I decided it was time to load up my lungs with smoke while there was still some around, so I went for a longish bike ride. Along the way I came to the new bike/horse bridge over the LA River. I decided it can only be called The Finger.
I give you The Finger.
The bridge isn’t quite open yet, so I didn’t get to finger The Finger. I look forward to future Finger fingerings. Maybe they’ll build four more and we can get the whole hand.
This was my wacky ride, in case you’re curious. It features lots of overlap and crisscrossing.
Only one? Yup, but this one took a while. I knew it would.
I should have taken more time. Or less time. Some amount of time other than the amount I took. Whichever it was, it’s not changing now. So let me introduce to you:
Pungent Trolls Bleed By Scrapheaps (Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
You can see exactly where I went from “Changing all these faces will be fun” to “I’m going to just paste in a Mothers of Invention cover and call it a day.”
I did sneak in a couple of jokes so weak and obscure that no one will get them.
Someone on twitter did an awesome silly thing where they re-titled James Bond movies with their anagrams. I thought it was a great idea, so I stole it to re-do Beatles albums. Here’s the first batch. I’m skipping the early Capitol hacked-up albums.
Peep Lame Easels (Please Please Me)
Featuring 300% more George.
White Slab Teeth (With The Beatles)
Now with 50% less Ringo
Aghast, Randy Hid (A Hard Day’s Night)
Now with 2400% more back-of-George’s-head.
A Stereo Elf Slab (Beatles For Sale)
Now with 100% more Ringo (nose only)
The problem with Beatles anagrams is that their album titles are usually pretty short. Some of these would be under ten letters if I didn’t include “Beatles” in the name.
The White Album is probably going to be super lame.
I used to do this thing on Facebook where I’d post the last 50 or so songs I’d played, along with some notes about a few of them. This is pretty much that, except I’m going to throw some Youtube links in along the way.
Charlotte Street – Lloyd Cole And The Commotions
Hold My Hand – The Rutles
I have students who say The Beatles are their favorite band, which seems weird since the band broke up 40 years before the students were born. That would middle school me saying my favorite musician was Cole Porter. I have to remember to play The Rutles for them.
Reptiles and Samurai – Oingo Boingo
Mah-Ná, Mah-Ná – Leroy Holmes – probably the best song to ever come from Swedish softcore that was used by the Muppets and Benny Hill.
Ain’t No Good – Cake Train in Vain – Annie Lennox High Fidelity – Elvis Costello and the Attractions A-Tisket A-Tasket – Ella Fitzgerald with Chick Webb And His Orchestra Don’t Let’s Start – This Radiant Boy Car Horns and Kentucky – Tom Waits There She Goes Again – The Velvet Underground Jump, Jive, An’ Wail – Louis Prima Baby’s on Fire – Brian Eno
Straight To Hell – Chum
I Feel Fine – The Beatles Sun Gazer – Hideout Do You Remember the Riots? – Jens Lekman Freedom for My People – U2 Hawaii 64 – ccc – ill chemist
Cool it Now (New Edition) – Len
Everyone needs a new edition of a song by New Edition.
Golden – My Morning Jacket Zero Hour – The Plimsouls The Long Grift – They Might Be Giants Suzanne – Leonard Cohen Bedsitter – Soft Cell Cat’s Blues – Palace Music Fight – The Kleptones Staircase to the Soul – Weston Smith Two Lives – Young Fresh Fellows Persona – Instupendo Shark Food – Starsailor Lonely – Bebel Gilberto
My Funny Valentine – Ella Fitzgerald
Every time I hear this I think “Somebody wrote more lyrics to that Elvis Costello song.” I am dumb.
clairaudients (kill or be killed) – Bright Eyes No One Else Around – Orchid Mantis True Romance – Vacation Forever Blue Fire – Air Waves Monkey Man – The Maytals
Nice To See You (feat. Floor Cry) – Vansire
A Warning – Thievery Corporation I’m Not The One – Bye Beneco Diferente – Gotan Project Blackbird Chain – Beck Riding On The Subway – Jesse Malin
Jefferson Starship – – Aug, 5, 1975 – Rock Show Commercial – I don’t care for commercials on the radio, but I love the occasional 40+ year old concert commercial.
the promise – The Cure Beaten To The Punch – Elvis Costello and the Attractions I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry – Cowboy Junkies
You Wouldn’t Like Me – The Beths
Blind Love – Tom Waits Upfield – Billy Bragg
Nothing Matters When We’re Dancing – The Magnetic Fields
I’m really good about finding reasons not to ride my bike. Rain, a cold, a thing for work that has to be done by the morning, whatever; if there’s a reason not to ride, I usually take it. And that’s dumb, because I love riding my bike. I love it so much that I set up a special blog just for recording when I ride. Now I’m trying to ride more, and I’m trying to put most of my online self here. So, bike posts get posted here and mixed into everything else. Whee!
Here’s today’s ride: short, hot, and slow. Just like me!
18 miles, 13 mph. Like lightning! Like really slow lightning!
Tomorrow, riding gets more difficult. Daylight Saving Time ends, which means sunset shows up around five, and riding in the dark on Los Angeles streets can be spooky. And winter is coming, so cold and rain are on the way.
See? Excuses.
But I do plan to ride more at least until the next Ciclavia. It’s right by my old neighborhood, so I feel obligated to ride it (and ride to it). I hope it doesn’t rain.
The last post about The Hood Internet reminded me of another set of remix/collage records: Double Dee & Steinski’s “The Lessons.” There’s a detailed Wikipedia page about them, but the short version of their bio is that they made “Lesson One” for a Tommy Boy Records contest back in 1983. They won first prize, then recorded a couple more Lessons before moving to other careers. I thought that was it, but today I learned that they released the long-evolving “Lesson 4” last year. The bandcamp link for the EP with the track is below.
They aren’t afraid to use weird samples. “Lesson Three” includes snippets from “Hernando’s Hideaway” and Mars Needs Women. De La Soul must have been at least partially inspired by them.
The Hood Internet has created nostalgia mashups of 50 or so songs from each of the years from 1979 to 1983. If you are in your early to mid fifties you will either love the waves of nostalgia as you recognize each of the musical snippets of your youth, or you will hate the crazy pitch shifting that’s required to spot weld all of these songs into a reasonably cohesive song. If you are me, you will feel both of those things.
For me, 1983 resonates the most. Not coincidentally, 1983 was when I started my senior year of high school. Plus, it features a section that mixes The Pointer Sisters and Van Halen songs named “Jump.” That’s a bit of a cheat since Van Halen’s song actually came out in January of 1984, but it works well enough for me to accept the wibbly wobbly timey wimeyness.
