They call me new money, say I have no class

The Saturday Club presents... Instant Gratification #01: Me and My Friends Are Classier Than You and Your Friends

Tracklist:

01 Gwen Stefani - What You Waiting For (Jacques Lu Cont Remix)
02 Ada - Eve
03 Jurgen Pappe - So Weit Wie Noch Nie
04 United State of Electronica - Umbrella of Love (Ron Curty Mix)
05 Sophie Ellis Bextor - Mixed Up World
06 Bloc Party - Banquet (Phones Disco Edit)
07 Coldplay - Clocks (Royksopp's Trembling Heart Remix)
08 Electric Six - Future Is In The Future
09 M.I.A. vs Mylo - U.R.A.Paris (Erik Pearson's Remix)
10 The Knife - Heartbeats
11 Architecture In Helsinki - Like A Call (Two4K's THX Mix)
12 Kylie Minogue - Slow
13 Nina Simone - Little Girl Blue (Postal Service Remix)

So here is the mix I promised last week, the first Instant Gratification. This happened because about... well, probably a year ago now, I started thinking about how I'd rather lost touch with what was going on in electronic music. See, I used to be all down with all the DJs and all, initially as a result of all that big beat Fatboy Slim/Chemical Brothers deal that went down in the late '90s, but later on due to all the good house music that was coming out round that time. Eventually the dance music focus shifted to electro and bastard pop and glitch, which all ended up acting as a a sort of musical torniquet; I lost my patience for broad, sprawling seven minute throbs and became only interested in the short term satisfaction offered by artists like Peaches and Miss Kittin and Chicks On Speed. The bottom fell out of electro pretty quickly, and with plenty of interesting things going on in indie rock and hip hop and modern rock and pop and country and well, everything else, I began to pay less interest in the Euro-geeks-making-blipping-noises scene. Everyone was talking about micro-house, but that genre didn't really have a mainstream arm operating as an easy entry point the way drum 'n' bass or house or trance or any previous genre had, so I didn't really pay much attention to it. I always thought that I should, but that was a responsibility I never followed up on.

Eventually, though, I slsked a bunch of Kompakt releases and resolved to put together a compilation aimed at redressing my recent neglect of electronic music. it didn't actually work; my short attention span quickly piled in all this other stuff I'd been listening to, like Jacques Lu Cont remixes and Scandinavian pop and all this other stuff, and it turned into the compilation posted above. I also decided that the set would work best mixed into an hour of continuous music, all proper club style, and... never one for expedience, I ended up doing that just this past week.

So, OK, it isn't by any means the micro house primer I intended it to be. If anything, it's a mix of vaguely trendy acts that if you weren't paying much attention at all, you might still think were real cool. For this mix, I recommend playing it when you bring all your friends over for one of those fancy-ass dinner party get-togethers I know all you kids are into, one of those dos where you want music that doesn't overpower the conversation, but isn't so bland that you can't convincingly pretend you're listening to it if you need to get away from someone who needs to tell you about their latest property investments in Arizona or something.

Since it is a year later, I should probably make another bid at putting together a proper electronic revisitation, but in all likelihood, it will just turn out like this one again. I can't say I'd mind that too much, though; this has some absolutely fantastic songs on it. I don't think I'll ever get sick of "Mixed Up World" or the incredibly underrated "Future Is In The Future." And if I should ever want to genuinely check out what the dance DJs are doing, I know I can always start reading Stylus' Beatz By The Pound, and its accompanying Podcast.

Until that day comes though, I'll just keep putting together comps like this. In the future though, I may be thinking about tempo as well as awesomeness, which will mean less awkward moments like the super-speed version of The Knife's "Heartbeats" with which this mix is saddled.

Cross posted with The Funky Funky 7

Shipping down to Houston

Dropkick Murphys - Shipping Up To Boston (Chopped and Screwed by the Saturday Club)

Around this time last year I was doing some writing for a local street press called Volume. It lasted for about five issues and then went on "temporary hiatus" because it was "too successful" and needed to be restructured. Or so the editors told us; they haven't been heard from since, and about half the staff are now writing for some other local street press that for all I know could also have folded out of existence. Newcastle, it seems, isn't exactly the sort of town able to support thriving independent media.

While I was writing for these guys, though, I did get to do some resumé stuffers, and I also got some free promos out of them. The first time I showed up at their house/office to pick up some records to review, they didn't really have much that interested me, but I took the then new Coldplay record (which I panned, always fun) and, because my roommate at Western had liked them, the new Dropkick Murphys album, The Warrior's Code.

I wrote my review for these, filed them away among the thousands of records lying about my room and forgot about them.

Then, last week, Tom Breihan wrote a column about Martin Scorcese's new film, The Departed and its use of the Dropkick Murphys' "I'm Shipping Up To Boston." Now, Breihan gets a lot of hate, for reasons I almost completely do not understand. There are so many Stylus writers who can't stand the guy, which is pretty weird, because Stylus is usually pretty accomodating of non-canonical views. Breihan's non-canon views are the reasons he gets so much bullshit from rap fans, and it isn't like his views are that non-canon. But whatever, I read Status Ain't Hood every day, and I think Breihan's take on a subject is nearly always worth consideration.

One thing I like is that he's prepared to write about emo and skate-punk and other genres that don't get much critical discussion, mostly, I suspect, because so many crtics want to act like they're too good to talk about that sort of thing. They're not too good to talk about the new Sugababes single, but we all know my rant about critics who like music for teenage girls but not music for teenage boys. Probably one of the reasons I like Breihan's writing (apart from the style, which also gets mystifyingly lambasted) is that he shares my tastes, not only on a lot of rap, but also in that he seems to have grown up listening to a lot of '90s punk bands and seems to not have entirely left his interest in that music behind. I'm the same, though it isn't like I spend my days scouring the Epitaph release schedule or anything.

So I read Breihan's write up of "I'm Shipping Up To Boston," and how great he thinks the track is, and I remembered that Dropkick Murphy's record I reviewed last year. And I pulled it out, had another listen and thought, yeah, that "Boston" track is pretty great. Why didn't I notice it first time around?

I get the impression we're meant to pretend critics don't have an influence on our taste, as if succumbing to another's argument on a piece of music requires dishonestly taking on views you don't really hold, perhaps for appearance or for show. If I had no interest in The Arcade Fire until I read a Pitchfork review or whatever, I'd have people accusing me of only being into them because Pitchfork told me to be. That's the worst thing in the world to indie kids, being into a band becaue Pitchfork says to be.

But it's a ridiculous attitude to take. Of course criticism shapes how we see bands; that is what it is there for. Sometimes a new perspective on a work can help us see what we've been missing - for instance, I didn't really like the Mountain Goats Get Lonely until Ian Mathers told me how great he thought the stretch from "Half Dead" to (I think) "Moon Over Goldsboro" was. And only when I had isolated that section did I find a way into a prickly, rather unwelcoming, but also very rewarding record.

Maybe I'm constructing a strawman here, but I do feel there are people who would cast doubts on my newfound enjoyment of "I'm Shpping Up To Boston," if I explained it was motivated by reading a Tom Breihan column, particularly in light of my having the album sitting in my room for more than a year. But that's the way it is.

Sort of. This story requires two footnotes. First, seeing The Departed also reminded me how good this song is. Breihan is right; Scorcese uses it to incredible effect in the movie (and a good movie it is, too - go see it). It's like Johnny Cash's "A Satisfied Mind" - it is, by itself, a good song, but the first time I heard it was in Kill Bill 2, and it's a million times greater with the visuals of that film.

Secondly, I dug out my review of the Dropkick Murphys' record. I wrote:

Boston hardcore septet Dropkick Murphys occupies the spot where the mosh pit meets Riverdance, combining Celtic folk, sea shanties and traditional punk rock ― Scruffy Wallace, whose bagpipes take the lead on many tracks, is the group’s not-so-secret weapon.

When all these elements come together, on, for instance, the raucous, upbeat rave, “Captain’s Kelly’s Kitchen,” or “I’m Shipping Up To Boston,” which sets lyrics by 1930s American folkie Woodie Guthrie against a rhythmic backdrop of accordion, viola and crashing guitar, the result is a glass-raising good time.

The album only falters during the somewhat monotonous middle section, which relies too heavily on traditional guitar-bass-drums punk-rock arrangements. The Warrior’s Code is at its best when it uses its disparities to tweak the punk formula, walking the line between regular hardcore and Irish folk.

Apparently I liked that record, and "I'm Shipping Up To Boston" in particular, a whole lot more than I remembered. Thanks are due, then, to Messrs Scorcese and Breihan for reminding me.

I've recently been watching the new Simpsons Season 8 DVD (which pretty much everyone needs to own). During a viewing of "The Simpsons Spin-off Showcase," in which Troy Mclure introduces a number of Simpson-based Spin-offs intended to fill Fox's fall schedule, including a cop show featuring Chief Wiggum moving to New Orleans with Principal Skinner to start a private detective agency, I noticed an extraordinary resemblance between one of the characters and a certain rapper. What do you think?

On the left is Miami rapper Rick Ross, on the right is New Orleans criminal mastermind Big Daddy. Come on... fat Southern mob figure with a Bin Laden beard? Who the fuck you think you're fucking with, Wiggum? Big Daddy's the fucking boss.

According to the commentary on the DVD, Big Daddy is based on Dr. John, but...

...I'm not seeing it.

If though, as I said previously, Rawsss is rap's Ralph Wiggum, well check it out...

...Rap's Ralph Wiggum and the real Ralph Wiggum meet at last.

Buy Dropkick Murphy's The Warrior's Code from Insound or from Amazon.

Yellin' over tracks like a motherfuckin' DJ

The Saturday Club presents... Instant Gratification 0.9: Milk and Water

Tracklist:
01 Gwen Stefani - Hollaback Girl
02 Ciara ft. Chamillionaire - Get Up
03 Nelly Furtado - Do It
04 Cam'ron - Weekend Girl
05 Fall Out Boy - Dance Dance
06 Fat Joe ft. Lil' Wayne - Make It Rain
07 Jay-Z - Show Me What You Got

I've been doing some mixes lately, some screw, some not, and I'll be putting up some of those later in the week, but I thought I'd give y'all this in the interim. I was just messing around with a loop made out of the Ciara track, and then threw some other stuff together on it. Some of it's pretty sloppy, because I wasn't even intending to turn it into a mix or anything, but hey, it turned out OK. It's entirely posible that I think it's good only because I'm so self obsessed that I like near anything that I come up with, but while there's a bit of that involved, you know these are all good songs anyways. So, here you go, a preliminary shot preceding the first real Instant Gratification mix. And more screw coming, too. Loads more. It's been a long time, I shouldn't have left you...

Cross posted with The Funky Funky 7

The '80s almost killed me; let's not recall them quite so fondly

They don't resort to violence; they on resorts and islands

Van She - Kelly (Chopped and Screwed by the Saturday Club)

Last week in the Singles Jukebox, we reviewed one of the best Australian singles of the year, Van She's "Kelly." It got a reasonably positive response (6.40), but despite my fondness for this track (I gave it an [8]), I can't see it troubling my end of year favorite singles list. Like another of the year's best Australian singles, Youth Group's "Forever Young," a cover of the Alphaville track I chopped and screwed earlier in the year, "Kelly" is a very enjoyable song that neverless feels entirely unnecesary.

As far as the Youth Group song goes, "Forever Young" is an excellent rendition of a great Alphaville track that sounds pretty much identical to the original, save for the fact that it tones the '80s German new wave qualities down a bit. It's a solid indie rock take on a good song, it was featured in the O.C., as "Ryan and Marissa's song" no less, and it became a number one single, but, apart from the fact you can hear it on the radio right now, there is absolutely no reason to recommend it over the original version. The airplay alone is not an insignificant reason, but it isn't enough to make the song relevant.

Youth Group will likely never repeat the success they had with this song; they are a Sydney indie rock band that sounds like all the other indie rock bands from Sydney, with all the attendant positives and negatives that entails. Essentially, there are a million guitar bands from Sydney, all made up of boys with hair hanging over their eyes playing carefully introspective, solid indie rock that knows how to shoegaze at the right times and can occasionally kick out some power chords to liven up the proceedings. These bands tend to fall in line somewhere between Death Cab For Cutie and Sonic Youth's more accessible moments, and that's fine, but it all becomes a little too consistent. The scene's finest moment is probably Bluebottle Kiss' very good Revenge Is Slow LP, but if I gathered up an album's worth of Sydney indie rock's best singles into one record, not only is it likely you would be unable to tell that it was a compilation, it would also most likely be the finest thing that brand of Sydney indie rock has ever produced. Youth Group has some pleasant songs and some dull songs, but "Forever Young" is likely to be the zenith of their success.

Van She's "Kelly" isn't a cover, but it may as well be. Now, don't get it twisted, I like this song, and I also like the other track that's been getting some play, "Sex City," but both songs cast grave doubts on Van She's ability to build a long term career. The biggest problem is that the band's entire oeuvre seems focussed on emulating its favorite synth pop bands as closely as possible.

There is no shortage of bands displaying strong influences from previous eras - The Hold Steady, Interpol, The Rapture, for instance - but each of these at least absorb their influences and attempt to create something unique to themselves. Van She, on the other hand, seem to have no greater desire than to become indistinguishable from their favorite acts. I lambasted Jurassic 5 at the 7 a while back for trying to turn their rap into the equivalent of a renaissance fair, and Van She are on roughly the same tip with synth pop, although they, and here is the key difference, at least do not believe that their anachronisms make them superior to anyone else. But it is like their musical ambitions began and ended with perfectly imitating Simon LeBon, and having achieved that sound, they are completely happy to grind themselves into anonymity. They might as well be a cover band, except they write their own songs.

Jurassic 5 do not seem to notice that if Big Daddy Kane idolized his predecessors the way they do, he would never have been a rapper, but instead would have started a Four Tops tribute act and Van She do the same thing. They are big enough Prince fans to reference him in "Kelly"'s lyrics, but that ardor does not extend to an emulation of Prince's constant artistic innovation.

Lyrically, Van She follows this mold. Like the Killers' latest record, the Van She lyrical content doesn't so much describe actual life, the way the best lyricists do (for instance, see Eddie Argos, Jarvis Cocker, Craig Finn, Glenn Richards) but is instead more intent on describing cultural archetypes. Still, I don't terribly mind this approach.

The Killers, in particular, show how well it can work (when they make it work well). Over at the 7, you can see Ian Mathers and I discussing the single "When You Were Young," and though as I say there, the album was nowhere near as good as I hoped, it still manages to throw up some enjoyable moments. The Killers' attempt at transcribing America is actually more of an attempt at duplicating Springsteen's America, which is a problem in itself, considering that Springsteen was already peddling tired old James Dean narratives when he debuted; seriously, the guy started in the early '70s, and even at that time, the only America that bore a resemblance to the place he described existed American Graffiti. Still, I absolutely love it in the Killers' track "Sam's Town," when Flowers sings, "I still remember Grandma Dixie's wake/ I'd never really known anybody who died before" and "Red, white and blue up on a birthday cake/ My brother he was born on the fourth of July, and that's all." It doesn't mean anything; these are vague references to a young man coming of age and being confused by what his nation's culture means, or even if it exists (ed note: it does), but this is a guy whose experiences are so banal and hackneyed that he could only exist as a fictional character in an already existing slice of Americana. Still, I like the idea of creating Americana by going to already established works, Americana as genre rather than description, which essentially, things like Springsteen and American Graffiti already were. The Killers are just seeking to join the ranks of these mythmakers, and they do so by cutting out the middleman. They just describe the fiction without bothering, as their predecessors did, with the pretence that it has anything to do with reality.

"Kelly" does the same thing with '80s pop. The track is about a girl "looking in the mirror/ doing what young kids do," and it is a nice piece of fiction. The video suggests that Kelly is actually a teenager, but I was thinking more of Kelly as a little kid, like 10 years old or something, acting out her favorite tunes in Kidz Bop "Since U Been Gone" style. (Obviously, I'd missed the "Kelly, do what you need to come" part in the chorus.) So, yeah, I can't actually believe that "Kelly" describes a real girl, but as a story of an archetypical '80s pop fan, it works pretty well.

It's worth also momentarily mentioning Van She's label, Modular Records. Modular's been pretty incredible in terms of scoring international coverage for Australian artists, far in excess of what the majors have been able to do. Powderfinger may be on Universal in Australia, and one of the biggest acts of the past decade here, but if you're outside of these borders I can almost guarantee you've never heard of them. Meanwhile, Modular has created varying levels of international exposure for acts from Cut Copy to Bumblebeez 81 to even something as big Wolfmother. It's all very much hipster bait; sort-of cool bands that hijack established trends and exploit the fuck out of them, but still, you can't argue with the results Modular gets. The label is closely affiliated with Universal (perhaps even to the extent that it is a subsidiary, though I can't be sure without a bit more research that I'm too lazy to do), but regardless, those guys do a good job for their artists, it seems, no matter their questionable taste.

Hey, Screw Rock 'n' Roll moment! If anyone has a copy of the North Mississippi All Stars' Electric Blue Watermelon Screwed and Chopped EP, I would love to hear it. These guys are a Southern jam band, and the one song of theirs that I've heard, "Ain't The Same No Mo'," featuring Al Kapone (yes, the rapper from Memphis), the not screwed version, sounds as dull and uninspiring as the words "jam band" suggest. Actually, that's a little unfair; the track isn't that bad, but it is terribly hampered by the fact that jam bands aren't that good. Al Kapone acts as a kind of hypeman/yeller; think KRS-One in R.E.M.'s "Radio Song" minus the rap at the end. Still, it sounds like it could be pretty neat screwed and I definitely applaud these guys for being willing to mess around with the possibilities offered by techniques outside their specific genre niche.

Buy Van She's self titled EP from Insound or from Amazon.