unpiano: music

San Francisco used to have an on-going club night called Bardot A Go Go that ripped and turned me onto a heap French pop from the 60’s. I love the way the French mixed these recordings, leaning heavier on the bass and percussion, unlike the guitar-centric records coming out of the U.S. and U.K. at the time. From an awesome series of LP comps of French Ye Ye girls I came across 19 year old Clothilde, who recorded only a handful of songs (nine maybe?) for two E.P.s, but all of which were solid and eventually collected for a “greatest hits” CD release a ways back. It’s pretty hard to find anything on her, or any of the Ye Ye Girls for that matter (couldn’t even come up with a good photo), but it’s a safe bet to say something tragic wrecked her career and she’s either crazy or dead. Seriously, general rule of thumb with the Ye Ye girls of the 60’s is that they were teenage models for MAT (the Teenbeat of France), got put in front of the microphone by producers, became strung out on heroin (practically all of them) and either died or now live on a park bench and sell flowers in the subway.

Clothilde - Fallait Pas Écraser La Queue Du Chat
Clothilde - Je T’ai Voulu Et Je T’ai Bien Eu
Clothilde - Le Boa

60’s surf-rock revivalists The Barracudas came together in the post-punk U.K. during the late 70’s. One part Ramones, one part Jan & Dean, The Barracudas dodged British new wave’s fascination with 60’s mod and psychedelia and instead drew their influence from the squeaky-clean teen sounds of the mid-60’s California coast (even though they weren’t teens, weren’t squeaky clean and were from foggy-ass London). They released a handful of singles and one fantastic album Drop Out With The Barracudas in the early 80’s before calling it a day. The thing that really gets me is the running theme of near-paranoid fear and frustration with modern times, and a longing for simpler times that culminates in the final track “(I Wish It Could Be) 1965 Again”.

The Barracudas - I Can’t Pretend
The Barracudas - This Ain’t My Time
The Barracudas - Don’t Let Go
The Barracudas - We’re Living In Violent Times

Wow, the 90’s indie-rock revival is seriously spreading, which means I AM FUCKING OLD. Check out NYC’s Vivian Girls who’s sweet, reverby lo-fi pop could make them second-cousins to Tiger Trap or a lot of the female-fronted Slumberland Records catalog from that time (especially anything involving Amy Linton or Pam Berry). Enough Shop Assistants-like room noise and jangle to connect them to all things C-86 as well. These records were pressed in small quantities and were out of print pretty quick, but their next will be readily available on In The Red this coming year.

Vivian Girls - All The Time
Vivian Girls - I Believe In Nothing
Vivian Girls - Wild Eyes

Oh Sweden, how did you get so good at pop music? I’m pretty sure I say this every time I post about a Swedish group, but it’s happens to also be true every time. Their only downfall is that it’s too catchy and gets played out way too quick (is that a bad thing?). This time around Bjorn (from Peter, Bjorn and John) just spent a bunch of time producing a new record for Lykke Li, whose EP just dropped a little while ago. It’s pretty good, but not great. Play them out real quick like you would with any good pop songs.

Lykke Li - Little Bit
Lykke Li - Dance Dance Dance

Bonus:
Lykke Li - Little Bit (video)

The Teenagers wrote a song called ‘No Love’ a little bit ago and it was just okay (that guy’s accent is really starting to annoy me). Luckily French singer Stéphanie Sokolinski (aka SoKo) came along and covered it while also adding a little bit of response (i.e. flipping the point of view). The result kills the original and while I’m sure that I’ll be sick of it next week, today it’s on repeat. It’s also very mature sentiment for a pop song no? Thanks to Suckapants for the tip.

Soko - No Love (for Teenagers)
The Teenagers - Love No

Bonus:
Soko - I’ll Kill Her

Two Spaniards and one Nigerian got together (link) and created the kind of degenerate punk I can’t get enough of. After a handful of vinyl releases comes their debut LP Dialectics Of Shit and it slays. Giant Jesus Lizard drums and guitars that sound like telephone wires whipping in a hurricane give way to blistering noise breakdowns and bizarre production. I’ve had this one track on repeat for a month.

Billy Bao - Tight Ass Bleeds

Portland Oregon’s Eat Skull has been killing it lately. With a string of quickly out of print singles and their debut LP Sick To Death (Siltbreeze) already landing on lots of “Best of 2008″ lists, their deranged lo-fi pop has hit it big in the small time. Landing somewhere between ear-splitting 80’s hardcore and those wonderfully wasted GBV records, here’s a few favorites off their two long-gone 7 inches and an even longer-gone split cassette.

Eat Skull - Dead Families
Eat Skull - Seeing Things
Eat Skull - Survivable Spaces

Germany spit out No More in the late seventies and they gave us the song ‘Suicide Commando’. Minimal and dark just the way it’s supposed to be. They broke up in the mid-eighties but unfortunately just got back together in 2006. You can click on the band link to see how old they all are now. Cool German no-wave groups should die before they reach their mid-twenties, yes?

No More - Suicide Commando

Bonus:
Dirty Handz 3 trailer (video)

Man, I have had a crush on Cyndi Lauper for so long now. I was watching her in a movie that she filmed during the late nineties when she was well in her forties and she still looked so good. Plus she still has that Queens accent that makes her sounds like she doesn’t give a fuck. Did you know that she didn’t even get her career off the ground until she was in her late twenties. That’s pretty late for a major pop star. People used to ask her old she was and she would say “What am I a car?”. Even after all that she took her dog Sparkle, brought all her friends together and had a party. They brought a camera, filmed it, and that was the video for ‘Girls Just Want To Have Fun’ (best video ever by the way).These days her music is largely devoted to her gay fan base with whole albums containing vocal house tracks. While this is not always my favorite genre, she remains really good at it. Just listen to her recent track ‘Lay Me Down’. Yeah it’s cheesy, but at least she does it better than most. All that aside, how rad would it have been to hang out with Cyndi while she toured in Japan or something. She would have made things like being at the airport seem like Disneyland.

Cyndi Lauper - The Goonies R Good Enough
Cyndi Lauper - When You Were Mine
Cyndi Lauper - True Colors

Bonus:
Girls Just Want To Have Fun (video)
When You Were Mine (live in ‘84)
Goonies R Good Enough (behind the scenes)

Some times I feel bad when I live in a city and don’t know about a band that has been around for bit. Railcars used to just be songwriter Aria Jalali until recently when they became a four-piece and started playing with the Handsome Furs. Now their new ep is being produced by Jamie Stewart (of Xiu Xiu) and I’ve started hearing about them more and more. The songs below are from both previous solo material and newer songs as a full band. The newer songs are a bit more noisy and washed out which I think sounds just right. They canceled their last San Francsico show, but go check them out next time.. should be a good show.

Railcars - There Is Ice It Is Blue
Railcars - Bohemia (with a sea)
Railcars - Lovers Glowing, On A Dull Night
Railcars - I Was A Submarine