Song of The Day #011

"Bump" by Spank Rock

"Bump" is an immensely stupid and dirty piece of club-rap that is by no means innovative or musically intriguing. That said, this was just about my favorite song in the world when it was released, and I'm very much loving listening to it right now. It's just a fun, mindless repetitive groove with some silly, vulgar, catchy rapping on top that lasts about two minutes too long--a formula that appealed strongly to the fourteen-year old Joe who listened mostly to hip-hop, and, somewhat surprisingly, appeals to the seventeen-year old, much snobbier Joe as well.

Song of The Day #010

"Don't Like Goodbyes" by Frank Sinatra

Hey! We're in double digits now for the Song of The Day! Woo-hoo! I've been doing this for a whole week and a half! (Let's face it: we all thought this would stop after two days.) To celebrate this monumental landmark in time and space, we'll all listen to Frank Sinatra's wonderful "Don't Like Goodbyes" from 1957, which--I just learned--was written by Truman Capote. It's not necessarily Francis Albert's greatest song, but it's a nice, slow, almost eerie tune from the crooner's heyday about, well, not liking goodbyes. Like any good Capitol release in the late '50s, it's got rich, full strings, but what I like about this song is that that's basically it. It's just nice strings and a nice voice. A precursor to Arthur Russell's World Of Echo, perhaps? Probably not. But a good song.

Song of The Day #009

"No Pussy Blues" by Grinderman

It's called "No Pussy Blues", but Nick Cave and Co. really aren't "blue" about not gettin' any; they're pissed. Big time. And never has screaming about lack of pussy ever sounded so poetic. The song starts with a romantic courtship--"I read her Elliot, read her Yeats/I tried my best to stay up late/I fixed the hinges on her gate"--that, after repeated rejection, becomes an aggressive, angry plea for lovin'--"I thought I'd have another go/I called her my little ho/I felt like Marcel Marceau must feel when/She said she just never wanted to". You know how there's a few--or maybe fifty--songs that just excite you every time you hear them, no matter how long the duration is between listens? Of course you do. Everyone has those songs. "No Pussy Blues" is one of mine, and when I heard it for the first time in a couple months yesterday, I was thrilled.

Song of The Day #008

"New New" by DNA

This is just some old fashioned rock n' roll fun--just with a lot of dissonance and groaning and stuff. Well, so maybe it's not old fashioned fun. But the industrial clatter, uneven tribal percussion, unintelligible grunts, and uncomfortable frequencies that make up this track truly are fun, albeit challenging. The skronk-y experimentalism found here is all over the industrial and post-hardcore and noise rock of the '80s and '90s, and the combination of noise, punk, and krautrock figures prominently in the music of Health and other similarly minded modern groups. (This track was recorded circa 1981.) So as obscure and weird and potentially unlistenable as this song and the rest of DNA's music might seem at first, stick with them; they're influential, good, and--like I said at the beginning--a lot of fun. "New New" is a prime artifact from the beloved No Wave movement from one of the era's finest artists.

Song of The Day #007

"Tom's Diner" by Suzanne Vega & D.N.A.

"Do do do do, do dodo do / Do do do do, do dodo do / Do do do do, do dodo do / Do do do do, do dodo do / Do do do do, do dodo do / Do do do do, do dodo do / Do do do do, do dodo do / Do do do do, do dodo do / Do do do do, do dodo do / Do do do do, do dodo do / Do do do do, do dodo do / Do do do do, do dodo do." And it's about Monk's!

Song of The Day #006

"Back In The Good Old World (Gypsy)" by Tom Waits

The title of this song, which comes from the Night On Earth soundtrack, explains the tune pretty well. "When I was a boy, the moon was a pearl, the sun a yellow gold/But when I was a man, the wind blew cold, the hills were upside down," wails Waits, singing from beyond the grave. Life was better back in the good old world. This is a sentimental ballad about the way things were, but it takes on a demonic feel like most Waits recordings post-Swordfishtrombones. It works very nicely with the bleak confusing worlds of Night On Earth, but it also works as just a song--a great, weird, sad, funny Tom Waits song.

Song of The Day #005

"Another Heartbreak / Don't Don't Redux" by Peter Gordon & The Love of Life Orchestra

This new-old gem is the latest release from arguably-my-favorite label DFA Records. (I say new-old because it's a remixing of two of the group's songs from around 1980.) If you're at all acquainted with DFA (LCD Soundsystem, Juan Maclean, Hercules & Love Affair, you know the rest) then you'll notice that the nouvelle disco that the label pumps out with regularity is highly indebted to The Love of Life Orchestra. These songs (it's technically two jams put together) in particular blend pumping disco with avant-jazz saxophone bursts courtesy of bandleader Peter Gordon with scratchy, No Wave-y guitars. (The second part, "Don't Don't" is some funky, Glass-y, Russell-y disco.) A.k.a. it's the blueprint for DFA. Some shiny synths and some modal, Middle Eastern-y junk are thrown into the groove just for fun. The songs together are kinda long (12 and a half minutes), but it's not at all tedious since it's truly two separate songs and each one goes in so many different directions. This is a disco masterpiece, and I'm very happy it was reissued so that you and I can experience it.