MMJ Six Pack

credits: Liliana for the artwork, which I think looks like the Rolling Stones hot lips, and me for drinking the beer

1. From the Air – Laurie Anderson

I heard this tune last summer and tagged it right away as the opener to my first cd. I was wearing headphones and the volume was pretty high, I still think that’s the best way to hear it. Very hypnotic, very 80s. In that subliminal messages telling us to wear leg warmers sort of way. Laurie Anderson has some wacky musical methods, like running a violin bow across magnetic tape and playing it back like a cassette. I can’t hear that particular trick on this song, but I’m told that it’s there.

2. Wish I Could – The Jesus and Mary Chain

I’m about 15 years late getting to know this band.

3. Out of the Races and Onto the Tracks – The Rapture

They say behind every good dj, there’s a better dj. Or at least, that’s what the dj behind me says. She got me into The Rapture. Apparently it’s a crazy, heart-thumping dance fest whenever they play a small venue, and you can hear why.

4. Free Money – Patti Smith

About a year ago I finally got around to listening to Patti Smith. I respected the music but I didn’t like a lot of it, except this tune survived and keeps growing on me. I love the way it builds, it’s like a horse picking up speed for 4 straight minutes.

5. Paper Thin Walls – Modest Mouse

In my first job after undergrad I worked with this guy Kit who had great taste in music. He used to play Modest Mouse at breakfast, when we’d be cooking for 12 guys with developmental disabilities who were trying to eat quickly and get out the door to work. This was a crowd favorite, and it’s the first Modest Mouse track I remember hearing.

6. Loud Pipes – Ratatat

Another 2007 discovery for me. These guys are basically guitar driven instrumental hip hop theme music. A few hours of Ratatat Therapy have been known to rhythmize even the squarest of djs, like dj pants.

7. Just Because I Do – My Morning Jacket

Ok, a word of explanation. I realize that I’m in violation of a group rule here, playing six straight songs by a single band. But it’s for a good cause. I wanted this cd to have a heart, something that really holds it all together, so I settled on a pack of songs from a single artist. And My Morning Jacket has stormed up to be one of my all-time favorites in just a couple of years, so I wanted to give them a proper introduction. I first heard a cd of theirs in 2005 at Filter, in Chicago, right around the time that salt-type visited and we hung out there. I saw them live in 2006 and in 2007 I started obsessing. I like this tune as a starter, since they don’t waste any time but just start yelling.

8. Bermuda Highway – My Morning Jacket

Absolutely haunting, this is my current favorite.

9. Golden – My Morning Jacket

First MMJ track I heard, I asked the guy behind the counter what was on and bought it that day.

10. Evelyn is Not Real – My Morning Jacket

Starts to show the diversity in what they can do. Tunes like this are why they’re one of the greatest Alt Country bands ever. And the genre is, what, 20 years old. So that's saying a lot.

11. Knot Comes Loose – My Morning Jacket

Stretches out a sound that's somewhat similar to Bermuda Highway, and plays around with it a bit. This was the last track I put on, I considered at least 10 other MMJ tunes for this slot (If you're interested: Mahgeetah, Dancefloors, One Big Holiday and Death is the Easy Way were finalists). Give me two more days and I would’ve swapped in something else – but I still love this one.

12. Off the Record – My Morning Jacket

I wanted to end the MMJ section an upnote. What I love about this song is that the first two minutes are really catchy, in a style different from their usual. Then halfway through, they seem to realize that this song is way too poppy for a bunch of long-bearded alt country jammers, so they set off for a couple minutes of winsome noodling. I love both parts, and I particularly love that they make a single song.

13. New Madrid – Uncle Tupelo

This is vintage for me. The most played song on my Itunes, by a wide margin. Uncle Tupelo broke up in the mid 90s, spawning Son Volt, Wilco and a few other alt country get-ups. Jeff Tweedy and Jay Farrar were kind of the John and Paul of alt country, they were writing beautiful tunes about the Depression and working class America when they were in their late teens, and putting a hard edge on country music that essentially gave birth to a new genre. This song's about a massive 1812 earthquake on the New Madrid fault line, south of St Louis. I learned that from an on-line forum discussion between screennames "DustyMurphy" and "crazybilly", which pretty much says it all.

14. Walking Through the Snow (Acoustic) – The Samples

The Samples can be a little too whiney for me at times, and sometimes they just go limp. But this song is beautiful.

15. Nothing Comes to Rest – Unbunny

I thought this one would wear off quickly, but I’ve listened to it a lot over the last couple of months and I still love it. This trio seems to be on the rise.

16. Speedy Marie – Frank Black

In case you haven’t caught up with Black Francis since he left the Pixies – he’s kind of sounding like Wolf Parade.

17. Hurley – Pinback

This is another one that I picked up from Liliana. I don’t really know anything about Pinback, I haven’t even googled them. But this tune is pretty representative of the one cd I have. In the words of a-funk, it’s a grower.

18. He Hit Me – Grizzly Bear

This song is about spousal abuse. The disturbition is intentional (nope, not a word). The Crystals recorded this song in 1963, with, ironically, Phil Spector producing, and it didn’t last a week on the radio. Grizzly Bear just redid it. The words, the sound, the whole thing is a bit fucked up in a way that I like. I thought this song was a really eclectic find, and then the other day I saw Grizzly Bear on Rolling Stone’s college radio top 10 list. Oh well.

19. 10 Commandments – Lee Scratch Perry

I think I first stole a bit of Lee Perry from salt-type, when we shared an office. This is a track I heard last year, it’s good intro material but I decided to place it at the end for a little swinging finish.

20. The Weather – Built To Spill

And then I kill the swinging reggae bit with another of my Itunes top plays. I absolutely love this song. It's the last track off one of my Desert Island Discs, and if it’s a good enough finish for Built to Spill then it’ll do fine for me.

Made in Québec

First off -- I compiled the playlist in iTunes, and "Submitted CD Track Names" after the burn, so am hoping your devices are able to locate the track titles and details. If not, what follows is a run-down of what's on "Produit du Québec".

I decided to put together a compilation of current songs by Québecois musicians. In fact, they are largely Montreal-based. And why? There's been a lot of chit-chat lately about the Montreal music scene, particularly since Arcade Fire hit it big worldwide. Now all eyes are on Montreal, expecting that new fruit will be harvested from this hotbed of musical talent. National radio and local weeklies tell us that artists and bands flock to Montreal to take advantage of the unusually-affordable boho vibe. Anglophones, in particular, are said to thrive in Montreal, despite the insularity and relative neglect of the English-language artistic community. In a Québec that overwhelmingly supports and consumes the products of Franco-cultural institutions, Anglos apparently benefit from the artistic freedom this obscurity provides.

Apart from this nagging reminder about how cool Montreal and its music scene were, was there any proof? More importantly, did I agree? To be honest, I'd stopped noticing the posters, stopped picking up the fliers -- it had been ages since my last gig. The weeklies, when I read them, seemed to mention the same bands over and over again. My eyes glazed over what had become familiar names, but had I ever heard any of their songs? In fact, I knew more Francophone hits of late (yes, that's me, humming along to Franco Top 40 at the supermarché checkout. Was there any truth to the journalistic hoopla? Was Montreal just beating its chest in a dull and conventional display of civic pride, or was it suffering from low self-esteem? Was it telling itself how cool it was because it's always felt just a wee bit (or downright "way") dirty next to New York, Toronto, Paris, London? I endeavoured to find out.

A second inspiration behind Made in Montreal was the idea of "living locally" -- not just from an environmental or consumer perspective, but culturally as well. What cultural nuggets were being hatched and delivered within walking distance of my front door? Why did I not know about them? ...Not to mention "living in the now". Though some of these artists and offerings have been vetted beyond municipal boundaries, there's a certain thrill in grooving to something that might be seen as having a limited lifespan.

Lastly, I want to use this opportunity to stand up for YouTube -- as resource, creative outlet and diversion.

1) Pierre Lapointe: Deux Par Deux Rassemblés
A fun, poppy number to start with. I heard this song over lunch not long ago, and wondered why it was so familiar -- must have been one of the French songs I'd learned passively from it playing everywhere. There was new excitement about it since Pierre had recently put out a live album together with the symphony -- l'Orchestre Métropolitain du Grand Montréal.
YouTube diversions: 1) Clip for this song; 2) Clip of this clip, but with music from Power Rangers.

2) Pascale Picard: Thinking Of It
I overheard a girl at the university raving about Pascale. She's Francophone, though her lyrics are in English. She sold out some Montreal dates in December, and is the city's new singing sweetheart. Her voice reminds me a bit of Sport Spice (not a bad thing, to my mind).

3) Karkwa: Vertige
This was an exciting find for me. I like what they do, and had never heard of them before. I wanted to cheat on the "one song per band" rule, but decided not to. Instead, here's a video for "Vrai", which was my other first choice:



4) The National Parcs: Down By The River
Hey, I heard about these guys when DJ Rocket and her hubby were on the "GO!" show on CBC Radio. I'd never heard of them before, and they're also from Montreal. Go figure. I can't wait to see them live in February. Here's more goodness.



5) The Besnard Lakes: For Agent 13
I've seen The Besnard Lakes, and they are great. I love the slow build to this song. There is a lovely video that goes with it, to boot. (Trivia: Besnard Lake is a place, and it's in Saskatchewan.)





6) Patrick Watson: The Great Escape
Another beautiful song by another musician I've seen live (opening for Montreal's Lhasa) - dark old theatre, single spotlight on Patrick at the piano, and nothing else. Lovely. Another moody Montreal male (from the sounds of this disk, Montreal fellers have 2 moods: happy-jolly or melancholy...). Sorry to anyone who knows this song already -- apparently it's been used on "Grey's Anatomy". It's a great one despite the cross-media merchandising. This animation is more fitting, I think.



7) Islands: Rough Gem
I was happy to find Islands, after deciding I didn't love The Unicorns, which (part of) Islands used to be. Apparently, Islands opened for Beck in Montreal, then accompanied him on the west-coast leg of a US tour. They were nominated for a 2007 Juno award for "Alternative Album of the Year" by the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. The things you learn from the Internet. I'm still undecided. See what you think. (Another taste.)
Love the video -- anything to do with the cosmos gets a thumbs up.



8) Ariane Moffat: Montreal
Finally our locality has shown up as the focus of a song. This is another number I learned subconsciously from hearing it in the public sphere. I was surprised by the video, expecting to see Ariane wandering the streets of Montreal, instead of hanging around at Charles de Gaulle airport -- well, considering that the song's about returning to Montreal from France with a certain wisdom and maturity and a heritage gained, but nevertheless "en format original" (as an original). Hm. Interesting, too, considering Quebec's love/hate relationship with France and les français. Just too bad that the only part of Montreal that's shown is of the gloomy drive to downtown by way of the city's crumbling concrete freeways and tunnels. Yikes.



9) Malajube: Montréal -40°C
Another Montreal song. This one with a focus on Montreal's frigidity. Initially, I didn't want to put this one on the disk -- honestly, I have grown to dislike it due to overplaying around town. I did like it for some time, though. And Malajube continues to be hugely popular in these parts. Here's someone who claims it's her favourite song -- and performing a rather nice cover version:



10) Les Breastfeeders: Funny Funiculaire
I saw Les Breastfeeders last year, and loved the show. Even if garage-rock's not your musical bread and butter, you can't possibly be bored when these stylish funsters take the stage. They even have a dedicated dancer --ok, he plays the tambourine, too-- a shirtless wonder, always in furry vest and tight red pants, who's there to entertain and keep the crowd on beat.



11) Bran Van 3000: Mon Réal
I was surprised to learn that Bran Van hails from Montreal as well. So for this mix, I chose the number (from 2007 album "Rosé") whose title puns on 'Montreal' and which speaks franglais. It's a fun one, but has yet to completely grow on me like some of the other tracks. (BTW: check out Bran Van's site if you have a chance -- the images are gorgeous.)
Diversion: here's how some other people feel about Bran Van's previous hits:



12) Gatineau: Pow Pow Té Mort [Bang-Bang, You're Dead].
Found this song by chance on a compilation of new Québec music. I like it. Nice dose of Québec French, in case you've never heard it. Cute kiddie heist video.

13) Wolf Parade: Fancy Claps
14) The Dears: Whites-Only Party
15) Stars: My Favourite Book

Three more much-mentioned Anglo groups I knew nothing about. When the topic is Montreal musical prowess, Arcade Fire is always mentioned first, and often with Wolf Parade in the following breath -- I'd just assumed they were a big huge band. Still, however many times I'd heard the name, I knew I couldn't pick them out of a police line-up or identify any of their songs. So I checked them out. They must be part of the new Anglo-artiste class, having relocated from B.C. to Montreal. I like "Fancy Claps". And I'm not alone. As an aside, check out these fan edits, here and here, contributions from people who've been inspired to run Fancy Claps over particular sections of Asian films. My apologies if Wolf Parade is old hat for the rest of you -- it's representative of the scene here in any case.

With regard to the latter two, they are well-liked and much-mentioned as well. Again, I was sure I knew nothing of their music. What's more, I tend to forget or mix up groups that have one-word names, like "The Somethings" or "Somethings", so I decided to finally sit down and figure out who was who. My investigation of bands with one-word names from Montreal also included The Stills... but they ended up being cut from this roster. Sorry, The Stills. They are Anglos, but here they are singing in French -- the clip starts out with some nice footage of Expo '67 in Montreal.

The Dears make me laugh because they sound so much like The Smiths... except at the weird denouement of this song. I'm not sure who the several singers are that The Dears's singer is sounding like there.

As for Stars, that's some solid, standard pop, right there, though I'm not sure I'd go back to it again and again and again. I like the mellowness of this particular number.

And to make things more confusing, there seems to be another "Wolf" on the scene -- We Are Wolves has also been touted as the 'nother next big thing from Montreal.

16) Tricot Machine: Pas Fait En Chocolat
And back to the sweet French songs. This is another current fave in the supermarché and beyond. Tricot Machine (sewing machine) is one of Québec's favourites right now. What's not to like.



17) Jean Leloup: I Lost My Baby
Another massive classique du Québec . If you want to sweep a Franco-Québecer off his/her feet by impressing him/her with your knowledge of Quebec culture, it can't hurt to learn the chords and start humming this one... as they're doing, and she's doing, and he's doing, not to mention these two, and this guy, too.

18) Rufus Wainwright: Going To A Town
Not for everyone? I loved the melody when I first heard the song and still do. I'd be curious to hear what kind of play this song is getting south of the border.

19) Godspeed You! Black Emperor: Moya
Amazing. I hope to see them live sometime. I chose "Moya" largely due to time constraints -- most of GY!BE's tracks are somewhere between 20 to 30 minutes long.

20) Gilles Vigneault: Mon Pays
Poet, songwriter, chansonnier, Québec icon. Most famous for the song "Gens du pays" (1975), now considered Québec's national anthem, sung at festive occasions, birthdays, etc. Was active in the nationalist movement in 1960s Québec - of which the following song -- "Les Gens de mon pays" -- played a significant role.



As an homage to DJ Pepper's covers (and with our apologies to Gilles), here's a raunchy TV-cam of Patsy Gallant's "From New York to LA", 1976 disco version of the above.



Congratulations if you stuck with me through all that!
Just wanted to share my discoveries.

Joint the Dots with DJ Hucka – B

This month’s theme is the link, the line – how one song segues thematically into the next. Often by means of a rubbish joke or some leap of logic you’ll just have to follow me with. Let’s begin!

1 Jamie Woon – Wayfaring Stranger

There’s about 9023456256 versions of this song – Johnny Cash did a version, White Stripes did a version…This one’s done by a singer from Hammersmith, SW London, who looks about 12. He sings, records it into some magic box, then sings back over that, creating some superduper multilevel collage of sound.

2 James Wolff – Someone who will

Jamie –> James

The links will get better. And, sometimes, worse. James is my old flatmate. This is shameless plugging. So? I make the rules.

3 Arctic Monkeys – You Know I’m No Good

Wolff –> Monkey

With a tip of the hat to Dr Pepper’s covers CD, this is the Amy Winehouse song, admirably sung in the original gender voice. Two things, I suppose – firstly, I hadn’t realised how catchy this song was until I heard this cover version. Second, he can actually sing, when he’s not sneering. Well done, Monkey Man

4 Mark Ronson ft Paul Smith – Apply Some Pressure

Amy Winehouse –> Mark Ronson

Ronson produced “Back to Black”, and Amy turns up on his album. So that’s two links.
Good horns on this.

5 Queens and David Bowie – Under Pressure

Pressure –> Pressure!

These links are writing themselves, now. Once you've got over the disappointment that this is not Ice Ice Baby (a song to which I still know ALL THE WORDS) you will acknowledge this as an awesome song. Especially the bit with Bowie that starts “It’s just..such..and…old..fashioned..”. Yes!

6 The Jam – Down at the Tube Station at Midnight

Cos both Bowie and The Jam did tunes called Absolute Beginners.

Which is more of a two-step link, really, but whatever. Importantly, Absolute Beginners, the book, was written by Colin MacInnes, who may or may not be related to me. Ok, he’s not.

7 Lord Kitchener – Underground train

Tube station-> Underground!

This is from an excellent album called “London is the Place for Me: Trinidad Calypso in London 1950 to 1956”, all music made by the first wave of Afro Caribbean immigrants who arrived in the UK after WW2. Kitchener’s songs are a really interesting mix of naïve optimism (London is the Place for me, for instance), and all-too- realism (If You’re Not White You’re Black). All of them are great.

8 MIA ft Bun B and Rich Boy – Paper Planes

Train -> Plane

OK, so MIA is an acquired taste. And that bit at the end, when she goes, “ MIA, third world democracy” is a real, cringing, fist-in-mouth moment. But if you aren’t shooting a pretend gun during the chorus, then, well, I don’t think we can be friends any more. Her album is OK. The best track has a guy called Afrikan Boy on it. Well, looky here…

9 – Afrikan Boy – Day out in Lidl

Afrikan Boy was on MIA’s album

Lidl is the shittest, cheapest supermarket in the UK. So going shoplifting there is pretty ghetto.

10- Jamie Liddell – Multiply

Lidl –> Liddell

Quite proud of this link, fwiw. Good song this. No idea what he’s talking about. “Take a trip and multiply”? Whatever could he mean? He also makes the worthwhile point, in the middle 8, that whilst people on the street, there are many, many, people on the moon, meanwhile, there ain't any, any.

11 Balistic Brothers – Blacker 4 the Good Times

Multiply – 4 Times is all maths and that

I do like this song and all, but really, it’s just a way of linking from Jamie Lidell to

12 Super Furry Animals – Venus and Serena

Brothers - > Sisters!

Bang! We’re back! SFA are one of those bands I should spend more time getting to know. Clearly, this song is ace. But it’s off the only album of theirs I have, and one which the real Furry fans reckon is “not their best”. But they would, wouldn’t they?

13 The Streets – All got our Runnins

Running is something you have to do in tennis. What? That’s a link.

This song was on his first album, but taken off at the last minute. It’s my favourite Streets track, mainly for the final line; “Cos I can’t pay the rent but I’ve got a hundred and nine pound pair of trainers on”. Having given this plenty of thought, it’s the fact that the shoes are a hundred and nine pounds that makes this line so good.

14 – Letta Mbulu – What is Wrong with Groovin?

Runnin and groovin are both examples of the present continuous with the final letter removed.

Best line in the whole CD; “Why do they follow me around, just like their name was 007?” Why indeed?

15 The Specials – Message to Rudy

Letta -> Message

This link might only work if you have a “British” accent, my North American chums. But I do, so that’s OK.

16 – Jamie T – Sheila

Rudy and Sheila are both girl’s names

My next CD will feature exclusively songs by people called Jamie

17 – King Biscuit Time – I Walk the Earth

T – Biscuit (and you thought the links were falling off! No chance….)

Two Facts About King Biscuit Time. 1 The singer is the singer from the Beta Band. 2 A friend of a friend has a restraining order out on him.

18 – Burial – Unite

Earth -> Burial

Taking the opposite approach to DJ Rocket, I’m not ending on a club stomper, mainly because I own no Soviet disco, and I know when I can’t compete. I think, with winter closing in across the northern hemisphere, we need as many melancholy but warm, haunting yet lovely songs as we can find. And whilst I think everything on this CD is great, this is the one track I really, really love, as my I-tune play counts will attest.

And! And ! And! Burial remixed Wayfaring Stranger for Jamie Woon! So the circle, friends, is complete……

Cover Up! Liner Notes from Dr Pepper

Hey all - Dr Pepper's CD is off the press on its way to you. So here are some liner notes:

Cover Up!...Because imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

Stop! You may prefer to listen to the CD first and then come back to the notes. The beauty of covers is sometimes in the surprise.

Every second song you hear these days is some cheap, thoughtless cover of some old classic or another. How many times do you turn on the radio and hear someone butchering one of your favourite tunes? Well, here's a selection from Dr Pepper which attempts to break that mould. Great songs with great covers. You may reserve the right to think that some of these have been "butchered", but I've gone for variety and style. Personally, Dr Pepper is very pleased. So here you go, some brief notes to the album:

1 & 2. Mr Brightside. A fine tune from an admittedly over-rated band. Given some big band re-working. Turn your cd up loud, for this makes a fine introduction to the cd. Mr Paul Anka debutises in the CD Club. He has a variety of covers, though, a whole album of this could be too much.

3 & 4. Panic. Some quality from the Smiths given a twist by the Puppini Sisters. One for the Londoners here. The Smiths wrote this song after a British DJ, Steve Wright (who is still going incidentally), played Wham's I'm Your Man just after breaking the news of the Chernobyl Disaster. The Smiths, apparently outraged by the DJ's vacuousness, wrote this tribute to him.

5 & 6. Home is where the hatred is. Some classic soul from Esther Phillips given a little Kanye magic.

7 & 8. Blue Monday. The ultimate mobile phone (that's cell to you over the pond) ringtone given some liberal interpretation by Kylie; performed live at the Brits a few years back.

9 & 10. Satisfaction. A Stones classic. I debated about putting this in. The song is so perfect that I risked running the offence of the purists. But we've heard a lot from Cat Power in the CD Club so far, and she doesn't escape Dr Pepper's attention either. This re-working of Satisfaction is so far removed that the word "cover" doesn't seem appropriate. Miss Power has made this version her own.

11. Sweet Home Country Grammar. Keen observers will note that this is not a cover, but what the kids call a "mash up". But it gets on the play list simply because you can't help but smile when you hear it. Who'd have thought that Nelly and Lynyrd Skynyrd would prove such brilliant bedfellows.

12 & 13. Harry's Philosophy. John Lee Hooker was a genius. Some pure blues brings the tempo down a bit here. St Germain give it some amazing styling; listen carefully, the transition between songs is virtually seamless.

14 & 15. Feeling Good. Turn it up loud again. A Nina Simone classic given a heavy, rock touch by the gods who are Muse.

16 & 17. The Way Young Lovers Do. This is a treat for everyone. I originally heard the Jeff Buckley cover before the Van Morrison original and while the latter is good, the cover is mind-blowing. Recorded live at Sin-E, a New York coffee house, in 1993, this shows Buckley's extreme vocal talent brilliantly. This has since become one of my favourite tunes of all time, though trying to sing along does have the unwelcome side-effect of attracting stray dogs.

So there it is. Covers. No doubt there's some you think should have been included. Which starts a debate. What are your favourite covers? What are the worst covers out there? Girls Aloud bastardisation of Aerosmith's Walk This Way comes pretty close for me.

Where the notes at?

So I now have 3 more CDs since the last post. Cool! Do DJs Wordplay and Dr Pepper have anything to tell us about them?

From the Depths of the VocabuLair

Fellow 'Js,

Does waiting for DJ "Wordplay"'s mail-out have you wondering whether you're showing signs of Lexical Lethargy?

Is your vocabulary very barely there?

Need a musical bon mot to add to your spin cycle?

Check out this article on "the mondegreen", the word coined (in 1954!) to refer to those misheard, misconstrued and misinterpreted chunks o' song-lyric. We've all been there. These are those bits of chorus, verse and vocal riff that take on new phonic shapes, unintentional cadences and, ultimately, meanings of a unique sort -- often hilarious and surprisingly apt -- once warped due to multiple mis-listenings and convincing sing-a-longings....

Ok, survey says new vocab tends to stick more if you use it...
so... here goes...

Select phrases from Bruce Springsteen's "Blinded By The Light" have spawned a long list of mondegreens. Does "wrapped up like a douche" ring bells for anyone besides moi-self?

DJ Schwa welcomes real-life mondegreen examples from the HitParadeLinerNotes community -- post 'em here!

Whither September?

Where, oh where, is CD number three? September has come and gone.

DJs, please remember that you signed up to have a CD in the post by the 15th of each month. Dr Pepper, you're up for October. DJ Wordplay, we're still waiting for number three.