Shocking, Electric!

The Electric Prunes - I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night)
(MP3, 192kbps, 5.3MB)
Live, from Stockholm '67.

Buy.

He's riding through your town with his head on fire

Soft Cell and Jim Foetus (aka Jim/J.G. Thirlwell, aka Clint Ruin, as he's referred to here) performing Suicide's "Ghost Rider" on BBC television in 1983. That's all I need to say, really, other than: enjoy.

I can't stand the sound of the Velvet Underground

Chances are, by now, you've heard Art Brut and their particular brand of scrappy, tongue-thru-cheek R'n'R, but today, I bring you a crackin' live rendition of the title track from their debut album, Bang Bang Rock & Roll. This particular recording is especially notable for a couple of reasons.

One, it's from Schuba's Tavern, located in Chicago, which is where I had a tremendously good cheeseburger at some point in 2004. I still think about that cheeseburger from time to time, it was that good. It also contains the unexpected drop-in of a lyric from "Department" by the Yummy Fur, a track featured on this very blog just a few months back. Listen up at the 1:47 mark....the moment I caught it, I couldn't wait to tell you about it.

Art Brut - "Bang Bang Rock & Roll" (Live at Schuba's Tavern, Chicago, 2005) (MP3, 193kpbs (VBR), 3.3MB)


Bang Bang Rock & Roll has finally seen an American release (after almost a year's delay on from the original UK release), why not pick it up here? If you're a fan of fun, smart-arsed rock tunes with clever, ridiculous lyrics and great guitars, you might want to make a space upon your CD shelf for it.

Strange Scraps and Sudden Sambas

We're back for today's installment of Eat This Grenade! with two great tracks from the consistently-bewitching brain of Mr. Howe Gelb, both in bite-size solo form, and with his band, Giant Sand.

Since releasing their first album in 1985, much has been made and mentioned of Giant Sand's Tuscon roots, and while describing their sound as "dusty", "cracked" or "desolate" is all too easy, it's really pretty apt. Their songs have a strange, lilting power to them, and a sound that could have only sprung from a sprawling, wide-open space like the Arizona desert.

"Satellite", from Giant Sand's 2000 Thrill Jockey release, Chore Of Enchantment, is up first. I think what I've always loved best about this cut is the sheer, lurching meatiness of it; layers of groaning, grinding slo-mo guitars battle it out with backwards tapeloop splatters, Gelb's croaky, stream-of-consciousness vocals and a surprisingly sweet melody to bring you six minutes and forty-eight seconds of gorgeous, hazy drone. It even stumbles into a weird, hesitant little sudden-samba for its final few seconds.


Giant Sand - "Satellite" (MP3, 195kbps (VBR), 9.6MG)


A couple of years prior to Chore Of Enchantment, Gelb released his second solo outing, Hisser (V2 Records, 1998). Gelb assembled, performed and recorded practically the entire 19-track album on his own, apart from a few guest appearances. Standout track, "This Purple Child" (featuring Grandaddy, who, rumor has it, kickstarted their signing to V2 by slipping a demo tape to Gelb) really digs itself into your head after a few spins. Feeling almost like a more-subdued precursor to the fuzzy trippiness of "Satellite", the track floats along with a wobbly, creepy beauty all its own, and even with repeated listens, I can still hear strange, new scraps of sound buried in the mix.


Howe Gelb - "This Purple Child" (MP3, 192kbps, 7.9MB)

You'll want to bring these along in the car on that next lonely, late-night highway drive, trust me.

Too many teardrops

Combining my deep and all-consuming love for both Talking Heads and cover renditions of "96 Tears", here's a clip of the whippersnappers at CBGB's in 1975 (sans Jerry Harrison, who'd not joined the band quite yet) performing the ? and the Mysterians classic:



Byrne's vox are surprisingly suited for this song, striking a perfect balance between the tense malice of the original and his unmistakable art-student-in-the-headlights wail. It's too bad they never officially committed a version of this to tape, but via the (seemingly never-ending) magic of YouTube, it's ours to behold for now, at least.

Thanks to both Nudnick of YouTube (for the upload) and Shizaam from Hipinion (for the tip-off).

Being Sucked In Again: A Desperate, Ongoing Love Affair With A British Music Monthly

Ask any music nerd in your life. Once a month, the newsstand unpacks the shipment and places the bible out on the rack. It's usually just about a hundred-and-a-half pages, spined quite sturdily, and oftentimes with a free CD affixed to the cover with some sort of horrific, gluey, snot-esque substance that's embarrassingly fun to play with once plucked off.

Your new issue of MOJO Magazine is here and you will lock yourself in the apartment for hours, draw close the entertainment beverage/substance of choice, put something snappy on the hi-fi and curl up with the finest music magazine in existence today. Phones will not be answered, e-mails unreturned. It will take days to consume fully. The articles are meticulously meaty, serving up satisfyingly in-depth histories and overviews of fantastic music groups and solo artists, and the photography throughout is always top-notch.

For years now, I've been avidly gobbling up MOJO, saving them lovingly in those deeply nerdy magazine collector scum cardboard boxes, and - most amazingly - sifting back through prior issues years later and discovering all sorts of things I'd not noticed my first few leafings-thru. That's the wonderful thing about MOJO, and especially about keeping it around...you always come back to it. You'll be browsing through a copy you hadn't looked at in ages, and you'll stumble upon some huge article on _________ (fill in name of great classic cult band you somehow hadn't been introduced to until fairly recently, any number of them will do) and suddenly, you're sucked in again. Holy shit, how did I miss this the first time? Honestly, how many magazines have much solid repeat reading value whatsoever? I mean, apart from Cat Fancy and Soldier of Fortune?

I'm not gunning for a job offer here, honest, I'm not. I just love me some MOJO, that's all.

This month's issue (April 2006) is something of a mind-blower. We get a five-page retrospective/examination of Wire (finally!), a lovely visit with Morrissey in Rome, a really adorable illustration of the Flaming Lips on page 87 by Steve Klamm (shame about the wretched new album, though, but that's another subject entirely), a engrossing-looking whopper of a piece on one of my absolute teenage heroes, Billy Bragg, and finally, a 15-track CD of British psych nuggets!!

This is a lot of deep awesomeness for a mere $8.99 USD, really.

After even all that excitement, I also found this craziness in the always informative What Goes On! section, and I couldn't wait to share it with you:

Blondie Shoes



"A collaboration between Terry de Havilland and Mosley meets Wilcox using the photography of Mick Rock. Shoes and boots with a sole that prints an image as you walk."

Fucking incredible.

My question is: do these come in a Men's size 13? Please? I'm not really a tranny, nor do I deal with stack heels or strappy crap encircling my ankles all that well, but the thought of leaving a trail of Debbie Harrys behind me is a pretty enticing one.

Mosley meets Wilcox have also collaborated with Mick Rock on the production of this completely insane upholstered Blondie Bench.



"Upholstered bench in a shape taken from a Mick Rock photograph of Blondie."

More information on the Mosley Meets Wilcox / Mick Rock collection (including coffee tables, dishware, and a hanging lamp made of over 2000 translucent guitar picks) can be found here.

And no, despite this unexpected excursion today into grotesque consumerist merch-shilling on my behalf, I haven't forgotten about the MP3, honestly, I haven't. It's just down below, you'll see.

Today's tune is from the aforementioned MOJO Presents...Psych Out! ("15 Nuggets from the scene that inspired Pink Floyd! Starring Donovan, Small Faces, The Move, The Troggs, Kaleidoscope, The Zombies, Procol Harum and more."), April 2006 edition. This track features Brit psych cult hero Keith West, and was originally recorded for the soundtrack of Antonioni's 1996 paranoid pop-art fabulathon "Blow Up".

The In Crowd - Blow Up (MP3, 193kbps (VBR), 2.6MG)

That's just about it for this edition of ETG!...keep it loud and we'll see you again soon...

Do you believe in art?

Sad news last evening, as I learned via messageboard that Nikki Sudden (born Adrian Nicholas Godfrey), of the blindingly-fantastic late 70's proto-post-punk band Swell Maps (and later the Jacobites and a solo career) had died in New York City in the early hours of Sunday morning. As of yet, causes are unknown. Sudden was 49.

Instantly, I heard the sputtering first notes of Swell Maps' "Let's Build a Car" grind into life deep in my brain. Nikki might be gone, but those notes, all of those notes, every single ramshackle Maps tune that sounded like it was gonna just fall apart at any moment, even as it soared into the heavens on a thrilling wave of sweet noise and clatter and drone and fuzz, that stuff's gonna live forever. "Border Country" (my other favorite Maps moment, apart from "Let's Build a Car", easily), "Midget Submarines", "H.S. Art", "Read About Seymour", "Full Moon"...the list of brilliant Swell Maps songs stretches on and on, despite having released a grand total of only four singles and two albums in their career.

I like to imagine that Nikki and his bandmate/brother Epic Soundtracks, who died of unknown causes in 1997, are somewhere fluffier and cloudier than this place, and they're making the most glorious racket possible with their completely kick-ass new band.

Courtesy of the constantly-amazing YouTube, here's a video for Swell Maps' "Let's Build a Car".



Raise a drink to Nikki tonight....