Have you ever pursued a particular boy or girl because he or she was hot in a way that another particular boy or girl was hot, but for whatever reason the former boy or girl avoided your clutch? Well that’s the situation in which I currently find myself. Musically speaking. It’s been over a year since I’ve heard anything from Jason Korzen in any form and I’ve been in need of an synth-geek fix. And as my dear Cuzzin Brad used to say, Chairs in the Arno are “putting me where I need to be.” Moogs, a microKorg, an MC 505 groovebox and sweet boy/girl vocals are like Hershey Kisses to me. Once I’ve popped one in my mouth, I can’t stop. Those wily Kisses are prone to push my pants slightly past size thirty. Chairs in the Arno remind me that hey, that’s OK.
The Two Man Gentleman Band
I was just looking around on the Serious Business website after posting about Benji Cossa’s Christmas album when I noticed the song title “William Howard Taft.” You know, the only U.S. President to also be a U.S. Supreme Court Justice? No, no, you only remember Taft as being the fat guy, the poor sap who got stuck in the White House bathtub. Well, that’s pretty much what The Two Man Gentleman Band remembers about him too. (I actually think he was in a tough spot, following in Theodore Roosevelt’s footsteps and all. I guess I tend to feel sorry for Taft.) With their Dixieland, Tin Pan Alley, goofy slapstick kazoo-billy rock, these New Yorkers tend to have a blast in the recording studio. If you’re not one of those serious-types, check out “Prime Numbers.” It’s kind of hard not to laugh, eh?
Benji Cossa
My friend Sam (as in Sam, one of the founders of this website) is a huge sucker for Christmas music. In high school, I remember caroling around his neighborhood with his family (all ten of them!) and it was just so… good. So this post is all about you, S’mee. Benji Cossa has released a whole X-mas album — Merry Christmas to Friends and Family — on Serious Business Records, with every song available for free and legal download. Alex Chilton’s “Jesus Christ” is here, along with a bunch of the classics and a Benji original, “Friends and Famly.” I hope you like ’em, Sam. Maybe one or two will show up on your annual Holiday CD Cleaner? Oh, by the way, can you send me your address? Your tin of cookies is probably getting stale in the back of my car.
Jesus Christ [MP3, 3.6MB, 192kbps]
Friends and Family [MP3, 4.1MB, 192kbps]
Silver Bells [MP3, 6.1MB, 192kbps]
Original post: 07/26/07
While I respect Lisa’s opinion on what makes a summer song, and I certainly like shaking my bottom (no matter its size), I’ve always liked the easy-going, feels-like-the-sun-is-shining-right-on-me genre. Maybe it goes back to the lack of sunlight we have up here in Michigan the rest of the year, I don’t know. But “Sunset” by Benji Cossa is just what I’m talking about. Katy tossed this one in our suggestion box, and I’d give her a big, platonic hug for it if I could. Does this song feel good or what? Not to mention the subject matter… “Doin’ it, doin’ it, do do dodo do.” Ain’t that what summer is all about?
Air Miami
Having previously confessed my love for Mark Robinson, founder of Teenbeat Records and driving force behind Unrest, Flin Flon, Air Miami, among others already listed elsewhere on these pages, I must share my excitement over the Teenbeat release of two previously unreleased Air Miami albums, Fourteen Songs and Sixteen Songs. Robinson started up Air Miami with fellow Unrest member Bridget Cross after that band’s breakup, and “Airplane Rider” is the single that preceded their 1995 LP Me, Me, Me. I still use their wonderous song “World Cup Fever” and all of its remixes to help me get through non-World Cup summers.
The Bell
Despite my penchant for cheerful pop I do enjoy moody sounds more than occasionally. The Bell joins fellow Swedes, The Mary Onettes, as another Scandinavian ’80s flashback band with a darker edge. Who am I kidding? The Bell is about as dark as a fluffy white cloud getting between you and the sun. It may throw a shadow, but it won’t ruin your picnic. The Bell is as threatening as anything on the Pretty in Pink soundtrack. The Bell does capture the mood, what you remember as melancholy when your mom made you tear down your Cure posters or when she drove you to the barber to “fix” your self-coifed Tears For Fears hair-do, you may have often experienced as a teenager during the Reagan Years. This is all speculation of course, because really, what would I know about that?? Watch for The Bell’s U.S. release in February, twenty-two years after Andie, Duckie & Co. hit the big screen, on Badman Records.
Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks
There used to be a bunch of MP3’s available for Stephen Malkmus so that you could get a great sense of what the erstwhile Pavement frontman has been up to for most of the last decade — and if you haven’t been keeping up, you’re missing out. We’re down to one: the sprawling, guitarilicious Randy Newman cover (!) “Baltimore,” all 6 minutes and 37 seconds of it. The new album is called Real Emotional Trash and as far as I can tell there is no release date yet, so don’t wear out this stocking stuffer too soon because it may be all you get for Christmas.
The Loved Ones
Sometimes I like to look for songs that include the names of my kids. One of my daughter’s favorites is by Raffi. You know, whatever. I got a hit with The Loved Ones (nice, appropriate), and hey look, they’re even on 3hive! I figured I’d update Sean’s post from ’05 with another free download, “Suture Self,” and let everybody know that a new album’s coming out in February. Rock on.
Suture Self [MP3, 2.8MB, 128kbps]
Sean’s original post: 03/22/05
I know we’re late on this, but if you haven’t done so already, raid the SXSW site for a shload of MP3s (hit the day, then artist links) before they’re pulled. When in Texas, eat like a Texan. So, off to the The Salt Lick for slabs of heaven on earth. After demolishing three rounds of smoked ambrosia, my BBQ buddies dropped me off on Red River Street where I could hear The Loved Ones blasting their brand of stripped down, punk ‘n’ roll for all the world to hear. I scrambled my way up to the front of the stage for their raucous set, fueled by the bottled-up energy of their twenty-seven hour road trip to make the show. Me? I was fueled by brisket. Culinary and musical highlights coming together like magic.
New Grenada
We’ll go Detroit local for today’s post, and check out New Grenada’s punky rock riffs and rips, boops and bips, toy instruments and just about anything else they dig out of the closet. Like a lot of awesome indie rock outfits, John Nelson, Nicole Allie and Dave Melkonian seem to make a lot more sound than you’d expect from so few people. With three LPs and a handful of 7″ and other recordings to their credit, New Grenada seem to be about to hit the sweet spot (even if their photo suggests they’re survivng solely on the kindliness of others). Check out their latest tracks — “Emergency Brigade” and “Meat is Murdermobile,” from the 2006 release Modern Problems — for a sense of their sonic range.
The Sugarman Three
We really dig what Daptone’s been up to this year. But they’ve been working at reviving soul for some years now; their comeuppance is due. One of their earliest releases is an album from The Sugarman Three, an outfit built around saxophonist Neal Sugarman and a Hammond B-3 organ. It’s a crying shame that tracks from their debut album, Sugar’s Boogaloo, aren’t available, and that your first taste of the band comes in the form of remixes, but you just shouldn’t take another breath until you get yourself a lil’ Sugarman action. These remixes are from a complete remix compilation that’s been freely available for a couple weeks courtesy of Daptone and friends. Dig deep from the Daptone well friends.
Plastic Passion
On these very pages I have previously used the term “dance punk disco funk” to describe the Rapture. So please pardon me for applying the same label late on a Sunday night to London’s Plastic Passion. Owing an obvious debt to the Cure for inspiration and the name of their band, Plastic Passion are a rough and raw complication of their post-punk/new wave influences in an age where similar bands are perhaps a bit too slick in their production. I can unfortunately only imagine what grand fun their live shows are, combining said roughness with the palpable energy of their songs.