California Month continued, tremor #40:
The Moog Cookbook - "The One I Love"
(1996, Restless Records)
The Moog Cookbook was two guys with way too many vintage synths. They put out two albums of cheesy synth covers of well-known songs, including this R.E.M. chestnut. Thank god they (R.E.M., that is) finally broke the hell up this month after being the paradigm of all "bands that should've broken up 20 years ago" jokes.
I didn't realize TMC were from California until just this month. I downloaded this album, their self-titled debut, a few years back. The word Moog is pronounced "Moag," as most people hopefully know. My other two favorite songs on this album are "Evenflow" and "Smells Like Teen Spirit." Of course, Sara DeBell's brilliant Grunge Lite album beat The Moog Cookbook to the punchline by several years, though TMC's versions are more fleshed-out and party-worthy. See you later in an elevator, R.E.M., and thanks for all those... er... those 5 or 6 great songs you gave us over those three decades... This one was definitely your best.
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| Back cover of their self-titled album |
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| On some Japanese magazine, 1998 |
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| 1997 press photo |
After the Saints' stunning beatdown at the hands of the winless Rams, I went to Voodoo Fest yesterday in hopes of catching some Odd Future, but we got there too late. (I read that they got into some onstage spats with cameramen, and Chris from the Mushroom told me that they were pretty disorganized / unprofessional / mediocre overall. Read this.) Saw most of TV On The Radio, who did "Will Do," "Staring At The Sun," and "Wolf Like Me," among others. They closed their set with a cover of Fugazi's classic "Waiting Room." Then saw almost all of The Meters' set, which was the main reason I went; this was one of only a handful of times since the '70s that all four members have played together, so it was a pretty huge deal. It was kind of funny seeing those old dudes playing circles around their disciples TVOTR. It was annoying that Cheap Trick were playing at the same time, at much louder volume, on the adjacent stage. I wanted to strangle them. The Meters did an epic ten or so minute version of their classic "Fire On The Bayou", which most non-New Orleanians know as the theme song to the HBO show Treme. They also did "Hey Pocky A-Way," which is the unofficial theme song of Mardi Gras, and "It Ain't No Use" and a few others. My hour of watching them went by too quickly. Then it was the Raconteurs closing things out on the main stage (don't you need a hit single to do that?) in a Led Zep-y way, as though the '80s, '90s, and '00s never happened. I finally met my sister & Vanessa's friend Cecile, who has her own business designing neckties. Then we saw this techno duo(?) called Soul Clap at a little side stage before the plug was pulled at 9:00.
Then we got some food at Lucy's Retired Surfer Cafe, and Vanessa explained the X-rated meaning of the slang term "Superman that ho," as used in a certain Soulja Boy hit song. Haha. She was really on, and the Red Bull surely didn't hurt. I realized that I might have obtained the explanation for the term "decorate the spine" in that Knapsack song I posted two days ago... I drove Damion's friend Wessel back to the apartment while this Moog Cookbook song played in my car, so he must've thought I was on crack or that I had the strangest music taste ever. I swung by the Mushroom right before they closed at midnight and picked up this Joy Division poster (Closer album cover) that I'd seen a few weeks earlier, for my sister. And got a jazz LP for a buck just because it has Terence Blanchard on it.
This morning I called in a Halloween-themed request of Oingo Boingo's "Dead Man's Party" to WTUL, and the DJ girl played it only a few minutes later, which impressed me.
I got an amazing boombox necklace and gold "$" ring today at a Halloween store. They had at least four different Lady Gaga outfits, and a Mike "The Situation" one. Christina Aguilera's "Dirrty" played over the P.A. system, and a lifesize Freddy Kreuger statue next to the cash registers periodically spat out lines such as "How's this for a wet dream?" (Yes, there were plenty of kids in the store.) I felt ashamed to be an American.
Planets with similar climates: Ween - "Now I'm Freaking Out" (1994), Komputer - "Looking Down On London" (1997), Sukia - "Vaseline & Sand" (1996), Add N To (X) - "Plug Me In" (2000), Moonshake - "Exotic Siren Song" - (1996).
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