Sing For The Submarine

A long- awaited (I'm sure) Friday Random Ten. I think I'm the only one out here on teh Innertoobz still doing these. But that's me all over; just keep on banging that head against the Wall.

Many, many songs: 31,000 of 'em, 127 gigs of music filtered through an iTunes algorithm yields this today:

1. Tiny Candles from the album "Vinyl" by Dramarama John Easdale and Dramarama flirted with large scale success, and just missed; I saw 'em once at Shank and they played their guts out for a small crowd and came out to talk with everyone afterward. Songs of personal pain lacquered with punk-psychedelia. This unit is a droning little bit from one of their latter albums, when they seemed to be a bit less focused and looking to hit the magic combination for airplay success. Although they were on a major label and had seen some level of airplay including MTV (which is where I saw 'em; how long ago could you see music on Music TeleVision?), the massive breakout hit upon which major label success is predicated eluded them, and they were dropped; broke up not long afterward.

2. Magic Johnson from the album "Mother's Milk" by Red Hot Chili Peppers Saw 'em on this tour. Back when they still played in socks and the front of the crowd was a massive roiling mosh pit. But I've gotta confess that I really enjoy the more restrained and mellow work they've done in the past few years. But this one is a punk-rap tribute to Magic, of course, with a machine-gun drum and very little slapping from that damn Flea.

3. March Of The Ciccone Robots from the album "The Whitey Album [Remastered 2006]" by Ciccone Youth One-off side project from Sonic Youth. This is an old school noise instrumental from the album that features the drone-rock classic cover of Madonna's "Into The Groove", preceded by the "Tuff Titty Rap" classic stuff. Not everybody's cup of tea, but massively popular with us IMS's.

4. Like A Possum from the album "Ecstasy" by Lou Reed Lou, you're a rock legend and I love you, but this is crap. You know, if you're gonna write shitty lyrics like this, just go back and make Metal Machine Music 2, 3 and 4. Sweet Spaghetti Monster, 16 fuckin minutes long??! You listen to it if you want but I'm moving on.

5. Viva Las Vegas from the album "No Quarter Pounder" by Dread Zeppelin Now this is sweet. Led Zeppelin music done reggae style by a cheesy Elvis imitator called Tortelvis. (I know this is an Elvis song.) Buckle on yer Big Ol Gol' Belt, baby!!

6. The Knights Who Say "Ni!" from the album "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" by Monty Python heh. Going to see Spamalot next month. I want.... A Shrubbery!!!

7. No Parachutes from the album "Hunkpapa" by Throwing Muses

8. Poor Little Critter On The Road from the album "Poor Little Critter On The Road" by Knitters How could I have missed the Knitters when they came through town? Maybe I deserve all the grief I get from Miss Doctor effin Matriarchy AG. Eff the effin partriarchy.

9. Shiny Cage from the album "Chips From The Chocolate Fireball" by The Dukes Of Stratosphear XTC side project. All trippy and psychedelic. I like this a lot, but in small doses, even though it's not distressingly earnest.

10. C'mon Ya Boyz In Green from the album "I [Shamrock] NY" by Seanchai Irish hip-hop Side project from one of the original members of Black 47.

Who, incidentally, have a new album out called Iraq. Yes, it's anti-war; but more, it's stories are all based on emails from soldiers who have been/are in Iraq.. Great stuff without being strident.

11. Last of the Wilds (Instrumental) from the album "Dark Passion Play (Double Disc Version)" by Nightwish The War Against Silence turns me on to yet another great band. Prog-metal group with a female singer. As much bombast as you could want. This one has a bit of a jig to the fiddle playing; an instrumental version of one of the tracks on their most recent album. Sweet, yet I predict Zelmo will ignore it.



Since I hate you all, I'm going to add a few more:

12. Breaking Point from the album "Change (Remastered)" by The Alarm Old school. he alarm was always derided as a U2 knock-off, but a vague similarity in voice belies some talented songwriters. And U2 couldn't write an anthem to save their frickin lives; while the Alarm tosses them off in their sleep. Although this isn't one of them, just kind of a sleepy little song. Oh well. I still like it.

13. Skaville UK from the album "Return Of The Ugly" by Bad Manners Bad Manners and Fatty "Buster" Bloodvessel riding the two-tone wave back in the day. If you like ska, you like this. If you don't there's no hope for you.

14. Stars and Stripes from the album "Iraq" by Black 47 There it is. One of the songs from that new Black 47 disc. A tribute to any of the soldiers who have fought overseas as much as any song ever is.

There's a marked lack of music being produced to commemorate this fucking war. War, hah. I don't see how it qualifies as a war, except for the fact that people are dying; police action is a laughable term and it's this lack of definition that threatens to keep American troops dying in the desert for any foreseeable future. Iraq is destroyed, the Mideast is devolving into a roiling brawl and millions of Iraqi refugees are being dispersed throughout the region, resulting in widespread human rights violations, including slavery and child prostitution. America openly tortures people who are locked up without recourse. And our military and economy are in tatters due to this little manly-man adventure arranged by sociopaths and savages under the guise of 'freedom'.

I don't see where there's a bright spot in that. Fuck it; it's so far beyond shit that a solution isn't even comprehensible. For nearly six years, the chattering class and ruling despots have told us that it's improving and that success is just around the corner.

I don't know if anybody can survive much more success and improvement.

Fuck McCain. Fuck Bush. Fuck Cheney. Fuck them with a cattle prod. TWO cattle prods. Fuck 'em with nail guns. Since torture is A-OK with us nowadays, that's perfectly fine, right?

15. I Got A Line On You from the album "The Life And Crimes Of Alice Cooper (Disc 4)" by Alice Cooper

Shit. after that, I need a bit of palate cleanser. I'm doing twenty!

16. You & Eye from the album "David Byrne" by David Byrne OK, I guess David wasn't the main talent in the Talking Heads.

17. First On The List from the album "Talk Is Cheap, Vol. 4" by Henry Rollins "There's a lot of things to be mad about..." sing it, brother. I'll step off when the fuck wits are gone.

18. Song For Dennis Brown from the album "The Sunset Tree" by The Mountain Goats chuckles missed the Mountain Goats. Makes me feel better about missing the Knitters. We're both cobags.

19. Sambadrome from the album "No. 10, Upping St." by Big Audio Dynamite Post-Clash. Critics hated B.A.D. I liked 'em. This isn't their best though.

20. Home Away From Home from the album "Can We Go Home Now" by The Roches I won't apologize.

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