IS HE NOT A MAN? HE IS DEVO!

Devo - Beulah / Jocko Homo / I Need A Chick (Live in Cleveland, Halloween 1975)- This, like the version of Satisfaction I posted on Friday, is pulled from Devo Live: The Mongoloid Years. This is from Devo's first ever show, a WHK Radio Halloween concert, opening for Sun Ra. They were hired as a joke. The audience of sotned hippies expected a cover band. They were introduced by Murray the K (Murray Saul, of the famous "FRIDAY!" bit posted to Flux some months ago). They proceeded to rock the fuck out. This three song medley marks the finale of their set, opening with a deranged, and deliberately terrible cover of Beulah, before moving into their Devolutionary mission statement, Jocko Homo. And this is where things get fun. The audience has had enough. The band is becoming increasingly weird and confrontational, and the audience begins to respond in kind. You can hear the angry audience members climb to the stage, grab microphones, and threaten to beat the shit out of the band. By the time Jocko Homo is finished and the band launches into the vicious, and vulgar "I Need a Chick" - well, it's clear there aren't many people left, and the few who are seem very intent to try to cut the band off. An example of Devo's unique performance art in it's early formative years, and most certainly at it's finest, this performance shows Devo as nothing so much as band that sprung, as a god fully formed from the womb, completely cognizant of their direction from day one, their most crucial songs and basic plan laid out very clearly and bared to the world. It would take 4 years for their Devolutionary program to find fans, another 3 after that for it to find commercial success, and another decade or two for them to be properly recognized as legends. But damn if it wasn't worth it.

[Buy Devo Live: The Mongoloid Years from Amazon]

Tomorrow: Why Devo has the deepest catalog of any "one hit wonder" ever - and perhaps a song from a car commercial.

I was born a Spud-Boy... Just a reaal Potato!

I was raised on Devo. My father has always been a huge Devo fan, and from an early age, he was sure to indoctrinate me in the ways of De-Evolution. When my friends were watching Disney videos, I was rocking out with Booji Boy, and Devo's short film The Men Who Make the Music. So, it should be no surprise that when I heard Devo were playing Summerstage, I raced to get tickets. I'll be there tonight. So, your musical selections for today, are a couple of Devo's best. For those of you only familiar with Whip It, who call Devo a 1 hit wonder? Prepare to be blown away. For those of you who are familiar with the catalog? Well, I hope I've dusted off a few tracks you haven't heard before.

Devo - Satisfaction (Rolling Stones Cover, Live @ Max's Kansas City, 1977) - This is pulled from Devo Live: The Mongoloid Years, a one disc set that compiles a few shows from Devo's early years. This was Devo's last show as without a label, 5 guys from the "Gruesome Post-Industrial Boot Camp," of Akron, Ohio (Gerald Casles words) - After this show, the band would begin it's Record Label wringer, and begin the career for which they're known. The album also collects a few cuts from Devo's first ever show (Opening for Sun-Ra as part of a radio stations halloween prank, and being assaulted and threatened by hippies as the show goes on (You can hear the death threats!)), and a show a year later, opening for fellow locals The Crypt (Who hated them).

I've always loved Devo's cover of Satisfaction. In the beginning, I didn't know it was a Stones song. I just liked the funny dance mark did for it on Video, along with Praying Hands. In later years though, I rediscovered this cover. It conveys a tense, paranoid, frustration that was always so much more apt for the song than Jaggers sexy swagger. I mean, does Jagger look like a guy who can't get any? More to the point, does he sound like one? His swagger is too strong, his voice too confident. Devo transform the song, with a relentless, metronomic bassline, and Mothersbaugh's deadpan "Hey Hey, That's what I say!" kicking off a tortured, stuttery chorus that screams of the repressed, manic sexual energy that is De-Evolution.

[Buy Devo Live: The Mongoloid Years from Amazon]

Devo - Head Like a Hole (Nine Inch Nails Cover) - I've long held that some of Devo's best material is from the covers section of their catalog. And I've recently been thinking about why. I think it has a lot to do with Mothersbaugh & Co's ability to completely take ownership of any song they cover, and really bring it into line with their own unique manifesto. Not much was needed on this one though. In a beautifully circular event of a band covering a band that, quite frankly, wouldn't have existed without them, the flowerpotted ones have rescued Reznors most covered song from goth oblivion (despite AFI's most recent putrid attempts to pull it back there), and brought it forth in technicolor, yellow jumpsuited glory. The industrial drum machine grind stays, but the synths sound bubblier here, the ambient noise, weirder, and strangely happier, and Mothersbaugh demands cash like a proclamation from General Boy himself.

[Buy Pioneers Who Got Scalped -A Devo Anthology at Amazon!]

I had a few other Devo that I'd considered posting, but I think I'll just pick up after the weekend if the reaction is good. So, if you want more Devo, let me know, and I'll bring back some more on monday!

Have a good weekend folks! I know I will!

(P.S. - anyone going to Ted Leo's East River show tomorrow, drop me a line.)

I can't believe they never bothered to Move On...

William Shatner & Joe Jackson - Common People (Pulp Cover) - yes kids, you heard that right... Shat's back! (No, not that Shat, though from the singing talent...) I didn't want to like this song. Not one bit. But, I honestly can't stop listening to it. Say what you will of Shatner, he has never pretended to be a musician - his deadpan drawl is designed not to present songs as works of music, but rather as texts, to be read aloud, and y'know what? I can't think of a single song more suited for that treatment than "Common People". It sounds like a narrative set to music - a less talented, American Streets kinda vibe... If anything desecrates pulp, it's not Shatner, who delivers the song's final lines with all the appropriate venom, gained over years of hammy acting, but Joe Jacksons HIDEOUS guitar work, and terrible attempt at singing the songs chorus near the end, which is just utterly cringeworthy. Of course, production by Ben Folds isn't helping matters there, but when has it?

Hot Hot Heat - Move On - Hot Hot Heat were busting this song, the B-Side to the Bandages single, pretty regularly on their last few laps of the world, before heading into the studio to work on album #2 (or 3 if you count Scenes), and with good reason. It's all the jangley poppiness of their debut EP (and still their peak todate IMHO, mixed up with the stuttery freneticness of Breakdown. Whent he song breaks into a 3 part harmony about a minute and a half in, we begin to see HHH's new drection - but it only lasts a minute. This may not be Fiery Furnaces level jampacked with ideas, but it suggests at least a half dozen new directions for Hot Hot Heat to head for their new album, and all of them are good ones. And am I the only one who sees this song as fitting, not just with the name, but also the mission of a certain political group that is much in the limelight?

[Buy Hot Hot Heat albums from Amazon.com]

Other news: Saw Radio 4 and Ted Leo on LonGuysland last night. Ted leo was fantastic as always. The new material is GREAT, and he's touring with a stripped down band now (Just Bass and Drums + Him. No key's or violin or second guitar, as he was when supporting Hearts of Oak. This seems to suit the new material best.) And he PLAYED HEARTS OF OAK! Finally, after 5 times seeing Ted, and never hearing it, I finally got to see him play his "Radio 4 Song" when playing with Radio 4.

R4 were incredible. They've moved so far beyond what they were when last I saw them. The new material is FANTASTIC live, as all the new songs pick up healthy doses of the "Congas and Shakers and Shit" that make Radio 4, Radio 4. Not to mention, Ted came out and did a mean Cowbell Solo on Struggle. The band was REALLY in a good mood, what with playing at the center of all their respective hometowns around Long Island (the guitarist introduced each band member between songs, and noted what high school they went to. Classic LI - even a decade removed, the only way to register where someone is from is their High School.) And just a generally fantastic set. "The Death of American Radio" is GREAT live, and "Transmission," a song that, on record, seemed buried under it's production to me, becomes a complete fucking anthem live. Dominated the whole set when they finished with it.

BAD BRAINS BAD BRAINS! ROCKNROLLROCKNROLL!

(AKA, phoning it in because life is hectic)

Jeff Buckley - I Against I (Acoustic, Radio performance) - Okay, so this is just a random rarity of Jeff Buckley fucking around in a radio studio with an Acoustic guitar, but he's covering one of the greatest punk songs ever penned, and it finds Buckley going so far out of his range, and stumbling to get it together so desperately, that it manages to be worth a listen.

For the hell of it, here's the original track.
[Buy Banned in DC: Bad Brains Greatest Riffs at Amazon.com!]

The Nein - Handout - Today's other selection is by a band called the Nein and comes from TTIKTDA reader Jen who writes: Song's called Handout and I think it's great.  Kind of a cross between latter-day Archers of Loaf and current electro-stuff. And while that description is halfway decent, I'd go for a comparison to Les Savy Fav more than anyone else out there right now. Fantastic stuff.

And Hey Readers: Keep it coming! If you're not seeing your submissions posted here, it's not because I'm not liking them, it's because I'm buried under such a pile that I'm treading water just to sort through it all, and some nights, I just end up going to what i've got instead. It has nothing to do with your taste sucking, because ti doesn't. It has to do with me being a lousy email-reciever/responder.


[Find out more about the Nein, Listen to more of their Music, and maybe even buy some at their website.]

Also: I'm trying something a little new w/ the MP3 links tonight to try to foil people using wget to scrape the mp3's from this site and generally being leeches about it. I'm sorry to those of you who read this blog and are also using wget to save time, and I'm also sorry to those of you who this inconveniences with a referrer link. If anybody has any other suggestions, keeping in mind I'm hosted on blogspot, let me know. And if this is causing anyone any problems, let me know.

If you really must aggregate mp3 blogs to save time, please don't use wget. Use RSS. Mp3blogs.org has done a very nice job of consolidating a whole bunch of us for your reading and timesaving pleasure.

'nite folks!

THIS IS MY EVERYDAYS LIFE!

Polysics are a Japanese band that Loves Devo. I mean they really really love Devo. Which is good. Because I love Devo too. Though I don't dress up like Devo (the Polysics do), I do think that they are one of the most vastly ignored and underrated bands of the last 20 years (one hit wonder my ass! Whip It may have been a fluke of a success, but they had a HUGE catalog of work.). I was raised on Devo, so I'm very happy to say that I'm going to see them LIVE at Summerstage this Saturday! IN that vein, here's some Polysics, a band that has clearly worshipped at the altar.

Polysics - Making Sense - this comes off of 2003's Neu!, and is a wonder of bent moogs and tape-machine-gun drumming. The song doesn't move much, preferring to focus on the mechanichal loopiness of it's synth, and a seemingly utterly random placement of those DAT snare beats. When the song does break, finally, near the end, it's merely to provide a big finish. But then, this is not a song about movement. This is ear candy at it's finest.



Polysics - I'm A Worker This is the song that convinced me to bother with Polysics though. Like Devo all freaked out on Cocaine, a tightly wound ball of utterly spastic energy, just waiting to collapse into a seizure. The mechanized sheen of Making Sense evaporates here, as the robots begin to short circuit and malfunction, beats going haywire, guitars, synths, drums, all operating as if they have no idea what the other is doing, pure sonic chaos, but somehow, inexplicably, the center holds, and when the song goes into an extended rockabilly freakout on guitar, while the synths keep doing their thing, and the vocals just stop, it works.

[Buy Neu! from Amazon.com!]

P.S. Sirenfest was In-fuckin-credible.

Electro-Blues and Not so Electro Blues.

I just spent an hour typing up a post, and Blogger ate it as I was pasting in the final fucking link.

God hates me. Or google does anyway.

So this post will suck, because I need my sleep. But the music is fantastic.

The Fiery Furnaces - Single Again - This is the Fiery Furnaces new UK Only Single, which has just cracked the top 40, and may be their best individual song to date, healthily fusing directions charted on both previous full length outings. The result is a healthy snippet of what I can only think to call Electro-Blues. Washed out lap steels provide rootsy blues chord, as the drums are overlayed with a somewhat glitchy sounding snare loop, and fuzzy synths pulse out the songs melody, all as Eleanor Abandons the childlike innocence with which she sings for much of Blueberry Boat, opting instead for a wounded, destroyed, but ultimately hopeful tone, a woman beaten (literally!), and wasted, but not out yet, dreaming of a day when she might be "Single Again." If this is the direction the Furnaces are headed (something of which, if we've learned anything.... there are no guaruntees), than the next album promises to be something special. The ADD sound shifts, the operatic flourishes, are, if not gone, than certainly subsumed here into a song that is far more of a coheisve whole than anything on Blueberry Boat. There's a reason that this is the track that cracked the top 40 for the Furnaces. This is a song that, in some alternate dimension, might actually sound radio worthy. The Friedbergers have finally found their pop song. Please join me in rejoicing.

[No, Rough Trade isn't paying me, but, according to them, Single Again "comes on like a deranged DJ Shadow monkeyed off his eyeballs on uppers and downers, whilst various members of the Beta Band and the Delgadoes point and laugh." You can also buy the single there.]


[Buy Blueberry Boat from Amazon.com!]


Ludes - Your Dog Don't Bark - This is the first in a string of Reader submissions I'll be posting, coming from an anonymous Dancing Indie Kid, Ludes are a band from South London, about whom information is sadly lacking. This song though, speaks for itself. Stones style Blues Swagger, a killer harmonica solo, and a swingin beat. Fantastic stuff, and, in it's stripped down glory, the perfect antidote for those who might find the Furnaces take on the blues to be a bit too... heavily produced. (I am decidedly NOT among those though. As should be obvious.)

[I don't know where you can buy this. Here is the bands Web Page. Go see them live and report back, London readers!]

Ugh. Not happy with this, but need sleep.

Note to self: Stop writing drafts of posts in Blogger. It will only cause pain.

'nite everyone!

Oh, and check out the amazing stuff John @ The Tofu Hut has been doing with Spiders, and Daft Punk Remixing Franz Ferdinand over @ Gramophone. See Sidebar for linkage.

It's BLUEBERRY BOAT DAY.

In other words, get Thine Arse to a Record Store, and buy a copy of the Fiery Furnaces Masterpiece.

It is a Masterpiece.

You're still here.....

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Okay, music for today.

Before I get to that, a few notes -

1) Be sure to check out the new sexed up AMG, which should be live at some point today.

2) the Boys & Girls over at GYBO have completed the follow up to London Booted - Parkspliced - notable are mashups of the title track w/ the Beach Boys "God Only Knows", a healthy dose of Marvin Gaye inserted into "Badhead," and Lenlows fantabulous B-Side featuring Peter & The Wolf. I may end up posting a track or two from this later in the week.


The Yeah Yeah Yeah's - Mr. You're on Fire Mr. (Liars Cover) - Karen O covering Angus. 'tain't that sweet. Well, there's nothing sweet about this song, a B-side from the Pin Single. It finds the YYY's revisiting the production style found on the Machine EP, washed in feedback and muddled into a flat sort of tonelessness that, when combined with the tape loops and electrobleeps found here, manage to turn Liars original screamfest, the song that prompted a P-fork review to remark that Liars eat ground glass, into a slowed down, dubbish sort of number, punctuated by Karens trademark yelps. I didn't like this the first time I heard it, but since then, I've just kept on coming back. There's something here, some indefinable quality, that makes what is, objectively, a lousy recording of a halfassed cover, sound like something much better.

[Buy it from Insound!]

The Hong Kong - Mazerati - Few things are so great as the experience of discovering a song capable of making you bounce around the room - the tightly wound, hyperactive ADD kid inside of you breaking free and refusing to sit still. Mazerati is such a song. From the Hong Kong's debut, Rock the Faces, the blondieesque vocals and bubbly basslines, this is what al summer music should be.

Bliss.

No buy link for this one because I can't seem to find anywhere online to buy it. I got my copy at a show. Anyone have a lead?

Tomorrow: TTIKTDA Reader submissions make their debut. (P.s. those of you I emailed? please do resend those tracks. Dropload hates me and I really do want to listen to them - I have the space in my mailbox to recieve attachments of up to 10 megs, so no worries there.


Now GO BUY COPIES OF BLUEBERRY BOAT.

10 OF THEM.

I don't care if you don't have 10 CD players, or even 10 friends. Just do it.

No music today...

Okay, so this site is seeing a major traffic spike, as it seems, is every other MP3 Blog on the planet in the wake of this whole Reuters/USA Today/MSN piece linking to all sorts of good mp3js sites.

So, while me and some other bloggers are huddling and conspiring and tryign to figure out "What Now" TTIKTDA is going to take the day off and go 3 day weekend on all of yas. Sorry folks. We'll be back Monday with more great tunes! And keep those submissions coming! I've gotten some GREAT stuff so far, and you'll definitely be hearing it next week.

I HAVE NO MIND.

The Futureheads - Robot Okay, so Paul Weller is an ass and the Jam are never getting back together. The Beach Boys never wrote songs about cool shit like robots and carnivals. And Devo for all their genius never could figure out that whole harmony and melody thing. That's where the Futureheads come in. They sound like the Jam having a spasm in 3 part harmony. Jerky, britpop hooks, choruses catchier than they've a right to be, and DAMN if they don't sound like the fucking JAM. Shouldn't that be enough for you people?

[Buy The Futureheads debut album from their official site when it becomes availiable!]

Rocket From the Crypt - Blood Robots Rocket From the Crypt have been around for ever, with their brand of raw, rockabilly and horn tinged punk rawk. This track isn't the most typical RFTC track, but for some reason, I keep coming back to it. Probably for the chorus, and it's screams of the title track, the stabs of horn, and the instrumental break in the middle, when the entire structure of the song just completely shifts.

Rocket From the Crypt - Waste It A more typical RFTC song, also from Cut Carefully & Play Loud, this is raw, vicious, brutal rockandroll. This is a song to smash things to. To drive 100 MPH with the cops on your ass, screaming "YOU'LL NEVER GET ME FUCKERS" to. To run wild in the streets and let nothing stop you to. The guitars, a psychobily wall of fury. The vocals, a snarl of pure contempt. The horns, focused, laser beams of pure, unbridled, and directed hatred. This is a band with purpose, and that purpose is to rock your tiny head, to convince you to let loose and to fuck shit up.

And if you're still reading this, it's only because you haven't clicked the song yet.

[Buy Hot Charity/Cut Carefully And Play Loud from Amazon.com!]

Inothernews:

John Darnielle gives his blessings for the Mountain Goats to join the Internet Live Music Archive, a breathtaking resource of live shows in all sorts of formats from all sorts of artists.

Big Songs for Little Attention Spans A compilation of 100 songs, designed to fit onto one CD. There's some great stuff there.

Repeated message:My reserves of music are running a bit down. So, feel free to Send me music! I'm always looking for great stuff, be it your band, your label, or just some random track you heard on that local college radio station that always seems to be a step ahead and needs the TTIKTDALove. If it's good, i'll probably post it, eventually.

I confused... Myself... With Somebody Else...

Charlotte Hatherley is the Guitarist for Ash, a band Cameron Garage Dream turned me on to, (and who he blogged during his guest stint here a few weeks back). Well, now she's got a solo album coming out soon, and unlike most band member solo side projects, this one doesn't seem to be getting swept under the rug, but rather has a fair amount of hype.

Charlotte Hatherley - Paragon Saccharine, driving, catchy as get out, this is Pop music with a capital P. While her first single, Kim Wilde (Currently making it's way up the charts and MTV in the UK I'm told, and availiable in MP3 for free from her great, flash free website), drives it's strength from space, giving all the instrumentation and vocals room to breathe, produced into a sense of layered seperation Spector style, Paragon compresses everything down into a solid compact mass, all bounce and energy and fun.

Charlotte Hatherley - Summer If there's a hit waiting to happen on this album, it's this song. From it's infectious chorus, upbeat pianos, and of course, the handclaps, always with the handclaps, which, like Cowbell make everything better. (bighuge WMV link that). Seeing as Brian Wilson doesn't like summer, this will have to be my playlist for the season. I'll save Smile for when it's released. In the Fall.

Not sure where you can buy this one yet, but I'm sure it'll show up on the official site linked above as soon as you can. No word on a stateside release to my knowledge.

Also, I'm gonna take a cue from Sean over at STG, and let you folks know my reserves are running a bit down (summer lull across the board?). So, feel free to Send me music! I'm always looking for great stuff, be it your band, your label, or just some random track you heard on that local college radio station that always seems to be a step ahead and needs the TTIKTDALove. If it's good, i'll probably post it, eventually.

This is a Public Service Announcement... WITH GUITARS!

The Clash - Know Your Rights this is one of my favorite Clash songs, and seemed apropos for a little Independence Day posting. The Marching drums, the vaguely rockabilly guitar, but most of all, Joe Strummers proclamation, This is a Public Service Announcement! With GUITAR! echoes in my head constantly. Remember your rights everybody. Without them, we may as well be dead. And remember, come November, to exercise them.

[Buy Combat Rock from Amazon.com!]

Dizzee Rascal - Fix Up Look Sharp (Ratatat Remix) Okay, so now that the Hype Parade for both Diz and Ratatat are starting to die down, what does Ratatat do? They go and record an album of remixes of current hip hop faves, from Kanye West, Missy Elliot (who shows up everywhere it seems), Method Man, Jay Z, Ghost Face, and of course, the Diz, plus a few more. None of the tracks work quite so well as this one though, which transforms the booming drums and breakbeats of the original into bent guitars and synths, and a bit of a metronomic drum machine, loses the hook almost completely (save for the occasional ghostly stab of the howls that defined the original) and create somethign totally new and totally different. This is unauthorized, but you can Buy it Here

5... 4... 3... 1... OFF-BLAST!!!

Okay, so todays first track qualifies as what the boys over at the Filters would call "Pepsi Blue.

Zlad! - Elektronik Supersonik This song, which claims to be a rejected Eurovision entry from the fictional country of Molvania, has been making the rounds on the internet, via this baffling Flash video (7 Meg Shockwave Link). Yes, it's bizarre. Yes, the English is blatantly and deliberately terrible (Inside tank of Fuel is not Fuel, but Love). Yes, it's cheesy ass synthpop. Yes, it's a thinly veiled advertisement for a fictional travel guide. (Hence Pepsi Blue). In spite of all of this, I still can't stop listening to the goddamned song. Any shrinks (or shrinks in training, or amateurs, I'm not picky), out there reading this wanna try to figure out/fix what is obviously wrong with me?

The Reputation - Follow Through Time - The Reputation are one of the few bands out there that wouldn't need their labels help to sue me. Lead singer, Elizabeth Elmore (formerly of late 90's Illinois legends Sarge) is either currently enrolled, or has just finished (Information is inconclusive. There's a leave of absence in there which makes it tough to calculate) - law school at Northwestern University. All of this is irrelevant as soon as you begin to listen though. The Reputation, like the Arcade Fire, and so many other great bands, make music that grabs holds of you, and refuses to release. This song is all climax, bouncy pop pianos intercut with Elmores ultimatum, a beautiful piece of melodic, bitter, and most of all demanding pop rock. The song compels the listener to attention, and Elmore, with her sweet voice and wonderful lyrics moves in for the kill, a devestating one two punch.

[Buy "To Force a Fate" from Amazon.com!]