Screamer of the Day: Anna Domino

Posted on September 25, 2008 by pulse

Anna Domino is an American singer who relocated to Brussels in the eighties. She has an incredibly cool, low, sexy voice that was once described as the voice of the erotic, tense, despairing, thinking woman: Peggy Lee-meets-Nico.

She was part of the exploding Brussels music scene of the romantic antique-overcoat cold-war era that began with Joy Division and ended when the wall came down. It was this time when quite a lot of “immigrants” from the States and England contributed to an exciting, experimental musical climate in Brussels especially. Blaine L. Reininger, Tuxedomoon, the Legendary Pink Dots, Isabelle Antena, Paul Haig are among those who made the voyage over. Many of these recorded for the immortal and legendary independent record label Les Disques du Crépuscule – or Operation Twilight Records, under which alternate name some related records were issued. She also did a number of guest-appearances on album of others, such as on “Temperamental” by Kid Montana (another half Belgian/half American affair), aka Dudley Klute, now famous for his guest appearance on the Magnetic Fields Sixty-Nine Love Songs box. Crepuscule’s output is prized by most collectors, including myself, and much of it has been either reissued directly or repackaged for anthology reissue by LTM.

Though she disappeared slowly from the public eye in Belgium, Anna Domino has continued to record and publish her songs ever since. She has worked with Alan Rankine (The Associates), Marc Moulin & Dan Lacksman (Telex), Flood (Depeche Mode, Erasure), Blaine L. Reiniger (Tuxedomoon) and Anton Sanko (Suzanne Vega).

In 1999, Anna resurfaced as Snakefarm with the CD “Songs From My Funeral”, a project that has been described as “Acid-blues? Folk-funk? Troubadour trip-hop?” by the American music-press. Together with her Belgian husband Michel Delory she recorded a number of old American folk songs or “murder ballads”, and thanks to Nick Cave for bringing the term into vogue, such as “John Henry”, “Saint James Infirmary”, and “Tom Dooley”, albeit with a more modern bent.

Anna is remembered in various circles for different songs. In my own circle, the one song that is uniquely hers is “88”. It’s from her third album, “Coloring in The Edge and The Outline”, and it completely sums up that heady era in one burst of song. Anyway, I needed cheering up today, and this song always works. You can click below to hear it, and get cheered up right along with me.

[audio:http://www.paulcollegio.net/juke/juke0412/bunny00a.mp3]

Silence

Posted on September 23, 2008 by pulse

Silence is a feature in Jukebox Heart where I just yammer on about the music I’m listening to throughout any given week which is not included on any other audio entry. I usually do this once a week or so to sum up the miscellaneous stuff that got some attention…

***

The Swans “Celebrity Lifestyle” Single (Young God/Invisible Records CD 1994)

I am so mixed about this band. In the early days, the band could do no wrong. It was a slow, vague decline for me that I think ended with the band’s dreadful cover of Love Will Tear Us Apart and their assumption of a very deliberate goth persona. I just never saw that coming. I love goth, but something about that marriage just doesn’t work. And given that 50% of marriages end in divorce…

But even given that, sometimes the band emerges with some pretty amazing shit. This is not that, though. Sorry…

***

Grand Ulena “Neosho” EP (Family VIneyard Records CD 2003)

Unassuming, but still formidable. “Grand Ulena masterfully bridge the gap between the uber-angular non-repetitive hyperstructuralism of the most rigid, martial modern classical composition and the traditional rock and roll power trio format while leaving everybody wondering what the hell just happened.” Sadly, the band appears to have put down their noisemakers for good…

***

Violent Femmes – Freak Magnet (Beyond Records CD, 2000)

While this doesn’t have the hitmaker potential tracks like Gone Daddy Gone or Blister in the Sun as did their 1982 debut, but it does have some very fun moments. One of the only stable aspects of the band is their aversion to rehearsal. Due to this they would take the music to the streets in an attempt to hone it and earn some spare change. It was on one of these occasions that they were spotted by the Pretenders. Chrissie Hynde and the gang were so amused by the Violent Femmes antics that they invited the band to open the show for them. The hometown Milwaukee audience received the Femmes with unanimous booing. However by the end of the set the Femmes had converted approximately 50% of the audience to their cause. Many years later Brian Ritchie encountered Hynde when the Femmes and Pretenders shared the bill at a radio concert. She said, “Oh, you’re still around.” The Femmes borrowed $10,000 from Victor De Lorenzo’s dad to record their legendary first album in 1982. Slash Records in Los Angeles was the only label to offer them a deal with the amazing advance of $0. The band accepted the deal and started on the predictable round of world tours, recording, more world tours, nervous breakdowns, band members quitting, solo albums, regrouping, more touring, divorces, more crackups, dropped from record deals, new deals, more touring, record company going bankrupt, lawsuits, etc. etc. etc. ad infinitum. Fast forward to the present. Many things have changed. One thing that hasn’t is the sound of the band. Their loose, improvisational, acoustic sound is timeless. You heard me; I Said Timeless.

***

Test Dept. – Proven In Action (Invisible Records CD, 1990)

One of the best bands to emerge from the first wave of Industrial music circa 1980, Test Dept. is defined by its use of percussion. This is a live album, recorded at the Actuelles Festival up in Canada, in 1990.

***

Tahiti 80 – Fosbury (The Militia Group CD, 2006)

Tahiti 80 JUST released their fourth album this week, so we’ll e hunting around for that. But for now, the wonderful Fosbury has to hold its place. Tahiti 80 is an English-language French pop group formed in 1993 in Rouen, France. The group’s name originates from a slogan on a t-shirt worn by Xavier’s father. Their music resembles pop with soul tendencies. They have encountered a fair amount of success in Japan, notably. The true Tahiti 80 fan will need this release plus the import release on the Atmosphériques imprint. The import has 3 tracks that this, the US version does not have, while the domestic version has two tracks that the import does not have. Why do they do that? Oh, yeah, the domestic also includes a fabulous and exclusive bonus disc with the sweet sweet “Give it Away” track, and a totally cheeky cover of the Turtles’ Happy Together.

***

Jah Wobble – Requiem (30 Hertz CD – 2003)

Much respect for this man. Given his personal musical diversity and his breadth of talent, it shouldn’t be a surprise that every release is a technical masterpiece regardless of the fact that some may fall outside the limitations of the individual tastes of his fans. There are some of his recordings which I absolutely lovelovelove while others leave me comparatively unmoved. Requiem is just brilliant, appearing as an extended orchestral journey in five movements, of spiritual awareness, ranging from somber & melancholy to uplifting & enlightening.

***

Discom – Automot (Deco CD, 2003)

The Deco imprint, run by Discom themselves, is a totally obscure and abstract imprint from France releasing the most challenging and far left-field stuff from ambient to insane experimentalism to synthpop. Discom is the experimental electronic project of Lionel Fernandez and Erik Minkkinen. Since they release their music on their own label Deco, Discom can afford to do what they want to do without label meddling. Not that I see any need for meddling, nor believe in some great label conspiracy to streamline bands within this genre. Not me. Er… *wink* Anyway, the album is made up of all sorts of sounds and noises – “chewing gum sounds and bubble cracks, marshmallow high frequencies” and more, mostly used sparingly in a “less is more” fashion. This album is playful, enjoyable and innovative. But it takes time to get into it.

Screamer of the Day: Mission of Burma

Posted on September 22, 2008 by pulse

Time For A Little Hero Worship at Jukebox Heart…

Arriving in the mail Friday from Netflix was the “Not A Photograph” DVD, the story of the legendary Boston band Mission of Burma. I have to say, it’s a pretty fantastic document of the band from their inception to their completely upsetting disbanding in 1983 and then to their reunion in 2002.

I arrived in Boston in 1978, shortly before Burma formed. I never had the chance to see the pre-Burma band Moving Parts perform, but, given that I lived in Kenmore Square for the better part of four years, I did get to see MoB play many times, as well as the earliest performances by the co- and post-Burma band, Birdsongs of the Mesozoic. The video omits all of the side projects and post-Burma bands, such as the Volcano Suns, Kustomized, or No Man, sort of giving the uninitiated the idea that they went off to oblivion between incarnations of MoB.

But that’s a minor issue, the DVD itself is pretty great, especially where it shows the band in its infancy performing at various locations. While Burma would have been a perfectly fab main act, the best shows were where Mission of Burma opened for other amazing bands – setting the standard for the main act to meet. Such examples: with Pere Ubu at the Main Act, and with Gang of Four at the Paradise. Of course, Sundays at the Rat… cheap beer, and walking distance from my BU dorm.

Anyway, the arrival of this DVD spurred a weekend of listening to Mission of Burma. I dug out the singles and all the vinyl I have and punched up the volume until the windows rattled like the studio at Fort Apache. One of the high points of the weekend was the discovery by my son and his girlfriend that Moby’s was not the original version of “That’s When I Reach For My Revolver.”

This was followed by a trip to Newbury Comics in search of copy of The Obliterati, which I found, used on the cheap for $5.99, and which, to my squealing delight, came completely unmarked with an accompanying DVD of moments from the 2004 show at the Tsongas arena. Their performance of Revolver, on that DVD, is embedded below.

Peter Prescott is just one of the best fucking drummers to ever have lived. If no one has said it yet, then, goddammit, let it be said now. I’ve always thought so, and Rick Harte, producer of their earliest recordings, understood that too. The drum sounds he captured and knob-twirled into eternity, only prove it.

Everyone has a favorite Burma song, and here’s mine. The band’s second single, from 1982. The drums are only a part of it…

[audio:http://www.paulcollegio.net/juke/juke0411/pivotal.mp3]

My thoughts are reborn…

Jukebox Heart Special Report: Themes!

Posted on September 17, 2008 by pulse

It’s time to revisit portions of the Jukebox Heart sibling-site, , paulcollegio.net – my personal website. I’m not doing any major redesign, but a few issues are being worked. One of them is the site’s homepage theme music. I love it, but it’s time to change. I’ve been auditioning a number of tracks and have it narrowed down to three. Here is where you come in. You’re going to help me pick a theme for the site. This process will take a little bit of your time – three easy steps! – but you can do it in the background, with lots of other stuff you’d ordinarily do anyway. Plus it’s an excuse to procrastinate and listen to some music. Who doesn’t love that?
Step 1: Go to my site and listen to the theme music. It should start automatically. It’s an early 90’s ambient/experimental techno thing called “Henka” by a UK group named Tournesol, and it is from their wonderful “Kokotsu” album. If you like what you hear, the vinyl can be had for as little as GBP 5 from discogs.com, while the CD is available domestically starting at US$8, also from discogs.com.

——————

Step 2: I’ve reposted my “Themes” podcast, which originally published on 30 August 2007. I’m publishing it again, so you can hear all of the themes that have been a part of the www.paulcollegio.net website since its inception. I think you’ll enjoy it, but it may also help you in the next step, below the following track listing.

Jukebox Heart 002: Themes, Volume 1
43.6 MB | 47:40

This week’s Jukebox Heart podcast compiles all of the themes I’ve used on the PaulCollegio.net website from the launch date through the present. The themes have always been of a downtempo ambient nature, so the podcast has a swathing, kind of subtle groove going on. The track list is below.

1. Project5 – Demo Remix
2. Tyco – Dream as Memory (Hear You Soon)
3. Akufen – Skidoos (My Way)
4. Duet Emmo – Heart of Hearts (Or So It Seems)
5. Sybarite – Invisible Magnetic Missive (7″)
6. Languis – Countryside (Unithematic)
7. Technicolor – Labor (2088)
8. Tournesol – Henka (Kokotsu)

——————

Step 3: Listen to each of the following three cuts. I have deliberately omitted their identifying information for now, because I want your reaction to the music, and not to any other ancillary information. I’ll post the artists and titles tomorrow.

Track 1:
[audio:http://www.jukeboxheart.com/specrep/themes/track1.mp3]

Track 2:
[audio:http://www.jukeboxheart.com/specrep/themes/track2.mp3]

Track 3:
[audio:http://www.jukeboxheart.com/specrep/themes/track3.mp3]

When you’ve finished listening to theme music on the website, the podcast and these three individual tracks, please vote for the track you think is the best selection for the next theme of www.paulcollegio.net

Thanks for your participation!

If you are not subscribing to Jukebox Heart yet, you should! Until then, you may download this podcast here.

Not Quite Jukebox Saturday Night…

Posted on September 13, 2008 by pulse

…but almost. I don’t have a full out doo wop mix today, but this is kinda one of those Screamer of the Day things too.

Today, I ran an errand and stopped at a yard sale just because they had a few interesting things I could see from the street. The woman running it had a box of 45s, so naturally I peeked. It looked interesting enough, and I didn’t have the time to rally flip through it and she just wanted 5 bucks for the whole box – about 50 45s – so I bought it.

Most of the stuff was pretty run of the mill. But then, out popped this fantastic 45.

The Continentals were just a fantastic group, with one of the best bass voices ever. I’ve included both sides of the 45, with a bonus track from another of their rare records pulled from the stacks for this occasion. These were all released by Bobby Robinson’s New York based Whirlin Disc records in 1956. Definitely a rare find these days. And such a fun record, especially the uptempo songs. But their harmonizing on the ballad, Dear Lord, is just choice…

The Continentals – Dear Lord
[audio:http://www.jukeboxheart.com/jsn/continentals/dl.mp3]

The Continentals – Fine Fine Frame
[audio:http://www.jukeboxheart.com/jsn/continentals/fff.mp3]

The Continentals Picture of Love
[audio:http://www.jukeboxheart.com/jsn/continentals/pol.mp3]

Screamer of the Day: Godfrey Daniel

Posted on September 11, 2008 by pulse

While I am on the path of providing some bizzare and unusual cover versions, I stumbled upon this one.

It’s bad. Very Bad. It’s so bad that the only redeeming value is that moment where the shock of recognition hits you. This is so much the case for this song that I’m not even going to tell you what it is. But don’t worry; you *will* figure it out. Though I will tell you about the band and the album. Now don’t go looking it up; you’re only cheating yoruself. *wink*

Originally on Atlantic Records, this album was passed over for reissue during a huge burst of reissue activity. Years later, it was picked up by Collectibles and is available once again. It first appeared in 1972, during the height of the first doo-wop revival, and while conetmporary critics don’t seem to realize that all went on back then, it was a pretty huge thing at the time. And it spurred certain artists to create contemporary interpretations of the genre. And established artists like Frank Zappa began to kick in, and new artists such as the Manhattan Transfer appeared. Many surviving groups resurfaced trying to capitalize and reinvention. Some worked, some didn’t.

So here’s the mystery track:
[audio:http://www.jukeboxheart.com/screamers/godfreydaniel/godfrey.mp3]

Admittedly, his take on reinventing the genre was unique. Rather then re-purpose songs plucked from the defined genre, he covered contemporary songs, reinventing them as doo wop. I first heard this in the context of a doo wop anthology, so I was completely unprepared for it.

We may never know what compelled the band to take this approach — no one seems to know who the band is! I mean, as bad as this is, even the SHAGGS were proud eough of their work to own it publically. Be that as it may, Godfrey Daniel remains a mystery. The album’s cover image, of an abandoned recording studio, and its meager liner notes provide no clues whatoseover, though rumors have been flying for decades: the Amboy Dukes being the number one pick. And if *that* doesn’t take you on a journey to the center of yoru mind, I don’t know what would. But more likely it’s producer/arranger Andy Solomon. Not that many people are doing much detective work. After a deal with Atlantic records, the group put out this (their only) record in 1972. It flopped and they disappeared.

Screamer of the Day: Dion’s Purple Haze

Posted on September 9, 2008 by pulse

Possibly a cover version even more bizarre than IQU’s theremin based version of “Loving You” is Dion “Why Must I Be A Teenager In Love?” Di Mucci covering Jimi Hendrix’s Purple Haze.

While Dion is probably most famous for his solo single, “The Wanderer”, his group, Dion and the Belmonts was the most successful white doo wop group of all. And while his biggest solo hit was The Wanderer, he also scored big with other familiar songs like Ruby Baby, covering The Drifters and Donna the Primadonna, among others. Late in 1968, he scored again with a more politically motivated tune, the familiar “Abraham, Martin and John”. Purple Haze was the follow-up and was a commercial disaster, despite its current legendary cult status.

I got a copy of this 45, on Dion’s classic Laurie imprint, from my good friend RRRon Lessard, of RRRecords up in Lowell. He is The Man for experimental sounds in the US with his shop being a major presence in downtown Lowell for over 20 years. He comes through with these bonuses now and then…

Subscribe to Jukebox Heart here.
Listen here:
[audio:http://www.paulcollegio.net/juke/juke0706/cover.mp3]

What makes you scream??

The Sound of Silence

Posted on September 8, 2008 by pulse

So, invarably, what happens in posts in the category “The Sound of Silence” is that they tend to be about the music I’m not considering for podcasts or any other Jukebox Heart feature. Hence, no musical interludes with these. Does that mean I’m trashing it? Not at all – though maybe…

Unwound – Challenge for a Cicilized Society (Kill Rock Stars CD, 1998)

This band characterized the Olympia sound of the early 1990s, and this was their sixth album for Kill Rock stars. Unwound’s main influences included Sonic Youth, Fugazi, Big Black, The Wipers, Black Flag, Rapeman, Can, Mission of Burma, Hüsker Dü, Flipper, and Gang Of Four., although this album has a markedly more experimental feel than those would suggest. For a defining moment of “where were you when…”, Unwound were scheduled to play The Middle East in Cambridge on the night of September 11, 2001. The show was cancelled.

Discharge – The Clay Punk Singles Collection (Clay Records CD, 1995)

THis collects all of the tracks on 9 of the band’s singles from 1980 through 1985. While roughly the first half of the cd sticks pretty close to the band’s earliest sound, there is a shift into more complex playing and songwriting about halfway through. Discharge is a reference point and huge influence on many pop metal bands like Anthrax and Metallica, so even if this music isn’t your thing, its historical value and cultural significance can’t be overstated.

Jah Wobble – Umbra Sumus (30 Hertzx CD, 1998)

For me the jury has been out about Jah Wobble for over 20 years. He has a HUGE body of work to his credit, but all of his credibility is tied to his stint in PIL. While that’s no short money, it WAS a long time ago. Plus his move toward world music LONG before it ever beame part of the broadband cultural horizon is cerainly noteworthy. On this CD, the use of tradional East Indian music is very profound. While critics seem to feel that he draws from a variety of ethnic traditions without explicitly evoking any one of them, I tend to disagree and point to a variety of tracks here which seem to purely emulate many of those traditions. THis is not a bad thing, in fact, most of this is hypnotic and strangely appealing. It’s just not as focused as I might like it to be.

UnUn – Super Shiny Dreams (bad taste USA CD, 1995)

While the timing of this CD is a bit nebulous, it is early in the career of post-Sugarcubes THor Eldon and the desperate need to find a Bjork replacement is sorta evident here. Beyond a handful of songs, I’ve never been much of a Sugarcubes fan – I mean, when they hit, they hit big – Birthday – My God! Coldsweat and Deus, well, they were pretty damn good too. But that was it for me. (Now <i>KUKL</i>, well, tha’s a whole ‘nutha story). Stylistically, this Unun CD has it down cold, but style only goes so far. And so will I…

The Vanity Projct (Flagship records CD 2006)

A very quietly promoted solo project of Barenaked Ladies frontman Steven Page. This is a collection of his songs whose lyrics deal with much of the same irony of modern life in much of the same irnic way as his songs in the Barenaked Ladies oeuvre does. That of course means You’d Love This – but good luck fdinding a copy. Oh yeah, the packaging is pretty gorgeous too.

Williamson – The Trashcan Electric EP (Williamson CD, 2005)

“All music written, recorded and mastered in the most unkempt bedroom in North America.” I can’t say anything better than that…