no mercy for the week

Ah, the theme post, my faithful fallback for whenever my well of inspiration runs dry. Today we're going to take a little journey through the days of the week along the plane of the musically eclectic.

Actually, as cop-out posts go, this one turned out to be a bigger hassle than anticipated. I thought it was going to be smooth sailing once I hit upon the the original idea. Potential song selections popped into my head quicker than bad foreign policy decisions at a Bush cabinet meeting. It wasn't until I started pulling it all together that I noticed that there weren't exactly a shitload of tracks with "Thursday" in the title, and most of the ones I did come up with were ones I wouldn't post even in desperation.

Tin Machine's "Thursday's Children"? Ugh. The Icicle Works' "Sweet Thursday"? Sheol save us. "Rainy Lazy Thursday" by the Peanuts, a Japanese pop duo more famously known as the two tiny ladies who sang to Mothra, was briefly in the running but was so sickeningly 70's EZ listening that even its camp appeal couldn't overcome its power to nauseate.

Then I remembered the Chameleons UK track and all was well.

Lost Cherrees – Pleasant Valley Sunday (from All Part of Growing Up, 1984, collected on In the Beginning, 2003) – A fem-vox anarcho-punk act takes on a bubblegum pop classic filled with simple platitudes about suburban life. The results are unexpectedly decent, although hardcore Monkees fans might disagree.

Duran Duran – New Moon on Monday (from Seven and the Ragged Tiger, 1983) – It was all downhill from here: The video age excesses of “Union of the Snake” and “The Reflex”, breakups, side-projects, and reunions, culminating in a bunch of middle-aged women standing on a desolate beach, poking nostalgia sticks at the flyblown corpse of what once was a standard bearer for colorful, fresh new wave pop.

Yazoo – Tuesday (from Upstairs at Eric’s, 1982) – I wasn’t a huge fan of the Vince Clarke axis of synthpop bands, preferring the fashion-conscious futurism of acts like A Flock of Seagulls or Gary Numan. Not being my thing, however, doesn't mean that Clarke's masterfully crafted pop songs don't get lodged in my skull with frightening regularity.

Fischerspooner – Wednesday (from Odyssey, 2005) – From their disappointing second album. It’s perfectly listenable electronic dance pop, and a fine disc in its own right, but I miss the avant-garde tomfoolery so prevalent on their first album.

The Chameleons UK – Thursday’s Child (from Script of the Bridge, 1983) – Where post-punk fades into what would become labeled “college” or “alternative” rock.

Eek-A-Mouse – Bad Friday (from The Assassinator, 1983) – Is that bad meaning good? Or bad meaning, um, bad? I got a D+ in Traditions of Western Slang, and only because I aced the “Creative Uses of Scatological Terminology” portion of the final.

Eddie Floyd – On a Saturday Night (from Chronicle: Greatest Hits, 1991) – I can’t think of a better way to end a long week than with some smooth Memphis Soul. While Floyd’s work wasn’t as consistently great as Sam and Dave’s stuff, the best of his work handily outshines that of his labelmates.