Don't Point That Gun at Me - 12/7 show

I can't help it; whenever I hear a song from disc 2 of New Order's early best-of Substance, it reminds me of sitting in a restaurant in O'Hare airport in 1991. I'd gotten the tape of Substance a few years earlier, and knew all the songs well; I bought the CD in the fall of my sophomore year of college, which doubles the amount of music by adding disc 2. So it was at Christmas of 1990 that I was just getting to know the music on this second disc. On this particular trip, I'd bought my tickets way in advance, and the airline had changed the departure time by some 5 hours. I didn't find out till I got to the airport; it had been my travel agency's responsibility (remember them?) to inform me of the change, and for whatever they just hadn't. So I found myself waiting at O'Hare for 5 hours, killing time having lunch and listening to music, and this is the CD I remember.

"1963" is an odd song; it's basically a ballad (in the strict definition of a song that tells a story), which is unusual for New Order (whose lyrics typically are only barely meaningful). It tells the story of a man who kills his wife, told from the point of view of the wife, sung by a man. I don't expect to feel anything from New Order songs, except perhaps from the quality of the music itself (minor keys, arpeggios, staccato beats, etc), but somehow I do find myself affected by this song when I listen to it. This refrain, sung without passion by Bernard Sumner, "Johnny, don't point that gun at me | there's so many ways our lives have changed | but please I beg don't do this to me". It's the lack of passion that makes the song poignant. Words that should be of terror are sung with resignation, as if the main character is already dead when she sings, just looking back at the time when it all ended.

So that song started my show today.

Today was the first day I played LPs, starting with "Aeroplane City Lovesong" by the Blow Monkeys, which was maybe an odd first choice. The Blow Monkeys started our as a jazz-punk band, but by the time of this second album (Animal Magic) they were more jazz-pop; in later albums they made pop, dance-pop, and more jazz-pop, but never returned to the early punk edge. I also played something from the first album by Underworld. Underworld's first two albums are of a style very different from their later career (and they have a new album I haven't heard yet). The Underworld of "Glory! Glory!" and the Underworld of "Born Slippy" are essentially two different bands with the same name. The third LP was the Tourists, the power-pop band Dave Stewart and Annie Lennox were in before they started Eurythmics. The Tourists' music is more raw than the early Eurythmics music that Stewart and Lennox produced right afterward. It lacks the oversampled harmonies and crooning vocals; vocals instead are handled mostly by Peet Coombes and Annie Lennox singing together. It's interesting to compare the music to the later music by Eurythmics, and my Lennox and Stewart on their own, but also, it's good music on its own.

Finally, I got a request today for The Soft Pink Truth, which is essentially a house music project by Matmos' Drew Daniel. Matmos' music is always interesting, and I enjoyed the song by The Soft Pink Truth that I played. But, in the further adventures of "how funny is the world", I was looking at the liner notes, and there's a picture of Blevin Blectum (who plays on one of the other tracks on the CD). Who's that? The stage name of a classmate from high school. I didn't know her well, but we were in advanced English together for a few years. Her cousin is Gavin Russom, who, with Delia Gonzalez, had an CD that was in rotation at WLUW last year; I went to high school with him, too, though he was a few years younger. So I googled Blevin Blectum and found reference to her brother, who was a friend of mine; it turns out he records under the name Kelley Polar. Check out the song "Chrysanthemum". It's good.

*: new stuff
(r): requests

artist	song	album	label
New Order	1963	Substance	Qwest
The Art of Noise	How Rapid?	In No Sense? Nonsense!	China
Carmen Miranda	Mama Eu Quero	Divas Exotica	Capitol
The Fiery Furnaces	Tropical/Iceland	EP	Rough Trade
*White Williams	New Violence	Smoke	Tigerbeat6
*The Mary Onettes	Explosions	The Mary Onettes	Labrador
Charles Mingus	Boogie Stop Shuffle	Mingus Ah Um	Columbia/Legacy
Curtis Mayfield	Superfly	Superfly	Rhino
The Blow Monkeys	Aeroplane City Lovesong	Animal Magic	RCA
*Cass McCombs	Pregnant Pause	Dropping the Writ	Domino
*The Scotland Yard Gospel Choir	Broken Front Teeth	The Scotland Yard Gospel Choir	Bloodshot
Underworld	Glory! Glory!	Underneath the Radar	Sire
Laurie Anderson	Strange Angels	Strange Angels	Warner Brothers
*White Rabbit	Dinner Party	Fort Nightly	Say Hey
Squirrel Nut Zippers	Gift of the Magi	Christmas Caravan	Mammoth
Lena Horne	'Deed I Do	Some of the Best	Stanyan
Ronnie Whitehead	Begging You	Eccentric Soul: Mighty Mike Lenaburg	Numero Group
*Morning Recordings	Sugar Waltz	The Welcome Kinetic	Loose Thread
*Muscles	Ice Cream	Guns Babes Lemonade	Modular
Les Negresses Vertes	Hou! Mamma Mia	10 Remixes	Razzia Disques
The Tourists	Don't Say I Told You So	Luminous Basement	Epic
*Prefuse 73 feat. School of Seven Bells	The Class of 73 Bells	Preparations	WARP
*The Hives	Tick Tick Boom	The Black and White Album	A&M
(r)The Soft Pink Truth	Media Truth/Vampire State Building	Do You Want New Wave or Do You Want...	Tigerbeat6
Os Mutantes	Quem Tem Medo de Brincar de Amor	A Divina Comedia Ou	Omplatten
(r)José Gonzalez	Teardrop	In Our Nature	Mute
Barenaked Ladies	Hannukah Blessings	Barenaked for the Holidays	Desperations Records
*Malcolm Middleton	We're All Going to Die	A Brighter Beat	Full Time Hobby

Labels: music, playlists

posted by Tony at 11:34 AM