YouTube Song of the Day: La Sera - Break My Heart

Youtube link
Mp3 available at Stereogum

La Sera is the solo-project of Katy Goodman of Vivian Girls. I shall never tire of perfect two minute punky post-Pixies/Blake Babies/Beach Boys/Buzzcocks female-fronted compositions. I share only the best ones with you, dear friends. Now LISTEN. OR ELSE. Upload to your mp3 player, roll down your car windows, put it on, and drive somewhere. Anywhere. Of course in 2 minutes you probably can't make it very far, but you get the idea.

La Sera's second album, "See the Light" was released this week.

Song of the Day - Into It. Over It. - Summerville, SC (2010)

Holy smokes, this guy is intense. The "band" is actually one guy (the mid-20s Evan Weiss), who runs with a sub-culture of young punk pop bands that I know little of (he was previously with the little-known and most-ridiculously-named-band-ever "Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A Start"). But this tune crosses over into a modern day version of melodic Husker Du mayhem (screaming "standing on a soapbox, but no one wants to listen, come on man its 3 a.m.") It deserves to be more than a niche gem.

YouTube Song of the Day - Carnival Art - Ray's Jesus (1992)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edVPrkWPb8Q

So, this tune is from a college radio tape from mid-1992. On the beaten up cassette on which I recorded this song, I had written down the name as "Raise Jesus" instead of "Ray's Jesus" and I wasn't really sure of the band's name either. "Carnival?" This made tracking down the tune quite difficult. Anyhoo, eventually I figured out the band was probably "Carnival Art," and from there I finally found the song.

The band actually released two major label albums (in 1991 and 1992), as well as an EP in 1992 called "Holy Smokes" from which this tune comes. They also had a few videos, one of which had a brief cameo on Beavis & Butthead once (this is the sort of bizarre tidbit that the internet preserves everywhere), and you can find those videos on YouTube too. "Carnival Art" is pretty much forgotten beyond that, except for the fact that bassist Brian Bell's next band was Weezer, and the "Weezerpedia" is so freakin' thorough that it has decent coverage of this band as well.

The force behind Carnival Art was a guy named Michael P. Tak, aka Michael Petak, who also released a solo album around 1994, after Carnival Art broke up. In the 2000s, Petak has done a lot of work on cartoon shows, as this blogpost and its comments revealed. (He's on IMBD: Michael Petak). One always wonders what happens to old "rock stars," little do you realize they may influence your kid's musical tastes (a good thing in this instance).

Anyway, Ray's Jesus, the song, is a driving two-guitar alt. rock assault, a bit of punk, a bit of twang, with lyrics recasting the story of Jesus among a crazed trailer-trash family.

"Ray was the son of a sanitation architect
Thought he was Jesus or so I was told
Lived in a room with his brother in a discotheque
His name was Judas and his feet were always cold

Mother Mary was card-carrying virgin
A psycho meter maid who worked for the Lord
She said her sons were Immaculate Conception
The doctors say it was a laboratory job."

While the song title may just be a funny pun, I'd like to think its possible that its a tribute to the 1961 film King of Kings, directed by Nicholas Ray. Like the song, King of Kings was a retelling of the Christ tale much different than the Bible version (e.g., Barabbas is Judas's bud). Analysis of the film often refers to the depiction of Jesus as "Ray's Jesus." Nicholas Ray was also director of the 50s teen angst classic Rebel Without A Cause. Whether my theory is accurate or not, I'll stick with it. Better than learning it was just a title they came up with when they were stoned.

Mp3 - Ray's Jesus - Carnival Art

YouTube Song of the Day - Nuno Bettencourt - Crave (1997)

Nuno Bettencourt - Crave (1997)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHgR1IFSlr4


So at home I have an unorganized collection of tapes with songs recorded off various college/rock radio stations. This collection runs through about 1999, when mp3s started to replace college radio as the primary source for finding out about cool music. While I attempted to record the name and artist of every song, many of the song titles are guesses and artist names blank. Digital Kids of Today cannot appreciate that it actually used to be difficult to find out what a song was, as you would inevitably miss the DJ rundown of what the songs were sometimes (if they even gave a rundown, and didn't screw it up). So I pulled out the old walkman the other day and plugged it into the now common "aux" input for mp3 players in the car, with a tape labeled "2/97-3/97". These tapes have tons of artists I have never mentioned in my song of the day entries, because even I hadn't ever tracked them down. But the internet of 2010 is so comprehensive, and google so all-powerful now, that many can be identified and shared.

So, this 1997 song is a catchy rock number that is mostly alternative rock, but harder a la Red Hot Chili Peppers (without the funk) or Soundgarden (but not truly grunge). I was bit disturbed and intrigued to learn that the song (called "Crave") is by Nuno Bettencourt, well known to hair metal fans as the guitarist of Extreme, purveyors of 1991 mega ballad hit More Than Words.

I mean, you cannot ignore the hair metal look:


Anyway, apparently Extreme broke up in 1996 because Nuno wanted to go solo, and he released his 5 year labor of love, Schizophonic. (Incidentially, Extreme's singer was/is Gary Cherone, better known as "that other Van Halen singer who sucked").

You cannot ignore the Hair on Schizophonic either, but Nuno as Marilyn is definitely not hair metal:


Anyway, apparently Extreme fans are divided about Schizophonic due to it being a departure in style. I sampled a few of the tracks, but only Crave, the track on that 1997 radio tape, resonated with me. The song is not obscure to people who knew Nuno, but I never knew who this was, and never heard the song on the radio again. The album was not a huge hit, and today Nuno is reunited with Extreme, back in the rut he tried to emerge from, it seems.

(More song of the day entries on the anchor cove forum here)

Webkinz World: The Next Athens/Seattle?

I am always on the lookout for good new music, and have corrupted (I hope) my youngins with my love of indie pop/rock and good old "college rock". But when my 5 year old asked me to make him a CD with the song "Where Did You Get Those Stripes", and said it came from Webkinz.com, I steeled myself for some horrific abomination of children's music.

But, actually, the song is pretty darn good! Its a sweet little roots rock influenced number, with cute lyrics about the "Alley Cat" Webkin that is being pushed this month on the site.

(If you are already complaining about the blatant commercialism involved here, I would remind you that The Monkees debuted 43 years ago, so this is old hat. At least there is no Miley Cyrus connection.)

Whoever wrote/performed the thing understands how to do a good ol' rock and roll tune that still sounds fresh. Its also, by far, the most viewed video posted by Ganz (the Webkinz people) on YouTube, with over 150,000 views. And the comments are overwhelmingly positive both on youtube and scattered around the internet by pre-tween internet users and surprised stay-at-home moms.

Watch out Williamsburg, here come the Webkinz hipsters!



And for you mp3 and ipod lovers, here you go (right click to download):

Webkin z - Where Did You Get Those Stripes.mp3

(Note: mp3 links are for listening purposes only for a short time. If you’re an artist or label who wants a song taken down, please email at milo_went (at) yahoo.com)

Ten Lonely Songs About Chocolate And Girls

Behold the musical video presentation above of "Ten Lonely Words" by Julie Ocean. This song kicks ass. Play it at the beach, in the car, in your prison cell (HI MOM!), or whereever you are.

I had a dream that I heard this on the radio after that 'shawty got low' drivel.

Buy their debut album "Long Gone And Nearly There"! (Julie Ocean's that is, not Flo-Rida's). It's on emusic, among the other usual places.

Goodbye

I'd rather Bree had left defiantly.

"Don't leave the key underneath the mat for me, cause I won't be coming back around here."