The Whining Stranger's Song of the Day: 10 August 2007

"What are You Wearing?" by Kahimi Karie (from the album K.K.K.K.K., 1998)

Ever bored with the current state of American pop music, I find myself looking to international recordings stars more and more these days. (Or deep into the past, or deep into the past internationally: French yeye is a favorite style of mine over the past few months.) One splendid new discovery for me has been Kahimi Karie, one of the Japanese pop stars to hail from Tokyo's Shibuya district over the past decade. Check out this tune. It's dreamlike and revolting at the same time. Kahimi's voice is pixie-ish, but the intrusive computer voice that duets with her here will creep you out. On par with Serge Gainsbourg's "Lemon Incest" for unsettling sex songs.

The Whining Stranger's Song of the Day: 20 November 2006

"Lucky to Be Me" by Bill Charlap (as composed by Leonard Bernstein, from the album, Somewhere: The Songs of Leonard Bernstein, 2004)

A lazy, swinging standard to commemorate a shortened Thanksgiving work week. The way Charlap comes in with bass and drums after the just-piano introduction is cause for thanks. And really, I need to say it out loud more often: "I'm so lucky to be me."

The Whining Stranger's Song of the Day: 2 October 2006

"God Must Be a Boogie Man" by Joni Mitchell (from the album Mingus, 1979)

A charming bit of swinging theology from one of the great songwriting masters. This tune opens Joni's tribute album to the great Charles Mingus and was inspired by the first few pages of his autobiography, Beneath the Underdog. (Never read it? You should. He turns the expectations of genius-artist this-is-my-life writing on its head so thoroughly that you'll either laugh or cry or throw the book across the room or all three, but you won't be unstimulated for one second.) While I don't like to think too much about the nature of God for the unavoidable vertigo that follows (I'd rather just assume there is a big master-blaster up there and that s/he loves me and that there are no floods or turns-into-salt coming my way), I can't help but think that Joni's refrain about the cosmos adhering to "a cock-eyed plan" is spot-on.

The Whining Stranger's Song of the Day: 13 September 2006

"Young Americans" by David Bowie (from the album Young Americans, 1975)

"Do you remember your President Nixon? / Do you remember the bills you have to pay? / Or even yesterday?"

For undergraduates in Mercedes and brand-new SUVs. For twenty-year olds who have their cellphones pulled from their bags to make that frantic call the minute I announce class is over. ("Who are you calling?" I want to ask. "What's so important?") For stupid Abercrombie and Fitch t-shirts. For senses of entitlement combined with suspect work ethics.

This one's for you.

The Whining Stranger's Song of the Day: 11 September 2006

"Pink Moon" by Nick Drake (from the album Pink Moon, 1972)

Before this tune was co-opted by Volkswagen for an ad campaign at the turn of the millenium, it was a moody, semi-lost artifact by a moody, semi-lost folk singer who died too soon. It's appropriate for a rainy Monday (and a day of needful memorializing) as the autumnal equinox creeps in.

The Whining Stranger's Song of the Day: 8 September 2006

"Alice Childress" by Ben Folds Five (from the album Ben Folds Five, 1995)

An enigmatic melodic number by the piano-based trio that played, by their own description, "punk rock for sissies." I was perplexed by the meaning of this song for ages, given that it namechecks (or seems to namecheck) a famous African American playwright in the title and chorus. Turns out though, that the lyrics were contributed by Folds's ex-wife, Anna Goldman, who wrote the words for a hospital patient she knew. (This info, unverified, comes from The Ben Folds Knowledge Base.) Nevertheless, it's painfully sweet in its melody, and the piano chart is handsome.

The Whining Stranger's Song of the Day: 30 August 2006

"Kashmere" by the Kashmere Stage Band (included on the compilation Funky 16 Corners, 2001)

This group--who performed and recorded in the late 1960s and early 70s--ranks up there with Kinky Friedman and Stubbs barbecue sauce among the coolest exports ever to emerge from the Lone Star state. You will be astounded by the preternatural tightness of the rhythm section on this funky number; you will be more amazed when you think that this was a high school band! Whereas my crappy high school stage band tried to keep together on arrangements of "Birdland" or tunes from Cats, these guys could lay down grooves that invite the b-boys to lay the cardboard down and break till the brink of dawn.

For more info, check out this NPR story on the band from earlier this month.

The Whining Stranger's Song of the Day: 19 August 2006

"The Chicken" by Jaco Pastorius (from The Birthday Concert, 1981)

Jaco was the greatest electric bass player ever. Here he and his Word of Mouth Big Band give an ol' JB-band tune the major punk-jazz treatment. It's funky, it's fast. And Jaco's interplanetry ostinatos will put a tear in your eye. He died way too young.

The Whining Stranger's Song of the Day: 18 August 2006

"Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo" [i.e. "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly"] by Ennio Morricone (1966)

I stare down the work on my desk like the Man with No Name. Were it not for the building's anti-smoking policy, I would stick stubby cigarillo in my mouth and emit meaningful plumes of nasty burnt tobacco smoke. I rub my hand over my unshaven cheek. I glare with squinty eyes. I remove sidearm from beneath poncho. And I emerge from this showdown untouched, leaving a fallen villain in the blood-soaked dust.

The Whining Stranger's Song of the Day: 17 August 2006

"I Predict a Riot" by Kaiser Chiefs (from the album, Employment, 2005)

What happened to these kids? I remember in 2005 finding them everywhere--on Letterman, in music magazines, in correspondence from music-loving hipster former students. I jumped on the bandwagon. I downloaded this tune. I played it out my car window.

And then?

They've vanished.

The pop music career trajectory moves at the speed of light now.

The Whining Stranger's Song of the Day: 16 August 2006

"Every Little Bit Hurts" by Brenda Holloway (1964)

This ranks for me as one of the top ten, maybe top five, greatest songs in the Motown catalogue. It's got a great gospel pulse, bluesy piano, and a scorching pained vocal from the sadly under-appreciated Ms. Holloway. She's a textbook case in considering how arbitrary fame is. She sings better than Diana Ross, she looks better than Diana Ross, and yet-- Well, as far as I know Brenda Holloway didn't date Berry Gordy, so maybe that's the kicker.

In any case, seek this song out if you don't know it. Seek it out too if you're only familiar with Alicia Keys's recent live version. The Keys version is hot but--to quote another Motown classic--"Ain't nothing like the real thing, baby."

The Whining Stranger's Song of the Day: 14 August 2006

"Rapture" by Blondie (from the album, Autoamerican, 1980)

This one is best appreciated in video form, in all its early-MTV glory. Deborah Harry--as Marc Jacobs knows so profitably--remains iconic, not just a sultry chanteuse but an image for the ages. And look for Jean-Michel Basquiat's cameo around 1:57 into this. Look, too, for the grafitti, and listen to DH's rap, which for many pop music fans was an introduction to an emerging culture that was about to storm big on a national level in the next few years.

The Whining Stranger's Song of the Day: 24 July 2006

"Theme from New York, New York" by Frank Sinatra (1979)

OK, I know this is Liza's tune originally, but the Chairman's take on it really makes it for me. Here's to little town blues melting away, and waking up in the city that never sleeps, etc.

I depart tomorrow. By dinner time I should be in the Big Apple.

The Whining Stranger's Song of the Day: 22 July 2006

"Trans Europe Express" by Kraftwerk (1977)

Was reading about the early days of hip-hop culture before dinner tonight, and was struck by Nelson George's reminiscing about Bronx block parties at which African American DJs would spin this Kraftwerk track, and the spacy synth sounds could be heard throughout neighborhoods. Not the music I'd choose to be blasting through my neighborhood every day, but a quirky enough delight for this summer evening--even if it's just me spinning it, from an mp3 file on the laptop, in the localized neighborhood of my home study.

The Whining Stranger's Song of the Day: 15 July 2006

"FM" by Steely Dan (from the original soundtrack album, FM, 1978)

The Song of the Day returns today after a brief hiatus. I know that this is the second time in a month that Steely Dan has earned a nod, but come on, it's summer, they're on tour, Morph the Cat is still in solid rotation on my CD player, and I will be in their presence tonight.

This tune is less ambitious than other works from the Dan ouevre, but it's infectious in its rhythm-and-blues-tune-like celebratory lyric ("Kick off your high-heeled sneakers / It's party time") and swampy bass groove. Pete Christlieb's tenor sax solo is one for the ages (he is after all the genius who provided the instrumental break on "Deacon Blues" too), and I love singing along unbashedly with the layered vocal part on the chorus.

"No static at all."

Damn straight.

The Whining Stranger's Song of the Day

2 July 2006



"Mystery Train" by Elvis Presley (1955)

I have to confess, even though it invites charges of blasphemy in some circles, that I don't care for Elvis very much. Maybe it dates back to my late adolescence, groomed at 16 as I was on Chuck D. bellowing bassily, "Elvis was a hero to most, but he never meant shit to me, the sucker was racist straight-up simple and plain..." Since then Elvis always had the stink of redneck imperialism and appropriation on him in my mind: another white dude who recklessly copped licks from African American greats and got fat on the theft. For every black rhythm and blues giant living in impoverished obscurity, the so-called King was living large in a Barcalounger with a surplus of PB and banana at his grasp.

I will admit though that I am aesthetically drawn to the sound of Elvis's Sun Sessions recordings from the mid-1950s. This track is a good travelin' number, with ethereal vocals and a good click-clack locomotive rhythm as its pulse. Its association in my imagination with Jim Jarmusch helps ease my resistance to liking it too.