From the Archives: "All I Gotta Say Is the Kids Don't Care"

Another old classic from my less refined high school days, submitted without much comment. "New Age," by Blitz. Remember when punk thought it was the future? Yeah, that was pretty hilarious.

"And the kids on the street, and the kids everywhere, and all I gotta say is the kids don't care."

Blitz were never going win the Nobel Prize for Streetpunk Lyrics (which is usually dominated by Nelly Furtado, anyway.).

Track #98 on the player.

But In The 100th Year, I'll Be Right Back Here...

I'm not sure if I love any song more than this one. I'm not quite sure what made me think of it after not posting for 2 months...perhaps it simply articulates something I'd like to say better than I ever could.


"The Dreaming Moon," by Magnetic Fields on Get Lost (1995)

with an ivory pipe and a cumberbund
in the dead of night on the Autobahn
with the long ago
on the radio
and the dreaming moon...

we were young and in love
in a burning town
but the fire went out
I'm alone again now
and I finally know
how cool to be cold
with the dreaming moon...

I'll begin again
with another new name
and a whole new life
full of fortune and fame
but in the 100th
I'll be right back here
with the dreaming moon...

Song #97 on the player. Maybe Stephin Merritt's most poignant song.

"I Blame It All On You, Because You Blame Me Too." Alternatively, A Bunch of Vancouver Punk Bands With Probably The Same Singer Or Whatever.

Yes, it's been awhile. I will skip the verbosity and just post a weekly playlist. And that playlist is this: Current-->Punk Bands--From Vancouver, B.C.-->in which all the singers sound the same-->because it's probably the same guy.

To be totally honest, I'm not crazy about the guy's voice. Or the guys' voices. But somebody can write a hell of a little ditty, because these songs are pretty catchy.

First up is "S.O.S. Radioation" by Jeffie Genetic and His Clones. Very new wavey, sort of like Devo summarily executing Ric Ocasek and took over the Cars. Synths, weird vocals, a made up word called "radioation." You decide. Track #93.

Next up, by The New Town Animals, we have "Rock 'n Roll Scene." I'm not going to tell anyone that it reminds me of "Do You Remember Rock 'n Roll Radio" by the Ramones (by underhandedly mentioning it in order to say I won't discuss it. The perfect crime.). I don't believe this is actually the same singer as Jeffie Genetic, by the way. Maybe Vancouver has recently seized upon the whole "snotty" thing. In any event, I love the last minute of this song. If life were an unnamed brand of MP3 players, I would give this song 4 out of a possible 5 stars (because 5 means classic, 4 means good, 3 means average, 2 means I don't get it, 1 means I can't figure out why I put this on my brand name MP3 player). Track #94.

The final band, with two tracks, #95 & #96, is The Tranzmitors. This really is probably that guy from Jeffie Genetic, or else Jeffie Genetic should sue his ass. Apparently, the Tranzmitors are a "super group." Then again, so were Audioslave and Velvet Revolver, so maybe that term doesn't mean anything anymore.

Not to insult the Tranzmitors, of course. I like both of these songs very much. First up is "Why Don't Boys Cry," also synthy as all git out.

Finally, "Something's Going On." This is my favorite song of the bunch. Or, to make Colombie Britannique happy, favourite.

For some reason, bands like these always remind me of the Rezillos. They don't sound like them, but they're all a bunch of fucking weirdos. I mean that with love.

As they say in Vancouver, "wow, that's a lot of heroin junkies." Thank you.

"Grayer Than The Blood That Flows From A Snowman"

You know, when you write a song called "Detatchable Penis," nobody will ever let you live it down.

I recently discovered the King Missile album They and liked it very much. The name King Missile did not ring any bells for me, for whatever reason.

I asked a friend of mine, "hey, you ever heard of this 80s avant garde kinda band King Missile?"

He said, a bit quizzically, "you mean the "Detachable Penis" guys?"

So, my quaint little "discovery" was ruined by the fact that, in 1992, John S. Hall wrote & recorded a borderline-novelty song.

Well, whatever. In 1988, They was released, and round about track 7, was the song "Margaret's Eyes," which makes me wish I knew more people named Margaret.

-

"Grayer than the cigarette falling on the sofa, these are Margaret's eyes..."

-

Track #92 on that player over there. Detachable Penis, indeed.

Atlanta, GA: Home of 1906 Race Riots, Bands That Sing About Phone Booths

A very short post after a very busy week. I will introduce you to one song, and then call 'er quits.

The Carbonas are famously known as Gentleman Jesse & His Men's real band. They are famously known as a band that plays frenetic garagey punk, and, famously, probably have seen Chipper Jones walking down the street at least once.

If you bring up William Tecumseh Sherman at one of their shows, they spit on you.

They also sing this song called "Phone Booth." And here it is. Track #91.

Big, Blusterly Southern Fried Rock from the Quaint Mississippi Community of British Columbia

Just a quick post today from a band I had meant to include in some earlier playlist, but must have forgotten.

The band in question is Black Mountain, from Vancouver, British Colombia, Canada, which rumor has it is only a million minute drive from Tennessee.

Proggy southern rock. I guess. I don't know. "Proggy" and "southern rock" are not the same thing, but the combo still sounds right. Then again, people use "penultimate" wrong all the time, and I think "on accident" sounds correct, so don't take my word for it.

Personally, I think they'd object to the southern rock label, but they ain't here. And the song I've posted--"Stormy High"--is probably the most convincingly so dubbed. The fact that this whole embarrassing episode is betraying my ignorance of that genre aside, I can also just play it safe and call it psychedelic. That'd work too.

Anyway, it's a good song. So enjoy some traditional hickory smoked British Colombia Pacific salmon and a nice, full glass of bubble tea, and sing yerself a song 'bout bein' raised up down yonder in Port Coquitlam.

Woah Black Betty, wham-a-lam, indeed. Track #90 on the player.

This is a good band.

"Don't Need No Human Race": Alternatively, The Great First Tracks, v. VI. "Sonic Reducer" by The Dead Boys.

Simply because my friends' band covered it, and I was about a year behind most of them on jumping on the punk rock bandwagon circa 1994, "Sonic Reducer" was one of the first punk songs I ever heard. I'm rather sure I'd heard others...knowing them, probably some Fugazi, Clash, and, somewhat out of left field, Splogeness Abounds. "Two pints lager and a packet of crisps please," indeed.

But the first track off of the Dead Boys' Young, Loud & Snotty made the most immediate impression on me. It still does. I find it to be one of the most powerful songs I've ever heard.

There is a small genre of songs that I absolutely love because, although it's difficult to articulate, it's almost as if I can feel society collapsing a little bit because of them. There are certain punk rock songs that seem as if they can make the world melt just a little, turn hypocrisy back on its perpetrators, show bullshit for what it is. Yes, there are certain punk songs that--more than any other genre of music--really do seem as if, for a brief moment, they can "tear the whole fucking thing down."

Of course, it's all an illusion, and the threat to all mankind is a bit overblown. Rather, they sink you into a pit of nihilism and misanthropy. But sometimes, misanthropy feels pretty damn good, when you need it. When you're in the right mood, it makes you feel powerful in your awfulness. It may be indulgent, but for fuck's sake, people need indulgences sometimes.

"Search & Destroy" by the Stooges does that. "Bullet" by the Misfits does that. "Bad Man" by the Cockney Rejects does it, "Borstal Breakout" by Sham 69 sure does. The cover of Wire's "Mr. Suit" by the New Bomb Turks kind of does it. They peel the paint off the walls. As much as it shames me to admit it (and believe me, it really does), maybe even "Fuck Forever" by Babyshambles does it too. Maybe I should delete the last sentence.

And "Sonic Reducer" does it most of all. This Dead Boys classic is not kidding around. It reminds me why, as much as I love Pavement, and Cat Power, and the Raveonettes, and Wolf Parade...that when I really need music that cuts through all the pretention and bullshit and to have a sheer, immediate, visceral impact on me, it's still this music I listened to when I was younger.

"Sonic Reducer" was actually written for Cleveland's own Rocket from the Crypt and not the Dead Boys, but was never recorded in the studio by that band. When Rocket from the Crypt broke up, Pere Ubu and the Dead Boys formed in its wake, and the Dead Boys recorded this for their debut album. The Dead Boys moved from Ohio to New York--a sin, if you ask me--but you have to go where the action is, I suppose. But it does give a little fuel to my theory that most of the artistic output NYC takes credit for is done by people from somewhere else. Then again, if you were to say that about Boston and the Pixies, I'd block my ears, hum to myself, and pretend not to hear you (but you'd still be right). The Ramones were really from New York, and The Real Kids were really from Boston, so let's call it even (though, that's really, really not "even," Bosstowne).

An anthem for angry losers everywhere, and still one of my favorite songs.

I don't need anyone

Don't need no mom and dad

Don't need no pretty face

Don't need no human race

I got some news for you

Don't even need you too

I got my devil machine

Got my electronic dream

Sonic reducer

Ain't no loser

I'm a sonic reducer

Ain't no loser

People out on the streets

They don't know who I am

I watch them from my room

They all just pass me by

But I'm not just anyone

Said I'm not just anyone

I got my devil machine

Got my electronic dream

Sonic reducer

Ain't no loser

I'm a sonic reducer

Ain't no loser

I'll be a pharaoh soon

Rule from some golden tomb

Things will be different then

The sun will rise from here

Then I'll be ten feet tall

And you'll be nothing at all

I got my devil machine

got my electronic dream

Sonic reducer

Ain't no loser

Got my sonic reducer

I ain't no loser

I said sonic reducer, sonic reducer

yeah, my sonic reducer, sonic reducer, sonic reducer...

Goddamn. Track #89 on the player over there.

Dedicated to Stiv Bators (RIP, and he was in the Water's movie Polyester, by the way), Cheetah Crome (who cowrote the song), and those other 3 dudes.

Previous entries in the great first tracks have been:

(I) "Disorder" by Joy Division

(II) "I Just Wanna Have Something to Do" by The Ramones

(III) "Ghost Rider" by Suicide

(IV) "A Salty Salute" by Guided by Voices

(V) "Ohio River Boat Song" by Palace Music