Song Reviews

thoughts on individual songs

Frances Farmer: The Nirvana song that fell through the cracks

For some reason over the years, Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle hasn’t gotten the attention it deserves. Here we have one of those songs that no one ever talks about. It sits around being under-appreciated, despite all the hard work it does at being one of Nirvana’s true great masterpieces. For some reason, it’s constantly overshadowed by its bigger brothers. Come on! It is nearly last place (tied with Radio Friendly Unit Shifter) on the Last.fm In Utero chart.

But no longer! Listen now and behold its glory!

[audio:061022FrancesFarmer.mp3]

Tortoise, Star Trek, and Orbital (with more Star Trek): Song of the Day Triple Feature

I spent a good seven+plus hours burning through some iTunes today to make up for yesterday’s somewhat disappointing performance a shortened day at the office will do that. With about 100 songs to choose from, I had a very hard time narrowing down the song of the day, so lucky you, here’s three songs to choose from. Choose wisely.

Orbital: Time Becomes

[audio:061021OrbitalTimeBecomes.mp3]

Constructed from a single line spoken by Worf from the 2nd season Star Trek: The Next Generation episode Time Squared which I happened to see just the other day—it’s almost unwatchably bad, this song is more of an experiment in recording technique than actual music. But it’s fun to have your own personal Moebius.

Time Squared of course, is not to be confused with the 5th season episode Cause and Effect, where the Enterprise is destroyed every 11 minutes or so.

Tortoise: Swung From The Gutters

[audio:061021TortoiseSwungfromtheGutters.mp3]

From TNT, this song is just great; not quite as good as The Equator, but still one of my faves from the band.
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Boston Pops conducted by John Williams performing the theme to Star Trek

[audio:061021BostonPopsStarTrek.mp3]

A very unusual and extended take on the classic and well-known theme to the original Star Trek television program, performed live in concert by the Boston Pops.

Nobukazu Takemura – sign acappella

Today’s song is the unaccompanied robot/computer vocalist for Nobukazu Takemura’s single Sign (vinyl 12″ version) from his 2001 album Hoshi no Koe.

I first heard the original version of this song at a show in New Orleans in 2001. That show was my first real exposure to glitch music (a form of electronic music that has intentional “errors” in it or is entirely composed of error-like sounds, such as a CD skipping) and it completely blew my mind. I still get chills listening to the vocal part of Sign that starts at the 1:09 mark.

Takemura has since become a kind of legendary figure as far as my iTunes is concerned. And while Sign is a fantastic track, without its attendant beeps and boops, however, it suffers from some unpleasant and awkwardly-long breaks of silence, which cost it some of its gravitas. Still, these artificial vocals manage to convey a kind of staccato emotion, like a robot throwing down some slam poetry.

[audio:061020sign_acappella.mp3]

New Tunequest Feature: Song of the Day

I probably should have thought of this sooner, but I didn’t have this nifty new WordPress plugin that let’s me easily embed audio files into my posts until the other day. Of course, the primary premise of Tunequest is that I’m spending the year listening to all 14,000+ songs in my iTunes library. Until recently, I didn’t really have a way to share some of that music.

So, starting today I will be including a song from each day’s playlist in a post to the site. There’s 73 days left in the year, so expect about 73 songs (though probably fewer; there are some days where I don’t get the chance to listen to anything).

The debut song is Kind Hearted Woman Blues by Robert Johnson.

[audio:061018kindhearted-woman-blues.mp3]

I’m not much of a blues fan. Nothing against it; in fact I respect the blues and blues musicians a great deal. I just can’t listen to much of it at a time the exception being blues bars. Live blues is something to behold.

It’s probably fitting then, that I’ve gone to the source with Johnson’s Complete Recordings. It’s undeniably classic and quite moving. And come to think of it, I probably don’t need any other blues records. It’s all right here.

Find it on

Ratatat really does make the world a better place

Take for example this remix.

Normally, I absolutely can not tolerate Missy Elliot. I just don’t like her style. And her 2004 single I’m Really Hot was a completely egotistical crapfest which couldn’t manage to display the slightest bit of talent or even a minisculey appealing hook.

So it is a bit of a minor miracle that Ratatat manages to not only make the song listenable, but the duo actually creates something awesome from it.

Have a listen:

and a free download.

All hail Ratatat. Truly musical gods.

Stereolab – Ping Pong: Geo-political Rock

ping pong

Ping Pong is an unusually uptempo, rockin’ song from Stereolab’s mars audiac quintet. It’s one of my favorites from the groop and the increase in tempo gives its lyrics a stronger visceral impact.

Though released in 1994, the lyrics show a degree of timelessness, given the current geo-political situation.

it’s alright ‘cos the historical pattern has shown
how the economical cycle tends to revolve.
in a round of decades three stages stand out in a loop.
a slump and war then peel back to square one and back for more

bigger slump and bigger wars and a smaller recovery
huger slump and greater wars and a shallower recovery

you see the recovery always comes ’round again
there’s nothing to worry for things will look after themselves
it’s alright recovery always comes ’round again
there’s nothing to worry if things can only get better

there’s only millions that lose their jobs and homes and sometimes accents
there’s only millions that die in their bloody wars, it’s alright

it’s only their lives and the lives of their next of kin that they are losing
it’s only their lives and the lives of their next of kin that they are losing

it’s alright ‘cos the historical pattern has shown
how the economical cycle tends to revolve.
in a round of decades three stages stand out in a loop.
a slump and war then peel back to square one and back for more

bigger slump and bigger wars and a smaller recovery
huger slump and greater wars and a shallower recovery

don’t worry. be happy. things will get better naturally.
don’t worry. shut up. sit down. go with it and be happy.

Meanwhile, enjoy this poor quailty music video of the song; it’s so very 90s:

Golden Shower – Video Computer System: Pixelated Nostalgia

Despite its, um, colorful name, Golden Shower is a Brazilian outfit that produces some excellent electronic music, all of it heavily inspired by the sounds of the 1980s. For something that will blow the mind of any child of that decade, watch the award-winning video (2000 MTV Brasil Video Music Awards) for Video Computer System, then download the song itself.

The video is a tribute to the classic games of the Atari gaming system and the song is actually composed of beeps, boops and other sounds sampled from various gaming titles. The premise is that a protagonist must make his way to a G.S. concert while overcoming typical obstacles from the Atari gaming world including Frogger, Pitfall, Missile Command, Pac Man and others.

At one point, he gets killed, but it’s ok, he’s got another life. Also, the video features some pixelated “bullet time,” which is an interesting concept.

Golden Shower has never released an album in its ten year history, nor is it what is normally called a “band.” It’s more of an art and culture project and all its materials are downloadable. Check it out, I say.

Golden Shower – Video Computer System Atari