Is there a nation that is more fluent in swear words than Scotland?
I seriously doubt it - somehow the brogue really brings the filth to the forefront.
Earlier this week I was making a mix for Mitchell and I went out of my way (aka digging through boxes) to put on the eponymous track from Murder Inc.
Released in 1992 during one of Killing Joke's many hiatuses, Murder Inc. featured Chris Connelly on vocals and his menace and swagger are used to a beautifully bruising effect when he declares - "Make no mistake, we've come to fuck you over"
21 years later - today - Connelly reaches out on Facebook with that sardonic and self-deprecating Scottish wit:
The Revolting Cocks (well, some of them) are back... now they're COCKSURE! If you ever had nostalgia for the giddy heights of 1987 but still have modern aspirations, you will not be disappointed -- the album is packed with grooves, laughs and dirty words!
In the parlance of our times, instead of a few well placed F-bombs there is a LOT of swearing on this track. Definitely NSFW.
As someone who spent the last two days with Nitzer Ebb's "Belief"* in my car's tape deck, I feel I qualify as one who is open to something that is reminiscent of Wax Trax's glory days with current production values.
"There was a laugh track at my arraignment..."
I like this track and I want the rest of this album to follow suit.
*"Belief" holds up very well, btw. back in the day I played this tape so much that the lettering faded off one side.
So, tonight I am powering through making a shit ton of personalized mix cds. It is my debt to the many, many people that supported my fundraising efforts in a 5K run, almost a year ago. I don't do well with ambiguous deadlines - what can I say? Why the F is it taking so long?? Well, I can promise that no two mixes are exactly alike AND that I had the specific listener in mind as I selected and sequenced the tracks. Still, now that I am twenty mixes I am starting to notice that quite a few of them share a track or two between them. Here are the Top 7 common threads:
Mike Condello - "Soggy Cereal" - I got this off a Pebbles comp LP and actually did the transfer from vinyl myself. SO, if this ended up on your mix: You're welcome.
The Monkeywrench - "Cold Cold World [No Organ]" - I have been on a bit of Mudhoney kick of late. I would love to see them play Riot Fest this year . This side project of Mark Arm's rose to the surface as I was scanning iTunes and this track is very versatile when it comes to mixes. It is no bullshit - it brings you back to core messaging.
Evil Nine (featuring El-P) - "All The Cash" - I almost didn't want to post this one because of the official yet goofy low-rent video. It is like a 30 second visual joke stretched out to three minutes. Then I found this one that is just a static image. It isn't that the album is devoid of humor, I just prefer to find it on my own terms.
Gossip - "Are You That Somebody" - the above video is a live performance of this Aaliyah cover that Beth Ditto and crew have folded into their sets for years. Love the original but this soulful live rendition has a mojo all its own.
TRS-80 - "Prime Numbers" - "You need to go to New York with that shit". I would totally buy a TRS-80 Trap music album.
The Coup - "5 Million Ways to Kill A CEO" - I already posted about this song last year. Another reason I am so behind in making these mixes is because my hard drive crashed and killed my iTunes library. I know, waa-waa, cry me a river. I realize my excuses are my own and the whole reason I am making these mixes is because homelessness is a growing problem.
Pigeonhed - "Theme from Pigeonhed" - the thing is, I eventually found a older iTunes library file - three years older. SO, the silver lining to all these mixes is I am definitely rocking my back catalog.
*******
That is it. I don't want to give away all my tricks. No mix has all seven of these tracks and some don't have any of them.
Learn from my bad judgement - back up your iTunes library, dude. A couple of weeks ago my hard drive crashed. Although I am now up and running again, I am looking at rebuilding a library that was many years in the making. Regardless, I had to make a mix for my good buddy Mitchell. I actually owe him at least three but that is another story. I was meeting him for lunch this week and I was not going in empty handed - dead computer or not. In a way, it was kind of liberating to go back to the actual CDs (most still packed in boxes!) in my physical collection. The composition of this mix was closer to a feverish mixtape making session than anything I have attempted in a long time. Here is what I came up with: 1) Huge Bats - Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas snippet 2) Voyeur's Blues - Fifty Tons of Black Terror 3) Muff Control Unit - Evil Beaver 4) Didn't I Know You Once - Surgery 5) The Drug Cache - Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas snippet 6) Move Over I'll Drive - The Family Cat 7) When I Get Back - Handsome Furs 8) Under The God - Tin Machine 9) The Guillotine - The Coup 10) In This City - Enon 11) Lost Parts Stinging Me So Cold - Melt Banana 12) Biting My Nails - Renegade Soundwave 13) Christiansands - Tricky 14) Bein' Alive is like Vandalizin' - We Ragazzi 15) Another Ride - The Sexy Girls 16) ABC - Coco Solid 17) Dirt - Neneh Cherry & The Thing 18) Blame You - Edith Frost When making a mix for Mitchell, I often try to make sure it is grimy, uncouth and sleazy. I want to make sure he can't pop it in the player when he is driving his wife and kids around. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! Because I mostly only buy vinyl these days I wasn't able to put many 2012 releases on it. In fact, there are only two and that was in part because they included a cd copy of the record rather than a download card. They both come with my highest recommendations though...
The Coup - Guillotine, from their new release, "Sorry To Bother You". Saw these guys a couple weeks ago at Mayne Stage where they TORE. IT. UP. Boots Riley was fond of saying "Hello, Chicago! We're The Coup! We're from OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA! And we came for the CLASS WAR!" before playing another blast of funk rock agitprop.
Neneh Cherry & The Thing - Dirt (Stooges Cover) from their 2012 release "The Cherry Thing". This will definitely be the most inspired collaboration from two very diverse artist to make my end of the year list. I doubt they will ever come to the States to play so I make do with videos of live clips on Youtube like this one.
******
After all that noisy nastiness I decided to give Mitchell a bit of a palate cleanser and ended with a stark and pensive tune. Edith Frost'sBlame You is as haunting and plaintive today as when she first released it in 1996. There is no good explanation as to why Edith's work is not more widely known and enjoyed.
So imagine my surprise to find that someone had uploaded it to Youtube just earlier this year. I was the 49th person to listen to it and if you haven't heard it I encourage you to check it out!
I am very sensitive to music. Even when it is in the background of a crowded, noisy space it hits my nervous system. I can NOT "tune it out" once I have identified it. This has led to some unusual situations in the past. My pleasant vibe can be ruined just because someone chose to play Lionel Richie at the wrong bar or Jodi Watley at the wrong coffeehouse. Things can get confrontational at the drop of a hat. This afternoon I was with my five year old son at a very crowded tap/grill room. We were with family - a table of six children and five adults. Most other tables were occupied by families with young kids as well. The place was loud - not obnoxious Chuck E. Cheese level loud - but loud enough that I was surprised when my son came up to me and said, "We know this song, daddy." Until that moment I had not realized that any music had been playing. I strained an ear - I still could not pick out a discernible tune. I was about to tell him I couldn't hear any music when a snatch of it came through. He was right - it was this track. I put it on a mix cd for the car last year.
When I told my sweetheart about our kid's expert song identification above the restaurant din, she beamed: "Like Father, Like Son."
