MOG - Masoo's Posts

friday random ten, 1997 edition

Masoo — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 07:41:46 GMT

1. Chumbawamba, "Tubthumping." One-hit wonders who have been making music for 25 years. Anarchists who created the perfect sports anthem.

2. Blur, "Song 2." OK, so this one has actually outlasted "Tubthumping" as a sports anthem ... it still gets played at sporting events in 2008. No one in the stands knows the name of the song, but they sing along anyway.

3. Pavement, "Stereo." I freely admit that I can't stand Geddy Lee's vocals.

4. Puff Daddy, "Victory." Meanwhile, my son often refers to me as "the guy who likes the sound of Puffy's rapping."

5. Erykah Badu, "On and On." Is she the Eartha Kitt of her day?

6. Sleater-Kinney, "One More Hour." My favorite S-K song, unless I'm in the mood for a rush, in which case it's "Youth Decay." The video, lo-fi as it is, is of the last song they ever played together. The group hug at the end makes hardcore fans cry. Excuse me while I wipe away the tears.

7. Harvey Danger, "Flagpole Sitta." Earlier this week, the Undercover Black Man had a post titled "The Chicks with Ukeleles All-Stars!" One of those All-Star Chicks was Julia Nunes singing "Flagpole Sitta." The video link is to her version, which you'll either find adorable or sugary ... or both.

8. Third Eye Blind, "Semi-Charmed Life." I feel like this song was popular just a couple of weeks ago, but the YouTube comments are full of people saying "I remember this oldie!"

9. Buena Vista Social Club, "Candela." I've mentioned before that the movie of the BVSC kinda creeps me out ... something about Ry Cooder feels like he's trying to steal the scenes, which isn't fair to him, I know, plus there's something politically retro about the "let's free the Cubans by bringing them to the Big Apple" stuff. The music blows away all of my misgivings, though.

10. Fleetwood Mac, "Landslide." Speaking of getting the creeps ... this version is from The Dance, and as lovely as it is, the interplay between Nicks and Buckingham is weird. Something about the way he tips his cap to her as she sings about how she had to break up with him three decades ago. I don't know, maybe it's just me.

Bonus track: Fleetwood Mac didn't always sound like that:

friday random ten, 1996 edition

Masoo — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 07:51:01 GMT

1. Spice Girls, "Wannabe." I have no idea what I'd think now, but I actually liked Spiceworld: The Movie when I saw it back in the day.

2. E-40, "Rapper's Ball." Rappers make a habit of guesting on each other's albums, and since E-40 is one of the kings of the Bay Area, his cameo friends are often locals. This time it's Too Short. Also K-Ci from Jodeci ... 40's always had connections to the South.

3. Fugees, "Ready or Not." Spice Girls are "just" pop, E-40's a regional sensation (or was in 1996), but the Fugees were "great art." I resist the notion, but this was a pretty great album, just the same.

4. Fiona Apple, "Criminal." For some reason, I've always thought Apple was from some other country, like Australia, which shows I'm not paying attention ... I suspect if I did, I'd suss out her Broadway roots without too much trouble.

5. Busta Rhymes, "Who Ha!! Got You All in Check." My son and I were driving to the BART station on our way to the Giants game last weekend, and he played me the Nas song "Fried Chicken." I loved it because Busta Rhymes does an entire verse about how much he loves to eat pork.

6. The Prodigy, "Firestarter." This was their tenth single. It's a sign that I'm getting old, I suppose ... it's the first one I paid much attention to.

7. DJ Shadow, "Midnight in a Perfect World." The true follow-up to Paul's Boutique. The album made the Guinness Book of World Records for First Completely Sampled Album.

8. Sleater-Kinney, "Call the Doctor." I love them so much, I can't really bear to listen anymore, so it's good when they turn up on shuffle play ... I don't usually play them on my own because I start missing them again.

9. Sheryl Crow, "If It Makes You Happy." I never loved her, so I have no problem listening to her.

10. Beck, "Where It's At." I saw Beck in a solo gig at the Bridge Concert the year before this. He didn't play "Loser," so I didn't pay attention ... I was waiting for Bruce. Bruce played the only poor set I've ever seen from him. Beck became a big star. Youneverknow.

Bonus track:

friday random ten, 1995 edition

Masoo — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 07:17:26 GMT

1. The Tony Rich Project, "Nobody Knows." This is a seriously demented song. Beautiful, sad, lovely ... but demented. He wants the world to know that only he knows that he's lonely. Wrap your brain around that one. Or just listen, it's really pretty.

2. Joan Osborne, "One of Us." They got two seasons of Joan of Arcadia out of this song.

3. Tracy Chapman, "Give Me One Reason." The ultimate folkie makes a comeback with a 12-bar blues. Went higher on the charts than "Fast Car."

4. Bonnie Raitt, "I Can't Make You Love Me." I'm one of those people who thinks Bonnie Raitt has a lot of great tracks. This may not be the best thing she ever recorded, but it's likely the best ballad. The 1995 version is from Road Tested.

5. Smashing Pumpkins, "1979." This one stands in for all the popular songs by bands like Oasis, played so often they perfectly recall their era, but nothing I actually care about in 2008.

6. Bruce Springsteen, "Back in Your Arms." In my life, I've seen Bruce perform around 200 different songs. I've never seen him sing this one, though, and it's always #1 on my "what song do you hope he'll play" list. The version on Tracks is good, but the snippets from the Blood Brothers documentary are the best.

7. Luniz, "I Got 5 on It (Bay Ballas Remix)." This remix featured just about every Bay Area rapper who was living and in the area at the time it was recorded ... a true super-session. And I can play it over and over, because I love the riff, and I love the chorus.

8. Method Man & Mary J. Blige, "I'll Be There for You / You're All I Need to Get By." This one won a Grammy. Method Man's had a long musical career, but he'll always be Cheese from The Wire to me. "They killed my dog!"

9. Garbage, "Queer." I don't know why this surprises me so much, but Shirley Manson is 42 years old.

10. Better Than Ezra, "Good." I always liked this song, but there's something generic about it. I can remember trying to get someone to recall it and not being able to because all I could say was that the chorus had "good" in it a lot.

Bonus track ... once again, nothing on Wolfgang's Vault from 1995, so here's another Bruce cut, covering John Lee Hooker:

out with the rhapsody, in with the zune

Masoo — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 19:07:09 GMT

Today I canceled my Rhapsody subscription, making my move to Zune official. It's an odd move, given that I don't own a Zune. But I use my portable MP3 player much less often than I used to, while I listen to music on the computer for hours every day. So what really matters to me is the software and services for the computer. Microsoft just updated their software to 3.0, and they have something called a Zune Pass that allows me to listen to any song in their huge catalog as long as I pay my monthly fee ... and I am a big fan of subscription services.

The Zune catalog seems comparable to Rhapsody's ... people claim that this or that service has a better catalog, but my experience has been that they all have everything except the Beatles, plus a few other acts like Led Zep, Metallica, or the Eagles where you can only get the music if you pay for specific downloads. Suffice to say that so far, I feel like I'm hearing just as many songs on Zune as I did on Rhapsody as I did on Urge as I did on MusicMatch (yes, I go through subscription services with some regularity).

The software is what matters. Zune software, like most software of this kind, has lots of things I consider bells and whistles, that other people might find essential. It has a few quirky additions, which are fine with me. But the essential thing is that the software keeps track of my music, lets me access the catalog as if it were my own, and plays without crashing. Is it perfect? Far from it. But it's my choice right now as the best of the subscription services.

Rhapsody ... I keep going back to them, I keep leaving them, that should tell you something. They have the right ideas for the most part, when everything is working right it's a pleasure ... but it's rare that everything works right, the software is clunky and buggy, and when they "fix" the software, or even come out with new versions, they go sideways at best and backwards at worst. One of the more recent updates added the ability to look at pictures from your hard drive, which is nice except I don't need that function from my music-playing software, the software already feels bloated, and there were existing problems that needed fixing. As I have ranted to customer support until they are sick of me, their software does not allow you to sort playlists, so if you create a playlist of 2000 songs (I know, what kind of playlist is that, but believe me, I have them), the only way to reorder them without resorting to kludgy workarounds is to move songs around the list by hand. Want to know if you've added that ZZ Top song to the list? Get your reading glasses, because you can't sort by artist, you can't sort by song, you can't sort by album title, you can only scroll through the list until you find the track you are looking for (or, if it's not there ... well, you'll do a lot of scrolling to find that out). I am not a programmer, but even I know that sort capabilities are among the most basic of functions for any software that utilizes database information. Not for Rhapsody, though.

And so, I'm a Zuner. I have no emotional attachment to Zune, nor did I to any of the other services I've tried and abandoned ... well, to be honest, they abandoned me, going out of business, allowing me to return to Rhapsody for another try. MusicMatch? Gone. Urge? Gone. Rhapsody? Still there, still plugging away, still committed to the concept of subscription music ... and still aggravating enough that I'm jumping ship yet again.

I haven't checked, but I don't think Mog-o-Matic recognizes Zune, so I won't be able to update my catalog and recently played lists. But, to be honest, Mog-o-Matic has done nothing but crash on my machine for some time now, so it wasn't really doing me any good, anyway.

friday random ten, 1994 edition

Masoo — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 07:12:08 GMT

1. Green Day, "Basket Case." Sometimes I give myself the creeps.

2. Pavement, "Cut Your Hair." I often times forget to listen to lyrics, although it a song has a chorus with a hook, that'll get my attention. For some reason, the "modern rock" of the mid-90s featured lots of songs that sounded great to me, where I never paid any attention to the lyrics. I have no idea what this song is about, and that goes for most Pavement songs, even though I always love hearing them when they pop up on shuffle play.

3. Warren G. & Nate Dogg, "Regulate." I don't suppose there was a single day that entire summer of '94 where I didn't hear this song at least once.

4. Tori Amos, "God." Tori Amos is another artist where I have no idea what she's singing about, although this one is less obscure to me than, say, "Cornflake Girl."

5. Live, "Lightning Crashes." I loved, and I mean loved, every one of the hits off of Throwing Copper. No, I didn't pay attention to any of the lyrics.

6. TLC, "Waterfalls." According to Wikipedia, CrazySexyCool is the best-selling album off all time in America by a girl group.

7. Oasis, "Live Forever." I know the lyrics to this one. But then, I want to live forever, too.

8. Hole, "Violet." Is Live Through This an underrated album? I love it, but I feel like it doesn't get mentioned much any more. It's #270 on the All-Time Album list at Acclaimed Music. When I get what I want, I never want it again.

9. Boyz II Men, "I'll Make Love to You." This song was #1 for fourteen straight weeks.

10. Meat Puppets, "Comin' Down." My favorite Meat Puppets song. For some reason, my wife thinks the lyrics are weird.

Bonus track: nothing from 1994 at Wolfgang's Vault, so here's a long piece from 1970, in honor of Rick Wright:

friday random ten, 1993 edition

Masoo — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 08:01:26 GMT

1. Tony! Toni! Tone!, "If I Had No Loot." The first three songs on the list are evidence of how deeply hip hop had taken over pop music. But some of this is also shuffle play in action, along with my rule that I can't use the same song twice. 1993 was the year of In Utero, Exile in Guyville, and Rid of Me, all of which appeared on the 1993 Random Ten last year.

2. Salt 'N Pepa, "Whatta Man." With help from En Vogue. The video features both acts.

3. Naughty by Nature, "Hip Hop Hooray." This title either made your day or made you curse progress, depending on whether you thought the hip hop revolution was a good thing.

4. Sheryl Crow, "All I Wanna Do." Meanwhile, there was always something for the aging mainstream rock fans. The closest thing to a David & David sequel, I suppose. The video includes some guy who was apparently edited out of later versions, leading to the following great comment on YouTube: "Internet FTW can't revise history no more mofos."

5. Jane Siberry, "Love Is Everything (Harmony Version)." There used to be a full-length video of this on YouTube, but someone, likely from the Siberry camp, took it down. I'm sorry, is Jane Siberry at the point in her career where she doesn't want us to watch her videos? The link is to k.d. lang singing this fine song.

6. Israel Kamakawiwo'ole, "Somewhere Over the Rainbow/Wonderful World." If "It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday" is the go-to song at funerals for black folks, this one might be the same for white folks. I wish I hadn't gone to enough funerals to have an opinion on this.

7. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, "Mary Jane's Last Dance." I'm a bit unfair towards Tom Petty, who has made many fine records in his career. For some reason, I've chosen him to represent the kind of music boomers enjoyed once punk and disco and hip hop scared them from liking anything new. It's not Tom Petty's fault that he came along when he did ... if he'd been around a decade earlier he could have been the Byrds. But instead he's, well, the Byrds after punk and disco and hip hop have happened, and outside of a slight new-wavy sound, Petty's music sounds like those other musical genres never happened. But in the end, all that matters is that he's made many fine records, so I should give him a break.

8. Robin S, "Show Me Love." I'm one of those people who always confuses this with Robyn's "Show Me Love."

9. Martina McBride, "Independence Day." According to Wikipedia, McBride is the "Céline Dion of country music." This is apparently meant as a compliment. The article also says McBride learned to sing in part by listening to Pat Benatar records. This, too, is apparently meant as a compliment.

10. Chris Isaak, "Solitary Man." Local boy makes good.

Bonus track:

presently in the past

Masoo — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 19:29:11 GMT

The sound isn't the best on this, but I'll post it anyway. My wife used to work for the brother of Naomi Ruth Eisenberg, who sings this one. At one memorable mid-70s show at a converted movie theater, Dan was too drunk to perform (as I recall, he only got through two songs), but during the short time he and his band were on stage, we managed to go to the front and get Naomi's autograph on the poster for the concert. "This is great," Dan said as he tried to fix a broken guitar string, "now Naomi's giving autographs."

friday random ten, 1992 edition

Masoo — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 07:31:57 GMT

1. Alison Krauss and Union Station, "Everytime You Say Goodbye." How long as Krauss been around? This was released 16 years ago ... she was 21 years old ... she'd already been recording for 7 years.

2. Dr. Dre, "Fuck Wit Dre Day (And Everybody's Celebratin')." Dre makes hay with a Funkadelic bass line that worked even better when he stuck it on "What's My Name." For better or worse, this album redefined pop music.

3. L7, "Pretend We're Dead." I've been reading some autobiographical comix by Ariel Schrag, who grew up in Berkeley. She had an L7 phase, and a Juliette Lewis phase ... yes, she liked Natural Born Killers.

4. En Vogue, "Giving Him Something He Can Feel." The queens of Oaktown sing Curtis Mayfield, livin' in a world of ghetto life.

5. The Cure, "Friday I'm in Love." The perfect song for a Friday Random Ten.

6. Bruce Springsteen, "I Wish I Were Blind." Bruce fires the E Street Band, tries to figure out the meaning of (his) life, puts out a pair of solo albums that don't go over well, shows up on MTV Unplugged and plugs in ... that last was the best part of the story, fuck Unplugged. This is a beautiful, sad song.

7. Pete Rock & CL Smooth, "They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y.)." There's a lot of hip hop on this list, and hip-hop influenced stuff ... hey, we're up to 1992, the musical world had changed.

8. House of Pain, "Jump Around." Go ahead, watch the video ... you'll love it.

9. PJ Harvey, "Sheela-Na-Gig." Sheela-na-Gigs ... "figurative carvings of naked women displaying an exaggerated vulva."

10. k.d. lang, "Constant Craving." k.d. releases her inner Julie London.

Bonus track:

Wolfgang's Vault gets skimpier and skimpier the closer we get to the present, so here's something from 1977 ... consider it another shoutout to Oakland:

mixed up

Masoo — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 20:14:30 GMT

friday random ten, 1991 edition

Masoo — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 03:03:55 GMT

1. Joni Mitchell, "Night Ride Home." Greatest ever cameo appearance by a cricket.

2. Cypress Hill, "How I Could Just Kill a Man." All he wanted was a Pepsi.

3. U2, "One." It's kinda like when Obama gets fired up with the flowing rhetoric ... I don't trust it, but I can't resist it. This is the kind of ballad by a too-pretentious band that I should hate. But I can't resist it.

4. John Prine, "It's a Big Old Goofy World." In a perfect world, John Prine would be considered a national treasure. OK, some of us already think of him that way. But it's not a perfect world. Instead, there's a big old goofy man dancing with a big old goofy girl. Ooh, baby, it's a big old goofy world.

5. Boyz II Men, "Motownphilly." Think about that title.

6. Nirvana, "Territorial Pissings." A great band, sounding their most Hüsker-esque. Remember, just because you're paranoid don't mean they're not after you.

7. Guns N' Roses, "November Rain." I really can't stand to listen to Axl Rose's voice ... my problem, not his ... so I'm not a good judge of their music. Slash is good, though.

8. Michelle Shocked, "Come a Long Way." A confession: I don't know what this song is about.

9. Pearl Jam, "Jeremy." In many ways, Pearl Jam is the anti-Guns N' Roses ... they stand for good things, don't write gay-bashing lyrics, they even love Sleater-Kinney. But I don't really care about them. And while I can listen to Eddie Vedder's voice, it isn't my favorite.

10. Marky Mark & the Funky Bunch, "Good Vibrations." Instead of making a career in movies and then cutting the vanity record, Marky Mark started with the vanity record and THEN had the movie career. This is actually a good track, although that's mostly thanks to Loleatta Holloway.

Bonus track:

then she kissed me

Masoo — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 21:29:06 GMT

friday random ten, 1990 edition

Masoo — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 07:04:23 GMT

1. Digital Underground, "The Humpty Dance." According to the Urban Dictionary, a sex packet is "biochemically compacted sexual affection, sex in a pill, comes wrapped in paper. You can get three for $10.99."

2. Bell Biv DeVoe, "Do Me." When I sing this song in my head, the chorus is the main part of the whole, or at least what I think of as the chorus, the hook that brings me back: "You can do me in the morning, you can do me in the night, you can do me when you wanna do me." In fact, that part doesn't come until the song is 3/4 done ... it's not really the chorus. But without that part, I wouldn't have it on my hard drive and it wouldn't be on this list.

3. Joan Jett, "Time Has Come Today." Christgau gave her albums five consecutive B+ grades, noting that her "populist instincts" made those not-quite-an-A grades the entire point of her art. Then she released this album of covers, without the Blackhearts who had helped her get those B+ marks. Bob wasn't impressed ... he gave the album the brutal "bomb" rating. That'll teach her to try something different. The video is of the Ramones' better version (the Chambers Brothers remain tops).

4. The Geto Boys, "Read These Nikes." Count me as one middle-aged white guy who thinks a lot of the Geto Boys stuff is funny. I know, I'm bad. Remorse, what the fuck is that? I beat your mama ass and go get a six-pack.

5. Bruce Springsteen, "My Lover Man." So Bruce is all alone, no more E Street Band, trying to figure out what-the-fuck. And he writes this song. "I don't mean to cause you hurt or cause you pain. Life is short and love's a dirty game. Now there's no need for our game to end. Come close and we'll begin to find our beautiful selves again, my lover man."

6. C+C Music Factory, "Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)." That's Martha Wash blasting out the title. Wash was born in San Francisco and sang backup for Sylvester, before becoming one half of the Weather Girls, and then singing lead semi-anonymously on several hits. Wash claimed she was discriminated against because of her size ... the video to this song makes the case as well as anything, using Zelma Davis, a more slender band member, to lip sync Wash's vocals.

7. Sonic Youth, "Kool Thing." The second Sonic Youth track in the last three Random Tens, and the other one of my Sonic Faves ... shuffle play did good.

8. Concrete Blonde, "Joey." Two straight female bass players. Straight as in consecutive, in case that's not clear.

9. Uncle Tupelo, "No Depression." The song that gave a name to a genre, written by A.P. Carter during the real depression.

10. Deee-Lite, "Groove Is in the Heart." I guess I couldn't ask for another.

Bonus track ... this has nothing to do with 1990, but Wolfgang's Vault gets kinda skimpy once the 90s roll around, so instead, here's another song with a lady bass player:

hope you're feeling better

Masoo — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 21:45:19 GMT

friday random ten, 1989 edition

Masoo — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 07:01:02 GMT

1. Fine Young Cannibals, "She Drives Me Crazy." Recently covered by Dolly Parton. It's better than her cover of "Stairway to Heaven." The gossip fans will be sorry to hear that Dolly removes "she" from the title.

2. Barrence Whitfield and the Savages, "Rockin' the Mule in Kansas." Whitfield is a great, unknown treasure. His live shows are legendary, or would be if anyone had ever heard of him. I see by his web site that he plays weddings. Wonder if my wife would like to renew our vows? (The video is of "Stop Twistin' My Arm.")

3. The B-52's, "Roam." "Take it hip to hip, rock it through the wilderness." Arguably their most listenable song, thanks to great vocals from the gals (and, to be honest, the absence of Fred). Amazing factoid: Kate is 60!

4. Julee Cruise, "Falling." It's safe to say that for people of a certain age, the first notes of this one bring on the memories. Amazing factoid: Cruise spent a couple of years singing with the B-52's.

5. De La Soul, "Me, Myself and I." One response to the rise of gangsta rap.

6. The Stop the Violence Movement, "Self-Destruction." Another response.

7. Emmylou Harris, "Heaven Only Knows." To the best of my knowledge, Emmylou Harris has never recorded a rap song.

8. Tone Lōc, "Wild Thing." Marvin Young was born in England to Jamaican parents, moved to America, and got a B.A. in economics at USC in 1989. As Young MC, he wrote "Wild Thing: for Tone Lōc.

9. Madonna, "Express Yourself." Pussy rules the world. OK, I said it.

10. Beastie Boys, "Shake Your Rump." I don't think the Beasties were responding to gangsta rap, but who knows. I hope shuffle play turns up a Paul's Boutique track every "1989 edition," because it's an amazing album. I used to say that there would never be another album like Paul's Boutique, because the rules regarding sampling have changed. But I didn't think about underground music. Amazing factoid: this song last 3:19. According to Wikipedia, in those 199 seconds, the Beasties sample 12 different songs (from Led Zeppelin to the Supremes) and include pop culture references to 9 different items (from Fred Flintstone to Patty Duke).

Bonus track:

up above my head

Masoo — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 17:54:22 GMT

there's a meetin' here tonight

Masoo — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 05:56:08 GMT

friday random ten, 1988 edition

Masoo — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 19:38:40 GMT

1. Sonic Youth, "Teen Age Riot." It's probably evidence that I'm not a big Sonic Youth fan that this is one of my favorites of their songs.

2. Run-D.M.C., "Mary Mary." How big was this group back in the day? They had hits covering the Monkees.

3. Tanita Tikaram, "Twist in My Sobriety." Sometimes, things just slip past my consciousness. I'm not sure I'd even heard of Tanita Tikaram until a couple of days ago, when I was scouring Usenet for tunes. Now I find out she had not one, but two hits in 1988. So here's what I learned about her from Wikipedia: born in Germany, mom is Malaysian, father is Indo-Fijian, and she grew up in England.

4. The Feelies, "Away." I am apparently alone in my belief that Only Life is the greatest of all Feelies albums.

5. Taj Mahal, "Bourgeois Blues." From an album of covers of songs by Woody Guthrie and Lead Belly. Why those two are connected remains a mystery, but there are some fine tracks on the album.

6. Randy Newman, "It's Money That Matters." "I got a great big house on the hill here, and a great big blonde wife inside it. And a great big pool in my backyard and another great big pool beside it. Sonny, it's money that matters!"

7. Public Enemy, "Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos." In 1988, Run-D.M.C. covered the Monkees. By 1995, PE was being covered by Tricky.

8. Tracy Chapman, "Fast Car." I was riding in the car today, and one of the local morning radio shows had Jan Wahl reviewing movies. The "crew" was teasing Wahl for giving a good review to the "Traveling Pants" sequel, but she stood her ground, noting that if a movie delivers for its intended audience, and if that audience is under-served, she's interested, adding that the "Traveling Pants" movies do exactly that for the young women who are usually left out when movies are planned. Tracy Chapman in 1988 was kinda like a musical Traveling Pants ... Tufts grad, folkie, black, gay but discreetly so, and, of course, plenty of talent. At a time when pop music included everything from Sonic Youth to Public Enemy, with grunge on the horizon, Tracy Chapman was the answer to the dreams of many. She was the New Joan Armatrading. With the unstoppable "Fast Car", she crossed over in ways the Traveling Pants likely will never manage.

9. The Traveling Wilburys, "End of the Line." As super groups go, these guys weren't half bad. But this is the only song of theirs that I still listen to.

10. The Bangles, "Eternal Flame." Do you suppose shuffle play knew the Olympics have begun?

Bonus track:

drifting

Masoo — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 20:08:59 GMT

friday random ten, 1987 edition

Masoo — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 07:00:32 GMT

1. Eric B. & Rakim, "I Ain't No Joke." Rolling Stone: "When did you realize that music was important to you?" Common: "When Paid in Full came out."

2. Suzanne Vega, "Luka." "Yes I think I'm okay. I walked into the door again. If you ask that's what I'll say, it's not your business anyway."

3. LL Cool J, "Goin' Back to Cali." Shuffle play doesn't know enough to put this with Eric B. & Rakim. This one first turned up on the soundtrack to a movie where Robert Downey Jr. played a junkie and James Spader played his dealer.

4. Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt, & Emmylou Harris, "My Dear Companion." When our kids were young (they were 12 and 9 in 1987), they would sit in the back of the car when we'd hit the road. The rule of car music was simple: Mom had to at least tolerate it. This meant no "bangie-bangie music," as she called most of what her husband listened to, and no bass-heavy music, hip-hop or other. The Trio album by these three lovely singers was one of her favorites, and we listened to it often in the car. I think it became something to be feared by the youngsters in the back seat ... oh no, not Trio again!

5. Terence Trent D'Arby, "Sign Your Name." Here, on the other hand, was a song that the whole family could like.

6. Bruce Springsteen, "Valentine's Day." Bruce's last great album, and one of the best breakup records ever made. His acknowledgement to his wife, "Thanks Juli," says everything when combined with the songs on the album. It ends with this beautiful song, but even here, when reconciliation approaches, the singer is on the road thinking about the person he misses, he's not there yet, and he's terrified he's lost her. After the Tunnel of Love tour, Bruce put most of these songs on the shelf, playing them far less often than you'd imagine, given their quality, and one can only surmise the album brought back too many bad memories for him. "Valentine's Day" must have hit him the hardest ... although the album came out in 1987, he didn't sing this one live until 2005.

7. 10,000 Maniacs, "What's the Matter Here?" From the album that originally included "Peace Train", until Cat Stevens started mouthing off and Natalie Merchant decided she didn't want to be associated with his songs any longer. I suppose this answers the titular question.

8. George Michael, "One More Try." I can't say I'm a big fan of George Michael ... my daughter loved him around the time of this album ... but I could listen to this song a dozen times in a row.

9. Lyle Lovett, "If I Had a Boat." The German version of Rolling Stone called this album the 201st best album of all time. Christgau gave it a B-.

10. The Pixies, "Caribou." Repent!

Bonus track:

the wildest

Masoo — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 07:45:47 GMT

friday random ten, 1986 edition

Masoo — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 08:54:01 GMT

1. Cameo, "Word Up!" They'd been making albums for a decade when this one came out.

2. Run-D.M.C., "It's Tricky." I love the kinds of people they put in their videos. This one has Penn & Teller.

3. Laurie Anderson, "Language Is a Virus." "O Superman" may be one of the weirdest records to be a hit, not weird as in "novelty record" but weird as in "arty." She worked with William S. Burroughs ... she released a five-LP live album ... she directed her own concert film, from which this song is taken ... she invented instruments ... she was an artist-in-residence for NASA ... hell, this year she even married Lou Reed.

4. The Pretenders, "Don't Get Me Wrong." Chrissie as Mrs. Peel. Seems so obvious, but until the video I hadn't ever thought of it.

5. The Beastie Boys, "No Sleep Till Brooklyn." The first rap album to hit the top of the pop charts. Whenever Rich Aurilia bats for the Giants, they play this song (Richie's from Brooklyn) ... I always wonder if Aurilia actually likes rap music.

6. Timex Social Club, "Rumors." Berkeley's own (take that, Green Day).

7. The Bangles, "Manic Monday." Since we're making local connections, Susanna Hoffs went to Cal. This track is proof that in those days, even if Prince didn't appear on a list like this, he appeared on a list like this.

8. Peter Gabriel, "In Your Eyes." If you can't guess in advance what the video link is, you don't know your Lloyd Dobler.

9. David & David, "Welcome to the Boomtown." One nice thing about talking up music from 1986 is that I get to promote this album, which has to be one of the great one-offs of all time.

10. Billy Bragg, "Levi Stubbs' Tears." When the world falls apart, some things stay in place.

Bonus Track:

mighty cootie fiyo

Masoo — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 19:07:05 GMT

i'm not here for your entertainment

Masoo — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 06:20:28 GMT

friday random ten, 1985 edition

Masoo — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 07:09:56 GMT

1. Hüsker Dü, "New Day Rising." This is a very college-rock oriented list, because that's mostly what I listened to from 1981-1987, and over the years, those songs have made it to my hard drive. If I remember correctly, this song was the epitome of the Huskers for my son, who was 10 at the time ... his version of hardcore was "newdayRIsing, newdayRIsing, newdayRIsing!"

2. Run-D.M.C., "King of Rock." But not everything was college rock. Most times, when an artist cuts a followup to a hit that copies the original, it's not as good. "King of Rock," though, might be the equal of "Rock Box."

3. Suzanne Vega, "Marlene on the Wall." One of those really bad segues that shuffle play often coughs up. Nothing wrong with the song, it just sounds odd coming after Run-D.M.C.

4. Dramarama, "Anything, Anything (I'll Give You)." College rock returns. One of those unstoppable songs that you can play ten times in a row. I don't think I could name a single other song Dramarama recorded.

5. Freddie Jackson, "Rock Me Tonight." Shuffle play strikes again. Off the top of my head, I can't think of a single radio station in 1985 that would have played both Dramarama and Freddie Jackson, much less play them one after the other.

6. The Pogues, "Dirty Old Town." I love the comments on the video at YouTube: "He doesn't need pretty teeth...Shane is a musical genius. Who the heck cares what he looks like?"

7. Whitney Houston, "The Greatest Love of All." Speaking of pretty teeth. Maybe it's just me ... I've never been a fan of Whitney's ... but are the lyrics to this song revolting? "Learning to love yourself, it is the greatest love of all." Yeesh. Don't worry about anyone else, just love yourself and the world can take care of itself.

8. Toy Dolls, "We're Mad." Whitney Houston is why college radio was necessary ... there had to be a place where I didn't have to listen to her crap. Does anyone talk about Toy Dolls anymore? For awhile there, they were all over the local college station.

9. Camper Van Beethoven, "Take the Skinheads Bowling." Camper Van was played a lot, as well, but then, they were local, if you call Santa Cruz local to Berkeley, which I do.

10. New Order, "The Perfect Kiss." Not really college "rock", although college radio is where they got played. Second only to Hüsker Dü in my heart, of the acts on this list.

Bonus track:

beat me, daddy

Masoo — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 19:42:04 GMT

friday random ten, 1984 edition

Masoo — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 14:32:55 GMT

1. Prince, "Let's Go Crazy." Dearly beloved ... check out the video. It's very short. Apparently, Prince or someone representing him is muting the sound on all Prince videos on YouTube. They are also muting the sound on any videos of anyone else doing a cover version of a Prince song.

2. Run-D.M.C.,"Rock Box." This Random Ten features some of the greatest popular artists of all time: Prince, Madonna, Bruce Springsteen. None of them had as big an impact on the sound of the music's future as Run-D.M.C. did with their first album, most specifically, "Rock Box." Take the loose joy of early hip-hop, strip it down even further, clamp on a monster gee-tar riff, and voila! Pop music would never be the same. And they put Professor Irwin Corey in the video!

3. Madonna, "Like a Virgin." What do you say about someone when everyone has already said everything, and then some? You fall back on Wikitrivia. The director of the video for this song, Mary Lambert, went on to direct Pet Sematary and Pet Sematary II. Her sister is a Senator considered a possible running mate for Barack Obama.

4. Lou Reed, "Turn to Me." Remember, I'm the one who loves you. You can always give me a call! (The video features other songs from the same period ... can't find me no "Turn to Me.")

5. The Replacements, "Unsatisfied." I suppose you never know when an area will start cranking out great music. I don't know enough about Minneapolis to explain what happened there in the early 80s, but the Replacements are only the second of three Minneapolis acts on this Random Ten, and there isn't a dud amongst them. This is probably my favorite of their songs.

6. The Bangles, "Going Down to Liverpool." There's something odd about this L.A. Band singing about English unemployment forms. Kinda like Joe Cocker singing about Catfish Hunter.

7. Hüsker Dü, "Pink Turns to Blue." Our third Minneapolis artists. I always seem to have a second-favorite artist. None of them are first-favorites because that place is reserved for Bruce. At various times, Lou Reed and Prince were my second-favorites. Hüsker Dü was always in there, as well ... to explain it to people who've come to know me in more recent times, they were my Sleater-Kinney of the 80s.

8. Deniece Williams, "Let's Hear It for the Boy." Shuffle play can only cough up what's on the hard drive, and my tastes in 1984 didn't necessarily match up with what was popular. Actually, that doesn't make sense ... shuffle play isn't a time machine, it doesn't go back to what I listened to in 1984, it picks from the 1984 songs I'm interested in today. Whatever ... this song hit #1 and was featured in the hit movie Footloose. I never saw the movie, and I didn't care about the song back then ... it's the only song on this list that I didn't play at least occasionally in 1984. Doesn't sound so bad, now. The video moves things up a coupla decades.

9. Bruce Springsteen, "No Surrender." Our friend and fellow Bruce-fan Maureen died this year after a long struggle with cancer. This was her favorite Bruce song ... sorta. The last time I saw her was at the San Jose show back in April. I told her I thought of her whenever this song was played, and I told her it had never been a favorite of mine, but now I associate it with her. She said it hadn't been her favorite, either, until it took on extra meaning for her personally. Now it will always be her song, and I'll always think of her when I hear it. And so it's a favorite of mine in ways it never was before.

10. Alison Moyet, "Love Resurrection." We all need a love resurrection, just a little divine intervention.

Bonus track:

daydream

Masoo — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 19:21:33 GMT

fun with woody herman

Masoo — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 05:22:16 GMT

friday random ten, 1983 edition

Masoo — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 02:37:38 GMT

A later-than-usual, briefer-than-usual holiday version of the Random Ten, with a couple of video surprises:

1. Eddy Grant, "Electric Avenue." Made VH1's list of the 100 Greatest One-Hit Wonders. Since his previous single had hit #1 on the UK charts, since all the way back in 1968 his group The Equals had hit #1 with "Baby Come Back," since he wrote "Police on My Back" which was covered with great success by The Clash (and then the Clash version was covered by Willie Nile) ... I'd say he had more than one hit in him.

2. DeBarge, "Stay With Me." Christgau gave In a Special Way, the album from which this track was taken, an A+.

3. New Order, "Blue Monday." According to Wikipedia, the biggest-selling 12-inch single in U.K. history. It deserves it.

4. Suicidal Tendencies, "Institutionalized." There are some fine songs on this list. There are some lesser songs on this list ... well, maybe not, I like most if not all of them. A few are timeless classics in my house ("Blue Monday", for instance). But if I want to jolt myself back to 1983, this is the song that will do it.

5. The Police, "Every Breath You Take." I'm not a big fan of The Police, but they sure got it right on this one.

6. The Bobs, "Trash." The Bobs were/are an a capella group that made the sounds of instruments with their voices. It was a nice gimmick, and they were good singers. I saw them in concert, maybe even in '83, I don't actually remember, and they were congenial performers. But this is the one song by which they are known in our family: the sad tale of someone who lives with a slob.

7. Randy Newman, "I'm Different." Randy has written so many great songs, my guess is people forget this one. I love it. "I ain't sayin' I'm better than you are,
but maybe I am."

8. Tracey Ullman, "They Don't Know." Yes, that Tracey Ullman.

9. Todd Rundgren, "Bang the Drum All Day." I'm going to make a confession. I've been listening to this song for 25 years. Among other things, it might as well be the official theme song of midweek day baseball games. You know, the games that are played on a Wednesday afternoon, and you look around the stands and all you see are people like yourself, either unemployed or with jobs that allow you to leave for the game whenever you feel like it. At some point at virtually every such game, this song will be played between innings. And there may never be a lyric that comes so close to my own philsophy than the one that opens this song, the jubilantly sung "I DON'T WANT TO WORK!" Of course, two lines later the singer admits that he doesn't want to play, either ... he just wants to bang his drum. But I never really listen to the lyrics beyond that first line. That's part of the confession: I always thought this song was called "I Don't Want to Work." My other confession is that it was only a couple of weeks ago that I realized this was a Todd Rundgren song. I never would have guessed that ... I think I figured it was a Ska Revival band like Madness. Anyway, thanks, Todd.

10. The Cure, "The Lovecats." It probably proves that I have no taste when it comes to this band, but this is far and away my very very favorite Cure song ever ever ever. Great bass line, too.

Bonus track:

spreading the thunderbird1958 love

Masoo — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 07:22:35 GMT

caught one more time

Masoo — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 19:30:23 GMT

friday random ten, 1982 edition

Masoo — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 07:44:15 GMT

1. Bow Wow Wow, "I Want Candy." Start with the Sex Pistols' ex-manager. Add the Ants without Adam. Toss in a fourteen-year-old girl, born Myint Myint Aye in Myanmar, and have her change her name to Annabella. Record a 60s hit by a band of New York songwriters who pretended to be Australian sheep farmers. Instant hit!

2. George Clinton, "Man's Best Friend/Loopzilla." Clinton's first solo, released when he had already passed 40, was in most ways just another Parliament/Funkadelic album. But "just" hardly gets it ... it was one of the best P-Funk albums ever. Don't touch that radio!

3. David Johansen, "Bohemian Love Pad." Speaking of people who couldn't escape the history of earlier bands. Johansen had the usual curse of the former member of beloved cult band trying his hand as a solo artist: he wasn't the Dolls, so he wasn't good enough. Which was nonsense ... I mean, he wasn't the Dolls, but he WAS good enough. As this song shows: "You know the cockroach traffic in here, it's got me drinkin' too much beer." I saw him open for Pat Benatar around this time ... the crowd had no idea what to make of him, they booed a lot, I left before the headliner hit the stage.

4. Africa Bambaataa & the Soulsonic Force, "Planet Rock." As I recall, in one of the earliest incarnations of that Rolling Stone history of rock and roll, they jokingly referred to Kraftwerk as the future of rock and roll. A few years later, Bam proved that RS got something right, with one of the fundaments of modern hip-hop.

5. The Waitresses, "I Know What Boys Like." A woman sang it, but a man wrote it. A man who was at Kent State on That Day. Whatever that means.

6. Dexy's Midnight Runners, "Come On Eileen." Come on, indeed. This is a great song, and this is the version you want. Great band name, too.

7. Trouble Funk, "Drop the Bomb." Stringer Bell may have been cool, but when he said he didn't like that go-go shit, he showed his provincialism.

8. Marshall Crenshaw, "Someday, Someway." How not to start a rock and roll career: play John Lennon in the musical Beatlemania. How to recover: cut a great debut album.

9. Lou Reed, "The Gun." After Sally Can't Dance made the Top Ten, Lou made an instant statement by releasing the notorious Metal Machine Music. Every album he released after that charted lower than the one before it (aside from the unmarketable MMM). The Blue Mask didn't get any higher than #169. Hopefully everyone who did buy it noticed that it was probably the best solo (I'm partial to Coney Island Baby, but that's just me). It also marked the beginning of his long-running collaboration with Fernando Saunders, one of the most distinctive bass players in rock history ... once you hear his sound, you'll recognize his playing every time you hear it again.

10. Gary U.S. Bonds, "Love's on the Line." Bonds made a comeback, supported by Bruce Springsteen. This came from the post-comeback album ... of course, it's been forgotten over time. It's much more of a Bruce album than the previous hit ... Bruce and the E Streeters only took over half of Dedication, but this one is a Bruce album with the man himself sticking to backup vocals so his hero can be the front man. Bruce wrote seven of the songs, he and Miami Steve did the production, the entire E Street band chimed in. In the year of Nebraska, this was Bruce's rock album between The River and Born in the U.S.A. This particular track is especially nice, but there's no video for it, so I linked to Bruce singing "Quarter to Three" in 1975.

And as a bonus, Marshall Crenshaw live:

meme stolen from a friend

Masoo — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 00:00:18 GMT

1. What's your favorite band?

If the real question is "who is your favorite musical artist," then the answer is Bruce Springsteen. If they really insist on a band, it would either be The Velvet Underground or Sleater-Kinney.

2. Do you play an instrument?

I played bass in a garage band as a youth.

3. Sing?

I can carry a tune. I wouldn't consider that noteworthy, but the one time I went to karaoke with friends, I found that I was in the minority.

4. Write lyrics?

I wrote two songs, music and lyrics to one, just lyrics for the other. The latter was when a musician friend asked me for some verse that he could put to music ... I wrote something about being passive in the face of lost romance or something like that ... it was called "Nothing I Could Do." The other was called "Cheese Blues," and the entire lyrics were "I'm goin' downtown, babe, buy me a hunka cheese. Yes, I'm goin' downtown, babe, buy me a hunka cheese. 'Cause my baby's waitin' back home, and you know she's hard to please." (The music was basic Jimmy Reed.)

5. Have you ever slept with a drummer?

No, but my wife has.

6. What's the coolest concert you've ever attended?

It's probably most accurate to take a Darkness Tour Springsteen show ... Berkeley in the summer of '78 might win over the Winterland shows. But for coolness, I'll say Prince at a tiny club in SF called The Stone when he was touring behind Dirty Mind.

7. Who's the most skilled guitarist of all time?

Define "skilled." No one's really caught up with Hendrix, in my book.

8. Name a song that just makes you want to break shit.

Lotsa punk stuff from the late 70s. "Safe European Home" usually gets me going.

9. Name three musicians who died of drug overdoses.

I thought this was about our personal stuff, not trivia.

10. What's the best lyric ever written?

A Wop Bop-a-Loo Bop, a Wop Bam Boom!

11. If you could experience one band/artist perform live at any point in history, who?

Elvis, '68 TV Special, sitting around with the boys.

12. If you could master any instrument, which would it be?

Singing.

13. If you had the power to rid the world of one genre of music, what would be gone?

I wouldn't do it.

14. What song do you have playing right now?

Thunderclap Newman, "Something in the Air."

15. Greatest album in the history of time?

I can't decide between Born to Run, Astral Weeks, and whatever version of the Elvis '68 Special in the Round with His Pals I dig up.

16. Is Elvis still The King?

Yes.

17. What's your favourite musical?

Mean Streets.

18. When you hear the phrase "Rock 'N' Roll" what comes to mind?

Chuck Berry.

19. Ever wanted to be a DJ?

Sure.

20. If you could sleep with any famous musician, who would it be?

If I could pick my wife, I would, but she's not a famous musician. If I found out that Christina Hendricks played an instrument, she'd be next. Joni Mitchell might be nice, if only because she'd immortalize me in song soon afterwards. Is Claudia Lennear too obscure? If she is, I'll vote for Cyndi Lauper because we were born on the same day, so she'd forgive my aging body.

it's my birthday

Masoo — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 16:01:02 GMT

Geez, I can't be self-pitying on MOG unless I include ten words or more.

friday random ten, 1981 edition

Masoo — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 07:08:21 GMT

1. Grandmaster Flash, "The Adventures of Grand Master Flash on the Wheels of Steel." 1981 is the year that marked the real beginning of my College Rock era. We moved back to Berkeley, I started listening to KALX non-stop, and the results can be heard in much of this list. Grandmaster Flash was not college rock, but he was inescapable.

2. The Descendents, "I Like Food." Food tastes good. One of the best fifteen-second songs of all time.

3. Joan Armatrading, "The Weakness in Me." For some reason, this song is a big favorite with the video makers on YouTube. The link I've included details the love affairs of the show Lost.

4. Rosanne Cash, "My Baby Thinks He's a Train." One of three songs from Seven Year Ache to hit #1 on the country charts ... the album made the top, as well. The first concert we ever took our kids to was Bonnie Raitt and Rosanne Cash in the fall of 1982.

5. LiLiPUT, "Eisiger Wind." I interviewed this band, for a Punk Planet piece that never materialized. It wasn't a good interview, not because Marlene Marder didn't have interesting things to say, but more because while I am all for email interviews, it didn't work in that case ... too many answers needed followups. I just re-read the piece, and I couldn't find anything good to quote here, which says it all.

6. The Specials, "Ghost Town." There is something about this song ... not exactly timeless, but it sounds like it came from an earlier period, that the Specials were doing a cover of some obscure Jamaican recording. There is certainly something universal about it ... it fit in 1981, when Philip was marrying Diana and Margaret Thatcher was in power, but it also fits anywhere times are tough.

7. Black Flag, "T.V. Party." We've got nothin' better to do, than watch teevee and have a coupla brews!

8. Kim Carnes, "Bette Davis Eyes." She's not a one-hit wonder ... she was with the New Christy Minstrels in the 60s, recorded five solo albums before the one that had this song, had an occasional song hit the Top Ten. Yet my guess is, if you say the name "Kim Carnes" to most people, they'll say "Bette Davis Eyes!"

9. Dead Kennedys, "Nazi Punks Fuck Off." In the end, Jello was kind of annoying, but that was partly the point.

10. Mission of Burma, "That's When I Reach for My Revolver." Not just one of the great icons of post-punk music, but also a band with one of the more appropriately sad stories: they broke up in 1983 and didn't reform until 2002 because one of the band members had severe tinnitus (they played REAL LOUD).

Bonus live track:

feelgood

Masoo — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 19:03:19 GMT

my dental hygeine

Masoo — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 05:45:53 GMT

friday random ten, 1980 edition

Masoo — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 07:01:50 GMT

1. English Beat, "Mirror in the Bathroom." If the early-80s 2-Tone groups from England were Ska Revivalists, what are the later Ska Revival Revivalists called? Among the possibilities listed in Wikipedia: third wave ska, ska punk, ska-core.

2. Blondie, "Call Me." The other evening, I was watching Evil Dead II for the billionth time. My wife and I started wondering how it was that Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell ... well, just Sam Raimi, Bruce Campbell's career has pretty much kept the faith ... how did Sam Raimi go from directing Evil Dead movies to directing Spider-Man movies? It's not about whether the Spider-Man movies are good ... I'm not a big fan of them, but that's not the point. How did the studio decide that Sam Raimi was the man to direct a huge franchise picture? His first five movies included the three Evil Deads, a $3 million cheapie, and Darkman. He followed those with a Sharon Stone western and two other moderately-budgeted films. The last movie he directed before Spider-Man had a budget of $10 million ... Spider-Man had a budget of $139 million. As the IMDB notes, the budget for Spider-Man 3 was 1000 times the budget of the first Evil Dead movie. Not sure what any of this has to do with Blondie, but a couple of Random Tens ago, I mentioned that I had a fondness for the first Blondie album, which in this context is like the Evil Dead Blondie while the hits are Spider-Man Blondie. Only real problem with that notion is that the first Blondie album isn't as good as Evil Dead II, while songs like "Call Me" are much better than the Spider-Man movies.

3. The Funky Four Plus One, "That's the Joint." The first rappers to appear on national TV ... Saturday Night Live, hosted by Debbie Harry.

4. Sector 27, "Where Can We Go Tonight." We actually saw this band in concert. Tom Robinson had laryngitis, so his vocals were completely shot. We all loved him anyway. For my money, this is a better song/anthem than "Glad to Be Gay."

5. Diana Ross, "I'm Coming Out." Meanwhile, this is what gay people were actually listening to.

6. Selecter, "Too Much Pressure." See #1 above.

7. Joy Division, "Love Will Tear Us Apart." I am the kind of heretic who prefers New Order to Joy Division, but there's no denying the power of this one.

8. The S.O.S. Band, "Take Your Time (Do It Right)." It seems more obvious to me, with hindsight, that there was at times a strong element of funk in disco. Not always, or even often, but this "disco" hit, at least, is pretty funky sounding.

9. The Go-Gos, "We Got the Beat." I don't suppose anyone ever accused the Go-Gos of being funky. But they had the beat, for sure. Are they underrated? I have no idea what their critical standing is, so I can't say.

10. Bad Brains, "Pay to Cum." This doesn't really fit with anything else on this list, but it helps usher in the great College Rock Era. And there's the irony, or whatever you want to call it, that the ultimate thrash-speed-punk song of them all comes from an all-black band. A minute-and-a-half of influential brilliance.

Bonus live track:

paco

Masoo — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 19:02:21 GMT