Say Goodbye Say Sayonara Too

I'm not a fan of Herr Andrew W.K. (myspace); I Get Wet gave me nightmares wherein I was being repeatedly slammed in the nads by The Lollipop Guild.  Nor, despite my Shiina Ringo worship (OMG Antlers!), am I a fervid proponent of J-Pop.  But listening to W.K.'s Japan-only CD of J-Pop covers is like ejaculating root beer.  In a good way.  It's a delicious mixture of urgency, syrup, and broken English.

You might have to brush your teeth vigorously after listening, but that's okay.  I enjoy brushing my teeth.

Vigorously.

Andrew W.K. - Bohemian (Yuki Katsuragi Cover)(mp3)(buy)

The Japan Covers is 100% in-English, though I've no idea if the lyrics are direct translations or sorta-direct translations or just random words that fit.  (W.K. calls it "the absolute most challenging recording experience I've had.")  Along with "Bohemian's" "On the table you've thrown down a torn Tarot card/Oh let it show me every place you have gone tonight," there are gems like "You are soft to me/You are sweet/Just like a gutter rat/Now how about that?" ("Linda Linda" - a Blue Hearts song that also provided the title for a movie which Smashing Pumpkin James Iha scored), "The city called your name and you turned it into a diamond" ("Monica"), "The days that we share make a trail for us to follow" ("Kiseiki," which Wolf Parade should seriously consider taking on).

In "Love is Over" - better, btw, than any of the 319 dense ballads on Chinese Democracy - W.K. sings, "Love is over/Sorry that you're crying/So let's end it here/Or it will just go on."  Hallmark moment.

You can buy it here.

"Bohemian" was originally a 1983 hit for the husky-voiced Yuki Katsuragi.  Judging by that video, Katsuragi's either a woman or David Lee Roth.  If the song makes you think at all of Bonnie Tyler's "Holding Out for a Hero," don't worry, she gave that one a go, too.

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Feed - Debaser (Pixies Cover)(mp3)(buy?)

Ultimately neither here nor there, Feed was formed at a Tokyo university in the late ‘90s, followed its Japanese-American singer to NYU.  The band's debut performance was at CMJ in 1998; its second was "in the bunkerlike confines of a live house in beautiful downtown Shimokitazawa."  They seem to have settled back in Japan, released an all-English EP to some acclaim (Let Every Stardust Shimmer is on Amazon for cheap), recorded first full-length 9 Songs in New York with Lenny Kaye.  That record got lost in a Sony-Japan reshuffle, came out after the heat had left, is now nigh-unGooglable (copies are on eBay and the like for $40+, a bit less on CD Japan).

Despite this assertion, this Pixies cover was left of off 1999's U.S. tribute Where is My Mind?, instead appearing on the following year's Japanese Tribute to the Pixies; that record includes two "Debaser" covers (and a way-tolerable ska-punk version of the indestructible "Here Comes Your Man").  Feed's take is awesome, indulgent feedback and too-literal dog barks bleepily evolve into joy, just joy.  The percussion is almost ceremonial at one point, then gives up and goes club hit.  On her band's own songs - I've only heard that Shimmer EP, much tamer stuff than this - Maya Saito's vocals often get compared to Dolores O'Riordan's; here both the droll J-horror intro and the cheerleading give it an edge beyond coos and yodels. 

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MONO + 23-piece orchestra.  Live.  I wonder if you'll be able to hear the orchestra?

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These make you feel like you've just brushed your teeth with a cookie.

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It feels like a very limited group of people is trying so hard to convince me that Merriweather Park Pavilion is the greatest album of their time.  I'm okay with some of the record, bored or annoyed with the rest - there's not a single track that couldn't be made better by shaving ninety seconds off - but I hope this isn't what a whole generation points to screaming LISTEN TO THIS THIS IS US UNDERSTAND US PLEASE.

Feel free to scratch that last paragraph and replace it with a "these kids nowadays" and a "sheesh" and maybe a word or four about territorial landscaping.

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Brought to you by Viewers Like You and Viewers Who Don't Like You Dept.:  PBS wants you to know that everyone and everything on the Internet is hideously unfunny; they have delivered this half-hour as proof.  If, say, your ball-peen hammer is at the cleaners and you are unable to effectively pound a mace up your urethra, you might want to instead follow that link.

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SECT 104F ADVANCED FLORAL ARRANGING, WITH PROFESSOR BABY YODA

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"This film was over the top and sickening in an acceptable way. The plot was really cool too. There's a mad scientist who develops this key shaped tumor. The tumor turns normal people into ENGINEERS. Once an engineer is injured their wounds turn into deadly weapons. It's out of control." - (Keithist's Review)

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The Eleventh Doctor has been cast and he's, like, eleven.

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The Incredibly Strange Director Who Stopped Living.  Also, RIP Ricardo Khan Armando Roarke Corinthian Leather Montalbán  and Patrick Secret Agent Man #6 McGoohan.

tags: andrew wk  feed  pixies  

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