Fluxblog 444: music that sounds like Stereolab and Broadcast
Plus a tribute to No Alternative and new music by The Kills, Bombay Bicycle Club, and Goya Gumbani
This week’s playlist is STEREOCASTIC SOUND: PSYCHEDELIC NEO SPACE AGE GROOVES, an exploration of the alternately moody and kitschy aesthetics of Stereolab, Broadcast, The Soundcarriers, Crumb, Lake Ruth, Vanishing Twin, Au Revoir Simone, The Cardigans, The Postmarks, and many other fellow travelers. It’s kinda surprising to me that I took this long to make a playlist like this since this is one of my all-time favorite aesthetics. I think a lot of you will really like this one. [Spotify | Apple | YouTube]
No Alternative, the excellent and era-defining Red Hot compilation featuring Nirvana, Pavement, The Smashing Pumpkins, Sarah McLachlan, Beastie Boys, Soundgarden, Sonic Youth, The Breeders, Patti Smith, Soul Asylum, Matthew Sweet, and Barbara Manning, among others, just hit its 30th anniversary last week. This is a very pivotal record in my personal history, so I’m re-running something I wrote in 2016 about Straitjacket Fits’ “Brittle,” one of my favorites on the record. It’s an incredibly cool song - imagine a Tom Petty song but with the malignant creep vibes of prime Elvis Costello.
With Real Blood Inside
Straitjacket Fits “Brittle”
“Brittle” comes the perspective of someone knows they’re being selfish and petty and have decided to really lean into it, mostly because it’s emotionally honest but partly because they know it’s kinda funny to be so pathetic. A lot of Elvis Costello songs are written with this point of view, and Shayne Carter even kinda sounds like him here. It’s amazing how long it took me to realize that, actually – I’ve known this song well for over 20 years and that only hit me a few weeks ago.
Carter is singing to an ex, and making a dubious case for why they ought to get back together, or something like that. I’m not even sure if this guy even wants that, so much as he wants to make it clear that no one needs it more than him. That’s the exact word he uses – it. The love, the spark, the sex, the feeling of being wanted? Maybe all of it, who can say. He’s ambiguous in the details, but adamant about wanting it, and is off-handedly spiteful about his competition: “Just because another’s words can touch you better / don’t make ‘em measure up to mine.” I love that bit of ego there, because it’s what you do when you’re grasping for any reason to feel better than your rival. Evidence is unnecessary, you just need to believe that you’re better because, well, you’re biased.
The bridge is where the song reveals what’s really going on in this dude’s head, and wrings a bit of soulfulness of it: “Buried deep, there’s a hope that I remain so endless and boundless, you spin when you dream.” All he really wants is to matter to this other person, and he doesn’t care whether it’s good or bad. It’s just to leave a mark, because he doesn’t want to be alone in thinking this was a significant connection. It’s “an eye for an eye,” but for romantic jealousy. And of course this ends on a coy, passive-aggressive note: “Anyway, could be something you’d be best off to consider.”
Yeah, I love this song. And I hate that I see some version of myself in it.
Buy it from Amazon.
And here’s this week’s posts…
Last Days In LA
The Kills “103”
Fifteen years ago The Kills released a song called “What New York Used to Be,” a rather intense track I once described as sounding like the band trying to will a grimier, more dangerous version of the city back into existence. “103” is like that song in reverse, with Alison Mosshart sensing Los Angeles gradually becoming more inhospitable through climate change and looking around like “oh, yeah, this might actually be fun.” The Kills thrive on romance and drama, and what’s more dramatic than a city on fire? What’s more romantic than embracing beneath the “last palm tree”? Jamie Hince’s arrangement sounds sun bleached and hazy; the vibe would suggest sweat and lust regardless of what Mosshart sang. Sure, there’s impending doom on the horizon in this song, but for The Kills impending doom is on the menu in nearly everything they write. Leave it to them to take the worst vision of our future and make it sexy and exciting.
Buy it from Amazon.
A Risk I’ll Take
Bombay Bicycle Club featuring Damon Albarn “Heaven”
“Heaven” sounds like Bombay Bicycle Club and Damon Albarn set out to write their own take on the structural conceit of “A Day in the Life,” but with the aesthetics shifted to, roughly, the Beta Band era of UK indie music. The song is very elegantly paced and arranged as it moves towards a triumphant conclusion, but the thing I find most interesting is the disconnect between the lyrical perspectives of Albarn and Jack Steadman. While Steadman’s words support the vaguely grandiose quality of his parts of the song with him swearing “heaven is a risk I’ll take,” Albarn sings from the POV of a very religious gold miner. He sounds ragged and exhausted in these verses, suggesting the mindset of a man willing to break his body while guided by his faith to some great reward. Albarn’s character sounds genuine in his belief, but driven by base concerns, while Steadman seems earnest in his yearning but directionless in his pursuit.
Buy it from Amazon.
Glistening And Gleaming
Goya Gumbani “Cloth & Polish”
August Fanon’s track for “Cloth & Polish” signals sexiness and relaxation, but also a vague, nagging sense of danger and dread. I’m not sure whether or not the main keyboard and bass parts are sampled or composed by Fanon, but in either case the atmosphere is thick, the core melody is strong, and the laid back yet bugged out tone suits Goya Gumbani’s sleepy but conversational rap style. This is an exceptionally evocative piece of music – I can envision the setting very clearly in my mind, I get the sense this will likely be the case for you too.
Buy it from Bandcamp.
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• Meaghan Garvey wrote about Madonna’s new tour for Vulture, mainly pondering how people have perceived her over the years, landing on this point: “For the first 20 years of Madonna’s career, no one talked about Madonna without talking about sex, and in the 20 years to follow, no one has talked about Madonna without talking about her age.”
• Black Bubblegum returned with a new episode in which Jasmine examines the contrast between how people have responded to Janelle Monaé and Chlöe Bailey becoming more sexualized in their presentation and the way people talk about Megan Thee Stallion and Sexyy Red, who’ve always centered their image and art around sex.
• I enjoyed listening to Terry Gross’ new interview with David Byrne on Fresh Air this week – it’s not especially revelatory, but Gross is clearly a huuuuge fan and Byrne was in a very good mood and game for it.
• Nina Corcoran wrote a great reported piece for Pitchfork about artists figuring out how to get by when so many venues are taking ridiculously large chunks of their merch sales on tour.