So here we are, after only 20 months, at the final Talking Heads album. Now, I know it's obvious that I'm going to say this album is underrated, but I'm gonna anyway, cause it's true. I know it's not as good as the early ones, but honestly people, be fair. That hardly makes it bad does it?
Every week I post a song, for no reason other than it's fabulous. It may be old or new, obscure or over-exposed. No explanation, no fancy spiel, just solid gold popular music. Oh, and it's a secret, so you'll just have to trust me.
Every week I post a song, for no reason other than it's fabulous. It may be old or new, obscure or over-exposed. No explanation, no fancy spiel, just solid gold popular music. Oh, and it's a secret, so you'll just have to trust me.
"I'm 6'3", and maintain a very consistent panda bear shape." - Louis Fyne
True Stories, apart from being a splendid album, is also an even better film. Directed by David Byrne and released in 1986, it profiles a small Texas town called Virgil and the collection of oddballs who live there. It doesn't have a story as such, it just drifts along towards the town's Celebration of Special-ness, a pageant where the towns folk perform various acts of varying quality.
Byrne appears as the nameless narrator, introducing us to the characters, but never really intruding on their lives, apart from when he goes to dinner with the happily married couple who haven't spoken for 15 years. The closest we get to a narrative is through Louis Fyne (played by the always excellent John Goodman), and his quest for marriage. We also meet 'the cute woman', the preacher, the woman who doesn't leave her bed, the voodoo practicioner, and 'the lying woman'. These characters were inspired by stories that Byrne read in the National Enquirer, and other tabloids.
But despite, a fairly shallow level of characterisation, they don't feel like characatures or freaks, but rather they are likable misfits, with a story that needs telling. They are people too, godammit...
And of course, there are the songs, which are tremendous, and are, with the exception of Wild Wild Life, performed by the cast. Not all of the cast versions are available yet, but below you can find two of them.
And according to Roger Ebert's review here, there are 50 sets of twins in this movie. If that's not a reason to watch the film, then I don't know what is.
Buy them the cd and dvd here. July 18th is the the day of the troubadour.
I have only just noticed that Alan McGee had been blogging for the Guardian, and the thought that passed through my mind was something along the lines of "What's the rampant self-publicist on about nowadays?" His blogs are only marginally insightful, and for the most part, rather pointless. I would imagine that this impression I have of him (and I don't think I'm alone) comes from three things: his cocky demeanour, that to be fair seems to be part of the whole svengali role that he inhabits (see Malcolm McClaren, Tony Wilson, Simon Napier Bell, et al),the fact that he discovered of Oasis and him having been the manager of The Libertines (the most overrated British band since Oasis).
For me, it was Oasis that killed Creation Records, not the massive overspend on My Bloody Valentines Loveless. After signing them, he only signed one more decent band (admittedly the fantastic Super Furry Animals). The money from Oasis could have been used to grow the label by enriching it with a diverse roster of signings, as has happened with Domino and the money from the Franz / Monkeys windfall, and to a lesser extent by Rough Trade with Arcade Fire.
Maybe Oasis made him lazy. If you can sit around surrounded pots of cash, then swan off to Downing Street, you are less likely to be found the next night trawling dingy Camden nightspots looking for the next big thing. Maybe too much success made the arrogance that is in part necessary, spiral out of control. Its amazing how he lost his ability to spot a good band (Heavy Stereo?!), especially when you consider the quality of his earlier signings for Creation.
And that's why I don't like to think about McGee as mouthy Britpop entrepreneur (even if it's true), but instead as the man who brought me some of my favourite music of the late 80's and early 90's. The albums released in that era make Creation one of the greatest record labels in the story of popular music, and that's not hyperbole. They released Screamadelica, Bandwagonesque, Loveless, Copper Blue, Fuzzy Logic, and Giant Steps. That's got to put Creation up there in the pantheon, surely?
Every week I post a song, for no reason other than it's fabulous. It may be old or new, obscure or over-exposed. No explanation, no fancy spiel, just solid gold popular music. Oh, and it's a secret, so you'll just have to trust me. Solid Gold Popular Music Number Four
On our recent trip to London, Bruna and I were lucky enough to squeeze in Adem's concert at the lovely Union Chapel. It was a happy coincidence as he is a mutual favourite of ours. Suffice to say, he was excellent in his natural setting, acoustically that is, as were we, not as religious folks but as puritans, enjoying the smoke, alcohol and div free environment.
Adem's latest album, Takes, is composed of twelve covers of his favourite songs from 1991 to 2001. It is tremendous collection, with just the right balance of old favourites (Bjork's Unravel), forgotten gems (The Breeder's Invisible Man), the obscure (Pinback's Loro), the uncool (lisa Germano's Slide) and the surprising (Aphex Twin's To Cure A Weakling Child + Boy/Girl Song). This last song is the standout, a fantastic and catchy rendition. Singalong-a-Aphex, who'd of thought it, eh?
The album never feels forced, you can tell that he chose these songs because he loves them, not because he wants to show off his record collection. There is nothing remotely hipster about it, which makes it fun for the rest of us.
Every week I post a song, for no reason other than it's fabulous. It may be old or new, obscure or over-exposed. No explanation, no fancy spiel, just solid gold popular music. Oh, and it's a secret, so you'll just have to trust me.
I've never been a musician as I don't have the stones to stand in front of a room of strangers and entertain them. But my passion, and I hope my knowledge, of pop music is deep, profound and an essential part of my being. I trust my ears, they have never let me down, which leads to me believe I could be a great svengali, if you are prepared to ignore the admittedly rather central point that they often have more charisma than their charges.
So when I consider the kind of band I would construct, in order to destroy all other pop music through their sheer brilliance, I like to think of them in terms of other bands. A kind of hybrid recipe, if you will. I want power of James Brown and the Famous Flames, I want the catchiness of Abba, the soul of Otis Redding, the oddness of Screaming Jay Hawkins, the humour of Devo, the punk energy of Little Richard and the authority of Public Enemy. Oh, and the brass of Sly and The Family Stone, because I love brass in rock 'n roll.
There are problems with this plan of mine, mainly the fact that it is impossible to be that good, (and anyway, if it were achieved, surely all other artists in all genres would cease to create as it would become obvious that their endeavours were wasted in the face of this new phenomena.) Secondly, someone has already tried it, and they were called Rocket From The Crypt.
The band was formed in San Diego in 1990, and they recorded several fantastic albums of pure rock n roll music, filtered through decades of soul, funk, glam, punk and hardcore. They took all these influences and melded them to some of the most immaculate pop songs of the nineties. You may even remember them for their number twelve UK hit On A Rope, which gave them the opportunity to perform on Top of the Pops.
Of course in a fair and just world the song would have reached number one, and be played at weddings and funerals across the world ad infinitum. Why we don't live in this world has yet to be explained to me yet.
There were many other reasons to love RFTC, aside from the music (as if that's not enough):
1) They wore matching clothes. All the best bands wear uniform. See Devo, the Beach Boys, Talking Heads, Daft Punk, the White Stripes, Kraftwerk etc.
2) They had a roadie who used to come on stage and dance and sing backing vocals. He also wore the uniform.
4) At Glastonbury, they parted the crowd and persuaded the schmucks to make a huge mud slide.
5) They breathed fire.
6) They had aliases (Speedo, Petey X, ND, Apollo 9, Atom, JC 2000), which is always cool.
But the main reasons, for me, to love RFTC were the incredible live shows and obviously the songs. I guess I was lucky to have been a teenager at a time when bands like this could get on the cover of the NME and been seen performing live on prime time BBC. But this shouldn't be about nostalgia, as even though they split up two years ago, their music is as fresh as it ever was. This is an important band, and should be valued as such. Spread the word and enjoy the punk heat blast.
Every week I post a song, for no reason other than it's fabulous. It may be old or new, obscure or over-exposed. No explanation, no fancy spiel, just solid gold popular music. Oh, and it's a secret, so you'll just have to trust me.
Firstly, he does guest vocals on the new Fatboy Slim project, the Brighton Port Authority. You can say what you want about Norman Cook, but you can't deny he knows his way around a pop tune, so the combination of the two of them, with Dizzee Rascal, is pretty irresistable. Nice cheeky video too.
Secondly, he has turned a building in New York into a giant musical instrument. Well, musical is debatable, but it seems pretty cool to me.
Here's a new feature at jamesinbrasil. Every week I will post a song, for no reason other than it's fabulous. It may be old or new, obscure or over-exposed. No explanation, no fancy spiel, just solid gold popular music. Oh, and it's a secret, so you'll just have to trust me. Solid Gold Popular Music Number One
Hello, my name's James and I live in Brazil. On my blog I like to talk about popular music and Brazil, but not normally at the same time. If you'd like me to remove any mp3's then email jamesinbrasil@yahoo.com.The picture above is by the artist Richard Colman. Check him out, he's great: http://www.richardcolmanart.com/
So here we are, after only 20 months, at the final Talking Heads album. Now, I know it's obvious that I'm going to say this album is underrated, but I'm gonna anyway, cause it's true. I know it's not as good as the early ones, but honestly people, be fair. That hardly makes it bad does it?
On our recent trip to London, Bruna and I were lucky enough to squeeze in Adem's concert at the lovely Union Chapel. It was a happy coincidence as he is a mutual favourite of ours. Suffice to say, he was excellent in his natural setting, acoustically that is, as were we, not as religious folks but as puritans, enjoying the smoke, alcohol and div free environment. 
Maybelline
Hippy Dippy Do
My Arrow's Aim
On A Rope
Lipstick
Ghost Shark
Too Many Balls
