Tag: two tune tuesday

Despite “This is the Day” being used in an M&M commercial – really? it had to be M&Ms? – Matt Johnson & theThe were a band I spent a lot of time with from at least 1985 forward.

His songs got at that yearning for – something. more. sex. love. escape. all of it & none of it. (It didn’t hurt that his voice was incredibly hot, either.)

You can go here to see some of the live performance from when Johnny Marr was playing with the The. Apparently he was as proud of Dusk as he was of Strangeways, Here We Come. (So there.)

The best gig I’ve ever found out about was the The at CBGB. I was walking down 7th Avenue, near St. Vincent’s (Hospital), and I was wearing am Infected t-shirt, and a guy stopped me & said, “You like the The? They’re playing a secret gig at CBs tomorrow night. They won’t be on the list. Just buy a ticket. Promise.” So my friend Brian & I bought tickets, mostly thinking we were going to see some band we’d never heard of. I was sitting on the bar knocking the heels of my boots against it anxiously, waiting & hoping, & then – out came Matt Johnson & the band: sometimes wishes come true. I can’t even count how many other times I saw them – in London, at the Beacon, at Symphony Space even. I skipped high school to meet Matt Johnson as he was leaving WLIR after an interview. Misspent youth, indeed.

Here are a few other favorites: Sodium Light Baby – The Mercy Beat (song starts at 00:45) – Perfect – Jealous of Youth (which is one of my favorite bass lines) – & there’s even some early & cool Matt Johnson from Burning Blue Soul – Bugle Boy.

(Writing this post took a few hours of my life, poking around YouTube, playlist.com, trouserpress.com and various other spots. Damn. It’s a good thing I don’t have my vinyl collection with me, or the whole night would be gone. Now if someone could send me an .mp3 of “Jealous of Youth” I’d be most appreciative.)

I discovered Spoon a few years ago while dinging in a cool little eatery in Park Slope called Jack’s that’s gone now. I still miss the pot roast & waiters who turned me onto cool music.

I go through phases where all I can take is JAMC.

I couldn’t find a decent mp3 of “Something I Can’t Have” but there’s a decent audio version of it on YouTube.

Wish I could have found one of their “New York City” since it’s one of my all-time favorite tracks, but here’s “Why’d You Want Me” which is all about the sweetness behind the feedback.

They were the last cool.

I think the Franz Ferdinand is one of the sexiest songs I’ve heard lately – you know you know you know you’re so sweetly is delivered with a lovely rasp – and Cherry Lips is the classic straight grrl appreciation of MTF fabulousness. Enjoy.

How can you not love Sly & the Family Stone? I was a fan from the first track I heard (which was “Stand!” covered live by World Party with Sinead O’Connor on guest vocals, at the New Ritz, or the old Studio 54). I don’t think any other act has had quite so much lifted direct, except maybe James Brown. Get up & dance to the music, & note the woman playing trumpet.

No, “Marco’s Guitar” isn’t the name of the band; I’m talking about Marco Pirroni, long-time Ants guitarist, original Siouxie & the Banshees guitarist, & his current work with a band called The Wolfmen. The time you got to hear him and didn’t know it was probably in the Sinead O’Connor track Jump in the River, which he rocks, and of course I threw in some of the fine, fine, Ennio Morricone inspired stuff from the Ants days: Clint. Eastwood.

How much do I wish Adam would come back just to get that guitar back? A lot.

That Wolfmen song is one of the reasons I was really holding out on Betty changing her name to Jackie. (There just are no good songs about Rachels, but plenty of good ones about Jackies, & Betty’s the kind of person you write songs about. Or books, say, if you can’t write songs.)