#455 - "Hot Fuss" - The Killers

Released On:  Island/Universal/Mercury, 2004

If Interpol wanted to be Joy Division by way of The Cure, then the Killers were the mid-decade aftermath - New Order.  It was as bright and polished as one might expect from a band coming from Las Vegas, yet underneath that pop sheen and Eighties-Retro groove was a sense of sadness and resentment.  Not to harp on the obvious, but the Killers and New Order shared the same ideal:  bang-on pop songs that sound as if they could have been formed whole by a versificator that were also fucking downers.  To the casual listener they were good-time songs, pop hits to soundtrack nights at alterna-clubs, but it was always just an illusion to mask the real emotions:  the emotional toll that is taken by living and loving in Sin City.

Where You'd Know It From:  Any of it's four big singles.  Maybe you're one of the 3.4 million people in the U.S  (or the 300 000 from Canada?) that bought it.  Probably you've just heard it on the radio.

Track Listing:
1.  Jenny Was A Friend Of Mine (4:04)
2.  Mr. Brightside (3:42)
3.  Smile Like You Mean It (3:54)
4.  Somebody Told Me (3:17)
5.  All These Things That I've Done (5:01)
6.  Andy, You're A Star (3:14)
7.  On Top (4:18)
8.  Change Your Mind (3:11)
9.  Believe Me Natalie (5:05)
10.  Midnight Show (4:02)
11.  Everything Will Be Alright (5:45)

("Jenny Was A Friend Of Mine")

("Somebody Told Me")

("Mr. Brightside")

#456 - "Hello Nasty" - Beastie Boys

Released On:  Captiol Records, 1998

I vividly remember listening to the radio at one point when this album came out.  The local modern rock station ("London's Best Rock", FM96) had put "Intergalactic", the planet-destroying first single, into rotation, and this wasn't sitting well with some of the more belligerent listeners.  "I'm going to stop listening if you keep playing this rap crap" is what one winner actually said.  Suffice to say, it was on there for good reason; listener demographics and secret racism likely kept the vast majority of great hip-hop tracks off of rock radio but Hello Nasty was unstoppable.  It's a party that doesn't flag once, from the massive beat that starts off "Super Disco Breakin'" through to the appearance of Lee "Scratch" Perry on "Dr Lee, PhD".  It fit in perfectly with the Alternative Nation, too; witness the declaration on "Putting Shame In Your Game" about never being in an ad on television.

Where You'd Know It From:  You've heard it.  It was a freakin' #1 album.  Someone's played it, in their car, at a party, while hitting the bong.  You've at least heard "Intergalactic".  I mean, come on.

Track Listing:
1.  Super Disco Breakin' (2:07)
2.  The Move (3:35)
3.  Remote Control (2:58)
4.  Song For The Man (3:13)
5.  Just A Test (2:12)
6.  Body Movin' (3:03)
7.  Intergalactic (3:51)
8.  Sneakin' Out The Hospital (2:45)
9.  Putting Shame In Your Game (3:37)
10.  Flowin' Prose (2:39)
11.  And Me (2:52)
12.  Three MCs And One DJ (2:50)
13.  The Grasshopper Unit (Keep Movin') (3:01)
14.  Song For Junior (3:49)
15.  I Don't Know (3:00)
16.  The Negotiation Limerick File (2:46)
17.  Electrify (2:22)
18.  Picture This (2:25)
19.  Unite (3:31)
20.  Dedication (2:32)
21.  Dr. Lee, PhD (2:25)
22.  Instant Death (3:22)

("Intergalactic")

("Super Disco Breakin'")

("The Negotiation Limerick File")

#457 - "And Don't The Kids Just Love It" - Television Personalities

Released on Rough Trade, 1981

Before shambling/C86, there was Television Personalities, the first stable full-length by Daniel Treacy as his soon-to-be-permanent nom-de-rock.  Recorded on 4-track tape machines at the dawn of the generation, it fully spelled out what lo-fi would mean for every poor hip rock band to follow, as well as the future career of Art Brut.  The album is also quintessentially British.  "Jackanory Stories" named for a popular BBC children's show of the time, may as well be the bowler-hatted, Micheal Caine-looking geezer on the cover.  "I Know Where Syd Barrett Lives" is as sweet and addled as the man himself.  It was still essentially three-chord punk, but rooted firmly in the aesthetic of the Merseybeat.  Later, Treacy would release a number of albums that sold fairly well in Europe, develop a rather bad habit, and spend six years in another curiously Anglo construct, a prison ship.  This whole entry may as well be drinking tea right now.

This rather delightful article also posits that Treacy might be the shadowy brains behind another all-too-English band.

Where You'd Know It From:  You live in England, and/or you're a fan of obscure British rock bands.

Track Listing:

1.  This Angry Silence (2:39)

2.  The Glittering Prizes (3:01)

3.  World Of Pauline Lewis (2:38)

4.  A Family Affair (2:36)

5.  Silly Girl (2:49)

6.  Diary Of A Young Man (3:59)

7.  Geoffrey Ingram (2:15)

8.  I Know Where Syd Barrett Lives (2:34)

9.  Jackanory Stories (3:04)

10.  Parties In Chelsea (1:41)

11.  La Grande Illusion (3:33)

12.  A Picture Of Dorian Gray (2:13)

13.  The Crying Room (1:59)

14.  Look Back In Anger (2:40)

("This Angry Silence")

("I Know Where Syd Barrett Lives")

("Geoffrey Ingram")

OK....

Yeah, so Weezer uploaded a video of them doing Paranoid Android to YouTube...and it's - get this - NOT terrible.  I know, right?  That's the complete opposite reaction that I had expected myself to have, too.  That being said, it's pretty much note-for-note.  You can't ask for too much from Weezer, though.  They've been riding the mediocrity train for years now.

#458 - "Blues For The Red Sun" - Kyuss

Released On:  Dali Records, 1992

Before trademarking "Desert-Fried Stoner Rock" as the brains behind hard-rock standard bearers Queens Of The Stone Age, Josh Homme was tuning his guitar down two full steps and routing it through a bass amp.  The result was best exemplified on the classic hazy sludge of Blues For The Red Sun, where various aspects of acid psychedelic rock and doom metal meet inside acres of molasses-textured molten guitar.  This is one of those albums that needs to be played LOUD, and doing so will reward you with enough headbanging riffery that you'll likely develop whiplash by the end of it.  Pack one beforehand, though.  Sludge like this deserves it's own hazy shade of green.  Not green like money, though.  It did only sell 39 000 copies, after all, which only goes to prove that even in the early 90s you were all dirty pirates.

Where You'd Know It From:  Long-haired stoners in the parking lots of high schools across North America. 

Track Listing:

1.  Thumb (4:41)

2.  Green Machine (3:38)

3.  Molten Universe (2:49)

4.  50 Million Year Trip (Downside Up)  (5:52)

5.  Thong Song (3:47)

6.  Apothecaries' Weight (5:21)

7.  Caterpillar March (1:56)

8.  Freedom Run (7:37)

9.  800 (1:34)

10.  Writhe (3:42)

11.  Capsized (0:55)

12.  Allen's Wrench (2:44)

13.  Mondo Generator (6:15)

14.  Yeah (0:04)

("Green Machine")

("50 Million Year Trip (Downside Up))"

("Mondo Generator")

#459 - "& Yet & Yet" - Do Make Say Think

Released On:  Constellation Records, 2002

Constellation Records is a post-rock institution, giving support to Efrim Menuck (Godspeed! You Black Emperor, Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra and Blah Blah Blah) as well as a host of like-minded bands.  Of those bands not given guiding light by Efrim, Do Make Say Think are the best of the pile:  they have the same wide-ranging sense of ambition that informs the best Godspeed suites, but they exercise a heady sense of restraint coupled with a funky sense of rhythmic backbone.  It sounds like the results of a divinely inspired jam session, and, with the album being recorded in Justin Small's house, that may be exactly what it is.  Mandatory for anyone who's ever liked a post-rock album and wants more.

Where You'd Know It From:  Much like drone/doom, post-rock is enjoyed by intellectual hipster stoners.  So, if you are one or know any such, you'll probably know this one.  Also, "Chinatown" was used in Syriana.

Track Listing:

1.  Classic Noodlanding (5:26)

2.  End Of Music (6:51)

3.  White Light Of (6:56)

4.  Chinatown (5:33)

5.  Reitschule (9:15)

6.  Soul And Onward (5:29)

7.  Anything For Now (9:14)

("Chinatown")

("End Of Music")

("Soul And Onward")

#460 - "Sleeping With The Enemy" - Paris

Released On:  Scarface Records, 1992

Before the L.A. riots, there was "Coffee, Donuts, And Death", a brutal screed advocating cop-killing as a cure for the brutality and corruption endemic amongst those who policed the poor communities across America.  And that's not even the most controversial song on the album:  that prize goes to "Bush Killa", the President Bush Sr. assassination fantasy that caused Warner Bros. to cancel the album's release (the date of which neatly coincided with the lead-up to the 1992 U.S. Presidential election).  What else would you expect from an album that opens up with nearly two minutes of sirens and heavy machine-gun fire titled "The Enema (Live At The White House)".  It wasn't just about the political firebrand lyrics, however; the production is tight and funky, with crisp bass and an adventurous sense of sampling.  None of this is surprising, of course, considering a very young DJ Shadow handles a lot of the production here.  One of the fiercest hip-hop albums to ever make the white establishment really, really uncomfortable.

Where You'd Know It From:  Hip-Hop History 101?  That dreadlocked kid in your class who found the album during Bush Jr.'s reign and thought it was soooo timely?  

Track Listing:

1.  The Enema (Live At The White House) (1:53)

2.  Make Way For A Panther (2:30)

3.  Sleeping With The Enemy (2:40)

4.  House Niggas Bleed Too (1:31)

5.  Bush Killa (4:51)

6.  Coffee, Donuts, And Death (3:52)

7.  Thinka 'Bout It (4:26)

8.  Guerrillas In The Mist (3:11)

9.  The Days Of Old (4:19)

10.  Long Hot Summer (1:42)

11.  Conspiracy Of Silence (3:42)

12.  Funky Lil' Party (2:49)

13.  Check It Out Ch'All (3:27)

14.  Rise (1:12)

15.  Assata's Song (5:01)

("Bush Killa")

("Coffee, Donuts & Death")

("Guerrillas In The Mist")