MONKS!

A little celebration for the reissue (finally) of the Monks album.  Here are some clips from the Monks on a German TV show circa 1965.  Way ahead of it's time.

Under The Influence #2 - Rapture PiL

Check the vocal part from "Careering" by Public Image Ltd. (PiL) against The Rapture's "Echoes".  If you don't know, PiL was formed by Johnny Rotten after the demise of the Sex Pistols with Kevin Levene (very early member of the Clash and The Flowers of Romance with Sid Vicious) and Jah Wobble.  Careering was on the album Metal Box which came out in 1979,  and The Rapture's Echoes recycled this little vocal inflection (I wouldn't call it a melody) in 2003.  Scream "what!?!" at the end and put it in a more accessible package and presto!  GOLDEN!  Don't get me wrong, I like The Rapture, but that's something that I can't help hearing every time this song comes on.

FN003 - Jeffishmix

Jeff has posted his fancy FN003 mix.  I'm posting it here, but you should also check out the rest of his site to see what he's been up to at Eyebeam.

Download  |  More of Jeff's Mixes

Cover Me #1 - Poupée de Cire, Poupée de Son

"Poupée de Cire, Poupée de Son" is a song that was written by Serge Gainsbourg to be performed by France Gall.  It was the winning song in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1965.  The title means "doll of wax, doll of sawdust" and is full of double-entendres and wordplay (if you understand French).  "Poupée de son" is a common phrase for a rag doll, but "son" has a second meaning, which is "sound", so the phrase also means "song doll" or "singing doll".  It can also be inferred that "Wax doll" is an association with wax discs... or records.  France Gall was too young at the time to understand that she was singing about herself being a singing doll, with Serge pulling the string on her back, and has since refused to talk about the song or sing it in any performances because she felt used by him.  Serge Gainsbourg had this to say about the winning song: "The songs young people turn to for help in their first attempts at discovering what life and love are about, are sung by people too young and inexperienced to be of much help and condemned by their celebrity to find out."

Within recent years, the song has been covered by The Arcade Fire and Belle and Sebastian.

Under The Influence #1: Suicide Boss

By some miraculous coincidence, my partner and I both put a Bruce Springsteen cover on our respective mixes for this round.  Or maybe this isn't such a strange thing, since it seems like so many indie bands are currently claiming the Boss as a musical influence.  This serendipitous event has given me the idea of creating Under The Influence, a makeshift column to point out and examine how artists are influenced to create some of the pieces we love.  My first look will be at Bruce Springsteen, but looking the other direction, on who has influenced him.

You may not know this, but Bruce was heavily influenced by the Suicide's seminal epynomous album which was released in 1977.  This can be heard 5 years later on (what I consider to be his best album) Nebraska.  The song that most prominently displays this influence is "State Trooper".  From the delay effect on his voice and the repetitive 2-3 note figure that lasts the length of the song, it is kind of like an acoustic version of the signature style that Suicide pioneered.  The most striking resemblance is in the ghostly vocal noises that Bruce makes near the end.  These whoops and moans are clearly a page torn right out of the Suicide book.  Also, it should be noted that a lyrical theme about driving runs throughout both of these albums, and that the 4th song on Suicide's album is named "Johnny", while the 4th song on Nebraska is called "Johnny 99".  Plus, both albums have the same red, white, and black color scheme.  It may just be some crazy coincidence, as was the case with my partners mix and mine, but something tells me that there is more to this one than just blind luck...

FN003 - Bluebells and the Silent Harp

Side A

1. Dark Was The Night, Cold Was The Ground - Blind Willie Johnson

2. In This Lonely Town - Jeremy Jay

3. I'm On Fire - Electrelane

4. Heavy Water/I'd Rather Be Sleeping - Grouper

5. Gyroscope - Boards of Canada

6. (Circle)* - Boredoms

7. Palmitos Park - El Guincho

8. Dickshakers Union - Surf City

9. Whitecaps of White Noise I - Tim Hecker

*excerpt

Download Side A

Side B

1. Therese - The Bodines

2. Drunken Maria - Monks

3. It's Kinda Funny (Postcard 7" Version) - Josef K

4. Some Velvet Morning - Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazlewood

5. No Fair - Wipers

6. You're Gonna Miss Me - The 13th Floor Elevators

7. Thumbs Off - The Clean

8. I'll Be On My Way - Bob & Fred

9. Someone Has His Fingers Broken - Black Eyes

10. Sonata VII (Prepared Piano) - John Cage

11. I Am The Greatest of All Liars - Damien Jurado

12. Only Time Will Tell - Bobby Donahue

Download Side B

FN002 - Vanishing Act

1. Psycho - The Sonics

2. Green Cosmos - Deerhoof

3. Adopduction - Les Savy Fav

4. Torso Corso - Lizzy Mercier Descloux

5. Oh It's Such A Shame - Jay Reatard

6. Sugar Man - Rodriguez

7. Third Uncle - Brian Eno

8. The Feeling Is Mutual - Manhattens

9. Seagull - Ride

10. Semen Song For James Bidgood - Matmos

11. Come Home - The Dismemberment Plan

12. Black And White - The dB's

13. That's When I Reach For My Revolver - Mission Of Burma

14. Arm Around You - Arthur Russell

15. Chad - Smoke

16. Young Men Dead - The Black Angels

17. Quattro (World Drifts In) - Calexico

18. Until The Morning Comes - Tindersticks

Download

FN001 - The Bee's Knees

1. Male Weddell seals recorded underwater

2. Skeleton Man - Evangelicals

3. Baby, You're In Luck - Apostle of Hustle

4. Radio Radio - Elvis Costello

5. I Need All The Friends I Can Get - Camera Obscura

6. Sunrise - Yeasayer

7. You Can't Touch The Untouchable - The Big Sleep

8. You Can't Blame Me - Johnson, Hawkins, Tatum, & Durr

9. Witch - Maps & Atlases

10. Block of Wood - The Bats

11. I'm A Pretender - The Exploding Hearts

12. Like Gold - Erlend Oye

13. How Am I Not Myself? - Shocking Pinks

14. Two Blue Lights - Songs: Ohia

15. Vitamin C - Can

16. Pithecanthropus Erectus - Charles Mingus

The last song is probably my favorite jazz song of all time.  It is meant to depict the rise of man and its eventual downfall.  The song shifts from order to chaos throughout to display the tension and struggle of mankind.

Download