and forth, adding to the trippy feel her lyrics provoke, “…and the lollipops laugh as I smile, and the crayfish dance all the while…”

The Slider

from the LP The Slider, EMI Records, 1972



Hailed by many across the pond as the biggest thing since Beatlemania, even by Ringo Starr himself, T.Rex rode proud & preening atop the wave that was glam rock: glittered cheeks and platform boots stomping out a path of hysteria which gripped all of England and much of Europe for the better part of the early – mid ‘70s. Having transformed himself into an electric rock-God from the folky, hippie-gnome persona which he had been rocking since the early days as a Syd Barrett devotee (listen to anything he released while still under the moniker “Tyrannosaurus Rex” for an idea of just what a severe image shift this was), guitarist Marc Bolan was actually the perfect poster-boy for all things glam; in fact, he had even modeled for a period, so wearing makeup wasn’t weird to him at all. This slow-paced title track from T.Rex’s most lauded album spells out his agenda nicely: simple guitar licks, thick percussion, lots of post-production, & a vibe that oozes sexuality and lustfulness; best line, “I have always always grown my own before, all schools are stra-a-ange; and when I’m sad, I slide…”

Live @ Amnesia

Ibiza, Spain: May 11^th, 1985



Much has been written about the important role the dance clubs and parties held in Ibiza during the early – mid ‘80s played in the foundation of what became known as the rave scene, so just a quick summary: the DJs at clubs like Pacha and Amnesia (both of which are still open to this very day) took to spinning an exceptionally diverse range of musical genres in their sets, virtually anything with a beat---I’m not kidding, as you will hear, it wasn’t uncommon to go through afrobeat, old school funk, italo, new wave, indie rock, jazz-funk, electro, post-disco and post-punk all in the span of an hour’s time! They also spun and began producing their own style of beats on Roland 909s, a concoction of slow, tribal-feeling electronica that we’ve never really seen again. Meanwhile, outside the hustle and bustle of the island’s cities, there were parties happening alongside the cliffs, hillsides & beaches which would go all night, people taking MDMA and mushrooms & then dancing for hours on end. Famed British DJs Paul Oakenfold and Danny Rampling, then just getting their careers going, spent a couple of summers there and brought the ideas back to England, becoming an important part of the groundwork which was “rave”. DJ Moz-Art (that’s him on the far left in the picture, mouth agape, seated next to the illustrious Ms. Grace Jones) was one of the more popular Balearic DJs, and though there is some definite beatmatching issues here, perfection was never the point---it’s all about the groove. This sort of chill & soulful vibe has long been relegated to side-rooms or afterhours parties, but back in the day it reigned supreme all night long; quite frankly, I bet is was much easier to handle dancing on ecstasy to this slower-paced stuff than the house and jungle we flailed about to!

Buffalo Stance

from the 12” single, Circa Records, 1988



Fearlessly straddling several beats-based genres at one time, Neneh Cherry enjoyed well-deserved acclaim from critics and the underground alike upon the release of this stellar mash-up of breaks, synth pop and hip-hop; I had this song on one of those single cassettes, played that fucker until the tape got so warped that Ms. Cherry sounded like she was hitting on a nitrous tank! Neneh had already been in the musical underground for some time, having been a member of the post-punk crew Rip Rig & Panic since the early ‘80s, enjoying a brief tenure with the Slits and even getting to record with Nico once at the BBC; she also DJ’d for a pirate radio station while still in her teens, spinning electro and early hip-hop singles, showing a love for variety in music from the very beginning. Her tom-girl attitude here is both fierce and irresistible, “…the girls on the block with the nasty curls, wearing padded bras, sucking beers through straws, dropping down their drawers, where did you get yours?” My favorite line comes right as the sax-led breakdown begins, “…smokin’, not cokin’…” Word.

Op Hop Detonation

from the LP Cobra & Phases Group Play Voltage in the Milky Night, Duophonic Records, 1999



Stereolab are one of those bands that has developed a particular sound which is so immediately identifiable as their own, it could almost be a genre in and of itself; taking from the worlds of jazzy lounge tunes, 60s pop and psych, krautrock, tropicalia & library music (minimal electronic-based stuff from early 80s France), they have crafted a distinctive brew which stands as one of the most imaginative & inspired discographies of the last 20 years, in my humble opinion. The mix of brass instrumentation, jazzy drumming and spacey electronic effects lifts you right out of this atmosphere and into the deep reaches of space where this collective must surely hail from (actually, they’re from London). Although the music easily stands on its own, Stereolab commonly gives you the added bonus of some esoteric, often sociologically themed, lyrics “…suffer you little children, remain passive and fearful, suffer don't grow out of it…it’s our lives we’ll learn to control, we who're young and beautiful, respond with revolution, when we hear the word ‘suffering’…”

Megalomaniac

from the LP Symbols, Wax Trax! Records, 1997



Pioneers of the mainstream industrial sound which grew out of the mid – late ‘80s, the German duo KMFDM (Sascha & En Esch) always stood out from their peers due to a focus on heavy, highly danceable beats, politically radical lyrics & incredible album covers care of artist Aidan "Brute!" Hughes. Their name is short for the grammatically incorrect German phrase "Kein Mehrheit Für Die Mitleid", which loosely translated means, “no pity for the majority”---the only problem is, they both decided to have some fun with interviewers on their very first American tour, giving rise to the eternal myth that the letters actually stood for “Kill MotherFucking Depeche Mode”; in fact, the duo are friends and fans of Gahan, Gore & the boys. This album finds KMFDM in the middle of their career, and this opening track has always been a favorite of mine, unrelenting beat and thunderous guitar riffage.

Steppin' Out

from the 12” single, A&M Records, 1982



Often compared to his equally eccentric and all-around geeky contemporary Elvis Costello, the music of Joe Jackson isn’t easy to classify: hints of jazz, reggae, calypso and white boy funk, tied up in a new wave package and sung with a quasi-punk inflection. Get it? Right, neither do I, but it works somehow. This single received heavy airplay in the States and I clearly remember the goofy video for it, as it was one of those songs which had crossover appeal & was played on both MTV and VH1 (when it got going), a rarity in those days. I couldn’t remember who sang this for the longest time, but the melody has never left my mind, and it’s as appealing today as it was back then, a snappy celebration of going out for a night spent partying.

Feel It All Around

from the EP Life of Leisure, self-released, 2009



This song wraps the listener in synthesizers seemingly made of the softest cotton, layers upon layers of gently billowing keyboards and beautiful vocal harmonies, draping the music around you like some heavenly robe; you guessed it, better dust off those headphones for maximum listening enjoyment on this one! Washed Out is the work of one Earnest Greene, recorded in the rural woods of Georgia, where he grew up; he now resides in South Carolina. Some tunes really feel like the beach to me, and this is one of them, albeit certainly not a busy beach in the middle of summer---no, the languid pace of this feels more like walking along a deserted beach in October, at dusk, the autumn winds of transformation mixing with the spray from the ocean, coating your mind with memories and reflections of the past. Mr. Greene produces some slinky uptempo stuff as well, but it’s his slower tracks that are the most radiant; for real, this stuff is magic!

Sentir Electrico

from the LP Oracular Spectacular, Columbia Records, 2008



Chalk one up for the nerdy white guys!! Seriously, this track brings the funk so hard, so right, so creamy---knowing that this duo (Ben Goldwasser & Andrew Van Wyngarden) are recent graduates of Wesleyan University makes this kind of accomplishment all the more amazing. One part Daft Punk, three parts Prince, and a healthy dash of Beck---this song continues to flourish in my playlist month after month, I simply cannot get enough! Who cares if these guys are the soundtrack for all those annoying vapid hipsters, sometimes even they can get it right (although, admittedly, not very often). Go ahead, don’t be ashamed, just sing along, “…I said ooh girl, shock me like an electric eel; baby girl, turn me on with your electric feel…”

Kid Charlemagne

from the LP The Royal Scam, ABC Records, 1976



I held out for a long time with Steely Dan, and if there was a hologram of me at 15 years-old seeing myself now, posting a positive blog entry on them, well, my former self would be infuriated; back then, if it didn’t reek of the underground in some way, it was all just useless---ah, the naivety of youth! What’s so funny, of course, is that Steely Dan (essentially Donald Fagan & Walter Becker) are indeed the ultimate rebels, verbose and too smart for their own good, strikingly ugly & asocial pop geniuses, narcissists of the highest order but never taking the business too seriously. I didn’t bother to notice, as a kid, that they took their name from the crazy dildo in Burroughs’ Naked Lunch, or that they were, in fact, penultimate junkies and all-around wastoids throughout all of their adult contemporary success; I must confess, I was always a secret fan of their classic rock radio staples “Reelin’ in the Years” and “Do It Again”, but I would never have admitted that back then. At any rate, I finally broke down and got a bunch of their albums, old enough then to both get the nuances in their stories & not care what other people thought about it; that’s one of the great things about getting older---caring less about being “cool”, ‘cause once you get passed a certain point, you haven’t got a shot in hell unless you get comfortable in your own skin. Perpetual skeptics that they were, the duo penned this particular song about the death of the psychedelic revolution’s dream, although both guys admit to having been users of LSD back then. I can never decide whether this was meant as a scathing rebuke of those idealistically utopic goals by people who felt cheated, or rather a practical and mature reprieve by guys who had grown up & out of that as well; what isn’t in debate, however, is that this song uses famous LSD “chemist” Owsley ‘Bear’ Stanley (also sound tech for the Grateful Dead) as an allegory for the whole late ‘60s scene, “…just by chance you crossed the diamond with the pearl, you turned it on the world, that's when you turned the world around…on the hill the stuff was laced with kerosene, but yours was kitchen clean, everyone stopped to stare at your technicolor motor home; every A-Frame had your number on their wall, you must have had it all…now your patrons have all left you in the red, your low rent friends are dead, this life can be very strange; all those dayglow freaks who used to paint their face, they've joined the human race, some things will never change…” It’s interesting to note that Owsley did, indeed, “get along”; in fact, he’s been living in the deep outback of Australia for the past couple decades, annexing land with each successive year, which Australian law allows one to do (because who the fuck wants to live on land where everything you touch will make you burn or die?!...). Their own drug problems and legal issues tore the band apart in the early ‘80s, but the music Steely Dan recorded before that time remains wholly engaging, both lyrically and musically, a feat many of today’s artists could really take a lesson from.

Ozone

from the LP Ace Frehley, Casablanca Records, 1978



I like people who cut to the chase and live their lives in such a way that what you see is what you get, face value, no bullshit games or pretending to be someone they’re not---well, legendary KISS guitarist Ace Frehley is just that kind of guy, and although his wasted visage across the cover brings the point home pretty clearly, he makes sure we get it and doesn’t mince words here at all, “…I'm the kinda guy, who likes getting high, getting high and dry, and I do it all the time; if you think it's a crime, and you don't wanna try, something that'll make you high, then I think I'll say goodbye…” Based on his former band’s tumultuous history, I have to wonder if Ace filled his solo album with songs about drugs just to get under Gene Simmons’ skin; for some indication of all this, do a youtube search for “Kiss interview, Tom Snyder”, it’s a full clip of the band getting interviewed right before Ace & Peter got the axe…our beloved Space Ace is way out in the “ozone”, laughing his ass off, and the look on Gene’s face throughout the whole thing is fucking priceless!

Get Up, Get Down & Let Your Body Pop

from the 12” single, Rokk Steady Records, 1983



There are so many reasons that one should own a pair of roller skates, and firmly entrenched within that list is the synthtastic behemoth known only as Greyship Daviz, gracing us with at least 3 known songs, all of which bring to mind a very busy night at the roller rink. I looked all over for information about these guys, seeing as how they fucking rock, but I was unable to locate anything---not even a small bio, just the info on the label, which indicates the tracks were recorded and mixed in Columbus, Ohio. The body of the song is fairly typical early ‘80s disco-funk, albeit with a lot more weird electronics than usual, but it’s the crazy bridge/chorus that I can’t get enough of: weird time shift, driving bassline, Michael Jackson-inspired vocal stylings, and those ever-present blips & beeps from the synth. If anyone can find out anything about these cats, please let me know.

Lady

from the LP 3 + 3, Epic Records, 1973



Driven by a heavily phased and distorted guitar riff that literally makes people want to tear their clothes off, this absolute masterpiece by longtime groove-masters the Isley Brothers is perhaps the zenith of their extensive career, in my opinion anyways; the brief occupancy that Jimi Hendrix had with them in the mid ‘60s was clearly a transformative experience for the young Ernie Isley, going from three-piece suits & curl relaxers to crush-velvet bell bottoms & a wild afro in the blink of an eye…and a tab or two under the tongue… This family unit comes from Cincinnati, Ohio, and they managed to record music in some form or another in every single decade from the 1950s forward, zig-zaging their way through doo-wop, soul, R&B, funk, rock, disco and boogie; this mix of soulful harmonies, funky breaks, and Ernie’s blazing guitar work, clearly motivated by Hendrix and Hazel, simply transcends genres altogether, which garnered them a wider audience than ever before.

Le Mobilier

from the EP Le Mobilier, Crépuscule Records, 1998



Before there was Ratatat, there was rinôçérôse, a French duo that decided they wanted to add guitars to house music; frankly, in a year that saw many of their French compatriots topping the dance charts with their sleek style of tracky beats, they couldn’t go wrong. There is nothing terribly revolutionary going on in the background here, standard 4-to-the-floor beats, fancy flute & light percussive touches, but you can’t deny that Jean-Philippe Freu’s processed guitar sounds superdank! Although they were quick to fade into electronic obscurity, this track captures a moment in time (which lasted well into 2000) when Parisian producers set the gold standard for house music anthems, and everyone got to enjoy experiments like this one.

More Bounce to the Ounce

from the LP Zapp, Warner Bros Records, 1980



As the P-Funk crew wandered into quasi-obscurity during the 1980s (due to all sorts of shit like arrests, deaths, temporary loss of minds---all things generally crack-related), no crew did a better job of carrying the torch of spaced-out-wackiness and all-around funkmanship than the four brothers Troutman, known collectively as Zapp. Rather than just aping the P-Funk sound, Zapp brought in elements of electro, new wave and hip-hop to create an altogether new vibe that, though still owing a big debt of gratitude to the originators, is immediately recognizable as Zapp. The family grew up in Hamilton, Ohio, smack dab between the ghetto’s of Dayton and Cincinnati, and that area’s deep tradition of funk clearly infused them all with high doses funkiness (that’s a scientific term). All of the group’s first three albums are fucking essential, but this track alone is equally (if not more) responsible for the style of beats inherent to early ‘90s gangsta rap as P-Funk themselves were.