Medialoper

Certain Songs #2206: Sigur Rós – “Svefn-g-englar”

October 20, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Album: Ágætis byrjun
Year: 1999

. . .

Sigur Rós are from Iceland, and unlike so many European exports, they didn’t deign to so something so vulgar as to sing in English. At least not until 2008, and in fact for at least one album, 2002’s ( ), they made up their own language, which is admirable, but probably more work than is strictly necessary.

All of these things are gating factors normally for me, but “Svefn-g-englar” is such a piece of atmospheric beauty that I almost didn’t want to go to Genius or Wikipedia and spoil myself by learning too much about it.

Certain Songs #2205: Sidewinders – “Witchdoctor”

October 19, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Album: Witchdoctor
Year: 1989

. . .

It’s an article of faith for me that every late-80s local scene had at least one band that woulda shoulda coulda made it big, had only bad luck or record company problems not intervened.

And for Tuscon, Arizona, that band was the Sidewinders, who featured the often-noisy twin-guitar onslaught of Rich Hopkins and David Slutes, over which Slutes would often tell fables about the heat and the desert in his deep baritone.

Certain Songs #2204: Shuggie Otis – “Strawberry Letter 23”

October 18, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Album: Freedom Flight
Year: 1971

. . .

Shuggie Otis’s version of “Strawberry Letter 23” came to me in a roundabout way. Because his version wasn’t a hit single back when it was released in 1971, the only version I was acquainted with was the 1977 hit single version by the Brothers Johnson, which apparently happened because one of the Brothers was dating Shuggie’s cousin.

That version was a massive hit, making it to number #5 on the Billboard pop charts and #1 on the Billboard R&B charts. Still, it wasn’t until 2001 when finally heard Shuggie’s version, and that was on a reissue of his 1974 album, Inspiration Information where they tacked on four tracks from Freedom Flight, including “Strawberry Letter 23.”

Certain Songs #2203: The Showmen – “39-21-46”

October 15, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Single, 1963

. . .

I first came across “39-21-46” on a late-90s Rhino compilation Beg, Scream and Shout: The Big Ole Box of 60’s Soul, which is exactly what is says it is: 144 songs that are a great jumping off point for getting into this music, as nearly all of the great soul artists are represented. And if there isn’t enough Motown or Stax here, well, they have their own box sets, don’t they?

Certain Songs #2202: Shoes – “Tomorrow Night”

October 14, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Album: Present Tense
Year: 1979

. . .

This is, of course, the first Shoes song I ever heard — no doubt on KKDJ — and I instantly fell for it. I mean, how could I not, given that I was going through a massive period of power pop discovery at the time; digging records by The Paul Collins Beat, 20/20, SVT, Headboys etc etc.

But at the time, “Tomorrow Night” was the absolute pinnacle — the greatest power-pop song I’d ever heard — and even though I now (barely) prefer things like “A Million Miles Away,” “She Bangs The Drums,” “September Gurls“, “The Shiny Unfeeling” or even the Shoes own “Not Me,” all of those songs were still in my future, whereas in the spring of 1980, “Tomorrow Night” was right there in front of me.

Certain Songs #2201: Shoes – “Boys Don’t Lie”

October 13, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Album: Black Vinyl Shoes
Year: 1978

. . .

While these days, it’s much more common to record music in your living room, bedroom, basement, any damn place but an actual recording studio, back in the late 1970s, it was much more rare.

Which is part of the reason why Black Vinyl Shoes — the first album by Zion, Illinois’ Shoes — made such a stir.

Certain Songs #2200: Shoes – “Not Me”

October 12, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Album: Black Vinyl Shoes
Year: 1978

. . .

We’ll dig into this more tomorrow, but the thing about Black Vinyl Shoes, of course, was that it turned its potential weakness — the fact that was was recorded in a living room (by elves, Robert Christgau joked in his A- review) — into its strengths: the whole record was filled with atmosphere and hooks.

And no song had more atmosphere or hooks that Gary Klebe’s “Not Me,” which burst into life from what sounded like an abrupt tape splice with Klebe’s deep, jangling 12-string acoustic guitar and what sounds like a cowbell on every single beat, which made up for the fact that the only things you could hear of Skip Meyer’s drums was the kick and snare.

Certain Songs #2199: Shocking Blue – “Venus”

October 11, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Album: At Home
Year: 1969

. . .

In 1992, after I went back to Nirvana’s debut, Bleach, it was pretty obvious that one of the standout tracks was “Love Buzz,” and that “Love Buzz” — which really didn’t sound like anything else on Bleach — was a cover written by someone named Robbie van Leeuwen, which further research told me was the songwriter for a band called Shocking Blue.

Wait. Shocking Blue, that seemed familiar. Who was that again? Oh that’s right, they were the band who did that song “Venus,” which was all over the AM radio when we were kids. That’s right. I remember now. They were like, Dutch or something Man, I haven’t heard that song in a long time.

Certain Songs #2198: Shilpa Ray – “EMT Police and the Fire Department”

October 10, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Album: Door Girl
Year: 2017

. . .

I’m pretty sure that it was Kirk who turned me on to Door Girl, the 2017 album by Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter Shilpa Ray. A roman à clef concept album, Door Girl mixed straight-ahead rock, 50s pastiches, fast ones, slow ones and everything else under the sun in service of her story songs about life in post-millennial New York City.

There were a lot of great songs on Door Girl, but my favorite — naturally — was the the most unhinged, “EMT Police and the Fire Department,” which tells of a night where, well, let’s let Ray set the scene over a quietly meandering electric guitar:

Certain Songs #2197: She & Him – “This Is Not A Test”

October 9, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Album: Volume One
Year: 2008

. . .

Roughly spanning the period between establishing herself as a movie star and the period where she established herself as a TV star, Zooey Deschanel tried to establish herself as a singer of self-penned retro pop songs in the band She & Him.

Zooey was the “She” of course, with producer and multi-instrumentalist M. Ward as the titular “Him”, they put out three records of mostly Deschanel-penned songs between 2008 & 2013 when (presumably) the demands of starring in a sitcom — the excellent New Girl, for those of who keeping score at home — became too much for her to also spend time writing songs, as well, because after 2013, She & Him have done nothing but Christmas albums & cover albums.