The Best Medicine #3: Conchords

I’m letting someone else do the hard work again in this feature. Here’s JC, The Vinyl Villain…

Once again, you've posted something that gets me thinking!

Maybe there is something real about 'grumpy old gits' in that the older we get, there seems to be fewer things we find to laugh about. Or is it just that what constitutes a sense of humour changes and evolves through life? I certainly 'don't get' a lot of what makes the younger generation(s) LOL these days, but then again, my parents 'didn't get' the political humour of the 80s that had me roaring with laughter.

I think one of the things about humour in songs is that all too often the music itself is not all that enjoyable... (the song you've posted [in my first post] being an example!!). It takes a real talent to be equally funny and musical.

JC hits the nail on the head here… because musical taste is such a subjective thing, once you try to add humour into the mix, it’s like trying to throw a dart and hit two separate bullseyes at the same time.  First you have to please the musical taste part of our brains, secondly you have to tickle our even more subjective funny bones. All in the same song. The intersection of that particular Venn diagram will often be very small, and it’ll be a different intersection for every listener. No wonder so few artists consciously go down the “funny songs” route… the whole thing’s a minefield.

I know that the way I appreciate music is very different to a lot of people. That’s down to my writer / English teacher brain. Well written lyrics will always win me over to a tune, regardless of genre. It’s no secret that I’m not the biggest fan of post-1987 dance music, for example. And maybe the biggest reason for that is that words aren’t really seen as important on the dancefloor. Yet when the words are given some consideration, dance music becomes a lot more interesting to my brain…

Death In Vegas featuring Iggy Pop – Aisha

LCD Soundsystem - Losing My Edge

Underworld - Born Slippy (Nuxx)

All of which brings me back to JC’s nominated band, Flight of the Conchords, with their amazing ability – as JC puts it – “to be equally funny and musical”. What’s incredible about the work of Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement is that they’re not just very funny guys… they’re also extremely talented musicians and songwriters, capable of mastering any genre they turn their hand to… and making it look easy.

They do funky r ‘n’ b…

Flight of the Conchords - The Most Beautiful Girl (In The Room)

…80s electronica…

Flight of the Conchords – Fashion Is Danger

…hip hop…

Flight of the Conchords - Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenoceros

…straight up rap…

Flight of the Conchords – Hurt Feelings

…and fuzzy 70s rock…

Flight of the Conchords – Demon Woman

They can be the Pet Shop Boys…

Flight of the Conchords – Inner City Pressure

…Air Supply…

Flight of the Conchords – I’m Not Crying

…The Police…

Flight of the Conchords – You Don’t Have To Be A Prostitute

…or even Peter Sarstedt.

Flight of the Conchords - Rambling Through The Avenues Of Time

I have a question though - for those of you who approach music via sounds first, rather than words – for those of you whose specific musical tastes are tied to genres and won’t be interested if it’s a musical style you just don’t dig… do you prefer the FoC songs which focus on one of your favoured genres? The fact that JC chose the Bowie song as his example made me wonder this. Everyone in our little group loves Bowie – and if there’s anyone reading this blog who’s not a Bowie fan, don’t be afraid to speak up - so that’s the perfect synergy of sound and satire, music and merriment. Do the songs above which venture into ungainly genres still work for you? Or does the humour win you over… in the same way that the lyrics in my “dance music” choices make those tracks work for me?

Here's my favourite Flight of the Conchords tune… and I’m not even sure what genre it is.

Positive Songs For Negative Times #87: I've Come For My Award

Dear International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences,

Considering your Committee decided not to give me the Webby Award For Blogging Excellence for having written my amazing blog for almost 14 years now (not to mention the even amazinger blog I did for 6 years before that!), I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of blogging, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the people of Top Ten Towers.

I have done more for blogging than any other person since the internet was built in 1975 – in fact, I was blogging before that and using carrier pigeons to deliver my hand-scrawled music reviews to all my readers – and I was only three years old at the time. In fact, I landed a boat on the blogosphere long before any of your committee even knew what boats were and this was truly the most amazingest thing because 3 year olds can’t normally fly boats. It’s time the blogosphere did something for ME! The World is not secure unless we have Complete and Total Control of the blogosphere.

Thank you.

WRH.*

(*I wrote this post pm Tuesday. By Wednesday night, parts of it were out of date. That's the trouble with trying to write satire these days - unless you get it out there immediately, the Orange Dictator will have changed his mind again. I'm writing this addendum at 9pm Wednesday night. I fully expect that by the time it goes live on Thursday morning, he will have invaded Iceland, sent missiles to Mark Carney's golf club, and pledged to knock down all the wind farms in Europe. I give up. I'm going back to writing about music.)

Namesakes #173: The Streets

Welcome to the feature George likes to call "Bands With The Same Name". I hope he can cope with it appearing on a Wednesday this week rather than a Tuesday.

Bono once said that the Streets have no name. Well, here's just one more reason why you're a birk, Bono. The Streets do have a name. It's The Streets. D'oh. And all the artists below have got together to prove you wrong. Let's rise up against Bono and reclaim The Streets!

STREETS #1

Calling out around the world! And we start dancing in the streets with a Belgium punk band with a bit of a reggae vibe in 1978.

Streets – Police Control

 

STREETS #2

Val Doonican had a #39 chart smash in 1967 with the song Two Streets. Perhaps he was singing about our Number Two Streets - this American country pop trio active in the very early 80s. They changed their name to Nightstreets after this, which I’m presuming was their debut.

Streets - Love In The Meantime

 

THE STREETS #3

Next street over, we find a Finnish rock band from Turku in 1980. Their biggest / only hit (this one) featured in Mika Kaurismäki's 1982 film Arvottomat.

The Streets - Kestääkö Siivet

 

STREETS #4

Our Positively Fourth Street today is this band formed in Atlanta, Georgia in 1982, featuring some bloke from Kansas and some other bloke from City Boy. Singer Steve Walsh later went back to Kansas.

Extra points for the class early 80s video.

Streets - Everything is Changing

 

THE STREETS #5

Street Tuff guys next - these New York rockers from 1985…

The Streets - Hard Rock Cafe

 

THE STREETS #6

When Mike Skinner arrived on the scene in 2002 with his acclaimed debut album, Original Pirate Material, he looked like he’d walked straight out of Grange Hill. Nowadays he wouldn’t look out of place in Albert Square. He is clearly a man of The Streets, and a rare crossover act who appealed to both fans of the UK garage scene and the indie kids. As a teenager, he built a recording studio in a cupboard in his bedroom – and I guess he never looked back.

The Streets - Has It Come to This?

S.T.R.E.E.T.S. #7

And now we're going down to alphabet street - where every letter counts. These loud Vancouver punks crashed onto the scene a year after Mike Skinner’s first offerings.

S.T.R.E.E.T.S. – Blackout

THE STREETS #8

“Alternative, Progressive, Post-Hardcore band from the Chicago suburbs.” Began their street-life in 2012.

The Streets - March Of The Monopolists

THE STREETS #9

And finally, an “experimental” band from Ithaca in 2013. Not the Greek Island, but the New York Ithaca where Cornell University is located. I doubt you’ll waste any time sleeping while listening to this…

Streets - Time You Waste Sleeping

Which is your Coronation Street - and which is just a Dead End?

Another Day #2: Penguin Awareness Day

Tuesday the 20th of January is Penguin Awareness Day, according to the WWF, and who doesn't appreciate a nice penguin? 

And yes, that means Namesakes will be a day late this week - because penguins come first! (I hope George isn't too upset.)

Here are a few appropriate tunes...

Kool & The Gang - The Penguin

New Fast Automatic Daffodils - Penguins

Nic Jones - Farewell To The Gold (from the album Penguin Eggs)

The Tragically Hip - Emperor Penguin 

Bloodhound Gang - Socially Awkward Penguin

Ivor Cutler - A Land of Penguin

Rufus Thomas - Do The Funky Penguin

Sandra's Wedding - Penguin Joke

Millencolin - Penguins & Polar Bears

They don't live together, you know.

Stackridge - Percy The Penguin 

Fleetwood Mac - (I'm A) Road Runner (from the 1973 album, The Penguin)

Penguin Cafe Orchestra - Perpetuum Mobile

My p-p-p-pick of the Penguins comes from 1954 when it was originally released as a B-side to a forgotten tune, Hey Señorita. DJs began flipping it and playing the B-side and a million-selling record was born... one that iffypedia informs me, "became the first independent label release to appear on Billboard's national pop charts". Does that mean it was the first ever indie record? The band never had another hit, but a lot of lawyers made a lot of money out of various court cases regarding who actually wrote the song (among other contentious issues).

I, like many children of the 80s, first heard Earth Angel performed by Marvin Berry & The Starlighters (with Marty McFly on guitar) as the dramatic climax of the movie Back To The Future. That's when I fell in love with the tune... although it took me a while to finally hear the original...

The Legend of CD 108: Part 2

In-depth analysis (or random, disconnected musings) of three more of the songs from the 108^th in-car CD I made for my son, Sam – the CD that has passed into legend as the one to beat in his eyes/ears… although I’m not quite sure why.

 

Track 4: INXS - Devil Inside

INXS are one of those bands who appear to have completely disappeared off everyone’s radar. There was a point in the late-80s / early-90s when it seemed like they were poised for world-conquering greatness – an Australian U2, but without the big God Complex eedjit and his dumb-ass cronies… and with far better tunes (Baby Don’t Cry must surely make Bono weep buckets every time he hears it). 

Then, of course, it all went wrong. First there was the rather duff 1997 “comeback” record Elegantly Wasted, followed soon after Michael Hutchence's sudden death. There’s nothing to be gained from rehashing all that, but I can’t help wondering what might have been. The band soldiered on without their frontman, trying out a variety of new vocalists (including Terence Trent D’Arby) and even putting themselves through the humiliation of an X-Factor-style talent show as part of the auditions. But for many fans, the idea of INXS without Michael was like Queen without Freddie or The Doors without Jim. Sometimes it’s better to just call it a day.

Anyway, Devil Inside is by no means my favourite INXS song. It wasn’t even a hit in the UK, unlike four of the other singles from Kick. Personally, I’d choose anything from their creative zenith, the outstanding disc Welcome to Wherever You Are. But it’s a good enough tune, I suppose, and keeps the CD moving along nicely. Momentum is important in a compilation.

 

Track 5: The Byrds - I'll Feel A Whole Lot Better

Also not a hit in the UK, and not really one of their better-known tunes, but I always like a good anti-love song… although there’s much debate in Byrding Circles about whether this is a plain old diss track or a more complex ode to indecision. They key word that suggests the latter is the fact that Gene Clark sings, “I’ll probably feel a whole lot better when you’re gone”. Because sometimes when we end a relationship, we’re left with a nagging doubt over whether we’ve done the right thing.

Tom Petty does a cracking cover, but that goes without saying.

There’s no reason why this tune should appeal to a 12 year old who likes Juice WRLD, Alex Warren and Imagine Dragons… any more than thousands of other songs I’ve introduced him to through these CDs. I doubt it’s directly responsible for CD108’s legendary status… but it fits nicely into the mix.

Track 6: Ocean Colour Scene - Huckleberry Grove

I'll Feel A Whole Lot Better started life in 1965 as the B-side to All I Really Want to Do. And that leads us nicely onto another B-side, or maybe even D-side, since it was track 4 on the CD single release of Ocean Colour Scene’s first UK Top Ten hit, You've Got It Bad in 1996. Despite its ignoble birth, Huckleberry Grove went on to become one of the band’s most-loved songs, first when it was given pride of place as Track 1 on their ragtag off-cuts compilation, B-sides, Seasides and Freerides, and then later when it popped up on their Greatest Hits collection alongside all the big hits. It’s the very definition of the Little Engine That Could.

Now I know what many of you think about OCS – that they somehow represent Britpop at its Satanic, nostalgia-inducing, Weller-shagging worst – and I’m not about to change your mind about that here. But it’s a lovely little tune if you can get past all that, and arguably much better than the single it was initially bolted onto as a throwaway bonus track. (That particular single has yet to make it onto one of Sam's compilations. But I might add it to the next one.)

 

Where will this CD go next? Find out soon… as if you care.

Snapshots #431: Songs About The Person In Charge

Here’s the man in charge… erm…

The man with the answers… erm…

Still, preferable to his inevitable replacement. Is that really the best we can say about him?

Here are some songs about the person at the top…

15. Born in 1986?

UB40 - King

14. Don’t worry, they’re harmanless.

Dave Harman, aka Dave Dee, had left at this point.

Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Titch – Mr. President

13. Princess Grace only wants to help you… NOT ME!

Princess Grace Kelly only wants to help you, Roland.

Kelly Rowland - Commander

12. See you, Underground Lou.

See you, Jimmy… and Lou Reed.

Jimmy Reed - Big Boss Man

11. The Ashes.

After The Fire - Der Kommissar

10. Her omelettes are really well scrambled.

“Her omelettes” was an anagram.

The Tremeloes - (Call Me) Number One

9. A pretty regular bunch.

Regular as clockwork.

The Clockworks - Can I Speak To A Manager?

8. Billion year old carbon.

“We are stardust…”

Joni Mitchell – Edith & The Kingpin

7. Scholarly hippy.

Professor Longhair - Big Chief

6. X2.

Double - The Captain Of Her Heart

5. Torturous firework.

Catherine Wheel - Here Comes the Fat Controller

4. 3.14, at the beginning of the afternoon.

3.14, as any Maths teacher will tell you, is π represented as three digits. The beginning of the afternoon is af. So Pi+af=

Edith Piaf - Milord

3. Older now, and with fewer brothers in rhythm. 

There’s only two of them left to pass the dutchie these days…

Musical Youth - Generals

2. Good for halting rashes, if properly blended.

“Halting rashes” was an anagram of…

The Shangri-Las - Leader Of The Pack

I love that video. The Leader of the Pack looks like a middle-aged bus-driver.

1. What Not To Wear.

Depeche Mode, as I’m sure you all know, means Fashion News or Fashion Despatch. Hence…

Depeche Mode – Master & Servant

I’ll be back in charge of this twaddle next Saturday morning.