Stanley Black : Temptation

In the 50's, after the GI's came home from the Pacific Rim and we adopted Hawaii as our 50th state, there was an explosion of tiki culture in America. Everything remotely related to the Pacific, and by extension anything oriental and even Indian, was considered fascinating. This was true in music as well, as literally thousands of tiki-themed albums were released.

"Temptation" is another of those classic easy listening songs that appears on a bazillion LPs and it's especially popular amongst the tiki crowd, along with "Bali Ha'i", "Moon of Manakoora", "Quiet Village" and others. Stanley Black (real name: Solomon Schwartz) was a British composer and arranger who released a number of easy listening orchestral albums, most of which are top notch. It's hard to go wrong with a Stanley Black album.

Exotic Percussion is a great album, and, as it's name implies, it's chock full of old favorites spiced up with eastern-sounding horns, jungle drums and lots and lots of great percussion. Plus most of the tracks have a female chorus oohing and ahhing along, which just makes the songs doubly awesome. "Temptation" is no exception, kicking off the record with the percussion and horns pounding away, the vocals weaving delicately in and out, and all of the instruments showing off their stereo prowess. They proceed to march through a series of Bolero-like crescendos, ending in a final flourish of horn, drum and voice. Stanley knows how to wring the excitement out of a tune and he definitely pulls out the stops here.

"Temptation" can be found on Stanley's Exotic Percussion album, which you can grab from Amazon off a 2-LP-1-CD deal, or actually get the vinyl. I'd go for the vinyl.

* Art by Shag. He's awesome.

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Blitzen Trapper : Furr

Another band I don't know much about. (The truth is, I don't know a lot about these bands. I just know what I like.) Blitzen Trapper is an 'indie' band, which I think means you don't get to use Auto-Tune, except maybe ironically, and they hail from Oregon, which you can actually hear in their music, if you can believe that. What all that means is they play rock that ranges from 'folk-informed' to ... 'grunge-informed,' I guess. Think: the Byrds or Bob Dylan to a less whiny Nirvana.

This particular song is very Dylan-esque, from the surrealistic lyrics, to the musical delivery (including punctuating harmonica), even down to the vocal style. It's a folk-rock number, with a dark, mysterious feel, dabbling in the supernatural, like an early twentieth-century fairy tale set to music. In it, the singer describes his transformation into a wolf. Not like a werewolf, but like, he wanders around until he's adopted by wolves. Then he grows fur, runs with the wolves for a while, and then wanders back to humanity and settles down and gets married. Really, I don't know what it means, but it sounds good when he sings it, and that's the important part.

This was another example where it was tough to decide which song to pull from an album. The band does a great murder ballad called "Black River Killer", which is like "Folsom Prison Blues" without any of the repentance, and I waffled back and forth, trying to decide which to post. I think "Furr" is probably the better tune, but if you have some way to check out the other one, give it a listen.

Furr tends to lean more towards the folk-rock end of the spectrum, but they do have some harder numbers as well. It was released in 2008 on SubPop records.

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Celia Cruz : Yo Viviré

We had landed in Orlando and were heading into DisneyWorld. I thought, as I rarely do, let's see what's on the radio. But rather than flip on the FM dial and tune into the same homogenous satellite-driven pap, we'd scan the AM dial to see what showed up. I turned it on, tuned it up, and lo and behold, out of the speakers came this driving latin beat, distinctly Spanish, but also vaguely familiar. We're cruising over the blacktop, the sun is shining, everyone's excited about Disney, and the rhythm and horns are just lifting me up. I'm driving and grooving (at the same time, which always makes my wife nervous), and suddenly, as the strings crest over the chorus, I realize, "Holy shit, that's 'I Will Survive'!" and I'm catapulted into sheer giddiness.

Yes, a killer upbeat ass-kicking salsa version of the 70's disco classic. There's not much else to say about it, except that it keeps the fiery spirit of the original, but it's even spicier with the latin rhythms, the horns and the chanted Spanish background vocals. If you're not dancing around the room while you listen to this, you may not have a soul.

Celia Cruz is apparently pretty popular in the latin music community and released a flood of albums between 1958 and 2003, when she passed. You can find this cover on her 2000 release, Siempre Vivire.

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Testament : Riding the Snake

Let's kick the week off with a bang. I first heard this song on the metal channel on Sirius Satellite Radio and it blew me away. It was heavy without being too metally, like early Metallica or Helmet, and they've got Dave Lombardo drumming for them on this album.

Dave is a drumming machine. He started with Slayer and currently performs with Fantômas. His technique is perfect, while still being super-fast and phenomenally heavy. Every beat is perfectly in place, but he still manages to avoid sounding like a machine. Part of conveying "heaviness" in music is using what John Cage once called "grace". It's the ability to play around a note, to add just a little syncopation, to bring life to the music. In this case to drag it a little behind the rhythm, which builds the weight behind the beat. John Bonham was a master at this, which is why he is the best rock drummer to ever walk the earth. Neil Peart, while being a technical master, does not understand grace and does sound like a machine, which is why he is not the best rock drummer (Q.E.D.).

Dave is up there as far as drummers go. He would certainly give John a run for his money, but then Dave never drank himself to death by choking on his own vomit. So John's got him on that one.

Regardless, the entire album is just super-heavy & technically flawless and it rocks like nobody's business. Definitely one of my favorite finds in the past couple of years and it easily ranks in my top 100, although it probably tops the list for ugliest album covers of all time. From 1999, Testament's The Gathering.

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MFSB : Sexy

I feel like ending the week on an up note, so let's go with a little disco. MFSB (which stands for Mother Father Sister Brother, although it's never written that way or as an acronym) was a house band in Philadelphia that backed all sorts of classic soul singers from Wilson Pickett to The O'Jays to Billy Paul. The label also had them put out their own albums of instrumental funk (obviously). MFSB had their biggest hit in '74 with "TSOP (The Sound of Philadelphia)", which was later adopted as the theme to Soul Train. They also did the incredible "K-Jee" on the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack in '77.

"Sexy" falls somewhere in between. It starts with a bit of Meters-like guitar, which pretty much completely disappears once the song gets going. Then it dives straight into that rump-shaking dance beat. After a couple of cycles it's joined by a wisp of porn guitar (chick-a-wow), and then a little later by a super-funky bass line. After four more trips around the beat, there's a bit of a build up, a drum roll, and the strings kick in.

Ahhhhh, the strings. Like hot water down the back of your neck on a cold morning, or good Swiss milk chocolate diffusing across your tongue, the strings swoop in and carry you off, leaving you with a warm melty feeling inside. There's nothing like it. After a bit more of the floaty strings, the band drops back into the main groove and cruises along, carrying on with a little solo sax and keeping up that peppy dancefloor vibe. They try the string trick a few more times, and it's always nice, but it's never quite as good as your first time.

"Sexy" comes from MFSB's '75 album, Universal Love, which isn't available on CD. You can also find it on Love Is the Message: The Best of MFSB which has all their hits and then some.

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The Lost Fingers : Careless Whisper

The Lost Fingers are a gypsy-jazz band from Quebec, which is in Canada. You may not have heard of them, but in 2008, they sold the second most records of any Canadian band (in Canada), right after Nickelback, who you probably have heard of. Named after Django Reinhardt's missing digits, the group models their sound after the same sort of acoustic jump-jazz Django was so great at.

Armed with two acoustic guitars and a stand-up bass, they attack 80's standards (?) with gusto and a Quebecoise accent. They do fantastic takes on "Billie Jean" and "Straight Up" among others. Here, with a little funk and the singer's strained vocals, they nail the raw frustration coursing through this classic Wham! confessional and take it from the dancefloor to a dark, smokey coffeehouse where it belongs.

You can find this tune on their 2008 debut album, Lost in the 80's. It is truly a fun, fabulous album.

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Follow-Up: Tilly and the Wall

I just found out that the reason there is stomping and clapping in that song by Tilly and the Wall is because most of their percussion is generated by mic'ing up one of the singer's tap shoes. Yes, their percussion section consists of tap shoes and clapping. Also, some drum machines. But still, that's awesome. Now I want to see them live.

Emerson, Lake & Palmer : Bitches Crystal

Somehow, Emerson, Lake & Palmer became the poster boys for overwrought, overthought, overblown, craptastic progressive rock; a title which, by all rights and means, ought to go to The Moody Blues, or maybe Marillion. The problem is, all these prog guys were really great musicians. And sometimes great musicians get all wrapped up in the technique and think that the music is about their musicianship and they forget that music needs to be about the music first. Plus, when you're that egotistical, even if you have the chops, it ticks people off. Except for Yngwie Malmsteen fans, who can only be explained by some sort of mass hypnosis.

Regardless, even though some of ELP's stuff could get a little tedious, if you dig a little into their LPs, especially their early stuff, you can find some amazing rock. This is no surprise in that Greg Lake was a founding member of King Crimson, Keith Emerson came from the Nice, and Carl Palmer was with... er, Atomic Rooster.

The tune begins with a little piano noodling, then dives right into the rock. Once it gets going, the song is terminally busy, notes are everywhere. The bass drives the rock, while Carl is just all over the drums, banging away like he's determined to hit as many of his drums as possible in a four minute period without losing the beat. Meanwhile, Keith beats his electric piano up until it's bruised, with not one but two awesome solos, and Greg angrily howls the vocals over the top.

And the lyrics. They're full of evil powers and witches, tortured spirits and ritual killings, all sorts of dark, fanciful images. But when you break it down ... I still don't know what they're talking about. Who's the bitch? Who's the 'you'? I'm just not sure, which I guess just makes it good poetry, so throw whatever meaning on it you like. It still rocks.

"Bitches Crystal" is on ELP's second outing, 1971's Tarkus, which is conceptually about the military-industrial complex. Hence the motorized armadillo on the cover, I suppose.

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Jon : Les Sucettes

Before 50 Cent and Lil Wayne there was Serge Gainsbourg. He penned a little ditty for France Gall called "Les Sucettes", which means, I'm pretty sure, "The Lollipops" in French. While ostensibly being about Annie's anise-flavored lollipops, it's actually full of erotic double entendres and dirty French puns, mostly about lollipops. Go figure.

Serge's popularity went through a little surge back in the late 90's. Like Bacharach before him and Leonard Cohen today, it seemed like anybody who wanted to be taken seriously as a performer had to cover a Gainsbourg tune. About this same time, John Zorn was curating a (sadly short-lived) series of compilations called "Great Jewish Music", in which he would choose a composer of Jewish heritage and get his stable of Tzadik artists to cover a slew of their songs. They handled Bacharach & Gainsbourg, and later Marc Bolan. Sadly, they never got to Paul Simon, Leiber & Stoller or Gene Simmons. Or Barry Manilow. Oh, or Neil Diamond!

Jon, as this artist is known, is another matter. She's Japanese and she plays a pump organ. And that's all I know, as "Jon" doesn't exactly Google well.

I think I promised somewhere that I wouldn't post anything I didn't actually enjoy listening to. And that's important, because there are people who like stuff simply because it's so weird and/or awful that you couldn't possibly actually like it. You should know that, if I offend your ears, it's not because I'm trying to somehow aurally gross you out. I really do enjoy listening to the music on some level. So, no Three Stooges Christmas albums or William Shatner singing Rocket Man, just music I enjoy and think is interesting enough that you should hear it too.

Jon definitely falls into that 'avant-garde' or 'weird' category. First, her voice sounds like a twee little six-year-old, which is somewhat appropriate (and creepy) given the nature of the song. Second, her organ sounds like it's dying of old age. You can hear every creak and moan, every push of the pedals and puff of air. You can almost hear the dust floating about in the dimly lit haunted-house of a room this must have been recorded in. And yet, that's what gives the recording it's appeal for me. The music isn't just in the song, but it embodies the Cagian idea that all aspects of the performance are part of the music; that the wheezes of a dying organ are just as musically important as the notes and lyrics Serge originally penned. I couldn't listen to a whole album of this stuff, but this tune is both fascinating and enjoyable. I hope when you listen to it, you get a chance to revel in the artifact and the atmosphere.

You can find the tune on the excellent Tzadik compilation Great Jewish Music: Serge Gainsbourg. Most of the rest of the tunes are far more traditionally musical than this one (though a few aren't). While you're at it, you should grab the Burt Bacharach one as well. You can skip the Bolan one. I believe they missed Marc's whole point with that comp, and as such, it's just not as good.

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Dan Deacon : Snookered

Yet another artist I don't know a lot about. Dan Deacon is an electronic composer whose works fall somewhere between rock, IDM and electro-acoustic music. I first heard of Dan on a podcast where he actually did a lot of this stuff live, which is just crazy. And it's not just Dan sitting there clicking buttons on his laptop. Lately he's been touring with an actual fourteen person band. So, serious props for that.

This tune is relatively straightforward compared to the rest of his stuff, if you can believe that. It builds from a quiet, reflective sonic pool into a maelstrom of sound. It takes a bit to get going, but once the rhythm kicks in, it drives on straight-ahead, fast and furious. Dan (I assume) sings some very Eno-esque vocals over the top, and garnishes the whole thing with frantic riffs on some sort of malleted instrument and a variety of electronic gewgaws. Plus there's a killer sampled-vocal breakdown in the middle. He rocks on it hard for a few minutes, then suddenly it quits out from underneath you, like the cliff under Wile E. Coyote, and you're back at that reflecting pool at dusk wondering what the hell just ran you over. What's especially neat is, if you listen to the song on repeat, it's tough to tell where the loop actually comes around. It just sounds like one endless eternal song.

This eight-minute rocker can be found on Dan's most recent release, Bromst.

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