A Fall Mix: Cheap, Painless & Easy
Time for the Scrubbles.net Fall 2011 Mix! I put together this one relatively quickly. The mix has some good flow, veering from current stuff to ’90s dance to kiddie music to ’80s pop and oldies in an interesting way. I called it Cheap, Painless & Easy (named after an older tune by retro pop band Ivy) since most of the tracks were obtained for free or next to nothing at various places — Amazon.com, eMusic, Bittorrent (hey, I didn’t say it was all legal). Some of it comes from old favorites with new (to me) songs, others came from various things I was fascinated by lately. Last month, for instance, I found that eMusic had most of the Sesame Street discography — including track #11 in this mix, “My Name.” I wonder if Eminem heard that one as a child? The cover art comes from my Jim Flora thrift store find, Pishtosh, Bullwash and Wimple.
That new album by Ivy, All Hours, is excellent by the way. The download version below is a continuous mix, done as a single 70-minute file. Enjoy the tuneage!
Download ‘Cheap, Painless & Easy: Scrubbles.net Fall 2011 Mix (66.93 MB Zip file)
Track listing:
1. Neon Indian — “Polish Girl” (Era Extraña, 2011)
2. Herb Alpert — “Beyond” (Beyond, 1980)
3. Cliff Martinez — “They’re Calling My Flight” (Contagion soundtrack, 2011)
4. Lady Gaga — “Fashion of His Love” (Born This Way bonus track, 2011)
5. Frankmuzik — “Ludicrous” (Do It in the AM, 2011)
6. Pet Shop Boys — “Flamboyant” (PopArt: The Hits, 2003)
7. Still Corners — “Endless Summer” (Cuckoo EP, 2011)
8. Ivy — “Everybody Knows” (All Hours, 2011)
9. Sarah Cracknell — “Taking Off for France” (Lipslide UK edition, 1997)
10. Madonna — “Deeper and Deeper (Instrumental)” (single b-side, 1992)
11. Bob, Gordon, Maria and Susan — “My Name” (Sesame Street: Aren’t You Glad You’re You?, 1977)
12. Bobby Caldwell — “All of My Love” (Carry On, 1983)
13. Melissa Manchester — “The End of the Affair” (Emergency, 1983)
14. Ben Rector — “Let the Good Times Roll” (Something Like This, 2011)
15. The Monkees — “Apples, Peaches, Bananas and Pears” (1966 outtake first issued on Missing Links, 1987)
16. The Mamas & The Papas — “You Baby” (If You Can Believe Your Eyes And Ears, 1966)
17. Matthew Sweet — “She Walks the Night” (Modern Art, 2011)
18. Baby Washington — “I Can’t Wait Until I See My Baby’s Face” (single a-side, 1964)
19. Dusty Springfield — “Small Town Girl” (The Look Of Love, 1967)
20. Johnny Crawford — “Cry On My Shoulder” (single a-side, 1963)
Who’s the Boss?
I’m sticking this one up since I’ve been grooving to Diana Ross’ 1980 LP diana today (not to be confused with 1970′s Diana Ross, or 1976′s Diana Ross, or 1978′s Ross. Miss Ross had a thing for egotistical album titles, eh?). Back when that album first came out, she did a TV special with Michael Jackson that I have vague memories of. Thanks to YouTube, I’ve found some of it.
I remember the footage of Diana and Michael doing “Upside Down” in concert, but this segment of Miss D. and Larry Hagman crooning together is totally new to me. Yeeks!
Boys Life
Occasionally I will get into a certain musical artist’s output during a specific time period — lately it’s been the Pet Shop Boys’ 1999-2004 output. I started off with ’99′s Nightlife, the last PSB disc I bought when it was new. This one got a mixed reception from fans, but I enjoyed it at the time and found on re-listen that it still holds up nicely, thankyouverymuch. Most of the album’s appeal comes from the airy, almost cinematic production by Rollo and Craig Armstrong. Some of the tunes have this beautiful, orchestral feel — which really comes in handy during the times when Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe’s dry irony gets laid on too thick (as on “Vampires”). As on other albums, they often go for the jugular in terms of emotion, something rarely heard in synth pop. The pathos of “You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You’re Drunk” is a good example of just how moving they can be.
Defying expectations, the Pet Shoppers followed Nighlife with 2002′s Release, a laid-back, guitar-oriented effort. This album was greeted with perhaps the worst reception of the boys’ entire career. People wanted nothing to do with a glum, introspective PSB, apparently. It’s actually not all that bad, but the shortage of memorable tunes doesn’t exactly make this a keeper, either. “Home and Dry” was the oddly bland choice for first single, with the anthemic (thanks to Johnny Marr’s guitar) “I Get Along” being a much improved follow-up. I ended up getting a cheap used copy of the deluxe Release recently. The album is pleasant chill out music, marred by the dated (and unnecessary) vocoder effects on several tracks. One highlight is “The Night I Fell In Love,” Tennant and Lowe’s airy tale of bedding a macho rapper who bears a striking resemblance to Eminem. That and “I Get Along” belong on a PSB’s Greatest compilation. The rest, not so much.
Completing my Pet Shop Boys journey meant downloading the two new tracks off their 2003 compilation, PopArt: The Hits. The sleek “Miracles” was a good stab at relevance, but the real stunner was “Flamboyant”. This and its b-side, “I Didn’t Get Where I Am Today,” count as two of my favorite PSB tracks. I’m also loving the “Flamboyant” video, a dizzying montage which includes clips of Japanese game show contestants making cleverly choreographed shapes from their bodies. Like the Pet Shop Boys themselves, it’s bizarre and brilliant at the same time.
Can’t Forget the Motor City
My exploration of Hip-o Select‘s Complete Motown Singles box sets brings me to volume 2, which covers the year 1962. I wasn’t expecting to enjoy this one too much, since at this point Motown was still a scrappy Detroit-based R&B label — interesting, but not quite the legendary hit machine it would become in 1965-69. Whatever it lacked in hits is gained in context, however. At four discs, it is somewhat shorter than the other TCMS sets — but I think that conciseness works in the set’s favor. Listening to all 112 tracks in order paints a picture of a small but upwardly mobile, positively African American enterprise guided by the sure hand of founder Berry Gordy, Jr. Gordy personally wrote and produced many of these tracks, both well-known and obscure. His touch adds a lot of quirky personality to these sets that would be smoothed out in the years to come.
By 1962 many Motown songs were crossing over to the (white) pop charts, but by and large it peddled energetic R&B to a primarily black audience. Gordy was also branching out to jazz, country and gospel with new sub-labels Workshop Jazz, Mel-o-Dy and Divinity — examples from which pepper this set, but never overwhelm as on the ’63 and ’64 volumes. Mostly it was R&B ballads and dance tunes, however, simply produced but with just enough of a “spark” to give it mass appeal and an enduring quality. Probably the best examples from this year came via trio of pleasant, Latin-influenced hits that Smokey Robinson crafted for Mary Wells — “The One Who Really Loves You,” “You Beat Me To The Punch,” and “Two Lovers.” 1962 was also the year that Marvin Gaye transformed from a limp Nat “King” Cole wannabe into a bona fide R&B star. His “Stubborn Kind Of Fellow” is one of the more infectious tunes here, along with “Do You Love Me” by The Contours (later popularized on the Dirty Dancing soundtrack). It was also a good year for The Marvelettes, who had a good run of wistful, quintessential Girl Group turns led by raspy-voiced Gladys Horton (“Beechwood 4-5789″). It’s also interesting to hear early, non-hit sides by The Supremes and The Temptations here; Gordy obviously knew that both groups had talented vocalists that deserved wider exposure. The effort would pay off in spades later on.
We all know that well-known “Golden Oldies” drive projects like this, but the obscurities and one shots on these sets are also, suprisingly, worth hearing. The 1962 set in particular has a lot of great, gritty R&B sides by the likes of Hattie Littles, Gino Parks and Henry Lumpkin that never caught on simply because that style of music wasn’t too hip in 1962. There’s also a few goofy novelties here that are worth mentioning. “Hang On Pearl,” about a guy frantically trying to save his drowning girlfriend, didn’t do much for singer Bob Kayli but it’s a hilarious tune all the same. “Exodus” by Hank & Carol Diamond is an earnest if kitschy jazz ditty that has a strong whiff of Happy Hour at the Holiday Inn. Another intriguing novelty was “I Call It Pretty Music But The Old People Call It The Blues,” the debut single from a precocious blind youngster called Little Stevie Wonder.
These are cool sets, beautifully packaged and worth it for the detailed track-by-track liner notes alone. The Complete Motown Singles, Volume 2: 1962 came out in 2005 in a limited edition run of 8,000; later years have already gone out of print, but new copies of this particular volume can still be had via Amazon Marketplace at this link.
A Summer Mix: Plastic Fantastic
Hot and sticky nights require the perfect soundtrack. How about Plastic Fantastic, the Scrubbles.net Summer 2011 Mix?
I originally intended this mix to center around synth-based New Wave and contemporary songs with a similar, programmed-by-robots feel. It did end up that way for the first half, but the rest is more of the retro-lounge and soul that typifies my other mixes. Regarding the pleasantly purple cover design, the main image of Mr. and Mrs. Plastic comes from a manilla folder full of photocopied old magazine ads that I’ve had sitting in my files for 20-odd years. As the tenth anniversary Scrubbles.net mix, Plastic Fantastic is also something of a milestone. When I did the Is There A Stain On Mai Tai? mix in Summer 2001, I had no idea they’d still be going a decade later. Time flies!
As with our Spring Good Thing mix, Plastic Fantastic is presented as a continuous hour-plus mix. Track listing is below, with YouTube links where I could find them. Enjoy!
Download ‘Plastic Fantastic: Scrubbles.net Summer 2011 Mix’.
Track Listing:
1. Chic – “Le Freak” (Z-Trip Golden Mix) (The Disco Breaks Mega Mix, 2010)
2. Oú Est Le Swimming Pool – “Dance The Way I Feel” (single, 2009)
3. Daft Punk – “Derezzed” (Tron: Legacy soundtrack, 2010)
4. Plastics – “Top Secret Man” (Welcome Plastics, 1979)
5. The B-52′s – “52 Girls” (The B-52′s, 1979)
6. Devo – “Come Back Jonee” (Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!, 1978)
7. The Buggles – “Clean, Clean” (The Age Of Plastic, 1980)
8. Talking Heads – “Air” (Fear Of Music, 1979)
9. Lipps, Inc. – “Rock It” (7″ edit of a track from Mouth To Mouth, 1980)
10. Janelle Monáe ft. Of Montreal – “Make The Bus” (The ArchAndroid, 2010)
11. Lío – “Suite Sixtine” (Suite Sixtine, 1982)
12. De-Phazz – “Something Special” (Death By Chocolate, 2001)
13. Tipsy – “Big Business” (Buzzz, 2008)
14. Arling & Cameron & Swarte – “Jealousie” (Sound Shopping, 2001)
15. Fitz & The Tantrums – “Don’t Gotta Work It Out” (Songs For A Break Up: Vol. 1 EP, 2009)
16. Noisettes – “So Complicated” (Wild Young Hearts, 2009)
17. Sheryl Crow – “Summer Day” (100 Miles From Memphis, 2010)
18. Adele – “He Won’t Go” (21, 2011)
19. Sade – “When Am I Going To Make A Living” (Diamond Life, 1984)
20. Peter White ft. Basia – “Just Another Day” (Caravan Of Dreams, 1996)
21. Marshall Crenshaw – “Starless Summer Sky” (Miracle Of Science, 1996)
The Twee Leading the Twee
Spotted the animated video for Belle and Sebastian’s “I Didn’t See It Coming” on the Max‘s Facebook feed and instantly fell in love. The special remix of this Write About Love track is due out next month. It’s a sweet tune, but what really sings are the Alexander Girard influenced imagery — how wonderfully twee it is!
Sister Lovers
For Your Musical Entertainment: Swing Out Sister’s groovy music video for their 1992 single “Notgonnachange,” from the album Get In Touch with Yourself. They sure used a lot of washed out photography in ’90s videos, didn’t they? As huge S.O.S. fan, I’m ashamed to say I haven’t heard this particular effort of theirs until… earlier today.
The Wikipedia entry for that album quotes singer Corinne Drewery: “I find it difficult to form opinions about a lot of modern music because my head’s buried in the past. A lot of my favourite records seem to have been picked up in the discount rack at Woolworth’s. I’ll be quite happy if our records end up in the Woollies bargain bin in 10 years time.” I find this funny (and quite true, actually), since my copy of Get In Touch With Yourself came from trawling the 75 cent bin at the local F.Y.E. store (which also netted ’90s goodies by k.d. lang and Shakespear’s Sister). Your wish came true, Corinne!
The No. 1 Song in Heaven
Spent the last few days getting reacquainted with a great ’80s album, Savage by the Eurythmics. This one blew me away when it came out in 1987, then my CD copy got stolen by a family member in the Great Theft of 1993. Hearing it now, I’ve noticed the disc does contain a few mediocre tracks (“Wide Eyed Girl” is just annoying), but it’s never been topped as a vehicle for the fabulous pipes of Annie Lennox. She’s in peak form here, assured but not yet the overly-stylized diva she’d become during the solo years. Savage also about a hundred times more risky than what came before (the shrill Revenge) or after (the slick/commercial We Too Are One). I can see why Eurythmics fans treasure this particular album.
One of the most interesting aspects of Savage is the fact that Lennox and Dave Stewart teamed with director Sophie Muller (and a few others) to film videos for all dozen of the album’s tracks. The resulting video album was one of the earliest examples of its type. The clip below, “Heaven,” is one of my favorites. I could totally picture it being played on the runway at a swanky ’80s fashion show:
This Mix Is a Good Thing
As the showers fall and the flowers bloom, only one thing comes to my mind — making a mix! I haven’t done an official seasonal Scrubbles.net mix since Winter 2009, too long. Good Thing assembles some of the music that yours truly has gotten into in the past 18 months. Much of it has a bright, Spring-y feel. There’s lots of synth pop, some ’80s-’90s faves, a few Japanese artists. As usual, it was put together with an ear for how well the songs flow together. It’s kind of amazing how similar something like Robyn’s “Hang With Me” can sound next to the Pet Shop Boys-produced Dusty Springfield gem “I Want to Stay Here” from 20 years earlier.
For the cover art, I used a detail from a Pollyanna LitKids print that was used to test paint colors. Very cute, and hopefully it will draw new customers to the store. Am I obnoxious, or what?
Anyhow, the mix is presented below as single mp3 file with the songs’ starts and endings segueing together. Additionally there is a track listing with links to YouTube videos of some tunes. Enjoy!
Download ‘Good Thing: Scrubbles.net Spring 2011 Mix’.
Track Listing:
1. Saint Etienne — “A Good Thing” (Tales from Turnpike House, 2005)
2. Amiel — “This Way, That Way” (Accidents by Design, 2004)
3. Erasure — “Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me)” (Other People’s Songs, 2003)
4. Röyksopp — “Happy Up Here” (Junior, 2009)
5. Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark — “Save Me” (History of Modern, 2010)
6. Robyn — “Hang with Me” (Body Talk, 2010)
7. Dusty Springfield — “I Want to Stay Here” (Reputation, 1990)
8. Tina Turner — “Confidential” (Wildest Dreams, 1996)
9. Pet Shop Boys — “To Step Aside” (Bilingual, 1996)
10. The Buggles — “I Am a Camera (12″ Mix)” (remix of a track from Adventures in Modern Recording, 1981)
11. Nokko — “Call Me Nightlife” (Call Me Nightlife, 1993)
12. Masami Okui — “Round Dance Revolution” (La Fillette Revolutionnaire Utena soundtrack, 1997)
13. Mari Atsumi — “Suki Yo Ai Shite” (1970 Japanese single, compiled on Nippon Girls CD)
14. The Paris Sisters — “Long After Tonight Is All Over” (Sing Everything Under the Sun, 1967)
15. Eliza Doolittle — “Pack Up” (Eliza Doolittle, 2010)
16. Konishi Yashuharu & Pizzicato Five — “Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo” (Readymade Digs Disney, 2003)
17. Soulsister — “The Way to Your Heart” (It Takes Two, 1988)
18. Patti Austin — “Every Home Should Have One” (remix of a track from Every Home Should Have One, 1982)
19. George Benson — “Inside Love (So Personal)” (In Your Eyes, 1983)
20. Boy Meets Girl — “No Apologies” (Reel Life, 1988)
21. Duffy — “Keeping My Baby” (Endlessly, 2010)
It’s a Mod, Mod World
Just a note to say that I’ve posted my little piece at Joyce Compton News & Notes about the Marian Marsh/Warren William Pre-Code flick Under 18 and Joyce’s brief appearance in it. Please check it out!
Today’s video comes via The Video Beat, an online retailer of offbeat ’50s and ’60s video. This is French Ye-Ye singer Sylvie Vartan in a Japanese commercial for a mod clothing purveyor called Renown. Dig that groovy Op Art:
Star 69
Happy 69th birthday to the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin. Here she is on Hollywood Palace singing “I Say A Little Prayer” in 1968. Once you get past Sammy Davis Jr.’s too-hep-for-the-room intro, it’s a breathtaking performance. Come to think of it, all of Aretha Now (the album from which “Prayer” came) is pretty wonderful.
Buggles For Sale
Wanting something cheap that wouldn’t blow my paltry allowance of eMusic downloads in one fell swoop, I ended up picking the 1980 LP The Age Of Plastic by The Buggles. You know, the “Video Killed The Radio Star” group? “Video” achieved infamy by being the first song played on MTV, of course, and it’s stayed in circulation on seemingly every ’80s music compilation ever released (most recently on the Take Me Home Tonight soundtrack). A goofy, nostalgic song whose stellar lyrics and production elevate it from novelty status:
If there was ever an album that is overshadowed by its one hit, The Plastic Age is it. The album feels like a meditation on humankind’s relationship with technology, done with a bit of theatrical flair. Since the songs use mostly analog instruments and has a decided lack of nervous edge, I would hesitate to call The Age Of Plastic a “New Wave” album — mostly it reminds me of what ABBA was doing around the same time. “Elstree” is probably the most ABBA-esque tune they did, a wistful tale told from the perspective of a former employee at the U.K.’s famed Estree Studios:
The Buggles’ story has a typical ending. Following The Age Of Plastic, members Geoff Downes and Trevor Horn were recruited into supergroup Yes for one album, 1980′s Drama. The two then worked on a follow-up, 1981′s Adventures In Modern Recording, with Downes leaving midway through production on the ultimately hitless project. The album is an interesting experiment, more prog-rockish and with the kind of grandiose production that would echo in Horn’s later work with Seal, Pet Shop Boys, Rod Stewart and others. The Buggles’ sound still resonates throughout the years, most affectionately with Daft Punk’s “Digital Love” from their Discovery (2001) album:
Anybody Remember Del Amitri?
A clip of David Letterman introducing Scottish rockers Del Amitri performing their 1992 hit “Always the Last to Know” is notable for two things: how youthful Letterman looked back then, and the fact that he’s holding a CD long box (remember those?). I’ve gotten reacquainted with Del Amitri’s music recently when our local used music emporium had several of their albums on sale. They seem like the perfect candidate for the cutout bins; their likable, country-influenced pop was exceedingly professional with occasional moments of brilliance. Despite that, their currency over the years has faded to the extent that the band’s three charting hits from 1990-95 rarely get heard (even the ’80/’90s playlist at the local Safeway, a good barometer of the lesser lights of yesteryear, seems to have eluded them).
The three albums I got were Waking Hours (1989), Change Everything (1992) and Twisted (1995), supplemented with an iTunes download of their non-LP 1990 single “Spit In The Rain.” Generally speaking, it’s good stuff. Not particularly innovative, but warm and reassuring. The hook-filled Waking Hours contained lots of deja-vu moments (I must’ve owned it when it was new), Change Everything (with “Last to Know”) is the most solid and surprising thing they’ve done, and the grunge-influenced Twisted seems overbaked and painfully short on good melodies, perky hit “Roll To Me” notwithstanding. For less than ten bucks, I got a nice little crash course on a band that deserved another look.
The Passing Parade
So sad to hear about the death of Gladys Horton of The Marvelettes at the age of 66 … Gladys’ irrepressible rasp can be heard on earlier Marvelettes hits such as “Please Mr. Postman” and “Beechwood 4-5789.” Although she was phased out as the group’s front woman in favor of the more honeyed sounding Wanda Young, she continued to record frequent leads right up until her departure in 1967. The energetic “Keep Off, No Trespassing” from 1966′s The Marvelettes LP is one of my favorite tunes of theirs, thanks in part of Gladys’ appealing voice. She will be missed!
The Queen of Everything
One of the Christmas gifts from my spouse was a code for 50 free song downloads at the iTunes store. What to get? Instead of downloading full albums, I ended up using many credits on miscellaneous songs needed to fill out albums — including Aretha Franklin’s Soul ’69. This was an unusually bluesy/jazzy collaboration between Aretha and her usual Atlantic producers Jerry Wexler and Tom Dowd. The fact that the album didn’t spawn much in the way of hit singles (only her exquisite take on Smokey & The Miracles’ “The Tracks Of My Tears” charted) actually works in its favor. Listening to it is like sitting in on a casual late night session with ‘Ree and band playing around, undoubtely puffing lots of Kool cigarettes to boot. Aretha’s voice is in top form as usual, but I also dug her piano playing in this hot, early Atlantic era (I always wondered why she abandoned playing piano on her records, starting in the mid-’70s). Here’s a nice little video summary of Soul ’69 from another appreciative Aretha fan:
On a similar note, here’s another video from the same YouTube user/Aretha fan. On their recent reunion album History Of Modern, Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark did a cool remix using vocals from Aretha’s ’67 track “Save Me.” This self-penned tune was a perennial fave of mine, if only for the stanza “Call in the Caped Crusader/Green Hornet, Kato too.” OMD’s treatment adds electro-funk synths to the original’s gritty vocal and guitar — it cooks!
