Variations on a Theme: Better of on the Outside.

One of my favorite lyrical themes is the concept of being an outsider, even in your own scene. I don't remember ever not feeling a little out of place. Not someone who wholly doesn't belong, just someone who doesn't quite fully fit in in any group.

Artificial Peace: Outside Looking In

This is my go-to song on this topic. Minor Threat's Out Of Step is the obvious DC hardcore choice, but for me Artificial Peace hit much closer to home with Outside Looking In. This song defines for me what it's like to be a punk when so many look at punk only in terms of the particular style of punk they identify with. Too spiky, not spiky enough, not drunk enough, not sober, et cetera. Always halfway in, halfway out, and caught in between.

Saint Vitus: Born Too Late

The title track to their 1986 full length. This time the concept is aimed more at society as a whole, rather than a particular subculture. If I don't fit in with the punks, then why would I think I'd fit in with straight society. I've never had an interest in conforming to their planned out lifestyle. No workplace pot lucks, no pta meetings, no high school football games. You laugh and point, stare at me, but I don't want to be like you.

Die Antwoord: Alien

Die Antwoord's Yolandi Visser takes the concept back to childhood, to school, where most of us learned that we didn't want to fit it. This one does a good job of capturing both the feeling of just wanting to belong and the defiant realization that you're better off on the outside. I don't want to fit in anyway, I was born a misfit. Fuck a normal life.

Death Grips + SRD: Exexmilitary. A remix album.

This is the first of hopefully many remix albums under the moniker of SRD. The original album is the 2011 debut mixtape from Death Grips, Exmilitary. This was made using stems of the album released by the band as "Black Google".

download

Christmas Music, Year Three

This is the third yearly Christmas music post. I've decided to do a theme this year, Christmas songs that were unknown to me before today.

I'm starting off with non-Django gypsy jazz. While I would normally use a Django Reinhardt song on any list I could get one to fit on, Django's "Christmas Swing" has never felt very Christmasy to me. Dutch Djangophiles The Basily Boys, however, do a very gypsy jazz version of Jingle Bells.

The Basily Boys: Jingle Bells

When I entered "John Zorn Christmas" into Google, I wasn't honestly expecting to find anything. What I found was the 2011 album "John Zorn's A Dreamer's Christmas". Seven classic Christmas songs and two Zorn originals. This became my favorite Christmas album over the course of the last few minutes.

John Zorn: Santa's Workshop


I've been a fan of Judy and Mary for a long time now, but I hadn't heard this song until today. This is from their 1994 album "Orange Sunshine".

Judy and Mary: Christmas



I may be cheating. I might have heard this one before. I know I've heard Judge Dread's Jingle Bells, and I think I've heard his Christmas in Dreadland. This does sound new to me, but I can't say for sure. Fuck it, I'm putting it on this years list anyway.

Judge Dread: Merry Christmas Mr. Dread

Stray Bullets: Slings and Arrows.

Stray Bullets are a ska/punk band from Boston. They just released their second album, Ghost City Rockers, on Dying Scene Records. Slings and Arrows is their first album, originally released back in 2004, the band re-relased the album digitally through Bandcamp in 2012.
The ska/punk genre is one I absolutely love when it's done right, and Stray Bullets certainly do it right. Fifteen tracks, high energy, good production, great songwriting, and only seven bucks digitally. You really can't miss this if this kind of music is your thing.
The type of drinking discussed in Bender reminds me of how I used to drink. "Stopping by the bar for one ... now I'm blackout drunk on a Monday night." I can't tell you how many times I decided to have one drink, then woke up hungover and apologizing.

Bender:

Gone:   

Frank Sinatra: Watertown

Watertown was recorded in 1969 and is arguably Sinatra's least successful album. Written entirely by Jake Holmes and Bob Gaudio, Watertown plays more like one long cohesive piece rather than a collection of songs. Technically, it would be a concept album, but I think it goes beyond the normal range of a concept album.



 I stumbled upon this album in a thrift shop and picked it up knowing only that it was a Sinatra album. I loved it as soon as I started listening though, and it didn't take me long to realize this was something different. It has quickly become one of my favorite albums. 

American Pop Standards Week. Day Seven: All of Me

I've really enjoyed doing my first "theme week". I don't think I'll do them all that often, but I will revisit this idea with a new theme sometime in the near future. I've hardly begun to explore the world of the American popular standard this week. Seven great songs, lots of different genres and eras represented in the versions I chose, but there still a lot left to explore.
I'm ending the week with my all time favorite song, All of Me. It was written by Gerald Marks and Seymour Simons in 1931. Ruth Etting was the first to record it, and it has been recorded by a who's who of standards singers. It has received the usual instrumental treatment as well.

Like many standards I love, I came to love this one from hearing Willie Nelson play it. It was a hit single from his 1978 album Stardust. It has also been a staple of his live set:

Californian punk band NOFX recorded All of Me for a seven inch in 1996:

Jackie Lynton did a rather raw early rock and roll rendition in 1962:

There have been a few ska versions as well, including this one from French instrumental ska band Western Special:

American Pop Standards Week. Day Six: Summertime

Composed by the Gershwin brothers for the stage version of Porgy and Bess, with Porgy novelist DuBose Heyward. The song debuted in the 1935 opera, and soon afterward became a standard. While most pop standards fit multiple styles, they usually sound most at home in a more traditional setting. Summertime, on the other hand, sounds like it was meant to be a soulful blues vocal.
Recorded by a wide range of singers, including Janis Joplin, Doc Watson, Norah Jones, Nick Drake, Billie Holiday, Pete Seeger and Fantasia. There have also been numerous instrumental versions recorded, by Booker T. and the MGs, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, The Ventures, and many more.

Janis Joplin in 1969, not too long after she left Big Brother and the Holding Company:


Ska/rocksteady singer Lloyd Clark recorded several versions:


Of course Sam Cooke sang one of the definitive versions:


Miles Davis: