Monday, June 14, 2004
glisten: polyamory
Time for the fourth installment of Th' Hut's Mix CD series. Longtime listeners will know the deal; as for everyone else:
I offer a themed mix CD of my own making, send it out for review by Hut readers and then print said reviews uncut and uncensored (except for my own italicized wit, sarcasm and bullshit) along with the tracks discussed. It's like a listening party only you don't have to have any friends or music, just internet access.
I'm a stickler for quick responses to these things since I love to see what people's unguarded (and often uninformed) first reactions are. As such, the reviews you'll read here are immediate, often submitted after only one or two listens to the CD.
This week's theme is an awfully fruitful one;
Frightfully Unclean Carnal Konsiderations, songs that feature the word "fuck" prominently in the title.
Since I've never tried it before, I figured a big ol' orgy of reviewers would be appropriate; a group fuck, if you will.
Bearing all that in mind, let's look at our roster of guests:
First we have Max, who writes:
"Hope my review is okay and I apologize for any errors or stupidity (blame it on the speed at which I wrote, yeah, that's it)--I enjoyed writing it.
A too-long disclaimer: I love the F-word. When deployed correctly, I think it may well be the best, most efficient one-syllable communicator of meaning that we have in the English language. I went to high school with a lot of international students, and I swear that “fuck” was their only swear word, trotted out for everything from disappointingly soggy moussaka in the cafeteria to rage over failing a physics test. But their overuse didn’t kill it for me…now I teach high school and I worry that the word is dying out. I overhear “shit” far more often, and I can’t exactly use my classroom as a venue to express my love for the far-better word. But I won’t let it die—I still drop it into conversation (outside of school, don’t worry) all the time, and few things make me happier than hearing it in a song (repeatedly is even better). This CD has been asking to be made for a long time."
A man after my own heart! Leave your clothes on the hook in the foyer and jump on in! There's enough for everyone!
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Next up is Amanda. Without even an opening note of apology or gratitude, she leaps headlong into the fray with a silent and whipsmart abandon.
Dear Amanda falls under the "brevity is the soul of wit" rubric, but I've never had issue with a quickie before. Welcome her with open arms, my fellow Epicureans!
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Here comes Jake. He's missing both pinkies and can't use a shift key, so don't stare.
"here's the reviews after one listen. heavy on the hip hop, but that's probably the best part of the mix. and i'm not even a hip hop kid; i guess they're just better at using the expletives."
We welcome all genres, races and creeds here at the 'First Annual Hut Diggity' and your lack of digits will not be mocked. The lube is in the rumpus room; you're going to need it.
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Ah, a mystery woman; the enigmatic "RW," who expressly (and wisely) requested anonymity from the hordes of salivating onlookers.
"The theme of my reviews is basically unedited first impressions?"
RW, "O" here will show you to the piercer who will prepare you for the evening's entertainment. Try on a saddle that fits you and I'll be by to check on you after I pick out a proper tail.
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Arriving fashionably late, we have Ryan, who tells us:
"Well, that was a journey wasn't it? In terms of content the disk is a mixed
bag, but you can't really expect it not to be with this kind of theme. In terms
of how the thing is put together as a whole? Very nice, beginning and ending
with a song and it's remix (not counting the 8 seconds of madonna) is very cool.
I almost wonder if the idea for the disk came to him when he managed to get
both songs in the same place at the same time. Following all the rap songs with
Week is also fantastic. And and bitter over-rapped taste is completely cleansed
by the silence of the lambs musical track. That's just fucking brilliant. Thanks for the disk! It is a seminal work indeed!"
Ryan, your drollity is only eclipsed by the prolixity of your immense schlong. I imagine you'll fit right in (no pun intended). The games have already started; go peek into the poolroom for a little "Eyes Wide Shut" action.
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Well, the guy/girl ratio is all off, but a party is a party is a party.
Let's get this menage started!
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Madonna - "What the Fuck Do You Think You're Doing?"
Max: My God, she can’t even give this one sentence a convincing line reading.
Ryan: Ah... 8 seconds of attitude, good way to start things off. I wonder where this came from?
Amanda: I always wondered what this sounded like. It was supposed to foil American Life pirates, wasn't it?
Sure was. In an attempt to fend off DL'ers, Madonna flooded Kazaa and likeminded P2P's with hundreds of different named files that contained nothing but this little black kiss and silence.
See the links below for the obvious backlash to this rude rejoinder.
Maybe if she had a better attitude, the album would've sold. I see that when she's pissed, she doesn't have an English accent.
Jake: yup, that's madonna. i can't believe people still pay attention to her.
RW: ok, ha ha, I remember that.
Buy "The Immaculate Collection" from Amazon
After the steamer that was "American Life," it's legit to hate on Madonna all you want; but washed up or not, she's had a helluva run. If you don't have a friend with a good collection to burn you a mix CD, this would be a nice place to start; there's not a bad track on there.
GHV2 ain't bad either, tho' there's a bit more filler than on the previous disc.
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"The entire song-- it's a metaphor for big dicks."
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The Madonna Remix Project was my original source for this cut.
Drop by and flip through their files to see Madonna get fucked up a bit more.
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"Morgan Webb, will you marry me?"
Nothin' says lovin' quite like the John Hinckley approach.
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Millie Jackson - "The Fuck You Symphony (Live)" (Edited for listenability)
My editing on this piece was of Millie's drawn out introduction and disclaimer.
Max: The piano-plonking in the beginning makes me think this should be worked in as some sort of extended intro to “9 to 5.” Hey, it could fit! What really saves this from getting boring is the mock-seriousness and full-on bombast of the presentation. You can picture the singers never cracking a smile until that last shouted bit. Then it all falls apart: “Do that shit again!” Was Millie related to THE Jacksons? Was she the “evil” one until Michael and Janet went nuts? Is she the one whose album covers always had her looking like she was screaming or about to embark on an oral “sexcapade”?
No relation to Michael, but that's a pretty good description of the album art.
"DO THAT SHIT AGAIN!", indeed.
Amanda: This song would have been nice to have in my angsty teen years. A lovely sing along.
Jake: very silly. would probably get irritating ver quickly. wait, it already has.
RW: I’m not really sure who Millie Jackson is. This is pretty annoying but wow the crowd loves it. Fuck as a derogative exclamation?
Ryan: Well, it's fun to listen to, but past that, it's a bit of a yawner. Probably a
lot more fun for the live audience than for us listening at home.
Tip of the hat for this track to Sleeve Notes, who died for our sins.
Buy "Live and Uncensored" from Amazon.
My knowledge of Millie is pretty limited, but I'm curious to hear more. Anybody wanna dropload a track or two?
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Millie's official site
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The Coup - "Lazymuthafucka"
Max: The warbled title works as a nice reminder of another type of muthafucka—the mythic sexy one that Prince sang about so wonderfully. Sadly, I think more of us fall into the “lazy” category. There’s a great energy to this song (an immediate jump into the lyrics, for one thing) that you would never expect from the title. It could sound angrier, I guess, but at least there are some funny lines to carry you through its overlong running time.
Amanda: I didn't like this on my first listen, but the second time around I really got into the chorus.
Jake: the coup are great and way underrated. this a is a good track.
RW: I remember them from high school. Freestyle at the fortune 500 club or something like that? “capitalism is like a spider. . . “ The political message here seems a little vague. You’d think that the coup would be the last group on earth to make a whole song about the protestant work ethic but that’s cool. The production also seems really muddy.
Ryan: Now this I like. Very straightfoward lyrics, the saw filter in the upper
ranges starts to annoy about 2/3rds of the way through the song.
Everybody loves Th' Coup.
Buy "Party Music" from Amazon
I've already hyped up the Coup here at least twice before; like Jigga said, "What more can I say?"
Go get it already.
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The Coup's official site
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Artcoup.com is a striking photography page with an international social conscience and a dark but insightful eye.
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Beck - "Fuckin' With My Head"
RW: This is one of those songs that came out of that tiny window of time where it was easy to put together drum loops and samples on pro-tools but it wasn’t super-accessible bedroom technology like it is now. So you could put together a song like this and pat yourself on the back for “genre-bending.” I guess it still sticks together decently now, but I never could really get too into Beck.
Max: Meet the heretic: I don’t like Beck—too much artful sloppiness for me. He’s all pose and pastiche and persona, and I just can’t (won’t) make an investment in his music. This sounds like practically every other Beck song to my ears, and “fuckin’” just joins the background noise with no impact whatsoever.
Ryan: Beck rocks. I was also kind of pleased to see the scope of the cd spread out more. Truly a worth addition to any fuck compilation.
Amanda: Is this early Beck? He sounds more bluesy than he has lately.
Jake: beck isn't terrible or anything, but i often wonder why he's so popular. "one foot in the grave" is a pretty great album though.
Some very diverging opinions here. Gotta admit, this is pretty uninspired Beck. I much prefer his faux rnb/disco stylings, a'la "Odelay" and "Midnight Vultures".
Buy "Mellow Gold" from Amazon.
He's definitely just getting his feet underneath him on this album but there are a few shining moments.
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Beck's online home comes with an apparently abandoned blog.
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Deconstructing Beck
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Sleater-Kinney - "Write Me Back, Fucker"
Max: I like the snotty slowed-down vocals a few seconds in. That’s the kind of thing that makes me scared of rock girls, in a delicious way.
Amanda: Ok, ok. I know this e-mail is late, but I'm writing already!
Somebody's guilt complex is showing.
Jake: great live, but never been able to get into the recordings.
RW: I got this on a mix-tape my first year of college. I think I always fast-forwarded through this track though.
Ryan: I should like this more, but I don't. This song bores me, the lyrics are
uninspired, and it's nothing I haven't heard before.
S/K require me to be in a very specific mood to dig 'em; otherwise they're just so much noise. They appeal best when they're in a serious "fuck off" mode.
Buy "Dig Me Out" from Amazon.
"WMBF" is a non-album track, but this is my fave of what I've heard from the ladies so far.
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These Sleater-Kinney fansites have a bunch of music for dl.
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The Suicide Girls interview.
Max, here's a whole world of delicious, scary rock girls for you.
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