Sebadoh (Lou Barlow) >> Turning personal vendetta and small-minded revenge tactics into eventual cult status

Sebadoh - "Showtape '91"

(unreleased, 1991 / Domino Records, 2006)

On their 1991 tour, burgeoning indie rock stalwarts Sebadoh were known for playing a tape of obnoxious / baffling spoken word stuff in between songs while they were tuning.  (By the same token, Sonic Youth were known for playing Madonna songs and samples of European church bells in between songs in the '80s, since they had to tune and retune dozens of modified guitars.)  It was all spoken by singer / guitarist Lou Barlow, fresh off of being kicked out of Dinosaur Jr.  Tapes of this were passed on in the underground tape-trading community, and it was finally released in 2006 by Domino on the deluxe reissue of III.  I bought that album in '97, but was not too impressed and soon sold it.  I had heard about the showtape, so I didn't think it could live up to my expectations, but definitely did, and then some.  Lou spoof lots of things that later became indie tropes (e.g. "drone-rock," emo, fanzine dweebs, Swans worship), and uses a strange enunciation most of the time to convey either sarcasm or mental instability.  He constantly hammers away at the "three guys" premise, casting the band's members as everymen, heroes of the hoi polloi.  Towards the end, it starts to get unhinged and quite uncomfortable to listen to, as Lou ruthlessly skewers his band's own motives for making music.  It took me until just today to realize that "The lonely band that mutters" is a spoof of the Clash's laughably false slogan "The only band that matters."  Hahahahahaha.... x 1000.  The first line is an example of Lou intentionally messing up the syntax to make it sound more like a sound collage made from various sources.

Some samples, in the order they appear:

"Guitars, in front of Marshall stacks as full wall of them explode with a simultaneous on switch, begin wailing various percussion at any tempo.  I, bloody with Uzi blast, reach to play guitar, fumbling violently as it screeches through the Marshalls.  Grab guitar and plays what he wants.  I struggle to my feet, hoisting the guitar over my head.  Ladies and gentlemen: The pieces of meat!  Dual denial... Duel of denial... Dueling denial."
"Your postmodern folkcore saviors: Sebadoh!"
"Three guys who appreciate and simulate [assimilate?] the power of modern drone-rock: Sebadoh!"
"Sebadoh... Featuring that guy who played bass in Soul Asylum: Lou Barlow!"
"Another evening of oppressive noodling, courtesy of Sebadoh!"
"Three guys in search of the eternal party: Sebadoh."
"Open-chord tuning saviors of alternative rock and roll: Sebadoh!"
"And now, shattering the barrier between artist and audience... Three guys with smiles you can trust: Sebadoh."
"Three more reasons to doubt your boyfriend... Sebadoh: Jason, Eric and Lou."
"Guitar, bass, percussion... The fire, the wind, the heartbeat. A live experience surely among the top ten this year: Sebadoh."
"Three guys who think it's much more important if the music is heartfelt rather than if the music sounds like shit or not: Sebadoh!"
"The east is where the vampires live. The west is where the searchers go. Searching for a reason just like you: Ladies and gentlemen, the sensitive power of Sebadoh."
"In the tradition of Daniel Johnston under a cloud of hiss: Sebadoh!"
"Searching for a reason, just like you. Ladies and gentlemen, the sensitive power of Sebadoh."
"It's not bullshit, it's Sebadoh."
"Distinctive songwriters, any Beatle wannabe, three guys you need to know. Super show, Sebadoh!"
"Unencumbered by structure... masters of melodic, atonal free-association. Three free spirits... Jason, Eric and Lou: Sebadoh!"
"A crystal shining forever moment, courtesy of Sebadoh!"
"Sweet, destructive, turning musical corners at breakneck speed."
"Battling monumental indifference, sadly overlooked as creatively inferior bands are basically treated like geniuses and receive enormous recording budgets. Buns up to corporate wastemongers: Sebadoh!"
"Three dumpy guys with no fashion sense."
"Shaking hands or sharing feasts, three friendly minstrels who aren't very friendly... Reinventing folk music: Sebadoh!"
"Boys and girls, as free as the fingers flow, a heartful drone you should know: Sebadoh."
"Sebadoh: The lonely band that mutters."
"Perhaps smoking pot or drinking beer before setting foot onstage, it's Sebadoh."
"Figuratively pissing in your mouth, humiliating and subduing your spirit, exposing every nook and cranny of the human psyche... Way to go, Sebadoh!"
"Searching for the lowest common denominator, resorting to tired tales of naughty-boy boredom, asking annoying questions and providing bogus answers. Self-serving closet fascists making money from marijuana masturbation."
"Incompetence masquerading as inspiration, inspiration mistaken for true talent, a spectre of egocentric behavior sputtering wildly out of control.  Ladies and gentlemen, indie rock's newest unrecognized genius of songwriting sucker-punch, in a minivan for a six-week tour: Sebadoh!"
"Taking every opportunity to subtly manipulate your expectations for a moment's amusement.  Becoming suddenly bored at your immature attempt to engage our approval with your typical butt-licking fanboy fervor: Sebadoh!"
"Driving dozens of college-age lemmings off the cliff of limited imagination. Smashing their soft skulls on the jagged boulders of our bitter sarcasm... Three assholes: Sebadoh!"
"Laughing at your shortcomings, tactlessly wielding destructive honesty to protect themselves from true feeling, eagerly butt-fucking your grandpa."
"Turning personal vendetta and small-minded revenge tactics into eventual cult status... The only man in the world who truly appreciated the genius of the Swans: Lou Barlow!"
"Rescuing wounded animals and diligently nursing them back to health and returning them to their woodland homes: Sebadoh!"
"Putting down everything, judging all as lame.  But for all their hype as something new, they play the same old game.  Another letdown, another reason to do it yourself: Sebadoh!"

Some of today's pompous indie-hero windbags (Arcade Fire, Conor Oberst, and Radiohead / Thom Yorke come to mind quickly) could learn a lot from Lou and the boys on this track.

Here's a pic I found a few weeks ago of a pair of flyers created by the NOLADIY guys.  They apparently date back to at least 2006, maybe earlier. The one on the left is a spoof of the "punk police" (people who decide whether or not a band is worthy of remaining relevant), I guess.  (I think I remember reading that it was put up in protest of a gig at One Eyed Jacks by the Dead Kennedys after they had reformed without Jello Biafra, but I could be totally wrong.)  Pretty simple and effective... but the one on the right really stopped me in my tracks:

Reverse psychology can be a great weapon...

Best / least pompous bio I've probably ever seen, found today on IMDB's message boards for the movie School Daze: LadyGlamSlam - "I was born, I grew, I learned, there was pain, I got fat, then there was some sex scenes, roll credits."

Planets with similar climates: None

Billy Reid >> As long as you commit, it will always work

Billy Reid - "White Chicks And Gang Signs"

(self-released, 2006)

You may remember this song when its video was briefly a viral sensation several years ago.  I was so obsessed with it that I told or emailed everyone I could about it.  As with all great works of art, every word of it is still relevant today, or at least can be used by future sociologists / historians to determine the zeitgeist of a certain era.

"What she said"

I don't know if it did anything to curb the overusage of gang hand signage among white females in North America.  If anything, it may have glorified it and caused it to even spread overseas.  I'm not totally against the usage of gang signs, and I've been known to throw up a Wesside (Westside), but only in emergencies.  Check out Reid's website Very Tasteful to see the wide array of stuff he does with comedic panache.  This song was compiled on a digital album called Very Tasteful: Volume One (available on Amazon and iTunes) in 2009.

I did not vote for Obama in '08 because I didn't think he had enough experience.  So I cast a protest vote against the Republicans by voting for Ralph Nader that year, as I had in '00.  I'm glad Obama was able to overcome the overtly racist attacks on him over the last 4 years, starting literally on day 1 of his first term, with Mitch McConnell's infamous "We will block literally everything he tries to do over the next four years" pledge.  The incredibly creepy, devious, and out-of-touch Mitt Romney never really had a chance in this race, and he literally invented Obamacare in Massachussetts, so there's that.  The Republicans' voter suppression tactics backfired.  Using the Benghazi scandal backfired.  The concept of having a Republican president, Republican House, Republican Senate, and ultra-conservative Supreme Court (bye bye, Roe v. Wade) was enough to get lots of people out to the polls who normally wouldn't have.  Republicans are doing very well in the House, but have now lost 5 of the last 6 popular votes in U.S. Presidential elections.  (Remember, Al Gore won the popular vote by half a million votes in 2000.)  This coincides with Rush Limbaugh's rise to power as the undisputed voice of conservative America in the early '90s.  Coincidence?  Rush's salary of $50 million a year does not seem to be providing his employers with much in the way of hard results, and he in fact seems to be simply helping the opposition get elected, time and time again.  Just my observations as a politics junkie and believer / hoper in the future existence of a third party in America.  This will not happen in my lifetime, of course.  I voted for Obama this time, mainly as a fuck-you to the current crop of rabid, secessionary, antebellum Republicans, even though I don't really agree with Obamacare and some other things, such as the fact that he didn't close Guantanamo Prison as he had promised back in '07/08.  Presidential votes don't even matter in my state anyway, since it always votes red; only "swing states" matter, and Obama won 8 of the 9 that were designated as such this year.  The other 41 states were pretty much ignored altogether.

Related: Ted Nugent is right, you guys, we do have a problem with makers and takers:

You can see this is based on 2004-5 data, before California and Florida tanked due to the housing crisis.  But it was also before Katrina, so I bet my state is now #1 in the righthand column of this list.

Twitter racists react to 'that nigger' getting reelected

Some concert recaps:

Fri. Nov. 9: Future Islands + Talk Normal + Kindest Lines at the Spanish Moon in Baton Rouge.

I got a lot of strange looks due to my James Chance & The Contortions shirt that says WHITE CANNIBAL.  NOLA band KL opened unannounced, and impressed the crowd with about half an hour of synthy post-punk.  They opened with their single "Destructive Paths To Live Happily," as they usually seem to do.  Talked with their very loquacious guitarist Jack a lot the rest of the night about shared favorite bands (Chameleons, Comsat Angels) and about the drama (suicide, onstage fights, label bankruptcy) surrounding his previous band, The Public.  He insisted I take a free copy of the "Destructive Paths" 7" and I declined, telling him I already had it.  I offered him a few dollars for it but he refused, so I graciously took it.  Talk Normal were the reason I went to this show and they were badass.  A female duo: one on drums and lead vocals, another on guitar/bass and occasional lead vocals.  They had an abrasive but oddly melodic sound, not unlike Live Skull or Sonic Youth's more acidic songs.  The drummer is very entertaining and the guitarist is very icy and badass in her own way.  Most of the crowd was pushed to the rear corners (and upstairs balcony) of the club by the band's onslaught, but they cheered heartily after every song.  The lack of bodies up front allowed me to get this photo; check out the drummer's neck:

In addition to all these pedals, guitarist Sarah Register also had a large looping pedal unit of some sort off to the left; she used it a lot towards the end.  l freaking love this pic.

Bought this from them at the merch table afterwards: Sugarland CD, Secret Cog CD-R EP, "Lone General" 7". (Note: My 7" is pressed defectively and is essentially unplayable, even though it looks totally fine.  So be forewarned if buying it.)  If I had known it was a CD-R instead of a CD, I would've bought Secret Cog on 12" for the same price ($7).

Future Islands are a strange synth-rock band on, surprisingly, Thrill Jockey Records.  Those of us who grew up on Thrill Jockey's esoteric post-rock in the '90s will find the label barely recognizable nowadays, but anyway, the band's frontman is one of the most charismatic you will ever see.  The only way I can describe him is a cross between Jack Black, Morrissey, Peter Steele (of Type O Negative), and Har Mar Superstar.  He does some really cool, Ronnie James Dio-esque stage antics, and announced to the crowd that he had just eaten two cheeseburgers.  They played some new, unnamed songs.  At the merch table afterwards, Talk Normal's email signup list had only 2 names on it (one of them mine of course), while Future Islands' list had about 20.  I recommended Hovercraft and Lozen to Talk Normal, and they wrote it in their smartphone to check out later.  I actually typed in three specific Hovercraft songs for them; even though Hovercraft were much more spacey and atmospheric, their guitarist did some noise wrangling that Talk Normal sometimes does.  It turns out TN's guitarist is a sound engineer with a very impressive list of projects, such as most of Broken Water's releases.  (She told me they actually played with Broken Water.)

I got home and found out I actually did NOT own the "Destructive Paths" 7", so I was glad Jack made me take it.  A good ending to a very interesting night...

Sat. Nov. 10: Finally saw The Right Stuff and was pretty impressed.  I have to say Chuck Yeager is the world's ultimate badass.

Sun. Nov. 11: He Can Jog at McKeown's Books And Difficult Music.

He Can Jog is a guy from Milwaukee who makes glitchy, ambient electronic music via circuit-bending and real-time use of some sort of software that he apparently writes himself.  His bandmate used a melodica and some sort of keyboard.  The crowd was about 15 people, but they seemed to be really digging it.  Reminded me a lot of Oval.  HCG played here in 2008 as a trio but I didn't go.  Bought a Kennech Koch book called Thank You and Other Poems (1963) and a compendium of works by "punk poet" Steven Jesse Bernstein called More Noise, Please! (1996).  Talked with one of the store's owners about Terry Riley's A Rainbow In Curved Air (after I overheard him comparing He Can Jog's music to that album), Steve Reich, and other stuff.  It was a free show, as all of these "An Evening Of Difficult Music" events are.  I dropped $3 in the musician's tip jar but stupidly didn't take a HCJ postcard which contains a download code for one of their recent albums.  Oh well.

Stopped by the Mushroom on my way home and talked to McCall (had incorrectly thought her name was Nicole) for a while.  She said she checked out the Polvo album I had told her about and liked it, but it was not really her thing.  She told me she has not been to many concerts lately, but did get to see Frank Ocean.  Filled out a survey she was doing for a business class.  Didn't buy anything; saw a great Faith No More shirt that I may return to get on Saturday, when I go to the fall Record Raid at Tulane.

Mon. Nov. 12: The Twilight Sad + Errors at the Spanish Moon in B.R.

Listened to a New Fast Automatic Daffodils CD on the drive over.  Stopped at Barnes & Noble, since they have an "arthouse" film sale every November; got Badlands for $6.  It was an incredibly cold*, grim night, and the crowd was very small.  (*About 45º, unheard-of here at this time of year.)  I guess the weather was apropos, considering that these two bands are from not-so-tropical Scotland.  Errors do a synth-enhanced post-rock / krautrock thing.  Some of their songs have vocals (in sort of an androgynous dream-pop style), but the main thing for this band is really dense rhythms.  The drummer is freaking amazing, like Jaki from CAN reincarnated.  They could sell out and do some dumb party-friendly shit like Yeasayer or Passion Pit, or go more highbrow like Tortoise and please the indie geeks, but they seem to be stuck in an uncomfortable place in between.  Their second-to-last song was a cover of Tristeza's "Halo Heads," or so I thought, but turned out not to be.  The chiming guitar part is 100% identical.  I almost asked them about this afterwards, but thought better of it.  Afterwards, I got a Guinness on draught upstairs and then went downstairs.  This redhead bumped into me, literally, and told me "You guys were great!"  "No, I'm not int he band."  "Oh, you have a ski hat on, so I thought you were the singer."  (Mine = green, his = white and tan, with ear flaps. And I look nothing like him.)  Then she leaned her rather prominent bosom onto me and asked me where I was from, then said she was from Mississippi.  I was kind of weirded out by how direct her come-ons were, since I never get this kind of thing directed at me, and I even wondered if she was trying to pick me to win a bet.  Wondered if she had stalked me here from this site, RYM, or last.fm.  My mind is wired in such a way that I was more offended by her intellectual dishonesty than I was happy to have a drunk, giddy woman leaning on me.  Perhaps this is why I never get laid.  (More on this story below.)

I went back upstairs because Errors were so loud that my hearing was probably permanently damaged.  And I just had to stand up close, as I generally do to make bands feel appreciated when there is low turnout.  Dumb.  Right before The Twilight Sad took the stage, I heard "Jeopardy" by The Sound, one of my all-time favorite bands, on the club's p.a. system, which really got me fired up.  TTS did their depressive, angsty Chameleons / Whipping Boy / Interpol gloom-rock for about an hour, with no encore.  The crowd was small but extremely appreciative.  The singer was quite charismatic, not unlike Future Islands' singer; they both did these punching movements in the air, stared up dramatically at the ceiling, roamed like caged animals across the tiny stage, etc.  I liked the last song a lot, called "Rabbit" on the setlist.  This word is not in any of their songs, so I dunno what it was.  Maybe a cover of a song by their friends / countrymen / onetime tourmates Frightened Rabbit?  Talked to guy about A Place To Bury Strangers after noticing his APTBS hoodie.

Now as for the girl whom I had sort of shot down, I felt bad about it, and came downstairs for TTS' final two songs.  (The band's singer had given her a shout out for driving 3 hours.)  We smiled at each other and then I noticed she had buddied up with another guy, so I was happy for her, and kind of relieved.  While driving home, it suddenly dawned on me that she had been trying to find a Baton Rouge dude or dudette (the crowd was 90% male) at whose house she could crash for the night rather than buying a hotel/motel room.  I started cracking up after realizing this.  She saw one of her favorite bands and got her free place to stay, and her boyfriend-for-the-night was none the wiser, so I had to tip my ski hat to her ingenuity.  After buying a TTS album on double vinyl and thanking their guitarist for selecting that song by The Sound, I got a blueberry yogurt at a gas station and embarked on the hour-long drive home.

I have photos and show flyers from all of these, but I'm just gonna post the one Talk Normal pic, since I think people probably get annoyed by posts that have too many images / videos.  The October / November concert flurry is over, and there are basically no good shows coming up.  Time to get caught up on yardwork, reading, situps, and movie watching.  

To finish up what I was talking about in the previous post, I thought of another major category of concert conundrum: Who to see and who to skip at big festivals.  Do you stick around for the entire set by a performer that you like, or wander around and catch a few songs by something outside of your normal comfort zone?  A year or two ago at Jazz Fest, I made sure to hoof it over to catch the very end of Shawn Colvin's set, since I had recently gotten into her early single "Diamond In The Rough".  And sure enough, she played it as her last song, to an almost nonexistent crowd.  That was pretty cool.  Also caught the end of Fats Domino's performance at Jazz Fest '97, since I figured (correctly, it turned out) that it might be my only chance to ever see him.  All this thinking about concerts has been stimulated by my joining of last.fm, since I've been adding lots of listings for shows I've gone to over the years.  The excitement of reliving the ones I've been to slightly outweighs the disappointment of missing certain other shows.  Last.fm is very addictive if you're a serious music fan, so you might want to think twice before joining, since 4 or 5 hours can disappear in about half a nanosecond.  The upside is that you are contributing to a database of music that may aid some other rabid music fan in the future whom you will never meet.  

Planets with similar climates: I have no idea; probably some Das Racist, MC Paul Barman, Lonely Island, etc.

Pharmacy Lounge >> A little insane

Pharmacy Lounge - "Building A Compound"

(Atavistic Records, 1993)

This is from the 1996 edition of the State Of The Union compilation 2xCD, which features 147 songs, all of which are about a minute long.  (I previously posted the song "Backlash" by Margot Mifflin from this compilation.)  All I know about this band is what's in the liner notes, and this might be the only song they ever recorded / released.  Here's the data:

Matt Karn - guitar & vocals; Lokke Highstein - bass; Mark Ludwig - drums.
Excerpt from "WACO: The Rock Opera."
Recorded at Moldy Basement Studio, Madison, WI. 1993.

Ween, Prince, The White Bitch, or The Make Up would've killed to have written this ditty.  Every single second of it is instrumentally amazing down to the tiniest detail, and the vocals are just nailed perfectly, down to the intro and outro chant "Jesus... loved... guns."  It's hard to think of similar songs because this one has such a fast tempo, and most funk / r&b songs are on the slow to medium side.  Overall, it's one of the ultimate songs to use to fill out the spare time on a mix CD.

I don't like most sensations that are bracing, such as riding rollercoasters, eating York Peppermint Patties, or anything involving snow.  I had braces from age 13 to 16.

Based on the band name and song title, I had assumed the lyrics would be about synthesizing molecules in a laboratory.  We made soap in organic chemistry lab once.  But it's clearly about a David Koresh-style cult leader building a compound, as in a heavily-fortified building.  "Making a stockpile, plenty of guns... Screw the feds and the coke they run."  "I'll build a compound and be the messiah."  (Note: For hilarity, Google pics of Koresh playing guitar.)  Folks, think about it: Blowtorch Baby... The inferno at Koresh's Waco compound that was set by the feds... Talk about art imitating life, hello.  This is probably the best song to listen to on the day that Obama's jack-booted henchmen come knocking at our doors to take away all our guns, as Fox News and Tea Partiers (same difference) are always reminding us...  Er, wait, Obama has received a rating of "F" (lowest possible rating) from the Brady Campaign To Prevent Gun Violence, for doing absolutely nothing to curtail gun ownership or gun violence.  ("The group, which endorsed Obama in 2008, gave him an 'F' on every issue it scored, including background checks, gun trafficking, guns in public, the federal assault weapons ban, standing up to the gun lobby and leadership.")  Nah, that was reported in a newspaper, so it can't be trusted, since Obama has complete control over the media.

If anyone can turn me on to any other songs by Pharmacy Lounge, please get in touch.  Since I have no pic of the band, let me just dump some random photos.

Me at House Of Blues in June, about to drink the only appropriate beer with which to celebrate the Flaming Lips' Guinness Record-setting performance.  This was right after we saw this obnoxiously compelling opening act named MNDR, who had replaced Grimes at the last minute:

Camera phone pic by my sister

Coconut palm etching on that black paper that scratches off to reveal glitter underneath.  Made in about 15 mins. using only a disposable plastic dinner knife; total cost: about $1.  (Paper bought at Dollar Tree.)  I highly recommend buying some of this paper and just having a blast:

One of the few times I've signed something on the front rather than on the back.  My sister made a very different etching simultaneously, but I don't have a pic of it.

We all enjoy laughing at pathetic internet commenters.  Golly, SNL even did a skit about it last season.  This comment was so beautiful that I had to take a screenshot of it.  You may remember some topless pics of Kate Middleton surfaced last month, and, as the saying goes, "broke the internet."  Well, check out the critical insight of one Eddy Chorizo on the website of the Mercury News:

(Note: To see this or any other pic on Blogspot full size, drag it into your browser's URL bar and then click on it there.)  After admiring his sentence-construction prowess, I had to wonder if "Eddy" is actually a typo, since most/all guys go by Eddie.  If anyone knows how to contact this fellow so Blowtorch Baby can interview him, let me know.  I'd love to have him review some mp3s that I've posted, particularly stuff like Karlheinz Stockhausen, Scala, and this Pharmacy Lounge song.

Mind-blowing stat of the week: Monday night's game was the 666th Monday Night Football game in history.  In it, the Houston Texans beat the New York Jets.  On the season, Jets QB Mark "Sanchise" Sanchez has a QB rating of 66.6, with 6 TDs and 6 INTs, and has averaged 6.6 yards per pass.  He wears jersey number 6.  He played for Mission Viejo High School, whose mascot was the Diablos.  I've already seen him referred to by the new nickname "Satanchez."  The Jets' backup QB is devout Christian Tim Tebow.

NRA, gun industry once again mine profit from paranoia

Alpacas with post-punk hair

The NFL's campaign against breast cancer is a total scam

Planets with similar climates: Ween - "The Goin' Gets Tough From The Getgo" (1992), !!! - "Intensify" (2000), The Make Up - "Walking On The Dune" (199?), Gil Scott-Heron - "Free Will" (1972), Union Wireless - "Come And Tell Me" (1995), Medium, Medium - "Hungry, So Angry" (1981).

Das Racist >> It's fun to do bad things like rhyme about handguns

Das Racist - "Rainbow In The Dark" [original version]

(self-released, 2010)

After two "mixtapes" which set the underground rap (sorry... "hip hop") world abuzz, Das Racist's debut album, Relax, was unleashed on a label called Greedhead Music, run by DR's own Heems, née Himanshu Kumar Suri.  Their unforgettable and extremely quotable song "hahahaha jk?" (built on a sample of the theme song of the soap opera Days Of Our Lives) was an instant classic that made me sit up and take notice, but the effortless charisma and cool of "Rainbow In The Dark" is what made me a true Das Racist convert.  Highlights: That slightly off-the-beat synth part and all the obscure, geek-friendly lyrical references.  The 2011 version on Relax is slightly spruced-up compared to the mixtape version, but is almost indistinguishable.  (The original 2010 version is about 10 seconds longer: 4:02 vs. 3:52.)  Das Racist is a group that is always one step ahead of the spider; their secret weapon is the ability to subtly parody other rappers' attempts at lampooning lame genres of hip hop.  (Think De La Soul's "Ego Trippin'" video.)  SPIN's review of Relax says "The synth-pop jam 'Booty In The Air' is essentially Das Racist spoofing Lupe Fiasco spoofing mainstream rap."  It goes on to say "Reprised early internet cut 'Rainbow In The Dark' is a welcome oasis of expertly half-assed calm amid the newfound clamor."  (The last line of this song is especially funny because my sister and I's Cuban friend Alex once exclaimed "I can't... They'd put me to work!" when he was asked if he wanted to visit a plantation.)  Here is the origin of the group's name, if you're the last person on earth who was still wondering.  In order to not embarrass yourself further, the first word is pronounced DASS, not DOSS.  I will remind you that this is a professional site, so please, no Dio jokes re: the song title.

I mentioned this concert last year, so go here to read a nano recap and see the extremely great, Wikipedia-worthy, 7-dudes-in-one-shot pic that I took near the triumphant finale.  Note: I just found out the "DJ dude" (who also did some rapping at the beginning of DR's set) is Lakutis.
Despite the band's laid-back flow on record, they were super-energetic live, almost to the point where I'd use the word "frantic" to describe their onstage antics.  They do rap about Four Loko, and I remember jokingly pointing that out to my sister as a possible explanation for their manic energy.  Amazingly, no vids from the show have been put on YouTube yet, despite it being a pretty packed show.  The bizarre film clips that were playing behind them were definitely unexpected, and I can't even begin to describe them, so I won't.  I'm still shocked that they didn't play "hahahaha jk?," but at least I have a reason to try to see them again.  Some girl was hitting on Lakutis after the show outside, and invited him to go the Saint with her.  My sister and I went over there just on the off chance that he or any Das Racist members would show up, but none of them ever did.  Opening act Danny Brown has gone on to become a pretty big star, at least in indie circles, though he has apparently stopped wearing tiger outfits onstage.  Kool A.D. of D.R. recently released two solo albums.  Sorry... two solo "mixtapes."  I guess the only difference is that a mixtape is given away free, oui?  Heems is my favorite Das-er, basically functioning as the Q-Tip of the group with his nonchalant delivery.

Fun Fact: DR's mixtape Shut Up, Dude was named after a lyric in this song.

Fri. Sep. 28: Bought a gorgeous, essentially brand-new La-Z-Boy recliner at Salvation Army for only $140.  Looked at carpet samples beforehand with my mom, but decided to just get my carpet professionally cleaned instead of getting new carpet after realizing that $2.50 a square foot sounds cheap until you extrapolate it out to the size of a living room.

Sat. Sep. 29: Went to the Mushroom and finally got to talk to Sam again for the first time since Jazz Fest.  I found out she's in a band (Trampoline Team).  She asked if I'm going to see Dinosaur Jr., but alas I ain't; tried to talk her and Mike into seeing Godspeed You Black Emperor.  She offered to burn me this Dino Jr. remix album, but I said I'd have to hear some samples first.  Was somewhat amazed to find out she had gone to the Boris concert in Baton Rouge in '07, and also had seen one of MONO's many shows there.  And she casually mentioned Magma(!) when describing some local band's sound...  We both made fun of Ben from Bipolaroid.  I dug out some used CDs (Unwound's Fake Train & Challenge For A Civilized Society; Yo La Tengo's Painful; Suzanne Vega's self-titled) from under the "blue roof" tarp for her to check out.  Picked up Cat Power's Moon Pix on vinyl and showed them the inner sleeve, boasting "This is what my front porch looks like":

Sam replied that her dad in New Jersey has lots of cacti and desert plants too, which really impressed me.  In addition to the Moon Pix LP, I scored the 2-DVD Criterion Collection edition of Paris, Texas for only $4, and a movie called Forty Shades Of Blue.  (Again, no jokes please.)  Mike said his jokey metal / grindcore band Foot was playing 3 hours away in Mississippi that night, and I took a 1-song freebie CD-R of theirs.  Sam said I'm her favorite customer, which, since she's pretty much my favorite person in the world, pretty much made my year.  Though as a Phillies fan, I was not too fond of the fact that she was wearing a Yankees shirt.  (Aren't Jerseyites supposed to be Mets fans?  I know the members of Yo La Tengo are diehard Mets fans, and their name even came from a phrase that a Mets outfielder was known for shouting.)  It was raining, so I ducked into some little place called Favori Deli on Maple St.  Got a very good grilled chicken for myself and a Philly cheese steak for my mom, who was born & raised in Philly.  It's right next door to the former digs of The Camera Shop, which I used to frequent when taking Fine Art Photography at Loyola in '97. I caught the very end of the Fall Garden Fest at City Park, but most of the vendors had already left due to the rain, so I just bought a little lily called Zephyranthes atamasca, which looks like a chive or wild onion plant.  I unfortunately skipped Glish's Come Down EP release party at Circle Bar, just because I don't really like going there and the acoustics are awful, though Sam had informed me that it finally has air conditioning now.  My sister surprisingly bought a Godspeed ticket without me having to even convince her.  I thought she'd want to go to M83, but apparently not, so I might got to that alone, despite how gleefully Hipster Runoff has mocked M83's recent efforts.

Sun. Sep. 30: Took my dad to the airport parking garage to jump the dead battery in his truck.  Went to Barnes & Noble in the rain for a few hours, getting a few things for my sister's birthday.  Hit up the second (final) day of FGF and scored three more native species: Osmanthus americanus (Devilwood or Wild Olive), Amsonia hubrichtii (Narrow Leaf Blue Star), and Hypericum densiflorum or H. frondosum (St. John's Wort).  Somewhat renowned local acoustic guitarist John Rankin gave a chillaxable performance under the glass dome of the fern / cycad / orchid house at the Botanical Garden, accompanied by a sax player and a guy on upright bass.  I used to walk by his open door at Loyola in '01 and hear him giving one-on-one guitar lessons.  I guess he still teaches there, but I don't feel like checking.  I used to have his '84 LP Something I Ate.  Anyway, it's not often you get to see a jazz concert attended by about 5 people inside a greenhouse at a botanical garden in the rain.  If this sounds appealing to you, move to New Orleans, because I really doubt you'll find that anywhere else other than maybe Amsterdam or San Francisco.  (Which reminds me... Note to self: Move back to New Orleans.)  Drew Brees torched the Packers in Green Bay for 400 yards by the end of the 3rd quarter, but the Saints still found a way to lose, falling to 0-4.

Mon. Oct. 1: The first day of the Times-Picayune's mega-controversial shift to only putting out a newspaper 3 days a week after 175 YEARS as a daily paper.  Why they couldn't have just trimmed it down to 4 or 5 days a week is beyond me.  This happened because the paper sold out to a cheapskate conglomerate based in the NE U.S. called Advance Publications, which already was notorious for killing off Ann Arbor's newspaper after buying it.  And word has it that they're giving Syracuse's paper the axe next.  N.O. is now the largest city in America without a daily newspaper.  Baton Rouge's The Advocate is making an aggressive foray into the N.O. market to try to fill this void.  As a tree fanatic, I can't say I'm too distraught, considering that lots (millions? tens of millions?) of trees will be saved by the shift to digital.  I still refuse to read novels on any format other than actual paper, though.  Extremely psyched to see Merchandise & Glish at The Big Top on Friday, and for the first Obama-Romney debate tonight.  Working on a metal / punk mix CD to bring to the dudes at the Mushroom, since that's what they mainly listen to.  But I'm miffed that the mix I painstakingly made for Sam never made it to her.  And thus ends a post that began with me talking about "mixtapes."

Speaking of Alex, here he is, valiantly holding the purse of his extremely wasted wife Tace at the Orpheus parade in February.  This girl is a doctor and can outdrink the entire U.S. Senate without even blinking, so it was quite a shock to see her practically unable to walk or form a coherent sentence:

(Camera phone pic by my sister.)  I'm in the green hoodie, just a few days before the Trayvon Martin hoodiegate incident broke.  FWIW, I wore a baby blue hoodie to see Boris the previous November, just to stand out among the black-clad metal masses.

Planets with similar climates: Special Ed - "I Got It Made" & "I'm The Magnificent" (1989), MC Paul Barman - "Make No Mistake" (2002), Poor Righteous Teachers - "Can I Start This?" (1990), Eminem - "My Name Is" (1998), Flight Of The Conchords - "I Told You I Was Freaky" (2009).

Margot Mifflin >> Do you feel yourself to be capable of being manipulated?

Margot Mifflin - "Backlash"

(Arrest Records, 1992; reissued by MuWorks Records, 1993, & Atavistic Records, 1996)

This is on the tremendous and varied compilation State Of The Union.  It originally came out as an LP on Zoar Records in 1982, obviously without this song.  I have the 1992 CD version on Arrest Records and the dramatically expanded double-CD 1996 version on Atavistic Records, both of which do feature this song.  (I ripped this mp3 from the 1996 edition.)  The gimmick is that every song on all versions of SOTU is about 1 minute long, making each artist really strive to get to the point quickly, often with fascinating results.  See the full tracklisting of each edition by clicking the links under the "Notes" section here.  Some of the more well-known contributors: John Lurie (of the Lounge Lizards and an ill-advised acting career), Arto Lindsay (DNA, etc.), the late actor Spalding Gray, turntable virtuoso Chrtistian Marclay, Adele Bertei, Tuli Kupferberg (of The Fugs), noise rock producer Martin Bisi, Fred Frith, Borbetomagus w/ Voice Crack, drummer Ikue Mori (DNA, Death Ambient, etc.), God Is My Co-Pilot, Marc Ribot, John Zorn w/ Yamatsuka Eye, Nicholas Collins, Syd Straw, Mofungo, Henry Kaiser, John Duncan, Ui, PainKiller, Penny Arcade, Chris Haskett (Rollins Band guitarist), Maggie "Hey Baby" Estep, Allen Ginsberg, Lenny Kaye, DJ Spooky, Andrea Parkins, Sim Cain (Rollins Band drummer), Zeena Parkins, Lukas Ligeti (son of György), Kurt Ralske (a.k.a. Ultra Vivid Scene), M. Doughty (of Soul Coughing), and a Mars Williams / Ken Vandermark sax duo.  However, most of the artists are complete unknowns, with baffling and/or awesome names like Krackhouse, Grafted Media Devil, A Thousand Tiny Fingers, Circuit Redux, Pharmacy Lounge, Sonorexia, Babytooth, Jody Dunaway (she plays balloons... really), and Dim Sum Clip Job.  That was honestly not an attempt at keyword spamming.

Unfortunately, as far as I can tell, this song doesn't feature Mifflin herself on vocals, but maybe the intro yodel is her, or maybe the closing voice?  The song has an abstract feminist undertone that can be ascertained by the line of condescending questions asked by the sampled male voices; the female voice at the end ties it all together.  It's amazing that this was done 20 years ago, considering how many bands would be considered edgy and fresh if they were to put it out in 2012.  The layered mechanical drumbeat is almost industrial in some parts.

The bio on Mifflin's website says: "Margot Mifflin is an author, journalist, and professor who writes about women, art, and contemporary culture. The author of Bodies of Subversion: A Secret History of Women and Tattoo, she has written for The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, The Believer, ARTnews, and Salon.com. Her book The Blue Tattoo: The Life of Olive Oatman was published in April, 2009. An associate professor in the English Department of Lehman College of the City University of New York (CUNY), Mifflin also directs the Arts and Culture program at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, where she teaches arts journalism. Mifflin has appeared as a lecturer and keynote speaker at dozens of colleges, universities and museums, including Barnard College, Parsons School of Design, Rhode Island School of Design and Los Angeles MOCA. She appeared in MSNBC’s documentary “Women and Tattoo” (2001) and CNN’s “Women of the Ink” (1998). She was raised in a Quaker family in Swarthmore, Pa. and now lives with her family in Nyack, New York."

Here is a film piece called Atlante by Grazia Toderi that was being shown at the CAC (Contemporary Arts Center) as part of Prospect.2.  I think this is the entire thing, and I've read that it was shot in Portugal.  It was projected simultaneously onto two screens on walls that were slightly angled in towards each other:

On Saturday I stopped by at the monthly (last Saturday of each month) Arts Market on S. Carrolton for the first time.  Most of the art was pretty tourist-y.  Some freak wind gusts came through and blew some vendors' shit over, which actually amused me.  Then I went to National Art & Hobby to get an easel my parents had gotten me for my birthday.  (I've never owned one.)  I picked up a free flipbook-sized publication there, by some publisher called America Sutra.  It's simply titled Love Song on the cover, with no author name or publishing credits, and is full of intentional typos.  The back cover just says americasutra.com, and going to that site told me that their books are apparently by someone named Amit Desai.  I think this must be some sort of teaser for their upcoming book series.  Or maybe it's some elaborate hoax?  Very cryptic.  You know I love palm trees, hence you know I had to post this sample:

That line reminds me of House Of Sand And Fog, in which the main guy cuts down all the trees on his new property that block his view of the ocean.  After leaving the art store, I drove down Magazine St. a mile or so and then pulled over to check out a garage sale.  After picking out three CDs sans cases (Sade - Love Deluxe, Chet Baker - Let's Get Lost - The Best Of Chet Baker Sings, and Roberta Flack - Killing Me Softly), I found a dollar bill on the ground, and then went to pay for the goods.  "Just give me a dollar," she (I overheard that she's a photographer named Alex Bono) said.  Yeah, I felt a little guilty.  But factoring in the hundreds of CDs, tapes, records, books, etc. that I've given away to thrift stores over the years, I don't mind getting my karma returned once every so often.  The Sade CD was quite a coup, since I'd been wanting it for a long time.  Fun Fact: I could've also bought Public Enemy's Apocalypse '91 CD there, but just looking at the names of the terrible songs printed on the CD elicited a flood of memories and emotions, bringing me back to the day I bought it (namely, the week it came out in October '91).  I had to put it down and walk away.  Let some other shmuck waste 33⅓ cents on it.  Then I went to a Goodwill on the way home and came across what I always think of as a "suicide donation" or "death donation."  By that I mean lots of obscure albums by someone who must've been savvy enough to know he/she could get some good money for them at any used CD store.  Hence the presence of them in a thrift store means the person probably died, and his/her parents or spouse just gave the music away.  I got CDs by Christian Marclay, Black Box Recorder, Lync, Themselves, Furry Things, Morcheeba, Slowride (a pre-True Widow band), Lamb, Blackalicious, M83, Myshkin, and Breaks Co-Op.  There was even one by annoying drone merchants Pelt which I passed on.  I also passed on a recent one by Trail Of Dead, whom I used to worship back when they didn't suck.  Anyway, R.I.P. dude or dudette, and R.I.P. Don Cornelius.

Planets with similar climates: Negativland - "Methods Of Torture" (1987), Emily XYZ - "Put A Little Distance" (2000), The Art Of Noise - "Beat Box" (1983), Was (Not Was) - "Dad, I'm In Jail" (~1987), Kallabris - "Untitled (#2)" (1987), Public Enemy - "War At 33⅓" (1990).

Angry Samoans >> I can't take it no more

I can't believe it's still California Month, tremor #53:

Angry Samoans - "You Stupid Jerk"

(Bad Trip Records, 1982 / Triple X Records, 1995)

This is from an Angry Samoans compilation CD called The Unboxed Set which I bought shortly after Katrina for 50 cents at a flea market.  It was badly water-damaged and the booklet was stuck together; I later gave it to a thrift store or threw it away.  The song is originally from their 1982 album Back From Samoa.  I don't think any of the band members were Samoan, or ever went there.  This song goes out to Newt Gingrich, as does the Samoans' more complex ditty "You Stupid Asshole."

The Muffs covered this song on their '93 debut album, under the name "Stupid Jerk."

Today I played basketball (a few games of four-on-four and several games of 21) for about two hours, and yesterday I shot by myself for three hours.

How much would I be willing to pay for a vial of Juliana Hatfield's sweat?  You might be surprised!

Planets with similar climates: Ween - "You Fucked Up" (1989), The Raincoats - "Go Away" (1980).

The Moog Cookbook >> A simple prop to occupy my time

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.

Back cover of their self-titled album

On some Japanese magazine, 1998

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).

Suburban Lawns >> Our data was merged and love was born

California Month continued, tremor #38:

Suburban Lawns - "Computer Date"

(Suburban Industrial Records / I.R.S. Records, 1981)

Suburban Lawns didn't release very much music, but they are apparently a cult favorite to this day.  I don't know much about them, and don't have much desire to learn more about them, but I have determined that the band members were actually not nerdy, at least based on this "interview" clip:

Compare them to the legit dweebs who make up nerd-pop bands like Devo, 2 Live Jews, or They Might Be Giants...  I think I got this song on eMusic in 2003, but I'm not sure.

LP back cover

From marriedtothesea.com

I skipped a St. Vincent concert the other day, but watched it stream for free at the Tipitina's website.  She/they covered one of my favorite songs ever, "She Is Beyond Good And Evil" by The Pop Group, and this has apparently been done at every show on this tour.  She/they also recently did a decent cover of "Kerosene" by Big Black, another of my favorite songs ever.  I'm not a fan of covers, but you have to give SV props for those two.

The new episodes of Beavis & Butt-head that debuted last night were painfully unfunny, which was kind of like a dagger to the heart of someone like myself who can recite almost every line from the original series.  So I spent most of my time watching that Rangers-Cardinals game, which is already being called arguably the greatest World Series game ever.  I'm pulling for the Rangers, because they've never won a title, and their skipper Ron Washington is from NOLA & is one of the nicest guys in sports, and I like the whole Josh Hamilton redemption story.  But mainly because Tony La Russa and Albert Pujols are creepy, charisma-free robots who probably moonlight in seal clubbing or illegal arms laundering when they're not busy scowling and complaining in the dugout.

Planets with similar climates: Devo - "Girl U Want" (1980), Hybrid Kids - "D'Ya Think I'm Sexy?" (1980), XTC - "Pulsing Pulsing" (1979).


Speaking of creepy people, check out this amazing article: Is Aleister Crowley the father of Barbara Bush?  After reading it and comparing the photos of the two of them, one's only answer is an obvious "Yes."

Negativland >> Place someone's head inside of a bell and ring it

California Month, tremor #6:

Negativland - "Methods Of Torture"

(SST Records, 1987 / Seeland Records, 1999)

Negativland is named after a sinister instrumental by the German band Neu!, which is one of only a few non-terrible songs Neu! ever did, in my opinion, and which arguably invented "post-rock."   Though it's not as infamous as Negativland's song "Christianity Is Stupid" or their "cover" of U2's "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For," or as satirical as "Drink It Up," this song has been a longtime favorite of mine when I've needed to fill in a minute or so on a mix CD.

I got this album, Escape From Noise, on CD in the early '00s and on LP a few years ago.  (Original LP copies came with a yellow-and-black bumper sticker reading "CAR BOMB," after one of the album's more notorious songs.)  It was reissued on Negativland's own label, Seeland Records, after a messy legal dispute with SST; in fact, I can only think of a few bands that did not have legal disputes with SST.  (This mp3 was taken from my SST CD, not the reissue.)  I also have the fascinating book (which comes with a free CD) about Negativland's crippling legal battle with U2's lawyers, called Fair Use: The Letter U And The Numeral 2.  Notice I specified "U2's lawyers," because U2 themselves had no problem with Negativland spoofing their hit song, and The Edge actually spoke out in Negativland's defense.  This didn't stop indie knuckleheads from knee-jerkingly casting U2 as bogeymen in the whole situation, and SST even famously sold "FUCK BONO" t-shirts for many years.  (In fact, seeing this shirt in SST mailorder catalogs in the '90s is a big part of why I hated U2 for many years before discovering how great their early '80s stuff is.)  Anyway, if you're a band making "plunderphonic" sound collages, things can get pretty ugly if someone disapproves of your samples, or even cover art, so choose them wisely.  Nowadays when I make collages based on cut-up magazine images, I try to write down who the photographers of the original images were, just in case I ever have to credit them in the future when I become famous.
Anyway, the story behind Negativland's next album, Helter Stupid, is pretty fascinating, so go read about it.

A fictitious (I think) Joy Division GameBoy; from retrojapan.tumblr.com

Creepily cool green spider I found on my ginger plants, 10/1/09.  Apparently a non-native species that hitched a ride in on some plants.

This date palm (Phoenix dactylifera; unknown cultivar) which I bought three years ago had grown so much that its roots had cracked through the bottom of its (approx. 20 gallon) pot.  Palm roots tend to look like white gummi worms, much different than the roots of regular trees, and they tend to go to the bottom of a pot and circle around like crazy, often raising the plant up in its pot.  So I got fed up and decided to throw it in the ground today rather than finding a new pot for it.  You can see how big it is by using the air conditioning unit in the background for scale.  Those are some little pups growing at the base of the mama plant.  I planted it in a spot where I'd accidentally killed a small loquat tree last winter by using too much copper fungicide on it.

Speaking of loquats... (Ooooh, cliffhanger...)

Planets with similar climates: The Styrenes - "The Social Whirlpool" (1977) & "Drano In Your Veins" (1975), Hüsker Dü - "How To Skin A Cat" (1984), Was (Not Was) - "Hello Dad, I'm In Jail" (1987), Ween - "The H.I.V. Song" (1994), Milk Cult - "Clown Party" (1992), a few of the the Tetris theme songs.