Ah, David Garza: I discovered him years ago & he has been scratching my itches for a long while. His range is amazing, his love songs heart-breaking (or, happily, heart-warming) and his voice is hot hot hot. This is a decent sampler but there are a lot more styles he’s done; if you can find somewhere to hear a song called “One Drop” go do it.

Don’t groan, Sting-haters. Just go somewhere else you can be all superior.

I think these are all really pretty songs: one a Gershwin cover, & the others are by Sting, one with Cheb Mami on vocals. “Mad About You” is from that gem Soul Cages, & inspired by the story of David & Bathsheba.

Oh, how I love her. She nails that perfect mix of pop cheeriness with clever, cutting lyrics.

but when they bring me back to you
& tell you that I’m shiny new
the girl you see may not be me behind these eyes – anymore

Honestly, how can you not love a band that can work a kazoo unironically?

I found myself humming The Teardrop Explodes’ “When I Dream” out of the blue the other day, which reminded me of course of Julian Cope, who about 3 of you maybe remember, and hopefully this will scratch an itch for those of you who love 80s stuff that maybe you haven’t discovered yet.

There’s no one who hates Robert Plant as much as I do, but the stuff he recorded with Allison Kraus is too gorgeous, so here’s a track as part of a set of melodic antidotes to all the Valentine’s frippery we all love to hate. The other by the Violent Femmes, and honestly I think this is a recording that should have been on the Eraserhead soundtrack (yes, there was one) since it’s just that right kind of creepy.

& Please don’t try to talk me out of my dislike of Robert Plant or Led Zeppelin: deaf ears I’ve got on the subject.

Valentine’s Day is five days away, so consider this foreplay.

There’s a reason Joan Jett is called the original riot grrrl, after all. So what would JJ do? I think that’s pretty damn apparent, no?

We’ve all heard the Lady Gaga to death by now, no? Even if “Bad Romance” did spawn one of the best names of an FB group, it’s time for some of the other cool stuff that was nominated or won Grammys last night:

One of the things I like best about where I work is that there’s a ton of music around, because Lawrence has its own Conservatory. I go to stuff all the time; a few weeks ago I caught a lecture/performance of Cuban music and since then have been poking around, asking people like my parents (who cha cha cha’d their way into marriage, as it were, & are Xavier Cugat fans).

A tiny detail: Tito Puente wasn’t himself Cuban but Puerto Rican, but the music he popularized (but didn’t invent) was Afro-Cuban. Benny More was known as the “Sinatra of Cuba” and there’s a cool book about him called Wildman of Rhythm: The Life and Music of Benny Moré.

Maybe not entirely forgotten, but highly neglected: The Polecats song is just charming as hell, and I can’t think of another song that has the word “oscillator” in it. Fine Early Geekage Period. The Hoodoo Gurus actually had a couple of other tracks people might remember – notably “Bittersweet” – but this was always my favorite, mostly for the yes yes yes yes i’m impressed bit.

Prototypes is a new band; I have no idea where I found them. Air is from the late 90s, Les Rita Mitsouko were around in the late ’80s, when this track – and the video – got play in plenty of clubs (at least the ones I went to).

You may as well start off the year right, so here’s Rufus. Apparently he’s someone people either hear & love or hear & think “What?” For me, it was all about the Gap commercial, back in the day. I’m one of those people, who will probably always prefer the first record for it’s lovely vaudevillian richness.

The tracks are mostly in chronological order:

• Foolish Love from the eponymous Rufus Wainwright (which has that lyric of all lyrics, “so the day noah’s ark / floats down Park / my eyes will be / simply glazed over”)
• Greek Song from Poses (when I’m not paying attention, & he hits that first “All” of “all the pearls of China” I just cry. It’s pathetic, but it’s true.)
  
• Beautiful Child from Want One (the song Radiohead should cover, or Rufus should perform with Thom Yorke).
  
• The One You Love from Want Two (let’s fuck this art party, indeed.)
  
• Between My Legs from Release the Stars (all i can say is : i can’t fa a a aa aaaaaake it; the voiceover is from I, Claudius)
  
• & an older soundtrack song, Instant Pleasure, which he didn’t write but – well, just listen & you’ll understand why Rufus fans still want to hear it live.

There are so many more I love, songs that make me cry or laugh out loud. He is absolutely, a million percent great to see live.

Thank you, Rufus. & Long live Rufus.

I was listening to NPR’s listeners’ picks for the best songs of 2009 when I was reminded of that Metric track “Sick Muse.” Minutes later, an ad for Hennessy came on featuring The Cardigans’ “Lovefool” which has long been a favorite of mine. In fact, First Band on the Moon is a great little collection of songs (including the most bizarre cover of “Iron Man” imaginable).

So here they are, together. They make nice bookends, no?

= just what everyone wants: class-conscious christmas songs. Vive la révolution & Joyeux Noël!
(I’m pretty sure Rufus gets an award for using the word “mensch” in a christmas song.)

I discovered “The Headphonist” while watching one of my death shows, and it was an instant ‘need to know what that is’ feeling, having spent most of my life walking around cities and towns and well, everywhere, with headphones on & usually blasting.

I have a weakness for great rhythm, or a great weakness for any rhythm, so I went & poked around for other songs of theirs, and liked a lot of them. But it was when I was discovered they were a Mexican band that had covered Wall of Voodoo’s “Mexican Radio” that they made me laugh out loud: Gen X grows up & buys a clue, as it were.

What I’ve found in introducing people to Shriekback over the years is that you either you get them or you don’t. You could describe them as amphibious, maybe, or as something like geek funk. Most of you probably (only) know “Nemesis” — which was recently re-mixed — or you might know the lead, Barry Andrews, as that guy who was in XTC at the very beginning but was gone by the 3rd XTC album; Shriekback is where he went next. Here’s a recent interview with him talking about those days & about a bunch of other things. There’s some cool live footage on YouTube, too – here’s “All Lined Up” which was a WLIR favorite back in the day. (Check out the bass that’s got FACT written on it. Loved that. & Yes, Dave Allen was the bass player for Gang of Four, too.)

If any of you were also fans, you might be surprised to hear that there was a video for “Despite Dense Weed” - the first song they ever recorded, & which was only ever on a Y Records compilation called The Birth of the Y (which had a Diamanda Galas track, too).

& Yes, I saw them a bunch of times live, too. I learned the word scapula from Barry Andrews, because he signed over mine on the t-shirt I was wearing. I met Stewart Copeland that day too, but that was incidental & hardly very important to a Shriekback fan.

It was only a year or so later that I had shaved my head and wore an old priest’s cassock a lot; I think of it as my first (of many) monk phases. I found the cassock in my family’s basement, which means it was probably an altar boy robe once worn by one of my brothers.

If you like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, here’s another band that’ll be right up your alley. It’s rare that I like female singers, but when I do, I really really do.

(h/t to my friend Hellione)

Despite “This is the Day” being used in an M&M commercial – really? it had to be M&Ms? – Matt Johnson & theThe were a band I spent a lot of time with from at least 1985 forward.

His songs got at that yearning for – something. more. sex. love. escape. all of it & none of it. (It didn’t hurt that his voice was incredibly hot, either.)

You can go here to see some of the live performance from when Johnny Marr was playing with the The. Apparently he was as proud of Dusk as he was of Strangeways, Here We Come. (So there.)

The best gig I’ve ever found out about was the The at CBGB. I was walking down 7th Avenue, near St. Vincent’s (Hospital), and I was wearing am Infected t-shirt, and a guy stopped me & said, “You like the The? They’re playing a secret gig at CBs tomorrow night. They won’t be on the list. Just buy a ticket. Promise.” So my friend Brian & I bought tickets, mostly thinking we were going to see some band we’d never heard of. I was sitting on the bar knocking the heels of my boots against it anxiously, waiting & hoping, & then – out came Matt Johnson & the band: sometimes wishes come true. I can’t even count how many other times I saw them – in London, at the Beacon, at Symphony Space even. I skipped high school to meet Matt Johnson as he was leaving WLIR after an interview. Misspent youth, indeed.

Here are a few other favorites: Sodium Light Baby – The Mercy Beat (song starts at 00:45) – Perfect – Jealous of Youth (which is one of my favorite bass lines) – & there’s even some early & cool Matt Johnson from Burning Blue Soul – Bugle Boy.

(Writing this post took a few hours of my life, poking around YouTube, playlist.com, trouserpress.com and various other spots. Damn. It’s a good thing I don’t have my vinyl collection with me, or the whole night would be gone. Now if someone could send me an .mp3 of “Jealous of Youth” I’d be most appreciative.)

I discovered Spoon a few years ago while dinging in a cool little eatery in Park Slope called Jack’s that’s gone now. I still miss the pot roast & waiters who turned me onto cool music.

I go through phases where all I can take is JAMC.

I couldn’t find a decent mp3 of “Something I Can’t Have” but there’s a decent audio version of it on YouTube.

Wish I could have found one of their “New York City” since it’s one of my all-time favorite tracks, but here’s “Why’d You Want Me” which is all about the sweetness behind the feedback.

They were the last cool.

Ah, my gothier former self picked these. Despite how godawful the Ministry track is, I do believe it helped save my life.

well I let their teeny minds think
that they’re dealing with someone who is over the brink
and I dress this way just to keep them at bay
‘Cuz Halloween is everyday
Oh, why can’t I live a life for me?
why should I take the abuse that’s served?
why can’t they see they’re just like me?

Oy. I think we can officially blame Al Jourgensen for emo.

NPR has a great spooky music stream today, too.