Because everyone should know what their heads would look like on a 20-foot puppet body.
And if you listen closely, you’ll realize that they’re not really saying “pumping on your stereo.” Read their lips in the intro. Cheeky bastards. Happy Friday, everyone. We hope your stereo is not the only thing that’s, um, pumping this weekend.
The season doesn’t technically change until the third week of September, but for most of us, Labor Day weekend marks the end of summer, and while it’s not exactly a fist-pumping party starter, it seemed too appropriate not to triumph this Brit Pop gem from a band that never quite got their due, well, anywhere. Except for South Korea, that is; for some reason, they were absolutely huge there.
Rialto was a six-piece band fronted by former Kinky Machine singer Louis Eliot, and their eponymous debut was clearly modeled after the gods of the Brit Pop scene, namely Oasis, Pulp and Blur. This remixed version of one of the album’s big showstopping ballads – this version is a little more Oasis-like than the album version – wears its intentions right on its sleeve in the chorus, stealing John Lennon’s opening vocal melody from “A Day in the Life” and using it to wax nostalgic about an affair that ends when the tourist city shuts down at summer’s end. All told, the band made two records (the other being 2001’s Night on Earth), and while neither record reinvents the Brit Pop wheel, they’re both quite enjoyable. In fact, their song “Love Like Semtex” is on our short list of songs we wish we had written. Seriously.
And, in keeping with our desire to give you something to get you pumped up for the weekend, here is the Psychedelic Furs and a song that announces our next season. You think these guys were into early Roxy Music when they recorded this puppy? Holy Art Rock, Batman.
We’ll be the first to admit that the Friday Video column is, well, really, really white. We attempt to rectify this oversight this week by showcasing one of hip hop’s finest bands at the height of their powers: Public Enemy. Yes, Flavor Flav has become a reality TV parody of his former self – which is kind of impressive, when you consider that he was pretty much a parody of himself in the first place – but Chuck D is no fool; he knows that a spoonful of sugar will help the medicine go down, and Flav was the perfect foil for Chuck’s take-no-prisoners manifestos. In the case of “Night of the Living Baseheads,” he addresses the crack problem, which had become a full-blown epidemic by the late ’80s. And for you Beastie Boys fans out there who aren’t familiar with this track, the new Beasties’ song “Too Many Rappers” makes a nice tribute to this song, where they borrow the “sellin’, smellin’, sniffin,’ riffin'” cadence. Nice to know we’re not the only ones who remember this stuff fondly.
For those who want to hear the uninterrupted track, here it be. And you say goddamn, this is a dope jam.
Sparks have been given a raw deal by time. They may not have been the best or brightest band of their era, but they were making damn interesting, and at times insanely catchy, records of any genre, and particularly for early ’80s synth pop. In a field where you’re only as good as your latest synthesizer, the Mael brothers (Ron and Russell) dared to make art with their keyboards. Pity they’re not given more credit for that.
This song, from their 1982 album Angst in My Pants, is a sentimental favorite because it appeared on the first mix tape (that’s right, we said it, mix tape) that this writer received from the girl who would one day become his wife. We even played it at our wedding, something that we’re guessing the Maels would find amusing. This video is homemade, but it’s cute. The song is really the key here, though. (And for the record, love is not worse than war and worse than death. If it feels that way, you’re doing it wrong.)
This is by nature a fun column, designed to get people pumped up for whatever weekend festivities they may have planned. Sometimes, though, something comes up that is just begging for some kind of commentary. This is one of those times.
This weekend (starting yesterday, actually), deep in the heart of southern Illinois, the twelfth (!) annual Gathering of the Juggalos is taking place. Now, we’ve seen the word ‘Juggalo’ pop up here and there in the news cycle – usually near the word ‘Gallagher’ – but we were quick to dismiss it because Juggalos are fans of the Detroit hip-hop group Insane Clown Posse, who hit their commercial peak in the late ’90s and were perhaps best known for a feud with fellow Motowner Eminem. Are there really enough of these Juggalos to merit their own festival?
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