Posts Tagged 90s
V/A | Something From Nothing: The Art of Rap
In the 60s and 70s, Lou Reed was legit down with the streets. But by the 80s he was punning about the dangers of strange candy. (Which makes him perhaps an innovator of proto-Modern J-pop. But focus.) Crack had just hit the streets. Social programs were being cut. Thousands were dying of AIDS. Lou had lost touch.
Luckily non-white people were also rapping.
Hold on. This is only about what it is. That’s the beauty of Ice-T’s documentary:
It’s also beautifully photographed. And it’s even better than this trailer if that’s not selling you. I don’t think it sold that many people went it came out but it’s there forever so you should check it out. I haven’t been into Hip-hop much in the last few years but I’ll always respect it as an artform. This even makes me take some people seriously I didn’t before, like Kanye. No Jay-Z in this thing, but they got Kanye. Even his best lines used to seem like throwaway jokes to me, but he can pull off a convincing acapella (if not freestyle). And it was funny hearing different stories contradict each other, I always like to hear KRS-One’s version of things.
I should probably get the DVD. I just watched it on Netflix and got the soundtrack. You can enjoy the soundtrack itself as a good mixtape album with some exclusive freestyles, but I wouldn’t recommend it as an intro to or overview of Rap like I would recommend the movie. I feel like the movie is really made for people who do not take Rap or Hip-hop culture seriously, but there’s so many movies about “Hip-hop culture” that really gloss over the Rap part. The doc proves it’s point pretty thoroughly but this soundtrack is a little random. There’s no chronology at all and of course they are limited by rights issues and I assume it’s Ice-T personal taste here, but it doesn’t include all of the freestyles in the movie, I would say the best ones are left out. (Wiki has a complete list of all the songs.)
My personal favorite inclusions are It Takes Two which was so huge when I was a kid but people forget that one outside of the East Coast I think and it doesn’t sound like anything else so it doesn’t fit into most history retellings. And P.S.K. by Schoolly D. Ice-T’s early stuff ripped off Schoolly pretty hard I thought, but he stayed underground so most people don’t even know that. That was cool of him to include.
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Daniel Menche | Hover
As far as I know Daniel Menche started out in the Noise scene of the 90s as one of those guys that would be on a comp with Merzbow and I’m not saying they were all doing the same thing but it was hard to tell any of it apart the first few hundred listens. He eventually evolved into a more unique manipulator of sound, working with layers of field recordings and different types of sounds, not just shrieking feedback of overdriven amps. (Altho I believe he still does something like that live, because, why not, it’s fun. Haven’t got the chance yet myself to see it but he used to blog a lot which is how I got back into him.)
Here he applies his layering edit technique to a choir of school children instructed to sing nonsense syllables at various pitches. The two tracks are the actual piece, which sounds like a something between chanting and a vast swarm of insects, and the raw recording of the kids. After an initial listen where it acts almost as a punchline or just a behind the scenes bonus track, I recommend listening to the second track first. Then it’s like a setup of this thing that seems very simple and a little silly into an insane trance-inducing fever dream of ego-ingulfing chaos. You’re going to want to try this on some good speakers you can crank up; I haven’t really messed with it too much, but I tried just having this on the ipod for walking around music and that is not such a good idea. I mean it’s a cool effect on headphones, maybe if you’ve got a beanbag chair or something try that out. But it’s a little disorienting is what I’m saying. Unlike some Noise records, it’s not going to blow up your stereo or melt your eardrums, but still, use with caution.
This is a download only release. I think his only one. You can get all his stuff on his personal bandcamp now but every other record has been put on vinyl or CD on various labels. I used to think of Noise records as conceptual art objects, like if you only downloaded them you weren’t even really “getting” it. I think it’s more true of some than others now. Like it was a statement, man. I only got $10 in my pocket, I can buy the new Pavement (used, of course) or some random Metal band no one cares about because it’s the mid 90s or I can buy this…thing that doesn’t even have anything like a song on it. I don’t think it’s really the same feeling you get from torrenting the Merzbox, making that choice. But maybe that’s just me. Certainly the Menche records you can get into the sound alone. This is probably a good one to start with.
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Shonen Knife | Top 10 Michie Songs
Happy Shonen Knife Day. It’s great that Shonen Knife has kept going for 30+ years and that is all due to main member and primary songwriter Naoko Yamano. Obvs. But for new fans of the band, and for those who don’t read liner notes, it may have been possible that the contributions of former member Michie Nakatani has been overlooked. She’s the George Harrison of the group. Not only because she only had a few songs per album, but she was also important as a player. Although not exactly a prodigy as a bass player or a singer, the group is structured so that the bass is almaboost equal to the guitar. (She also sometimes played keyboard.)
So she was a big part of most of the songs, but some more than others. Thus shall these songs be named “the Michie Songs”.
I trust you, reader. I know if you give a shit you can find whatever album. I’m also tired of putting a bunch of links that no one clicks on. So I’m just going to put one big Amazon link HERE
And heeere’s the top songs that are pretty much all Michie (written and sung):
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Banana Fish
Shonen Knife are famously thought of as being a mostly Ramones-punk band which has in turn inspired other similar bands, but early songs show influences from other girl post-punk bands of the late 70s/early 80s. (Find out more that here.) This song however, comes out of nowhere. As far as I know it has no influence and has influenced no one. Also, the lyrics, unlike Naoko’s which are mostly wonderfully devoid of metaphor, are based partly on the story within a story by J.D. Salinger about a guy that’s kills himself because people are horrible. (That’s what you get with Michie songs. There’s a hidden darkness and ironic self-awareness. Sometimes. -
Catnip Dream
This is the song has some interesting things going on. The chorus has been described as 15/8 but it sounds like alternating bars of 7/4 and 8/4 to me. The harmonized guitar is great and Michie plays the mellotron. And it’s about drugs. Cats talking drugs, right? Ok. There was supposedly another Michie song that was more explicitly about pot that got banned, but I have never been able to find out more about it. Maybe it was just a rumor. This song does seem very free of judgement of the “cat” in question, who unlike most “cats” takes “puffs” of this substance. He is even called “very smart”. Hmm. No, wait, there some cat sounds. Only about cats. -
Animal Song
The is another one that sounds very happy and bouncy but is also weirdly creepy. The refrain “what is this?” perfectly captures the feeling of the listener. There’s a version all in English on the Get the Wow EP. But the lyrics are basically nonsense. She may have been messing with Naoko from the very beginning. Pure speculation. -
Devil House
Altho never mentioned by name, this song retells the plot of the Rocky Horror Picture Show. At least the first half of it. A lesser songwriter would have tried to take you through the whole thing. I like the original Japanese version a little better, but you’d never believe it was literally scene by scene. There’s that generic horror movie soundtrack intro just to throw you offfff…ahg! I just spent an hour trying to look up what that is. Wasn’t it used in a Bugs Bunny cartoon? I can’t find anyone that even mentions that this song contains contains an exact quote of another song, but a million that think it kinda sounds like a Buzzcocks song. Right, the Buzzcocks song that quotes the Bugs Bunny Haunted House episode. One reviewer said that like 20 years ago, it’s not that close. Please leave a comment if you know what I’m talking about. -
Butterfly Boy
Yeah, Thurston Moore plays some guitar on this one. It’s easy to forget because he’s pretty subdued in the final mix. The solo is Michie on keys. It’s sounds a little like she’s saying “Butt Fly”, so what, grow up. -
Fish Eyes
If this song isn’t about eyelid surgery…there’s not really an if. But framed in a Kafkaesque fantasy about literally waking up with giant fish-like eyes and the ensuing internal torment, of course. The kind of Kafkaesque parable of modern angst you expect from…Shonen Knife. I like the old locomotive rhythm. And there’s a nice bridge. -
Johnny, Johnny, Johnny
I used to like how this song came after the Very Metal “Cobra vs. Mongoose”; it’s just gratuitously cheery. But it’s also a pretty good song on it’s own. It’s just so goofy it’s genius. Even if you were fully accepting the whole Shonen Knife package when you put this record on, when you get to this song it’s like you can’t believe what you’re listening to. Shonen Knife is still good and all, but with two writers pushing each other like this it reached amazing levels or ridiculousness in the best way possible. Naoko’s really playing with that guitar line, bending it around like that. But I’m going on. -
Another Day
This is the first attempt at a serious ballad. It must have been someone at the label’s idea to have some serious songs. I believe it was Page Porrazzo who thought he was Phil Spector with this group. Some people must hate it, but I thought it came out great. It’s not that far off from early ballad(ish) song “Bye Bye”, just alittlelot more straight lyrically, and almost guitar at all. I remember when I first heard this song and feeling very nostalgic, which is the intention of the song of course. I used to feel a lot more nostalgic about stuff when I was younger. It’s weird. Anyway, I like how certain words like “bottle” and “shadows” kinda fall out of her mouth, she has this same way with pronunciation in Japanese too, some syllables are almost spit out or rushed, or she picks words with certain combinations of consonants that are odd. Maybe it’s an Osakan thing, but Naoko doesn’t do the same thing at all. -
Ice Cream City
This song is another one that has a version on the Get the Wow EP. I guess the label was still hoping to sell some copies of that when it put out the Birds and the B-Sides comp, which has this live version. There’s nothing wrong with the live version I’m just telling you that’s how it went down. (The comp was also not approved by the band according the their book Shonen Knife Land but that’s a little off topic.) The original Japanese version of this one is not as good because Michie could not quite pronounce “city” correctly yet. Some mispronunciations you can ignore, but that one’s pretty tough. I’m not trying to laugh at them. The English lyrics are pretty good: funny-weird and abstract, not anything dark here. Except the Soft Serve King is “melting with happiness”. He gonna die. Too far? Well maybe the whole thing is hallucination someone is having while they during a heatstroke on the beach. Makes sense. -
The Perfect World
Judging by the lack of availability of this song on youtube, I would say it’s one of the least popular Shonen Knife songs. Which is a shame because it’s one of my favorite but it also makes sense because it in no way resembles anything like a Shonen Knife song. This is an unabashed love song. There’s not even any other subject matter that you can pretend it’s about. And it’s not even the “yay, I’m in love, I’m happy” type of thing which itself is barely mentioned (closest to that is their cover of “Top of the World”), no, this song is languid, even sultry. This is not just a song about love, but sex:
Over my head, really
Never felt like this before, maybe
Can’t say the reason clearly
the rhythm beats meAnd this is from the 1997 album Brand New Knife, which looks like this. It features Michie on droning mellotron and an eye-rolling solo from Naoko who does not know what to do in this situation. It’s not a bad or mocking solo, but you can sense the awkwardness. (Naoko is on record as being “embarrassed” by love songs, altho she is married and has kids.) Michie only stayed with the group one more year after this and it was shocking when she left but looking back, I kinda get it.
✿✿✿✿✿
- Cycling Is Fun (would have made top 10 at one point but doesn’t hold up as well as the others)
- An Angel has Come (Such a weird song, I really like it, but it’s pretty similar to Animal Song)
- Catch Your Bus (corny but genuinely uplifting, I’m a little angry no one uploaded it)
- Jackalope (half-dumb, half-brilliant)
UPDATE: I forgot 3 songs from Yama no Attchan, which are pretty good but apparently forgettable:
- Chinese Song (totally odd)
- Cannibal Papaya (bass drops! one of the best choruses)
- Dali’s Sunflower (one of their ‘most punk’ songs)
2ND UPDATE: I forgot another one, thanks, eris.
- Merman (b-side on the the Wonder Wine single, which never had a physical copy of. Has a pretty cool underwater psyche vibe. I’m just now listening to it more than once I think and it’s growing on me. That’s a really forgotten one. A not quite fully polished gem.)
Semi-Honorable Mention:
- The Moon World (just an ok one)
- Frogphobia (something bugs me about this one)
- Gomi Day (cute idea, not that great a song)
- Planet X (a demo they never finished)
Most Honorable Mention:
- Miracles and Watchin’ Girl are probably my two favorite SK songs. I have to fit that in while preserving the integrity of the list format. Carry on.
Songs written by Michie, sung by Naoko (or both):
- Miracles (Naoko verses)
- Watchin’ Girl (Naoko verses)
- Summertime Boogie (Michie verses)
Songs written by Michie, sung by Atsuko:
- Fruits & Vegetables
Neon Zebra
Atsuko did not sing lead on Neon Zebra. I don’t know why I thought that.Co-written songs: [sung by Michie]
- Neon Zebra (w/ Pat Fear)
Couldn’t find either studio version, but here’s a live video of it from ’91. It’s a little rough! They were only a band at this point for…10 years? You’ve gotta appreciate the tenacity. - White Flag (w/ Steve Davis)
- Expo ’90 (w/ Steve Davis)
I like these two songs (esp. the fuzz bass) but have never been able to find out who this “Steve Davis” is. Maybe she was dating this session dude and he was down for whatever. Little much to give him writing credit. But if it’s this guy that had nothing to do with punk maybe that made sense to him. It’s weird. The two songs have nothing to do with each other. Maybe he helped with the lyrics, but the lyrics are not even very good English. Bah! Expo ’90 is not even as good as The Moon World, which now I’m thinking was pretty good. White Flag, tho. Pretty hardcore. Doesn’t really make any sense but whatever. - Loop-Di-Loop (w/ Naoko & Atsuko)
This was the only SK song ever credited to the group as a whole and the result was kinda meh.UPDATE 2015.01.20:
- Mysterious Drugstore (w/ Naoko)
B-side of the quite difficult to find It’s a New Find EP. Only found out about this from the defunct (but informative) Rock of Japan as it appeared on the mostly needless comp Millennium Edition. Not exactly a classic, but there it is.Written by Naoko, sung by Michie:
- I Am a Cat
Could be a mistake in the credits since it’s the only song like that.Covers:
- Saboten
It’s Delta 5’s “You” with Japanese lyrics - Hokey Pokey
You might like to forget that SK did a completely faithful version of the Hokey Pokey, what with the legitimacy and the post-punk and the mellotrons and the time signatures and the adult(ish) themes and whatnot. But it happened. (Personally I think she was messing with the audience at this point.)
Honorable Mentions:
In the course of making this list, I have gone through the original liner notes for each album (it’s been a draft for over a year). So I might as well list every single song Michie wrote or sang:
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Bikini Kill/Huggy Bear | Split LP
Split LPs create a unique problem in titling blog post reviews. But forget about that. I love the split LP as an object unto itself, but am annoyed by it when it comes time to organize. I just came across this split the other day in a folder marked “206”, the Kill Rock Stars catalog number. That’s how it came when I bought the download last year direct from the KRS site. Since then they’ve been moving their digital sales to bandcamp, except for the Bikini Kill stuff because they bought the rights back or whatever. This release gets unfortunately gets lost in the shuffle. To prevent it from getting lost again in my own collection, I’ve split the release up into the respective artist folders because it’s really just 2 EPs released together for convenience sake. Convenience as a sell-able item that is. It’s the kind of thing that makes sense as a physical object. Except it doesn’t of course if you like to keep your records in order. Then all you can do is put it with the other split releases, possibly by catalog number. It’s almost enough to make you not care about anything at all, ever. Why even buy records, or talk about them? Maybe it’s time to delete all your blogs, stop checking your email, there’s no goddam point to anything if you can’t even keep a record collection in order. A record collection? Why?
But then you get over that cause there’s not really that many of them. And you can always sell them. You don’t even have to review them. It’s all right. It’s going to be fine. It’s going to be fine and good. The mp3s can go in separate folders, it’s going to be ok.
Huggy Bear, come over here for a second. I just want to talk. I got this for you guys. I like Bikini Kill fine, but all the songs on their side are on their other records in better versions. The slower version of Rebel Girl is interesting, I can’t believe that started out as a slow song. Not much else to say about it. But the cover is great. Don’t really get what you were going for with your cover. It wasn’t posted on the site when I bought it. I like to think that the BK cover is the the real cover of the entire release but we know that’s not true. It’s ok. I remember the 90s. I wasn’t really “around” for the early Riot Grrrl scene, but I remember all the reactionary aesthetic moves that seemed necessary at the time. So, a lot of things about this release seem a little jarring compared to your comp album Taking the Rough with the Smooch, but not that much considering the context. That comp has a real timeless feel to it tho. It’s one of my favorite 90s punk albums (even if it wasn’t conceived as an album). I didn’t even know there was more, I thought you guys were like the Germs. I don’t know why it took that long to find you had more albums. I’m going to have to check out the later stuff. Anyway, I like how this stuff matches the sound of the stuff on the comp, but I can see why none of it made the cut. I don’t really get what most of the songs are about; seems to be some British scene-related fashion policing. And there’s non-politicized young romance stuff, complete with a Charlie Brown sample. THAT’S SO 90s. I just mean, it is. Maybe you just didn’t think of the band as having a real set in stone image but I thought of it as a super angry, kinda beatnik/anarchist thing. Those angry songs were also the catchiest. I guess I get it, with the cover and all. This is more real autobiographical stuff about just being young people in a band? And the other early stuff is the ultimate fantasy of Super Punks…unless you guys were really killing cops in the streets. I’m not saying you weren’t…it just seems like that would be more known. I didn’t research it if there’s some open cases there. If there is, don’t answer this. I mean, it’s a blog post. That would be pretty stupid to give yourself up in a blog post comment after all this time. Not saying you would do that. It’s just…ok enough of that.
☠☠☠☠☠
If you people out there want a legit copy of this thing you’re going to have to get the vinyl used from a 3rd party, which will get the bands exactly as much money as if you torrent it or whatever it is you do, but you’ll have that piece of vinyl that going to stare at you from whatever random shelf you put it on cause you don’t know what to do with it…for the rest of your days. You’ll want to put it on sometimes tho, it’s pretty good.
...apparently you will find another band that is like kiddie techno or something if you look for the mp3s on amazon (but they have the other albums).
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Slayer | Decade of Aggression
I was definitely going to write about this record at some point because altho this is not a “real album” (favorite Slayer album would be Seasons), D.O.A. is my most listened to Slayer record. But now guitarist Jeff Hanneman has untimely departed and I need to write something now. This is not just any live record, it’s the greatest of greatest hits comps, which is why it was a favorite of high school road trips. On cassette, this album was blasted on repeat and was the soundtrack to what I’m simply going to call “shenanigans”. This would be when I was a Freshman and we would have school trips where they actually let Seniors drive. This can’t possibly still go on today, but I think some of the people responsible are still employed by the school system somehow so that’s all I’m going to say about that.
We don’t need to go all the way down Memory Lane, but while we’re there I’m guessing I first heard Slayer on Headbanger’s Ball: (yes, a wiki link for those not nearing death)
Seasons in the Abyss, a Hanneman composition, is not really a representative work. It’s a slow song, with a semi-melodic, weirdly catchy chorus.
The version on D.O.A, like almost all the songs on the record, is nearly the same as the studio recording. A testament (what other word could you use) to Slayer’s commitment to consistent quality (of their sort). The liner notes famously boast:
Unlike most other live recordings, this is Slayer completely “LIVE”. No overdubbing exists on this recording.
It might not be clear now why you would need to say this when there’s bootlegs of every show anywhere and bands no longer put out a double live record every five years, but in Rock History this kind of record was usually seen as a bit of a sham. Besides being a simple money grab by the label or an easy contract fulfillment on the band’s part, vocals and solos on these kinds of records were often redone in the studio, giving a false impression of what the band (and/or their recording equipment) was capable of live. This is especially important with a band like Slayer where technique is a lot of the point, obviously. On first listen, it’s pretty mind-boggling that they can play these impossible songs perfectly (only songs with added sound effects like Raining Blood and Dead Skin Mask are really different at all) but if you pay attention you can notice that they are in fact, humans. It doesn’t take away from the songs; you respect them even more for presenting the performance as is. This is a great live band.
However, I have not seen them live myself. So, now I will never see the original lineup of Slayer. I’m pretty bummed about this. I don’t know how else to say it. The band did not really inspire emotional closeness with its members. So much so, that I shouldn’t even refer to them in the past tense, as they will be continuing on with Gary Holt of Exodus. It won’t be the same, but it’ll still be a good show (unless you’re a fucking poseur) and I’ll still try to see it before the rest of the band dies. Er, I just mean, I plan on outliving them. I…don’t want them to die of course, but I mean…I will, hopefully. Who knows. I grew up loving these bands that I never even planned on seeing live really. These big bands were just out of my reach. I could see GWAR or whoever five times for the price of one of these big shows, and so it was. Then a couple years ago I figured, holy shit, half these dudes could die at any minute. I think it was when Lemmy admitted to still drinking daily and btw, he’s a diabetic! I searched for tix to their next show that day. That was top priority. Slayer was next on the list after Tom Araya’s neck surgery. I didn’t think one of their deaths was imminent, but they are starting to become less-abled. Can’t really headbang like they used to to. Can still play tho, and that’s what I want to see. Well, fuck. If they don’t get Lombardo back I don’t know if I will now. That’s life. Can’t do everything.
After that surgery, Hanneman got bit by a spider, which was bad. It got worse. Holt filled in. I waited.
Some people still seem to think that the spider bite killed Jeff. Uh…sure…might have been the last straw, but it’s like saying someone who had AIDS died of the flu. Not to really dwell on this cause I’m not anti-every drug or anything but get real. Unlike Lemmy, Hanneman did not really play up substance abuse as part of his ongoing persona—he seemed like a regular guy. He wasn’t a talker, he was a doer. Do he did. Don’t deny it is all. Let’s talk about something else tho. What about his old guitar with all the stickers? That was great. Got into the Dead Kennedys just because he had that sticker. Of course he also had the Nazi death’s head on there at one point, in the photos in this booklet he had already replaced it with a regular pirate skull & bones. I didn’t get a copy of this until the late 90s, ordered it from BMG or Columbia House I think, def worth it. There’s also older photos when the band was starting out when they had a lot of studded leather and nail gauntlets and shit like that. I thought it was cool that they just stripped out all that gimmicky shit. They even performed under simple, steady red lights, supposedly. I mean it’s cool when bands go all out with a bunch of nonsense but sometimes I think, “didn’t Slayer decide this was over 20 years ago?”
Slayer were (are) not Nazis or serial killers, or insane. I have mixed feelings about the metal scene in general what with the…occasional actual insane killer Nazis. People wanna call those guys “true” metal; I feel like those are the people that don’t get it. What if Steven King was really a killer clown or a not even a person but a kind of fog monster that turned people inside out? That…that would be pretty goddamn cool…but it wouldn’t have anything to do with his books, right? I remember in the car, in high school, hearing “I Am The Anti-Christ” for the first time. I was not that many years out of transferring from a Catholic school then and it seemed like the wrongest thing you could say in a song, it was so great. Then he gives the fucking speech to crowd:
Listen: you guys in the front here, you see someone going down, help ’em out, that’s what you’re here to do, help each other out.
Then of course it goes into WAAAAAR EENNNSEEEMBLEEE. I’m almost crying. That is “it”. Not…that, the whole thing, all of it. I think there’s another show ( shitty bootleg) where they say they don’t give a fuck and everybody should kill each other, but that was just the liquor talking. Get a sense of humor.
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