what a day... what a week?.. whatever
Sorry I didn't post anything last week. I've driven to medical appointments, driven to different states, been called Jeremiah (don't know why either), argued with a valet (we were both wrong), started uploading my personal music collection to the cloud so I can stream things that will never be on streaming services (our streaming utopia is kind of a lie), and just been all around exhausted among other things. That said, I figured I'd give you a healthy post of weirdness today to make up for it.
First up, anyone else remember Citizen King? They had one fairly popular single at the end of the nineties, but that was about it. From what I understand, they changed their sound heavily for their sole major label release, 1999's Mobile Estates. It was a legitimately good record, though it wasn't breaking any rules or norms. It fit in nicely among the Becks, Cibo Mattos and Soul Coughings of the time, so I guess it was only natural that when they dropped remixes for their big single, they got folks from all those groups (or their bands) to do said remixes. And so Roger Joseph Manning, Jr. and Tony Hoffer, both of Beck's band, provided the Idiot Savant Remix of Better Days, and Mario Caldato Jr. (also an associate of Beck along with the Beastie Boys) did too. The one that you might miss otherwise though is the McMonkey and Fries Remix, created by Mark and Mike from Soul Coughing, albeit under that peculiar namesake. I wonder if they had been listening to the Hawd Gankstuh Rappuhs MC's Wid Ghatz when they decided to go with that one. Cibo Matto also provided a remix, but for the album track, Checkout Line. All in all, the McMonkey and Cibo remixes are the highlights, while Mario and the Idiot Savants are kinds dull. Still, if you're going to share a bunch of remixes you can't buy anymore, you might as well share them all, right?
And on a semi-related note, here's a track from Mecca Bodega featuring Soul Coughing's Mike Doughty along with Schooly D. Honestly, I don't know where Schooly is on this track, if he actually is to begin with. He might be simply credited as the band might have "reinterpolated" part of one of his songs. But Doughty's appearance was newly recorded. Some of the lyrics ended up in a later Soul Coughing song or two. And this track is taken from Mecca Bodega's Subway Stories album which doubles as the soundtrack to the HBO project of the same name released in 1997. This is another release that seems to be totally out of print. Don't know if that's because HBO holds rights or there simply isn't much interest in Mecca Bodega these days. The band has music online, but not this, so who knows.
Next up are an assortment of tracks, mostly from vinyl with a few exceptions.
Anyone else buy the super deluxe edition of PiL's Metal Box from a few years ago? It's quite nice, though I was still perplexed about what tapes remain in the vault after Keith Levene told me there shouldn't have been much of anything left. The confusion is also because of the outtakes that leaked years ago, of which none were featured on the box. I guess it doesn't matter too much because the box is great regardless, no matter what I think about Lydon's more recent version of PiL. Yes, the members are all perfectly great musicians in their own rights, but it's frustrating to see that band advertised as PiL without giving any of the credit to the individuals who really created their sound, namely Levene and Wobble among others. Well, this track was left off the box set, but was previously issued on a retrospective DVD with Sex Pistols and PiL videos that focused on Lydon. Just because you can use the word "punk" in the descriptors for the Sex Pistols and PiL, it doesn't mean they go together at all. And if you were missing Wobble's bass, this track will make up for it, while including some ridiculous vocals also courtesy of Wob. You don't have to listen to the entire track unless you want to, though your taste for poison may differ from the masses. I mean, you are here and reading this, aren't you?
And then the band that seemed most likely to carry on the metallic skronk of Metal Box era PiL, The Rapture! Of course, it didn't work out that way, but Echoes and their early EPs are awful nice, as is this remix of House of Jealous Lovers that only appeared on the original 12" releases. It's far more seventies and disco sounding than the original, but that's okay as it rules regardless. All credit to Morgan Geist for this magnificent remix, though I wish it could get reissued digitally, especially since the a-side version of House and the b-side from the 12" are available on the first DFA singles comp. This remix, as with most of the remixes on those early DFA singles, is ace!
And with the post-punk thing, lets head into new wave territory for a minute with two oddball versions from Talking Heads' Remain in Light era. The first is the "original" version of Crosseyed and Painless, which was only released on a promo 12" in advance of the album. It's not terribly different from the version on the album, though a small portion of David Byrne's facts rap appears here that was edited out of the album version. It's slight and subtle, but I'm a completionist, so I had to get it. The other track is a remix of Houses in Motion that was released on the 7" and has some interesting differences, one being lyrics which are printed in the jacket but do not appear on the album version of the track. I have no idea why these tracks weren't included with the reissues from about a little over a decade ago. Maybe it's time for some new, more thorough reissues, and not just on vinyl! Warners has done a very nice job with those vinyl reissues, but what about the oddities?
Continuing down the new wave path, if at least tangentially, here are a few more oddities from Tom Verlaine, The Cars and Peter Gabriel.
The Tom Verlaine tracks are remixes of Always and The Blue Robe from his second solo album, Dreamtime. They were bonus tracks on the Infinite Zero reissue from 1995, but aren't available on any of the currently available versions. Both of those tracks were initially released on the single for Always. As for that remix of Always, the biggest notable detail about it is the inclusion of Verlaine singing the title at the very end of the track, since he never did so on the album version. The Blue Robe has ever so slightly more vocal than the album version, which didn't have much to begin with.
This version of The Cars' Hello Again appeared on the 12" single but also on the b-side of the 7" despite being significantly longer than the standard remix. It also has a hell of a cast responsible for it's creation, with Arthur Baker credited for the remix and the edits by Andy Wallace and The Latin Rascals! And yes, it sounds exactly as zany as you'd imagine a dub version edited by The Latin Rascals from 1984 would sound!
And finally, here is a leftover from Peter Gabriel's third solo album, technically a self-titled album (like all of his first four solo albums), but also referred to as PG III or Melt due to it's drippy, acid damaged cover photo. This track, Bully For You, was written by Peter and Tom Robinson, of the Tom Robinson Band. TRB released a version on their second album that was produced by Todd Rundgren, though that version is a bit more rocking that what Peter went for. This is so good, and would have fit in perfectly on Melt or as a b-side. I have no clue why the hell he never issued it then or included it on a single or reissue eventually. It's just that good!
And one more before I go, here is the vocal version of Erol Alkan's remix of Bloc Party's She's Hearing Voices. The dub version ended up on their remix version of Bloc Party's Silent Alarm, but this remix appeared only on a white label 12". I just like it better than the dub version and wanted to share it.
If I don't get another post in this week, I'll definitely be back next week. Thanks for sticking with me!
I really like that Mario C remix! Thanks as always.
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