I know just where I stand

It's a new year, children, and so let us start 2008 on a properly groovy note.

To facilitate the cosmic process, I, bitterandrew guru-andrew, have assembled a modest playlist of mod-tastic treasures for your aural enjoyment. Drink deep and let the music set you free.

Alan Moorehouse - Beatcoma (from Let's Boogaloo!, Vol. 3, 2007) - This happening bit of vintage library music is the current frontrunner in the "music I would use for my personal theme when I become dictator of the world" stakes. If you want a picture of that future, imagine a pair of go-go boots doing the frug on a human face — forever.

The Beat Chics - Now I Know (from The Beat Scene, 1998) - An all-female outfit that were contemporaries of (and toured with) a slightly better-known Liverpool quartet with a similar name.

Ennio Morricone - Valmont's GoGo Pad (from the Danger: Diabolik OST, 1968) - I *heart* Danger: Diabolik, and Ennio Morricone's soundtrack for the film is a major factor behind that sentiment.

Camera Obscura - Happy New Year (from Biggest Bluest Hi-Fi, 2001) - This indie pop gem is the only contemporary track in today's featured selections, but it does have a decidedly retro tilt to it while being contextually appropriate, as well.

out with the new, in with the old

From the "in" column of the "what's in and out" for the upcoming decade feature from the January 1980 issue of 3-2-1 Contact:

Startling in its prescience, isn't it? It makes me wish I could locate my copy of the "Welcome to the 1990's" special edition of the Tanner Banner, Woburn High's school newspaper, to scan -- specifically the prediction a classmate of mine made for the funky-fresh new decade where he decreed that there would be no new developments in the field of communications technology, as humanity had achieved all it could ever hope to achieve in that field.

Bright kid. I heard he's working for the Federal Reserve now.

So we bid adieu to 2007. This is supposed to be where I list the bests and worsts of the previous three-hundred and sixty five days and offer up my predictions about what lies in store for the upcoming year, but seeing as how the majority of my time is spent hip-wading through the sewers of retrological backwash, it would be a pointless exercise. I'm still too busy catching up with stuff from 2006...and 1993...and 1979 to even think of any 2007 releases that caught my attention.

Wait, no. There was The Hives' new album (which was dire), Kylie's highly-anticipated X (which was a mixed bag), and The Kind of Goodnight by Tiger! Tiger! (which was great fun). Otherwise, my plate has been full with reissues, rediscoveries, and collections of material from yore, and that applies to the realms of videogames, books, and comics as well. I'm sure there are some things I'm forgetting, but the fact they're not springing to mind with ease speaks for itself.

As for predictions? I dunno. The human race will continue to respond to serious long-term problems with convenient-yet-insufficient short-sighted fixes? The antics of an over-privileged celebrity will take media precedence over issues that actually impact our lives? The upcoming presidental election season will succeed in revealing that all the candidates are power-hungry cretins? That I will continue to muddle along here at Armagideon Time, alternating my self-conscious ramblings with gimmicky paeans to rightfully forgotten fifth-string comic book characters?

As if you needed me to tell you that. At least I can nod off to sleep at night with a conscience clean of having ever made hyperbolic claims -- which I've seen in several places already -- that prog rock is poised to make a huge resurgence in 2008. Sweet fucking Providence, isn't the world in rough enough shape without evoking the spectre of greasy-haired hipsters unironically rhapsodising about Keith Emerson and Yes?

Lord Sitar - I Can See For Miles (from Lord Sitar, 1968) - I accept no other lord but Big Jim Sullivan and his sympathetic strings.

Gleaming Spires - The End of All Good Things (from Songs of the Spires, 1981) - Why? Because I didn't think you were ready for the sex girls. The "right-right ultraviolet real nice girls", I mean.

(I suppose I could have gone with "I Predict" by Sparks, but as the Spires were affiliated with the early 80's version of the band, you've got your ration of Mael by proxy.)

should something something be forgot

2006 has just about run its course, and all the cool bloggers are posting retrospectives and predictions. I could try and follow suit, but seeing as how:

1. this is a music blog
2. much of my attention is focused on the past rather than the present

…a “Best of 2006” post would be rather absurd. Unlike 2005, where several favorite bands released albums – some great (Ladytron’s Witching Hour, The Epoxies’ Stop the Future), some disappointing (Franz Ferdinand’s and Fischerspooner’s sophomore efforts) – musically, 2006 really didn’t unleash much that caught my attention. I won’t rule out that five years from now I’ll give the Scissor Sisters’ Ta-Dah another spin and hail it as a modern classic, but at this moment I’m content with my playlist of things culled from decades past.

The year wasn’t totally bereft of musical bright spots. Two of my favorite bands, The Clash and The Byrds, got excellent box sets of their material released in time for the holidays. I was also able to locate and cross off several much-wanted albums on my want list, mostly punk, cowpunk, and synthpop from the early 1980’s. There were even a couple of contemporary releases I found myself enjoying…with certain degrees of hesitation. Here’s the short list:

The Grates – Lies Are Much More Fun (from Gravity Won’t Get You High, 2006) – A swell bit of quirky indie pop out of Australia. I wish the rest of the album sounded like this track, instead of settling into a derivative mid-90’s Veruca Salt/Letters to Cleo vibe.

Nouvelle Vague – Dance With Me (from Bande a Part, 2006) - I’m not sure the world needed a second Nouvelle Vague album. The central conceit – new wave and punk classics redone as old school Euro pop – was genius the first time around, but it’s dodgy business trying to make an ongoing concern out of a single gimmick. (The same applies to fellow re-imagineers Richard Cheese and Me First and the Gimme Gimmes.) At least they were clever enough to cast their nets a little wider for the source material on their second album, and not merely rely on the familiar standards. A Lords of the New Church cover? Ok, count me in.

The Checkers – The Invitation (from Running With Scissors, 2006) – The Checkers’ won’t win any awards for originality, but there will be a place in my heart for tightly executed, catchy punk pop.

Speaking of killer punk pop, swing on by the Deranged Records website and check out the two sample tracks they’ve posted from Vancouver’s The Tranzmitors. In these days where “punk pop” has become synonymous with whiny, corporate play-by-numbers product, it’s gratifying to know that someone out there has a bit of fire in their belly.