Quite a bit of the music I’ve been listening to over the last couple of years has had a very distinct ’80s influence. Is the ’80’s sound the reason that I like these songs? Maybe. At times, I find that I notice a new song because it sounds like an old ’80s gem. So the retro sound is certainly the reason that I kept listening. I thought it would be interesting to put together clips from some current and some ’80s songs and see if you readers can tell the difference. Some of you may find this ridiculously easy. Others may struggle a bit. Listen to the clip and hit submit after each question to see if you were correct. Good luck!
Category Music
MoSS? Monthly Mixtape: May 2012
Side A : Todd’s Picks
1. Beastie Boys , “Pass the Mic”
2. 2:54, “You’re Early”
3. The Walkmen, “Heaven”
4. Craft Spells, “Still Left With Me”
5. Japandroids, “The House That Heaven Built”
Side B : Chris’ Picks
1. Beastie Boys, “Skills to Pay the Bills”
2. Best Coast, “How They Want Me to Be”
3. CFCF, “Exercise 3”
4. Actress, “Serpent”
5. Airiel, “Daydreamer”
From the MoSS? Pit: M83/I Break Horses
M83 performing at the Pageant on May 2, 2012. Photo from Chris’ iPhone.
Where to start…
How about with this: I wish I lived at the Pageant in St. Louis, as long as cool bands keep coming through there. I’ve seen three shows there, and they all probably rank among my favorite 10 shows of all time (Explosions in the Sky, Interpol/School of Seven Bells, M83). The sound is amazing. Sight lines are good pretty much everywhere. If you want to dance and jump around, the floor beckons. If you’re old like me, you can grab a seat in the balcony. The middle of the semi-circle balcony provides a great head-on view; the sides put you very close to the stage, but because of the perfect sound, you aren’t obliterated by the nearby speakers. At the Interpol show, they even had a wait staff coming around the balcony, taking drink orders. (The only order involving Pageant staff this time: I was ordered to stop recording video during the show. Boo.)
In other words, it’s the anti-Gabe’s.
I Break Horses
Maria Linden
I knew nothing about this band when we left Iowa; Todd brought along the debut LP on his mp3 player, so I at least got a taste of what we were in for. The songs were pretty cool, but I had no idea we’d be watching Rachel Bilson’s doppelganger on lead vocals. That was a pleasant surprise. (And when I say Rachel Bilson-esque, think Summer after she started dating Seth Cohen on The O.C., not quite as glossy as when we first met her and Marissa Cooper, but still smokin’ hot.)
The music was pretty good, too. The drummer was playing an interesting set; I don’t recall seeing a electronic kick drum in action before. Rachel Bilson (real name: Maria Linden) had tons of charisma, which compensated for the occasional dropoff in her mic (OK, so the sound isn’t always perfect for the openers). They were a good warmup for M83, and earned another listen during our return trip to Iowa.
Here’s their rendition of the first song from their album:
Now’s the time on MoSS Pit where we acknowledge college kids who review the arts
Before I say anything about M83’s set, you can get another take at the following link.
http://blogs.riverfronttimes.com/rftmusic/2012/05/m83_pageant_review_setlist_photos.php
If you click that link, you’ll read a review by Blair Stiles, who may or may not be a distant relative of Teen Wolf’s good friend. She noticed Todd and me in the balcony (“middle aged men…sprinkled in the balcony”), but Todd and I are used to getting noticed when we go out (no senior pictures changed hands this time, though). She also gave us some important details (“The woman in front of me was so close that I had to keep brushing her well-conditioned locks off my notebook”; “Despite tight security, I smelled a spliff or two being lit up through the night”). It’s a fascinating read. The description doesn’t resemble the scene I remember, but all the same, a must-read.
To be fair, Blair got some things right
OK, her review rang true on two occasions:
- The response to the sax player, who killed it at the end of “Midnight City” in particular
- The guy who won the contest to tour with M83 was a lot of fun to watch
The use of a sax player can be a dangerous proposition. Sometimes it works:
But if you don’t have superstars like Simon Le Bon to keep the brass man in check, you end up dealing with this:
Or this (shudder):
Thankfully, M83’s sax guy was epic in a true sense. He did his thing, delighted the crowd, and left. Well done, sax man.
And yeah, the guy who played some guitar and bass and electronic cowbell was fun to watch. Energetic, multitalented, and able to pull off wearing a shirt that looked something like a Blackburn Rovers top (my Premier League-loving friends are nodding and smiling right now). But come on, he’s not the mastermind here…
That’s Anthony, without a doubt
He was confident in his singing. And despite what Blair Stiles might tell you, he wasn’t afraid to roam away from his keyboard setup and rock out. He would approach singer/keyboardist Morgan Kibby (a hot little number herself), and shred the hell out of his guitar while channeling his inner Prince, dropping to his knees before Morgan in an attempt to sex things up, perhaps.
And you can’t beat the Frenchman’s accent. “She worships Zatan like ay fazzer” (read: she worships Satan like a father); “Death izzer boyfriends” (read: Death is her boyfriend); “Zaint Loo-eez!” (read: St. Louis!).
The show was sequenced well: a natural starter (“Intro” from Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming), a soaring song from mid-catalog (“Teen Angst” from Before the Dawn Heals Us), and one of the big songs from the 2008 breakthrough album (“Graveyard Girl” from Saturdays=Youth). Then the new single (“Reunion”) from the latest album. We got a song off the eponymous debut, we got a Daft Punk cover, and we got more epic songs from Hurry Up (“Steve McQueen” and 2011 Song of the Year candidate “Midnight City”).
And the decision to have live drums was a good one, and employing this particular drummer (Loic Maurin) is an even better choice. Damn he was tight! Live drums allow these songs to pack an even greater emotional punch.
Here’s a good portion of “Teen Angst.” I made sure to record this song (as much as I could get away with, anyway) because it was my introduction to M83. Shortly after my son was born in 2006, my friend Jeff had sent me some CD-Rs full of random tunes, and this song was one of the standouts. I decided to become an M83 fan. I was justly rewarded with Saturdays=Youth and Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming in the years to follow.
You know what was so cool about this show? The fans—young and old, hipster and bro, cool and nerdy—all were appreciative of the show they’d seen. And the band that was showered with this affection seemed genuinely moved by the standing O they received after a blistering encore consisting of Saturdays=Youth gems “Skin of the Night” and “Couleurs”. Even the hyperactive guitar man and the ultra-suave sax guy seemed moved by the crowd’s roars of approval.
They earned them.
Memories of… “Deep Shag”
Few things can trigger a long lost memory like music. It can happen anywhere. For me it usually happens in the car. The other day, I was driving to work and flipping channels on the satellite radio. I stopped on Lithium the 90’s alt-rock channel. They were playing a cool old song from the early 90’s that I had forgotten all about, Luscious Jackson’s “Deep Shag”.
I was quickly taken back to Fall 1994. I was driving around smoking Camel Lights and listening to Nine Inch Nails when I decided to stop off at a friends house for a bit. I pulled up to the house and noticed hanging out front was the same group of dopy 15 year old skateboarders I saw every time I stopped there. They always asked me for some smokes. I always answered back (usually with one dangling from my lip) “No, that shit will kill you”. They would grumble something back and that was the extent of our relationship. My vehicle had an alarm system but for some reason I didn’t turn it on. I must have thought my little buddies out front would keep an eye on things.
So I went into my friend’s place and we hung out for a couple of hours. When it was time to go I hopped in my car and drove off sensing something was amiss. Nine Inch Nails “Head Like a Hole” was still playing and I decided to change CDs in my super high tech Discman. On the floor of my car I had a small 10 CD case in which I kept my go-to music of the week. I reached for it and to my surprise there was no case! My heart skipped several beats. Back then the thing I valued the most in life was my music collection. I was 19 and had a crappy part time job. Replacing 10 CD’s would be next to impossible.
In a panic, I pulled over to calm down and search my vehicle. Easy Todd, maybe you just misplaced the CDs. Maybe you left them at home. After a quick search, I realized they were definitely gone. I had been burgled. This was a travesty! Who would do such a thing to me? I reached in the console between the seats for a delicious and calming Camel Light, but hey were gone too! Who would take my CDs and my smokes?………….Those little fuckers! Now I was more pissed knowing that I had been burned by that group of prepubescent criminals. I was sure they were laughing it up. Listening to my music and smoking my smokes. Bastards.
I drove back to see if I could find the little bastards but it was late and no one was around anymore. The next few times I went back over to my friend’s place I tried to find the culprits but I never saw them again and I didn’t have much proof even if I had found them.
The real problem came after the fact. What do I do about replacing these CDs? As already referenced, I had a crappy part time gig and couldn’t afford to replace them all right away. There was also new music coming out all the time that needed purchasing. So I had to prioritize. I organized the lost CDs into tiers of importance.
Tier 1: You Fucking Assholes. I Love That CD and I Must Sell Blood, Semen or Organs to Get the Money to Replace It.
Smashing Pumpkins, Gish
Songs of note: Well, all of them, but “Bury Me” may be my favorite today.
Replacement Status: Repurchased 1 week after incident at full price. I have purchased this album in every available audio format over the years. Cassette, CD (twice) and digital download.
The Jesus and Mary Chain, Stoned and Dethroned
Song of note: “Sometimes Always”
Replacement Status: Repurchased 2 weeks after incident at full price.
Beastie Boys , Ill Communication
Songs of note: “Sure Shot”, “Root Down”
Replacement Status: Repurchased one month after incident at full price.
Tier 2: Awe man, that sucks. I’ll have to get that back when I get the chance.
Luscious Jackson, Natural Ingredients
Song of note: “Deep Shag”
Replacement Status: Not replaced yet. Will be scouring the inter-webs for a suitable torrent as soon as I am done with this post.
Weezer, The Blue Album
Songs of note: “Say it Ain’t So”, “Undone – The Sweater Song”
Replacement Status: Not replaced yet. Napster-ized a few of the key singles on this release but have not as of yet replaced.
The Sugarcubes, Stick Around for Joy
Songs of note: “Gold”, “Hit”.
Replacement Status: Repurchased summer of 1997 for $1 at CD Xchange. What a bargain!
Tier 3: You can have it. I won’t be buying that one twice.
Helmet, Betty
Song of note: “Milquetoast”
Replacement Status: A friend recommended it. Never liked it. Never considered replacing it.
Medicine, The Buried Life
Songs of note: “The Pink” ”She Knows Everything”
Replacement Status: Liked the record but never really considered replacing it. Also had other releases by Medicine to help fill the gap. Medicine is a bit different. I wish I could have seen the look on those little assholes faces when they first heard this one.
Various Artists, DGC Rarities Vol. 1
Songs of note: Counting Crows, “Einstein on the Beach (For an Eggman)” Nirvana, “Pay to Play”
Status: I Napstered the crap out of the Counting Crows song but the rest was of little interest to me. Never considered replacing.
I can’t believe it’s been nearly 20 years now since that Luscious Jackson CD was taken. I also can’t believe I had forgotten all about it until they played it on the radio. Is there a moral here? Probably not. I did learn that you can’t trust a pack a 15 year old skateboarders unless you give them cigarettes upfront. And hey, things could have been worse. They could have found the 3 cases of Milwaukee’s Best in the back seat.
From the MoSS? Pit: Sleigh Bells
In our first “From the MoSS? Pit” dispatch, we teased that we would be attending the War on Drugs/Dirty Beaches show at Mission Creek. Yet no post materialized on Music or Space Shuttle? Trust me, it was for your own good. Dirty Beaches was a total letdown (rambled through two songs from the album, then droned on for 30 minutes). War on Drugs singer spent half the night yelling “Whoo!” That gave the crowd something to do, mimicking each one for the majority of the set. The sound sucked—but it was Gabe’s, so what else is new?!
But Sleigh Bells…well, yeah. Absolute fucking dominance.
Sixteen songs from their two albums. Relatively good sound at another venue notorious for bad sound (IMU Main Lounge). Energy aplenty. Sweet light show. And a great crowd (although smaller than I ever would have imagined—come on, Iowa City!).
I was far from convinced that the show would be a winner, as I endured two travesties earlier in the evening: Donnelly’s Pub was out of Bell’s Two-Hearted Ale, and Elite Gymnastics tried to scare everyone out of the IMU with its opening act. As scary as the absence of ale might sound, trust me, the Elite Gymnastics fiasco was much worse.
Constant shrieking guitar; off-kilter live drumming performed by someone wearing a “Fuck Real Life” shirt; a lame karaoke-style video display, which didn’t seem to help the vocalist, as he stopped “singing” (read: mumbling) at one point and then pointed at the video projection and said “these are the lyrics I should be singing, so, um…Iowa City!” It was bad, bad, bad. Which surprised me, as the recorded material on Ruin is pretty good. Alexis mentioned during the SB set that this was Elite Gymnastics first tour—a surprise to absolutely no one in attendance.
I did not take video of EG. I wouldn’t do that to my phone.
But I did grab some footage from the SB set. First up, the pre-concert intro music and set opener “Demons” (the lights come up around the 1:40 mark):
And I was able to get Alexis talking about this being their first trip to Iowa, before they lit into “Born to Lose”:
We got seven songs from Reign of Terror and a whopping nine from Treats (but not “Run the Heart,” sadly). They skipped my least favorite song on each album, and played a song that I love but didn’t think was a guaranteed inclusion in the set list (“Leader of the Pack” from Reign). Alexis sounded good, even while crowd-surfing, and they all seemed to be having a good time.
Just like the people in the crowd. (Including the pregnant lady who hung with the MoSS crew for the evening!)
Click here to see our friend Bill Adams’ photos from the show.
Next week: M83
Still More Road Trip Revelations
My job sometimes requires me to spend a lot of my day in the car. Today was one of those days with quite a few hours of windshield time. I don’t mind too much. It gives me time to think, reflect on my life and most importantly listen to great music. So, on days like today I sit back, relax and turn up the tunes. After many hours alone in the car though, I tend to have a few random and moronic thoughts. These are just a few of the revelations I came away with on the road today.
Even My Beloved Sirius XMU is Guilty of Massive Repetition
One of the reasons I bought satellite radio, besides the variety, was because I was sick of the repetitive crap on regular radio. I’ve noticed that over the last few road trips my favorite station, Sirius XMU, is terribly repetitive at times. There must be a quota on certain songs because they get played a lot. Ever since Wild Belle took SXSW by storm, their track “Keep You” has been played almost hourly. It’s a great song but come on, let’s not ruin it.
Another song on ridiculous rotation is Tanlines “All of Me”. Over a 10 hour period, I ran a test to see how long it took to them to play “All of Me” after I tuned into the station. Here are the results in the S.H.I.T. scale “Songs Heard In-lieu of Tanlines”.
At no time did they NOT play “All of Me” before I turned the station. So I make a plea to the Sirius XMU DJ’s, “Please, take it easy on the repetition. You’re killing songs for me before they’ve had a chance to live their natural life span…….Fuckers”.
Nothing Oozes Class Like a Set of Fake Testicles on the Back of Your Truck
We’ve all had this experience. You know you’re super cool. Your friends know you’re extra classy. How can you let strangers know this same information while driving your truck around town? Why, trailer hitch testicles, that’s how!
It seems like I’ve seen a million pairs of these truck nut sacks hanging low lately. Here is one I saw on my trip today.
Is this meant to be cool? Is this meant to be funny? Does this guy know he just upped the Hillbilly Coefficient on his truck by an exponential rate? Was the Calvin & Hobbs sticker with Calvin peeing on a Ford logo too highbrow? It just seems spectacularly dumb to me. Maybe I am missing something…nope it’s dumb.
2012 Has Been the “Year of the Women” in Indie Rock
Last year, almost all of my favorite albums were made by male artists. Class Actress’ Rapprocher was the only album by a female artist to make my Top 10 and Cults barely squeaked into the Top 20. This year is totally different. The women are stepping up their game. Frankie Rose, Tennis, Grimes, Mr. Little Jeans (odd name for a solo female), Sleigh Bells, Memoryhouse, Blouse, Field Mouse, 2:54 and Wild Belle have completely taken over my playlists. Granted, some of these are male/female duos, but the dudes are hiding in the background while the chicks are up front kicking ass.
There have been a few dude rockers that have fought there way into my iPod. Bear in Heaven, Tanlines and the aptly named The Men have had short stints in my ever-changing “Love That New Song Smell” playlist. Very few have stuck as long as the women. Congrats ladies. Keep it coming. Hey guys! Wake up! You’re looking bad in 2012.
Van Halen’s “Eruption” is Still Bad-Ass
I flipped to the classic rock channel today and was greeted with the opening guitar lick of Van Halen’s “Eruption”. I turned my car stereo up as loud and these 37 year old ears could take and air guitared along with Eddie just like the old days. It was exhausting, but Eddie and I can still pull off one of the best guitar solos in rock history. Revisit all the Van Haleny goodness below.
All in all it was a pretty good day. Plenty of tunes. Plenty of low hanging trailer hitch testes. If you see me cruising down the interstate sometime, go ahead and wave. I might just stop my Eddie Van Halen air guitar and wave back.
MoSS? Monthly Mixtape: April 2012
Side A : Todd’s Picks
1. Diamond Rings, “On Our Own”
2. Mr. Little Jeans, “Runaway”
3. Blouse, “Into Black”
4. Wild Belle, “Keep You”
5. POP ETC, “Halfway to Heaven”
Side B : Chris’ Picks
1. Crocodiles, “Sunday (Psychic Conversation 9)”
2. Writer, “Family Dinner”
3. THEESatisfaction, “QueenS”
4. Lee Ranaldo, “Off the Wall”
5. Colleen Green, “I Wanna Be Degraded” (live)
MoSS? Madness 2012 Championship Results
MoSS? Madness 2012 is finally over. The MoSS? servers struggled to keep up as the votes flooded into our system during the last round. Most of you will be shocked at the results. In the final match-up between The Beatles and Johnny Cash, we have a tie. 23450 votes to 23450 votes ………. Just kidding. Johnny Cash received 3 votes. The Beatles easily rolled over him to claim the 2012 MoSS? Madness title!!!! Congrats to the Fab 4 for their impressive victory. I placed calls into representatives of the last remaining Beatles to notify them of their win and I was greeted with a resounding “What Madness? Stop calling here!”
What a tournament it was though. We started things off with controversy as readers were upset about artist seeding. Some of the the strongest opinions were about Michael Jackson’s #7 seeding. Well quit your whining, M.J. didn’t get past R.E.M. in the first round. Yeah, “Shiny Happy People” beat “Thriller”. Based on that performance he may not even make the round of 64 next year. Or maybe he will have to win a match-up against the likes of Slayer or Dokken just to get in. Time will tell.
So many upsets. We lost 4 of the top 8 seeds in the 1st round. I’ll never be as proud of society as I was the day Elvis lost to Pearl Jam. Not that I like Pearl Jam as much as I really dislike all things Elvis. Suck it you pill popping hillbilly.
Thanks to all of you that voted and stuck with us until the end. Feel free to make your case in the comments section for any artist that you think should be in the tourney next year. We may have to retire The Beatles to give other artists a fighting chance.
I leave you with this video of the last public Beatles performance from Jan. 30, 1969 on the rooftop of the Apple Corp studios. The first song is “Get Back”, followed up by my favorite Beatles track “Don’t Let Me Down”. So much weird facial hair. Enjoy.
MoSS? Madness 2012 Championship
The votes are in. After weeks of debate, hours of agonizing decision making and unknown amounts of work productivity lost, we are finally down to the last 2 remaining artists in the MoSS? Madness 2012 Tournament.
The final match-up will be between The Beatles juggernaut (seriously, no one has even come close to beating them) and (the biggest surprise in the tournament for me) Johnny Cash. Johnny has been in dogfight after dogfight and always come out victorious, never winning by more than 3 votes. Well done Mr. Cash. You are a scrapper.
Can Johnny squeak out yet another closely contested win? Will The Fab Four dominate yet another match-up? It is now up to our readers to decide.
MoSS? Madness 2012: The Final 4
It’s Final 4 time! We have the only #1 seed left, The Beatles, going head to head with Nirvana who completely overpowered Bob Dylan in their Elite 8 match-up. The other pairing will be “The Man in Black” Johnny Cash vs. Bono and The Edge of U2.
Which artists do you want to see in the championship match-up? Time to vote!
Music or Space Shuttle? 