Singles Mixer #1: TCDroogsma on "Fine Print" by Mixed Blood Majority

(THIS POST ORIGINALLY APPEARS ON THE TWIN CITIES BLOG NEWEST INDUSTRY.  WOULD YOU PLEASE JUST CHECK THAT BLOG OUT ALREADY? I MEAN, C'MON!)

Hey everybody!  Welcome to the first installment of "Singles Mixer," our new column in which we ask one of our regular contributors to review new singles from Minnesota artists.

This time around we asked TCDroogsma to give us his thoughts on the new single "Fine Print" by hip-hop group Mixed Blood Majority.

All things considered, I'm pretty psyched for this Mixed Blood Majority project.  If you don't know it's a "new" group consisting of Joe Horton (of No Bird Sing), Crescent Moon (of Kill The Vultures) and Lazerbeak (Doomtree) on the beats.

"Fine Print" is the first song to be released by the group and I was left with two immediate thoughts:

1. This definitely lives up to my expectations.
2. This definitely doesn't surpass my expectations.

Let me explain what I mean by that second point.  Both MC's have built their reputation as "serious" MC's who drop lines that are meant to be heard & thought about.  Neither of them has the reputation for "Oh shit! This is my JAM!" type songs.  To that end, both MC's bring exactly what they're known for.


The track is built around a subdued Lazerbeak beat (think more along the lines of "15 Blocks" off Lights Out Paris and less "Shux" or "Stand Up (Let's Get Murdered)."  It's a great beat, though.  I have no idea how Lazerbeak is able to shift from Lava-Banger-mode to introspective while still keeping a beat that knocks.


Getting back to Crescent Moon & Joe Horton though.

Crescent Moon is a legend in the Twin Cities hip-hop scene, with his Kill The Vultures making their mark on the scene well back in early 2000's.  Unfortunately, it seems like they've been treading water for years.  I remember seeing them at The Uptown Bar (my last show ever there) and, even in those romanticizing-The-Uptown days, the place was still only half-full.  It was a great show, to be sure, it just seems like Crescent Moon needs to be seen in a new light.  To that end, it seems like Mixed Blood Majority may finally bring some long overdue recognition.

Treading the same territory he covers with Kill The Vultures, Crescent Moon delivers lines about the struggle of everyday life as it relates to both financial trouble and interpersonal trouble.  Since he's an indie rapper who just got through a divorce I'm going to go ahead and say he's an expert on these subjects.

The first time I heard Joe Horton's rapping with No Bird Sing my first thought was, "Well, he clearly grew up on Kill The Vultures records."  Hearing the two rappers on the same track doesn't completely disprove that theory, but it does provide an interesting dynamic.  Both rappers seem to be fighting the same fight, but it is still possible to hear the young-man-optimism in Horton's voice as opposed to the older-yet-still-determined growl in Crescent Moon's voice.

When Crescent drops the line, "Did you read the fine print?" it's answered by Horton with, "Nah, but I signed it."  Clearly, these are two men standing at opposite ends of the same street.

As I mentioned, they're fighting the same fight.  This becomes especially clear when the rappers come together in the middle with these lines:

"Silent, silent, I will be silent, speak when spoken to never be defiant...
Focus, focus, I will be focused, only think positive, block out the hopeless...
Patient, patient, I will be patient, take my medication, wonder where the day went...
Famous, famous, one day I'll be famous, then all the pretty people will remember what my name is..."

Like I said at the beginning, this song doesn't surpass any expectations.  However, context is everything, and since this is the first song to be released from the project it does answer the most basic question, "What would Crescent Moon & Joe Horton sound like over a Lazerbeak beat?"  Now that we have an answer for that, let's hope the rest of the album pushes the boundaries and presents us with more questions rather than the same answer over and over.

Final Score - 3.5/5

Mixed Blood Majority will be unveiled to the world October 3rd at The Icehouse.  Follow this link for more info.

For more TCDroogsma he can be found on Twitter & Instagram (@TCDroogsma) or on his own blog Flatbasset.

This blog has a Twitter account as well (@NewestIndustry1) which you should follow to stay up on the activities of all our contributors.  More importantly, we have a Facebook page here. Stop by and give us a "like" if you, er... like it.

Newest Industry Presents: Flatbasset Radio - Episode #1

(THIS POST ORIGINALLY APPEARS ON THE TWIN CITIES BLOG NEWEST INDUSTRY. PLEASE CLICK THAT LINK AND GIVE THAT BLOG A LOOK IF YOU HAVE THE TIME.  WE'RE WORKING REALLY HARD ON THAT ONE.)

"I guess this is my dissertation, homey, this shit is basic..."

Well hello, music fans, and welcome to the inaugural episode of Flatbasset Radio!

For those of you unfamiliar with Flatbasset, it's the work of our regular contributor TCDroogsma.  For years now he's been posting mixes of songs online each month under the name Flatbasset.  Evidently he's decided to change things up a little bit.

(Click play on the embedded player above to listen to the podcast. Click the link below to download the podcast.)

Flatbasset Radio - Episode #1

In this episode TCDroogsma claims the British government is hoarding rappers, explains the best Halloween he ever had, recaps the "Get Out The Vote" show at First Avenue, steals an idea from Sound Opinions, and laments Morrissey's ill mother.

Still, we're all new to this so, TCDroogsma, what gives?

Boy, that's a concise question.  Basically, I've been making those Flatbasset mixes for a few years now and I've found that they are not very successful.  I decided to change it up a little bit by turning the mixes into a podcast where I break up the songs by talking a little bit.

That was your plan?  To break up a bunch of great songs with your rabbling?

Well, when you frame it that way it doesn't make much sense.  More accurately, it wasn't quite fair just labeling it a "mix" as that implied that it was some chopped up party starter, which it obviously wasn't.

Plus, I realized that people weren't really reading the bits I wrote about each song.  Since people hate reading I thought they might rather listen to me explain why the songs are great.

So you don't think people like to read and yet you spend nearly all of your free time blogging?

(Sigh...)

Alright, let's get to this episode then.  Anything we need to know about it? 

Well, this was my first go at a podcast, so you just have to bear with me.  I think it turned out pretty well though.  Here's what the playlist looks like:

01. Kanye West
02. Nirvana
03. JJ Doom
04. PJ Harvey
05. Big Quarters (w/Sims)
06. Ryan Adams
07. Eyedea & Abilities
08. Air
09. Mark Mallman
10. MaLLy
11. I Self Devine
12. Brother Ali
13. The Smiths

Really, just give it a listen.  Even if you find my voice grating and my stories insufferable, the songs fucking kill.

Well alright then.  TCDroogsma, thanks for stopping by to explain yourself. 

Thanks.  I plan on doing this each week, so you'll be hearing from me a lot in the near future.

Great... great...

For more TCDroogsma you can give him a follow on Twitter or Instagram (@TCDroogsma) or check out his own blog Flatbasset.

This blog also has a Twitter home (@NewestIndustry1) that you should follow to stay up on all the work our contributors are doing.  More importantly we have a Facebook page here.  Be sure to stop by and give us a "like" if you have a minute.  Enough "likes" and we can get TCDroogsma a real microphone to record these things.

Nobody Loves Us #6: Black-Eyed Susan

Well hello once again, Moz fans!

It's a bit of a time crunch here at the Nobody Loves Us Countdown, but I promise I will get to all 20 songs before Monday's show down at The Orpheum.  Be sure to stay tuned to the Twin Cities blog Newest Industry where I'll post a playlist of all 20 songs in order over the weekend.

Now, however, the countdown marches...er... downward?  Sure, downward.

If you haven't been following along, here's how the list looks so far:

20. One Day Goodbye Will Be Farewell
19. Driving Your Girlfriend Home
18. Munich Air Disaster 1958
17. Seasick, Yet Still Docked
16. I Don't Mind If You Forget Me
15. Sister I'm A Poet
14. On The Streets I Ran
13. There's A Place In Hell For Me And My Friends
12. Why Don't You Find Out For Yourself?
11. Come Back To Camden
10. Disappointed
09. I've Changed My Plea To Guilty
08. Break Up The Family
07. We'll Let You Know

And so here we are at #6:

#6. Black-Eyed Susan (Morrissey/Whyte)



B-Side from the Sunny single

Key Lyrics: "Black-eyed Susan, please remember... We were the first. We were the first."

A true lost classic from Morrissey's wilderness years, "Black-Eyed Susan" finds Morrissey at his most charismatically loathing, drawing a sketch of a woman with "heavy rings on bitten fingers..."

Oddly, or maybe expectedly, Morrissey's concern with his own legacy was reaching a feverish pitch in 1995.  With the success of Vauxhall & I well in the rearview and Southpaw Grammar failing to gain much traction, it's understandable that Mozzer would find himself simultaneously looking both to the sides and to the past.

Both "Black-Eyed Susan" and "Heir Apparent" (another b-side of the same era) ring as the distant echoes of the young man who was all-too-keenly aware of his fanbase in "Rubber Ring."  While their was a certain romanticism to the Morrissey of the late '80's.  "Don't forget the songs that made you cry and the songs that saved your life..." was all the the singer was asking of his fans.  He knew they'd outgrow the emotions that he never could.

Well, the passing of times and all of its sickening crimes left middle-aged Morrissey in quite a different state.  The titular character of "Black-Eyed Susan" (the "black-eyed referring to makeup rather than a punch up) seems to be a young Smiths fan grown up into her own stardom (and, according to Mozzer, took many cues from his own career to get there).  What we really find with "Black-Eyed Susan" is the portrait of a man mired in his own persecution complex, a complex that would find it's logical, if cliched, end point with tracks like, "You Know I Couldn't Last" and "All You Need Is Me" a decade later.

Over a poppy, enjoyable Alain Whyte tune Mozzer lays bare the traits that he knows all too well.  He sees his celibacy-controversy-baiting self ("What don't you believe in? 'No is always easier than yes!'"), the soapbox assuredness ("You must insist: You are a born again atheist..."), hell, even the blouse-and-flower sporting, fashion-eschewing spotlight monger ("Oh, heavy rings on bitten fingers...") before finally admonishing the starlet's talents entirely with the line, "Oh... Black-Eyed Susan, rest and do nothing, 'cause it's the only thing that you do quite well..."

However, taking into account the bizarre musical excursion of the third verse, it remains tough to tell if Morrissey is genuinely mocking the latest NME craze or if he's merely pointing out what seems obvious only to him.  One last jealousy-laden knife makes his sincerity clear: "Black-Eyed Susan, please remember: We were the first, we were the first..."

Nobody Loves Us #7: We'll Let You Know

Oh, hello.

As you can see, I'm trying to make up lost time this week that way the countdown still wraps up on Friday.  I'm planning a post for Sunday over at Newest Industry that has a downloadable version of this list.  So, onward and upward.

What is the Nobody Loves Us Countdown, you ask?  Well, I'm counting down my 20 favorite Morrissey Non-Singles each day up until his show on October 29th down at The Orpheum.  So far the list looks like this:

20. One Day Goodbye Will Be Farewell
19. Driving Your Girlfriend Home
18. Munich Air Disaster 1958
17. Seasick, Yet Still Docked
16. I Don't Mind If You Forget Me
15. Sister I'm A Poet
14. On The Streets I Ran
13. There's A Place In Hell For Me And My Friends
12. Why Don't You Find Out For Yourself?
11. Come Back To Camden
10. Disappointed
09. I've Changed My Plea To Guilty
08. Break Up The Family

And so here we are at #7.

#7. We'll Let You Know (Morrissey/Whyte)



From the album Your Arsenal

Key Lyrics: "We may seem cold, we may even be the most depressing people you have ever known, at heart, what's left, we sadly know... we are the last truly British people you will ever know..."

As I alluded to back in the "Seasick, Yet Still Docked" post, Your Arsenal is quite clearly Morrissey's "political" album.  Much has been made of the far-right-baiting song "The National Front Disco" and the skinhead imagery Mozzer was prone to using back in the early 90's, but neither of those really tells the whole story.  "We'll Let You Know" is really the centerpiece of both Your Arsenal and his political views of his native England.

"How sad are we?  And how sad have we been? We'll let you know." opens the song as a claim of confusion.  Certainly impassioned confusion, but confusion nonetheless.

Framing a nationalistic song based on sympathy for football hooligans is no easy task.  In and of themselves, football hooligans are the epitome of confusion.  The celebratory violence in which they live shares a clear connection with Morrissey (even if Mozzer's violence is typically more emotional than physical).  When one considers the lineage that can be drawn from Mozzer's Irish roots all the way through the last gasp of "truly  British people" and the lineage that connects grandfather to fathers to sons in the football world.  Both are representative of a rougher, more passionate, some would say more "xenophobic" times.

At the heart of the song, Morrissey is not calling for violence, but rather lamenting the creeping globalization of the early 90's.  As we've seen throughout his career (from "Still Ill" to "Come Back To Camden"), England truly is Morrissey's one true love.  "We'll Let You Know" is not an epitaph as much as a reminder of the fact that the England of yesteryear is quickly falling by the wayside.  Oddly, Morrissey essentially proved his love of the old England by leaving and never returning once the effects of globalization reduced England's "personality" to just another European country.  Admirable, in it's way.

Alain Whyte and Mick Ronson manage to build a superb backdrop for such a sentiment.  Beginning with a romantic and nostalgic acoustic strum, the song takes a gradual, yet poignant left turn in the middle as the sound of stomping crowd and young "lads" come to conquer the strumming.  Succumbing to the noise the band raises their volume (but in a compellingly polite, English way) as Morrissey lays bare his claim of being "the last truly British people you will ever know."  The track concludes with the faint echo of a military flute, an allusion to the idea that the England of Morrissey's youth is now as far bygone as its days as a colony-creating, world superpower.

Nobody Loves Us #8: Break Up The Family

Oh, hello again everybody.  Welcome back to the Nobody Loves Us Countdown.

If you don't know, I've been counting down my 20 favorite Mozzer non-singles each weekday until his concert on the 29th down at The Orpheum.  Unfortunately, the countdown was derailed last week thanks to technical difficulties, other blogging obligations, and a bout of bad health.

As it stands, two of those three problems have been resolved.  The computer seems to be running relatively smoothly again.  All the things that needed to be posted on Newest Industry were posted. Sadly, I'm still sick as a dog.  Frreal.

Yet, the blog marches on.  Here's what the list looks like so far:

20. One Day Goodbye Will Be Farewell
19. Driving Your Girlfriend Home
18. Munich Air Disaster 1958
17. Seasick, Yet Still Docked
16. I Don't Mind If You Forget Me
15. Sister I'm A Poet
14. On The Streets I Ran
13. There's A Place In Hell For Me And My Friends
12. Why Don't You Find Out For Yourself?
11. Come Back To Camden
10. Disappointed
09. I've Changed My Plea To Guilty

And so here we are, on to #8:


#8. Break Up The Family (Morrissey/Street)

From the album Viva Hate.

 

Key Line: "I'm so glad to grow older, to move away from those younger years... I'm in love for the first time and I don't feel bad..." 

It's nearly impossible to listen to Viva Hate without hearing references to the then-recent break up of The Smiths.  Songs like, "Angel, Angel Down We Go Together" and "I Don't Mind If You Forget Me" could hardly be about anything else.

Which brings us to "Break Up The Family."  On first glance, it seems that this song must be about the band.  Morrissey has claimed over the years that this is not the case.  He insists that the song is tied to the splitting of a group of youthful friends from his boyhood days.  In theory, I suppose, this is believable.  However, I'm choosing not to believe it.

To me, it seems that this song was written in the aftermath of the breakup of the band in one of those rare, lucid moments when emotions are removed from the equation and the practicality of ending the relationship becomes apparent.  We've all reached that place after the end of serious relationships, haven't we?  We're all familiar with that moment when the clouds break (however momentarily), bitterness is removed, and the "big picture" suddenly emerges.  Not completely unlike the hypothetical conversation between man & country that I brought up in my "Come Back To Camden" post, we find Mozzer in this place the first time around, wishing his former "family" the best and asking only that they return the favor.

When Morrissey sings the line, "I'm so glad to grow older, to move away from those awful times..." he toes the line between celebration and bitterness in exquisite fashion.  It's no secret that, outside of the actual recording and performing, the business of being in "The Smiths" had taken its toll on everybody. When he comes to the line, "Let me see all my old friends, let me put my arms around them... Now, does that sound mad," it seems that he's referring to his former bandmates as people and friends.  Essentially, he's stating that the breakup of the band had nothing to do with any personal animosity.  That they are still his friends, but that it's also time to "grow older."

Musically, Stephen Street crafted an "unexpectedly funky" track.  To this day, "Break Up The Family" still stands out among the rest of Viva Hate largely on the strength of the instrumentation.  Cleverly, Street fills out the sound with Mozzer's vocal inflections drifting in and out of the mix, a trick that would be used repeatedly by various Morrissey producers for years to come.

Honestly, and this is strictly personal, "Break Up The Family" can be used as a barometer to gauge just how passionate a Mozzer fan a person is.  It's a track that definitely rewards repeated listens, especially in the context of the LP being played in its entirety. When somebody claims they are a Morrissey fan, ask them what their favorite song on Viva Hate is.  If they answer anything but "Break Up The Family," be immediately skeptical.

Newest Industry Presents: Flatbasset - P.O.S. (All In A Day's Work MegaMixx)

(THIS POST ORIGINALLY APPEARS ON THE TWIN CITIES BLOG NEWEST INDUSTRY.  PLEASE STOP BY THAT BLOG IF YOU HAVE A CHANCE.  WE'RE ALL WORKING VERY HARD ON IT.)

We are seriously taking the city...

Hello again, Twin Cities hip-hop fans!

It's been a great year for Twin Cities hip-hop. Brother Ali, MaLLy, I Self Devine, Big Quarters, Mike Mictlan... So much good music came out of the cities that it's almost unfair.

Today, though, we're here to celebrate the impending release of P.O.S.'s We Don't Even Live Here, which will hit the streets this coming Monday. This will be P.O.S.'s fourth solo album and, we're betting, will be high on the “Best Of” lists at the end of the year.

More to the point, to celebrate the release we asked our resident hip-hop junkie TCDroogsma to put together a little something for us. He came back with an hour long Flatbasset mix packed with P.O.S. jams.

As you can see, click the download tab below to download the free mix. Of course we'd like to take a moment to point out that, obviously, we do not own any of the music contained in the mix. We asked TCDroogsma to put it together as a celebration and that's just what he did. So please don't sue us. We don't have any money anyway.

TCDroogsma, any thoughts?

Y'know, I've been a Doomtree fans for a minute now and I thought it would be fun to put together a nice run of tracks that P.O.S. has been featured on rather than a typical “best of” type of thing.

If you remember, back when Never Better came out Fifth Element released a couple of bonus albums called Meat Tape and Meat Tape 2 that featured a bunch of harder to find stuff and stuff that, evidently, P.O.S. was digging at the time. That was kind of my plan with this mix. Think of it as Meat Tape 3 or P.O.S. & Friends Rappity Rap Party or I Already Know All These Songs.

It should be noted, of course, that I am not a DJ. If the fades and blends and such aren't up to par, that's why. Don't think of this mix as some chopped up, bangin' DJ mix (though, if someone did that with a bunch of P.O.S. guest spots I'm sure it would kill), think of this more like the best hour of radio that would never get played on the radio.

Obviously all of the tracks contain some sort of P.O.S. contribution. My apologies if I'm not giving full credit to everybody involved.

FLATBASSET - P.O.S. (ALL IN A DAY'S WORK MEGAMIXX)

Track List

01. P.O.S. - Audition M.D.

02. P.O.S. - Savion Glover

03. Building Better Bombs – The Action Pact

04. Mike Mictlan & Lazerbeak - Shux

05. Cenospecies – Thank You From The Bottom Of My Fuck You

06. Mux Mool - Death 9000 (Prof & P.O.S. Broadcasting Version)

07. P.O.S. (w/Craig Finn) – Safety In Speed (Heavy Metal)

08. Doomtree – Gander Back

09. Gayngs – No Scrubs (P.O.S. Regrind)

10. Cecil Otter - Travelling Dunk Tank

11. BK-One - A Day's Work

12. icollide (w/P.O.S. & Dessa) – Les Masquerade

13. P.O.S. (w/Astronautalis) – Hand Made Hand Gun

14. MK Larada – Teddy Bear & A Tazer (Break In Two Mix)

15. P.O.S. (w/Slug) – Bleeding Hearts Club (MPLS Chapter)

16. Scroobius Pip (w/P.O.S. & Sage Francis) – Let 'Em Come

17. Sims - Too Much

18. P.O.S. (w/Dosh) – Tons

19. P.O.S. (w/Sims, Dessa, & Cecil Otter) – Low Light Low Life

20. Illuminous 3 – No Kings

21. Doomtree – Fresh New Trash

Blaow! Hot fire!

Be sure to check out P.O.S.'s new album We Don't Even Live Here, on the streets October 22nd. He's also playing a record release show at First Avenue on the 26^th. Best believe we're gonna be there.

Also, if you haven't heard, P.O.S. has had some health issues come to light over the last couple days.  Turns out dude needs a kidney.  Tough times.  To help out financially, hit up the Paypal account at stefneedsanewkidney@gmail.com.

Thanks to TCDroogsma for putting the mix together for us. For more of TCDroogsma be sure to follow him on Twitter and/or Instagram or you can check out his own blog Flatbasset. He's still counting down Morrissey songs despite our best efforts. He's got problems, though. Problems.

Of course this blog still lives on Twitter (@NewestIndustry1). Give us a follow to stay up on all our new posts. Most importantly, we also have a Facebook page here. Stop by and give that one a “like” if you have a minute. We don't take a sec to breath, we ain't heard of that.

Nobody Loves Us #9: I've Changed My Plea To Guilty

Hello again, Mozzer fans.  I told you I'd be back today.  As you can see from the post below, it's been a busy day.

For those of you just joining us, I'm counting down my 20 favorite Morrissey Non-Singles each and every weekday until the Mozfather's show at The Orpheum on the 29th.  Here's what the list looks like so far:

20. One Day Goodbye Will Be Farewell
19. Driving Your Girlfriend Home
18. Munich Air Disaster 1958
17. Seasick, Yet Still Docked
16. I Don't Mind If You Forget Me
15. Sister I'm A Poet
14. On The Streets I Ran
13. There's A Place In Hell For Me And My Friends
12. Why Don't You Find Out For Yourself?
11. Come Back To Camden
10. Disappointed

Take a second to scroll down and see my thoughts on those tracks.

So, now here we are at #9.

#9. I've Changed My Plea To Guilty (Morrissey/Nevin)

B-Side from the My Love Life single.

Key Line: "Something I have learned... If there's one thing in life I've observed... It's that everybody's got somebody..."

Returning to the same sparse structure that brought them so much success with "There's A Place In Hell For My And My Friends," Morrissey and Mark Nevin use only a piano and few found sounds to craft a b-side that is far superior to its accompanying a-side.

"I've Changed My Plea To Guilty" can easily be read as one of Morrissey's more clear statements regarding the constant homeseuxal/heterosexual/"fourth sex" rumours that followed the man from day one.  I don't mean to jump to conclusions, but it's nearly impossible to read lines like, "Freedom is wasted on me, see how your rules spoil the game..." without hearing a commentary on his own sexuality.  That's to say nothing of Mozzer's famous fandom regarding Oscar Wilde, himself "convicted" of homosexuality and sentenced to banishment in Gaol.

It's important to note, of course, that Morrissey never admits guilt.  In fact, the song opens with the line, "I'm standing in the dock with my innocent hand on my heart..."  As he has since day one, Morrissey's playing coy.  He's not guilty, he's merely tired of fighting, and taking a plea deal.

Regardless of the sexual overtones, "I've Changed My Plea To Guilty" stands as one of the great lost Morrissey tracks simply for it's vocal performance.  Rarely has Morrissey managed to sound both so self-assured and so vulnerable.  I can't think of another singer who could swing the pendulum back and forth within just one song quite so well.  Truly, no other singer in pop history could pull off a line like, "Outside there is pain, emotional air raids exhausted my heart, and it's safer to be inside..."

Two quick sidenotes about this track before I go:

Sidnote 1: On the version of the song that appears on the My Love Life single, Nevin opens the song with the piano and some muffled sounds.  According to Simon Goddard, one of those sounds is the voice of Nevin's friend, a waitress named Suzy Solan speaking into a dictaphone.  Why do I bring this up?  Because Ms. Solan was from Minneapolis!  As far as I can tell, this is the only Minnesota connection I've found anywhere in The Smiths/Morrissey catalog.  How you go so hard, MPLS?


Sidenote 2:  I'd always kind of liked this song, but I'd never had it ranked very highly on my list of "Great Mozzer Tracks."  This oversight became blindingly obvious after seeing Morrissey perform the song on the Ringleader Of The Tormentors tour.  Remember earlier when I mentioned that "Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want" lost something in the "full-band" treatment?  The opposite is true for "I've Changed My Plea To Guilty."  Have a look at the video above and you'll know just what I mean.

Songs Of The Week #10: MinneSarah & TCDroogsma

(NOTE: I CONTRIBUTED MY HALF OF THIS BLOG TO NEWEST INDUSTRY, WHERE IT WAS ORIGINALLY POSTED.  PLEASE, STOP BY NEWEST INDUSTRY IF YOU HAVE A CHANCE.  ALL TWIN CITIES EVERYTHING.)

White Arrows, Night Moves, Freelance Whales, Taken By Trees, & Bora York...

Hello again, MP3 junkies, and welcome to Songs Of The Week #10!

If you're unfamiliar with what we're doing here, each week we ask two of our contributors to download The Current Song Of The Day podcast and then give us their thoughts on the songs. If you feel like playing along at home, follow this link to download the tracks for yourself. We highly recommend subscribing to the podcast yourself as it's free music. On occasion, it's very good music too. Free music + good music = yay!

This week we asked regular contributors MinneSarah & TCDroogsma to give us their thoughts on the new singles from White Arrows, Night Moves, Freelance Whales, Taken By Trees, & Bora York. As always, they have not seen each other's commentary prior to posting.

Kids, take it away...

White Arrows – Get Gone (from the album Dry Land Is Not A Myth)

MinneSarah:

     Baby talk...it's got to stop!  The singer's vocals are so cutesy and exaggerated.  It makes sense that the singer is singing about his family kicking him out of the house.  Get, get, gone indeed.  The rest of the song is pretty pedestrian upbeat song with an awful lot of novelty percussion elements.  White Arrows may blow your mind in the advances to the handclap system. 

TCDroogsma:

     This songs sounds like Yeasayer forgot to pull out while it was banging Alt-J in my iPod. At least the kid came out speaking English, but Christ, it has some Mommy Issues. It has the same type of annoying, fake singing voice that plagues so many hipster bands these days. The hooks are solid, but unspectacular. I could definitely see this track in the middle of a Now! That's What I Call Forgettable Indie Music albums. Wait, do those exist or am I just thinking of my Broken Social Scene albums? Either way, nothing special.

Final Score: MinneSarah -1.5/5

                  TCDroogsma - 2/5

Night Moves – Country Queen (from the album Colored Emotions)

MinneSarah:

     This song is the best of the bunch this week.  Who would have thought that psychedelic alt-country could sound so good?  Not this gal, but hey, I can't hate all of the time.  The alt-twang is pretty solid for that genre, and then they add in psychedelic guitar.  It's like Wilco's best day where they happened to guest star on Dragnet.  There is a weird telephone ringing in the background, but the rest of the song moves along nicely, with breaks as needed and plenty of underwater-guitar-Vaseline transitions.  The penultimate tempo change is downright epic. I'd be surprised if many of their other songs can pull this Frankenstein genre off, but I'd be willing to listen.

TCDroogsma:

     It's actually really difficult to write any sort of review of Night Moves without taking into account the massive amount of local-publication-cocksucking that comes along with this band (though I'm sure it's nice.  Word is Vita.MN swallows). At this point, the story behind the band's name and the album's re-release threatens to overshadow the songs themselves.

     Now, accounting for those factors, Night Moves is one of the more genuinely exciting bands to come out of MPLS in a minute. “Country Queens” is certainly an engaging song, though I get the impression that they're trying to throw all their influences into a blender. A Belle & Sebastian bit here, a Gram Parsons bit there, one of The Rapture's keyboard bits to tie the whole thing together... Still, all those pieces do come together to form an interesting and engaging single. It definitely rewards repeat listens.

     (Quick Note: I saw these guys perform outdoors on Record Store Day in cold & rainy weather and they nailed this song note-for-note. That's gotta count for something.)

Final Score: MinneSarah -3.5/5

                  TCDroogsma – 3.5/5

Freelance Whales – Spitting Image (from the album Diluvia)

MinneSarah:

     I'm often surprised how bad bands from New York try and sound like they are from the West Coast.  This is an instance.  I suppose I should just stop being surprised, Freelance Whales are the kind of whales off the coast of Brooklyn, and I just need to step off.  While the vocals are fairly enjoyable (girl singing, I know!), the lyrics to this song are horrible, "Our limbs are hinges crashed into the sea."  The entirety of the song is characterized by synthy guitars, which apparently can be overkill. The song's chorus involves the woman singing "We all seem to have big plans."  The end just sort of tapers out - big plans acknowledged, not fulfilled. 

TCDroogsma:

     On first listen I didn't really dig this track. It seemed pretty forgettable. After a few spins, though, it grew on me. The whole things has a kind of Diet Arcade Fire feel too it. The lead vocals and grandiose and the backing vocals definitely lend a, “we're all in this together” type of vibe to the song. Not entirely memorable, but not completely disposable either.

Final Score: MinneSarah -2/5

                  TCDroogsma - 2/5

Taken By Trees – Dreams (from the album Other Worlds)

MinneSarah:

     The title delivers - this song is very dreamlike.  However, it is a dream you wouldn't remember.  There background is punctuated by pop up video sounds, which is the best thing it has going for it.  Otherwise, the percussion sounds like the hum of train tracks, and the vocals are just about whispered.  What a nice lullaby, but unless you have severe insomnia, I wouldn't recommend wasting your time. 

TCDroogsma:

     Are you familiar with The Durutti Column? Unless you're over 40 and live in the greater Manchester area, probably not. They are essentially just Vini Reilly (of Viva Hate fame) and a few random other people. They play kind of jazzy, mostly acoustic guitar instrumental music.

     I bring them up because, as someone whose tastes skew toward the “40 year old, greater Manchester area” demographic, I couldn't help but fall for this song when the guitar came on. I realize that's a very specific market, but I really dug this song thanks to the guitar work. It's so similar that I'm not totally sure it isn't just an elongated sample of The Durutti Column. Still, if I'm only judging this based on how much I like, I gotta say that those guitars turned a below-average song into an above-average one.

Final Score: MinneSarah -2/5

                  TCDroogsma – 3.5/5

Bora York – Close Your Eyes (from the album Dreaming Free)

 
MinneSarah:

     This song got worse the more times I listened to it.  At first I appreciated the eighties adult contemporary background, but when I realized that the movies Beaches, Top Gun, or Big weren't involved, I sort of lost interest.  I really like the passionate female chorus as a contrast to the mellow male verse vocals.  However. there are several annoying accents in the song.  "Cloooooseee youuu-rrr-rrr eee-eee-eeee-yeees" - Girl, you think a syllable's a window pane. 

TCDroogsma:

     Land Of 10,000 Lakes? More like Land Of 10,000 Synth-Pop Bands! Am I right, people?

     Fortunately, nearly all of the synth-pop bands that saturate the Twin Cities are above average. This is the kind of song that bands like Stars would kill to write. (That's right, shots at two different Canadian bands in one column! Come get me, you inherently-peaceful Canucks! Come get me!)

Final Score: MinneSarah -1.5/5

                  TCDroogsma - 4/5

Boom! There you have it, everybody. Another week of songs listened to, judged, and filed away.

As always, please give the songs a listen and vote for your favorite in our poll to the right.

We'd like to take a moment to remind everybody that this blog is in no way affiliated with The Current, Minnesota Public Radio, or the artists. We're just people with keyboards, ears, and dated cultural references.

For more of the ever-charming MinneSarah be sure to give her a follow on Twitter and/or Instagram (@MinneSarah). If you meet MinneSarah in person be sure to bring up your cat. Or Brit-Pop. Or how much your cat loves Brit-Pop. Solid gold icebreaker, right there.

For more of the seldom-charming TCDroogsma you could give him a follow on Twitter and/or Instagram (@TCDroogsma). Or you could check out his blog Flatbasset. He's still counting down Morrissey songs. If you meet TCDroogsma in person it's probably not a good idea to bring up any subjects that aren't Morrissey related. He's prone to wild mood swings. And he's likely been drinking.

Of course this blog still lives on Twitter (@NewestIndustry1) and you should give us a follow to stay up to date on new posts. More importantly we also have a Facebook page. You'd be doing us a real solid if you stopped by and gave us a 'like.' Be cool, bro. Be cool.

Nobody Loves Us #10: Disappointed

Hello again, everybody and welcome to the Nobody Loves Us Countdown.  For those just joining us, I'm counting down my 20 favorite Morrissey Non-Singles each weekday until his concert on the 29th at The Orpheum in beautiful downtown Minneapolis.

Let me quickly apologizing for not posting this blog yesterday.  Monday's are an especially tough day for me to be productive and I succumbed to sleep before I had a chance to jot this one down.  So, I'll post this one now and later today I'll post #9.  Hopefully this will help calm the rioting among Morrissey fans who were waiting with baited breath for my post yesterday.  People!  It's only a blog!  Life will go on!

If you haven't been paying attention here's what the list looks like so far:

20. One Day Goodbye Will Be Farewell
19. Driving Your Girlfriend Home
18. Munich Air Disaster 1958
17. Seasick, Yet Still Docked
16. I Don't Mind If You Forget Me
15. Sister I'm A Poet
14. On The Streets I Ran
13. There's A Place In Hell For Me And My Friends
12. Why Don't You Find Out For Yourself?
11. Come Back To Camden

Which brings us to the Top 10!

#10. Disappointed (Morrissey/Street)

B-side from the Everyday Is Like Sunday single

Key Line: "This is the last song I will every sing (crowd cheers), No, I've changed my mind again (crowd groans), goodnight and thank you..."

As I mentioned in the earlier post on "Sister I'm A Poet," the success had old Morrissey feeling very playful.  Obviously he felt quite validated by the success of his solo debut and that led to some of his most boastful and biting tracks.  Sadly, nearly all of them were relegated to b-sides (though eventually they were collected onto the album Bona Drag, arguably the most essential "odds and ends" album ever).

On "Disappointed" Morrissey masterfully walks the line between reality and myth, sarcasm and truth, and stereotypes and the truth behind them.

Before Morrissey even makes an appearance on the track, it's clear that he and Stephen Street are having a bit of laugh.  The music for the track is clearly meant to echo the atmosphere of The Smiths iconic "How Soon Is Now?"  In fact, according to Stephen Street, the initial version of the track didn't sound much like the finished bit.  At Morrissey's request, the song was re-worked into the "How Soon Is Now?" echo that was eventually presented to the public.  It's hard to believe that this wasn't intentional, with Morrissey sitting behind the producer's mixing board sporting a wry grin...

Lyrically, Morrissey's mix of sarcasm and truth is really the essence of Morrissey's early solo career.  Opening line, "Our unsleepable friend gets the message on an ill wind, 'All your friends and foes would rather die than to touch you..." is an obvious joke, as, by this point, a Morrissey concert was typically an open invitation for fans to run on stage to touch and hug the singer.  Clearly, Mozzer was not at a lack of people willing to touch him.

(Sidenote: Special kudos to Morrissey for inventing the term "Unsleepable," which draws the mind immediately to the Smiths' tracks "Unloveable" and "Asleep," two of Morrissey's best "I'm sad and alone" tracks.  Clever bastard.)

However, Morrissey also manages to mix in a healthy dose of truth and spite on the track.  A line such as, "Young boy, I wanna help you..." can easily be read as reference to Johnny Marr (though there's no proof that this is indeed a reference to Marr).  Further on, the lines, "Don't talk to me about people who are 'nice,' 'cause I have spent my whole life in ruins because of people who are 'nice.'" are nearly impossible to read as anything but truth.  Especially when one considers that the seeds of lawsuits from Mike Joyce, Andy Rourke, and Craig Gannon had been firmly planted by now.


(Sidenote II:  I submit this video as reason number 3,065 why the 90's were the best thing ever.)

Still, the ending of the track sums up everything one needs to know about Morrissey at this stage of his career.  "This is the last song I will ever sing..." is met with "cheers" from an overdubbed crowd.  Followed by the line, "No, I've changed my mind again..." and the subsequent overdubbed jeers, it's clear that Morrissey is well aware of the many detractors lurking in his post-Smiths landscape.  By adding those crowd noises, Morrissey shows that he is keenly aware of his standing and is more than willing to take the piss out of it himself.

Nobody Loves Us #11: Come Back To Camden

Hello again, everybody. Welcome back to the Nobody Loves Us countdown.

If you don't know, I'm counting down my 20 favorite Morrissey Non-Singles each weekday up until his October 29^th concert at The Orpheum right here in Minneapolis.

Here's what the list looks like so far:

20. One Day Goodbye Will Be Farewell

19. Driving Your Girlfriend Home

18. Munich Air Disaster 1958

17. Seasick, Yet Still Docked

16. I Don't Mind If You Forget Me

15. Sister I'm A Poet

14. On The Streets I Ran

13. There's Place In Hell For Me And My Friends

12. Why Don't You Find Out For Yourself?

Take a minute and scroll down to read my thoughts on those songs. I'll wait...

(waiting...)

(waiting...)

Alright, on to #11:

#11. Come Back To Camden (Morrissey/Boorer)

From the album You Are The Quarry

Key Line: “Your leg came to rest against mine, then you lounged with knees up and apart... and me and my heart – we knew... we just knew...”

When Morrissey returned to the pop world in 2004 much was made of the opening track on You Are The Quarry. “America Is Not The World” proved to be an interesting way to reintroduce yourself to the world. Since the critical ruin of Maladjusted seven years prior, the only relevant piece of news to come out regarding Morrissey was that he was holed-up in Los Angeles. As far as public figures go, few are as intrinsically linked to their home as Morrissey is too England.

While the English press and, one assumes, English fans, were titillated even the title of the opening track (this was 2004, after all), they must have been a bit disappointed with the song's content. Mozzer runs down a list of cliched criticisms of the United States before finally conceding that he'd found a 'flawed-but-beautiful' place, ending the song with “America, I love you, I love you...”

What does all this have to do with “Come Back To Camden?” Well, here it is. Since coming to America Morrissey had treated England like an ex-lover in the most brutal of ways. He would barely take the time to even acknowledge his home country and when he did it was usually to criticize it in some form. Meanwhile England just had to sit and watch Mozzer have this fling with whorey old Los Angeles, knowing full well that L.A. could never love him like England loved him.

The second track on Quarry, “Irish Blood, English Heart” showed that Mozzer's passions for England hadn't dulled, but it was more like one last re-hashing of why he and his homeland were exes, though it came with the acknowledgment that they'd always be linked, that they'd always define each other, regardless of the circumstances.

“Come Back To Camden,” then, is the moment when Morrissey sits down makes his peace with England-the-ex. He's tired of ignoring her. He's tired of the vitriol coming from both directions. He's certainly not promising to come back, but at least he can look back at the past and smile. With an opening line of, “There is something I wanted to tell you, it's so funny you'll kill yourself laughing...” is exactly the kind of awkward, “rehearsed-in-the-mirror” type of thing one would say if they were sitting down for drinks with a long-estranged love.

The conversations that Mozzer undertakes with England in the song is delivered as personal (the song is rooted a real life relationship with someone in Camden). However, it's nearly impossible to listen to without hearing a plea for mutual acknowledgment between himself and his country. Though they've grown apart, it's important for them both to be able to look back and smile.

Mozzer brilliantly spells out a list of things that were annoyances during his relationship with England that, in hindsight, are charming in their triviality. “Slate-grey Victorian sky,” “tea with the taste of the Thames,” “taxi drivers (who) never stop talking...” All of these things bring him back to a time and place that was somehow both flawed and perfect. A place, though, that he knows he cannot return to. That time for England and for Morrissey, as it eventually becomes for any former loves, is past, that place no longer exists. Essentially, this is an elongated way of telling England, in a breathtakingly poetic manner, that, in his own strange way, he's always been true to her.

Nobody Loves Us #12: Why Don't You Find Out For Yourself?

Well hello again, everybody, and welcome back to the Nobody Loves Us Countdown.

If you're just joining me I'm counting down my 20 favorite Morrissey Non-Singles each weekday up until his show October 29th at The Orpheum in beautiful downtown Minneapolis.

Obviously you can scroll down to have a look at the previous posts (as well as a couple of my posts that have turned up on the Newest Industry blog (please check that blog out when you have a chance.  All Twin Cities Everything!).

If you don't feel like scrolling down, here's what the list looks like so far:

20. One Day Goodbye Will Be Farewell
19. Driving Your Girlfriend Home
18. Munich Air Disaster 1958
17. Seasick, Yet Still Docked
16. I Don't Mind If You Forget Me
15. Sister I'm A Poet
14. On The Streets I Ran
13. There's A Place In Hell For Me And My Friends

And so, here we find ourselves:

#12. Why Don't You Find Out For Yourself? (Morrissey/White)

From the album Vauxhall And I

Key Line:  "Don't rake up my mistakes, I know exactly what they are... And what do you do?  Well, you just sit there..."

Morrissey's Vauxhall And I is, pretty much indisputably, the high-water mark for his solo career. It's a brilliantly constructed album that couples Morrissey's growing pathos with a band that, after a couple of albums, has finally figured out how best to back their singer musically.  Tracks like, "Now My Heart Is Full," "Hold On To Your Friends," and, of course, "The More You Ignore Me The Closer I Get," could really only have come from this group of musicians at this exact time.

The production of Steve Lillywhite, though, is really the glue that brings the album together.  While the atmospherics on those singles is palpable, his production really shines through on some of the non-singles.  Tracks like, "Lifeguard Sleeping, Girl Drowning," and "I Am Hated For Loving" would have withered away in less capable hands.

The best example of all three of these elements is this track.  "Why Don't You Find Out For Yourself?"  To those of us who have been following Morrissey throughout the 2000's, it's easy to lump this song in with many of the "victim" songs that have come to dominate his canon.  However, aside from the likes of "Frankly, Mr. Shankly" and "You Just Haven't Earned It Yet, Baby," Morrissey's portrayal of himself as a victim was typically limited to his role in specific personal relationships.  However, by 1994, Morrissey had suffered more slings and arrows professionally than any sane man could stand.

Once the darling of the English pop scene (a role he obviously relished), Morrissey's Kill Uncle was a clunker of an album that pushed him deeper into the "Rumours" column of the tabloids.  And, while Your Arsenal brought with it critical acclaim, the success was short-lived thanks to Mozzer's controversial appearance (and subsequent non-appearance) at the Madstock festival.  He quickly found himself squarely in the sights of both the critics and the public.  Throw in the perpetual disputes with his managers and record labels and it's no surprise that Moz found himself lashing out.

Immediately, Morrissey lays bare his predicament.  "The sanest days are mad, why don't you find out for yourself?" is at once a cry for help and an admission that he doesn't expect anybody to be able to relate to his problems.  "Some men here, they have a special interest in your career.  They want to help you to grow and then... siphon all your dough..." is a none-too-slight allusion to his brewing court battle with Mike Joyce, which would famously make it's way to England's High Court the following year.

Morrissey, of course, would expect nothing less. "You'll never believe me, so, why don't you find out for yourself?  Sick down to my heart, but that's just the way it goes."  After casting himself as the "outsider" his entire career, Morrissey finally found himself standing alone after all.  Nobody's walked the road he's walked, for if they had, they'd, "see the glass hidden in the grass."

Musically, Alain Whyte's tune was supposedly a much rougher track originally, with a distorted electric guitar taking the lead.  As legend goes, that version of the track is the version Morrissey's vocal take comes from, which goes a long way to explain the audible vitriol in the vocal delivery.

As mentioned earlier, the impact of Steve Lillywhite on Vauxhall cannot be overstated.  Altering the original take by reducing the electric lead to merely drifting in and out of the mix and bringing the acoustic guitar up to take the lead proved to be a stroke of genius.  By making Boz Boorer's high-harmonies far more prominent the song attains a "battered-but-still-punching" fragility that matches the lyrics.

"I've been stabbed in the back so many, many times I don't have any skin, but that's just the way it goes."  As it turned out, there were more stabs to come.  And the wound would never completely heal.

Songs Of The Week #9: MinneSarah & TCDroogsma

NOTE: I CONTRIBUTED MY HALF OF THIS POST TO THE BLOG NEWEST INDUSTRY, WHERE IT ORIGINALLY APPEARED.  PLEASE CHECK OUT NEWEST INDUSTRY WHEN YOU HAVE A MINUTE.  ALL TWIN CITIES EVERYTHING!

Sondre Lerche, Ben Folds Five, Poor Moon, Beth Orton, & Toussaint Morrison

Well hello again, mp3 junkies.  How ya been?  Staying warm?  Good, you know we worry about you.

Welcome to the Ninth Edition of Songs Of The Week.  Yet again we've asked MinneSarah & TCDroogsma to give us their thoughts on last week's Song Of The Day podcast from MPR's The Current.  As always, click on this link to subscribe to the podcast and play along at home.

Also, as always, MinneSarah & TCDroogsma have note read each other's comments before this post.

Take it away kids!

01. Sondre Lerche - Two Way Monologue (from the album Bootlegs)



MinneSarah:

     Is Sondre Lerche still beautiful?  If he is, I'd liken this track to Matthew McConoughey's drunken naked bongo session.  Oh, he's still going?  I'm partial, because this song is my favorite! Okay, it's the only Sondre Lerche song that I know.  What could make this song better Sondre?  Why don't you release it in lower sound quality, add another three minutes of guitar noodling, and some screaming fans to show you are still relevant.  If I could rename this track, I'd call it, "Live Guitar Monologue." 

TCDroogsma:

     Back in the mid-aughties I fell real hard for the studio version of this song. Everything about it appealed to the person I was back then (take that for what you will).  Unfortunately, when I started digging into the Sondre Lerche catalog I found that he was prone to genre-hopping in the worst way.  His baroque album with The Faces Down Quartet is one of the worst albums in my collection.

     This live version of such a perfect song is disheartening.  Basically it's all the worst things about Sondre Lerche rolled into one.  Instead of riding the perfectly constructed hooks of the original we're subjected to stupid guitar breakdowns and extended musical wandering.  Maybe this was fun at the actual show, but who thought putting this out on an album was a good idea?  Christ, dude, just stick to what you're good at - hooks on hooks on hooks.

Final Score: MinneSarah - 1/5
                   TCDroogsma - 2/5

02. Ben Folds Five - Do It Anyway (from the album The Sound Of The Life Of The Mind)



MinneSarah:

     Well, Ben Folds sure does play piano.  I prefer screaming, loud guitar, saloon piano, fast tempo Ben Folds to any of their slower tracks, and this song takes me back a couple decades.  However, instead of being just one of the guys, the chorus makes Ben Folds sound down right like he's yelling at his kids.  I felt guilty, like, I really don't want to review this song.  Okay, dad, I'm doing it..anyway.  If I could rename this song, it would be, "Because I Said So." 

TCDroogsma:

     I'm excited for Ben Folds Five reunion in the same way I'm excited for a Dishwalla reunion.  I mean, c'mon, who was sitting at home thinking to themselves, "Damn! You know who I really miss?  Those guys who sang that song about abortion!"

     In all honesty, I consider myself a Ben Folds fan.  The first couple BFF albums were great and I really liked his solo debut Rockin' The Suburbs.  But why bring the career back this way?  Seems to me that the logical career arc for Ben Folds would've been, "Kinda-interesting-piano-band" to "Kinda-serious-adult-contemporary" to "Late-night-talk-show-band-leader."  I mean, he ain't The Roots, but why look backwards.

     That said, Robert Sledge's bass still sounds fantastic.

Final Score: MinneSarah - 2/5
                   TCDroogsma - 2.5/5

03. Poor Moon - Birds (from the album Poor Moon)

 

MinneSarah:

     This is one of those beachy hippie songs.  It sounds like some kids got together in the band room at UC Irvine and used the xylophone and timpani to tell the story of what they did last summer.  The vocals are mellow and have a dreamy quality to them.  If I could rename this song, I'd call it, "I Got Some Underneath That Creepy Oak Tree." 

TCDroogsma:

     Great, some guys from Fleet Foxes have a side project that sounds exactly like Fleet Foxes.  Oh, and it's about a tree  Wait, not a tree, but the memory of the time they were at a tree.  Just shoot me in the fucking head.

Final Score: MinneSarah - 2/5
                   TCDroogsma - 0/5

04. Beth Orton - Magpie (from the album Sugaring Season)

 

MinneSarah:

     Beth Orton's signature vocals have not changed since "Stolen Car" and I appreciate that consistency. There is something fairly epic about how her singing works with the piano and violin, and that's coming from a gal whose never been nor would ever go to Lilith Fair.  She does a good job pulling together usually annoying musical elements and creating something that could easily showcase a strong female lead in a movie soundtrack.  If I renamed this song, I'd call it, "I Won't Turn Back For Anyone And Not Just Because You're A Liar!" 

TCDroogsma:

     Is this what Beth Orton always sounded like or am I just not remembering her old stuff correctly?  Didn't it used to be kind of understated with some electro-blips?  This squawky-singing-and-fiddle-combination sounds like Tori Amos if she'd downed a bottle of gin.  I can't believe Ryan Adams wrote a song about this woman.

Final Score: MinneSarah - 3.5/5
                   TCDroogsma - 1/5

05. Toussaint Morrison - Can't Relive The Party (from the album Toussaint Morrison Is Not My Boyfriend)


MinneSarah:
 
     This song is a compilation of everything that is trendy in the Motown revival meets Michael Franti world (it's now a real place). This kid has lots of style, so I can forgive the trendiness.  The keyboards are very Mates of State, which is a nice touch.  He ends the song by rapping about picking up college girls, likely at the U of M.  I'll bet he doesn't have much trouble. If I could rename this song, I'd call it,"Mayer Hawthorne Told Me Switch The Style Up And If They Hate Then Let Them Hate And Watch The Money Pile Up." 


TCDroogsma:

     If Cee-Lo and The Weeknd had a kid it would be this song.  Morrison gets real upbeat over the instrumental from Generationals "When They Fight, They Fight," which isn't a bad move at all.  On paper, combining those three things seems like a good idea.  Turns out the actual sum of the equation "Cee-Lo + The Weeknd + Indie Pop" is "Bruno Mars!"  And, frankly, we need another Bruno Mars like we need more Fleet Foxes side projects.

Final Score: MinneSarah - 2.5/5
                   TCDroogsma - 1/5

Well there you have it everybody, another week of songs downloaded, processed, and judged harshly.  Thank to MinneSarah & TCDroogsma for giving us their thoughts.

Of course Newest Industry is in no way affiliated with any of these artists, their labels, The Current or Minnesota Public Radio.  We just like to judge things.

Be sure to vote for which of these songs stood the tallest in our poll to the right.

For more of the ever-charming MinneSarah be sure to give her a follow on Twitter and/or Instagram (@MinneSarah).  She's in the midst of a pretty epic Rocktober right now.

For more of TCDroogsma you can give him a follow on Twitter and/or Instagram (@TCDroogsma) or check out his personal blog Flatbasset.  Despite our best efforts he's still writing blog posts about Morrissey songs.

And, lastly, this blog is on the Twitter (@NewestIndustry1), which you should follow to stay up on new material.  We're also on Facebook here.  Stop by and give us a 'like.'  We don't ask for much.

Nobody Loves Us #13: There's A Place In Hell For Me And My Friends

Well hello again my 25-50 year old, kinda sad, white friends. The Nobody Loves Us countdown continues today.

If you don't know what you're looking at right now, I've decided to countdown my 20 favorite Morrissey Non-Singles each weekday until the Mozfather's concert October 29^th at The Orpheum.

Here's what the list looks like so far:

20. One Day Goodbye Will Be Farewell

19. Driving Your Girlfriend Home

18. Munich Air Disaster 1958

17. Seasick, Yet Still Docked

16. I Don't Mind If You Forget Me

15. Sister I'm A Poet

14. On The Streets I Ran

Which brings us to #13 on the list:

#13: There's A Place In Hell For Me And My Friends (Morrissey/Nevin)

From the album Kill Uncle

Key Line: “When we go, we all will go, so, you see, I'm never alone...”

Calling Kill Uncle an “up-and-down” album is a little bit like describing coffee as “caffeinated” or my blogging style as “tedious.” It seems obvious. Still, the spotty album ends on a high with “There's A Place In Hell For Me And My Friends.”

After trying on many different hats over the course of the album, Morrissey finds himself back in the same place that gave us songs like “Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want” and “I Won't Share You.” While “There Is A Place” is not on par with those classics, it does share the same structure (just some sparse instrumentation and Mozzer's pleas) and the same bizarrely backward optimism. It even punches in under 2:00.

Over what sounds vaguely like a church hymn, Morrissey seems prepared to lament the fate awaiting him & his company. However, he quickly makes it clear that the “place reserved for me and my friends” is more badge than a banishment. “When we go, we all will go...” is a line used to justify the way of living he's undertaken. You see, he's not alone. Something akin to the old, “50,000 Elvis fans” cliché.

This being Morrissey, of course, his biting English sense of self-deprecation delivers the most memorable line of the song. “All that we hope is when we go our skin, blood, and our bones don't get in your way, making you ill, the way they did when we lived...” There is no way Morrissey was taking his place in the underworld without taking one last shot at those who took him for granted.

While the song is a perfect closer for Kill Uncle, a slight, understated moment on an album sorely lacking both. When the track re-emerged a few years later in rockabilly form it seemed, on it's surface, to be a bit of an injustice. Try to imagine a rockabilly version of “Please, Please, Please...” or “I Won't Share You.” Seems blasephemous, no?

(Quick live sidenote: When I saw Mozzer in Chicago on the Ringleader tour the show closed with an expanded, full band version of “Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want.” Now, that song is so good that even a dubstep version of it would kill, but I was still left with a bad taste in my mouth that such a perfectly fragile song could be pounded into submission like that.)

And yet, I'm actually a big fan of the rockabilly version that appeared as a b-side to the My Love Life single. As I mentioned in the “Driving Your Girlfriend Home” post, my love of Mozzer stems from his ability to wrap that voice around a hook more than the actual lyrics in the hook. I feel like the braggadocio aspect of the song really shines through on this version. Listen to the way he elongates “bonneesss...” The seething is palpable. Anyway, I'm firmly in the “Rockabilly Version” camp. But that's just me.

Nobody Loves Us #14: On The Streets I Ran

Hello errybody and welcome back to the Nobody Loves Us Countdown. I'm counting down my 20 favorite Morrissey Non-Singles each weekday until his Ocotober 29^th concert right here in MPLS.

Here's how the list looks so far:

20. One Day Goodbye Will Be Farewell

19. Driving Your Girlfriend Home

18. Munich Air Disaster 1958

17. Seasick, Yet Still Docked

16. I Don't Mind If You Forget Me

15. Sister I'm A Poet

Obviously you can scroll down to see those posts and read my thoughts on each of the songs.

Which brings us to #14:

#14: On The Streets I Ran (Morrissey/Tobias)

From the album Ringleader Of The Tormentors

Key line: "A working-class face glares back at me from the glass and lurches..."

(Watch that video to hear the song and pick up a little bit of Spanish.  Or, as they call it, Espanol)

First off, let me apologize for going back to the well of Death/Manchester for the 3rd time in 6 posts.  I didn't draw it up this way, but the 13 songs ahead of "On The Streets I Ran" definitely couldn't have been listed above it.  That's just how it go.  Write your own list.

While Morrissey touched on the subject of his own mortality on You Are The Quarry (and dug into it significantly on that album's b-sides), the specter of The End hung heavy over the entirety of Ringleader Of The Tormentors.  Nearly every song on the album alludes to death in some capacity.  Not coincidentally, this is also Mozzer's more sexually-forward album.  The fact that he embraced both of these subjects as he surpassed 50 says quite a bit about the man.  But that's a different post.

"On The Streets I Ran" is probably the best of the non-singles off Ringleader.  At the very least, it goes down smoother than the pomposity of "Life Is A Pigsty," "I Will See You In Far-Off Places," and "At Last I Am Born."  While those are all thrilling songs in their own right, they require a certain focus from the listener, an acceptance that by listening you are sharing the song's burdens with Mozzer himself.  "On The Streets I Ran" is merely a catchy, melodic, curiously-morbid toss-off in the best way possible.

Opening with the line, "A working-class face glares back at me from the glass and lurches..." Morrissey sets the stage immediately for a tune regarding his youth, his fame, and how the two have come and gone over the last couple decades.  Of course, he immediately follows that line up with an apology. "Forgive me, on the streets I ran, turned sickness into popular song."

As I've mentioned before, it seems that Morrissey's goal of being a celebrated icon is focused squarely on his hometown of Manchester.  In another apologetic moment, Morrissey tries to justify his departure from his hometown by singing, "All these streets can do is claim to know the real you, and warn, 'if you don't leave you will kill or be killed.'"  Since his Manchester days, of course, Mozzer went from home to London to Los Angeles to Rome to Paris.  Also, at one point, I think he killed a horse. I may not have my facts straight on that one, though.  "Oh, dear god, when will I be where I should be?" he asks with a twinge of panic and fear, perhaps thinking that, even at his age and stature, he's still doomed to follow the paths set on the streets of his youth to, "kill or be killed."

This realization sends Mozzer searching for answers, leading him, oddly, to a palm-reader who delivers the very blunt diagnosis that, "one Thursday you will be dead" only reinforces this fear, causing Mozzer to plea with the lord to take everybody else before taking him.  Even, oddly, "people from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania," which seems like a strange thing to say since most Pittsburghers are already dead on the inside.