Youtube Mixtape #6 – It’s Been Awhile
I’ve been volunteering with a local radio station for the past few months. It’s not exactly hard work- just pulling discs for the DJ every other week, but I’ve enjoyed being a part of the music scene again in some very small way. The gig has really reminded me why I enjoy industrial music (it’s an industrial show) and I’ve been picking up a lot more music lately- stompy and otherwise.
Visage – Fade to Grey
I hadn’t heard this one until the host played it one night I happened to be there. It’s probably about the most 80s thing I’ve ever seen, but I really love everything about it. Definitely feels like a song that inspired a lot of work that came after.
KMFDM – Hell Yeah
KMFDM: they’re basically the Rolling Stones of industrial music, except that they don’t suck.
New Order – State of the Nation
This song has just been in my head for the last couple weeks. Also, I’ve come to the realization that New Order is better than Joy Division ever was. Fight me.
Underworld – Born Slippy
A commenter on this video described the structure and lyrics of the song as imitating an ecstacy high. That idea almost seemed like a genre of music in the 90s. I kind of miss that.
Missy Elliott – The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)
Speaking of the 90s. I found myself humming the bassline to this song the other day. Forgot how fun the video is. Her track “Sock it 2 Me” is just as good, and has an even better video with robots.
I’ve been taking singing lessons since last year, and I think it’s helped me develop my voice much more than I would on my own. If I practiced outside of the lessons, I’d probably be in even better shape.
Anyway, I’ve been bringing sheet music to practice with during my lessons, but my taste usually trends toward stuff that was popular in the 80s and 90s on rock radio. This is a bit outside my voice teacher’s bailiwick, so she’s picked out a few songs for me to practice with.
Carpenters – Close to You
I know this song from a much creepier version on the “Mirrormask” soundtrack. The Carpenters version to me sounds unbearably saccharine- I try to sleaze it up a bit when I sing it.
Doris Day – Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps
It’s been difficult to perform this without imitating the Cake version that I know very well. Their cover is a lot punchier.
Björk – Bachelorette
I introduced this song to my voice teacher as something that I don’t believe to be in my range, but instead as a sort of unrealistic goal that maybe I’ll be able to come close to some day. I’ve always loved the mythic quality to the lyrics combined with Björk’s vocal intensity.
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard – People Vultures
I bought this album for my wife after hearing this song on KEXP last year, thinking she might like it for workout music. Then I kind of fell in love with it. The whole thing is one solid spaced-out 70s-style sci-fi jam from beginning to end. This is pretty much the only track that sort of stands on its own (all the tracks run into each other). I love how ridiculous/awesome the video is. You gotta think how much fun it must have been to make.
MGMT – Little Dark Age
I’ve been following MGMT since their first album, and they keep getting weirder and changing their sound with each release. Really digging this track right now.
Mariya Takeuchi – Plastic Love
This came up as a suggested video that auto-played after something else I watched on Youtube, and I can’t stop humming it. I guess it’s some A E S T H E T I C meme or something? I don’t know. I found the album it’s from and Plastic Love is the only track that sounds like this- kind of a disappointment. Just a single perfect gem of a song.
Automated Lagomorph 