Extra Mayhem - 13th July 2009

[Welcome to the last Extra Mayhem for the month of July. Next Monday, I'll still be in Chicago visiting friends post-Pitchfork festival and the following Monday I'll be at a teacher's workshop out of town. So the next scheduled Extra Mayhem will be Monday, August 3rd. Make sure you catch it as there will only be a few remaining in the summer.

My apologies about the podcast - I neglected to start it on time and accidentally cut off the first half of the first song. Didn't mean to cleave the Monkees - honest. As another advance warning also, this week's Indie/Rock Mayhem podcast will be a couple of days late going up as well. Again, podhosting limitations. I'd pay more money, but I mean, I'm already putting a chunk of change per month into hosting this stuff for you people. No one's complained, so I'll assume you're awesomely patient. Thanks a lot.

I don't say this much, but thank you, thank you, thank you to the people who download and listen to the podcast each week. The fact that that many of you do that on a weekly basis makes all the work I put into it each week completely worth it. Thanks, folks.

Be sure to follow me on Twitter as I'll be updating pretty frequently while I'm at the Pitchfork Festival. Now, before I go on any longer, onward.]

J's Extra Podcast: 13th July 2009 Show

the Monkees - "I'm Not Your Stepping Stone" [from more of the monkees. tonight's theme was "this is not," which is kind of ambiguous, i realize. but the idea is songs that declare that "(noun/pronoun) is not (adjective/verb/noun/pronoun)" or some acceptable, grammatical modification of that set up. this is the first of three versions of this classic song. can you spot the others? play along!]
the Minus 5 - "I'm Not Bitter" [from down with wilco. yeah, he's not bitter. not at all. i love the tounge-in-cheek obviousness of the lyrics to this.]
the Emergency - "Not Angry" [from doo lang doo lang. you know, the more i listen to the emergency, the more i get to like them. this is from what (sadly) seems to be their last full-length album.]
Blitzen Trapper - "Not Your Lover" [from furr. i can't wait to see these guys this weekend. so, my question is, if he's the subject of the song's lover when he's awake, why are his dreams all messed up and bizzaro? that has to suck. even if he is a moonwalkin' cowboy of some variety.]
10,000 Maniacs - "I'm Not the Man" [from our time in eden. this is like the racial-injustice version of "long black veil" or something? but it's good that natalie merchant reminded us that she, indeed, is not the man.]
Camper Van Beethoven - "I Know I'm Not Wrong" [from one of the more fun things in cvb's oeuvre, a complete re-recording of fleetwood mac's tusk album that they did when snowed into a cabin somewhere at some point. it's really quite good.]
Minor Threat - "I'm Not Your Stepping Stone" [from complete discography. did you spot it?!?! yup. the second version of the hart classic. i, literally, cannot decipher a single word ian mackaye is barking in this song, so it's just as well i started out with the monkees' version to give you some idea of what's going on. this song was the go-to cover for most punk bands in the 70s and 80s i notice.]
Del Amitri - "Not Where It's At" [from some other sucker's parade. ask me sometime about my theory about this song and what it's about. hint: sex. extra hint: what the guy with the hat says.]
Blonde Redhead - "This Is Not" [from the melody of certain damaged lemons. ah, the inspiration for tonight's theme. actually, to be completely honest, bob dylan's "i'm not there" was the inspiration and, ironically, i decided not to play it. so the title of this song became the best representation.]
>
Loudon Wainwright III - "I'm Not Gonna Cry" [from last man on earth. i'm a big fan of this album, even though you haven't seen me play much, if anything, off of it. it's wainwright's lament following the death of his mother back in 2001 and it's a really stellar album.]
the Housemartins - "We're Not Deep" [from now that's what i call quite good. if you've never heard the housemartins, do yourself a favor and go pick up the people who grinned themselves to death. you're welcome in advance.]
Emily Dickinson - "Because I Could Not Stop for Death" [okay - to be fair, this is not a recording of dickinson actually reading her poem. it's some random lady. but, the poem title did fit into the theme, so here it is.]
the Sex Pistols - "I'm Not Your Stepping Stone" [from the great rock 'n' roll swindle. if you said this was the third instance of this song tonight, you're right! way to go! rotten's lyrics are a bit more discernible than mackaye's, but, you know. whatever. their version of "substitute" is better.]
Little Brother - "Not Enough" [from the vastly underrated the minstrel show. one of my favorite things about this album is how much time is devoted to rapping about how people never heard their critically fellated/commercially invisible debut. go on, phonte. let it out.]
the Velvet Crush - "Why Not Your Baby" [from teenage symphonies to god. their version of the gene clark classic and from an equally amazing album. man, it's good.]
Willie Nelson - "It's Not For Me to Understand" [from yesterday's wine. jeff, mr. deeds, i hope you're reading this so that you see i do, indeed, play willie on my show.]
Presidents of the United States of America - "We Are Not Going to Make It" [from their self-titled debut. this is a definite first for me, playing this band on the show. but this is a quirky, fun song that fit right into the theme again. all in all, their debut is a pretty solid record. not something life changing, but fun to put on when you want toe tapping music.]
Toad the Wet Sprocket - "I Will Not Take These Things For Granted" [from fear. i do, seriously, adore this song. i have often cringed at the production on this album - it's highly dated and over-studio-ized - but it works really well on this song and on a few others, ("is it for me," "all i want").]

[Tonight's Wholesale album of the week is one of those albums that really helped define my teenage years in terms of the music I listened to. While my entry to this band was the album that came after it, this was the record that truly solidified my desire to one day visit London and understand, as best I could, the culture behind it. Granted, I would finally be there well after the rise and fall of Britpop, but it still affected my notion of all things British and I probably threw out a lot of terms in high school that I had no clue what they actually meant. I mean, I did spell color with a 'u' for many years. Insert mockery of J's teenage self HERE.

I also decided on this record because of the band's recent reunion - which may have already drawn to a close. After playing a festival this past weekend, Damon Albarn said it was their last gig. Whatever that means. Alas - no North American dates?

Parklife is an album with grand ambitions. Not only does it set out to cover most of the major musical styles post-British Invasion, it also sets out to diagram British culture and society in general. Here is where Blur's long-time comparison to the Kinks comes in. Much like Ray Davies before him, Damon Albarn had a keen eye for social dissection and his characters and narrators are sometimes broad, but hardly ever completely unsympathetic or not understandable. In the end, Parklife is built on layer after layer of a half-century almost of British culture. The results are a masterwork that is still as breathtakingly enjoyable and unique 15 years later. Tonight's Wholesale album of the week is..]

Track Listing

1. Girls and Boys
2. Tracy Jacks [click to listen.]
3. End of a Century
4. Parklife [click to listen.]
5. Bank Holiday
6. Badhead [click to listen.]
7. The Debt Collector
8. Far Out
9. To the End
10. London Loves
11. Trouble in the Message Centre
12. Clover over Dover
13. Magic America
14. Jubilee
15. This is a Low
16. Lot 105

That'll do it for this week. See you Wednesday night for J's Indie/Rock Mayhem. Until then, take care.