Hugging All the Babies, Kissing All the Ladies

I find myself longing for it to be Wednesday morning. I am not a fan of suspense.

While I am invested in a candidate (guess which one), I find myself skeptical that anything will really change, even if he wins. It's pervasive political pessimism -- I blame Nixon, because honestly, why not? In general, I try to approach elections like I approach dating: cautious, if optimistic. And after the last presidential election, I can't even muster the optimism. I am not a fan of disappointment, especially when the repercussions are so brutal and far-reaching.

In honor of tomorrow, I present what amounts to an Election Day carol:

David Bowie: "Somebody Up There Likes Me"

Sing it with the rest of the family as you're watching election returns tomorrow!

I actually presented it in 2004, but I still love the song. What I said then:

This song always reminded me specifically of Clinton at his most beatific, but it can be applied most generally to any politician doing everything (s)he can to be elected into office... It's an awesome song, though. It's off the Young Americans album, and has a sort of spacey Philly International vibe, with Luther Vandross providing stellar back-up vocals.

Yes.

This Is The Day When Things Fall Into Place

The Spendrick Hogsbottom Experience: "This is the Day"

This song was my choice, because it more or less describes where I feel I am right now. And it's a beautiful song. I advocated for it, and, for once, I don't despise my singing. I sound intimate, and not horrible, although the notes get slippery when I try to harmonize. It helps that I've sung along with this song (originally by The The) for years.

Not much else to say about the song: it really sort of speaks for itself. We were puzzled whether to attach the Spendrick Hogsbottom name to it, owing to the fact that we both thought it is actually pretty good, a word we don't often associate with Sir Spendrick. We reasoned that at some points in his career he must have worked with producers who knew how to make him sound like something better than a glorified lounge singer.

May everybody out there have a wonderful New Year.

Now Come Over And Give Santa Some Sugar

OK, so admittedly this is late for Christmas, but my cousin and I finally finished recording a version of Clarence Carter's "Back Door Santa". We had started recording -- in fact, finished the entire instrumental track -- well before Christmas, but then there were the vocals. Nothing I was doing was leaving either my cousin or I very happy. I can do vaguely loungey, but I can't even begin to pretend I have soul. Nor, at the same time, could I seem to muster up the sort of passionless recitation that I thought that the song really needed.

I love the original, but it is pretty singular, and that riff was great enough to be sampled by Run DMC for "Christmas in Hollis". Originally we were going to do it very synth pop -- the template I was keeping in mind was the minimalism of early Soft Cell. But while we were recording it, I was bothered by the fact that my cousin was just playing a simplified version of the original's bassline, which didn't really bring anything new. So, on a lark, I was like, let's play the bassline from Peter Gunn. It kind of sort of worked. Who knew?

So there we were with a mildly disturbing instrumental track tonight, confronted with my glaring vocal deficiencies. Again, on a lark, I suggested maybe we could find a website online to do the vocals. It could not have turned out better. Keeping in mind that I have no audible remnant on the track, what with all my vocals thankfully gone, and being completely unable to play any instrument, I pretty much am responsible for how it turned out. My cousin says that's why he likes working with me: I come up with crazy ideas because I don't know better.

Schlimme-Burgfeld: "Back Door Santa"

I like it, I like it. I like it a lot. I really like it. Back Door Santa.

"C'MON, SUPER-SEXY!"

Oh, by the way, I apparently forgot that this blog is now apparently three years old, plus a month. It's somewhat mindboggling, considering how little I have actually said. But it's an anniversary nonetheless, so I give you the gift of Japanese synth-pop:

Takashi Fujii: "OH MY JULIET!"

Who the hell knows what he's saying: it's got a good beat, and you can dance to it! Here's the video:

I kinda love this song: it's my most played song on iTunes. Well, after New York Dolls' "Dance Like A Monkey". And here's the video for that:

Isn't that a thing of beauty? David Johansen's lyrics are intelligent and irreverent. I love it!

I kinda love this song, too:

Enjoy!

Nostalgia For An Age Yet To Come

I went to the AmeriCorps graduation ceremony today, and I had a really good time of it. To be honest, this is in part due to the fact that I have not socialized at all since I last saw Eric, three weeks ago. I mean, I've seen people through Target, but that is hardly a social situation, and the fact is that most of my co-workers speak Spanish or Haitian-Creole. So it was good to see people who I know, who I work with, who I like.

I had wondered what Ray and Daron would be doing next year, since I know neither of them is particularly happy in south Florida. Apparently, they have decided to continue to live together down here, which is good, since they are my friends, and I like them.

Anyways, I'm not going to get too into it, but it was just nice to be reminded that people still cared about me and whatnot. It was nice to know that they were interested. And it also gave me a lot of closure that the mass firing did not: I was able to talk to the other people who work in that community, and it came across as much of a surprise to them as it was for me. It was just a badly-coordinated conclusion to a badly-run program, and it heartened me that everybody in the community knew just what I was enduring in that office.

The event also (predictably) made me nostalgic about my AmeriCorps year. Not that I'd ever go back, but it was a lot of fun, and I made some good friends. So now, thanks to the wonder of the printer-scanner that I've recently brought, I present random pictures featuring my friends from that year.

Brianna, Sandra and I at the old De Porres P.L.A.C.E. Brianna and I worked as teachers at the site, and Sandra was a student there who eventually became the secretary and office coordinator. I think this picture was taken when we were celebrating my birthday.

Dawn being harassed by the Catman during my one and only trip to Key West. He came across as a faux-French pervert, and his cats kept trying to make a break for it. I still have the sticker that she is holding, too.

This is Dave and I from the very first week of AmeriCorps, in front of the fabled sculpture, "Sister, Your Mask Is Showing". This is indeed the sculpture that inspired Dave and I to write poetry while waiting for our appointments to get food stamps, which my cousin and I later recorded as a "song". The stain on the crotch is on the print of the photo, not on the shorts that I am wearing. I swear.

It was a very good year. This year will be even better: that's what I keep telling myself, and that's the story I'm sticking to.

I'm Too Sexy For This Blog

One of the benefits of being a fan of Saint Etienne is that they are music fans themselves, and they leave a vast wealth of b-sides, compilation tracks, and remixes in their wake. You always seem to stumble over, say, a cover of a Gary Numan song that they've done, or one of the many Christmas songs that they've recorded over the years. And that, as a fan, is a feeling of pure joy, especially when you consider the consistent quality that the band seem to maintain, even on tracks that you figure must have been recorded during an afternoon.

I actually bought the 7" single that this track is from off of an auction on eBay, from a seller in the U.K. That was back when I had plenty of disposable income. What is particularly befuddling about the purchase is that to this day I do not have a record player. I think my feeling was that if I ever did get a record player, I would like the opportunity to hear what this sounds like.

The Fred EP is a single from 1992, and features three bands off the Heavenly record label doing covers of Right Said Fred songs. The other two tracks could be absolutely brilliant -- I have no idea, since I still have never heard them. The Saint Etienne track was the one that I was willing to pay international shipping to hear. When I was home over the holidays, my cousin was gracious enough to burn this, along with some other vinyl tracks (including a 15 minute version of Serge Gainsbourg's "Je t'aime... moi non plus" recorded by Donna Summer for the Thank God It's Friday soundtrack -- in case you haven't gathered as much, I like cover versions, no matter how lousy they are) onto CD. The quality is not great: Sarah Cracknell's vocals tend to get distorted a bit, and there's all the crackle and pop that you would expect from a 15 year old vinyl single. But it is still pretty interesting, and oddly pretty. I wonder how the band would record it if they were to do it now.

I was going to post this on Valentine's Day, but then I kept forgetting about it. Oh well, at least you get to hear it now. Enjoy!

Saint Etienne: I'm Too Sexy (edit).mp3

Do You Know The Way To The Spendrick Hogsbottom Experience?

So, I went home (or, rather, Rochester, NY, which is as much my home as anywhere, since my parents moved there as I was moving to Florida) at Christmas. Seeing as how I had a week to waste without the regular use of a car, I relied upon my cousin to drive me around a bit, and to keep me entertained. And you all know what that means? No? I'll give you a hint:

"THE SPENDRICK HOGSBOTTOM EXPERIENCE REDUX!"

That's right, the only musical group to utilize my atonal caterwauling to its full potential is back, or was back, during the week that I spent over the Yuletide. Our first piece of business was to record the Spendrick Hogsbottom Christmas 7": one original Christmas song ("It's a Black, Black Christmas (Without You)"), backed by a reggae-tastic version of "Auld Lang Syne", the latter of which I've already posted. The former -- well, the world will have to wait until next Christmas for the brilliance that is that song. Count yourselves fortunate.

Anywho, for some reason, my cousin and I were particularly prolific this holiday. We also recorded an eight minute dance version of David Bowie's "Heroes", which admittedly was mostly my cousin's production work. It's nice enough, but my favorite was our version of "Do You Know the Way to San Jose?" that I pressed upon him to record.

I admit it: I love Burt Bacharach. I even have the 3-disc box set that Rhino released in the 1990s. More to the point, I love Bacharach and David songs: they are beautiful and well-written, sophisticated and elegant. And so dynamic, with the rhythm changes and whatnot. "San Jose" is one of my favorites, just because, unlike a lot of pop music, it is not at all about love -- at least not love for another person. It's about the end of self-delusion, the acceptance of one's limitations and the resignation that your life will never be extraordinary.

L.A. is a great big freeway.
Put a hundred down and buy a car.
In a week, maybe two, they'll make you a star
Weeks turn into years. How quick they pass
And all the stars that never were
Are parking cars and pumping gas.

I don't know about you, but I can relate.

That's some heady stuff for pop, which seems to thrive on delusion, channeling youthful enthusiasm into a willful ignorance of how life works. It turns out we aren't all beautiful, we aren't all happy, we can't all be famous. At least the narrator in "San Jose" finally sees that, accepts that, and decides to follow her heart:

Fame and fortune is a magnet.
It can pull you far away from home
With a dream in your heart you're never alone.
Dreams turn into dust and blow away
And there you are without a friend
You pack your car and ride away.

Hopefully there is a rearranging of priorities here, not simply resignation to lead a life of quiet desperation. At any rate, there's such wonderful melodrama packed into less than three minutes. Fabulous.

The way we recorded this was that my cousin actually recorded the original Dionne Warwick song onto one of the tracks on the eight-track, because the rhythmic changes in the song threw him off. Also, quite frankly, he hates the song, so I think he wasn't particularly interested in coming up with a new arrangement. Which is fine: I was desperate to keep this track under three minutes, since, before now, we've routinely gone over 4:30 minutes. And the way the recordings broke down, "Heroes" was basically the song we recorded for him, and this one was mine. This is my The Love Below to his Speakerboxxx.

(Eventually I'll get around to posting "Heroes". Not that anybody else is particularly interested, but whatever.)

I had a specific production idea in mind. I told my cousin something to the effect of: "Mo Tucker playing drums with a post-Ian Curtis, pre-New Order Joy Division, doing an Antonio Carlos Jobim song in the style of 'Warm Leatherette', Bryan Ferry singing and Billy Bragg playing acoustic guitar, with Brian Eno producing in a one-take, live recording." Some of the nuance of this description fell to the wayside as the recording went forward, but the essential electronic SKWONK! that I envisioned remained through it all. I wanted it to feel as artificial as the original felt organic, with the exception of the acoustic guitar. Indeed, the only regret my cousin and I have is that the acoustic guitar tends to get lost in the mix, but then, since neither of us actually IS Bryan Ferry, we don't regret it enough to try doing it again.

Also, as hard as we tried, the two of us could not convincingly sing the "whoo-whoo-whoo"'s at the beginning of the song in a decent falsetto, owing to the descending notes. Ultimately, we just faked it with the keyboard, ala Frankie Goes To Hollywood's version, and left it at that. Legend has it (or so we imagined) that there are no back-up vocals on this song because Spendrick got mad at his regular back-up vocalists (Bev & Terry) for making fun of his weight. They, of course, were angry because he routinely underpaid them for recording sessions, because, basically, Sir Spendrick is an asshole. He fired them, and recorded an album without them, while they recorded an album of their own: the much-sought (on e-Bay) Bev & Terry... UNBOUND! Both albums tanked, so, ever-keen to financial realities, the three eventually reconciled, vowing their loyalty to each other vociferously in various press statements. Or so I hear.

The vocals are double-tracked because, as I told my cousin, if I'm singing twice it doubles my chances of actually hitting the right note. I sang the song along with the Dionne track that was playing on the headphones. As such, when the music comes to a stop after the bridge, you can actually hear Dionne THROUGH my headphones, singing out like a beautiful, beautiful bird. Let's just call it analogue sampling, and leave it at that.

Now, for your enjoyment, I present:

The Spendrick Hogsbottom Experience: Do You Know the Way to San Jose?.mp3

Enjoy!

Free Rotation

A lot of the music that I've been listening to lately has come to me free, through various internet sites. I figured that I would share a few of these songs with you readers I have. I admit right now that all of these songs are uptempo, because, to be honest, I listen to mp3s primarily while I am walking, and slow, dirge-like songs do very little to get your heart rate up.

• "32" by NAMBAVAN

A strange little song from the WM Recordings. Reminds me a bit of Duran Duran's first album (and keep in mind that for me that is a good thing), but more squonky, and with a man sing-speaking in Russian over the track. I think I like the song's energy, and the guy's unapologetic borrowing of elements from other artists. The quality of WM Recordings is highly variable, which isn't all that surprising since they are an online music label that doesn't charge for its music, but I'm fond of NAMBAVAN. He sounds like an enthusiastic amateur, and I can relate.

• "Johnny and I" by Superheroes

I know virtually nothing about this band; I was introduced to them through a remix by Fantastic Plastic Machine, one of my favorite bands. This track feels very retro, very 80s, which, again, I have no problem with. They have a lot of tracks available online through their media page, although apparently the band has split fairly recently, so I can't speak to how long they will continue to be available. I like a lot of what I've heard from them, though.

• "Nextwave Theme" by Thunder Thighs

Very few comic books have their own theme song. In fact, I think this might be the only one. Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E. is published by Marvel, and is one of the few Marvel titles that I actually buy: Warren Ellis and Stuart Immonen seem to be having a ball running roughshod through the Marvel universe, taking everything too far. A thing of beauty, truly. I jumped on the bandwagon late, although I did actually start reading before the title became uber-hip due to a proliferation of Modok Elvii.

As to the music, it is appropriately random and surreal. Definitely low-fi, but plenty o' fun.

• "Physical Workout" by Le Hammond Inferno vs. Ragazzi

I don't know why, but this song just makes me very happy. Maybe it causes my brain to release endorphins, I have no idea. The chorus is like audio Prozac to me, not because of the words being sung, but the notes behind the words. Maybe because the music hints at something more melancholy, more beautiful. I'm always curious about where these sorts of associations come from, why my reaction is so strong and positive, where someone else might find it annoying and repetitive. Where do our tastes come from? Whenever I bring it up with anyone, they seem to act as if the answer was self-evident, but if it is, I must be missing it. Sure, a lot of it is determined by history, by what we've been exposed to in the past, but am I to believe that that is the extent of it?

Anyways, enough navel-gazing...

• "Presentazione Orchestra" by Raffaella Carrà

Hardly even a song, but rather an instrumental track accompanying the artist's breathless introduction of her band to the live audience. It has a great bassline, and a driving 60s R&B feel to it. It's not quite The Bonzo Dog Band's "The Intro and the Outro", but then again, what is, really?

• "The Sunshine After The Rain" by Ellie Greenwich

Together with husband Jeff Barry, Ellie Greenwich wrote a slew of girl group hits in the 1960s for The Ronettes, The Crystals, and The Shanri-Las. Like fellow Brill Building alum, Carole King, she also recorded a few girl group singles, including one of the most beautiful girl group songs of all, "You Don't Know". I had never heard any of her songs but that one, since her output was limited enough to make a full length CD of her material unlikely. Then one day I saw this posted on Bubblegum Machine. It's a great song, much less maudlin than her other song, and with an ascending bassline in the chorus that just seems to inspire optimism in me. I'm a big fan of the girl groups anyways, and it's songs like this that reward that appreciation the most.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year from Spendrick Hogsbottom!

Spendrick Hogsbottom feat. Leon "Itchy" Pensonhurst: "Auld Lang Syne / Legalize It" mp3

Just so you all know, I don't do drugs, and I don't advocate drugs, and I don't particularly think legalization of pot is a good idea. "Legalize It" is rather a reggae song by Peter Tosh, and it just seemed to fit when coupled with this reggae version of "Auld Lang Syne".

The story goes that Leon "Itchy" Pensonhurst was a famed dub producer, on probation for a drug violation. He was supposed to make an entire album of songs with Spendrick (one of many fruitless efforts on Spendrick's part to change his image and appeal to The Youth). They recorded this song as a joke, as a b-side for the song "It's a Black, Black Christmas (Without You)" -- which, incidentally, now actually exists: my first co-writing credit is a Christmas country song -- a single only available to Sir Spendrick's fan club members. Anyways, since there are only 7 members of his fan club, it is thus extremely rare, and yet still strangely worthless. Somehow the authorities heard the bong sounds and coughing in the middle of the song, and arrested "Itchy" for suspected drug violations. He tested positive, and from that moment on has sworn himself to ruining Sir Spendrick's life as soon as he got out of prison. Which is why Spendrick eshews public appearences.