Making Flippy Floppy

It's the friggin' 4th of July and I'm stuck at work pretty much all day. Actually, I'm kind of happy to be here, away from the crazy downtown traffic that has surely taken over my neighborhood. Plus, it's nice to sit in air conditioned comfort instead of 100 degree heat. I've got the AC maxed out to the point where people are coming in and saying "Brrrr..., where's my sweater?" Looking forward to classic BBQ fixings at Chez Mom after work and then party time at Chez Colleenie Weenie. Maybe I'll show up and make Deep Fried Pickles just to blow some minds... Anyhoo, to celebrate the holiday, here's some of my favorite kind of "Fireworks"...

Labels: New Wave, Siouxsie Sioux, Videos

The Mary Onettes: The Mary Onettes (Labrador) LISTEN HERE

Sweden’s Mary Onettes are not afraid to admit their love for the dark years of the early eighties, when ratty bangs hung over thickly black-lined eyes and all the cool kids wanted to be British and miserably filled with existential angst. The Mary Onettes website says the album “contains 10 great songs that reminds you of the great 80’s”, and although their English may be a bit broken, they do not lie. These boys want to stop the world and melt with you. They want to take on you. They’re lost in a forest, all alone. However, it’s done with a complete lack of irony or snark, and they’ve written a fantastic set of lush, memorable songs to wrap their mesh and lace around. With repeated listens, it rises above mere eighties pastiche and suddenly seems so here and now, so essential, so captivating, so important. “Void” is a devastatingly perfect pop song, stirring up emotions I hadn’t felt since 1987. “Pleasure Zone” and “The Laughter” lift the trademark glacial synth sound of The Cure’s Faith album, and “Lost” is totally Ringwald-worthy. Blame it on Abba, but there’s something intrinsically irresistible to me about pop singers with Swedish accents, and Philip Ekström’s voice is dreamy and soothing. I'm fully smitten with The Mary Onettes, it is no doubt the best debut album of 2007 so far. Rating 9/10

Paul Hartnoll: The Ideal Condition (ACP) LISTEN HERE He was half of groundbreaking British electro duo Orbital, who had a string of mostly brilliant albums in the ‘90’s. I’m honestly not too in love with this solo debut, it sounds like he’s trying to “pull a Moby.” In other words, it’s a mix of synthetic musical movie wallpaper with remotely classical influences and a mess of guest vocalists adding up to a semi-pleasant record which does nothing particularly groundbreaking. It tries to be a moody late-night classic, but doesn’t hold enough magic and falls mostly flat. Lead track “Haven’t We Met Before” sounds like the opening theme to a cheesy made-for-TV movie starring Teri Hatcher as a nun with a murderous secret. The Cure’s Robert Smith phones in his vocals for the single “Please”, continuing his run of lyrically limp guest turns on various mediocre techno tracks. If a cliche like “you know you got me” is the best hook he can come up with, no wonder we’ve had to wait so long for a new Cure album. To be fair, if it actually were a new Cure song, everyone would probably be rejoicing their return to electro-pop, and it's light years better than his guest yowl on Junior Jack's "Da Hype", the nadir of his entire career. Rating: 4/10

Ulrich Schnauss: Quicksand Memory EP (Domino) LISTEN HERE Wowee zowie, Captain Electricity! I always admired the earlier Ulrich Schnauss records, but never became too absorbed in them. The woozy, gauzy guitars and oceanic electronics were nice, but I kept waiting for something to really go off and it never did. On Quicksand Memory, his first release in nearly four years, Mr. Schnauss makes things go off with a brain-rattling bang. His main influence was always the opaque swirl of Cocteau Twins and My Bloody Valentine, but until now he never managed to be as massively titanic, or (in my opinion) as clever as those bands. Opening track “Look To The Sky” is as “pop-rock” as Ulrich Schnauss has ever been, with the usual cascading icy synths accompanied by the gorgeous squall of shoegazey feedback, a live drummer, and the whispery echo of a female vocalist. This song roars and soars its way through the air like nothing since Cocteau Twins’ classic Echoes in a Shallow Bay. “Medusa” is even noisier, building from some atonal bleeps into a full-on frenzy of guitar squalor and blurry vocals, bringing to mind the music of late great band Medicine. Cocteau Twins guitarist Robin Guthrie gives his nod of approval by giving the remix treatment to two older Schnauss tracks and the results are predictably Cocteau-riffic. This fantastic EP leaves me salivating for the full LP, which is unleashed June 25. Rating 8/10

Von Sudenfed: Tromatic Reflexxions (Domino) LISTEN HERE This record sounds like it must have been a gas to make. On paper, the collision of German electro-experimentalists Mouse on Mars and Fall head grouch Mark E. Smith might seem a little queer. In reality, the last few Mouse on Mars albums featured a singer who wanted to sound like Mark E. Smith, but he had nowhere near as much sneer and snatch. As well, Smith has never had a fear of dropping some electronics into the music of The Fall now and again. It seems both parties took the collaboration as an opportunity to step a bit outside of their comfort zones and create an oddball electronic pop record that’s additively weird and very cool. Take “Flooded” for example, wherein Smith announces “I’m the DJ! I am the disc! Jockey!” in his most classic rant voice, then mumbles something about another DJ showing up instead and yells “So I flooded the place!” Mouse on Mars’ Andi Toma and Jan St Werner create a rump-rattling backdrop of electro bass, machine groans, and general fucked-up noises that fly out of the speakers and bounce around the room. At times, Smith’s voice is treated like a wicked science experiment, his trademark repetitive outbursts, already nonsensical, reduced to silly non-sequitors and reverberated grumbles. These three guys have an incredibly bizarre sense of humor (“Chicken Yiyamas”? A lawnmower solo on “Jback Lois Lane”?) and they aren’t afraid to come across as loony maniacs if they feel like it. There are a few cuts where the schtick begins to wear a little thin, but overall Tromatic Refexxions is a real keeper. Rating 7/10

Johnette Napolitano: Scarred (Hybrid) LISTEN HERE

Concrete Blonde queen diva Johnette Napolitano has always dabbled a bit in the darkside of the human psyche, and on Scarred, her debut solo record, she does magic for the therapy industry by sending us on a harrowing trek though the mental murk of humanity. It’s a chronicle of her struggle to overcome the deep-seeded fear and anxiety that she’s just not good enough, not pretty enough, that she doesn’t belong. Scarred immediately takes flight, leading off with the scorching “Amazing.” Right away the listener realizes that Ms. N isn’t here to folk around, she’s looking to sear our face off with raw power and high drama. On “Scarred” her voice breaks with raw emotion, as if her nerves are about to shatter like glass, and a sinewy guitar riff comes pouring out like innards from an open wound. The gravelly recitation of her “Poem For The Native” recalls Tom Waits, and the vocoder and punk psychedelia of “My Diane” seems like something lifted from a favorite old Kate Bush album. A big conceptual and musical influence for her it seems is David Bowie in variety rock mode (The Man Who Sold the World, Lodger, Heathen). Scarred rocks harder than one might expect, even more than any Concrete Blonde album I can think of. The production is crisp and texturally varied - occasional synth loops and sound effects meander through effectively. However, the main star here is the Voice. Napolitano ranges from casually chatty to mad whisper to savage growl to soaring and operatic, sometimes in the course of the same song. She even manages to do a perfect Nico impression on her charming cover of the Velvet Underground’s “All Tomorrow’s Parties”. Rating 7.5/10

Labels: Mary Onettes, Music Reviews, New Wave

Target's Sweet Exotica and Freaky Treacle I could probably come up with a whole new blog just about trying new kinds of candy. I was depressed for months when the Penny Candy store in downtown CDA sold it's last buttery mint and shut down last summer. On gorgeous sunny days like today, I would walk downtown for some fresh air and exercise and stop into the Ramblin' Rose for some Nag Champa incense, browse the towering shelves at George Nolan books, and always the Penny Candy store. Of course, the candy there was never actually sold for a penny, and a trip through the variety of baskets with even a small bag would set you back at least five bucks. They had candy there from all over the globe, and there was always something new to try. Since then, I've been looking for a place with a reasonable selection of oddball and foreign candies and chocolate, and it was under my nose the whole time - Target. It's nowhere near as quaint, and they don't carry the small, individually wrapped candies, but they do have quite an intriguing selection of yummy things. For Valentine's Day, I treated myself to a trip through the Target candy department and came home with these exotic products: Green & Black's Organic Ginger Chocolate, Frey Citron & Poivre (Lemon and Black Pepper) Dark Chocolate, and Australian Soft-Eating Real Red Liquorice, which actually lists "treacle" as an ingredient. That's just the tip of the iceberg, sugar junkies. I also pondered purchasing Brazillian chocolate with cayenne pepper, authentic homemade saltwater taffy, carrot cake candy bites, and peanut-butter yogurt covered graham crackers. Target seems to be one step of the curve when it comes to the mainstream candies as well - I'd never before seen a "Snickers Extreme" (all nuts, no nougat) or a peanut butter stuffed Hershey Bar. It's the only place I've ever, ever seen the coveted Buttered Popcorn Mike-n-Ikes. Oh, the pure decadance! Target even has it's own in-house line of candies sold under the name "Choxie", which is not the most appetizing name, is it? Choxie is way pricey, however, and it has ugly, 70's-nouveau packaging, but my auntie Bonnie Jo swears by the stuff. Insaniquarium Addiction: I Need Help. It's so ridiculous for someone my age to be addicted to a video game, isn't it? I was never really that into them - X-Box 360s and Wiis do nothing for me, I was one of few kids not to own an Atari, and I'd rather stick a quarter ina newspaper machine than a video game. Granted, I did get sucked into the original Sonic the Hedgehog years ago when I lived above Miss Hannah in Spokane. She'd leave her back door unlocked so I could sneak in and play Sonic when she was at work. Eventually, I did finish the game and felt like I'd really accomplished something major. Then, about four years ago it was The Sims that had me glassy-eyed in front of the computer at 4:45AM, pale sun coming up in the window, soda cans and full ashtrays covering the desk. Fun game, but after awhile I got tired of those little buggers yelling at me in their annoying little language, shaking their fist at me, begging for me to clean their house and do their dishes. Sometimes I let them starve to death on purpose. Now, it's hundreds of buggery little fish that have me abusing my mouse and coming away with sore wrists and fingers after hour after lost hour of clicking action. Who new this game had so many levels, they just go on and on in the form of "bonus worlds" and I have an obsessive need to reach some kind of end. Insaniquarium Deluxe is very simple, really. You have a virtual fish tank and you start each round with two guppies and you feed them and they grow and shit coins and other objects that you collect for points so you can afford to buy more food, more fish, and stronger weapons to fight off the "aliens" that periodically invade your tank. You get some creature friends that have odd talents and help you in different ways, and after many levels you fight "the big boss" alien and then (to my surprise and slight chagrin) the whole thing starts over again in the form of "bonus worlds" and you can keep earning points and new creatures for ever and ever and ever, it seems. I find myself using it as a reward - "OK, if I slam though this pile of work in two hours, that'll leave me with three hours to play the game" I'm getting ready for a fix as soon as I post this, in fact - bad, bad, bad. Playlist: New Wave Instrumentals Since I bought my Sansa MP3 Player, I've fully been sucked in to the world of digital-only music and I'm saving a fortune on CD's. I've had a free trial of Rhapsody for several months and I'm keeping it, for sure. For 15 bucks per month, the cost of one CD, I have full access to literally hundreds of thousands of albums, pretty much anything currently in print and including new releases each Tuesday. I can store them on my hard drive and on my mp3 player, or just play them off the site itself. They have "channels" which are 6-8 hours worth of a particular genre of music (My fave:"Computer World") that I can download to my player, as well as Playlists that have about 12-20 tracks and are created by other users and even celebrities. It's kinda like an all-digital mix CD. To some of you, this is probably old hat, but I'm new to the concept and loving it. Anyway, my first Playlist that I contributed is all about swooshing synths and shadowy European moods. (I don't know if there's a way to actually share the music with you via Rhapsody, but you can probably do something similar with iTunes, SoulSeek, or whatever you got...) 01 Simple Minds - Theme From Great Cities 02 Human League - Dance Vision 03 Duran Duran - Tel Aviv 04 David Bowie - Speed Of Life 05 OMD - Architecture and Morality 06 Throbbing Gristle - Walkabout 07 A Flock of Seagulls - DNA 08 Gary Numan - Airlane 09 Depeche Mode - Nothing to Fear 10 Japan - Canton 11 The Cure - A Reflection 12 Brian Eno - Somber Reptiles 13 Tones On Tail - You, the Night and the Music 14 Public Image Ltd - Radio 4 Anyone else think of any other moody instrumentals from the robot hair sex era? I want to add to this playlist. Let me know.

Labels: Addictions, Candy, New Wave, Product Reviews, Retro Fun