So I’m going to bury my head in the sand and pretend that last weeks debut TFI Friday worked just fine. (while I scratch my head and try and fix it when noone is looking)Yessireeebob, it was fine and Dandy. You all grooved along to The Doors circa 2007.

So this week ( fingers crossed) we’ll all be groving along to a Lounge version of Mr Brightside.
Take it away Mr Paul Anka!

Ween - La Cucaracha

Gene and Dean Ween are two talented guys. Their 2007 album, La Cucaracha, takes you through polka, lounge, blues roots and indie rock. From one track to the next, you could be forgiven for thinking it was different bands. The one thing that links each track is the musicianship, and the abundance of hooks. But, as those who know me will testify, it’s the lyrics that get me every time.

‘The Party’ is a Chris Rea / Kenny G muzak tribute that drips with such cruel, cruel irony that it makes me wish I’d written it. Silky smooth guitar and beats are the velvet curtain behind a ’sex in the city’ saxaphone that noodles perfectly around beautifully delivered lyrics like ‘We had the best time at your party. The wife and I thank you very much”.  Caustic perfection. I love it.

And the back-handed compliments keep coming. ‘Object’ is a love song with more than slightly twisted lyrics. ” I love you better, I love you forever. You’re just an object to me.” The bass line and fuzzbox guitar gently lull you, and before you know it you’re singing “You’re just a piece of meat, and I am a butcher..”. What’s more, you’re singing it like you mean it.

If you haven’t heard of Ween, or don’t have this album, I highly recommend it. It’s an awakening.

THINK: Kings of Leon with Frank Black Lyrics
WATCH: The Party Live
READ: Ween’s homepage or myspace
BUY: La Cucaracha at amazon

TFI Friday #1

The _Friday_Funk series was a celebration of the demise of another working week. It is in this spirit that TFI Friday carries on, and this weekend wake up comes courtesy of those nice people at Fabric.

FIXED! HURRAH!

Daft Punk - Alive 2007 

Buy It Use It Break It Fix It

In November 2007, Daft Punk revisited an idea they had in 1997 – to release a live recording called ‘Alive’. Much has changed in the last decade in electronic music, and in the music industry. Daft Punk are aware of this more than anyone: “in the past a lot of what we were doing — being robots, doing weird music videos, things like that – people could think that it was marketing for selling the music. But I think more and more people understood or realized that it was not really so much a marketing approach than a general creative approach. We’ve just been trying to do cool stuff and interesting stuff in every creative domain, with every art form we could use. And that’s what I think maybe people are validating through the excitement they bring”

‘Alive’ clocks in at 75 minutes which is a reasonable album length, but a short concert. There was a bonus ‘encore’ disc with the Japanese release. All the classics and favourites are present, but are reworked live using Ableton software, allowing the duo to “mix, shuffle, trigger loops, filter, distort samples, EQ in and out, transpose or destroy and deconstruct synth lines.”

About fifteen minutes in ‘Television rules the nation/ Crescendolls’ kicks off the bass-fest and starts a crowd singalong. ‘One more time/aerodynamic’ is a prime example of classic tracks getting beefed up during the show.

THINK:  Daft Punk are playing at my house
READ: An interview with the LA Weekly
WATCH: Daft Punk’s YouTube Channel
BUY: Alive 2007 at Amazon

South Mission Beach Sunrise.

Hope you all had a wonder break folks, and I’d like to take this opportunity to wish you all a Happy New Year and to thank you all for the support during 2007. My readership has doubled every month since I started this blog, with the number of visits well into five figures in December. Woohoo!

G