I Believe In Me

Yesterday, I got my results for the February 2007 Oregon Bar Exam. I had fortified myself by preparing for inevitable failure. It would have made the prospect of taking this Bar exam again less...hhhmm, surprising? But I passed. I guess now it's really time to begin life in Portland. I didn't really think it would be so anti-climatic. Similarly, like when I became an American citizen last month, this experience - which should be joyous (and I know I'm being a complete asshole in not appreciating what I've got) - is lacking in I don't really know what. But I must take time out to thank everyone who has put up with me for the last several months. I wouldn't have done it without your patience and support.

OK, I am really getting a kick at thinking of triumphant songs to post today. Songs that make you strut. Or pump your fist.

Piero Piccioni: Missione Morte Molo 83 (Alternate Theme)
First up, is the an alternate take of theme from the 60s Italian spy-flick Missione Morte Molo 83 composed by Piero Piccioni. This is a personal strutting fave of mine but I thought it was too short so I extended the tune by repeating one if its sections. Don't worry it's not a monotonous re-edit. Buy the album!

The Avengers: I Believe In Me
Next, we have a song by the Avengers. The Avengers' I Believe In Me can be found on their self-titled album (a.k.a. the "Pink Album"). It's out-of-print but you can buy a CDR of it here - from vocalist Penelope Houston herself (I believe). Well, it's from the site where I got mine...

Gang Starr: Work
This is Work by Gang Starr. This is one of my all time favorite tracks ever in any genre - rap, country, rock, etc. - whatever. I stand by it. I listened to this during the actual Bar exam during every break to "pump" myself up. Every ten minute break, lunch, using the restroom...It was hard not to rap along to this and look like a total loser (or a "nippa" - can I make that word up?). Great battle rhymes: "Yo I scoped it out - I took your weak dream and choked it out. Your bitch don't really got no ass she just poked it out. On the d-low, I'm saying you versus me yo - we can do this shit right here in front of your people." Buy the album!

23 Skidoo: IY
Next up is IY by 23 Skidoo. Since I should be publicly embarassing myself by doing a polyrhythmic dance in celebration of today's events, this tune is the perfect accompaniment. This is from the currently out-of-print album, Seven Songs. If you can find it - buy the album!

Ultramagnetic MCs: Pluckin' Cards
Here's Pluckin' Cards by the Ultramagnetic MCs. Like most people, I think this is one of the best diss tracks ever. It's a great tune off of the otherwise unremarkable Funk Your Head Up album. Kool Keith goes off on everyone from Kool Moe Dee, LL Cool J, Monie Luv, De La Soul, A Tribe Called Called Quest, etc. This is the type of tune that makes you want to engage in a battle of the 8 Mile variety. Then you realize you can't rap let alone freestyle. Buy the album used for $50 (whoa)!

Brian Eno: Stiff
This is the song Stiff from the aborted My Squelchy Life album by Brian Eno. Some of the scrapped songs from this album can be found on the pricey Eno Box II: Vocals. I used to think the chorus went "I want to be deeeaaaaad" but instead it's "I want to be theeeeerre". So it's an uplifting tune rather than a depressing one. Enjoy. Buy the album!

Del the Funky Homosapien: Catch a Bad One
Okay, one more on the hip hop tip. This is one of the very few Del the Funky [now 'tha Funkee'] Homosapien tracks I like (in light of the whole inexplicable early 2000s Gorillaz phenomenon) from the No Need For Alarm album. In 1993, I purchased this album album along with the Souls of Mischief '93 to Infinity. While the latter is now a classic, the former has always been missing something more exciting in terms of subject matter. But it's still much better than the wack Street Knowledge affiliated I Wish My Brother George Was Here. Buy the album!

John Cale: Big White Cloud
Finally, we have John Cale's Big White Cloud. This is from his overlooked Vintage Violence album (the one with the vaguely Georges Franju Eyes Without a Face like cover art). There was an article in MOJO in February 2007 giving readers an overview of "must have" Cale albums. This wasn't one of them. What a crime. If this was a new album, MOJO would likely give it 4 stars even while dissing it - because MOJO can't write a bad review to save their lives. This song makes me feel life is good and worth living. Buy the album!

C'est si bon?

Aesthetic similarities & the musical theatre

Clean lines drawing attention to the necks of chanteuses in profile? Am I the only one who sees the cover to Feist's new album as an homage to the cover of the mutant disco diva Cristina's classic 80s album?

Ms. Feist and her album, The Reminder, appears to be receiving the overhype treatment. Read about it in the New Yorker, Venus Zine (Sassy - they are soooo not), Bust, etc. Usually I'm very wary of music and artists who get this type of makeover treatment (Feist was Peaches' onstage cohort "Bitch Lap Lap"). I'm sure the blogs are clogged with gushing praise for Feist - blogs usually written by curmudgeon men in their 30s whose hipster glory is fading like denim jackets decorated with band buttons or whose leather jackets are getting stiff and cracked with age and responsibilities. Hey wait a minute...

But I couldn't suppress a silly grin and an awkward foot shuffle while watching the presumptively shot in one-take video for the single, 1 2 3 4 dir. Patrick Daughters. I love any music video with Busby Berkeley-esque kaleidoscopic choregraphy (e.g., Björk's It's Oh So Quiet dir. Spike Jonze & Aphex Twin's Windowlicker dir. Chris Cunningham). And, of course, I'm a sucker for Jazzercise.



And here's a Cristina track on the Sleep It Off album, Cristina as Jenny with Ben Brierley as Macheath - Mackie Messer ("Mack the Knife") singing Brecht & Weill's Zuhälterballade (Ballad of Immoral Earnings a.k.a. Tango Ballad) from The Threepenny Opera.


To be thorough, the graphic artist behind Cristina's Sleep It Off album cover was Jean-Paul Goude. Goude used the same aesthetic for his [now] ex-wife, Grace Jones' album, Slave to the Rhythm.

Can't Hardly Wait...To Die

The Replacements' Can't Hardly Wait was used as the title song for the late 90s movie of the same name. For some reason, I liked this movie a lot when it came out. I even bought the videotape! But now, I can't figure out what drew me to this movie in the first place. Was it the childish humor? Seth Green playing a "wigga"? Jennifer Love Hewitt's breasts and horse face? It's a mystery why and how I could have been such a big fan. At that time, I was in my early 20s, and the idealized memories and experiences of my high school years had long been replaced by the phantasmagoria of excessive binge drinking and meaningless 'adult' relationships - I was no longer a member of the target teenage audience this movie was presumably trying to attract. But yet I watched this movie 3 times in the theaters (40 oz. in hand)! However, I can vividly recall that upon watching a trailer for this movie, I told my girlfriend at the time that any movie with the title Can't Hardly Wait must have that 'Mats (i.e., the Replacements) song in it, and therefore I - as a nerdy 'Mats fan - was required to watch the movie on this basis alone.

It's always struck me as a little disturbing that the writers/producers/decisionmakers/etc. of this movie decided to name it after this particular 'Mats song. The movie is a 'humorous' and 'light-hearted' take on the average teenagers' awkward transition from the high school social scene (with its mandatory unknown/unrequited crushes) to the heady profundity and exuberance of young adult life. But the 'Mats song is about suicide and not being able to follow through. Pretty much the narrator in the song is saying s/he can't hardly wait to die. And specifically - it's about death by hurling oneself off a scummy water tower (the 'Mats are from the Midwest in case you didn't know). This is not just my interpretation of the lyrics, it's what singer/guitarist Paul Westerberg had intended to convey. I get this information from an interview conducted with him from some fansite I can't remember. Trust me. Or Wikipedia it up for all I care. I'll make a Wikipedia entry on it right now to substantiate my own claim. Anyway, either the Can't Hardly Wait movie crew had no knowledge of the song's theme; or knew of it and intended the movie's title to be ironic; or they just didn't care.

The following is a cursory look at the evolution of the 'Mats' song, Can't Hardly Wait.

Can't Hardly Wait (Live: Nov. 11, 1984): bootleg recording of the original 'Mats lineup confiscated from an unknown fan at the Bowery in Oklahmoma City, OK. Shortly afterward, this bootleg was released as The Shit Hits the Fans in cassette form only by the 'Mats label, Twin/Tone (with cover and insert artwork by drummer Chris Mars). During this period, the song - although yet to be recorded in a studio - was a regular song in the 'Mats set list. At some point in 2004, The Shit Hits the Fans bootleg was re-released on vinyl for a limited time by some record company whose name I can't think of. I didn't buy it because I had already bought it as a CD rip at a record swap some years ago. And a bootleg is a bootleg is a bootleg. NOTE: guitarist Bob Stinson's drunken half-assed guitar solo is awesome. Read all the unsubstantiated facts regarding this recording on Wikipedia!

Can't Hardly Wait (The scrapped version from the 1985 Tim album): officially released in the "best of" CD All For Nothing/Nothing For All. This is the only studio recording of Can't Hardly Wait with Bob still on guitar. Great lyrics here that I've always interpreted to have one of two possible meanings - either that Heaven is so incredibly boring you've got to get out of there or that the only way into Heaven is by means of subterfuge - because Paul's Catholic school education won't let him believe a suicide victim gets into Heaven [?] ("I'll be sad in Heaven if I don't find a hole in the gate"). Buy the album!

Can't Hardly Wait (The "airshaft" version from the lost Alex Chilton Pleased to Meet Me produced sessions in 1987): recorded in an elevator shaft at Blackberry Way Studios in Minneapolis - after Paul had already given Bob the boot. As the infamous 'Mats mythology alleges, the original Chilton-produced masters were tossed into the Mississippi River by the band. Chilton's efforts were not lost - the 'Mats recorded the song Alex Chilton in tribute to him (and their love of Big Star) for Pleased to Meet Me. Despite its muddled bootleg quality, this is without question my favorite version - the theme of suicide creeps back in a subtle and menacing way. In this rendition, the aforementioned scrapped Tim version lyrics are changed to: "I'll be there in an hour if there's a hole in the gate - climb to the top of this crummy water tower screaming 'I can't hardly wait'". The suicide water tower motif persists throughout all the versions of Can't Hardly Wait until Pleased to Meet Me.

Can't Hardly Wait (released version from Pleased to Meet Me): the Memphis horns and strings version produced by Jim Dickinson. Once again, this is a post-Bob recording with Paul doing all of the guitar parts. Supposedly, the band couldn't even stand to be in the studio while these frilly parts were recorded and added into the final mix. This reworked version changes the theme from suicide to being away/returning home (sort of like the 'Mats version of Merle Haggard & the Strangers' highway song White Line Fever). The suicide theme is instead applied to another song on the album, The Ledge, and according to 'Mats legend, someone did unfortunately take that song too seriously and jumped off a building to their death. Buy the album!

And if you're so inclined - buy the Can't Hardly Wait DVD.

It's a dog's life...

My dog, Jin, has now been relocated to Portland. He is adjusting to life with MK and our two other dogs. Of the bunch, he'll always be the 'Coward of the County'. Can't you tell? The underdog...

Giorgio Moroder: Underdog

Buy the album!

A Few Random Tunes

Here they are:


Ananda Shankar - Back Home (1975)
This man was way ahead of his time.


Jesus & Mary Chain - Mushroom (Live 1985)
Cover of the tune from Can's Tago Mago album.


William Bell - Everybody Loves a Winner (1967)
Great soul ballad from the underrated Stax singer/songwriter. He wrote the tune "You Don't Miss Your Water," famously covered by Gram/Byrds.


Dion - Baby Let's Stick Together (1975)
Produced by Phil Spector. Sounds like two crazies going at it with unlimited studio time. One of the craziest productions ever on a pop song.


Curved Air - Melinda (More or Less) (1971)
Nice folk ballad from the proggy folky rock band with vocalist Sonja Kristina.