Master of the Flying Guillotine (1976) [Original Post]
After watching One-Armed Boxer you know I had to get a little Master of the Flying Guillotine action. The killer sequel with some juicy tournament gathering and the ultimate martial gimmick. Dig it.
There aren't a lot of Nowhere trailers that come up straight away on YouTube and they're all terrible. [They] don't even scratch at a fraction of the style and force of will that elevates otherwise middling material. The Doom Generation looks more recognizable as a film, but because of that it just seems lacking by comparison. The TV spot is less tragic than the stock Teen Movie home video trailer, but it's still funny to think somebody actually tried to trick regular people into seeing Nowhere.
Obvious allusions to reality TV pop music supergroups melt away as Harry Styles dances his way to one of the best songs of the year. An anthem for our age, soaked in bitter nostalgia, and increasingly populated with a grim sense of mourning. Some of this is my own inflection, a song arriving at the best - or worst possible time. Yet for all its tart lyrical ambivalence, there's a triumphant energy -- sweetness and light bursting out of the darkness with bells chiming. A rare instance of enjoying a Top 10 single, this one has a great video to boot, and my only real criticism is that it's so damned short. I guess I'll just have to keep it on repeat. Something I never really expected to want from a One Direction alum.
Before there was the Master of the Flying Guillotine there was the One-Armed Boxer: Yu Tien Lung -- a skilled two-armed martial artist who is dealt a terrible injustice and forced to hone his remaining fist to be an ultimate weapon of unfeeling destruction. Through dedication and intelligence he will bring the league of vile mercenary combatants to justice. This is my jam and was a terrific watch recently.
My original thought was: "1990 forever. Fuck you, 2023." The thing is, they tell me this actually came out as a single in 1991, and I just couldn't allow that kind of accounting error to go unchecked. Lady Miss Kier says she wants a good beat, and my needs aren't far from hers. Maybe throw in some 'chingy' piano you can step to, and a pretty lady wailing. That'll just about do it. Deee-Lite to the rescue with a song that isn't the tour de force of Groove is in the Heart, but is still a swell time.
Christine and The Queens - Tears Can Be So Soft (2023) [Original Post]
Actively looking for new music and not being immediately revolted, so that's nice. Nostalgia continues to push through the eighties into familiar territory of the nineteen nineties and new millennium. There's an obvious debt to Massive Attack and Teardrop here, as well as feeling like a fusion of a catalogue of influences from 1990 to 1992. There's enough here to be satisfied, but it's hard not to be distracted by the prickly creep of nostalgia for a time that was exciting for its experimentation and sense of discovery. A reasonably comfortable fit, but one that's been worn before.
You ever see the SLC Punk! poster? The one with the lime green and bright orange? I sure have -- but it still took me this long to actually check the movie out. It's one of those ones that comes up from time to time. It always seemed potentially interesting, even if I thought it might have weak fundamentals, and play about as convincing to its subject as Hackers was to being cool. When the subject came up again I thought about having never seen SLC Punk and wondered if I might enjoy SLC Punk. So I watched SLC Punk. And it was good. Generally good. A fun movie unto itself, populated with interesting characters, and an amusing reflection on its subject. Weirdly nostalgic as an artifact of 1998 as much as anything else. Matthew Lillard is a treat: lankily filling the screen with character and awkward charm as he impotently hops and down with mohawk flopping, and generally pontificating a philosophy that inevitably runs its course. I like a bit of chaos within strict borders of rigid rule -- lines that must not be crossed -- but these days we could probably all do with a little bit of punk in our lives.
More new release dreampop that I happened to stumble upon. A reminder that there is a lot of interesting music out there - it can just be a little harder to find. Mortal words swim in an ethereal stream of chimes, tone, and string. It's warm and cool all at the same time. Like a chilly, orange lit evening in summer filled with sentiment. I haven't connected with the other Julie Byrne songs I've heard quite as strong, but this one is a keeper. A stand-out lyric: "You were the family that I chose."
Confidence Man & Daniel Avery - On & On (Again) (2023) [Original Post]
It had to happen. It's been threatening to for a while. At long last, the heavy weight of eighties nostalgia that's held pop music (and culture at large) in a death grip has finally broken -- moving on to the nineties. Maybe even the early two-thousands! There's a hit of awkward, self-consciousness to the presentation of Confidence Man that isn't quite the earnest, slick cool of the period it's emulating. Maybe it's all parody, but it doesn't really seem like it. Either way, this is a throwback that hits its mark well enough to break the uncanny valley of it all. I might not stay on this ride, but I'll at least enjoy taking this one. Another entry in the season of new music, and a reminder of the turn-of-the-millennium dance music that evaporated during the mid-2000s apocalypse.
Gus Dapperton & Benee - Don't Let Me Down (2023) [Original Post]
Benee does the heavylifting on another dose of dreamy pop in collaboration with Gus Dapperton. This one has higher, warmer musical aspirations than pandemic anthem Supalonely, which I actually also quite enjoyed. Benee is the rare exception in the current, disposable pop music scene -- a name that warrants immediate attention. I look forward to listening to this one on repeat, and enjoying more new music. It seems to be the season for it.
Remember fun? Fun for fun's sake? Remember that? That's pretty good. We should get more music that's just fun. Monnie delivers Millennial Auspop with a low effort vibe that evokes morning and afternoon in the Summer of 2000. I'm not saying it's the best song in the world, but I can't fathom how this hasn't cracked 10,000 views on YouTube. I'm less bored, and more on board. Check it out. Tell a friend. Get it in your regular rotation. You'll be better for it. Bouncy and alive, it's a much needed burst of energy, and a welcome dose of enjoyable new music.
Another song I haven't thought about in a long time. Maybe thirty years. More nostalgic than I would like, but the chance to rediscover something is always nice. I'm not one for swimming much, and wouldn't advise doing it at night, but hey. That's the romance of the picture it paints. Live a little. Or at least, listen to somebody who has.
Sweden does it again! There could really only be one winner from this year's Eurovision Song Contest. Loreen brought the same A-game that made Euphoria an anthemic stand-out from the 2012 show, blasting the doors off with another bona fide hit in the same mold. It's not perfect. When you really listen and think about it, it's a little odd to describe "violins playing" as if pitching a scene for a film, instead of simply expressing the genuine feeling that would solicit that type of theatrical treatment -- but lets not worry about it! It works. It sounds fantastic. It fills my chest with the stuff that makes a fella want to fight for something. Does it sound a bit like a snotty four year old talk-crying? Look, it doesn't matter. All I care about is love!
The Dream Academy - Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want (1986) [Original Post]
Did The Smiths do it first? Sure, but why let that spoil a good time? There's no reason that Ferris bloke needs to get in the way, either. Dream Academy's airy, renaissance fair overhaul blows the dust and self-loathing off of the guitary ode to angst, making its soppy title play more like an affirmation to fulfillment than the usual Morrissey bellyaching. The Dream Academy cover turns the song into the soundtrack to its own good time. Yeah, I would like to listen to this in an art museum. Or maybe a nice outdoor restaurant with creeping vines on lattice. Or just at home after a good spring clean. Anywhere a dream might come to pass, really.
It feels as if Karl Urban is experiencing his twelfth career breakout with The Boys. Various roles have brought him international recognition (even if people don't always remember he's the same guy as something else), but I'll always think of Out of the Blue -- one of the weightier entries in his filmography. A devastatingly arresting New Zealand production based on a real-life siege. Chilling in its semi-rural suburban normalcy, broken by the actions of one individual. Worth tracking down.
Is it really possible this song came out in 1992? I always seem to think The Cranberries were earlier than that, but I guess there's a certain transcendent quality to that voice. I'm not as inclined to romanticize the concept of Dolores O'Riordan as others, but it's tough to deny the rare qualities of it all. There are several videos for Dreams on YouTube, but this is the one I think of. Breezy, seductive, and effortlessly moody. I haven't thought about this song in a while. Overplayed soapy romcom soundtrack spun at every nineties high school dance? Maybe, but I heard it again a couple of nights ago, and it was nice.
Eurythmics - The Miracle of Love (1986) [Original Post]
I'll show you something good. Oh, I'll show you something good. It's been a rough year. A rough few months, but the thing is, a lot of that comes from a place of love. There's some comfort in that. A certain amount of strength and resolve. I'm not really one for believing in miracles, but I believe in that. That love is a tremendous, valuable thing. I would like more of it in my life. Unimpeded and uninterrupted. Sometimes it's hard to express those kinds of thoughts and that's where a lovely song like this one comes in. Those smooth, warm, velveteen vocals crystallizing something that transcends the simple language that's incidental to the tones and rhythm of its vibration. Maybe I've got it all wrong. Maybe there's a case for miracles being everywhere.
Christine and The Queens - 5 Dollars (2018) [Original Post]
Francophiles and perverts rejoice! 5 Dollars is an eminently listenable single from Christine and the Queens, who emerges as a discernible face in the post-popstar crowd. My mother pointed out a superficial similarity to Crispin Glover, which inevitably makes me think Crispin and The Queens, but lets not get distracted karate chopping and kicking the air. I say "perverts" because the video artfully edits a wordless sequence of getting ready for a big day (or night) on the town, with bondage straps only he/she/they will know you're wearing. Of course, that's not really the interesting part. The real fun is discovering there's an (original?) French version that doesn't have nearly as many views on YouTube. 5 dols, baby blues. 5 dols, baby.
This represents the point in the double helix of fate when Mel Gibson was in good favour, and Robert Downey Jr was one more heroin/cocaine speedball bender away from ruining his life, or somebody else's. The solution: strap him to a bed, cover him head-to-toe in latex make-up effects, and sing the classics. I never watched the 1986 BBC television series this was based on, but throw me an old fashioned gangster and The Chordettes' Mr. Sandman, and I'm pretty much pleased. Revisiting this after a solid decade or two away turned out to be a real nice time. If I didn't buy the DVD when it first came out, it'd be unearthing a hidden gem. If you've participated in the great forgetting, perhaps you'd like to find it for yourself. At this point, the twisting internalized whodunnit of the psoriatic novelist might even pass for something less than cliche. Also noteworthy as an early entry in the attempted theatrical legitimacy of Katie Holmes. Ask your parents, kids.
Biopics in the age of Content have become increasingly tedious exercises in children cosplaying events that were probably on film, but Chuck has the benefit of coming a little ahead of that curve, and with a cast of adults that may or may not be familiar with the subject matter, but at least know better. Still, the prospect of a film based on the guy that inspired Rocky might sound like a tough sell, but Liev Schreiber gives the title character -- Chuck Wepner, boxer who almost went the distance with World Heavyweight Champion Muhammad Ali in 1975 -- warmth and charisma. He's a rogue far less likely to be redeemed than his fictional counterpart, but that's okay. It's a good watch.
Recent tastes converge in an abrasive electroclash featuring Caroline Polachek buried somewhere within the warblings of Ladytron's worst harlequinned nightmare. God help anyone named Alice listening to this song. Don't get me wrong. I like it. I'm just seeing it from somebody else's perspective. The ineffectual nagging chant of "Alys" is bound to drive somebody clinically insane. Not me, though. The dissonant hyperpop is just keeping on the rails enough for me to call this a good time. They tell me its a new thing, but it really feels like a throwback.
I watched the 1987 Canadian movie Crazy Moon recently and Boo-Hoo was reprised throughout. I feel no better than one of those freaks discovering Phil Collins through a Grand Theft Auto video game, but hey. Give me credit for at least finding it in a slightly more interesting way. You gotta make these discoveries where you can. It might be lame, but it's growth. I enjoyed hearing Boo-Hoo.in the film, which is about an awkward, bullied young man who likes old fashioned music, suits, wears boxing head gear & goggles while driving a motorcycle (or riding in the sidecar), and falls in love with a deaf girl who helps him overcome his fear of water. Taking photographs of dogshit almost gets him thrown in a sanitarium. It's a trip -- and hard to believe it was released the same year Kiefer Sutherland was appearing in The Lost Boys. The song is great and gives us our first selection from the thirties. The late thirties. The time when the Second World War was brewing. Did I mention I've been reading up on WWII? Don't worry. I haven't been taking any photos.
I haven't seen this, but after the good turn of Party Girl -- I would like to. This time Parker Posey is a temp agent working in an office. Hijinks ensue. Lisa Kudrow and Toni Collette are along for the ride. That sounds good to me. Maybe it isn't, but who cares? This is the nineties. Anything is possible, and 1997 is really the time to be alive. Nostalgia is a factor, but I really think this might be a good watch. I'm toying with picking it up on DVD. It's $5, but it's 4:3, so I'm not totally sold.
Fatboy Slim - Sunset (Bird of Prey) (2000) [Original Post]
We take Fatboy Slim for granted. He was in the country, I listened to him on Triple J radio. It got me to thinking and I was thinking about Bird of Prey -- or Sunset, as it should really be referred to. I remember my friend Dave telling me about a sketch on the radio using the "Bird of Prey" soundbyte to punctuate prank calls -- or something. I still think of that fondly, and I still think of this song fondly. 2000 was a spectacular time. My kind of time. Orange, and yellow, and grey, and blue. Music was for dancing to, and the world was bursting with excitement and possibilities. I think the Olympics helped, down here. The new millennium clearly inspired the world in the final years of the nineteen-nineties, as well. Sunset probably isn't the best of it, or the best of Norman Cook, but it does capture some of that feeling. Flying high, flying high. I'm shocked this isn't already in the CDClub Songbook, but like I said. We take Fatboy Slim for granted. He really did get an awful lot of airplay It's nice to be back, though..
In 1997 I enjoyed the hell out of Sunchyme. It's the kind of song I think we're supposed to forget. A cheesy dance song resting awfully hard on an obvious sample. Life in a Northern Town is arguably the better song and you should make sure you hear that before you imprint on this. Then you can appreciate it with proper diction and class. Because I still like Sunchyme. It's joyous with just a hint of melancholy. The kind of song that feels like the end credits for real life. Or maybe I'm still just getting over a personal loss. Maybe one way to do that is to reclaim an old pleasure. Check that video. Take it for what it is. An amazing expression of the natural world. This was years before the Long King took broadway. Good stuff.
I was happy in the nineties. Obnoxiously so. I consumed the world ravenously, but I missed Party Girl. A lot of people did, apparently. It's become a bit of a rediscovered classic. I think it's part of the Criterion Collection now. I'm glad it is. Sure, it's nostalgic to revisit a 1995 that means something to me, but isn't always on screen. I'd like to think there's a little bit more than that in play, though. Parker Posey cracks me up. She's subtly hilarious and in fine form in Party Girl. I still haven't decided how best to compare this to Clueless -- the better remembered "chick flick"from '95. Clueless, but for cool people? Clueless, but for twenty-somethings? Clueless, but in New York? I don't know. It's just the kind of movie that Clueless kinda eclipsed, against better judgment. Music, fashion, a whole scene. Enjoyed the heck out of this. Even with Liev Schrieber playing a very dubious English would-be sex offender.
I used to see Baraka in the video section all the time. It always caught my eye. It came out a year before Mortal Kombat II clumsily appropriated the word, but that kind of thing occurs to a young man. These days I view it differently. With more gratitude and respect. Our world doesn't feel the same as it used to those many years ago. Cinema like Baraka, Samsara, and the Qatsi trilogy capture this world in flux. The majesty and the horror. The exoticism of Baraka's voyeuristic slice of life from elsewhere on the globe gives it an instant appeal. I enjoy sampling other cultures, and it offers that visually and audibly. A good selection for Earth Day, and the kind of movie you can just put on and appreciate to your own degree, with grim foreboding, or wonderous joy.
They used to show weird, cult cinema from around the world on television. It was a good time. I can't really remember if The 10th Victim was one of the movies I saw, or just similar to something, perhaps another Italian offering from the sixties or seventies. It seems ahead of its time. Sixties futurism with a nihilistic edge. Dead men killing for reality television. The Running Man a couple of decades early. There's another movie I'd like to find. I saw it late one or two nights. I think it might've been Italian, but I don't remember anything significant about it. Red walls. An apartment high rise with an elevator inside and large walled walkways outside. Modern, paranoid, mysterious. The 10th Victim doesn't seem to be it, but hey. At least there are jazzmen standing on cubes playing saxophone. That's the kind of thing I like.
Once again Caroline Polachek makes catching the charts & new releases worthwhile. If I had reservations about Welcome to My Island, Smoke delivers exactly what I needed. A full sound, consistent throughout. Big drums like CocoRosie's Rainbowarriors, with a jubilant Enya does End Credits vibe that makes me want to dance in the dirt in the setting sun. Or is it rising? I don't know if anybody cares about making music for me any more, but Polachek at least gives me hope and lifts my spirits. I only wish this single were longer. Its euphoric context over too soon. A hot, wet euphoric sound captured in a video that doesn't seem all that dissimilar to some of Polachek's live stage production. I believe she said somewhere she wanted it to reflect how it feels to perform the song. It seems pretty amazing to me. So does she. I hope it continues.
There are many sounds that come out of Aldous Harding, each projecting different modes and characters. I have mixed feelings about this one. A little too seventies and elementally earthy for this boy of who identifies as steel, or at least something more cold. Affectations of folksy naivete bordering on the disingenuous. I don't know if it's entirely necessary to purse "costs a lot", but I'm not going to tell her to stop. Nobody else is singing like this and I like it. In total Passion Babe is an undeniably catchy number. Interactive with its occasionally difficult lyrics painting pictures of life and sex. Or am I imagining that? I read a review that effectively said Harding's lyrics are obtuse and don't say much. I disagree and question whether the reviewer actually listened to this album. It seems to me a lot of Harding's lyrics have sexual subtext. This one sounds like it could be an ode to a full and passionate relationship, or perhaps even a grappling with the constraints of commitment, and the gravity of infidelity. There's a story here. Favourite lyric: "Of all the ways to eat a cake, this one surely takes the knife."
A pulp and mythology binge inevitably brings me to Conan The Barbarian, but through ignorance or forgetfulness, I prefer the 1984 Schwarzenegger sequel. My vague memories of the two films has Arnold more present in the second one, with more robust adventures. It doesn't hurt that this is also the one with Grace Jones and Wilt Chamberlain. Larger than life characters on an epic quest. This is part of my sweatpants phase of viewing, but that's just fine by me. Why wouldn't we want a good time?
Ladytron - Destroy Everything You Touch (2005) [Original Post]
I find it hard to believe anyone will hold the mid-2000s with the same nostalgic regard we currently seem to view the eighties and nineties with. Yet, here I am. Reminded of one of the noteworthy contributors to mid-2000s music. There's always a slightly unpleasant metallic aftertaste to Ladytron, but I was thrilled to stumble back upon Destroy Everything You Touch while researching the Second World War, and Irish mythology. It provided a welcome soundtrack. A song to excise building dissatisfaction with, and imagine barbaric adventures. Nice video. Not sure why I find a sunken, expressionless face miming the title quite so hilarious, but here we are. There's stronger audio on a version posted to the LadyTron YouTube, but this one has the better video. Make your choice accordingly.
Artificial, unrealistic, hopelessly romantic. What a pleasure it is to watch a film. Audry Tatou reunites with Jean-Pierre Jeunet for more acid yellow cinema. I don't really like war stories, but I like this one. A tale of love and hope told through multiple narrators as Tatou's Mathilde searches desperately to learn the fate of her beloved Manech on the battlefield. I don't see what's so "Great" about this war. It was a great movie, though.
Caroline Polachek - Welcome to My Island (2022) [Original Post]
I wasn't immediately sold on this song the way I was Billions. It's not as clever, or interesting. Even if that wide-eyed, operatically orgasmic wail at the start immediately hooks me in -- it's the dips that bother me. The quiet moments. The small, mortal chatter. It reminds me of the shackles that burdened Chairlift songs I just couldn't quite get on board with. Caroline Polachek is an undeniably compelling talent. Her voice a siren song. When it takes full flight she is a force to be reckoned with. A force of nature. As singles from the Desire, I Want To Turn Into You album continue to appear - I think it will be an unrivaled favourite. I'm now fully tuned in to paying attention to Polachek's work. I've visited her island and so far I like it. A rare thing these days. I'm just looking for a more even, intriguing, enticing experience from her singles. The Desire sections of this song, without the muttering.
I found myself on a bit of a Talking Heads kick, watching Stop Making Sense multiple times, as well as Trues Stories. Found a Job isn't a Talking Heads song I think of often, but its inclusion in Stop Making Sense clearly brought it to mind. I enjoy the unexpected inflection, ups & downs of the song. The lyric "They've enlisted all their family" is especially nice.
The Future Sound of London - My Kingdom (1996) [Original Post]
I'm not exactly sure what's going on in the video for My Kingdom. Does it accurately predict and forewarn of the devastating spread of COVID-19, Brexit, racism, and turmoil in Ukraine? I'm joking, of course, but now that the suggestion is planted, watch it again. I noticed FSoL music videos don't load information and comments correctly on YouTube. I don't know why that is. I'm not trying to suggestive anything conspiratory or enigmatic. Probably just some stray symbols breaking code. It happens on multiple FSoL videos and I haven't encountered it anywhere else, though. Benign but the kind ominous mythology a band like FSoL used to thrive on cultivating. I'm reminded that FSoL did interviews via webcam. That sort of thing used to be a lot more interesting. A cyberpunk edge mercurial enough in the moment to not seem tragic. I like the music, with or without the stories. Chillout.
Usually I present these selections without comment. Who has the energy to be insightful? I try not to think about the project too much, but the CDClub Songbook is a subjective analysis and cataloguing of chronology. Did Justin Bieber kill music? That guy who smashed the thumbs down on YouTube in 2014 sure thought so! I try to stay naive, making heartfelt selections in the moment. Music that speaks to me. Yet as I update the master list - I can't help but notice this is the first appearance by Rammstein. How unlikely. I suppose one was part of a post-mourning exodus - a distraction. The German growler's addition to a Depeche Mode covers album. Self-effacing Songs For The Masses. I suppose it only makes sense. What would Depeche Mode be without their entry into Berlin leather bars? "Let me hear you make decisions without your television". English speakers shouldn't say tele-vision so deliberately, but I can live with it. It's evocative. That video is probably Not Safe For Work -- watch out for that. I've been researching mythologies and World War II for an unrelated project. I'm not sure I'm comfortable with how this participated in that, but here we are. An amusingly guttural cover of synthboy edginess.
Did Justin Bieber kill pop music, or is it just getting harder to find & connect with the good stuff? I was excited to check out new music from M83, even if I wouldn't characterize myself as a fan. That's not a knock. I just meant to say I'm a weary traveler who's bumped into them from time to time. I've liked M83's airy meditations on a protracted captured moment. Kool Nuit has some of that cool breeze, but is more cinematic in its scope. It wraps and surrounds -- at least in its first section. It is a song of two characters. The sweetness of the first half becomes more unsettled as the drama ratchets up and sweetness becomes tempest. I can only apologise for the cover art so much. I'm not feeling it. I am very much feeling this song though. An exciting real-time addition to the 2023 CDClub Songbook chronology. Rarity.
I suppose this song represents a breakthrough of some sorts. After a week of mourning a loved one it was the first new song to enter the CD Club Songbook. A song I haven't thought about in a long time, drifting to the surface because of something overheard somewhere. It's (literally) Madonna doing Bjork, with the kind of music video production we can only dream of these days. A welcome step in Madonna's evolution through the nineties, but not quite the brilliance that would follow a couple of years later with the Ray of Light album. A nice cool dip before she full submerged herself with William Orbit and ultimate became Frozen.
