“When I was DJing, playing Can, Liquid Liquid, ESG, all that kind of stuff, I became kind of cool for a moment, which was a total anomaly. And when I heard other DJs playing similar music I was like: ‘Fuck! I’m out of a job! These are my records!’ But it was like someone had crept into my brain and said all these words that I hate. Did I make the records? Did I fuck! So, I started becoming horrified by my own attitude. I had this moment of glory though. People would use me to DJ just to get them cool. They’d be like ‘It’s the cool rock disco guy’ and this was really weird. And to be honest I was afraid that this new found coolness was going to go away and that’s where ‘Losing My Edge’ comes from. It is about being horrified by my own silliness. And then it became a wider thing about people who grip onto other people’s creations like they are their own.”
I don’t know; would you expect me to love Ya Soshla s Uma by faux-lesbian Russian popsters t.A.T.u.? I first heard this on the greatly missed gabba.cc. The comment there explains why:
“Stick with the original version. For me, it’s more evocative/ambiguous/direct when you don’t understand what they’re saying, like ripping patois.”
I initially picked Behind the Mask as my guilty pleasure because I thought that the track was by Eric Clapton. While I have no problem admitting my love for the track, the guilt came from liking work by a man who I suspect might be an idiot.
Shows how much I know, though. While hunting down videos I realised that the original version is by Yellow Magic Orchestra.
Now I feel less guilty about liking a Clapton song (hey, it’s a cover). However, I’m now slightly ashamed of having falling into the trap of thinking that the electronic musicians must have covered the more traditional musician. Sorry, YMO.
In my defence I wasn’t really aware of YMO when I was a young’un but the Clapton version was played regularly in our house (thanks, Dad). I know that this isn’t the commonly-accepted meaning of guilty pleasure but the standard one never made much sense to me.
Aha, an easy one. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to understand how a pastiche band as witless, charmless and talentless as Oasis managed to achieve worldwide commercial and (worse) critical success.
The whining vocals in Roll With It makes me cringe every time.
I’ve taken such a long break from this that it’s going to take too long to get through them if I stick to the schedule. Instead, I’m going to post each as soon as they’re ready, on the presumption that no one is really reading anyway. Apologies if you are.
I discovered Pixies in 1993, a few months after they’d split up. Great timing. I begged C90 copies of their albums from friends and then started methodically buying every Pixies album and single as fast as my limited teenage finances could allow.
Trompe Le Monde, their 5th album, is my favourite. This seems to be an unpopular opinion with Pixies fans. I’m also a huge fan of Frank Black’s debut eponymous album which features songs that probably would have been on the 6th Pixies album. This is an even less popular opinion, only slightly validated by the recent inclusion of I Heard Ramona Sing on the Scott Pilgrim vs. the World soundtrack.
Picking a song by your favourite band is a tricky task. I’ve plumped for Alec Eiffel, the ode to French engineer Alexandre Gustave Eiffel. I often find the lyrics floating around inside my head, after which I invariably steal them and use them out of context.
Keeping low doesn’t make no sense
Sometimes people can be oh so dense
They didn’t want it but he built it anyway
Little Eiffel stands in the archway
Selected YouTube comment:
“I’ve decided officially today the pixies are the my favourite all time band, such diversity, how did they manage to create such beautiful music!!”
Big gap there. This blogging lark is harder than I remembered. My crafty excuse: I fell asleep for 6 weeks after listening to Requiem for Dying Mothers, Part 1 by Stars of the Lid.
OK, back to it.
Selected YouTube comment:
“Finally, someone understands the melancholy irony of the t.v. show ALF. He was a manifestation of the guilt of the family, and never there at all. How beautiful.”
Trying to think a song I know all the words to was fairly difficult. I had to reach back to songs I listened to as a teenager. This made me realise that I haven’t bothered consciously learning lyrics to a song for a decade or more. Too little time. I wonder if this is true of everyone? Or is it just me?
I don’t think I’ve picked up the complete lyrics for a song by osmosis recently, either. Too little focus. Hardly any time spent listening to popular radio.
Hag! Coastal cut-throat!
You dirty switch,
You’re on again
All night, all night, all night
Under the stars
Under their light
All over the girl
Only looks bright
You’re just like a woman
Hag
You’re just like a woman
You’re on again
But some… times
Under the stars
Under their light
You’re everything right
You’re on again!
Under the stars
Under their light
All right
All right
One day I hope to have cause to use the insult “Coastal cut-throat! You dirty switch!”.
Selected YouTube comment:
“Man shall not skip the songs of The Last Splash”.
When I heard the news I put Teenage Kicks on repeat in iTunes without thinking too much about it. I don’t remember seeing any posts suggesting this but quite a few other people obviously had the same urge and the song started popping up in the pre-merger Last.fm and Audioscrobbler weekly charts. I’m not a big fan of the song but I think it’ll always work as a totem for everything Peel represented.