Music

Electroclature Volume Eight: x8

April 1, 2024

Part eight of an array of CD mixes I made for my wife over a long number of years! Read more about it here!

We used to live near this intersection and, while I love the angles and blue, the cover feels lackluster to me despite the ND filter effect (look it up!) and nothing about the typography works.

While I may not love the cover, I do love the mix.

MY ROBOT FRIEND’s ‘Robot High School’ is so fucking catchy.

If you’ve ever heard CLOUD CULT? Their songs? 100% trauma and devastation. Their songs will. Make. You. Weep. Saw them at Chicago’s Metro with a live painter interpreting their sound on-stage which? Yeah, that sounds pretentious, but it was so fucking messy and vulnerable, like we shouldn’t have been able to watch it unfurl.

SHOUT OUT OUT OUT’s ‘Forever Indebted’ is so hooky while also so absolutely crushing and escalates wildly while being brutal about finances, which … resonates even harder now.

I vividly remember playing SONS & DAUGHTERS’ ‘Guilt Complex’ to my wife shortly after a New Years countdown clicked down. For some drunken reason I couldn’t help but flail my arms about and sing along with it. Will she know why? Will you? Nope!

Revisiting these mixes, I am gobsmacked at how many of these bands I saw live, and how many memories I have from them. Hell, I remember leaning over the railing at Metro and singing along to THE KILLS. Make your own experiences, y’all.

Keep clapping. (Artist / Album / Song):

  • FAKE / You Are Not Dead: A Guide To Modern Living / Past Performance Does Not Guarantee Future Results
  • THE KILLS / Midnight Bloom / Cheap and Cheerful
  • MY ROBOT FRIEND / Robot High School / Robot High School
  • aonami / SXSW 2008 Showcasing Artists / MISODISKO
  • JONATHAN COULTON / Portal OST / Still Alive
  • ASA-CHANG & JUNRAY / Jun Ray Song Chang / Hana
  • VAMPIRE WEEKEND / Stereogum Presents… OKX: A Tribute To OK Computer / Exit Music (For a Film)
  • CLOUD CULT / Feel Good Ghosts / When Water Comes to Life
  • MAN MAN / Live at 9:30 Club 6/30/06 / Spooky Jookie
  • SONS & DAUGHTERS / This Gift / Gift Complex
  • THE VIOLETS / The Lost Pages / In Your Statue
  • BODIES OF WATER / Ears Will Pop & Eyes Will Blink / Doves Circled the Sky
  • MIDNIGHT MOVIES / Nights EP / Nights In White Satin
  • FEIST / Vanshe Technologic Remix / 1234
  • SHOUT OUT OUT OUT / Not Saying Just Saying / Forever Indebted
  • GOGOL BORDELLO / Super Taranta! / Wonderlust King
  • HOLY FUCK / Holy Fuck / Lovely Allen
  • THE HYLOZOISTS / La Fin Du Monde / The Man Who Almost Was

Electroclature Volume Seven: INTERRUPT PT. 2

March 29, 2024

A companion piece to INTERRUPT PT. 1, if you will. (Read more about the reasoning behind these mixes here!)

Pretty sure the photo came from a garagesaling expedition of ours and this wringer probably cost $5 and I regret not buying it. I’ll note? I do love the texture.

I also really love this mix. I will always go to bat for THE LONG BLONDES and ‘Big Infatuation’ is absolutely one of my favorites. BALKAN BEAT BOX? So energetic. (Not sure if they’re still around, but I loved seeing ’em live as goddamn did they pop and bop.) THE VIOLETS was a criminally underrated post-punk band that released one album and that was it and it was not enough, at least not for me.

Also, as someone who has seen SLIM CESSNA’S AUTO CLUB live? They really fucking know how to roll with flubs:

She’s a dancer!

She dances fine!

I don’t remember my next line!

So … uh, enjoy!

Track listing (Artist / Album / Song):

  • HENGAR-UNION SACRED HARP CONVENTION / Anthology of American Folk Music / Antioch 277
  • BALKAN BEAT BOX / Balkan Beat Box / Bulgarian Chicks
  • BEIRUT / Gulag Orkestar / Prenzlauerberg
  • SLIM CESSNA’S AUTO CLUB / Jesus Let Me Down / Unto the Day [LIVE]
  • SONS & DAUGHTERS / This Gift / Goodbye Service
  • THE LONG BLONDES / someone to drive you home / Lust in the Movies
  • TWO TON BOA / Parasiticide / Cash Machine
  • PEPINPO / 8bp050 / Faster Than Time
  • 65daysofstatic / Unreleased_Unreleasable Vol. 2 / aren’t we all running [feedle] (Yes, I know I typo’ed that in the art but too late now.)
  • YUKSEK / The Wax – EP / crosswords
  • BIT SHIFTER / Half-Life / Antenna
  • BEAK / amoral mayor earwig ep / i saw two of me
  • DETEKTIVBYRÅN / Hemvägen EP / E18
  • DIVISION DAY / Covers/Remixes / Enjoy the Silence
  • TALL DWARFS / That’s the Short and Long of It / Nothing’s Going to Happen
  • THE VIOLETS / The Lost Pages / Parting Glances
  • THE MAGNETIC FIELDS / Live on Fair Game with Faith Salie / The Nun’s Litany [acoustic radio]

Electroclature Volume Five: ATTENTION SP

March 27, 2024

Part five of an array of CD mixes I made for my wife over a long number of years! Read more about it here!

For some reason, my archived playlist kicks off with JÓHANN JÓHANNSON’s ‘The sun’s gone dim and the sky’s turned black’ from his album IBM 1401, a user’s manual. I do not know why I didn’t include it, as my father worked for IBM and I find it to be a very personal song.

So, despite the fact that it’s not actually part of the CD I handed off, I’m including it here.

(It’s worth noting Jóhann is no longer with us, but his music will always remain.)

The cover? A close-up of a porch railing from one of our prior apartments. We were always shocked that it didn’t completely fall apart upon stepping out on it, as it was absolutely carved away by termites.

Highlights? RATATAT’s ‘Lex’ is perfectly constructed to sway to in the middle of the night. SUPERSYSTEM’s ‘White Light White Light’ is a raucous good time. BONDE DO ROLE heavily sample ‘The Final Countdown’ which is nostalgic, well-infused fun. THE LONG BLONDES always entertain and ‘You Could Have Both’ is a very breathless song about lust and desire and allure no matter who it affects, as is par for the course for them.

Lastly? I have no fucking clue how I settled on the title. I’m guessing I may have been suggesting that attention is needed while watching VHS tapes recorded in SP as they’re far shorter than recording in EP format, but I doubt it.

Tracklust, I mean tracklist: Artist / Album / Song!

  • JÓHANN JÓHANNSON / IBM 1401, a user’s manual / The sun’s gone dim and the sky’s turned black
  • REGINA SPEKTOR / Begin to Hope / Edit
  • naomi sample / microballads vol 1 / living auf a satellite
  • BONDE DO ROLE / Bonde Do Role / Ma´quina de Ricota
  • null / Okami OST (Vol. 2) / Crimson Helm, Begone!
  • RATATAT / Classics / Lex
  • SUPERSYSTEM / A Million Microphones / White Light White Light
  • Coin-op / null / White Picket
  • THE LONG BLONDES / Someone To Drive You Home / You Could Have Both
  • DAVID & THE CITIZENS / S/T / Now She Sleeps In A Box In The Good Soil Of Denmark
  • MICAH P HINSON / The Baby & The Satellite / The Dreams You Left Behind (Reprise)
  • DeVotchKa / How It Ends / Such a Lovely Thing
  • Gál Attila scratch and jew’s harping by Kwikka / Nomada remix album / Aven le Roma! [reCord]
  • XIU XIU / The Air Force / boy record
  • MY DAD VS. YOURS / Crossed Soundtrack / Law of Unintended Consequences

Electroclature Volume Four: MADISON

March 25, 2024

Part four of an array of CD mixes I made for my wife over a long number of years! Read more about it here!

If you’re wondering about the title? It’s because we were driving through Madison, WI and I took a pic when we pulled aside and bought some gasoline.

That’s it.

That’s the entire story.

Also? Not my favorite cover. Feels a bit too forced and anti-septic, but it is what it is. Could be worse. At least I like the font.

Also? I fucking enumerated it this time.

Highlights? D.A.T. POLITICS’s ‘Viper Eyes’ is one hell of a bop. SABREPULSE’s ‘Famicom Connection’ is a whimsical 8-bit delight, and COIN-OP’s ‘Hey Uri!’ is a thrill ride that tears Uri Geller a new one.

Unfortunately, a fair number of tracks are unavailable to stream. My apologies.

Track listing (artist / album / song):

  • 山口裕史 / 8-bit okami / 画龍成功 レトロバージョン
  • STACS OF STAMINA / Tivoli / Mourning Morning
  • PARA ONE / Epiphanie / Dundun-dun
  • WALTER MEEGO / Hollywood/Keyhole 12″ / Keyhole
  • D.A.T. POLITICS / Wow Twist / Viper Eyes
  • SABREPULSE / Famicom Connection / Famicom Connection [Tajfel Nipple Correction Facility]
  • PLANNINGTOROCK / Have it All / I Wanna Bite Ya
  • FOETUS / Love / Miracle
  • COIN-OP / Hey Uri! / Hey Uri!
  • ART BRUT / Bang Bang Rock & Roll / Modern Art
  • TAPES ‘N TAPES / The Loon / Insistor
  • SLEATER-KINNEY / One Beat / Prisstina
  • MICAH P. HINSON / Micah P. Hinson And The Gospel Of Progress / Don’t You Forget (Part 1 & 2)
  • MY DAD VS. YOURS / After Winter Must Come Spring / No Form, No Food, No Future
  • BISHOP ALLEN / March EP / Flight 180
  • PONY HOAX / Poni Hoax / Budapest
  • 777minus111 / akademiks / cortney rlizabeth rafter

Electroclature Volume Three: THE JOY OF REPETITION

March 22, 2024

Part three of an array of CD mixes I made for my wife over a long number of years! Read more about it here!

Gotta admit, this is one of my favorites mix CD cover designs, both back and forth. I love me my structural neon pink + minimalism, to the point where it has made some folks very angry at me.

(When I redesigned one of my sites to feature a similar hot pink — this was over a decade ago — and wow, readers were pissed to the point where I gave in and added an aqua blue theme toggle. Fuck ’em! No regrets! Love the pink!)

I do wish I had thought of the phrase ‘The Joy of Repetition’ as I’ve harped on the virtues of repetition in prior posts while discussing videogames many moons ago, but no: I 100% stole it from the featured HOT CHIP track ‘Over and Over’.

Not to back-pat myself too much, but I love this mix. I could listen to this for days, even weeks on end. JAMES FIGURINE’s 55566688833 is the stand-out here; an absolutely emotionally brutal slice of electronics that is very, very much of its texting-time in ways that is incredibly exacting.

When we disagree? We fight in capital letters.

I have to type a lot of numbers into my cellphone, just to make it spell LOVE so I usually don’t.

Track list (Artist / Album / Song):

  • JM / [plpl000] Various – Hello World / The Circle Machine
  • ZIGGY KINDER / Akrobatik / Paarartistik
  • ELLEN ALLIEN & APPARAT / Orchestra of Bubbles / Do Not Break
  • WAX TAILOR / Tales of the Forgotten Melodies / Que Sera
  • HOT CHIP / Over and Over EP / Over and Over
  • I AM THE WORLD TRADE CENTER / The Cover Up / Future Sightings
  • RODRIGO Y GABRIELA / Rodrigo Y Gabriela / Tamacun
  • DATA / Trop Laster EP / Master Level
  • JAMES FIGURINE / Mistake, Mistake, Mistake, Mistake / 55566688833
  • INKLEIN QUARTET / Brave New World / Lonely Whale Song
  • (Somehow the Sigur Ros track went missing.)
  • GODSPEED! YOU BLACK EMPEROR / Yanqui U.X.O. / Motherfucker=Redeemer (Part Two)
  • AKIRA YAMAOKA / SILENT HILL 4 OST / Room of Angel
  • ALIAS & TARSIER / Brookland/Oaklyn / Dr. C

Electroclature Volume Two

March 20, 2024

Part two of a series of music mixes! Learn more here!

Apart from the pink, I do not love this very, very old cover, designed around the end of the modern grunge design movement. The kerning sucks and there’s no enumeration for the tracks. I have no idea what I was thinking apart from probably trying to kill some 3AM insomnia boredom.

Also, I was probably altered, as is pretty much bog-standard for 3AM insomniacs.

However, I will note that — like almost all of these cover designs — the photo is from my library (albeit heavily tweaked) so it has that going for it.

Also, it does have my favorite SLEATER-KINNEY song — ‘Hollywood Ending’ which, admittedly is probably no one else’s fav SLEATER-KINNEY song. (Seriously, one of these days I’ll figure out how to emblazon the lyrics “WHEN THE LIGHTS ARE SHOUTING?! YOU SEE MY SKIN!!” on me.)

It also features a track from one of the best named bands ever: CASIOTONE FOR THE PAINFULLY ALONE.

Anyway, here’s the proper track listing! (Artist / album / song title):

  • JUN FUKUDA / KILLER7 OST / Techs Mecks
  • VITALIC / OK Cowboy / U & I
  • PAAVOHARJU / Summer and Smiles of Finland / Valo Tihkuu Kaiken Läpi
  • AKIRA YAMAOKA / SILENT HILL 2 OST / True
  • YEAH YEAH YEAHS / Show Your Bones / Gold Lion
  • MORNING MUSUME / OSU! TATAKAE! OUENDAN! OST / Koi no Dance Site
  • SLIM CESSNA’S AUTO CLUB / Jesus Let Me Down / Hold My Head [Live]
  • SLEATER-KINNEY / One Beat / Hollywood Ending
  • FREEZEPOP / Hi​-​Five My Remix / Stakeout [Donnerschlag]
  • BIT SHIFTER / Information Choice / Hexadecimal Genome
  • SASKROTCH / Nintendo Breakz Volume One / In The Next Room Lies Our Destiny
  • CASIOTONE FOR THE PAINFULLY ALONE. / Etiquette / Scattered Pearls
  • J.U.F. / Gogol Bordello Vs. Tamir Muskat / Onto Transmigration
  • SONS & DAUGHTERS / The Repulsion Box / Rama Lama
  • MASAFUMI TAKADA / KILLER7 OST / Visionary Community
  • B. FLEISCHMANN / The Humbucking Coil / Broken Monitors

Electroclature: An Array of CD Mixes

March 18, 2024

Gonna try something a bit different, especially since I’m feeling burned out at the moment.

If you are of a certain age, you may fondly remember mix tapes or mix CDs.

You know? Actual physical items that you had to spend a lot of time and effort to pass off to someone in hopes they’d like your musical taste? And once you did so, it was nothing you could reclaim? It wasn’t just a fucking Spotify click?

I made my wife a lot of mix CDs.

A LOT. Can’t even enumerate them via all of my digits.

I’ll note? We both were pretty hardcore about our goth/industrial music scene and we both booked acts and DJed and all of that, so … not unwanted. I wasn’t that dude. (I’ll briefly note? It’s sad that these spaces are few and far between now. I have no idea how other misfits find each other in this day and age. Apparently they …just don’t?)

It was just something I did because it was fun! Can’t we all have some fun without expectations?

(This is actually why I created this blog.)

I’d also design covers for said mixes before pressing it into her hands. The image above? Me.

I’ve been rediscovering a lot of the albums and cover art as of late and, not to toot my own horn but I’m really enjoying this trip down memory lane!

So if I have to have my fun, you do too!

A brief aside: I do not have all of the covers for each and every mix. (Cut me some slack! It’s been over a decade!)

Also, this will be an intermittent feature, simply because prepping all of the artwork, hunting down the necessary tracks, writing remembrances, etc. will be exhausting. I hope ya enjoy it, though!

Lastly: I’ll note that, despite the label for this being ‘Electroclature’? Not all of the tracks are electro! Please do not be upset or pedantic about that. My blog, my rules!

TILLY AND THE WALL – The Freest Man [CSS Remix] (2019)

February 21, 2024

If you’ve read prior posts, it’s no surprise that I have …a lot of baggage. I have literally penned thousands and thousands of words here that touch on just how messed up I am. (Hopefully in the service of being entertaining, calling attention to undiscussed issues, but most importantly recommending awesome works, naturally!)

This boy I know, he is pure of soul.

He just gets lost some times in his chemicals.

It sucks! It really sucks. However, this song helps.

Just remember you called it all bullshit.

Well it isn’t if you stop giving into it.

TILLY AND THE WALL are — well, technically were, given that they’re no longer active — a band of born of sympathy, of seeing and feeling others’ hurt and wanting to help.

I don’t like how it feels when I think of him!

This song really helps! Music is often a fucking balm, but can also shed light.

I previously posted about TILLY AND THE WALL’s ’No Education’ remix, which is so enthralling, but The Freest Man?

As someone who has struggled more than I’d like, someone who has actively pushed support away, felt afraid of relying on others, this song is the other side of the coin; of hearing how others view you struggling.

It hits hard.

Being able to latch onto the work of others as a means of support and a type of realization is the beauty of art and effort.

This boy I know lives in a bell jar
It is balancing upon its pedestal
He tries not to upset the weight of conscience
Afraid it’s so far to fall if no one catches him

Is this a pretty basic remix? Sure, but it’s fucking engaging and bolstering four-on-the-floor electro.

It is no mistake that TILLY AND THE WALL have a background in education, because this track? The Freest Man? It’s about as sympathetic as it gets, and I am absolutely here for it and I love their generosity and I greatly miss them.

But I’ve been there too, and I swear to god
If I can help you, please, you’ve got to tell me how
I know you’ve been away, and it can break you down
And I don’t want you gone

If you haven’t heard the original? Here it is in all of its tap-dancing glory:

You can walk away The Freest Man.

POSTMODERN JUKEBOX ‘Where Is My Mind?’ (2021)

February 19, 2024

If you aren’t familiar with POSTMODERN JUKEBOX? It’s basically a righteously self-indulgent cover band (in all of the good ways!) that repurposes modern works into ‘oldies’, all of the Jazz Age, when jazz was — you know, fun — instead of being far too heavy and mathematical for the likes of me.

In other words: it has a lot of brass, a lot of upright bass, a lot drum whispers, and a lot of women belting.

Allison Young here is absolutely channeling Deborah Kerr here, and I am so, so here for it. This rendition of THE PIXIES’ ‘Where Is My Mind?’ is so sultry, and also so goddamn captivating.

(Also, as someone who did a lot of string work? Who can play just about every instrument on-stage apart from the vocal work? I love seeing this ensemble!)

All of that said? Goddamn, this song reminded me of how whistling is a fucking instrument! I absolutely forgot that — ooh, I know how to fucking whistle! And yes, yes, I can’t help but whistle along, although I admit? At first? I was a bit flat. Better now, though. And yes, I do embellish it a tad.

I’ve learned a lot through therapy, but one of the major facets have been simple breathing exercises, and those who instructed me are not wrong. I’ve found myself more mindful of — well — holding onto my breath, which uh, sucks and 100% a trauma thing, but at least I’m aware of it now.

Anyway!

Whistling? Yeah, sure, annoying for those around you, but I’ve found it to be astoundingly cathartic since discovering this song.

To quote Lauren Bacall: “You just put your lips together, and blow.”

ATARI TEENAGE RIOT – ‘Atari Teenage Riot II’ (1999)

January 29, 2024

I’ve briefly mentioned seeing ATARI TEENAGE RIOT and Alec Empire.

“My warriors! You have done well!”

I love their first album DELETE YOURSELF!. I really do. It’s all hard-hitting gritty hardcore and hip-hop beats and brutal samples and whip-worthy anthems.

“If we don’t turn it on, nobody else will!!”

However, I fucking love their second album 60 SECOND WIPE OUT, solely because of ATARI TEENAGE RIOT II, a revision, a revisitation, of their prior ATARI TEENAGE RIOT anthem.

The first version is a fucking banger, carefully crafted with hardcore pacing and fist-pumping lyricism.

“Stop the riot?!! FUCK YOU!!!”

The second version? It (d)evolves into absolute sheer fucking noise. It is absolutely wild and I can’t help but revel in it.

“But that doesn’t stop me!! WHAT DO YOU WANT?!!!”

This is all about progressive noise artist Nic Endo. She’s the driving force here; she fucking escalates aural matters that were already far too heightened. She’s unbridled and drives the track into MERZBOW territory and holy hell is it amazing.

“What did you say?”

I saw them on the 60 Second Wipe Out Tour so many years ago and I was elated to have Nic Endo fucking melt my ears! For all intents and purposes, I met my wife there. (We’d met a few hours prior to the show, but at the show proper? That’s when I feel I met her.)

“What did you say?!”

Despite not knowing each other at all, we both pushed ourselves to the front of the crowd and were spit on by Alec Empire and we locked eyes during this song and, well, ultimately that was that.

“WHAT DID YOU SAY?!!”

Pretty fucking dumb, but what’s youth if you aren’t dumb and willing to have fun?

I digress, but the rest is all ancillary I suppose!

“ATARI TEENAGE RIOT!!!!!!!!!!”