by Eartha Kitt and Bronski Beat (1989)When people post music videos on Facebook I tend to treat them with at most a passing glance.
It won’t take long to understand why, with Cha Cha Heels, things were different.
I might also note that the song was written for Divine, who sadly passed away before it could be recorded.
by Benjamin Biolay (2007)Benjamin Biolay certainly pulls inspiration from his fellow Frenchman Serge Gainsbourg in style (there’s smoke in these strangely sultry songs) if not in content (it seems the horniness is more low key here – but I admit I can’t speak a lick of French, so who knows.)
Trash Yeye manages to feel modern all the same even as some tracks could be long lost Serge.
Stirring but lazy, this album is actually perfect for foggy days like today.
It goes well with battered woolen trench costs, scarves, and if not cigarettes then at least an espresso and faraway intellectual gazing from cafe windows.
Biolay is a big producer, brother (to Coralie Clement), and lover (once married to Marcello Mastroianni’s daughter) in his home country but less known here.
This will be a nice introduction. I know you’ll get along famously.
by The Searchers (1964)Been very into The Searchers’ catchy tune “Needles and Pins” lately.
Was surprised by all the covers I never knew existed: The Ramones, Tom Petty and Stevie Nicks?!
Also had no idea it was originally sung by Jackie Deshannon at a slower pace. All are worth checking out.
Not as much? The weird 1989instrumental “club remix”.
Various Artists (1986)The whole apartment’s been alive with the sounds of third grade as Jim and I been nostalgic for the Stand By Me soundtrack.
I imagine we weren’t the only ones that treasured that well worn cassette tape.
I choreographed a dance to Lollipop and always somewhat dramatically cried during the title track as the thought of River’s bar fight demise was too much for my eight year old heart to bear.
The album steered me towards a 1950’s obsession that lasted a few years – lucky for me I was hosting birthday parties in the age of Fuddruckers.
Now I’m a mom and I’m old and my baby Van is grooving to his favorite track “Get a Job”.
It’s one of the coolest things about parenthood really, that things you loved from your youth get revisited by new eyes and ears and suddenly being eight years old doesn’t seem far away at all.
by Wicked Witch (1978-86)Hands down Chaos 1978-86 is the weirdest album I’ve discovered.
You know how they can record your thoughts as those grainy distorted images? This is kind of the music version of that. So lo fi it feels like it’s inside this awesome basement musicians own mind and his mind is filled with spooky sounds, avant-garde takes on cop movie soundtracks and strange interpretations of Parliament and Rick James.
I feel like this oddity will only grow on me more and more as it seems to offer new sensations every time we listen to it. So I was almost hesitant to write about it until it had totally washed over me, but it’s really too cool, bizarre, and unique to keep a secret from you all any longer.
I really want to thank the blog Music to Flip You Around for introducing this to me (during a random image search). You can get a down-loadable zip of the album from them too.
We have a new creative hero in our house, and his name is Wicked Witch.
by ESG (1983)First awesome Spotify discovery! I don’t know why, but since I found Come Away with ESG on a pitchfork list I expected it to be inaccessible. Instead it’s incredibly fun and infectious. I can’t imagine anyone not being driven to dance and smile by these snazzy tracks.
If you had told me ESG was some new darling of the moment I’d believe it because the sound is timeless and refreshing but they are old school 80’s Bronx mixing hip hop, dance, disco, punk and everything else fun. You like fun, right?
They look like fun, real ladies that you share the subway with too. Standing for emerald, sapphire and gold ESG consisted of four cool sisters who, without much credit added a new sound to the scene.
Fun stuff. How come no one told me about them before?
by Rockwell (1983)I am shocked I haven’t recommended Rockwell‘s Somebody’s Watching Me yet!
This catchy (sometimes too catchy – I’ll find myself with the phrase “Or maybe showers remind me of Psycho too much” repeating in my brain for days) ode to paranoia is a household favorite over here.
And no offense to Rockwell, but how did he manage to snag Michael Jackson for some backup singing? However it happened, from the photo below, it looks like the recording sessions were fun – and Micheal’s jeans, tee and band jacket – excellent.
BTW, I just read that Rockwell chose his performing name because he “rocked well”. Totally love it.
If you want to continue on Rockwell’s odeyssey of being messed with, watch and listen to his follow up number “Obscene Phone Caller“.
Daughters of the nineties (and particularly sassy sons too), please don’t tell me I am the only one whose inner Funky Diva was let loose when En Vogue hit the airwaves.
With My Lovin’ (You’re Never Gonna Get It), Something He Can Feel, and Free Your Mind, the Oakland foursome invaded suburbia and no girl was left without day dreams of herself sashaying down a disutopian runway in a push up bra top, or seducing dapper boys in a push up bra top, or denying boys your love in…a push up bra top.
Oh and sampling In Living Color? Hipster bands wish they had thought of it first!
by Gal Costa (1969)Gal Costa’s self titled album begins like a sunny afternoon:
you’re resting your feet and eyes swaying in a hammock in your backyard, the scent of tropical flowers lulling you to day dream.
Quickly, though it turns into the same afternoon once your lover has returned from a walk along Ipanema carrying ingredients for mojitos with half the tanned, good looking population from the beach trailing behind him for an impromptu party…
Perhaps even an impromptu party where some hallucinogens might be passed around as stuff does get pretty psychedelic.
Have Fun!
30 Day Song Challenge – Day Twenty Three: Most Danceable Argument Against Starting Heroin:White Horse by Laid Back (1983)