Wednesday Wadio

One of the reasons I try and keep this site afloat every week is that you never know who is watching, and who is going to pop up. My site in this format has been around 1.5 years now, and has a Google PR of 5/10 which is above average. So I get a lot of search engine traffic for a lot of the strange topics I’ve covered. Once in a while, I get a cool comment or email from someone who stumbled into this shit show by accident. Yesterday, however, I got the best email yet.

Drew Arnott fronted a Canadian synth band called Strange Advance in the eighties, and I featured their song “We Run” as one of my top 10 favorites from that decade – in an article that still pulls a lot of natural search engine traffic, and is one of my favorites. Here is what I wrote about the song that I chose as #4 back in October 2004:

Bryan Adams wasn’t the only Canuck rocking out hardcore in the eighties. Darryl Kromm sounds almost as if he’s fighting back vomit during the entire song, but I like the 2nd synthesizer that comes in mid way, and the eerie high-pitched “hayaaa hayaaa” vocals that get layered in at the end. I don’t know much about this band, and I don’t think anyone does, but I love this song. And Bryan Adams.

Drew actually emailed me yesterday to correct one of my ‘facts’:

On the one hand, I’m glad you liked ‘We Run’. On the other hand, I’m not sure I feel good about setting the record straight. In fact it was I who sounded like being on the verge of vomiting. Darryl is a much better singer and knows the value of Gravol. I was down at Bryan Adams studio the other day. He’s rarely in town, but if I see him I’ll pass on your kind words.

Will Bryan Adams become a Pye In The Face fan? Absolutely not. But this is still a very cool development, and I am glad that Drew reached out. He wrote me again this morning after I inquired about what he’d been up to, and how happy I was that new Canadian bands are making a dent in the American market (Sloan is opening for the Stones, for example):

Well, we’re not up to much. Had a couple of offers to tour but Darryl isn’t into it. I have a studio and I write and produce local artists. This year I’ve gotta get off my ass and actually put something out! Someone offered me a deal and I guess I’d better do something about it. Thanks again for the kind words re: We Run. One of my favourite things about it is the strings. Michael Kamen (Pink Floyd etc) played them. He actually brought in a string section but when we got back to Canada, I preferred the rough tracks he laid down on the Fairlight. Nice to see so many great Canadian bands happening out there. A while ago, I saw Stars, Arcade Fire and Broken Social Scene all in one month. Pretty hot.

So it looks like Drew may be on the verge of a comeback. Strange Advance won’t be touring any time soon, but it’s still nice to know they’re out there. Somewhere. Still strange and still advancing. I have added the song to Radio Pye and you can hear this classic for yourself by clicking the ZAP button on the left.

“Behind the Roses and Mondays, Inspiral Carpets were always imagined as the third of a triumvirate…”

So maybe I’m feeling a little Manchester tonight, again. Back in the early 90’s I didn’t really like this Carpets‘ song. I much preferred ‘Joe’ and ‘Commercial Rain‘ or anything off of ‘Revenge of the Goldfish’. But this is the only one of their songs that has really endured for me. Classic Manc from that period, with heavy multiple organs fluttering over a 3-part harmony (which I think is all the one singer, Tom Hingley). Drop an ‘E’, get in line at the Hacienda and click on Radio Pye.

‘This is How it Feels’ is “distinctive and specifically northern in flavor”. The Carpets early songs, all pretty much backed with organs, influenced The Charlatans and many other bands from the era – “it’s worth noting how ubiquitous Hammond-style keyboards became in British music over the next few years — most notably with Portishead and PJ Harvey.” I remember I had this song on a little tape I would listen to right after I’d gotten my driver’s license. As I clutched the wheel white-kuckled, I’d bop along and carefully try not to hit any Concordians.

“Hardly bandwagon jumpers, they were playing their psychedelic punk pop in the mid-eighties way before anyone was putting the ‘Mad’ into Manchester.”

Their popularity was helped along early on by a crappy T-Shirt that became all the rage in the English city. It was simply a cow’s head with “Moo! Cool As Fuck” emblazoned underneath. Incidentally, this was also the name of their greatest hits album that was released in 2003. The band flared up and died out very quickly, enjoying a lifespan of about 6 years and 4 albums, but they remain a fun timecapsule of the era. And thank goodness I wasn’t old enough to be able to afford bell-bottoms at the time.

“…it’s a gorgeous song no matter why you observe Christmas or even if you celebrate something else… is not only the most beautiful, but the best Christmas song humanity has ever made. May it endure.” – Stylus

I am really slammed today but wanted to get this out there. This entire Wadio entry will be comprised completely of quotes and links, and you can enjoy my snide remarks again tomorrow.

“The Pogues re-released their classic Christmas hit ‘Fairytale of New York’ on Warners on 19th December 2005. The song, featuring the late Kirsty McColl was voted the best Christmas song ever in a poll by TV station VH1 last year, beating Band Aid, Wham and Slade to the top spot.”

“The band will be donating proceeds from the record to the homeless charity Crisis At Christmas and the Justice For Kirsty Campaign. Set up by the late singer’s mother Jean, the fund has enabled the family to fight the long legal battle for justice following the tragic death of their daughter, killed by a powerboat whilst on holiday with her children. Almost five years on from her untimely death on 18th December 2000, no person has been made accountable to the satisfaction of her family and friends.”

“MacGowan and the sadly departed MacColl sing all over each other, slurring words and tossing insults (she’s an “old slut on junk”, he’s a “cheap lousy faggot”). You could easily dismiss it as merely dysfunctional and assume I’m saying it is the greatest Christmas song of all time because I am a cynical bastard and I think Christmas sucks and is all about squabbling with the family and getting loaded. But you’d be wrong.”

“This is a couple clearly more comfortable slinging profanity than admitting sentiment. And then they sing “The boys of the NYPD Choir are singing ‘Galway Bay’ / And the bells are ringing out on Christmas Day” again, and it’s still oddly uplifting when you consider how little those two things mean to most of us (but not to them, of course), and then the song goes off into the air.”

And I got tickets to the Boston show, bitches.

“I’m from Roxbury the ‘Bury but not the fruit y’all – Don’t make me act like where I come from cause it’s bru-tal.” – Ed OG.

In honor of this senseless scene of local studio slaughter, I was inspired to feature a legendary Boston rap artist on Radio Pye today. As an aside, how many rappers have been shot or otherwise died in their recording studios at this point? 2Pac, Jam Master Jay, ODB… You hit the studio with the intention of laying down a few bizzangin’ tracks – and just end up laying down. Update: Here is an MP3 by the now permanently defunct, murdered Boston rap group, Graveside.

Ed OG and da Bulldogs’ seminal 1991 release “The Life of a Kid in the Ghetto” is beloved by any hip hop fan who attended high school in the Boston area that year. There’s your “Bugaboo”, your “I’m Different”, but the track everyone remembers, and which made it onto Yo! MTV Raps for a couple of weeks in March of that year, is the classic “I Got to Have it“.

Edo’s work was a great combination of social commentary, sexual adventure and bootie-shakin ‘ party jams. There isn’t a weak song on “Ghetto”, and the rough beats and heavy sampling are a time capsule of early 90s rap – or ‘the golden age’ as I like to call it. “There were no drug raids and driveby’s on “Life of a Kid in the Ghetto,” just episodes in the life of a young man who knew his calling.”

Edo is still kickin’, having recently and quietly released a great album with Pete Rock, and I recently read in a Boston music magazine that he’s hard at work recording with another Boston crew. He plays regularly at the Middle East and is even thinking about getting into politics in the future. Perhaps as a member of the Skinny Dip party. Time will tell – but this is a great song that I remember fondly and wanted to reintroduce to my small world.

“These days you have to look long and hard for such a charismatic and original freshman. In 1991, “Life of a Kid in the Ghetto” proved that between NY and LA, there were many places who had their own story to tell. In that regard, Ed repped the ‘Bury and Boston to the fullest.”

“The frisky bassline and chunky horn blasts are rewarding enough, but it all sounds too easy, too patronizing for a band in the adulthood of their career.” – Pitchfork

Go to jail. Go directly to jail. Do not pass go, do not collect $200. Belle and Sebastian’s new album, The Life Pursuit, isn’t released for over 2 months yet, but I accidentally found it online. Funny Little Frog has been available from their Peel session for almost a year now, but this is the full studio version and I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as I’ll surely enjoy being buggered in the shower at MCI Concord during my 18 months for piracy.

This is your archetypical ‘new’ B&S song – piano, horns and mindless optimism. I especially love the sound of the snare drum, and the way Stuart Murdoch pronnounces thro-at so that it rhymes with poet. Cute, Stu. I think Pitchfork was a little hard on this single, and the album in general. I don’t honestly think the new album is on par with their best work, but I can’t fault them for evolving and changing – “…at least they aren’t pulling a Robert Smith and staying “miserable” ad infinitum“. I’m always glad to see them, and we’ll always have If You’re Feeling Sinister.

“In my view, XTC is the greatest rock band of the 1980s… they’ve never really lost their edge: they’ve consistently delivered quality recordings that show increasing sophistication and maturity instead of burnout and boredom.” – warr.org

“Dear God” is the closest XTC ever came to a major Stateside hit, but they have have an enormous back catalog which includes 14 full studio albums, the first of which was released in 1978. I have been a fan for almost 20 years myself, and my favorite XTC tune is by far the fully infectious “Generals and Majors” off 1980’s Black Sea album.

The lyrics aren’t all that sophisticated and seem to poke fun at warmongers, for lack of a better analogy. So the tune should be soundtracking another questionable video from MoveOn.org within the week. To call the baseline simply catchy, would be a disservice to catchy baselines everywhere. If you can listen to this song without tapping your foot, either have your pulse checked or report to a Dave Matthews concert immediately.

Here is a great collection of videos I found on the expansive and interesting tribute site, Chalkhills – and you can also visit the official site for the latest news, audio clips, lyrics and a full discography. Revisit the XTC, kids. I can’t stress that enough.

Opening with mysterious panning pulses and the whistling of wind, the song gradually swells into a climax of guitars, crashing drums and spookily layered vocals. As comebacks go, they don’t get much better than this. – Virgin

When I heard Kate Bush was making her unlikely comeback, I decided I should put her 1978 classic Wuthering Heights up on Radio Pye. WH is based on Emily Bronte’s book of the same name, and has long been an obsession of Bush’s. The tune took the scene by storm, and although it confused the heck out of a lot of people, it stayed at #1 in the UK for a month that year. Bush went on to record with Peter Gabriel, release a good album every few years until 1993 – and then go absolutely stark raving mad before disappearing into the desolate English countryside.

Earlier this year she spent 2.5 million pounds on an estate near the setting of the 158 year old novel, and registered herself to vote in the county under the name Catherine Earnshaw – which just happens to be the name of Wuthering Heights’ heroine. But she’s back, and I’m pumped and I want to share. And, no, her new album isn’t entitled “Mad as a Box of Frogs”.

The first thing about Kate Bush is her voice. If you hate her, that’s probably why. It’s childish and prickly, and she sweeps through her four-octave range with all the inhibition of someone taking a shower in an empty house, seemingly oblivious to the fingernails-on-chalkboard effect a voice like that can have. – Salon

See what you think of King of the Mountain. If you like it, try Wuthering Heights, Running Up That Hill and Babooshka. And maybe don’t try moving onto a remote moor and spending all your time reading the Bronte sisters and sculpting whilst wearing leotards. Or do – you know what? It’s almost Thanksgiving. Let’s all get a little nuts this weekend, hah?

“Don’t you realize? The next time you see sky, it’ll be over another town. The next time you take a test, it’ll be in some other school. Our parents, they want the best of stuff for us. But right now, they got to do what’s right for them. Because it’s their time. Their time! Up there! Down here, it’s our time. It’s our time down here. That’s all over the second we ride up Troy’s bucket.” – Mikey

The video for this song is emblazoned on my memory like a makeshift coathanger cattle brand. Cyndi Lauper and the child cast of 1985’s The Goonies run around various sets from the film whilst being pursued by professional wrestlers of the day. Steven Spielberg’s mullet makes an appearence. The octopus (which was cut from the final print of the film) dances along to the breathtakingly strange accompanying song. As I was very in to giant squids, Rowdy Roddy Piper and The Goonies that year, I sat glued to my favorite Canadian video show every night religiously after school hoping for a Goonie-glimpse.

On the eve of the film’s 20th anniversary, and a possible sequel in the works, I thought I’d add this strange-but-catchy little tune to Radio Pye. Forget Time After Time and Girls Just Wanna Have Fun – this is Cyndi’s best work, and the only video she ever made in which that most creepy boyfriend of hers did not also appear. Whoops, I spoke too soon. Upon review it looks like he played the right honorable Captain Lou Albano’s flunkie. Maybe that trusty cattlebrand needs to be reheated.

“During the scene where the boys are sitting in the living room watching MTV, they were not actually watching the Cyndi Lauper “Good Enough” video, which was to be developed six months after filming wrapped up.” – IMDB

Peaking at #10 on the Billboard charts, Goonies ‘R’ Good Enough was shat out by popular culture almost as quickly as it appeared. The cult following of the film cannot be denied, and recently New Found Glory covered the tune on a compilation called “From Your Screen to Your Stereo”. Quintessential 80s synth handclaps, xylophones and Cyndi’s harpy-like voice combine and draw off elements of the film’s original score to create a passable musical tie-in. And when I say passable, I of course mean awesome.

City Kitty reels with befuddled disgust, shot through with a clammy sci-fi movie organ and the rattle of screwdrivers on fretboards — until the strings start soaring above a bridge which is one part Ennio Morricone, one part Glen Campbell. “Slinky and winky, stinky and drinky.” – TeenBeat

Hi everybody! This is Nate, guest-blogging because my esteemed roommate is off making a hamhock sandwich. He LOOOOVES his pork. But at the end of the day, who doesn’t want to tuck in to some salty hog? Here’s the deal: there are 3 kinds of people I hate:

1. People with oversized umbrellas that are the width of the sidewalk because they are so fat they need them to stay dry (it’s called a tarp – get one).
2. People who don’t look forward in an elevator because they are checking out my enormous cock.
3. People who don’t like Luna.

More specifically, their best song – City Kitty. A song of mystery and mystique. A song of black-eyed susans and chilled potatoes. A song of triumph and adversity. It’s a song I have been screaming for them to sing for the 13+ years I’ve been going to see them, to which they consistenly reply: “fuck off, Nate.” Real funny, jerk-offs. It’s a song I have only heard once in concert, and that’s because they were drunk one night and tried to appease me. But they gave up. Unlike this song, they were weak. They did not try to persevere.

The song is about positivity. About achieving one’s goals. About heading into the realm of the unknown. Okay, fine. It’s a song about drugs. And I’m drunker than a poet on payday. Enjoy, and stop checking out my package, perverts.

Janet told me yesterday that I should remake “Trunk of Funk” in its entirety, and post the whole thing here on Radio Pye. TOF was a cassette tape mix that I made a year or so after high school. It consisted of probably 20 early 90’s rap songs (the golden age as far as I am concerned) and was copied and handed around many times. I’m not gonna do the whole thing, but I’ll do one. I’ll do one.

An oddly named single from De La Soul’s second album, De La Soul Is Dead (“…One of the most progressive, complex and boldly experimental albums hip hop has ever seen.”), A Roller Skating Jam Named Saturdays “seamlessly incorporates Chicago, Chic and Franki Valli samples into a taut, scratch-heavy disco jam“. The video features Pos, Trugoy and Maceo and guest rapper Q-Tip from A Tribe Called Quest surrounded by roller skaters on a sunny day in Central Park.

This song would easily make my top 10 list of favorite rap songs of all time. It is so happy, infectious and funky it’s almost hard to resist strapping on skates and looking aimlessly for some long since torn down rink. Whenever I hear this song, I am instantly brought back in time – driving around in my ’79 Chevy Malibu, listening to TOF on the yellow Sony Sport boom box that’s plugged into my rusty cigarette lighter. And I desperately want to get back to 2005. Not really. Pass the peas like they used to say…

“Sure, these songs might sound like a lot of shit you’ve heard before… but as you listen, Sloan’s affectations and flourishes materialize and you hear the band for what they really are– not a cloying, uninspired rip-off, but an intelligent band with a sense of humor and a great ear for pop hooks.” – Pitchfork

Listening to Sloan‘s first album, Smeared, reminds me of peeling potatoes. When I first arrived at Guelph University in 1992, I got a job in the kitchen of the biggest on-campus pub. While I would eventually go on to run that joint and several others by the end of my 6 year professional scholastic stint – I spent a good 3 semesters covered in grease, throwing poutine across the slick counter to drunken frigtards. Or, my peers, if you want to split hairs.

There was a Crisco-encrusted boom box in the back with several gummy mixtapes that we used to listen to during those long nights in the galley as I grew to call it. One of which had Sloan’s remarkable first single, Underwhelmed as the first song on side 2. The mix belonged to a coworker who’d jammed it with all kinds of mediocre Canadian bands of the era – Watchmen, Tea Party, Grapes of Wrath, 54-40, Wide Mouth Mason – and the anticipation of the Sloan tune, which stood out from the rest of the flotsam like a ray of light, kept me going. But it was ultimately another song from their soon to be released second effort, recently voted the #1 Canadian album of all time, Twice Removed that would endure until today as my favorite by these special sons of Halifax.

“Sloan’s Twice Removed album was nearly rejected by its label and caused the band to lose their record deal. It also caused certain members of the band under serious duress and nearly broke them up. So how does that become the most beloved Canadian album of all time?” – Chart Attack

I Can Feel It is jammed in at the very end of the record, and I admittedly overlooked it for a few years as a result. But it’s stood the test of time and I wanted to ‘big it up’ right here on Radio Pye. It starts with a cheery guitar riff that sways along so, so very catchily. The bass doesn’t conform to standards and plays its own little melody at points. The lyrics are simple, but I’ve surmised after many listens that the protagonist is a jilted lover who can take a little solace in the fact that “at least I’m still cool to one girl” – his little sister.

Whether the duet is supposed to be between him and the girl he “can feel” actually really digs him (but just doesn’t know it yet) – or his sister – remains a bit of a creepy mystery to me. Jennifer Pierce from Halifax band “Jade” sings along starting at the first chorus and then comes and goes intermittently for the rest of the tune. It’s an unusual structure for a song which also ends quite abruptly. But I will always love it and I hope y’all get a little something out of my own personal obsession.

And I was happy to see Sloan only recently played Peter Clark Hall at Guelph. Because I used to run that too.

“We all hated each other, I just started speaking to me brother again. But the rest of the Mondays, they’re just a joke. One of the guitarists is selling encyclopedias door-to-door and another one’s a cook. They’re a bunch of d*cks. I tried me hardest to tell them not to split the band. It was just b*llocks. The rest of them thought they were rock Gods. They just wanted money. They didn’t care about music.” – Shaun Ryder on why he formed Black Grape

I love the Happy Mondays, and I get a lot of subsequent grief from friends and family surrounding that fact. But I simply can’t apologize – Some people like marmite. Some people like anchovies. I love the Mondays and Shaun Ryder. There’s no accounting for taste, as they say. Class, charm and the ability to pick up audible sounds, maybe – but never taste.

After the band imploded in 1993, Ryder and Bez formed Black Grape and had three top ten hits off the first album, It’s Great When You’re Straight, Yeah! The best of which was Reverend Black Grape and you can listen to it now by clicking the Zap button on Radio Pye in the left hand column. Surprisingly to many who wrote Ryder off as a drug-addled maniac (if the shoe fits…), Grape took the charts by storm during 1995 and many reviewers actually preferred them to Ryder’s previous incarnation: “Heavily steeped in the funk, ex-Happy Mondays frontman Shaun Ryder comes off here like a Mancunian George Clinton as he babbles over top of a skilled, polyrhythmic unit that’s far tighter than the slapdash Mondays.” – Amazon

The hodgepodge tune includes a scitar, dancehall chirping courtesy of rapper Kermit, a rousing and uplifting chorus, old-school samples (listen carefully for the Hitler speech), bongos, some sort of snake-charmer flute thing and even a harmonica. The production values are riotus and there’s a damn good reason this record made multiple ‘album of the year’ lists in the UK. Above the din, Ryder’s trademark non-sensical lyrics still serve their purpose. It’s more style than substance – Shaun is truly hooked on his own phonics (no, that’s not a new type of meth-amphetamine), and it works:

“The title of the album partly expressed Ryder’s decision to turn away from hard drug abuse, and this was indeed a comparatively sober effort given the artist’s past reputation. However, his much-publicized “cut-up” lyrics were present, along with his trademark scat coupling of meaningless phrases…” – MusicStrands.com

Nope – Ryder, Bez and the rest of the two gangs aren’t for everybody. But as I saw for myself when I snuck into the Mondays show here in Boston in 1990 (I was 16 or 17 – in retrospect, maybe it was a wristbanded, all-ages event) it’s more about the party than getting the guitar tuned and hitting all the notes properly. Oh, and a fucking shitload of hard drugs, too.

“Throwing together electro, 70’s cop show theme music, Bollywood soundtracks, cheerleading chants, old hip hop and noise guitar bands with a wide-eyed sense of possibility where everything crashes into everything else with a breathless, delighted, abandon. The Go! Team seem to be suffering from a collective brain-wrong that is gloriously, euphorically right.” – Amazon.com

If you took the buzz and drone of early Sonic Youth, mixed it with the frantic drumming and splashy cymbals of the worst indie rock band you’d ever heard and then paid a group of double-dutching young girls 2 boxes of Mike and Ike‘s to sing backup vocals – You’d be closing in on the sound of England’s The Go! Team.

I’ve had this album for over a year now, and it’s finally been released in the USA. The reason it took so long is because of the mountain of samples they had to clear – I have noticed a few minor variations from the UK release but it still packs a wicked punch and is like nothing I’ve ever heard.

“Every tune surges, every chorus makes you feel like an Olympic contender. It’s been ten years since the excesses of Big Beat, but The Go! Team have harvested all of the fun elements of that culture (happy samples, clunky rhythms, hands perpetually in the air) and made it digestible again.” – BBC Northern Ireland

The Go! crew is made up of an even split of men and women from a wide variety of nationalities, and the whole conglomerate is headed up by a teeny female MC named Ninja. They’re playing at the Paradise on November 1st, and I encourage you to check them out by hitting ZAP on Radio Pye in the left hand column. What a unique, wonderful, fun band these guys are.

“Tom Vek must have been beaten by lead guitar lines as a kid– he avoids them like a sore subject.” – Pitchfork

A friend turned me on to a 24 year old Brit apparently poised to become one of the next darlings of the indie rock scene. She does this on a regular basis, and I’m rarely that impressed. When I heard the first 30 seconds of “You Put The Fire In Me” however, I knew that Tom Vek was a little slice of something special. Not surprisingly, no one seemed to notice my violent air-drumming as I walked through Government Center with it blaring on my iPod only this morning. His debut abum, We Have Sound has been warmly received on both sides of the pond. And on my iPod.

“Most of Tom Vek’s influences are at least fifteen years old and easily triangulated. But he’s unencumbered by nostalgia. We Have Sound is so difficult to isolate from Vek’s ass-backwards charisma, I wonder if the man might be a visionary.” – Dusted Magazine

In addition to his youth it’s also worth pointing out that Vek plays all of his own insturments – of which there are many. This tune includes what sounds like an old-fashioned church organ, a more traditional piano tinkle layered in quietly as background texture and then hammering drums that sound as though they’re being played by Sloth. See what you think by hitting ZAP on Radio Pye in the left hand column.

“Live from New York, It’s Saturday Night…”

I suppose at this point I am officially championing a cause. I got Don‘s long awaited new CD in the mail yesterday, and was instantly smitten with the lead track, What SNL Stands For. I’m not sure what the hidden meaning is here. Maybe there isn’t one – unless Jimmy Fallon and Matt Damon are metaphors for something, which let’s face it is highly unlikely.

What I do know, is that this song is funny, catchy and great. Jangly guitars, a whack of echo, reverb and probably his most extensive vocal versatility to date. A lot of Don‘s friends and acquaintances visit this site, and I know they’re all anxious for a listen. So excuse the doubling up, but it has to be done. If you like what you hear, join us on October 14th for Don’s Boston show and click here to buy the CD.