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Wendy
and Bonnie “Let Yourself Go Another Time”
Sisters Wendy and Bonnie, seventeen and thirteen at the time,
record album in 1969 that bridges the gap between Beyond
the Valley of the Dolls band the Carry Nation and current
retro-pop Birdie. (Not that anyone was trying hard to find one).
To the driving organ and bass they harmonize “our future
holds a new way of life”. Further listening leads to suspicions
that this way of life involved paisleys and bellbottoms.
Maximilian Hecker “Infinite Love Song”
A song about walking around alone at night. Have you even seen
the city at night when the tips of the buildings disappear into
a mist? The town looks like someone forgot to finish painting
the backdrop for a movie scene. As an extra in the film you
just flit in and out of the street scene, talking close with
your companion about nothing, someone you will never see again.
It was just acting for a bit.
Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazelwood “Some Velvet Morning”
The cowboy and the go-go girl sing two different songs, dueling
between Lee’s steady beat and Nancy’s waltz. Phaedra
has done something sinister and sings a siren’s song. Can
you keep a secret?, she asks. Morning sunlight hits the cowboy’s
skin and it burns if he stays in one place. He was supposed
to do something--he had had plans but some intoxication left
his head in a whirl.
Kirsty MacColl “Autumngirlsoup”
“I’m an autumn girl flying over London with the trees
on fire; it looks like home”. The trees in London explode
into orangeredyellow
during fall. The air carries a scent of nature; some call it
rot and decay. In New York City that scent never catches in
the air. The streets smell like hot concrete before freezing
in another few weeks. “I need some love to melt these frozen
bones”. RIP
Metric “Soft Rock Star”
“Climb the walls to make the sun rise in time, but the
night had already gone”. Scratching at your own skin—it’s
too tight, too loose, pocked and red. The room is too hot when
the window closed yet glaciers when it’s open. What’s
the proper balance between these things? How do you strike the
right chord?
Piano Magic “Son de Mar (part 4)”
A Tchaikovsky string sonata as rewritten for a Spanish film
soundtrack. Picture this: profile close up on young woman, hair
tucked behind ears. Camera pulls back to show ocean horizon.
Colors muted, close to black and white. And grey—there
is always a lingering grey hiding in the shadows on a sunny
day. The trick is whether you choose to ignore it or call it
into the light for a battle.
Royksopp “Eple”
Finnish electronic music that falls somewhere between requiring
dancing and nodding head appreciatively. Some say music conjures
up visions of fjords and midnight sun. But surely if the group
were Brazilian the music could be sambas and beach parties,
no? Music is where your own head is.
Rufus Wainwright “Hallelujah”
Cabaret pop star with grand rock star illusions playing a John
Cale song. Biblical loves of David and Bathsheba, Samson and
Delilah, you and me. No, strike that last part. Our love has
not cursed a nation and destroyed the temple, but time will
tell. But that sigh breathed together—that is the hallelujah.
Big Star “Thirteen”
Was it really simpler then? Dates by the pool and dances on
Fridays? Dad argued that “Paint It Black” would lead
to the end of the world. He muttered and held tight to this
belief until the world did end. Very different reasons caused
the end, but dad simply muttered.
Holger Czukay “Persian Love”
Author Alan Warner wrote about this in recent issue of Granta
to celebrate its use on the upcoming film of his novel Morvern
Caller. “Persian Love” is a conversation accidentally
caught on tape from ancient transistor radios in a land that
claims to be as old as the sun. What is the secret he sings
to her? Does she even hear him? Picture two lovers calling out
to each other at night. Neither hears the other’s call—the
wind blows the sound away to deaf ears.
Brian Wilson “Stevie”
“I have adored you for so long and the vibrations are so
strong”. Vibrations across the crowded room—he glances
in your direction. Target sighted. You walk up to say hello,
a word that clears the way for just about anything else. Beach
Boys frontman sings a pocket symphony.
The Shins “Know Your Onion!”
Rory Gilmore, on Gilmore Girls, contentedly read her
Faulkner or Tolstoy during her lunch period at high school while
listening to the Shins. The administration thought her behavior
antisocial. Her attempt to socialize led to trouble. Moral:
the pimpled and angry will inherit the earth to a Kinks-y backbeat.
Rory is neither of those; however, she does have excellent taste.
Everything But The Girl “English Rose”
Tracey and Ben covering the Jam back in those Eden/Cherry
Red days. Ben has used this song to point out that the band
was never an acoustic duo due to the string synthesizer, but
that’s neither here nor there. Wherever you go in the whole
wide world there is always that draw back to the home place
(if only in the mind)—the rose, the rosebud, the whatever
really. Take the train back from anywhere anytime: express from
the Woolfs’ Bloomsbury flat track nine; local from Nero’s
Rome track five. Your love will be waiting on a misty platform.
Boards of Canada “In A Beautiful Place In The Country”
Children laughing, outside the window or down the street. He
muses from his desk that the children are laughing about the
no worries in their life, the carefree days with a beautiful
life stretching ahead of each of them. The children have circled
the smaller boy; they are laughing at his clothes and glasses.
The boy tries to push out of the circle as it closes tighter
around him.
Fischerspooner “15th”
Art rock ensemble with a penchant for fur and armor cover Wire
song. Keyboards bounce in cold precision with warm male voice
repeating “it was not there”. The worst part is that
no one remembers what is missing; they only know that something
is. It’s the nagging feeling that attacks late at night…
Lambchop “Give Me Your Love [Doppelganger remix]”
Is this soul, disco, or country? Doesn’t matter since this
is dancing music complete with violin swells and falsetto vocals.
Music is for dancing afterall. Like the man down on the corner
who just dances to his own music in his own time. He seems happy
enough so no one bothers him.
| Matthew
Patrick, January 2002 |
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