Cocktails and Records

The Homecoming Queen’s got a Gun
Julie Brown

One of the miracles of the modern age is being able to track down dimly remembered novelty tunes on Youtube – like this one by Julie Brown.

Written way back in the 80s when school shootings were merely fantasised about rather than actually undertaken, ’The Homecoming Queen’s got a Gun’ parodies the 80s Valley Girl life that I was only familiar with through trash teen novels and Frank Zappa songs. Still, the song and its accompanying video captured my imagination and despite not hearing it in years until this week, I’ve never forgotten winning couplets like:

God, my best friend’s on a shooting spree
Stop it, Debbie, you’re embarrassing me

and

Debbie’s really having a blast
She’s wasting half of the class

Ah, they don’t write parody songs like they used to. And what’s Weird Al Jankovic up to these days…

Jungle Animal
Pomplamoose

It’s been a quite a while since the last song of the week, so long that I can’t actually remember what it was. Oh yes… Five Thirty? Hmmm… Anyway, I can explain this absence by saying that not only have I not been listening to much music, but when I have its mostly been 1. nasty populist opera* 2. Bruce Springsteen 3. Bobby Vee and 4. nothing much else. So you’ll understand why I wasn’t going to take you there.

This week, however, is different. For this week I am being plagued by a ridiculously catchy song called ‘Jungle Animal’ by the stupidly named Pomplamoose. ‘Music pundit’ Bob Lefsetz recommended this track on his blog some time ago and it’s only now that have I fallen prey to its fey charms.

What’s interesting about ‘Jungle Animal’ is that it was written by songwriter Allee Willis**, the woman behind the wonderful ‘September’ by Earth, Wind and Fire and ‘What Have I Done To Deserve This? by the Pet Shop Boys and Dusty Springfield (and also the somewhat less fabulous theme tune to Friends).

Allee Willis doesn’t quite rescue Pomplamoose from the land of twee, but it’s a damn fine attempt.

* see earlier post re. the snob woman who helped me back to health
** Bored at work? Check out her Museum of Kitsch. It does what it says on the tin.

Five Thirty
13th Disciple

In one of many ongoing attempts to free up some space in our crowded flat, I recently took the radical (ha!) decision to transfer all of my CD singles to itunes and stash the originals away in the trusty old loft.

Ah, the CD single – what a stupid concept! When I bought this one by Five Thirty back in 1991 I thought I was being pretty cutting edge – a wizzy new music format which was absolutely guaranteed to surpass scratchy old 7″s within the blink of an eye and a trendy new band with cool hair who were due for big, big things.

Well, I was wrong on both accounts.

But ‘13th Disciple’ is a great song. I’ve always thought so and thankfully, in this issue of The Word, Steve Lamacq agrees (well, that’s what I’m reading into his article anyway). Just wish I’d bought the damn thing on vinyl.

‘13th Disciple’, Five Thirty, 1991

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Esquivel!
Johnson Rag

I cannot believe that I have been writing this blog for 2 1/2 years without mentioning Mr Juan Garcia Esquivel, or Esquivel! as he apparently preferred to be known. This was a man who was not put off by silly lyrics, odd instruments or experimentation with weird arrangements. No, he embraced them whole-heartedly – only to create the ultimate in big band ’space age pop’.

File under: the sound of 50s summer
Goes with: a Mai Tai

‘Johnson Rag’, Esquivel, 1960

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The Bamboos
Keep me in Mind

This song doesn’t have an original bone in its body. From the two-note piano solo and classic horn runs to the strangely predictable melody and boring female backing vocals it is same old – same old nu-soul. In fact, I can’t think of anything remotely interesting to say about ‘Keep me in Mind’ other than that the label it’s on, Tru Thoughts, is a top Brighton-based indie who generally release way more interesting music.

But it’s great. Song of the week I say!

‘Keep me in Mind’, The Bamboos, from 4, Tru Thoughts, 2010

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Joglaresa
Stella Nuova

I’ve been keeping myself busy with an evening course on Early Music recently. Since I know practically nothing about any music from before 1900 it has been enlightening and educational to say the least.

One thing that I have learnt is that not all ‘early music’ involves Greek Orpheus types plucking lyres and monks chanting spooky exhortations to God. No, sometimes there is rippingly upbeat stuff such as this.

‘Stella Nuova’ is an Italian tune from around the 12th century and like say, this year’s German Eurovision winner ‘Satellite’*, is annoyingly catchy.

‘Stella Nuova’, Joglaresa, from Stella Nuova: Celebratory Songs of Medieval Italy, 2005

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* You did watch it didn’t you?

The Easybeats
She’s so Fine

Another delve in the mix tape box (sorry) came up with this early tune by The Easybeats.* I don’t think ‘She’s so Fine’ charted in the UK, but it was a bit of a ‘hits and memories’ radio perennial when I was growing up. Once you hear it you’ll know why – it’s 2 minutes 9 seconds of catchy pop perfection. And just listen to that scream five seconds in. What a way to open a song!

‘She’s so Fine’, The Easybeats, from Easy, 1965

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* bunged on the end of a tape after ‘What I like about you’ by the Romantics, but never mind.

Split Enz
Strait Old Line

The mood being ripe for mix tapes, I reached into the old shoe box full of the blighters that is hidden under the stereo and randomly plucked one out to accompany the washing up. The lucky tape started with a lengthy version of Julian Lloyd Webber’s ‘Variations’ so Mr C. made me put it straight back where it came from.

The second tape was a compilation I remember taking to a party when I was about 16. It contains some fabulous stuff – Martha and the Muffins, Mental as Anything, the Swingers, The Beat, the J. Geils Band…  Sadly once again, I screwed up with the music as this was 1991 not 1981 and everyone but me and my friend Scott thought that it was crap. I was made to play Bryan Adams instead.

Anyway, that’s all rambling. The point is that this mix tape contained the mighty Split Enz and that’s what you’re getting today.  All requests for that bloody Robin Hood song will be ignored.

‘Strait Old Line’, Split Enz,  from Conflicting Emotions, 1983

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J Girls
Kiro No Sekai

This weeks long-delayed Song of the Week is testament to the power of two things: musical memory and the Amazon recommendation system.

I first heard this song in a club called The Sounds of Seduction in Sydney around 1996. I heard it once, had an excellent time on the dancefoor with it, and never again. However, that one night together was enough for its ’shoop, shoop, shoop, shoop–shoop, shoop shoops’ to move into my brain, unpack their things and put their feet up on my mental sofa forever more. I haven’t resented this; I’ve only been annoyed by the fact that I don’t know who sang them or even what the name of their song was. And since my Japanese is pretty much limited to ‘I’d like to look at cherry blossoms and drink sake’, I’d resigned myself to never finding out.

Well, you’ve already guessed what happened next. Taking a queue from my fondness for French pop, Thai-funk and the glorious Japanese psych stuff I’ve never got round to posting, a few months back Amazon recommended a compilation called Nippon Girls: Japanese Pop, Beat & Bossa Nova, 1966-70. And there it was: those shoop- shoops suddenly and unexpectedly blasting out in all their glory, complete with the rest of their song.

I’m pleased to say that they sounded exactly like the version that’s been in my head these past 14 years. And since I can’t remember that important information that my boss told me last Monday, I can only say that memory works in mysterious ways.

‘Kiro No Sekai’, J Girls, 1969 from Nippon Girls: Japanese Pop, Beat & Bossa Nova, 1966-70

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Timebox
Soul Sauce

Yes, after a period of laziness and well, just not listening to anything remotely suitable for the slot, Song of the Week is back.

Back with a 60s Southport take on a Latin jazz tune by Cal Tjader. If you listen to the music and ignore the photo above, you won’t be surprised to know that Timebox had a residency at the Whisky A Go-Go in 1965 and were an  trendy mod group for five seconds. They supported The Small Faces and even almost had a hit with their version of Beggin’.

All up, they didn’t have much success and other than a handful of Northern sound-a-like stompers and pretty psych rip-offs they er … weren’t all that great actually. But this is pretty catchy. Really.

‘Soul Sauce’, Timebox, 1967 from Beggin’ 1967-1969: the Sound of London’s Mod/Club Scene

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And you can hear more of Timebox over at Left and to the Back