Hi, here’s a little background on my choices for the What’s In A Word? mix.
Luna – Slide
The first song off their first album, Lunapark. In Luna, singer Dean Wareham’s lyrics are generally less sincere and more sarcastic than his old band, Galaxie 500 (“You can never give the finger to the blind”). In this song I think Wareham also makes a clean break with his previous band, when he subtly refers to his Boston bandmates, singing, “New England has the foliage, but I’m not going back.” A nice kickoff to his new band.
Frank Black – Headache
Off the wonderful album, Teenager Of The Year. This is actually the only Frank Black album I own. I should prolly try out his other stuff, as I love this one so much. There was a lovely video made for this song:
B-52’s – Roam
Who doesn’t love this song? If you don’t, you’re probably Satan. For the video, along with a pointless observation by yours truly, click here.
Brazilian Girls – Pussy
This is quite the lovely song from their eponymous debut. What does eponymous mean, again? A snippet of this song cropped up in one of my earlier posts.
Suicide – Girl
This song mostly consists of some nice keyboard grooves by Martin Rev, with Alan Vega doing some relatively creepy vocals. Hey, it’s not like you’re sharing an elevator with him. Relax. This song — wait for it — is from their eponymous debut.
Radiohead – Optimistic
I still haven’t been entirely bit by the bug that is Radiohead, but I heard this on shuffle a while back and liked it. This song seemed to be a nice transition from the Suicide song. Off their album Kid A.
Handsome Family – Stalled
From their non-eponymous album Through The Trees. Short and sweet.
The Kinks – Brainwashed
I almost used Starstruck from The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society, but I decided instead to pick this track from Arthur. There’s an interesting blog post in there somewhere. No, on second thought, there ain’t.
For some reason, my sister couldn’t figure out the chorus to “Roam” and she thought for the longest time that they were singing, “Oh, Nipsy Russell.” Kind of amusing. There aren’t enough odes to Nipsy Russell out there.
Those are the most eponymous songs I have ever heard. Seriously eponymous. Almost as eponymous as Nipsy Russell.
Thanks a bunch Splotchy, you’ve done it again and in style. Maor if you want to.
beckeye, that’s my next replacement for a swear word. “Oh, Nipsey Russell!”
barb, you had me at eponymous.
dale, you’re welcome. And Maor I shall (does that make me Māori?).
Now that I’ve had a chance to listen (unfortunately on my way to work), I really enjoyed your selections, particularly the Luna and Suicide tracks but all of them were really enjoyable. Thanks again Maori-Splotchy.