I got a request for Stranglers, and who am I to say no?
Mellower later stuff first, then the more noisy late 70s songs. Don’t complain to me if you never forget how Trotsky was murdered.
Two Tune Tuesday: The Stranglers
Two Tune Tuesday: It’s Peter’s Fault
My friend Peter used to make me mixed tapes that had really interesting juxtapositions – so interesting that some of them I’ve remembered them for a long while. I actually don’t know if these two were next to each other, but that’s my story & I’m sticking to it.
Donovan’s “There Is a Mountain” (which Heidi tells me is a Buddhist proverb, too)
&
Bowie’s “Queen Bitch”(which you may know from the Milk ads)
Two Tune Tuesday: Happy Anniversary to Us
11 years ago today, I saw her lean against a kitchen counter. She offered me a beer.
(happy anniversary, doll. thanks for the exciting, never boring, unpredictable ride of my life.)
Two Tune Tuesday: Punk Grrls
Loved both these songs back in the day, & not just for the kickass women who sang them (Poly Styrene & Ari Up) but for the lyrics.
Oh Bondage! Up Yours! by X-Ray Spex, and Typical Girls by The Slits.
Two Tune Tuesday: Dudes
The ladies last week, & this week, songs with “dude” in the title: Kula Shaker’s Hey Dude and Mott the Hoople’s All the Young Dudes.
Two Tune Tuesday: Happy St. Pat’s
Well it is Saint Patrick’s Day, & I’m not in NYC, but I’m still Irish, even if I have no idea where to get corned beef & cabbage here. Someone go to that shitty bar on 50th Street & 9th Avenue and have some for me, okay?
Two Tune Tuesday: Bourbon
These two are just tracks people like when they hear them. You may not. I’m just saying: most people do. Firewater’s “Bourbon & Division” & Tom Waits’ “Jockey Full of Bourbon.” For the lush in you.
Two Tune Tuesday: Gypsies
Maybe it’s because I live in Brooklyn. Maybe it’s Tod A’s fault. Either way, this whole punk gypsy business makes me swoon. Here’s Devotchka & Gogol Bordello.
Two Tune Tuesday: MIA & Annabella
This week maybe an odd mix, but maybe not: MIA is Tamil, Annabella’s Burmese. How often do women of southeast Asian descent show up in the pop charts?
There were so many Bow Wow Wow tracks to choose from, but I couldn’t resist this one. There’s so much about Annabella’s early appearances as BWW’s front that are – erm, problematic, as a feminist. Manipulations by svengali McLaren that got her to pose naked for a BWW album cover, naked, at age 15, among them. & Yet. & Yet: there was something about Annabelle that said something to me when I was 15 about being cool & tough & sex-positive. With a mohawk.
Two Tune Tuesday
Lately I’ve been listening to music again. I’m not sure why except that Betty isn’t around a lot so I can poke through more of the weird stuff I tend to like. Or maybe it’s because she got so happy about discovering The Killers lately, while I’ve been gloomily humming along with Devotchka or mumbling, guiltily, that damn Beyonce song that glues itself to your head & will not come unglued.
But either way I thought it might be nice to do a “twofer” on Tuesdays after putting together that little Cramps sampler on Saturday. I’m not going to make any rules, like it has to be two by the same band, but sometimes it will be. & It won’t always be old, or always new, or always anything but two songs I think you should maybe hear.
I really did always want to be a DJ.
So this is more than two. But it’s XTC. & Two is not enough.
& A very happy birthday to my lovely mom & my nephew Greg!