Vol 01 / Trk 13 / True False, Fake Real

If this music string were a narrative, The Slits track is kinda the playing the hungover morning to the raucous all-night-drug-addled-god-knows-what-happened-last-night frenzy that was the previous 4 tracks. Things have unravelled, there’s overflowing ashtrays and warm beer everywhere. Is that a chicken? Nevermind.  It’s time for a cup of coffee and an assessment of next steps. I can be angry, start breaking shit and find that asshole that “sharpied” my whole face, or I can look into the eyes of the dewey morning, find my missing tooth and make a more positive choice.

err.. something…

With this Hercules and the Love Affair track, I am setting things up for a bit of a feel good ending. It has nods to the lanky funk and randomness of the Slits but is mostly innocuous (in the best way of course). There is intentionally not a lot going on here. Just a moment to breath, take a hot shower and prepare for the next day.
r. smigielski

Filed under: Vol 01, Hercules and the Love Affair, Mixtape, NEIMT

Vol 01 / Trk 12 / Newtown (rough mix) / The Slits

Eppelheimer volleyed over a real Hickory Farms basket. It was like seven or eight songs pushed together, with moods and styles exploding out of the different time signatures and keys. Every few seconds, I found myself thinking, “That doesn’t belong there.” Even after multiple listens, to try and glean its essence, I was still caught off guard, every time.

So “Newtown” by the Slits does a few important things for me. It turns the mix back away from the brink of total modern-composer madness, a pool in which I cannot swim. I think it captures a similar sense of the unknown as “Saigon Pickup,” albeit in a less chaotic way, through its layering of odd samples—“Newtown” uses the sounds of an ashtray banging, a spoon clattering, and a match striking to reference the drug use that the lyrics compare television to. Finally, like the aforementioned basket, this mix was turning into a real sausage fest.

This “rough mix” was unreleased until a deluxe edition of this album came out late last year. This version is about 40 seconds longer than the original, with certain elements pushed back or forward and a sound mix that’s more naked and crisp. Like “Saigon Pickup,” I find it slightly alien, somewhat unsettling, and totally mesmerizing.
m. joosse

Filed under: Vol 01, Mixtape, NEIMT, The Slits

Vol 01 / Trk 11 / Saigon Pickup / Naked City

Those last two tracks had to result in John Zorn with the Naked City band, but it was a real battle between Punk China Doll, Saigon Pickup, and Contempt. They all are bustin’ genre like mad and the sax wails throughout. Contempt is the straightest of the them and has some dirge and hypnotic qualities that could have steered us back a bit. Punk China Doll was the heavier, rockier punk meets Ornette Coleman track. Saigon Pickup has it all.

When I first got the debut Naked City album and brought it to undergrad studio, my good friend Chuck said, “This is like being strapped to the hood of a New York City taxi on a Saturday night!” Fucking A Double Plus.

The Naked City Band: John Zorn, Bill Frisell, Fred Frith, Wayne Horvitz, Joey Baron.
m.eppelheimer

Filed under: Vol 01, John Zorn, Mixtape, Naked City, NEIMT

Vol 01 / Trk 10 / Mount Blasta

Critters Buggin’ are comprised of three guys from Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians. No shit. I had the pleasures of witnessing a show of theirs in Seattle and it remains one of my top 10 live show experiences. They wonderfully combine Afro Rhythms, electronics and hellacious grooves in way that’s completely thrilling and no where near as hippie-crunchy as it sounds.

I felt like the crazy-theremin-keyboard sound built on the squawkishness of the amazing Blurt track. Plus I am really diggin’ on the treble-heavy beat and I really wanted something to connect rhythmically to that.

I don’t know how the hell we got here from Spoon, but I am most pleased with our first strings meandering adventurousness.
r. smigielski

Filed under: Vol 01, Critters Buggin, Mixtape, NEIMT

Vol 01 / Trk 09 / Get / Blurt

All things considered, replacing the bassline with horns is a rather rare move, so I set out to find a like-minded band. But instead of those stately French horns, I went looking for the squonk and bleat of the sax. And no one did bleat like Blurt.

Referred to as “paranoid jazz mutant funk,” Blurt spent the ’80s making some really amazing noise with a lo-fi, skeletal drummer/guitarist/batshit-crazy-singer structure. Where Smog asked his horns to play a backing rhythm, Blurt got theirs to buzz around and through the other parts like a drunken bee.

In other words, this track gives some opaque callbacks to previous ones in the mix, but injects a little anarchy. Let’s see where it goes from here.
m. joosse

Filed under: Vol 01, Blurt, Mixtape, NEIMT

Vol 01 / Trk 08 / Bathysphere / Smog

OK, it’s been a hairy string of days, hence the lag. Though, I knew immediately it had to be Smog to follow that last track and fit into the groove of this collection. Smog combines the surreal and earnest to great effect, and, as we’re onto hypnosis I’ve gotta answer with Bathysphere (though it’s a bit obvious and I’m shooting my Smog load early), chock full of simple repeating horns(?) and guitar lines paired with some great writing. This is a track I can set to repeat and roll with for a long time. This particular Smog album (Wild Love) contains 2 of my all time favorite songs by anyone, ever, this track and Prince Alone in the Studio (talk about haunting, surreal and ridiculous all at the same time). Get used to hearing Bill Callahan’s voice.
m.eppelheimer

Between coral
Silent eel
Silver swordfish
I can’t really feel or dream down here

Filed under: Vol 01, Mixtape, NEIMT, Smog

Vol 01 / Trk 07 / Wear Two Eyes (Boom)

This is one of the most hypnotizing songs I’ve ever heard. I return to it time and time again whenever I feel constrained creatively by all the compromises of the world. It proves to me the potential of simplicity. Made of extremely familiar parts yet the novel combination sounds unlike anything before it. I also felt like it had just enough of that nautical feel at the heart of the previous track, as well as being gloriously and pretentiously arty (in line with where our little train has explored). It also brings us around to the “back to basics” feel from the first spoon track in the string.
r. smigielski

Filed under: Vol 01, June of 44, Mixtape, NEIMT

Vol 01 / Trk 06 / A Drop of Nelson’s Blood / Jarvis Cocker

Rogue’s Gallery is a collection of traditional pirate songs that serves as some sort of weird compendium of music today. Inspired by Johnny Depp and executed by super-producer Hal Wilner, scores of musicians and singers gathered in various cities to rip out 43 songs of debauchery, drinking and murder. Musical left-fielders like David Thomas, Nick Cave, and Eliza Carthy show up and manage to look normal, while the higher class—Bono! Bryan Ferry! John C. Reilly! Sting!—makes almost surreal contributions.

But my favorite participant has to be Jarvis Cocker, who led a crack band into a London studio and tried on this simple, dumb ode to rum. Building and building, it takes its sweet-ass time until it flails and explodes into a rave-up freakout that Thomas himself would agree with. By the end of it, I just want to pass out from the sheer thrill.
m. joosse

Filed under: Vol 01, Jarvis Cocker, Mixtape, NEIMT

Vol 01 / Trk 05 / Caroleen / Pere Ubu

Seems like our path is becoming tuneful and noisy. I only knew of Pere Ubu through reputation and Peter Murphy’s version of Final Solution (originally, a Rocket from the Tombs track). When they came through Basel in 2006 and played on a boat I thought it important to see what they were about. It was an art-noise-psych freakout, with David Thomas drinking whiskey and “singing” in front of it all. Happily blown away, I’ve been slowly picking up Pere Ubu albums ever since. Caroleen is from 2006’s Why I Hate Women.

And in the cool hours of the nite,
she kisses me and it rips my head off.
You know her name, rhymes with gasoline.
Her perfume, I think it’s turpenteen.
And I feel alive,
and I hope it’s love.
Caroleen, Caroleen, Caroleen, Caroleen.
Caroleen, Caroleen, Caroleen, Caroleen.

m.eppelheimer

Filed under: Vol 01, Mixtape, NEIMT, Pere Ubu

Vol 01 / Trk 04 / White Elephant

In an effort to prevent this string from veering too far down the rabbit hole of 1978, I was determined to volley back a track from another decade without fracturing the flow of the mix. I scoured long a hard for a track that captured the clangy frenetic nature of Lipstick Vogue and the vocal melody of the Soft Boys. With that I give you the Volcano Suns, born from the ashes of Mission of Burma. They are a noisy-ass congregation, but much like Burma never fail to imbue their songs with the perfect amount of melody, bravado, and experimentation. White Elephant should have you humming.
r. smigielski

Filed under: Vol 01, Mixtape, NEIMT, Volcano Suns

Vol 01 / Trk 03 / (I Want to Be an) Anglepoise Lamp / The Soft Boys

“Lipstick Vogue” came out in 1978, a hell of a year for music. There are so many great songs that represent the year, and in the universe immediately adjacent to ours, I’m listing Talking Heads’ “I’m Not in Love” here. But in this one, where the Soft Boys’ genius and talent is criminally underreported, I’m using “(I Want to Be an) Anglepoise Lamp,” a brilliantly spiky blast of melody that might best represent the punk ethos: no matter how weird you are, all you need to do is pick up a guitar and you deserve to be heard.
m. joosse

Filed under: Vol 01, Mixtape, NEIMT, Soft Boys

Vol 01 / Trk 02 / Lipstick Vogue / Elvis Costello

Listening to the Spoon song with new ears, (as a fresh faced NEIMT contributor) I immediately thought,  “Elvis Costello, This Year’s Model!” It’s good reflection on the new Spoon album. Sparse musically, the Attractions are super tight, and Costello spits tuneful anger and bile (“Sometimes I almost feel just like a human being”). Almost every track is a stand out, but, Lipstick Vogue is the tightest and most frenetic.
m.eppelheimer

Filed under: Vol 01, Elvis Costello, Mixtape, NEIMT

Vol 01 / Trk 01 / Written in Reverse

This is quite simply the best Spoon song to date, and one of the best I have heard in a while. They are just masters at taking really simple ideas/rhythms/melodies and executing them in a way that sounds like they invented it.
r. smigielski

Filed under: Vol 01, Mixtape, NEIMT, Spoon