Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Radio Free Hipster Ep. 17: Crush, Boom, Bang

In 1955, soul quartet The Four Aces told us that “Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing.” The Everly Brothers countered this claim a scant five years later by saying, simply, “Love Hurts.” Honestly, both assertions were pretty accurate, but any nerd among us has already figured that much out.

When I put together Radio Free Hipster Ep. 11 “Broken Glasses, Broken Heart,” most of y’all seemed to enjoy it, and, truthfully, I enjoyed it as well, but, looking back, I feel as though I might’ve painted too stark a picture of modern romance. It was fun and funny, but maybe a bit unfair.
So in this, my follow-up of sorts, I’ve elected to focus on love songs that are equally complicated, equally rich, but (hopefully) not such a damned downer.

Of course there are songs about romance gone wrong, infidelity, and rejection, but there are also tracks about good, old-fashioned lust, friendship, and the ever-important attributes and attitudes that our artists look for in the perfect mate.

Hopefully, you’ll find a track or two with which you can identify, or at least a couple that you dig.

Download Radio Free Hipster Ep. 17: Crush, Boom, Bang [mirror provided by Antisocial ] Size: 43.7 MB Running Time: 47:47

Show Notes

Intro: Baddd Spellah (feat. Beefy ) – “Radio Free Hipster Theme”
I love this song. It treats me right and it never asks where I’ve been.
Track 1: Braces Tower - “I Can’t Explain, Okay?”
I’m a bit of a mod, ergo I’ve been trying to work a Who track into this podcast for a while. Mission accomplished.
Z’s 1st interlude: “Originally this ep. was gonna drop in time for Valentine’s Day.”
But that shit just didn’t happen.

Track 2: Buddy Holly - “I’m Gonna Love You Too”
There’s just something a little too insistent about this track. I love ya, Buddy, but just leave that poor girl alone.

Track 3: Jon Cryer and Andrew Dice Clay – dialogue / A+D - “Love Will Tear You Apart / She Wants Originality
Tear You Apart” by She Wants Revenge, “Love Will Tear us Apart” by Joy Division, and “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” by Bauhaus are structurally the same song. Who knew?

Track 4: Beefy -“wonderfulamazing
Beefy really puts it all out on the table in this track. There are times when I’m listening to it that I feel like I shouldn’t be; times when I feel that he’s telling me secrets and relating details I really shouldn’t know. I totally give it up to Beef for having the balls to make a song this personal.

Track 5: The Cars - “Since You’re Gone”
For my money, I think The Cars may’ve been even nerdier than Devo. With Devo you knew what you were getting, but The Cars were more subtle. You’d just be watching MTV one day and go Holy shit! Look at those dorks!

Track 6: Switchblade Kittens - “Ode to Harry Potter”
This one’s for my boy Church. He and I have been swapping Wizard Rock recommendations for a couple weeks now, and we both agreed that the Kittens do it up nice.

Track 7: MC Lars - “Rap Girl”
I’m a big fan of the fake disclaimer that kicks this track off.

Z’s 2nd interlude: “Complicated, but a tad more optimistic.”
Hopefully you’ll find the next set a little less gloomy.

Track 8: Incredibad - “The Heist
Chamomile, muthafuckah!”

Track 9: Turk and JD - “Guy Love
This one’s for Beefy and Jones.

Track 10: Glenn Case – “Crazy Love”
Glenn has 320 songs here for your listening pleasure. And that ain’t even his entire catalogue!

Track 11: M.I.A.vs. YTCracker vs. Van Morrison – “Crazy Nerd Action”
YT gave me the a cappella for “Nerd Love” ages ago, but I could never get the MC Router verse to complete the vocal track. So I started this mix, got halfway through, and then sat on it. Let this be a lesson to you: if you’re nice enough to let me have a track to mash-up, I’ll take forever half-assing it until I get a wild hair to present the substandard results to the masses.

Track 12: mc chris - “Arulpragasam”
I can’t help but think there’s a Sri Lankan out there writhing in agony at my backwoods pronunciation of Arulpragasam.

Z’s final interlude: “This very pedestrian journey through the protagonist’s life.”
I really hope some of you will dig this last track. Admittedly, you really need to listen to the whole album to get the full effect, but I’m hoping against hope that y’all aren’t as critical as I am!

Track 13: The Streets – “Fit But You Know It”
This is far from a nerdcore track, but I think it’s a got a real charm to it. There’s this “lovable loser” element inherent in the delivery that really appealed to my dorkish sensibilities.
You’ll probably be noticing a lot more rock-centered tracks in the next few podcasts. It’s been suggested that I do an all nerd rock show, and I think that this is an excellent idea. Don’t worry, I’m certainly not phasing nerdcore out or anything; it is, after all, the reason most of you listen, but I think that an entire episode devoid of hip-hop and mash-ups would be an interesting change of pace. In the meantime, I’ll try to ease the rock ‘n’ roll in. I don’t want anyone to go into shock!

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Another great 'cast, Z. I liked the Streets right off, but then sounds a bit like someone else that I can't think of. That's going to bug me now.

“Chamomile, muthafuckah!” may just be the best rap line ever. I must have heard it a hundred times, but I still giggle like a schoolboy every time.

Nice to hear the Kittens pop up on RFH. Remarkable that the first Wiz Rock track holds up so well.

Z. said...

Glad you dug it, Church. The Streets always reminds me of “Parklife” by Blur. It’s that damned fake cockney accent!

I understand that Incredibad really play stuff like that up for laughs, but it works. :)

There’ll probably be a bit more Wizard Rock the upcoming nerd rock and edutainment episodes of RFH. Feel free to hit me up with any other track suggestions.

Anonymous said...

Awww man, I thought I was the first one to listen to the cast :-( I wasn't even expecting it and it appeared like a gift from the blue. Oh well, Mr. Church beat me to it.

Anyway, Track 3 was right up my alley. It might not be self evident but Dennis and are secret goths and the mash-up was like a particularly manic night a the club. I love that She Wants Revenge song.

You don't give yourself enough credit for your mash-ups. I found the MIA/YTC track very coherent and well put together. Above all, it was thoroughly enjoyable. Anyone can slap some tracks together in an editing program but it takes a skilled ear to make them really fit.

Last but not least, I quite enjoyed the The Streets track. The rhythm of his flow, to me, seemed purposeful like it was designed to give you a better picture of the "protagonist's" character.

Oh! P.S. I <3 Rock n' Roll

Z. said...

Denika, you and Church both earn gold stars for listening to the podcast so speedily! :)

That Bauhaus/Joy Division/SWR track really does it for me too. I’ve got a furtive goth side as well.

Glad you dug the YT mash. Mashin-up/remixing is something I’ve liked for a while, and I’ve even tried my hand at it a few times, but right now I’m so pressed for time that I hardly ever get to indulge.

That’s two who dug The Streets! I’m glad. I was afraid that was gonna be a real turn-off.

Stay tunes for more geek rock, Denika. There should be a lot coming down the pipe.

Thanks for listening! :D

Unknown said...

oh the Streets. Geezers Need Excitement. Hilarious. I still kind of hate the flow or the lack there of, but I've been trying not to hate it recently.

Loved the cast sir. You know of my love for Incredibad and for Scrubs and for miss wonderfulamazing so obviously this shit is amazing. Switchblade kittens is also really fucking cool.

Z. said...

I started to play “Get Out of My House” by The Streets instead, but there’s a bridge in there that is both out of time AND out of key, so “Fit But You Know It” won out.

Glad you dug the cast, bro.

And once again, let me commend you on “wonderfulamazing.” It remains one of my favorite tracks.

Anonymous said...

Ah! It was "Cool for Cats" that I was vaguely recalling. Pub misery and staccato cockney. I was on the same page with Keith about Streets for the first 30 seconds, but I warmed up to it pretty quickly. The delivery is to rap what sprechensingen is to opera. Listen to it again with the idea of the rythym of a bar story.

Denika, I was working on a RSS reader for HP at the time, so I was hitting the site pretty often!

Anonymous said...

You have great taste in rock, thus an all-rock podcast would be a smooth option. I'm looking forward to it.

Z. said...

Nice call on “Cool For Cats,” Church. I totally hear the resemblance; plus I’m a huge Squeeze fan, so expect for them to creep into the podcast soon enough. That was also a good call on the “rhythm of a bar story” thing. What really got me about The Streets was the overall narrative arc. Musically, I think it’s got a lot to offer too (once I got past my hang-ups), but it’s the cadence of the story itself that helps to carry me.

Thanks for the vote of confidence, Dragon. Feel free to make any suggestions if you’ve got any artists or tracks you’d like to hear. You and I seem to be on the same page musically-speaking more often than not, and I’d love to see what kind of stuff you could turn me onto that I may’ve missed.