Ned Raggett tags me with the following blog meme that’s been making the rounds:
“List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they’re not any good, but they must be songs you’re really enjoying now, shaping your spring. Post these instructions in your blog along with your 7 songs. Then tag 7 other people to see what they’re listening to.”
So here we go…
1. Edith Nylon – “Edith Nylon”
1979 French new wave with all of the requisite elements for fantastic new wave: shouty vocals, insistent bass/drums, a synthesizer that does nothing else except announce it’s presence, a guitar line good enough to carry the whole song, vague title/band name reference to synthetic material (think Plastique Bertrand, Poly Styrene, The Age Of Plastic, etc.). Sometimes attitude is indeed good enough.
2. Swervedriver – “Duel”
I fished out Raise and Mezcal Head once word of the reunion tour leaked out and I revise my earlier estimate. “Duel” is now objectively 72% more awesome than I originally remember it being (originally I had this pegged at 62% more awesome when the Juggernaut Rides compilation was released two years back). And for me, Swerve is the kind of band that deserves to be measured in units of “awesome!” “Duel” is my favorite song of theirs by far – you think it’s going one way and then it shifts into another song and then back again. Bonus points for the chiming major-key guitar riff during the “I’m going down, down to the marketplace” chorus. (Video from last month’s show here in LA)
3. Motörhead – “We Are The Road Crew (instrumental)”
A couple months back I stumbled across the VH-1 Classic Albums episode on Ace Of Spades. No further word is necessary here, but there’s an extra from the DVD that made it onto YouTube – a semi-reunion (Clarke is in a different studio and effectively pasted in here) of the Lemmy, Clarke, and Taylor line-up who blast through “We Are The Road Crew” as an instrumental.
4. The Long Blondes – “Nostalgia”
Couples has a bucket full of “difficult second album” clichés, but when I saw them last week they are as furious live as Hanley/Scanlon-era Fall. Obvious pick would be the skittery Can-meets-P.I.L. “Round The Hairpin” but I’m going with “Nostalgia.” This is to 2008 what the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ “Maps” was to 2004. At least it should be.
5. Bo Diddley – “I Don’t Like You”
This 5:25 clip is as important to civilization as the discovery of fire, but the first thing I thought of was this track from the utterly insane The Black Gladiator album where Bo reconstitutes himself as a Sly Stone-style funk monster (Dave Alvin’s “The Night Bo Diddley Banned The Beat” is far more instructive rememberance than any of the other pieces last week). The Beat isn’t here, but Bo summons up a wailing howl worthy of Screaming Jay Hawkins before launching into a raunchy version of Booker T. & The MGs.
6. Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark – “Radio Waves”
Yes I did just pick up the new reissue of this. Uncomfortably sandwiched in between their New Wave singles and subsequent John Hughes pop, Dazzle Ships was the outsider album of 1983. “Radio Waves” is the best combination of collapsing circuity and flat out new wave, but you’re never really sure which part of the song is going to take the lead. Producer Rhett Davies should get a little credit for egging OMD on with this. He produced all those Brian Eno albums as well as The B-52’s Wild Planet and Dazzle Ships is the best possible amalgamation of that. Still my most favorite Peter Saville album cover too.
7. Holly & The Italians – “Rock Against Romance”
It’s a fantastically great song. Skip ahead to the 2:40 mark here and go nuts.
That’s it. I’m tagging these folks to carry on the meme.
Consider me memed.
You mean I actually have to put into words why I like the music I like?
Aw, jeez…
Actually, according to the meme’s instructions you don’t even have to do that.