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Underground > Radio & Music >

singles frenzy! | music thread version

16:34 / 30.01.02

So which recent/current/forthcoming pop singles are making you jump around and howl at the moon and grin like an idiot at the moment?

I go for..

Alkaline Trio - Private Eye
Absolutely this season's best jump up and down melodic punk pop song. And it's about the romantic longings of an old fashioned gumshoe, and it has swearwords and references to 'searching for corpses' and 'prying up the floorboards', in a literal rather than metaphorical sense.
Perfection!

Cornershop - Lessons Learned from Rocky I to Rocky III
An absolutely terrific comeback single - I've heard both a rock version and a reggae version, don't know which is the offical single but they're both great.

The Hellacopters - It's a Cold Night For Alligators
Apparently this is a cover of a song by some lame, forgotten 70s guitarist, but who cares when it's got pleasantly gratuitous gee-tar soloing, ample riffage, sinister subliminal hammond organ and a Scandinavian with a false American accent singing "It's a cooold night for Alli-gayyyters / When men turn into them in the niiiiggghhhttt"?

Chicks on Speed / Kreidler - Where the Wild Roses Grow
(Not strictly a single, but a track on an EP.)
Zany Germans make near unlistenable minimalist electro version of Nick Cave power ballad. World rejoices.

Will Haven - Carpe Diem
What you might call 'cool metal'. Has all the good bits - like totally overcharged guitar noise, machine gun drums and unintelligible "ROAR! I'M A MONSTER, ME!" style singing, but also sharp suits, angular punkiness and focused emotional blasting. Rock.

[ 12-03-2002: Message edited by: Flux = Avoiding The Conceptual Life ]

16:44 / 30.01.02

Can you go and check that NME again and see if there are any imminent releases by:

Roxette

Weird Al Jankovich

or

Renee and Renata?

But seriously, the only thing that I like at the moment is that db boulevard single, Point of View, although I'm sure I'll detest it by the time Radio One has played the fucking grooves off it 19 times an hour.

17:19 / 30.01.02

why, you miserable old dog.

19:34 / 30.01.02

Freeker by the Speaker

Keller Williams

See other thread

19:58 / 30.01.02

quote:Originally posted by Rizla Year Zero:
why, you miserable old dog.

Oh, yes. It's a role I'm settling into quite nicely in old age. Now tell me, Riz, do any of these songs have proper lyrics and melodies in them, or is it all that garage-trance-hippity-hoppity-a handbag?-a handbag?litmus-paper-acid-outhouse stuff? And do they sell it in Alan's Gramophone Accessories on Wigan High Street?

21:13 / 30.01.02

RUDD by Ikara Colt. They've finally stopped trying to write Sink Venice again (at least, it seemed that they had, in the brief hearing of it that I had). Honeslty, out of the last two sigles, all six tracks have sounded like various versions of the same song.

No star here laces

11:11 / 31.01.02

Pop! is the word in january.

My buttocks are wobbling to:

Mystikal - "Bouncin' Back"
Will be a single in the UK, but isn't yet, to my knowledge. Sounds like it could've been made by JB at his peak, but is actually the Neptunes (again).

J-Lo and Ja Rule - "Ain't it funny"
Similarly, I think this is due to be their next one, but imports are a marvellous thing. They've flipped Craig Mack's "Flava in ya ear" for the beat, and J-Lo sings actually really rather well. There's a great nursery-rhyme style bit at the end, the whole song comes across as a P.Diddy diss and Ja Rule shouts "It. Must. Be the ass." Perfection.

DMX Krew - "The glass room"
After years of ambivalence I'm suddenly waking up to the sugary brilliance of the DMX Krew. For those who don't know, they are a Rephlex records novelty act who use notoriously shitty 80s equipment (e.g. the eponymous and rubbish DMX drum machine) to create shimmery-sweet synth pop fluff. Ridiculously catchy, with lyrics that waver between nonsense and profundity, it's very hard not to like.

The Natural Way

11:19 / 31.01.02

'In The Glass Room' is good, but you can play that bugger to death. I'm really sick of it right now... Shame, cause I did love it. But, having met one of chappies from DMX, I'm not sure he'd be that into their sound being described as "novelty". Some of it is supposed to demonstrate a sense of humour, I suppose.

And the Chicks On Speed thing's good, too. Don't know why I haven't gotted it yet. Same goes for the new Kid 606 and chums EP (carny remember what it's called), W/ all the fun remixes of 'Get Yr Freak On' and other Missy Favourites.

Fave single: I would say Fischerspooner's 'Emerge', but I prefer 'The 15th', which isn't, but should have been, the single. Fabbos.

[ 31-01-2002: Message edited by: Sgunnice Runcheon 'n' ]

Matthew Fluxington

21:40 / 03.02.02

I like that version of "The 15th" too...

Anyway, I can't think of too many recent/forthcoming singles that really knock me out, most of the songs that are getting me are album tracks.

The new Clinic single "Walking With Thee" is brilliant, a really manic stop/start garage rocker with a great yelped "No! No! No! No! No!" chorus... Still, I've known this song for over a year now, since it was in circulation, played on the Peel radio show with the title "The Nuns"...

00:01 / 05.02.02

The new cornershop single is just perfect. Really. Love it.

17:34 / 09.03.02

I have a horrible confession to make.

Y'know that Kylie Minogue song that's sweeping North America right now?

I quite like it.

Does this mean I'm not revolutionary anymore?

Zoom.

Matthew Fluxington

20:21 / 09.03.02

I like that Kylie song a lot too. I have a lot of nice bootleg mixes of it - I guess that lends a certain sort of indiecred to it, if you really need a justification.

I love a good disco pop song. "I Can't Get You Out of My Head" is a prime example.

21:20 / 09.03.02

Ahh, thanks Flux. I couldn't for the life of me remember what it was called.

Zoom.

Fly Beezy (War Minister)

17:17 / 11.03.02

quote:Originally posted by Paleface:
The new cornershop single is just perfect. Really. Love it.

I didn't really get it until I saw the video - and it's Almost Famous! - a brilliant homage to dirty late 60s and early 70s rock but also a pisstake/critique of the music industry... I love the typical Cornershop nonsense lyrics as well, that sound like you might possibly know what they mean, if you spoke their special coded langugae: "Miami Beach, chicks with dicks... ten times ten, it's like Saint John said".

I must dig out my copy of their last album...

Haus about we all give each other a big lovely huggle?

18:09 / 11.03.02

As my only singles-shopping experience of late has been in HMV, rather than proper record shop, my purchases have been a bit limited of late. Plus, I haven't had the headspace actually to listen to them. However, I have enjoyed looking at the cover of the cornershop single, and the Electric Soft Parade (any idea what they sound like?). Oh, and "Fell in Love with a Girl" by the White Stripes, but only for the Quicktime video, which is utterly mighty.

19:22 / 11.03.02

I don't know if this should be in another thread or it's own thread, but here's a recent story on CNN that should've been titled "Singles Going Steady (Down The Drain)":

"Whatever Happened To The SIngle?"

"Among Billboard magazine's 40 most popular songs the week of February 23, only five were available as singles on compact disc. Eighteen were on sale just as vinyl records.

Seventeen songs, including Creed's "My Sacrifice," No Doubt's "Hey Baby," Enrique Iglesias' "Hero" and Alanis Morissette's "Hands Clean," were only available if you bought a full album."

20:09 / 11.03.02

The last single I bought was Cylob's Cut the Midrange, Drop the Bass. It's an awesome breakbeat pop cheese-fest with a bit of silly robotic sloganeering. The deeply stoopid cover of What Shall We Do With The Drunken Sailor on the b-side may be stretching things a bit too far.

11:29 / 12.03.02

The last singles I bought:

Mower "Drinking for Britain"

The White Stripes "Fell In Love With.."

Six By Seven "I.O.U Love"

Biffy Clyro "57"

Preston School of Industry "Whalebones"

erm. There's more but I can't think of them at the moment. All on shiny black plastic too...

[ 12-03-2002: Message edited by: Opalfruit ]

11:30 / 12.03.02

Can I just say the remix of Brandy's "What About Us" is fucking, fucking SLAMMING?!?

What can I say? I was listening to a DJ this morning who must've spliced this song three different ways thrice in a row, and it was good every time!

It is sooo nice to be in a country where good music makes it on the radio again. Robbie Williams and Nicole Kidman excepted...

Matthew Fluxington

14:38 / 12.03.02

I endorse Preston School of Industry's singles too... I like "Whalebones" more for the a-side, but the b-sides of "Falling Away" are a lot better. "I've Done Nothing Wrong" really should have been it's own single, "Toff" and the Clean cover "Anything Can Happen" are a lot of fun.

15:30 / 12.03.02

quote:Originally posted by Flyboy:

I didn't really get it until I saw the video - and it's Almost Famous! - a brilliant homage to dirty late 60s and early 70s rock but also a pisstake/critique of the music industry... I love the typical Cornershop nonsense lyrics as well, that sound like you might possibly know what they mean, if you spoke their special coded langugae: "Miami Beach, chicks with dicks... ten times ten, it's like Saint John said".

I still love this song. It's great x 10.
But isn't it strange how it's getting played on the radio, despite frequent use of the word 'shit' in the chorus? Or is he not singing 'TSB rock stars, the overgrown supershit'? Hope he is, cos it's a fine lyric..

Best single I've bought for a while though is:

McLUSKY - TO HELL WITH GOOD INTENTIONS: 4 songs, £2 - angry Welsh punkers produced by Steve Albini - shades of Pixies, Big Black, Wire - fantastically meaningless shout-along slogans for lyrics - "My love is bigger than your love, we take more drugs than a touring funk band!" - "On alternate weeks she'll tie you up, take us to Legoland! Token Skinheads!!"

A highly recommended purchase.

Matthew Fluxington

15:33 / 12.03.02

The best thing about "Lessons Learned From Rocky I to Rocky III" (and I agree with everything Fly and Rizla are saying about it) is that it's not even close to being the best song from the Cornershop album.

For real.

15:53 / 12.03.02

I'll second Rizla's McClusky recommendation (going by what I've heard of them on Peel, mind - living in the tiny hamlet of fucking Portsmouth CITY, there's not a single independant record shop where things like McClusky singles can be found. Fair enough, I mean it's not like we've got a MASSIVE FUCKING STUDENT POPULATION or anything, is it?)

Likely to be enjoyed by fans of Ikara Colt.

Matthew Fluxington

15:55 / 12.03.02

Um, hey guys - a thought: why not post some more of yr recommendations in the Song Pimpin' Thread?

I'm starving for yr pimps, I'm drowning for yr thirst.

theskunkymonkey

15:22 / 15.03.02

So he IS singing 'the overgrown super-shit' FANTASTIC