This -- a dread screwed dubstep version of Prince's classic single Sign '☮' The Times -- may very-well be the greatest cover-version ever:

Kode9 feat. The Spaceape - Sine of the Dub (3.63 MB mp3: right-click and Save As to download; play using the handy little embedded player below)

In 2006, after a series of highly-regarded 12" singles, Kode9 and The Spaceape released Memories of the Future -- which is possibly my album of the decade.

Certainly, if you like (the hugely-hyped) Burial and you haven't heard this, you owe it to yourself to check it out. I don't particularly like Burial, and personally I think that Kode9 in general -- and Memories of the Future in particular -- are more deserving of all the acclaim instead.

More dubstep tuneage at Undomondo...

Labels: Friday farce, music

Thie weeks Friday Farce is a real farce. Not one of these nice-fests we've been having lately. And don't get me wrong, I really rate Joe Pernice and The Pernice Brothers and and and and so on... Joe (and band) plays sweetly darkened melancholy bliss-pop like no other:

Pernice Brothers - Crestfallen (5.34 MB mp3: right-click and Save As to download; play using the handy little embedded player below)

Chappaquiddick Skyline is Joe's solo project. The name is something to do with the mysterious death in 1969 of Sen. Edward Kennedy. Unfortunately, Joe chose to cover a New Order song. (We love New Order, remember?):

Chappaquiddick Skyline - Leave me alone (3.03 MB mp3)

Here's the original, the closing track from Power, Corruption and Lies:

New Order - Leave me alone (4.29 MB mp3)

Oh Joe, Joe, what were you thinking?

Lemme hear ya say Fa-arce....

Why? He could have done so much better. I hoped for more, but its just.... meh.

Labels: Friday farce, music

This week's Farce (well it's not THAT much of a farce) is this:

The Body Electric - Magic Electronic (3.21 MB mp3: right-click and Save As to download; play using the handy little embedded player below)

Yesterday we learnt all about The Body Electric, the early-80s electro-new-wave-synth group from New Zealand, including one or more members who were in (post-)punk groups The Amps and Steroids. I mean kinda -- all I really did was up a track, and much hilarity followed. In the defence of The Body Electric, it's a little unsure whether or not Pulsing was a novelty hit or a serious song -- the rest of their (heh) body of work* is much more moody, serious, and edgy.



According to my sources, Magic Electronic was the A-side of a 7" released in 1984, but no one can be sure that the band that released it was not in fact from Sweden(!). Sounds like it could be the Wellington, New Zealand group, but the release doesn't show in their discography on The Big City (then again, things often don't, so.....). Google isn't much help. So what is the truth, punters?

BTW Mark Thingummy from Club Bizarre rates The Body Electric, too.

* See that, there, how I couldn't resist making a pun? I was going to write ouvre, but why be pretentious when you can make bad punnery instead?

Labels: Friday farce, music, new zealand post-punk, vinyl

Too busy for much in the way of words today, hopefully you get the idea though.

From Allmusic.com:

Setting heavy metal's evolutionary clock back to the stone-age days of Saint Vitus with their debut Volume One was seemingly not enough for San Jose's Sleep, who decided to time travel all the way back to the pre-historic days of earliest Black Sabbath with their second album, Sleep's Holy Mountain. Indeed, while Kyuss' Blues for the Red Sun and Monster Magnet's Spine of God are more frequently cited as the most influential and important albums in launching the American stoner/doom metal scene, not even these landmark releases compare to Holy Mountain for sheer devotion to unadulterated doom and copious weed consumption. In fact, as monolithic opener Dragonaut descends into a bass solo at its conclusion, one would be forgiven for expecting the band to segue straight into N.I.B. -- such is their similarity to classic Sabbath. Instead, they grind into The Druid, which despite a quick nod to the Sabs' Electric Funeral, actually begins to establish Sleep's personality, as riff upon massive riff in the form of songs like Evil Gypsy/Solomon's Theme and the groove-heavy Aquarian flow from the speakers like molten lava. In an age of machine-gun double-bass drums, Sleep's most startling quality had to be their seemingly endless patience. As they slowly embark upon the mammoth power chords of the title track and From Beyond, they also prolong the buildup of tension before delivering a final release of cathartic proportions. Besides greatly inspiring next generation doomsters like Electric Wizard, such unwavering dedication to weed would also set the stage for their controversial and unfortunate swan song Jerusalem -- featuring a single, mind-bending 52-minute track.

After the demise of Sleep, Matt Pike (guitar) went on to form the hugely successful High on Fire; the remaining two members Al Cisneros (bass, vocals) and Chris Hakius (drums) are now in the hypnotic psych-rock Om.

Sleep - Dragonaut (1992) (4.02 MB mp3: right-click and Save As to download; play using the handy little embedded player below)

There's no escaping the Black Sabbath connection:

Black Sabbath - Into The Void (1971) (4.02 MB mp3: right-click and Save As to download; play using the handy little embedded player below)

Fifteen years after the demise of Sleep, it's descendant Om has released it's third amazing, incredible album in a row: Pilgrimage.

From a review at PopMatters:

It definitely takes some time to get into Om, but don’t let impatience hinder you from experiencing the epic combination of peace and chaos that Al Cisneros and Chris Haikus convey through their music.

Om - Pilgrimage (2007) (6.13 MB mp3: right-click and Save As to download; play using the handy little embedded player below)

Which (sonically) brings us right back to 1967 and Pink Floyd's second album A Saucerful of Secrets:

Pink Floyd - Set the controls for the heart of the sun (1969) (4.93 MB mp3: right-click and Save As to download; play using the handy little embedded player below)

Oh, you're so observant! Yes of course that's not the cover of A Saucerful of Secrets: it's Ummagumma (1969). And the version of Set the Controls... is from the live part of that same album. It's a better version.

Labels: Friday farce, music

If there's one thing I can't stand, it's panic attacks in the morning. Absolutely not. Won't have a bar of it. Makes it so hard to get out the door and off to work, I tell ya. And as for keeping my hand in with this *cough* tedious *cough* minutiae of berlogging? Forgeddabouddit.

(Ok, just kidding about the tedious minutiae.)

But so sometimes yer just have to have a bit of tenderness, dontcha. And not the Otis Redding kind. I'm talking the "I'm Iggy Pop and I'm coming down from the whirly-wind ride of the fallout from the implosion of the Stooges and I'm hanging out in Berlin with my new BFF David Bowie and we're gonna make a weird proto-electro rekkid" kind.

Iggy Pop - China Girl (4.69 MB mp3: right-click and Save As to download; play using the handy little embedded player below)

(image courtesy of The Rising Storm.)

In 1976, The Stooges had been gone for two years, and Iggy Pop had developed a notorious reputation as one of rock & roll's most spectacular waste cases. After a self-imposed stay in a mental hospital, a significantly more functional Iggy was desperate to prove he could hold down a career in music, and he was given another chance by his longtime ally, David Bowie. Bowie co-wrote a batch of new songs with Iggy, put together a band, and produced The Idiot, which took Iggy in a new direction decidedly different from the guitar-fueled proto-punk of The Stooges. Musically, The Idiot is of a piece with the impressionistic music of Bowie's "Berlin Period" (such as Heroes and Low), with it's fragmented guitar figures, ominous basslines, and discordant, high-relief keyboard parts. Iggy's new music was cerebral and inward-looking, where his early work had been a glorious call to the id, and Iggy was in more subdued form than with The Stooges, with his voice sinking into a world-weary baritone that was a decided contrast to the harsh, defiant cry heard on Search and Destroy. Iggy was exploring new territory as a lyricist, and his songs on The Idiot are self-referential and poetic in a way that his work had rarely been in the past; for the most part the results are impressive, especially Dum Dum Boys, a paean to the glory days of his former band, and Nightclubbing, a call to the joys of decadence. The Idiot introduced the world to a very different Iggy Pop, and if the results surprised anyone expecting a replay of the assault of Raw Power, it also made it clear that Iggy was older, wiser, and still had plenty to say; it's a flawed but powerful and emotionally absorbing work.

-- allmusic.com

Oh hell yeah.

Labels: Friday farce, music

(dammit I forgot to hit "publish" on this one -- that'll teach me to blog drunk)

Travelling Riverside Blues is a blues song written and recorded in Dallas, Texas by legendary bluesman Robert Johnson. Johnson's June 20, 1937 recording has a typical 12 bar blues structure, played on a single guitar tuned to open G, with a slide. It was first released on the 1961 compilation LP King of the Delta Blues Singers. The song has proved popular with more recent blues musicians.

(God bless Wikipedia).

Robert Johnson - Travelling Riverside Blues (2.43 MB mp3: right-click and Save As to download; play using the handy little embedded player below)

Led Zeppelin recorded a version of the song at the BBC studios in 1969, but it was quite different from the original, and it's more a tribute to Robert Johnson than a cover. The song showcases a riff by Jimmy Page (also in open G tuning), and in the lyrics Robert Plant quotes many Robert Johnson songs, such as "She studies evil all the time", from Kind Hearted Woman Blues, and "Why don't you come on in my kitchen", from Come on in My Kitchen (which is heard during the song's solo).

Led Zeppelin - Travelling Riverside Blues (2.24 MB mp3)

Despite being broadcast on the BBC several days after it was recorded, it never appeared on any of the band's official albums; the recording remained virtually unknown until appearing on disc 1 of the Led Zeppelin Box Set about 1990 or so (it has subsequently turned up on the Led Zeppelin BBC Sessions album, and on the expanded Coda album from the Complete Studio Recordings box set).



...which is a crying shame, because it's a brilliant track. I remember hearing it for the first time on Pirate FM about 1990 and being absolutely floored by it.

Labels: Friday farce, music

Unfortunately, I need to keep this brief...

To my left, Nelly. To my right, Tiga. Tiga - Hot in Here (original mix) (3.55 MB mp3)

Labels: Friday farce, music

The Science of Sleep is a newish film from Michel Gondry, the director of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (my review); it's a charming, enthralling, and ultimately alienating and frustrating fairy-tale romp through the whimsical world of a complete loon.

Here's the IMDB plot summary: A man entranced by his dreams and imagination is lovestruck with a French woman and feels he can show her his world.

Yup.

Here's something from Marc Savlov via RottenTomatos.com (where it scored 67%): An endearing, beautiful, hopelessly honest mess that's supported by a pair of performances so unnaturally natural that they draw you in and clutch you, struggling, to their flipping, flopping hearts.

Yup.

On the plus side, it features the totally fuck-able Gael García Bernal and the utterly lovely Charlotte Gainsbourg (or did I get those two the wrong way around?) in the lead roles, as well as supplying this week's farce. And so without further ado....... I give you........ this week's farce.

In summary, why would you turn this:

The Velvet Underground - After Hours (1.96 MB mp3: right-click and Save As to download; play using the handy little embedded player below)

...into this:

Gael García Bernal, etc. - If You Rescue Me (chanson des chats) (3.91 MB mp3)

...or, god forbid, this, even:

Linda Serbu - If You Rescue Me (acappella) (2.12 MB mp3)

Still confused?

Why would you turn one of the most sweet, touching songs of all time into a cutesy little ditty about...... a kitten.

I dunno.

Gah.

Labels: cat photos, films, Friday farce, lol, music

We've had Albert Kuvezin and Yat Kha, his Tuvan throat-singing rock band, before -- but that's no reason not to have him again.

Albert Kuvezin and Yat Kha - Orgasmatron (1.76 MB mp3: right-click and Save As to download; play using the handy little embedded player below)

Like I said:

.. at least is as comical as a drunk Irish pub band featuring a retarded Rumanian vampire/Dr. Frank-N-Furter-wannabe on vocals. Or something ..

...

And now for the rest of the news:

"Don't Tase Me, Bro!"
University of Florida student Andrew Meyer barges in line to harangue Massachusetts senator John Kerry during a campus talk that day; he refuses to pipe down after being asked to by the forum's organizers, police haul him off, force him to the ground and taser him.

Tom: Someone (I think it was either Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert) apparently described the incident as "a unique combination of police brutality and student douchebaggery". While it's an appalling example of the taser-happiness of the US police (here's another example: a guy tasered for the unforgivable crime of riding a bike), it's hard not to be reminded of Eric Idle in The Holy Grail: "Help, I'm being oppressed!", "Come see the violence inherent in the system!"

God Bless America!

Art or Bio-Terrorism? Justice Department makes big mistake
When a New York professor called 911 for his wife's heart attack, they mistook his science equipment for bioterrorism supplies. He was detained for 22 hours, they cordoned off his block, and searched his house in hazmat suits. When they realized there was nothing harmful there, they decided to prosecute him for "mail fraud" for buying the supplies!

No, god Bless America!

...

Busty tourist 'humiliated' at casino
A night of celebration turned to humiliation when an English tourist's "offensive" breasts upset fellow punters at the Christchurch Casino.

In all seriousness, though, DO bless women with colossal boobs -- god knows they don't have an easy time of it.

...

There's been another installment by The Commonsense Nihilist to his graphic novel, as well as some more notes.

Labels: comix, freedom-hating, Friday farce, misanthropy, music

Ok, don't talk to me, you gotta blame Jani for this one (tail end of the Friday Farce Jerusalem saga -- you cans follow it back in time):

Bruce Dickinson - Jerusalem (feat. Arthur Brown) (4.56 MB mp3: right-click and Save As to download; play using the handy little embedded player below)

Bruce Dickinson is of course the singer in Iron Maiden, not that that has stopped him from over the years making a bunch of albums on his own. This version of Jerusalem --not exactly a cover, more a re-setting of the William Blake poem to different music again -- is from his 1998 album The Chemical Wedding.

The spoken-word part at the end is performed by Arthur Brown. Yep, you heard me right, THE Arthur Brown.

He of the Crazy World of Arthur Brown. He of the theatrical performances. He of the outlandish costumes and helmets of fire. He of the demented, fire-obsessed lyrical visions and swooping, theatrical vocals:

One of the most electrifying one-shot artists of the '60s, British singer Arthur Brown briefly set the charts alight in 1968, and his debut album was surely one of the most left-field commercial successes of the late '60s, if not of rock history...

Here's his signature tune Fire, as well as the maniacal cover of Screaming Jay Hawkins' I Put A Spell On You which appeared on the same album.

The Crazy World of Arthur Brown - Fire (2.12 MB mp3)

The Crazy World of Arthur Brown - I Put A Spell On You (2.79 MB mp3)

Labels: Friday farce, music

Said it wasn't gonna happen. It is. Oh well.

The Fall - Jerusalem (2.81 MB mp3: right-click and Save As to download; play using player below)

The Fall are great.

Labels: Friday farce, music

Street poet Gil Scott-Heron (wikipedia) gets a lot of props for being a right-on brother and so on; his 'song' The Revolution will not be Televised is played and covered and referenced and quoted often, and rightly so -- it's a cute li'l slice of invective -- although to be honest it has become a little too much like a Ché Guevera tshirt/poster to carry too much cultural significance any more.

The album that track is taken from -- Small Talk at 125th and Lennox (allmusic) -- was recorded live in a New York nightclub with only bongos and conga as backing, and it's regarded as "a volcanic upheaval of intellectualism and social critique". However it is blighted by the inclusion of a stupid, confused, and rancidly homophobic track called The Subject Was Faggots.

Gil Scott-Heron - The Subject Was Faggots (1.91 MB mp3: right-click and Save As to download; play using player below)

...

A guy called Chris Crocker got pretty (in)famous pretty damn quick for his Youtube video slating the critics of Britney Spears after her MTV VMAs debacle.



God, check out some of those comments. 40 years older, nothing's changed. (It was even worse in the comments on the follow-up video, which was pulled down by Chris after only a few hours.) And even worse was that when Fox news covered it, a good deal of time was spent making derogatory remarks about Chris' sexual androgeny.

My comment to America, the so-called "Land of the Free, Home of the Brave": shut the fuck up about freedom, until gay people are safe from your hateful "freedom-loving" "christian" "patriots".

...

Check out and even download the Gil Scott-Heron album here.

Labels: christian-baiting, freedom-hating, Friday farce, misanthropy, music, youtube

So it would seem that what Dan wants, Dan gets.

Billy Bragg - Jerusalem (2.33 MB mp3: right-click and Save As to download; play using player below)

I think that'll about do it now.

...

Was in the mighty Horowhenua for several days. While the actual place wasn't as bad as it had been made out to be, never have I seen such a bunch of downtrodden people as I witnessed in the streets and malls and coffee shops and Warehouse of Levin. It was truly startling to my poor sheltered, cosseted self, and I had to put the camera away (not to worry, though I did take some pics of other stuff).

I saw a plate which reminded me of a Six Organs of Admittance album cover (click for closer look):



It's a valuable piece, by a ceramicist of note, whose name of course I can't remember.

Also scored this magnificent golliwog, to add to the ol' vintage knitted toy collection:



And finally, to aid in my ongoing investigation into the nature of offensiveness, at SaveMart I found possibly the best t-shirt ever:



...not to mention some hideous ceramics, to add to the ol' collection of hideous ceramics.

I also got to go to the Tender Centre. On the main street of Levin, I assumed that this was a sorta drop-in place where you can go and get hugs, and compliments, but I was wrong. It's a kind-of 2nd-hand store where nothing has a price and you make offers for goods -- rather like a single-shot offline auction.

So all-in-all the weekend was a raging success.

Labels: Friday farce, music, photos

Noone was able to come through for me with the answer to the brain teaser from the other day. I was starting to panic. Would I ever find the answer to this most vexing of queries?

(FYI if you came in late: the query was, what is that highly recognisable orchestral music in the middle section of The Anvil Will Fall by Harvey Milk?)

Then it struck me when I was -- literally -- in the shower. It's not Jerusalem, it's the bloody Rugby World Cup theme song, World in Union.

Ladysmith Black Mambazo - World in Union (3.57 MB mp3: right-click and Save As to download; play using player below)

Well not quite. It's actually the Jupiter bit out of Gustav Holst's Planet Suite. Some guy named Charlie Skarbek put words to it at some point, and it's been recorded and performed by Kiri Te Kanawa, among others. It was made the official song of the Rugby World Cup in (I believe) 1991, and was performed by Shirley Bassey and Bryn Terfyl at the opening ceremony of the 1999 cup (click image at right to watch video). It was also released as a single by Bassey around the same time.

This is Hubert Parry's hymn Jerusalem (a setting of William Blake's poem), arranged by Elgar (from the Last Night of the Proms, 2003):

Last Night of the Proms - Jerusalem (2.45 MB mp3: right-click and Save As to download; play using player below)

Here's a spooky organ/electronic version by film-composer Vangelis (probably from the film Chariots of Fire, the the title of which was taken from words in the poem/hymn):

Vangelis - Jerusalem (2.54 MB mp3: right-click and Save As to download; play using player below)

And here's a version by slighty-silly prog-rockers Emerson, Lake and Palmer, taken from their 1973 album Brain Salad Surgery:

Emerson, Lake and Palmer - Jerusalem (3.24 MB mp3: right-click and Save As to download; play using player below)

Well well well -- a result. I'm happy about that.

Labels: Friday farce, music

Yeah yeah, I know, I promised you a farce and I've let you down. See -- my original plan was going to have to involve writing a potted history of reggae music, and I just ain't had the time. And somehow now it's Sunday and all I've got to show for it is this -- admittedly pretty special -- curiosity from Harvey Milk.

Taking their name from the assassinated San Franciscan politician, Harvey Milk are Creston Spiers, Steven Tanner and Paul Trudeau. Their first two albums My Love is Higher Than Your Assessment of What My Love Could Be and Courtesy and Goodwill Toward Men mixed massive sludgy riffs with classical music, Kiss, and everything in between. The songs were given an extra dimension with Spiers' powerful, heartwrenching (and sometimes gutwrenching) vocals.

The particular tune I want to share with ya this afternoon displays some exceptional and groundbreaking work in the field of (mis-)appropriation and recontextualisation of existing work as incorporated into new work. Or as it is colloquially known, musical quotation.

Harvey Milk - The Anvil Will Fall (5MB mp3: right-click and Save As to download; or play using player below)

The middle passage where the orchestra appears out of nowhere and plays the old, instantly recognisable British hymn Ummm by Shit, It's On the Tip of My Tongue (help? anyone? put me out of my misery and tell me what it is) -- while the vocalist mumbles and croons some obscure lyric over the top of it, even slipping into a boyish falsetto -- is incredibly affecting.

No word anywhere on whether the section is a "sample" of some recording, or newly recorded at the behest of the band. My best guess at this point tis that it's Hubert Parry's Jerusalem but I have a feeling I'm wrong and I can't find a recording of it to check.

Here are some varied reviews which help to create a nicely rounded impression of the My Love is Higher Than Your Assessment of What My Love Could Be album, and indeed the enigma that is Harvey Milk:

While its title may read like the wall art ramblings of a straitjacketed emo kid in solitary confinement, the record itself is—I shit you not—more tormented and knife-turning than half of your kvlt-as-fuck black metal collection. Basically, think of how unnerving Sunn O))) can be from time to time and switch the overall vibe from pure, self-conscious evil to complete insanity. Nothing makes sense on this album, from Paul Trudeau’s lumbering, gut-punch percussion patterns to Creston Spiers’ unpredictable (and seemingly nonsensical) use of wrecking ball riffs, mealy-mouthed shouting and staggered white space.

Harvey Milk's first album My Love Is... is probably their least accessible and most versatile record. The sound varies from rude and obnoxious doomy, to fragile and lovely supported at times by a real orchestra (see The Anvil Will Fall). Creston Speirs' characteristic "Whiskey and too much smoke"-voice dominates the record, as well as the never logical rythm-section. File under intelligent noisy metal. With a twist, that is because one should not make the mistake of overlooking this band's self-humoristic aspect. If you can handle your depressed noise getting rudely disturbed by an army of happy violins and Eels-like vocals, this is a true must-have. People without a sense of humor or adventure should better stay away.

Another classic Milk track is The Anvil Will Fall, a moody drifting whispery ballad, peppered by huge bursts of downtuned pummel, when out of nowhere, in come the strings, some patriotic hymn, an almost recognizable tune that Creston sings along too in his warbly raspy croon, even kicking it up into a wicked falsetto, before petering back out into the original hushed crawl, eventually launching into a super moving moody goddamned ANTHEM. The sort of song that should have sludge fans teary eyed with hat in hand, and hand over heart.

This is a bit of a weird one. Thick, slow, drunken blasts of grunge kind of come and go without much form or structure, and occasionally a moaning voice -- like the ghost of Marley haunting Scrooge -- kind of rumbles and belches its way in the background. I repeat, what is this? 2/5

As for letting you down, well... I'll try not to do it again.

Labels: Friday farce, music

Damn. Really gotta stop losing whole weeks like this!

...



This week's Friday Farce is a whopper of Burger King proportions. Here's the original, the Bee Gees' sweetly psychedelic soul-ballad from 1967's The Bee Gee's 1st LP...

Bee Gees - To Love Somebody (2.83 MB mp3: right-click and Save As to download)

I can't really pick between the three contenders for the Farce; you'll have to make up your own minds:

Michael Bolton - To Love Somebody (5.96 MB mp3: right-click and Save As to download)

Billy Corgan (feat. Robert Smith) - To Love Somebody (6.27 MB mp3: right-click and Save As to download)

Eagle Eye Cherry - To Love Somebody (5.74 MB mp3: right-click and Save As to download)

Journeyman soft-[c|r]ock-and-pillock Bolotin? Minor-league Ben Harper-alike Cherry with the awesome dad and the famous sis? Ex-Smashing Punkin Corgan (w. gorm-immemorial and soon-to-be-over-here-with-his-band-The-Cure Robert Smith on backing vox)?

Here's a nice picture of Robert Smith. He's in The Cure, you know. Also presented for your edification is a picture of a pussy with bad hair (from ICanHasCheezburger.com).



Now to be perfectly fair, since I already propped Billy Corgan's version, I was hardly gonna pick that one wuz I?

Fun fun fun fun fun..........................

Labels: Friday farce, music

Whoah. Where'd the week go?

Well the good news is that I've done so much overtime in the last month that I now have a week owing to me in lieu; that rules. Now *rubs hands together* how to spend it......

...

This week's Friday Farce is less of a farce and more of an interesting aside.



In 1981 Kraftwerk released Computer World, the fifth in their incredible series of brilliant and accessible early-electro albums which began with Autobahn and included Radioactivity, Trans Europe Express, and The Man Machine. The album included the song Computer Love, featuring what must surely be one of their most accessible melodies:

Kraftwerk - Computer Love (6.65 MB mp3: right-click and Save As to download)

Almost twenty-five years later, English rock band Coldplay recorded a song called Talk and included it on their album X & Y.

Coldplay - Talk (4.76 MB mp3: right-click and Save As to download)

You notice almost immediately that the intro guitar line in Talk is the same as the Kraftwerk melody; the Wikipedia article (and, indeed, any number of other web-resources) claim that Coldplay received permission from Kraftwerk to re-use the melody from Computer Love in their song. Which is all very nice and decent and frankly, I wouldn't expect any less of those fine young upstanding gents in Coldplay.

Predictably, and as Wikipedia also notes, there was also at least one mashup made from the two songs. I don't have the RIAA one, but I'm sure the one I do have is much of a muchness:

Coldplay vs. Kraftwerk - Computertalk (3.33 MB mp3: right-click and Save As to download)

Now -- as discussed a couple of weeks ago -- in 1992 The Balanescu Quartet recorded their own version of Computer Love on their album of Kraftwerk covers, which is called Possessed . It's pretty good:

Balanescu Quartet - Computer Love (8.71 MB mp3: right-click and Save As to download)


Finally, I would be utterly remiss not to credit Tom Beard for the intellectual genesis of this entire post. Thanks, Tom.

Labels: Friday farce, music

No-one at Drinks-After-Work has had any bloody time this week, far less any to go scouting around for abysmal cover versions for you lot.

So here's another goodie:

Circle of Ouroborus - She's lost control (6.04 MB mp3: right-click and Save As to download)

.... Circle Of Ouroborus offer up their own cracked take on buzzing black metal, murky almost punky, super lo-fi, practice space production, mumble warbly guitars, drums tinny and buried in the mix, and a totally demented vocalist wailing in a growling cracked croon, WAY up in the mix, shouting and howling ....

Read more about Circle of Ouroborus at aQuarius records and Encyclopaedia Metallum.

Labels: Friday farce, music

Ok enough of this silliness. Here's how you do it.

Exhibit A (not a Pavement song*, sounds like a Pavement song):

Pavement - The killing moon (5.99 MB mp3: right-click and Save As to download)


Exhibit B (not a Galaxie 500 song**, sounds like a Galaxie 500 song):

Galaxie 500 - Ceremony (4.82 MB mp3: right-click and Save As to download)


* an Echo and the Bunnymen song.
* a New Order song. Actually, possibly could even be said to be a Joy Division song.

Labels: Friday farce, music

Considering the outpouring of pus, bile and sputum that these features have become lately, I was going to skip Friday Farce this week. However, there's things that have to be said -- so let's get back into it from where we left things.

Easy All Stars (feat. Sugar Minnot) - Exit Music (for a Film) (4.07 MB mp3: right-click and Save As to download)

You almost. have. to. like. this. Really. Listen -- it could be a lost track by the Abyssinians -- absolutely stonkin' roots reggae 70s harmony vocal styles. Sugar Minnot is a legend of Jamaican music (Wikipedia). The Easy Star All-Stars are a collective family of some of the finest reggae musicians in the New York area (as individuals, the band's vocalists and instrumentalists have toured and recorded with Gil-Scott-Heron, Burning Spear, Toots and the Maytals, The Toasters, The Meditations, Bernie Worrell, DJ Logic, MC Solaar, King Django, Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra, The Scofflaws, Diana King, Dennis Brown, Monty Alexander, Sister Carol, and many others) -- and responsible for the hugely successful Dub Side of the Moon "cover album" (Wikipedia) of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon. (No comment -- yet). The rhythm is solid, lead vocal is gorgeous and the harmonies are immaculate. But wait.. they're fading out on the repeated lyric "We hope.. that you choke.. that you choke". WRONG. Oh my god, SO wrong its heartbreaking.

It turns out this track is from Radiodread, the "cover album" (Wikipedia) of Radiohead's OK Computer. Goddamn it.

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Darkwave old-timers Miranda Sex Garden (Wikipedia) do it pretty faithfully and end up with something that is nice but ultimately inconsequential:

Miranda Sex Garden - Exit Music (for a Film) (4.29 MB mp3: right-click and Save As to download)

Considering their origins as a trio singing madrigals, it's actually pretty impressive that they almost manage to out-huge-fuzz-bass the original.

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I don't really have much to say to massed girls choirs (at least not that I'm about to admit to here), but on this occasion to Scala (Belgian, even!) I say "please stop":

Scala - Exit Music (for a Film) (6.43 MB mp3: right-click and Save As to download)

Although on this occasion it's mystifyingly pleasing to hear them singing "We hope.. that you choke.. that you choke".

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Now we're getting into the real dregs. Christopher O'Riley is "an American classical pianist and public radio show host, who is also known for his piano arrangements of songs by alternative pop artists" (Wikipedia):

Christopher O'Riley - Exit Music (for a Film) (4.13 MB mp3: right-click and Save As to download)

As much as (I think) I'm a humanist, I'd like to line up and shoot people with a proclivity towards creating, recording and releasing piano arrangements