A Quick One before I'm Away

BLOW UP (TOMORROW)
The Yardbirds
Blow Up OST 1966
[Download It] [Buy It]

TROUBLE IN THE MESSAGE CENTER
Blur
Parklife 1994
[Download It] [Buy It]

SCORPIO
DJ Shadow Presents...
Schoolhouse Funk 2003
[Download It] [Buy It]

OWED T'ALEX
Captain Beefheart
Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller) 1978
[Download It] [Buy It]


A nutty weekend ahead, so a bizarre quartet to tide you over until Monday. If anyone can find any kind of relationship between these 4 bands/songs, I will seriously send you some kind of prize. It might be that impossible, but it's now become a competition, so there. (Note: saying that "they were all used on Friday August 26th to form a post on FMGT" will not count as a valid answer. Although you would be inventive for saying that.)

So, where to begin?

Blow-Up, a big-time stateside movie breakthrough for Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni, was an unsettling film all about an "unflinching" photographer who takes a picture of what appears to be a crime. It's a mystery, and one in which he becomes involved. The Yardbirds, along with Herbie Hancock, provided the soundtrack for the movie, a soundtrack that originally had the Who pencilled in for the music (but who pulled out due to some contractual disputes). This unlikely pairing does a good job overall - most of the music is pretty stock-atmosphere, but each band gets a chance to let loose, and the Yardbirds do on this track. It's brief, but a driving beat and classic British 60s guitar work keep the listener entertained.

From there, to Blur. Parklife's chock-full of memorable tracks, but this synth-soaked, vocal reverb heaven just cropped up on the ol' mp3 player, so here it is. It sounds rather dated when you consider what Albarn's up to nowadays, but it's still just as valid. Creepy, portentious lyrics about the future and 1984-esque themes are kinda funny, but it's still a solid pop song.

Scorpio! DJ Shadow's odd compilation of 70s-era High School funk bands is a little meandering and difficult at times, but it's not without the kind of highlights that make such an obscure project worthwhile. Funk and soul from High School marching bands? Can that be so listenable? For the most part, honestly not, but tracks like "Scorpio" and "Toast in the Boogie" are fucken superb. Snap this up, peoples!

For the grand finale, something completely different. Some Captain Beefheart, who is still one of my favourite artists of all time. (I'll get into that later) I've been considering putting together a Captain Beefheart Week, although I can't for the life of me decide where I should begin. So, in my haste, I'll begin somewhere toward the end. After a couple of difficult, schlocky albums that seemed to have shed all of his signature delirium, Don Van Vliet stormed back in the late-70s with this classic. "Owed T'Alex" is a nervy, freak-sound track: with several heavy overlapping guitar riffs, the weird fusion of trumpets, fuzzed-out guitars, cornets, harmonica and vocal squeals are the ideal supplement to his demented, non-sequitur lyrics. His voice is like sandpaper to the ears, and it gargles across the music. Maybe I'm describing it well or perhaps I'm doing a terrible job, but there really is only one way to find out: give it a listen and see what you think.



Get Well Soon, Aramis Ramirez. Back on Monday with something more coherent.