Two Tune Tuesday: Bud Powell

Okay, no laughing, but since the three listening choices I have now that I work at a university with a conservatory are (1) world music, (2) classical, and (3) jazz, I’m trying to learn something about the latter. I’m not sure I get it, but I like this guy:


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It was the tune “Tempus Fugue It” that I liked most, first — who can resist a Latin joke? — but you get the idea from these.

Two Tune Tuesday: Grief, Grace, & Hope

This Week’s Playlist!

Friday night I listened to the Buckley; I knew Aeneas was going soon, & wow did I not want to let him go, but Buckley’s voice is so beautiful in this one; it’s more a cri de coeur than a song. Then yesterday, out of nowhere, I heard Matt Johnson’s voice in my head, found myself humming this song which I haven’t listened to in a long, long time:

In our lives we hunger for those we cannot touch
All the thoughts unuttered and all the feelings unexpressed
Play upon our hearts like the mist upon our breath

It seems a particular good song for summer solstice, too, seasonal in its grief.

Two Tune Tuesday: Sweetness & Light

A friend put this Cake song up on Facebook the other day, & I wanted to find another similar kind of joyous song & came up with this one by April Smith, whose songs make me happy in a goofy sort of way.


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(That Cake bassline is so Queen, though, isn’t it? Another one eats the Cake. )

Sweetness for the last Tuesday in May because spring has finally come to our corner of Wisconsin, and frankly I think the sun has gone to my head: it’s either that or all the end-of-academic-year parties.

Two Tune Tuesday: Poly Styrene’s Descendents

I’m a day late, but it’s the 10th week of a 10 week term, so cut me a break.

Here are two recent songs I’ve heard recently that make me think about Poly Styrene’s impact on music. Altered Images is from the 80s, and Clare Grogan’s vocals were a direct inheritor of what Styrene was up to:


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How can you not love “you make me go ooooh ooooh with the things that you do you do you do“?! Echoes of Cole Porter are never a bad thing.

Two Tune Tuesday: [Insert Clever Euphemism Here]


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I’ve been researching some for a class I’m teaching next year on sexuality, and was reading a few things about autosexuality, and I wondered, with all those songs about sex, are there any about self-pleasure? These are the few I thought of. And no, “Turning Japanese” doesn’t count; I never bought that argument & The Vapors have said it wasn’t, too. “Dancing with Myself” doesn’t count either (because it’s about a Japanese disco) and even Berry’s “Dingaling” seems more about his bits than about what he’s doing with them. So, others? There are certainly references to masturbation – like in Prince’s “Darling Nikki” – but that isn’t what the song is actually about.

Interesting that the only ones I could come up with are written/performed by women, no? I wouldn’t have expected that.

For the record, masturbation & autosexuality aren’t the same thing. Masturbation is a way to practice autosexuality, but plenty of people who are other kinds of -sexuals also masturbate. Hope that helps. I had to add the Jack Off Jill version of The Divinyls because — well, they’ve got the whole idea built into their name.

Two Tune Tuesday: Morphine

One of the biggest regrets of my musical life was that I didn’t know about Morphine before the death of Mark Sandman in ’99. Hugely regrettable – I wish I’d seen them live.


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There is something so sexy – in the dirtiest way possible – about this music. And aside from having the coolest name ever, Sandman had a voice like bitter honey – just listen to the way he says “devil made of honey” or “she says it’s sweet and good” in “Honey White”. It’s rare I recommend Morphine to anyone because it’s just so rare I meet someone who is cool enough and – oh, let’s just say it’s a high bar, and damned rare.

i propose a toast to my self control – you see it crawling helpless on the floor

Today, though, I’m feeling generous, so I’m sharing with the lot of you. You can be grateful later.

Two Tune Tuesday: Theme Songs

In the light of some upcoming news, I thought I’d post two songs today that are ones I really do hum to myself when I need them, when my spine isn’t feeling as tall as I’d like.


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I first heard “Stand!” as performed by World Party with Sinead O’Connor as guest vocalist at the old New Ritz (which was once Studio 54): a better introduction to a song you couldn’t have asked for.

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Two Tune Tuesday: The Pretenders

First: no listening until you go VOTE.

I have always been only a little bit Chrissie Hynde fan, but recently she’s hit me exactly the right way: every song, every lyric, every everything is just right. Maybe I had to get old enough to get her delicate mix of melancholy & anger, but either way: these two songs are very much the two moods I feel like I’ve been switching between for a year or so.

i shot my mouth off & he showed me what that hole was for she sings, which has to be one of the ruder lyrics ever sung by a woman: changing tires is slang for oral sex.