Oh, Manchester, So Much To Answer For

friday's must-read (I haven't gone to sleep yet, so as far as I'm concerned, it's still friday): bitterness in the world of college radio? I know, what a shock. but this comes right out and says it: cmj, corporate whore? if you've ever worked in or loved college radio, you need to read this story.

addendum: an open letter in response from the ed-in-chief of cmj new music report. with lots of responses from college radio mds (and company) as well.

"'Did people think that was bad?' she asks coyly. 'What's the big deal? I was born in 1984 -- why would I know who he is? My parents didn't bring me up listening to him. Besides, people mispronounce my name all the time.'"
lavigne on mispronouncing "bowie," to which I can only add: not for long, sweetie, not for long - until you pop up in the 30th anniversary edition of trivial pursuit, that is. whatcha wanna bet she gets one more major-label album, tops?

e crunk has made the official spizzazzz rap party mixtape '02! and it rulez! and it's free to download! your favorite mp3 player needs this in its life.

last year's "take you out" by luther vandross is so slinkily seductive, so currently-perfect (and perfectly current) luther, it's a wonder every time, a cause for celebration. not to mention his best non-ballad in nigh on 15 years (since, what, "stop to love"?).

thank god for bloggers like bj, who keeps us informed as to which ebay sellers are showing wood. [insert naughty grin here.]

do you feel loved? is back, and nattily redesigned! nice job, chris.

love or hate oprah, but you know what? she gets people to read. and she's doing it again - this time, the classics. brava!

I find it surprising, amusing even, that whilst the rock press whips itself into a frenzy over this supposed "new breed" of d.o.r. (dance-oriented rock, a term largely constructed to help yanks deal with new wave in the early '80s), e.g. out hud (who are sensational; I hope to write something about them soon), vhs or beta, the rapture, et.al., everyone's forgetting one of the real trailblazers in this regard: big audio dynamite. mick jones was in two great bands, folks. and with b.a.d., he took the clash to its inevitable (musical) conclusion, upping the dub and reverb quotients, tossing in lots of synthesized junk, even playing with turntables. his partner-in-crime, don letts (who just won a grammy sunday, for directing the clash longform vid westway to the world) could do anything - design, music, videos - and did with b.a.d. their first album, 1985's this is big audio dynamite, is a marvel of tape loops, f/x, and all of the above. its followup, no. 10, upping street, is almost as good. "e=mc2"! "the bottom line"! "c'mon every beatbox" (which took a page from the malcolm mclaren book of white brits getting into hiphop, and rewrote it)! "badrock city," a b.a.d. collage which got played on major r-and-b stations in '86, for pete's sake! yes, strummer was great. but jones was no slouch, either - and frankly, made more interesting music post-clash (unless you lurve that billy bragg-via-paul weller "grand old man of punk" thing - and you can have that). that's my bottom line.

my favorite left eye moment on record isn't actually on a tlc track; it's on donnell jones' "u know what's up," which is perfectly slinky and sexy already, but left eye just adds a bit (50 seconds, actually - quite a chunk of time for a mid-r-and-b-song rap!) of sass and pizzazz to the proceedings. she doesn't have a particular rhyme which stands out, but her flow's so nimble, so dexterous, it catches me every time. and if I'm listening to an "adult r-and-b" station which excises her rap, I miss it. every time.

must-read 2: a gay couple. one NYPD. one FDNY. and, of course, 9/11. read now. [link via seamus mcstebbins.]

must-read of the day: the tin man writes a gorgeous elegy for mister rogers.

woo hoo!!! from billboard.com's singles chart roundup:
"Further down [the Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart], Johnny Cash's cover of Nine Inch Nails' "Hurt" opens at No. 56, giving him his first single on the country chart in more than 12 years."
what we can learn from this: apparently, there are yet some intelligent, free-thinking radio programmers in the u.s. of a. and they say miracles never happen.

addendum (today, it's all about the addendums): the (limited) radio play, along with cmt hammering the video (god bless 'em), is working: american iv: the man comes around finally climbs into the top 10 of billboard's top country albums chart this week. hallelujah!

I just finished michael lowenthal's truly brilliant new novel, avoidance; there’s a silence buzzing about me, like I’ve just finished praying. appropriately, nick cave & the bad seeds’ “bring it on” is playing. bring it on, I imagine jeremy, the novel’s protagonist, saying. after everything, it can’t be so bad. he feels like – well, like I could feel him. he’s one of the realest characters I’ve encountered in fiction in some time. I want to hold and embrace him, kiss his chapped lips softly, feel his skin and muscle shifting under his clothes, reassure him, jeremy, jer.

jeremy’s life centers around an upstate vermont summer camp, ironwood, first as a camper, later as a counselor, then assistant director by age 28. his sexuality is indeterminate – a couple of relationships with women, a furtive blow job from a man in a bathroom stall, mostly nothing, it’s unthought of. and then he’s enraptured by max, an all-limbs-and-braces 14-year-old from manhattan. this narrative is entwined with jer’s experiences with the amish, on whom he’s writing his dissertation at harvard, particularly those who leave the clan and those who are shunned. what are their post-amish lives like? are they happy with the choices they’ve made? the two, seemingly disparate strands coalesce in surprising ways within jeremy, leading to a softly whispered climax which was for me, emotionally, like being dropped off a new england mountain’s side.

addendum: lowenthal's gorgeous website plays sigur ros!
addendum 2: he has a blog!
addendum 3 (I'm stopping now, I promise): his husband is author scott heim!

the lyrics to cam’ron’s “hey ma” are absurdly inane, but that commodores piano loop and the wicky-wicky scratching are all that matters. instrumental, anyone?

good god, I know it only makes sense, but listen to how much the arrangement and instrumentation of cherelle’s “I didn’t mean to turn you on” (and, by extension, mariah’s) sounds like the time’s “the walk” and cool,” barely two years earlier. surprising evidence that jimmy & terry may have done more in the time than previously thought (more than jesse johnson, even??).

not only is tlc’s “diggin’ on you” one of the few r-and-b songs I know to (albeit unintentionally, I assume) quote the blow monkeys (“digging your scene”), it also adheres to their superior standards of the mid-‘90s, when they were utterly untouchable, the undisputed queens of their world (and everyone else’s). at the time, stacked up against “creep” and “waterfalls” and even “red light special,” it seemed slight, sounded like a fourth single (from their titanic crazysexycool longplayer). but taken out of that context, and relived through the looking-glass of today, it’s just as strong as the others in its own way. “diggin’” is particularly enhanced by “l.a.’s live remix,” the version used in its accompanying video. l.a. reid added a slew of jazzy horns and crowd noise, along with a live band, to beef up the single, and it does the trick, giving it more substance and weight. and t-boz sounds as seductive as ever. best bit: the immortal line “I was chillin’/with my kool-aid.”

Fred Rogers, host of mister rogers’ neighborhood for 32 years, died this morning of stomach cancer at the age of 74. he’d apparently been diagnosed around christmas. my heart leapt into my chest when I heard the news; I’m really, honestly in shock. mr. rogers always seemed like one of those people, those icons of childhood (and beyond), who’d never die, like charles schultz. and like schultz, he never truly will; he may have left this mortal coil, but you can be assured that his program will be rerun into perpetuity, a touchstone for generations yet being born. I grew up watching mr. rogers’ neighborhood. I can still picture the script of the show’s title onscreen, hear the lovely, lilting piano intro of his theme (which rogers wrote himself), see king friday and everyone else in the neighborhood of make believe, remember the short films rogers showed, such as a visit to a balloon factory. fred rogers, even moreso than sesame street, is the best possible example of why congress (and thus our nation) needs to continue to help fund pbs. rogers was never condescending to his viewers, and neither did he take them for granted. he was sincere, warm, clever, and full of genuine love for the legions of children who grew up watching his program. I expect we’ll see maybe even hundreds of tributes to mr. rogers from the blogsphere today, so widespread was his impact and influence. R.I.P., Mr. Rogers. the trolley to the neighborhood of make believe won’t be the same without you conducting.

no!

we knew it was coming, but still... *sniff* *sob*

addendum: check out the angel crossover!

new blog of the week: he lives in dc! he plays rugby! he has a sexy-as-all-hell van dyke! woof, it's jimbo.

can anyone help my pacers? bueller? bueller?...

well, for the second time this week, wrote some good stuff for the blog at work (in case I haven't made this clear, I'm not currently online at work - thus, I can't blog directly, but can write stuff up in word and cut-and-paste from disk once I get home) and left the damned disk at the office. wrote about a tlc single from '95, and the michael lowenthal's stunning new novel avoidance. you'll get to read 'em tomorrow.

this week's must-read (it might take you a while): rockcritics.com has put together a package remembering toronto's nerve, one of the classic north american alt.music papers of the '80s. I never saw it at the time, but wish I had; I sure knew the music (most of it, anyway). ah, memories...

it’s alright – I feel it! 6: dancing on the ceiling
side a
1. “kairo,” spacetime continuum. one of my favorites from the college radio days, a swirling, techno epic, like underworld crossed with orbital minus the shouty vocals. fulfilled all the promise of what electronic music was supposed to be circa ‘96, especially to someone who didn’t necessarily know all the genres and subgenres, just what sounded amazing and new.
2. “solid,” ashford & simpson. an r-and-b classic from ’84, and their only big pop crossover. I found the 45 of this over a decade ago, and have clung to it fiercely ever since. “solid”’s a positive paean to the power of love, sung by two people who should know.
3. “it’s a party (allstar remix),” busta rhymes featuring swv. maybe busta’s biggest lost banger, the song destined to be forgotten, as it was the followup to “woo-hah!! got you all in check.” remember when allstar was the remixer du jour? some damned good work he did, rearranging and reconstructing some of the biggest hiphop and r-and-b hits; here he replaced zhané with the much more ghetto-fab s-dub and reworked “party” into a jeru the damaja gone pop piece, wave after sound wave of good vibes.
4. “motörhead,” primal scream. you’d be surprised what a good, refreshing segue this is. the scream covers motorhead with great aplomb, like souped-up electrodes have been attached all over lemmy’s body, creating in the process a frankenstein, half-jourgensen, half-weatherall. a precursor to, but barely a warning of, the mind-bending sonics which were to come on xtrmntr and evil heat.
5. “sky’s the limit,” the notorious b.i.g. featuring 112. biggie discovers beautifulness, reminiscing like the little river band over a loping beat, letting 112 break in to croon all over the chorus.
6. “watcha gonna do with my lovin’ (def radio mix),” inner city. there’s classic house, and there’s inner city, who married the template of chicago house to 4-minute pop songcraft not with shotguns, but with looooooove. where a singer such as sade is often all underbelly, dark corners and pathos, lead singer paris is the polar opposite: she couldn’t sound down if she tried; her voice is up up up like a noseful of colombia’s finest.
7. “friends and strangers (the l.g. experience remix),” ronnie laws. one of the best albums you’ve never heard is the blue note remix project, vol. 1, in which mostly underground hiphop producers of ’95 took on some blue note classics from the vaults. the unquestionable highlight is this subtle, classy take on ronnie laws’ ‘70s proto-smooth jazz quiet growler, with the l.g. experience adding perfectly-matched hiphop beats whilst never overwhelming the center, laws’ sax. like an anachronistic fever dream had while dozing on a couch in between two radio stations, both fine and raw like silk.
8. “can’t wait,” redman. ah, the early ‘90s, when so much nyc rap production was hazed through a curtain of blue smoke and thick, airy keybs. and redman was more well-known for his nimble lips than his deodorant commercials. best bit: when he repeats himself in wonderment, and then points out, “I be sayin’ some shit.”

side b
1. “don’t blow a good thing,” vesta. yet another devastating killer inexplicably left off my top 80, from the woman born vesta williams, a journeywoman of r-and-b. given better material, who knows? she might’ve been the queen slotted betwixt aretha and mary j. as it was, she kind of shuffled her way through the ‘80s from label to label, song to song, nailing it like few had with this one, sparkling diamond of a track, all sinuous larry graham bassline and bellowing vox.
2. “funny how time flies (little kim mix),” intro. they were just one of a myriad of faceless mid-‘90s r-and-b male vocal groups, never anything more. she was the bonnie to biggie’s clyde, just breaking into the biz (note the designation: “little kim”). but when they teamed up on this heroin’d-out remix (all slow and slurring), kim came correct, flippin’ rhymes like “niggas bustin’ like a bitch’s hymen.” she said hymen?! muthafuckin’ right she did, just starting to show us why she was known even back then as the queen b(itch).
3. “shinjiro,” dj honda featuring mos def. ace asian hiphop construction topped by the multinational man of words, mos def.
4. “war,” bruce springsteen and the e street band. bruce and company’s live take on the edwin starr classic made it their own. the boss’ spoken intro made it stunning.
5. “two can play that game (k-klassic radio mix),” bobby brown. better than their blondie remix on it's alright 4, k-klass set upon a revitalization process of bobby’s near-misses in the u.k. circa ’94, dictated assuredly by a record company, but lifted by plump pianos and a smooth, not-too-fast house-shuffle beat to nirvana. almost makes you wonder what could have been had bobby been gay, and smitten with frankie knuckles rather than teddy riley.
6. “new forms,” roni size/reprazent featuring bahamadia. roni size burst forth into the pop consciousness (in the u.k. at least) by harnessing drum’n’bass to pop – well, forms – much the same way fatboy slim and the chems did with their big beat mutants. it didn’t hurt that he had the good taste and sense to bring guests such as the ever-underrated rapstress bahamadia along on the trip. and that he used a stand-up bass, yum.
7. “whip appeal (unplugged),” babyface. here's your first lesson in quiet storm 101. luther:’80s::’face:’90s.
8. “freak me baby (bass club remix),” dis-n-dat. they’ll freak you down like a three-piece chicken dinner, whatever that means. dutty south music for bass freaks, cheap ‘n nasty ‘n stoopid.
9. “I don’t want to lose your love,” b angie b. mc hammer sure did like his proteges to have moronic names, or maybe it was the times. no, it was hammer. he did have quite a find in this former backup singer, however, blessed with the lungs of a foghorn and a nice figure. and this one (and only one) thumping song.

my best pal stumpy makes killer comps and mixes. [note: looks like my nagging’ll pay off – he should be starting a blog in late march! woo hoo!] one of his finest efforts is sloan: a decade of power-pop. rawkin’. this canuck quartet has been cranking out kick-ass power pop with crunch for over 10 years now, and damn, they’re good – and if not for stump, I might’ve never heard ‘em. their ’97 single “money city maniacs” is a classic in the tradition of matthew sweet (especially “girlfriend”) and, er, the sweet (especially “blockbuster”). “waiting for slow songs” has got an almost-r.e.m. sweet rickenbacker-jangle to it (and some very johnny marr circa ’85 byrdsian guitar figures as well, in its faux-chorus), and is the kind of record wilco should be making, and might still, were their heads not so far up their asses (and mind you, I like – but don’t love, and don’t get the ridiculous critical hosannas for – yankee hotel foxtrot). musically, it’s sloan’s most delicious cupcake of a record. the best song cheap trick never cut (listen to that guitar solo!) is “losing california.” and “the marquee and the moon” is (I assume intentionally, I mean, c’mon) a knockout tribute-cum-homage to television; the guitar is perfectly stinging à la robert quine. the funny thing is, as much as I’m comparing them to others, or at least using other artists as crib-note touchstones, when I hear sloan, they just sound like sloan to me, not like anyone else. yeah, you can hear influences clearly, but they’ve got their own, albeit regular-joe, identity. since getting dropped by too damned many senseless labels, sloan puts out records on their own murderecords imprint these days, and like so many classic power poppers (the posies, anyone?), they’ll keep going till they quit, or collapse in a sweaty, beer-soaked mess in some dive in alberta or omaha. god bless ‘em.

why is it that, while I loathed dj sammy's cover of bryan adams' "heaven," I rather like his take on henley's "boys of summer"? 2 guesses:
1. "heaven" sucks no matter who's singing it. "boys" is great, same logic.
2. tempo, tempo, tempo. "heaven"'s was jacked up like the chipmunks were doing it, whereas "boys" is actually taken at about the same tempo as the original.
...or maybe I'm just contrary and weird.

the brits. justin. kylie. "rapture." 'nuff said.

some mashups with your bangers, vicar?
excalibur music store: more mashup mp3s than you shake the obligatory stick at.
base58: kinda bloggy, kinda juicy and download-y. shut up and dance, anyone? [I recommend the new jaxx track myself.]
go home productions, the winner and still champeen: the marvin gaye-meets-radiohead "sexual high" must be heard (and it's very good - how does he think of these things?).

not only did I have grammy fatigue last night, I've had a bit of blogger fatigue of late, as you may have noticed. coming tomorrow are a short piece on sloan (wrote it today at work, left the disc in my computer) and hopefully another entry in my it's alright - I feel it! mixtape series, if time allows. I'm even having a little blogging-about-college-hoops fatigue (doesn't help that my boilers have dropped to 5th in the current big ten standings). so while I dig out from this pile of ennui I'm under, I give you this bizarre possibility, combining both of my main loves: march madness could happen on mtv. whoa. does that make loder billy packer?

more grammy thoughts, much better than kurt's - from espn.com's the sports guy and, as ever, from the ilx crew.

me, I liked the "almost like the car chooses you" saturn commercial and the jay-z heineken commercial just fine.
*nsync sounded gorgeous on the bee gees tribute, and justin needs to beatbox more! more! more! (kylie ref intentional). how hot did kylie look? coldplay were good; were this the '80s, they and radiohead would've already had multiple rolling stone covers (a la r.e.m. and u2). and apart from that, I don't really give a damn. still like that norah jones album, tho'.

"Avril Lavigne ... kicked butt. There's no denying this! ... Nelly gave the night a gratifying jolt of whiplash rap... ." when kurt gets it wrong, he gets it really, horribly wrong: loder on the grammys. ew.

song of the day: jay-z's "excuse me miss," for both the schmoove groove and more importantly, the line "you don't even have to do the dishes/I got two dishwashers."

still need another reason to read the church of me? alright, then. here's marcello on 50 cent's "in da club": "Its orchestral synth stabs suggest a speeded-up revisiting of Badalamenti’s 'Laura Palmer Theme'..." there you go; you know what to do.

later today (likely this evening, est), I'll post random grammy thoughts jotted down during last night's broadcast. I will say this, though: I like norah jones, and am stunned, if pleased, by her sweep. and one thing I wrote down:
+11:08pm: I have grammy fatigue.
there were about another 15-20 minutes to go yet at that point.

!!!. from cmt.com: "Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler will join Alison Krauss & Union Station featuring Jerry Douglas for a taping of CMT Crossroads on March 13 in Nashville. Radney Foster will host the show." katie, bar the door!

there's something labeled a "blog" at grammy.com - it's really just behind-the-scenes stuff from yesterday's rehearsals. this clash tribute could be (I stress could be) pretty rockin', though - but, um, what's springsteen got to do with it? love that they referred to the roots as a "funk band" - em + roots on "lose yourself" should be pretty damned great. and of course I'll be blogging the grammys (and savaging carlton, lavigne and mayer; I'm reserving judgement on ashanti) - what're you thinking?

today's must-read: yeah, I'm a couple days behind. it's everyone's favorite gaysian, ernie, on how he met his man (and where he knew him before). way cool story.

"I know there's something going on" by frida, a/k/a one of the girls from abba, sounds nothing like abba at all - phil collins produced her entire solo debut, and it's surprisingly hard-edged rockish pop. "I know" itself has that same paranoid, eerie feel as phil's "I don't care anymore" and "mama." the snare tattoo is very military; the guitar solo (which bleeds into the song's end) is all evil-sounding and mutant, and sounded ace as hell late at night in 1983, when I was supposed to be sleeping but was instead listening to wls-am at low volume. as usual, however, paul nailed it, when he said in an email that "It falls in that category of overly serious, almost militant-sounding, pop songs like Robert Tepper's 'No Easy Way Out' or Journey's 'Separate Ways.'" damn, he's good.

more on this: the thing is, mariah's version is actually pretty great. the production, all purposely-dated drum machines and f/x and some marvelously inappropriate (because it's kind of bad, not because it doesn't fit) keyb-guitar, is very vanity/apollonia 6 - and yeah, it's a direct rip of jam & lewis' production on cherelle's original, but while on one hand that seems wrong, on the other hand, why shouldn't they? [well, apart from the obvious "wouldn't they want to do something new with it?"] in the film glitter, "didn't mean" is supposed to be mariah's character's debut single, so it's supposed to have that samesaid time-and-place feel, which it does. [in case you're blissfully unaware, glitter is set in the '80s.] and mariah sounds like she's having fun, not having a breakdown. she sounds sexy and young. that's good.

I may regret saying this so publicly in the future, but I actually paid to see glitter in a theatre. I thought it would be superbly tacky and campy. unfortunately, it's moreso just bad and underbaked, but I still get an odd enjoyment from its crapness. must be seeing da brat as a "backup dancer" (which is truly riotous).

more on justin: I've finally gotten a copy of justified, and after a cursory first-listen-or-two, what stands out is the common pop curse: uptempo ones great, ballads not-so. where's this album's "gone"? and musically, culturally, yeah, this is faith, 15 years on. "rock your body" is slight, but tremendous.

song of the day: justin timberlake's "senorita," just for that part in the middle when he does both the guys' and girls' parts. hilarious. [the track's really good, too, actually.]

the best record phil collins has ever been involved with is genesis' "mama" - paranoid, scared, eerie, completely unlike anything he's ever done as a vile solo artist. the second-best is his own "I don't care anymore," a nasty, negative smear of a song.
to sum up: phil happy = shit.
phil unnerved = not as shit.

I understand that jimmy jam & terry lewis produced most of the glitter soundtrack, but this is ridiculous: I just realized this evening, listening to cherelle's original version of "I didn't mean to turn you on" (famously covered by robert palmer, of course, and subsequently by mariah) that jam & lewis completely ripped off their own production of cherelle for mariah's cover. twisted, weird, and morally very dubious. of course, cherelle's take is best, though I'm also fond of palmer's smoothie-cool rendition as well.

it’s alright – I feel it! 5: keep on, keepin’ on
side a
1. "mary magdalene,” me’shell ndegéocello. a love poem from the high priestess of funk to the woman who was jesus’ whore. sultry, demanding, pleading – “tell me I’m the only one … give me what I need/satisfy me for free.”
2. “so fine,” mint condition. one group stood out of the morass of ‘90s r-and-b because they were a band. mint condition took the time’s template and added on it by subtracting – namely, morris day’s attitude. a well-oiled machine akin to earth, wind & fire or cameo, yet sounding more organic (and with guitar solos! on r-and-b radio!), they were equally adept (as most great bands are) at groovers and ballads. their best-of is incomplete, full of a number of radio edits; spring for their full-lengths, starting with meant to be mint.
3. "remember that,” rakim. from his “comeback,” the 18th letter. decent from most, so-so coming from rakim. the reason to purchase the album wasn’t the new album itself; it was the limited-edition double-disc version which included a bonus disc of eric b. & rakim classics. I was a fool for selling it during a cash crunch. there’s a lot – of history, and of expectations – riding on his next “comeback,” his collaboration with dr. dre, due this summer on the good doctor’s aftermath label. ra sounded great on truth hurts’ “addictive” last year; let’s see how he holds it down on his own.
4. “back and forth,” cameo. there were funk bands who could swing – the time, con funk shun, even midnight star in certain moments – and then there was cameo, who could straight-up swang. if it’s possible for you to listen to the best cameo tracks without working your shoulders, you really do have no soul. and this is one of their best (probably the runner-up to ‘81’s freaky “she’s strange,” which I’ve always seen as the precursor to grace jones’ character strangé in boomerang).
5. “flaming june,” bt. remember when progressive house and trance weren’t utter shit, but were in fact exciting, propulsive, hypnotic music? yeah, like this. his ima collection is still a benchmark of progressive electronic music from the mid-‘90s.
6. “scoundrel days,” a-ha. norweigan white-boy soul. morten and company made much better records than you realize, and were not limited to “take on me.” their second and third albums are full of more pathos than a hundred goth records, and are finer, and more listenable, too. if morten harket had been american, he might’ve been daryl hall’s protégé.
7. “let me ride,” dr. dre. best use of a p-funk sample ever, and dre rides it like hydraulics.
8. “if you think you’re lonely now,” k-ci hailey. on which hailey makes like bobby womack, gloriously succeeding in the realm of gutbucket soul. shame he didn’t stick with it, and instead is stuck making black adult contemporary records with his far-less-talented brother.

side b
1. “sun city,” artists united against apartheid. this succeeds not because of its subject matter, but because of the way it brought together such disparate musicians as afrika bambaataa, bono, and daryl hall on a rock record that grooves much more than it deserves to. ergo, little steven is superior to bob geldof. [on many levels, actually, but that’s another matter.]
2. “oregano flow (gumbo soup mix),” digital underground. post-“humpty dance,” post-commercial success, d.u. got freaky-deaky. “flow” is far funkier than anything preceding it (well, except maybe “humpty dance”’s bassline), sampling loose ends and sounding for all the world like george clinton’s true hiphop children. sample p-funk all you want; no group has ever felt so much like president clinton and uncle jam’s army.
3. “I get lonely,” janet jackson. the sexiest janet’s ever been, and likely ever will be. a simmering slow groove and janet talkin’ ‘bout “all I want is you,” leaning on the “you.”
4. “high times (bionic supachronic mix),” jamiroquai. jamiroquai hits the dance floor with the chili peppers, by way of outer space. not as good as the original, but still dandy as it is. the first time I ever heard ‘em was on a late-night jazz show on a public radio station; it was “return of the space cowboy,” and I was devastated. uniquely british, but at the same time so universal, so organic (as in, of the soil) – no, he’s no stevie, but he’s certainly a branch off the tree.
5. “all the things (your man won’t do),” joe. keith sweat ten years later: keith had the production, joe has the voice. dripping sensitivity, if you can’t figure out why the ladies love him, you never will. and you’re probably single.
6. “24 hrs. to live,” mase featuring the lox and dmx. surprisingly un-urgent music to drive by by. puffy was bad for the lox, and they were a bad fit with him; as they’ve shown us on records like “we gon’ make it” and “good times,” poptastic is not who they are. mase, however, was a perfect fit, even poppier and more cuddly than puff. dmx’s verse should’ve shown us what was coming, but the storm hit us all off-guard.
7. “back seat (of my jeep),” l.l. cool j. the song which gave my college radio show its final, and best, name. reasons this song kills: 1) “as I turn the corner/ starin’ in your cornea,” 2) the snap-crackle-pop of the vinyl, 3) piano, 4) no one does naughty-but-nice like uncle l.
8. “mirror, mirror,” diana ross. still making what essentially amounted to rock-disco-pop (see: donna summer) in ’83, and what a perfect straightjacket for miss ross to wrap herself in. sounding more like great funk than something disposable in retrospect, letting loose vocally and with the attitude, this stands up damned well against any r-and-b of the same period (and is better than stuff like rick james, or even some of prince’s first trio of albums). an honest-to-goodness lost classic, and one of the last great records diana made.

must-see post of the day: wow! that was some brits performance, justin!

once again in mid-february, the big ten standings are a mess. espn.com's jeff shelman tries to sort it all out in this week's midwest regional notebook.

HUGE! payton's a buck, allen's a sonic. and would you believe they play friday on national tv? wow.

pacers. nets. the new nba rivalry? adrian wojnarowski says yes.

my favorite andrew w.k. moment of 2002: sitting in a volkswagen beetle at delaware pridefest (at rehoboth beach, de) with two other bears (bigger, hairy gay men, for the uninitiated), headbanging to “party hard.”
reason #1 to love andrew w.k.: he’s not at all ironic.
reason #1 not to love island def jam: they made him change “girls own juice” to “girls own love.”
reason #2 to love andrew w.k.: to get in the right frame of mind for his album cover photo shoot, he bashed himself in the nose with a brick.
reason #2 not to love island def jam: they covered the lower half of the I get wet cover with a black sticker, so as to not offend retailers (or, presumably, customers).
reason to forgive them: at least they got the album in every record store they could.
reason #3 to love andrew w.k.: he was one of the few new artists in ’02 (’01 in the u.k.) who actually sounded fresh.
reason #4 to love andrew w.k.: a number of guys in his band – playing unapologetically hook-laden, semipop music – are veterans of death metal bands.
reason #5 to love andrew w.k.: his is party music (or, “party” music – three of his album’s 12 tracks include the word in their titles) which doesn’t lower your i.q.
reason #6 to love andrew w.k.: even though he’s pretty ugly, you just know that sex with him would fuckin’ rock.
reason #7 to love andrew w.k.: some of the best disco-rock this side of kiss’ “I was made for loving you” (see: the snare fills on “take it off”). did electric six send a “thank you” card?
reason #8 to love andrew w.k.: “when it’s time to party/we will party hard.”

the roomie and I are hosting dinner for 10 tonight. he's cooking, I've cleaned (really! I even used comet on the bathroom sink!). I'm tense, for no good reason - though the reason is that I'm neurotic like that. thus, limited blogging today. apologies and all that.

song of the day: feargal sharkey's "a good heart." what a perfectly-written (by maria mckee), perfectly-sung (in that quavering, oddly-pitched-high voice) record. dave stewart's production does what it's supposed to, nothing more. feargal, however, goes above and beyond expectations; I'll take this over the undertones any day.

blog header of the day (and maybe week, or even month): chrisafer referring to the great blizzard of '02's effect(s) on d.c. as "snowpocalypse now." brilliant.

today's must-read (I'm a little behind on his blog, sorry): toddo on infatuation (which word always makes me think of rod stewart, screaming "fatuate me! fatuate me!" you know that's not actually a word, right, rod?).

u.s. readers: did you miss buffy last night? or would you just like some fine analysis and comment? the tin man's got you covered.

today's hilarious must-read: espn.com's jim caple envisions hoosiers 2: lebron goes to hickory.

new blog of the week: for his writing, for his beauty, for this truth-telling - ok, for his hotness, too - but most of all for his heart-wrenching honesty, it's dogpoet.

it’s alright – I feel it! 4: ain’t no stoppin’ us now
side a
1. “the rap world,” pete rock and the large professor. from the virtually unknown-even-when-it-was-out high school high soundtrack, this killer collabo was one of the all-time classics of my college radio show, alternately known as “radio free manchester” and “back seat of my jeep.” somehow, to my befuddlement, in my senior year (’95-’96), my radio show morphed from your (semi-)typical musical melange – seemingly without my involvement; I say that because I’m not aware of making any sort of concerted effort to do so – into an entirely urban show, featuring hiphop, soul, r-and-b, and even some jazz (nothin’ like ‘trane and wu rubbin’ up against each other). so here you’ve got this gay caucasian farm kid from rural indiana as the voice of hiphop for a college of 1000+. I found it, frankly, a bit bizarre. our station didn’t get great service from a lot of the record labels, so we took what we could get, and for whatever reason, the sony and atlantic labels jammed our mailbox full of juicy twelve-inches (we had the maxwell “’til the cops come knockin’” 12” a full 4 months before his debut was released!). it was thanks to atlantic that we had this. it was thanks to pete and large p that I played it in such heavy rotation for nigh on six months. deep, fuzzy keybs on the track, and two rhyme titans on the mic. [my other key jam that year was redman’s “funkorama,” from an erick sermon compilation. there’s a reason they’re called secret weapons, folks.]
2. “mama used to say,” junior. sterling, bongo-tastic u.k. pop-funk from the early ‘80s.
3. “got ‘til it’s gone (def club mix),” janet jackson featuring q-tip and joni mitchell. yeah, I was on david morales’ jock just a little bit in the mid-to-late-’90s, but when he was pumping out killers like this, why the hell not?! janet’s meant-to-be-a-kinda-tribute to joni doesn’t really succeed (though q-tip slides in perfectly), but morales’ def club mix turns “got” into a dark and deep grower, starting with those late-night chords and advancing gradually towards the sunrise. classic.
4. “addictive love,” bebe & cece winans. for some reason, many of my favorite christian songs have traditionally been those which can double as secular love songs. exhibit “a” is from bebe & cece, brother and sister and the most successful contemporary gospel act of the last two decades not named kirk franklin. there’s a genuine elation in this record, a thrilling kind of “woo!” in its release (listen to bebe as he vamps towards the final chorus: “forever in love!,” he practically shouts, he’s so damn happy). for a contempo gospel primer, there are few better ways to go than bebe & cece’s greatest hits, which honestly are.
5. “luchini aka (this is it) (lemon d remix),” camp lo. in ‘97, profile records released a white vinyl 10” single of a pair of drum’n’bass remixes of camp lo’s first two singles in the u.k. being as I was enraptured with not only camp lo but d’n’b at the time, it was a must-have purchase. I wasn’t disappointed. lemon d (whose tom brokaw-sampling “this is los angeles” is still a classic in my house) stripped “luchini” of all but its vocals and proceeded to reconstruct it from the ground up, starting with a ridiculously basic – and perfect – stand-up bass line. the keyb washes near the track’s end give it a chiming, almost-ominous end-of-a-late-night-in-the-city feel.
6. “rapper’s delight,” erick sermon, redman, and keith murray. taken from from the frankly-not-all-that-good in tha beginning… there was rap comp-cum-tribute, the record’s highlight. the def squad doesn’t so much add something new to this all-time hiphop classic as infuse it with their own personalities – of which, of course, redman’s is key, like a pollock painting.
7. “your secret love,” luther vandross. a soft kiss, a gentle summer breeze, holding hands in the park – that’s mr. lover-lover at his best, and this is one of his best. when his material matches his magnificent voice, he’s the undisputed king of romance, and here, it does.

side b
1. “breakin’… there’s no stoppin’ us,” ollie & jerry. when hollywood came to the ‘hood, breakin’ was the result. no, it’s not a particularly good film (though when was the last time you watched krush groove? neither of ‘em compares to wild style), though it’s fortunately preserved some great breakdancing on celluloid for future generations (get the time capsule!). its soundtrack, as well, is more flashdance than krush groove – a bit too heavy on the el-lay version of urban nyc. that having been said, there are two stone classics on this album. one is of course rufus and chaka khan’s reunion jam, “ain’t nobody.” the other is this refreshingly perky track, kind of the utopian flipside of the dystopia witnessed by herbie hancock’s “rockit.” yeah, it’s a little cheesy, but the turntablistic f/x it brought to the mainstream are real, and the pleasure ollie & jerry are having on the track is blissfully blatant, and infectious.
2. “stakes is high,” de la soul. speaking of dystopia… by the mid-‘90s, de la soul’s brand of daisy-age optimism was a thing of the past; streets was getting ugly. so the de la trio got hardcore, and honestly the results weren’t all good. but the claustrophobic feel of the album came to fruition on its title track, not a glorification of the then-current hiphop culture, but a warning and caution sign.
3. “rapture (k-klassic mix),” blondie. a rather lovely house mix of their classic which moves its setting from the street corner to the danceclub.
4. “I care ‘bout you,” milestone. the quiet storm male supergroup of the ‘90s, featuring babyface, k-ci & jojo, some guy from after 7, and, er, someone else. your basic prom slowdance material, redeemed by its songwriting (thank ‘face) and voices (thank ‘em all).
5. “state of shock,” the jacksons with mick jagger. such an excellently hard, sterile groove for michael and mick to ride, and much better than jacko’s duets with mccartney. no doubt this was better as performed at live aid (by mick ‘n tina) – but it’s great as it is here, too. best bit: mick’s “I need mouth-to-mouth/resucitation.”
6. “triumph,” wu-tang clan. remember when not only was the wu all up in this motherfucker, but when they so artfully straddled the critical/commercial divide, being simultaneously popular and underground? wu-tang forever could’ve made a great single album, but didn’t succeed so well as a double. still time for its critical reevaluation, though.
7. “criminal,” fiona apple. when she was bad and nationwide. sarah mclachlan would kill to sound half as erotic.
8. “searching,” mary j. blige. the undisputed queen of hiphop soul, period. mjb covers roy ayers; both are improved by it, amazingly. as absolutely perfect as soul gets.

I'm with popjustice on this one, if there's an iota of truth to it: justin? kylie? "buffalo stance"? this could be pretty fucking great. does anyone know if the brits will be shown in the u.s.?

there is not, nor has there ever been, an excuse for googling this.

gay british bloggers who are not minor 9th but whom I'm also fond of in a bloggish way: chig (not only gay and british, but completely music-obsessed - cheers!) and his pal troubled diva.

that "so please/believe in me" in america's "tin man" is just so sad.

[disclosure: thought of, and downloaded, this song after discovering the delightful blog the tin man. also just added: ultrasparky. and if I add 'em, you may safely assume I recommend 'em. and yes, I'm slightly appalled that I just downloaded, and then blogged, a song by america.]

“no one knows” is the sound of queens of the stone age making like nero rocking out with his cock out while rome burns, drunk and stoned.

listening to sheryl crow’s ’02-’03 string (post- the smiling-avril-rag of “soak up the sun”) - the rockin’ “steve mcqueen,” her fine cmt crossroads performance of “abilene” with willie nelson, and the kid rock duet “picture” – I observed to stumpy recently that I’d love to hear her make a country record. you can’t tell me sheryl doesn’t have more than a little emmylou and dolly in her.

it’s alright – I feel it! 2: electric boogaloo
note: “electric boogaloo” is always a good subtitle to any second volume in a series, preferably following the number two. the influence of breakin’ 2 will never die.
side a
1. “tyrone (live version),” erykah badu. baduism was good; “tyrone” (and, for that matter, most of her live album) was great. a sassed-up mama-don’t-take-no-mess polemic much more interesting than her usual collard-greens-n-droppin’-science rhetoric.
2. “I am the black gold of the sun (4 hero remix),” nuyorican soul featuring jocelyn brown. a note-perfect, dreamy house cover of minnie riperton’s classic given an even fresher d’n’b paint job by the gorgeously jazzy junglists 4 hero. deep as it gets.
3. “romantic,” karyn white. unspeakable joy.
4. “the party continues,” jd featuring usher and da brat. cameo-sampling southern creaminess complete with an interpolation of “get down on it.” to reiterate, da brat on someone else’s record = goodness. dupri makes puffy sound like biggie in comparison.
5. “funkin’ for jamaica (n.y.),” tom browne. horny disco-soul-funk of the highest order, with a groove that don’t stop, ‘cause it can’t stop.
6. “no one else (puff daddy remix),” total featuring foxy brown, lil’ kim, and da brat. sistahs are doin’ it for theyselves! possibly the all-girl highlight of the ‘90s.
7. “5 miles to empty (r.h. factor 215th place mix),” brownstone. the most slept-on r-and-b group of the decade, perfection on ballads and midtempos (“grapevyne,” “if you love me”), with the first salvo from their soph effort, souped up into dancefloor heaven. the vocals spiral higher and higher into the sky until you have to come down ‘cause you can’t go any further up.
8. “luchini aka (this is it),” camp lo. the most slept-on hiphop track of the decade, like digable planets without the annoyance factor or the female member and with an obsession with the glory days of blaxploitation. anyone know where the horn sample comes from?

side b
1. “gettin’ jiggy wit it,” will smith. jiggy is as jiggy does: a hit of pure sunshine-off-the-water.
2. “on our own (from ghostbusters II) (dance!…ya know it! version),” bobby brown. back when b-brown was still happy, and tougher than leather. for pete’s sake, he even made a ghostbusters theme sound good. this version picked for it’s slice-and-dice stutter-stop “dance! d-d-dance!” cuisinart sequence immediately preceding the first verse.
3. “circles,” adam f. he didn’t always make hiphop records, you know. adam f’s first stock-in-trade was spot-on drum-n-bass. this was – and still is – an early classic, thanks in large part to its stand-up bass.
4. “sock it 2 me,” missy elliot featuring da brat. okay, maybe it’s a little overkill, but what could I do? It (was) “the 9-7! it’s the motherfuckin’ bitch era! whatcha’ll niggas wanna do? (it’s) the brat-tat-tat-tat on dat azz!”
5. “jump to it,” aretha franklin. the queen rides in a hooptie. but regally.
6. “put your hands where my eyes could see,” busta rhymes. it’s all about that shimmy-shake rhythm.
7. “to be in love (maw 12”),” masters at work featuring india. nearly a perfect, dancing-for-hours deep house track: relaxed, grooving, with soaring (dare I say inspirational?) vocals, lifting you higher and higher like jackie wilson. one of the masters’ masterpieces.
8. “spice up your life,” spice girls. I give.

back in ’97 and ’98, I made myself a series of mixtapes, 10 in all, titled it’s alright – I feel it! obviously, they were named after the nuyorican soul record of the same name, and attempted to achieve a similar aesthetic, combining house, hiphop, soul, rap, and electronica (the word made sense back then, y’all), alongside a few non-rhythmically based songs that leaned on a groove (the stones’ “undercover of the night,” believe it or not), or a particular feel to them that fit nicely (fiona apple’s “criminal” appeared on one volume, alongside wu-tang, if I remember correctly). these mixes are one of the best such projects I’ve ever attempted, let alone completed; I still listen to ‘em. you know how most (some?) bloggers are – when in doubt, or bereft of new ideas, either do a list, or comment on a mix. time for the latter. [I’m also doing this, however, to give a clearer understanding of where my head, and musical tastes, were 5 years ago. someone’s interested, right?]

it’s alright – I feel it! 3: once again back is the incredible
side a
1. “fly away (butterfly reprise) (fly away club mix),” mariah carey. I’ve never felt why so many aficionados rate david morales’ mix of mariah’s “dreamlover” so highly; yes, it’s lovely, but nothing earth-shattering. neither is this, but it’s even better. for most of the ‘90s, mariah was in some ways morales’ muse, pushing him to his finest remix work, re-cutting vocals (sometimes in radically different arrangements), forcing him to construct ever-more-intricate labyrinths of house perfection. the highest compliment I know to give this remix? it sounds like butterflies.
2. “there but for the grace of god go I,” machine. taken from a gramaphone-purchased bad boy bill mix tape – there was a time when those were still exciting. this was volume 6, I think, and the machine track struck me as so invigorating, so free of restrictions (circa ’79?). the last gasps of disco, as it evolved into house.
3. “nothing to lose,” 2pac. one of ‘pac’s signature just-barely-pushing-ahead-of-the-beat raps, from one of his earliest posthumous releases. you know he’s now released more albums dead than alive? good ‘pac is still better than most rappers.
4. “ripgroove,” double 99. remember when what was then known as “speed garage” sounded so absurdly fresh and exciting? all ridiculous bassline and rewinds.
5. “stars,” simply red. shame mick hucknall seems to be such a prick, ‘cause it seems to’ve overshadowed some rather ace white-boy pop/soul. no, it’s not all good by any means, but he’s had his moments, and this is at or near the top, if for no other reason than the lyric “I wanna fall from the stars/straight into your arms.” the soundtrack to my romantic longings of ’97 and ’98, when I was very single and very not loving it.
6. “the pleasure principle,” janet jackson. her greatest hit of all. hard, stiff body-rock.
7. “head over heels (instrumental),” allure. a completely bland and undistinguished r-and-b girl group (weren’t they signed by mariah? honestly, that’d explain a lot), they were studio proteges of the trackmasters (remember them?), who did this near-perfect track for them. all hiphop snare cadences with a gorgeous piano melody over the top. I don’t even remember what the original sounds like, just this instrumental. this is the kind of thing I would’ve played a lot on my college radio show (and did) two years prior, especially to bed vocals. as my brit friends say, it does the justice.
8. “in my bed (so so def mix),” dru hill featuring jd and da brat. it samples something, I think, or at least sounds like it does, as is generally the case with jermaine dupri’s remix work. the dru boys recut their vocals, adding to the natural histrionics of the proceedings. and it has da brat! Save “funkdafied” and “give it 2 you,” her best performances have always been on remixes of other people’s songs.
9. “oh sheila,” ready for the world. the greatest. prince. ripoff. ever. that’s ever. how I left this out of my top 80 of the ‘80s is utterly beyond my comprehension.

side b
1. “imaginary player,” jay-z featuring angela winbush. One of the few salvageable moments from jigga’s worst longplayer, in my lifetime, vol. 1, with a sample of winbush singing the great rene & angela song “imaginary plaything,” and jay-hova spitting some wicked rhymes ‘bout how you ain’t a playa-playa compared to him.
2. “free (mood II swing extended vocal mix),” ultra nate. she’s widely considered one of the ultimate underground divas of dance; I’ve never agreed. fine voice, sure, but mediocre songs – until this one, based around whaddya know a looped acoustic guitar figure. classy mix from mood II swing, albeit too long by a stretch (14 minutes?!) and a bit oppressive when stacked up against the version on the maxi-single with a live band. one of the anthems of ’97, and rightfully so.
3. “it’s all about the benjamins (instrumental),” puff daddy & the family. puff’s. best. track. ever. hiphop this synthetic shouldn’t be able to swing like this, but it does.
4. “c’mon ‘n ride it (the train),” quad city dj’s. choo choo!
5. “james bond theme (moby’s re-version),” moby. one of the little bald man’s finest moments, laying it on thick over top of that classic john barry-composed guitar riff with lots of dreamy, “go”-esque atmospherics and faux-hiphop rhythms. when I saw him live last summer, this was one of the highlights.
6. “goldeneye (club edit),” tina turner. …and the bond themes just keep coming, with this amazing, and amazingly underrated theme from the mid-’90s. bono and the edge wrote it for miss tina, and it couldn’t even get an oscar nod (but u2’s highly inferior “hands that built america” does? sheesh!). the academy’s loss. number one, how great would it have been to see tina performing on the oscars with a full orchestra? number two, this is a gorgeously over-the-top song, string- and drama-laden, with completely nonsensical out-of-context lyrics (though tina’s certainly right when she speak-sings, “it’ll take forever/to see what I’ve got.” and that “golden honey trap” line makes me giggle – what naughty irish boys, making tina sing a dirrty joke). this remix is a nicely subtle job, classic house sounding, by morales.
7. “outstanding,” the gap band. the bassline that launched a thousand ships.
8. “down with the king,” run-d.m.c. featuring pete rock and c.l. smooth. from their ’93 comeback, sounding fresh as ever with some tough new beats behind ‘em and a strong assist from pete & c.l. it’s about god, in case you didn’t know.
9. “2 bad (refugee camp mix),” michael jackson featuring john forte. decent jacko song, good wyclef remix, very underrated forte. I have nothing more to add.

whatever happened to vanessa williams, singer? she does broadway now, the occasional film or telefilm, even those dreaded radio shack commercials. but vh-1’s endless reruns of a diva’s christmas carol over the holidays reminded me how much I miss her singing. her material wasn’t always up to snuff, true, but with the right stuff, she was divine; her ’91 album the comfort zone is a fine case in point. yes, it includes the drippy “save the best for last” – a time-capsule wedding song, no more and no less – but it also includes such bonbons as the title track (smooth, sexy, then-current but not dated production, apart from perhaps the drum programming), her cover of the isleys’ “work to do” (updated just enough to sound contempo, but not so much as to be a travesty, matching the isleys’ flavor – and with a refreshingly femme perspective without changing any of the lyrics), the sinuous “just for tonight” (played to this day on smooth jazz stations, a perfect candlelight-and-you ballad), and “you gotta go” (a lovely piano-based groover featuring a then-unknown brian mcknight, before he became the black barry manilow). does the v-a-n-e-double-s-a have a current deal? maybe clive davis can lasso her and send her the natalie cole jazzy-soulful-pop route. is arif mardin free? with a voice as supple as her lithe muscles and as gentle as lips on a cheek, her public still awaits.

oops, he did it again: today you can read marcello's utterly brilliant explication of abba. if there's a better writer blogging these days, I'm not aware.

must-read, period: hopefully you're not getting so tired of my jock-riding, but really, when the writing's this stunning... it's marcello, of course, writing today on massive attack's 100th window. [nice to see it topping this week's uk album chart, as it mos def should.]

visit the rub. now. not only does paul give you a lovely download of the '77 version of fleetwood mac's "silver springs," but you get to read a paragraph about it including this sterling line: "The version featured here is the original 1977 recording, so you too can break up with Lindsey Buckingham all over again." I love paul (well, his writing at least). did you get your car fixed, paul? was it the flood?

today's must-read, at least in the pazz & jop division (if you don't know what I'm talking about, it's likely not a must-read for you): jess harvell at nylpm.

big sunday-no-monday update: maryland crushes wake forest, reclaiming the top of the acc all for themselves - with a huge game in just two days at duke. if anyone can stun the blue devils at home right now, it'd be the terps.

as knopfler said, that ain't workin', that's the way you do it - or something. lose to northwestern, beat illinois, move up 2 spots in the coaches' poll (to #23). [the boilers reentered the ap poll as well, at #24, and as much as I hate to say it, the bottom of the writers' poll feels more right this week, with utah (#23) and dayton (#25) making inaugural appearances. but whichever poll you prefer, what does wisconsin have to do to get ranked??]

well, well, well: blogger has just been bought by google. this could have some very interesting implications, I think for the better. if not, expect moveable type to become very hot.

regular long-time readers already know of the love I have for she-who-would-be-kylie, sophie ellis-bextor. “music gets the best of me” was my #20 single of ’02, with “murder on the dancefloor” barely missing the cut (would’ve been #51, actually, bumped at the last minute in favor of keith urban). but I recently discovered a sophie track – kind of, follow me – even more glorious. it’s an extreme cutup of “dancefloor” by aussie booties-and-mash artiste dsico titled “murdered murder,” and should be read as the template for nasty cutups. likely done with software (though I’d like to imagine dsico mixmastering soph on multiple turntables, however unlikely), this is an utterly brilliant exercise in deconstruction. the key, in some ways, is that it’s not compressed nor extended; “murdered” is nearly the exact same length as its parent, only taken through a mixing board equipped with a cuisinart attachment. best bit: at the end of the second chorus, where everything but a handclap snare is dropped out, leaving about 2 seconds sounding identical to the very opening of whitney’s “I wanna dance with somebody.” download it here.

fat joe’s only recorded two songs I’ve ever given a damn about. the first was ‘99’s “betcha man can’t (triz),” which featured big pun, cuban link, and triple seis, and was blissfully all about sex – kind of the hiphop large-and-in-charge I-wanna-sex-you-up remix of joe’s “all the things your man won’t do.” the second is his current single, “all I need,” featuring armageddon and tony sunshine. armageddon, like his compadre joe, is an entirely uninspiring rapper, but sunshine has the voice of an angel; someone (other than joe, I mean) please give him a record deal and slap him with a slew of quiet-storm records (required listening: keith sweat’s make it last forever) – the last thing we need is another r-and-b wanna-be-thug album featuring guest appearances from a dozen rhymers. "need" is an oddly-minor-key track, sorta-sad and drippy, saved by its (I must; I’m sorry) ray of sunshine.

it's monday, which means time to look ahead this week in college hoops. am planning on having my weekly preview up later this evening over at condredge's acolytes, as well as a big ten snapshot at off wing opinion.

in the meantime, espn.com's bubble watch is back (hurrah!), there's a new cinderella watch as well as a new edition of joe lunardi's bracket banter. lunardi's bracketology gets its usual monday update, too (helloooo, texas!). andy katz's weekly word examines the amazing freefall of - no, not indiana, that was last week - alabama, who've gone from #1 (ap) to bubble in less than 2 months. he also wrote this piece on teams in this saturday's bracket buster (summary: the buster won't help you if you can't help yourselves). rankings should be out before "big monday" tips off (and speaking of, pittsburgh-georgetown was postponed due to the great blizzard, but wake at maryland should be happening right now). and boy-oh-boy, how badly does texas tech need to improve their ncaa profile? a win tonight at texas would be a fine start.

this is way too weird, more like scary-weird: one of my neighbors - probably mid-to-late-20s, thin but kind of attractive in a slightly geeky way, seems a little paranoid - just knocked on my door at 1030 on a sunday night and asked if I had any "movies" he could borrow. he then clarified that as "adult movies." something about not going "to clubs, [doesn't] have a boyfriend... ." he all but told me that he "needed" to borrow some gay porn to masturbate. this is not like asking for a cup of sugar. frankly, I'm rather creeped out by the whole thing. besides, why would you assume that just because you've apparently figured out I'm gay that I a) own gay porn, and/or b) would loan it to a relative stranger?! [for the record, the answers are no, and hell no.] my sleep may be uneasy tonight...

"go shorty, it's ya birfday
we gon' party like it's ya birfday
we gon' sip bacardi like it's ya birfday
and you know we don't give a fuck cuz it's ya birfday"

I hate dr. dre for making such a five-alarm fire shit-hot beat.
I hate 50 cent for making an opening I can't. get. out. of. my. fucking. head.
I hate myself for (kinda) loving this (I'm still fighting it, still hedging). I... must... not... submit?

it's early yet, but whatcha wanna bet "in da club" defines '03 the way that (like it or not) "hot in herre" defined '02? not critically, mind you - we all know that was "work it." but the song that was the joint of the year for the public was nelly's; it was playing everywhere, everyone danced to it, everyone took off all their clothes (except white homos, but don't get me started. even indie kids did it). a zeitgeist moment, if you'd prefer.

and why did I not notice the nile rodgers chicken-scratch guitar buried in the mix until just now?
not a day goes by when this isn't permanently affixed to the forefront of my consciousness for at least an hour. serves me right for being such a proponent of "I'm a slave 4 u" and "pop" and "dirrty" and telling people to "get over it," I guess.

positive k's "I got a man," music, lyrics, rapping (well, conversating, really) - both male and female - can be reduced to three words, overused but so accurate here: joie de vivre. three more: battle of sexes. and two as an addendum: she wins.

for those of you who can't help but revel in, bitch about, and otherwise obsess over pazz & jop '02 (that would include me), but wonder what comments didn't get included, well, thanks to I love music, here they are. yay. [thanks to tmftml for pointing this out.]

oh, btw, I'm back.

been a busy couple of days; I apologize for the lack of posting. going out of town for the weekend with the bf, to stay here and drink here. hopefully, I'll get to watch some of this weekend's marque(tt)e game. we'll definitely spend some time listening to the country's #6 album. the weather looks to be wet but mild. sorry for those of you expecting snow, and I wish for you some warmer weather. back sunday night - no 3-day weekend for me. enjoy your weekend.

and happy valentine's day.

p.s. if you need some suitable love songs, matos has some suggestions.

not sure why she'd want to battle eve, but foxy brown with anita baker? honestly, I'm more excited to hear baker's pipes again than foxy's rhymes.

see, it really-kinda-sorta is his faith: timberlake goes top 20 on billboard r-and-b/hip hop singles chart.

dannyisms has moved. slices of other people's lives are good.

what a wednesday on the hardwood: maryland bounced back, indiana stopped the bleeding, purdue had better beat illinois saturday if they want to stay ranked (didn't we learn from the hoosiers' mistakes?), and - whoa! [that's what I call a shocker in gloomtown.]

with three must-reads yesterday, today brings the inevitable letdown, so I'll simply bring to your attention (again) a daily must-read: daily kos, your ultimate source for news & politics with a decidedly liberal spin. especially prescient in these days.

here's hoping I'm not spreading myself too thin: now I've gone and become a contributor to off wing opinion, too. will (hopefully) have my first post up there - re: the big ten thus far - later this evening.

update: it's up! the post isn't a big ten overview, but centers on indiana and purdue. enjoy.

natural, intriguing, and frankly about time: bob's songs get the gospel treatment.

remember when he made headlines for his music? he did, once, you know. seems like more ink's been spilled on jacko in the last two weeks than the entire time sony was working invincible.

always nice to see kurt loder cranky. this time it's the oscar nods that've got him riled up. [even though he seems to have no idea who'll actually win - daniel day-lewis? has he heard of a guy named nicholson?]

yet another must-read - it's been a good day in blogdom, and has already been a stunning week from marcello, who follows up his spector(al) piece from yesterday with a long overdue appreciation of madonna's erotica. thank whomever you need to, that marcello blogs among us mere mortals.

I miss the (musical) days when bobby brown was happy. the pre-whitney, pre-coke (presumably) days when he was only worried about finding love. "don't be cruel," his first pop crossover hit (after a solid solo debut that got consigned to the mid-'80s r-and-b ghetto), is sheer perfection, a gorgeously glossy teddy riley new jack swingbeat (more than sad johnny kemp, beggin'-ass keith sweat, al b. sure! (of what?), or even guy's first album, this was the blueprint for a near-decade of r-and-b to come) production topped by bobby's ebullient presence. he wasn't the best singer from new edition (that'd be his "replacement," johnny gill, or even ralph tresvant), but he was fine enough in his own right, and he had the personality, that indescribable star quality. that's why bobby got the world on a silver platter - that, and the fine songs making up don't be cruel, which went four (pop!) top ten hits deep. "cruel" is sometimes hard to listen to, though, for two reasons: a reminder of what could've been (I honestly believe bobby could've been the next michael jackson in terms of world-conquering might), and just 'cause it's actually a sad song. bobby tries to sound tough (e.g. the between-verse raps), but it's so painfully obvious that he's head-over-heels with a woman treating him badly, you almost wince and want to turn your head from the speakers. and that vulnerability was key - bobby, then, didn't come off as just another black lothario (as opposed to his one-time colleagues who made up bell biv devoe, drowning in a sea of their own misogyny). he actually cared about what you thought (why else would he have struck next with the manifesto "my prerogative"? he claims he doesn't care, but clearly begs for approval - read between the lines). I wish he still did.

thanks, eric.

update: nate on pazz & jop '02.

"a bidet of evil!": tonight's buffy was so very good. as much as it pains me to say it, ashanti was actually alright as xander's date. and when the hell did xander get such pumped-up pecs? kinda yummy. and it's funny, I was just saying to my roomie how I was kinda bummed that whedon and co. haven't done anything with the fact that little andrew's a big 'mo. glad they gave him a little spotlight - I really have a soft spot for the kid. glad the principal's a good guy, too. and when did anya become so maternal with the gang?

I really hope there's no "out," no spin-off, just one. big. final. bang. a series this good deserves it. and with the first around, it looks like we might just get it.

another must-read: greg greene on the state of the nation, and impending war (personal, which makes it all the more relevant).

today's must-read: dogpoet (and again, I say: woof!) on men and love (that's the cliff notes version - trust me, it's worth the "click" it takes to link over).

cooped-up has moved. readjust your bookmarks accordingly, and prepare for (what sounds like) more great, gritty legal (and political) blogging (and don't forget the wines of the week!). the biggest reason I read jeff so faithfully? I learn from his blog. learning should never end.

music geeks, sharpen your sabers: pazz & jop '02 is out. among those already weighing in: perpetua (page down a smidgen - and thanks for the love, matthew!) and matos (with the promise of more thoughts to come). hopefully, we'll get to hear what voters nate, jbr, josh, and tom ewing think as well, soon.

my immediate reaction the albums and singles lists? yeah, pretty rote and by-the-numbers. thought the streets had a shot, though. more comments as I formulate 'em, and browse through ballots and voter remarks.

are you really surprised? hell, "ciccone" almost-kinda-sorta rhymes with "controversy," if not always "record sales."

yeah, it might be a good show and a good time, but "showcas[ing] a musical revolution"?! yeah, that incubus sure is revolutionary. and audioslave - never heard anything like 'em, except their old bands. I could go on; I'll spare you.

dammit, why can't uber-hottie colin farrell star in the bisexual alex the great movie? so unfair. I do not need to see chicken-legs dicaprio getting down & dirty. colin, on the other hand... *pant pant*

well, I guess I have to blog the actual oscar nods, now that tmftml wrote me up as apparently some sort of quasi-guru on the subject... (seriously, thanks). and yes, the fat man is laughing heartily - that would be miramax's harvey weinstein, who released the two biggest nominees, chicago (with 12) and gangs of new york (10). I must confess to a bit of momentary smugness over the fact that I nailed 26 of the 30 nominees in the big 6 categories (picture, director, and the actors). but there were some surprises...

+no richard gere in best actor - both nic cage and michael caine made the cut. I'm really surprised, but not as much as I am about...
+no dennis quaid in supporting actor?! he was widely considered to be chris cooper's only serious competition, and yet he somehow didn't even make the final five. I guess it's only okay to play a gay man if you're dying (ed harris this year, tom hanks in philadelphia, bruce davison in longtime companion, et.al.). yes, I've got my tongue in cheek. kinda.
+pedro almodovar slipped into best director for the second time, knocking peter jackson out in the process. yay! again proving that the nominees for picture and director are never allowed to match up.
+the others are relatively minor: no streep in actress (but she's still the frontrunner in supporting) - lane and hayek both got nommed; no about schmidt in screenplay?! (total noms: one); no "die another day" in best original song (but eminem, say hello to oscar! well, a nomination, anyway. here's hoping he performs - won't that be a hoot? everyone else can go home - unless the chicago sweep is complete, u2've got this one in the bag, for one of their weakest efforts of the last decade. ain't that how it always is?); 2-count-'em-2! foreign language screenplays nommed (y tu mama tambien and talk to her, double yay!).

my personal preferences (of those nominated): chicago, roman polanski, nicholson, julianne moore (lead), john c. reilly, zeta-jones, chicago (adapted), far from heaven (original), "lose yourself."

ten at random from my musicmatch jukebox:
1. "who's your daddy?," toby keith
2. "urgent," foreigner
3. "the world is my oyster/welcome to the pleasuredome," frankie goes to hollywood
4. "treasure of time," noah paley
5. "no panties," trina featuring tweet
6. "silent night," king crimson
7. "he wants you," nick cave & the bad seeds
8. "uncle pen," ricky skaggs
9. "tight connection to my heart," bob dylan
10. "detroit," primal scream

and ten more:
1. "revolution 909 (roger sanchez mix)," daft punk
2. "the rising," bruce springsteen
3. "jive talkin'," bee gees
4. "jenny from the block," jennifer lopez featuring jadakiss & styles
5. "runaway love (maw mix)," linda clifford
6. "fell in love with a girl," the white stripes
7. "alive," s club
8. "one in a million," aaliyah
9. "hard to explain," the strokes
10. "sara smile (live 1977)," hall & oates
and a bonus one: "feenin'," jodeci

draw your own conclusions. feel free to share.

nick cave & the bad seeds's nocturama is really fucking great. I haven't had this kind of a glory-be gut reaction to a cave record since '88's tender prey. haven't gathered my thoughts around the album yet, but should soonish. if you've heard the single, "bring it on," suffice it to say that's merely the tip of the proverbial iceberg (or, in cave's case, a melted one, i.e. a flood).

lately, I've been listening quite a bit to what's supposedly a bill laswell remix of sting's "a thousand years." now, I have a hard time believing laswell would remix - or even be asked to do - a sting record, but stranger things have happened (maybe it was an italy-only b-side?). laswell (or whoever) takes sting's rather lovely, evocative piece from brand new day and pulls and accents it, adding muted trumpet throughout (or a mutantrumpet? sounds a bit like laswell collaborator ben neill to me), along with a nicely subtle drum'n'bass backbeat. and tablas, always good. really, truly gorgeous, and a remix which points out the beauty of the original song, rather than completely subverting it into something of the remixer's choosing-cum-creation (not that that's always bad, mind you).

finally! I got my hands on a copy of the absolutely terrific instrumental of 50 cent's "in da club." and I happen to think it would sound great mashed up with crowded house's "don't dream it's over." any more-talented-than-me takers (who know how to do such things)?

today's must-read by furlongs: marcello on phil spector's recorded legacy. utterly. fucking. brilliant.
for a much simpler review, there's always kurt loder, explaining it all for the kids, god bless him.

he offered, and I took him up on it: the majority of my writing on college basketball is migrating to condredge's acolytes, largely because the opportunity to contribute was offered, and I don't want the hoops hysteria to take over from the music (and assorted general blog nuttiness) here. which means you now have 2 blogs on which to read my musings. ain't life grand?

with jane's, queens, audioslave, and jurassic 5 on the bill, I'll probably go to lollpalooza. but I bet I'll feel old.

yet another reason I love chas: he says things like this, referring to his weekend:
"All in all....quite bucolic in a Warhol sort of way."

tomorrow's the day: the nominations for the oscars are announced at 830am est. as much as I've been enraptured with oscarwatch this year, I have to predict the nods in the big 6 categories - and to think I used to mock my buddy keith for doing the exact same thing. 'course, I do it with the grammys (I'm an awards show whore), so what can you do? anyway.

best picture: we already know what's going to win, don't we?
+chicago is a lock, and the front-runner to win.
+the hours is a lock, thanks especially to its globe for best drama; no film has ever won that award and not at least been nommed by the oscars.
+the pianist is riding a groundswell of buzz at exactly the right time, plus it's an artistically successful film about the holocaust.
+three films are competing for the final two slots. I may very well be wrong, but I think my big fat greek wedding will get narrowly squeezed out, thus ending the screen actors guild's 100% success rate - since they first started giving an award for best ensemble in 1995, every film they've nommed there has gone on to receive a bp nod. the pianist will break that "curse," bumping wedding.
+gangs of new york will make it in as this year's epic, and because of the love people have for scorcese. plus, if gony is left out, he has no chance of winning best director.
+the lord of the rings: the two towers will slip in to the fifth slot. most thought it even more stunning than the fellowship of the ring, even if it's largely seen as an action movie. but I wouldn't be shocked to see the wedding bump either of the last two.

best director: for once, I think the nominees here will mirror those in bp.
+rob marshall (chicago) - this year's sam mendes? fun fact: marshall and mendes codirected the broadway revival of cabaret a couple years back.
+martin scorcese (gony) - he's a stone lock, even if his film misses out in bp.
+roman polanski (pianist) - widely seen as a master of the form, despite that nasty sex-with-a-13-year-old-in-nicholson's-hot-tub 25-odd years ago. but will the l.a. district attorney's office let him come back for the ceremony?
+stephen daldry (hours) - second-time nominee - he was up for billy elliot a few years back. hours is seen as the epitome of an actors' picture, and you've gotta have a great director to get those great performances and fit them all together.
+peter jackson (two towers) - even those who don't love the lotr films (myself included) admire his achievement.
+possible spoilers: spike jonze for adaptation (bold, impressive filmmaking like no one else), todd haynes for far from heaven (this year's david lynch? I think he's more soderburgh).

best actor: four locks, and a fight to the finish for the fifth slot.
+jack nicholson, about schmidt. that's all you have to say: just jack. it will be stunning if he doesn't take home his fourth oscar (and third lead) for what many consider to be the performance of his career, myself included.
+daniel day-lewis, gangs of new york. widely considered as a great performance in a film a lot of people didn't much like.
+adrien brody, pianist. I think if the buzz breaks just the right way, brody's career-altering perf has the stuff to be the dark horse and pull the massive upset. but like eminem over bruce at the grammys, I don't think it'll happen.
+richard gere, chicago. this will be gere's first nod ever at the oscars. the sag nod put him over the top, as will the film's mondo coattails. and his tap dance. a month ago, I had him on the outside looking in, but his momentum is serious.
+nicholas cage, adaptation. it's a great perf, it's a dual role (an academy fave), it involved weight gain (another academy fave). however, this is a tight race for this slot. michael caine (the quiet american) has been very quiet, and his film has been barely seen - but his work is widely held to be phenomenal; don't rule him out. everyone's seen about a boy's hugh grant, and everyone loves him. the film has a lot of supporters, too - but will gere's nod bump hugh's comic perf?

best actress: the two towers.
+nicole kidman, the hours. she's nicole. everyone loves her. she's an amazing actress. and she wore a prosthetic nose.
+julianne moore, far from heaven. I'm befuddled as to why the buzz on this masterpiece of a film has died to nearly-nonexistent, but fortunately, no one's forgotten (nor will they) moore's perf. I still think she'll take the sag for this - and then, the oscar (much as halle berry did last year over already-anointed sissy spacek). hallelujah!
+renee zellweger, chicago. like nicole, this will be her second consecutive nod here. deserving? yes. chance to win? none.
+meryl streep, the hours. because she's meryl. she'll be just as happy with a supporting trophy (see below).
+salma hayek, frida. very admired for making and giving such a fine perf in a film which left many wanting. diane lane (in unfaithful) is this year's naomi watts - a couple of big crix awards, but not enough steam to go the distance.

best supporting actor: getting tired of these races continually coming down to the fifth slot yet?
+chris cooper, adaptation. it's his. yeah, he's good. but this should go to
+dennis quaid, far from heaven. his perf reveals new depths in his acting, which appears to be improving with age, like a good wine. so much in this perf was understated with such beauty that I'll be elated beyond words if he wins. but he won't.
+ed harris, the hours. oscar fave, plays dying man with aids. need I go on?
+paul newman, the road to perdition. because he's paul newman. as much of a chance to win as I have.
+john c. reilly, chicago. chris walken (catch me if you can) is in too lightweight of a pic. alfred molina (frida) is in too disliked of a pic. and reilly's this year's jim broadbent, supporting in three likely nominees (hours and gony as well). I say "mr. cellophane" puts him over the top, by a hair.

best supporting actress: the chicago effect.
+meryl streep, adaptation. with her nod here, and/or in lead, meryl breaks kate hepburn's record for nominations (currently at 12). she likely wins this, giving adaptation a supporting sweep
+catherine zeta-jones, chicago. I'm still mad that she wasn't nommed for traffic two years ago, but she obviously stole every scene she was in in chicago, and still has a shot - the only one - to upset streep.
+kathy bates, about schmidt. great perf, buzz dying save for nude scene, could be the dark horse, but don't bet on it.
+julianne moore, the hours. the last time two women were double-nommed? '93. ten years later, expect it again.
+queen latifah, chicago. she's been steadily generating great buzz for a truly supporting perf. the sag nod puts her over. would love to see patricia clarkson slide in for far from heaven, but I don't expect it.

you know I'll blog the actual nods tomorrow, right? right.

you must watch this video. ernie, is this considered some mutant strain of j-pop? horrific, but in a good way. and more fun than glitter. [link courtesy of the poptastic, fantabulous popjustice newsletter.]

paul's redesigned the top of the rub. it's utterly gorgeous. ah, if I had the ambition...

even though I think nike is fairly slimy - just another international multicorporate like mcdonald's, disney, and starbucks - you've gotta admit that this is a pretty cool tribute.

and, no, I haven't watched any of the game; charmed and oz were on. did I miss anything?

along with today's college hoops questions, there's one which I didn't think needed to be asked, but apparently did:
+will maryland drop two in a row? yup, losing 90-84 at georgia tech.

as for the others:
+quinn's boys looked better than bobby's. missou 82, texas tech 73.
+notre dame didn't forget payback - it's a bitch, ain't it, pittsburgh? nd 66, pitt 64.
+marquette had some good home cookin', topping wake forest 68-61.
+and surprise, surprise! cincinnati avoided what would have been their first-ever four-game skind under coach huggins, beating oklahoma state 61-50.

+in the big ten, the illini cruised past ohio state 76-57, but are still a game behind conference leaders purdue and michigan.

tomorrow night, as always, your weekly preview, the new polls (will the boilers still be ranked?), and new bracketology.

current favorite why-the-hell-didn't-I-get-this-two-years-ago?! record of truth and beauty: vocalcity by tessio. clicky, deep-as-a-mudbath microhouse infused with s-o-u-l, baby. [thanks to matos, ever an inspiration, for talking about tessio so much that I had to sate my curiousity. damn am I ever glad.]

current favorite chillout song: natalie cole's "snowfall on the sahara." [don't mock - you probably haven't even heard this slipped-through-the-cracks '99 gem, soulful and adult and contemporary without being "adult contemporary," natalie's voice as strong and supple as ever accompanied by phil ramone's tasteful, sumptuous production.]

who else thinks t.a.t.u. learned to sing in english phonetically? 'cause their english is really, really, wonderfully bad. 'course, I'm sure they don't care a bit - amazing what a little teenage-schoolgirl-faux-lesbian tittilation'll get you these days (like the uk's #1 single for two weeks running). 'course, having a great, completely bombastic, this-defines-over-the-top-production (oh, hello, mr. horn!) pop single helps. I'm annoyed that justin got stuck in the runners-up position yet again (same thing happened to "like I love you" last fall), but at least it wasn't friggin' oasis (new at #3 with "songbird" - remember when they used to not be shite, circa "cigarettes and alcohol"?).

everyday annoyance: why the fuck doesn't 7-eleven deliver?! I could really use some cold pepsi right now, but am not in the mood to get dressed and schlep the three blocks required. I hope I don't die of thirst. remember, kids, this is no movie, and there's no mekhi phifer.

am really not impressed with wes, the new presenter of the uk top 40 on bbc radio 1. there's a new format, too: a rundown of the top 40 albums for the first half-hour, then numbers 40-21 run down speed-round style (new entries and selected others played in full, snippets of the others), and then the full top 20 for the last hour and a half or so. the biggest problem, really, is that he's 23, and sounds it. he's still got that annoying fanboy thing going on; I practically expected him to have an aneurysm whilst chatting up special guests liberty x. I think that the chart show is a big enough deal that radio 1 shouldn't be putting it in the hands of a new boy (and I still resent that they decided to stick with scott mills for the last month rather than continue using guest presenters - the world was robbed of the chance to hear john peel introducing the cheeky girls!). perhaps wes'll inprove with age, though I'm not holding my breath. I give him a year, tops.

liberty x, btw, aren't all that good, but make some decent pop records (though I hate "just a little"). "got to have your love" has a suitable rubbery bassline, and then there's their new single. "being nobody" is the result of their highly-touted collabo with bootlegger/mr. girls on top, richard x. it's no "freak like me," I'll tell you that. what's interesting about it is more the idea - combining the music from the human league's "being boiled" with the lyrics of "ain't nobody" by rufus & chaka khan - than the execution. it's fine and all, don't misunderstand me, it just somehow feels like it should be better, like, well, "freak like me." and unfortunately, liberty x are so fluffy and polished as to take some of the would-be-delightful edge off the record. great idea, but only half as successful in practice.

addendum: no, actually, "got to have your love" is more than its bassline. it's a fairly ace pop/r-and-b tune, not obnoxiously perky like most u.k. popfactory stuff, and the vocals are fine - nice boy/girl harmonies! yum.

finally, my first hoosier blogger! he likes dirty gay sex, too. it's sardonic bomb. make certain that you check out his page of gorgeous indiana photos.