Mike Bennett writesiPod/MP3 Friday Shuffle — Happy Birthday Serge Gainsbourg Edition

Let’s pay tribute to a French legend and the father of someone who we’ve played a fair amount of at CHIRP Radio (his daughter, Charlotte). Serge Gainsbourg is the poster child for post-war French decadence, his pop songs drenched in sex, cigarettes and copious amounts of alcohol (and come to think of it, copious amounts of sex). He evolved as an artist, making increasingly outrageous statements about many aspects of life, while steeping himself in controversy after controversy — the biggest, perhaps, being his duet with a young Charlotte, “Lemon Incest”. Many have tried, but no one can equal the sleazy cool of Monsieur Gainsbourg. So let’s pay tribute to Serge. Grab your iPod/MP3 player, hit shuffle, and share the first 10 tunes that come up.

1. Sparks — Saccharin and the War (Sparks): One of two songs on the original Halfnelson demos that made the band’s first album (with Halfnelson changing its name to Sparks a few months after their first album’s release). Producer Todd Rundgren captured the demo’s wiggy twee psychedelia on this bizarre song about women and weight loss that must have made sense to Ron Mael at the time he wrote it.
2. The Lilac Time — She Still Loves You (Paradise Circus): Stephen Duffy was an original member of Duran Duran who left to form the synth-poppy Tin Tin. After that well dried up, he did u-turn and put out pastoral pop music as The Lilac Time (and he obviously tired of double names). His songs have an elegant air with precise vocals that remind me a bit of Al Stewart. Really good folk pop.
3. James Brown — I Got You (I Feel Good)(50th Anniversary Collection): Hmm…a classic JB tune. But one that has been done to death in commercials and soundtracks of movies that aren’t so hot. Granted, they only play the first 40 seconds usually. Nevertheless, this is a great song that I’m tired of hearing. Maybe this will have to be taken off the iPod.
4. *Paul Revere & The Raiders — Just Like Me (Just Like Me): A classic Paul Revere garage rock tune. Songs like this had to have been influential on Tommy Boyce & Bobby Hart, as this sounds like the template for the garagier songs that duo penned for The Monkees. Mark Lindsey does a great job building up from his measured singing in the verses to more passion and frenzy as the chorus builds.
5. Roger Miller — Train Of Life (King of the Road: The Genius of Roger Miller): The ’60s revival on my shuffle continues. This is a wonderful country blues about a guy who is worried that he’s sitting on the sidelines while life passes him by. This has characteristically sharply observed lyrics, a great economy of language, and Miller’s singing has rarely been better. This builds on the great work of Hank Williams.
6. The Morells — I’m a Hog For You Baby (The Morells): A slice of roadhouse R & B from the great Springfield, Missouri bar band led by Lou Whitney and D. Clinton Thompson. When The Morells originally dissolved, Whitney and Thompson formed The Skeletons, who were a little less roots rock then the Morells. About 10 years ago, they revived The Morells, and the new stuff came a bit closer to The Skeletons’ sound. Regardless, this is simple fun rock ‘n’ roll.
7. Rod Argent & Chris White — Unhappy Girl (Into the Afterlife): A demo recording by two-fifths of The Zombies, from a cool compilation that collects the immediate post-Zombies work of Argent, White and Colin Blunstone. This song sounds like an outtake from the Odyessey and Oracle sessions — a classic moody mid-tempo ’60s pop song.
8. Roger Miller — When Two Worlds Collide (King of the Road: The Genius of Roger Miller): This is a tender ballad from Miller. Miller posits that opposites attract is not a truism. The lyrics on this song are so simple and say all they need to say, with the weepy music taking care of the rest.
9. Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band — Alley Oop (Gorilla): A bonus track from a reissue of a classic album from the comedic British band. This is a cover of the old Hollywood Argyles’ hit, with Viv Stanshall practically narrating the lyrics in his veddy proper English. A band made for Dr. Demento.
10. Chuck Berry — Back in the U.S.A. (Gold): This oldies laden shuffle ends with a classic Chuck Berry song. Berry’s genius lay in his ability to: 1) rev up 12-bar blues into a pop context, while learning lessons from country and jump blues (especially the influence of Louis Jordan), helping create rock ‘n’ roll, and, 2) his amazing skill as a lyricist. Berry loved iconic images and notions, as exemplified on this celebration of America that looks at it from a contemporary teenage pop culture context. He simultaneously fueled and chronicled the post-war rise of youth culture, and because of that, his influence is still felt to this day, albeit indirectly.

Mike Bennett writesiPod/MP3 Friday Shuffle — Happy Birthday Diana Ross Edition

The Queen of Motown, the voice behind dozens upon dozens of classic hits fronting the Supremes, and an accomplished solo artist celebrates a birthday today. So let’s all raise a sonic toast to Diana Ross, by grabbing your iPod/MP3 player, hitting shuffle and sharing the first 10 tunes that come up.

1. The Monochrome Set — Martians Go Home (Tomorrow Will Be Too Long): The Monochrome Set were on the poppier side of the post-punk spectrum, playing cool tunes with circular rhythms. This might appeal to fans of early XTC, Orange Juice and Josef K.  This is a short, peppy tune with a number of tempos crammed into just over 2 minutes.
2. The Castaways — Liar Liar (Nuggets: Original Artyfacts of the Psychedelic Era):  A great organ fueled garage rock tune.  This is definitely a song that is two parts R & B and one part psychedelia.  The playing is just tight enough to be good, but amateur enough to give it a real charm.  Debbie Harry did a swell cover of this song.  I’m sure it was an influence on early Blondie.
3. Johnny Cash — I Still Miss Someone (The Legend): Not one of Johnny’s best know songs, but this is in his classic style.  His drawling vocal, the twanging guitar, the light shuffle rhythm and bluesy song.  Great stuff.
4. Ted Nugent — Cat Scratch Fever (Cat Scratch Fever): Sweaty Teddy’s sole Top 40 hit on an album that was streamlined for maximum 1977 radio play.  Or was it 1978?  Yes, I know Nugent is a right wing cartoon now, but he used to be a mainstream cartoon, playing catch blues based rock with a sense of humor.  And he’s a pretty good guitarist.
5. Solomon Burke — Stepchild (Don’t Give Up On Me): Burke’s “comeback” album merely had better known songwriters providing material on an album that has excellent production.  Burke never retired and his voice weathered just enough that it really had never sounded better.  This is a simple blues song and his phrasing is so fantastic.  There’s no one quite like him.
6. The Beach Boys — Good To My Baby (Today!/Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!)):  Prime pre-Pet Sounds Beach Boys, where Brian Wilson’s increasing sophistication is evident in the number of different musically ideas in this song, the great backing vocal arrangements and the sublime percussive resolution to the chorus.  It turns a big hook into a monolithic hook.
7. Bob Dylan — On The Road Again (Bringing It All Back Home):  From Dylan’s early electric phase, this is a pretty silly song about getting away from home.  People who criticize Beck for the lack of substance to his lyrics should listen to this song and you can see that Beck took this “let’s see what I can rhyme” approach to its logical conclusion.
8. Urge Overkill — The Candidate (The Supersonic Storybook): One of the best songs from this Chicago alt-rock band.  The song subverts ’70s hard rock with a subtle funkiness and infuses that with a strong sense of drama.  The song is surprising melodic and poignant.  The video is well worth checking out — it was directing by a college pal of mine, Paul Andresen, and my first college radio music director, the late, great Ken Krause, is briefly featured as a bartender in a scene that was shot at the bar Crash Palace, which is where Delilah’s is now located.
9. The Pillbugs — The Cat Who Dropped the Bomb (The 3-Dimensional In-Popcycle Dream):  This Ohio band has been cranking out fantastic psychedelic pop for years.  This might be their best album, which touches on everyone from The Beatles to Electric Light Orchestra to bands to obscure for the Nuggets collections.  Most of their songs, but for the modern recording techniques, could pass for authentic ’60s songs.
10. XTC — The Man Who Sailed Around His Soul (Skylarking):  A fantastic Andy Partridge composition from the album most folks deem the band’s high water mark.  This is the first XTC song to have a real pronounced jazz influence — it’s got finger snapping cool, awesome percussion and cool keyboard and wind instrument accompaniments.  Indeed, Todd Rundgren outdid himself in the arrangement, giving this song a full soundscape for all of its spectacular faux drama.

Mike Bennett writesipod/MP3 Friday Shuffle — In Memory of Alex Chilton Edition

I first read about Big Star in Village Voice music critic Robert Christgau’s first Consumer Guide collection. But reading about Big Star and finding their records was a tricky proposition in 1981. Then one day, I found a copy of Radio City in a cutout rack at Rose Records. It was a great introduction — I was fixated for months on “O My Soul”, which took so many familiar ’60s rock elements, but rearranged them in new and exciting ways. Eventually, I came to love the other songs on the album. And that was all I heard by them for years, since Big Star didn’t have anything in print. Even when Radio City and #1 Record came out in CD, it was import only. But eventually I had all the albums, which are so distinctive, and have become part of the power pop canon. Big Star ran the gamut, from the teenage ecstasy of “In The Street” to the tender defiance of “Thirteen” to the blissful longing of “September Gurls” to the desperation that permeates the Third/Sister Lovers project, this was pop music that had strong emotional resonance.

Alas, things weren’t so easy for main man Alex Chilton. A teenage star with The Box Tops, his preternaturally mature soulful voice keyed hits like “The Letter”. But the band was controlled by the record company and producers. And he never made much money from the Tops. He began to explore his own sound, captured on Chilton’s 1970 album, which eventually came out in the ’90s. Finally, with the talented Chris Bell, Andy Hummel and reliable drummer Jody Stephens, Big Star was born. The name wasn’t intended to be ironic (thought that’s how it turned out) — they took it from a local supermarket chain.

Signed to the local label Ardent (an affiliate of Stax), there was no promotional muscle for the band’s music, and perhaps they weren’t quite as mainstream as, for example, The Raspberries. So the records didn’t sell. This took it’s toll. It took years for the cult to expand, and Chilton and Big Star were championed by artists like R.E.M.s Peter Buck, Teenage Fanclub, The Posies, and, most famously, The Replacements, in the classic song, “Alex Chilton”. From these ripples, more and more bands have shown the influence of Big Star.

Chilton’s death just two days ago, at age 59, is such a shame. I wonder if he’d realize just how many people he touched, as illustrated by scads of Facebook updates and tweets in his honor.

I only saw Chilton once, when Big Star (featuring Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow of the Posies, with Stephens on drums) played Metro. It was an amazing night, as I saw the great local band Frisbie for the first time, and they raised the roof. Fortunately, Big Star was up to the task of following that set. And I started following Frisbie, which led to friendships and contacts that are why I’m now at CHIRP. So Chilton’s music has touched me on many levels.

The first song played on CHIRP, just two months before Chilton’s death, was Big Star’s “Thank You Friends”. It was the perfect song to kick CHIRP off, and typical of Chilton’s ability to capture feelings, both lyrically and melodically. We’ll all miss him, but we’ll always have him around.

In Chilton’s honor, please grab your iPod/MP3 player, hit shuffle and share the first 10 songs that come up.

1. Parasites — You’re Gonna Miss Me (Retro Pop Remasters): I must have read a review of a Parasites album, which led me to picking up the band’s album Pair. Despite the ugly name, the Parasites are a sugar rush of punk-pop. Unlike bands of the Blink 182 stripe, Parasites are grounded more in classic pop with stronger vocals. They really get the balance right, with punky energy and strong swoony melodies. Maybe this would be better described at power X 2 pop.
2. Blur — Colin Zeal (Modern Life Is Rubbish): On Blur’s second album, they were in the process of honing their Brit pop approach, with a character study of a middle class twit, in the tradition of Ray Davies and Andy Partridge. The verses in this song are static, but they set up the big hook. At the time, this sounded so good, but there were even better things to come.
3. Radio Birdman — Murder City Nights (Radios Appear): Radio Birdman was strongly influenced by Detroit proto-punk (The MC5 and The Stooges) and surf rock, and came up with a sound that really defined Australian punk rock. There were some garage and R & B undercurrents, with fantastic guitar parts. Deniz Tek has a typically slashing guitar solo here. I was so happy to see them on their reunion tour, as Tek was a monster and the whole band ripped. One of my favorite songs on the band’s classic debut.
4. Aimee Mann — Choice In The Matter (I’m With Stupid): Nick Hornby has wondered how Mann can marry such downbeat lyrics with such upbeat melodies. I don’t know, but it’s her greatest talent. On her second solo record, it sounds like she was reaching for a warm sound akin to Matthew Sweet’s Girlfriend album. Her later records got a bit prettier, but all the ingredients that led her to greater prominence as a solo act were all on this disc.
5. Duke Ellington & His Famous Orchestra — Caravan (Highlights from the Centennial Edition): The music fits the title, as the band chugs along in rhythmic fashion, setting up a wonderful clarinet solo. The interplay between the drums and the piano is splendid, with a bass guitar also playing along. Then a violin solo gives an Eastern feel to the song. This just sounds so cool.
6. M.I.A. — Galang (Arular): The song that really broke M.I.A. in the U.K. Her tracks almost always have bright and insistent rhythm tracks. There is so much going on and the rhythms are catchy unto themselves. M.I.A. isn’t really much of a rapper, but she has a ton of personality and her Sri Lankan/Brit accent adds to the third world meets first world sensibility that is the essence of her recordings. Both her official albums are essential.
7. New Model Army — Ballad of Bodmin Pill (Thunder And Consolation): Musically, are punk in attitude, with hard guitars mixed with post-punky bass lines and music that sometimes is Clash-y and sometimes folk-y. Lead singer Justin Sullivan is articulate and passionate, railing against the injustices of the world. Like Midnight Oil, the band makes it go down easier with anthemic choruses. This is vital, as otherwise this would just be monochromatic hectoring. Instead, New Model Army provides a platform to channel anger. This is from my favorite album of theirs. It positively seethes.
8. The Four Tops — Ain’t No Woman (Like The One I Got)(The Singles + More): A ’70s hit for the Tops. This has more of a Philly soul vibe. It’s a great song, but it doesn’t sound much like a Four Tops song until they finally let Levi Stubbs take the lead. And even then, it’s not typical. Good, but not typical.
9. The Undertones — Listening In (The Undertones): The first two Undertones are about as good as punky pop has ever been. The songs are so tight and well constructed, with a combo of hooks in the chorus and the lead guitar figures. On top of that, Feargal Sharkey’s warble is quintessentially teenage and the rhythm guitar tone is simply awesome. Not one of their best known songs, but it’s still great.
10. The Grip Weeds — Every Minute (The Sound In You): This New York power pop group mixes it’s love for groups like The Who and The Move and big guitars with an affinity for folkier rock in the vein of The Byrds. So the drums pound and the melodies soar, while guitarist Kristen Pinell comes up with some amazing solos. This band makes good records, but really must be seen live — they are explosive.