Note: I originally posted this on May 10th, but it somehow got wiped out during the sitewide collapse that Blogspot had last night. So here it is again, though I had to rewrite lots of it based on an earlier draft.
•••• (Hefty Records, 2004) ø ø ø ø
This song is really def in many ways, to say nothing of the fact that the beat is so bangin' that it literally should be used to test out the stereo systems of new cars. First, the title, which sounds like it might be a taunt lifted from a bumper sticker, a Muhammad Ali press conference, or a tween t-shirt design. Well, it's actually the last line of Lou Reed's liner notes to his infamous ambient noize room-clearer Metal Machine Music! Definitely one of the coolest phrases ever, period. I've used it as an AOL away message for many years. For an example of the cool little sonic details that TTA employed, check out the "helicopter chopping" effect on the drums at the 2:38 mark.
I saw Telefon Tel Aviv at the highly anticipated CD-release show for this album, Map Of What Is Effortless, in March '04 at the State Palace Theater (R.I.P.) in New Orleans. I guess TTA had already relocated from New Orleans to Chicago (much like a lot of NOLA's jazz superstars did decades earlier), but I could be mistaken. I don't know if they played this song, which really annoys me, because one of my deals with going to concerts is to make myself vividly remember a band's performance of its best song. Local newsweekly Gambit or Lagniappe did a long article on how TTA had been practicing really hard to perfect their new, "full band" sound, replete with female backup singers, and (I think) a live drummer; I have the article somewhere. One of the opening acts at this show was a completely unknown local electronic drone duo called Belong, doing one of their first shows ever, or maybe even their first. They shot to baffling internet hipster fame a few years later when their mediocre debut album came out. For some reason they have refused to play here ever since this show, if I'm not mistaken. Weird. Another opener was excellently-named local dude The Madd Wikkid. (I also saw Josh Eustis of TTA do an Aphex Twin-ish solo set under the name Benelli the previous month, opening for Texas dub/post-rockers Echo Base Soundsystem. He used only an Apple laptop for this performance, and I recall that he literally never said anything or even looked up at the crowd.)
It is likely that my week, this particular week in March 2004, actually did beat your year, at least based on all the concerts I saw and the cool critters I added to the 90-gallon reef tank I just gotten. Anyway, the vocals on this song are done by Lindsay Anderson of TTA's Hefty labelmates L'Altra. I had been wondering this for 7 years, actually, and, in a way, I kind of preferred not knowing. I liked thinking it was some random stoned teenager they recorded rambling after an all-night rave or something. This song was released on 12" single and on promo CD-R, both of which featured the album version and an extended remix, plus the beautiful b-side "I Lied." If anyone can send me the extended version, I would really love to post it on here.
Planets with similar climates: Dirty Vegas - "Days Go By" (2001), Fluke - "Atom Bomb" (1996), School Of Seven Bells - "Dust Devil" (2010), Moloko - "Day For Night" (1995), Pet Shop Boys - "Two Divided By Zero" (1985), Suzanne Vega & DNA - "Tom's Diner" (1987/90), Suzanne Vega - "Blood Makes Noise" (1992), Scala - "Naked" (1995), Lamb - "Cotton Wool" (1996), Monie Love - "Monie In The Middle" (1990).
Observe Fluke's incredible "Atom Bomb" video, which was made 15 years
ago but has better visual effects than most of today's Hollywood movies.
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