Monday, June 02, 2008

Seven Songs - I always hit the tape with the rough road styles

Yo. I've been tagged by Mr Mark Cardwell to do this: '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’.
Right you are, then.

1. MGMT. Time to Pretend. Bloody ubiquitous, yet oddly still rather niche electro-indie warbling. Utterly pretentious and overblown, but utterly love with it (even if it was used to trail George "Useless" Lamb's execrable 6Music show recently). It won't embed, but see here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVnRzEjpUmE

2. Deacon Blue, Dignity. Terminably unfashionable, probably even at the time. But I'm moving back to Scotland soon (despite being a soft English puff at heart) and nothing says Scotland like this windswept, melancholy yet oddly stirring number.



3. Depeche Mode, Just Can't Get Enough. By contrast to number 2, this one feels so "London", it hurts. Chilly, romantic, kind of gay... it's the perfect music to propel yourself through Camden Town. To. And bits of it sound like they're from the soundtrack to a Sinclair Spectrum game from 1986, which is all to the good.



4. Tyga and Zyntherius, Sunglasses at Night. Speaking of... this comes on my rather rangy old MP3 player, and suddenly I'm walking around like I'm in a videogame. Not one of the nice ones either, one of those doomy fin de siecle jobs where points are scored by killing hookers with a hammer. Bloody brilliant.



5. Roxy Music, Virginia Plain. Oddly, I don't think I even heard this before I saw it spoofed on Big Train a few years ago. I've compensated for that loads since then, of course. Probably my favourite ever song, at the moment: fantastic lyrical jiggery-pokery plus top sleazy Ferry delivery plus some expert keyboard business from Mr Eno equals brilliance - and I love the way it seems to come in from some distant point on the horizon. Won't embed, but hey now: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zoi6O-cq9I

Hard not to picture Kevin Eldon singing this while dressed as Chairman Mao though:



6. Bomb the Bass, Bug Powder Dust. Fabulously barmy monologue from Tim Simenon and Justin Warfield, covering everything from Burroughs to Sid and Marty Krofft. Funny, grimy, thrilling stuff.



And if you're puzzling over the (ace) lyrics, here's a comprehensive guide. God bless the internet: http://www.sauna.org/kiulu/powder.html

7. Dexys Midnight Runners, Because of You. Or as it's better known, the Theme from Brush Strokes. It's a thing of delicate beauty anyway, only enhanced by its association with a bittersweet sitcom from my youth. And it's "our song" if you know what I mean and I think you do.

Alright, that's me lot. Who's next? Maybe Jay, Roger, Carly, Fred, Francesco, and Mattcrap would like to have a go?

3 comments:

Mark Kardwell said...

A band I was in used to do a kick-arse cover of "Virginia Plain". By the time we finished kicking it around, it was more Sonic Youth/Dinosaur Jr/Spacemen 3 than Roxy - we didn't have Bryan Eno effing about with a mixing desk and a Moog, so we just set the phasers/flangers to stun and took off at a gallop. And usually ended with me barking, (thick Ulster accent) "whatzer name, Virginia Fucking Plain?!" down the mike.

Ah, happy days. I should find some way of resuscitating my old four-track and mix all our old demos and jams to MP3, and post them for a laugh. If only I had a f*cking clue!

Dan McDaid said...

Yay! That sounds fucking *nuts*.

Mark Kardwell said...

When I think of it, maybe "Butthole Surfers-esque" would be about right.