Random 10 for Feb. 18, 2008
1. MGMT, “Electric Feel.” These gentlemen are currently touring Europe and have yet to schedule any domestic shows beyond Coachella, but I’m hoping that will change soon. “Electric Feel” is a personal fave rave right now, a raging slab of groovalicious psychedelic disco that, as I mentioned in my recent review, sounds a hell of a lot like one of Quincy Jones’ late-’70s productions for the Brothers Johnson (“Stomp,” “I’ll Be Good to You”), my favorite sophista-funk band of that period, except Dave Fridmann makes it all sound like someone spiked the drinks at Studio 54 with mescaline. Watch one version of MGMT’s interactive video for the song here. Be careful — the song is addictive.
2. Tim Finn, “Subway Dreaming.”
3. The Go! Team, “Ladyflash.”
4. The Starlight Mints, “Torts.”
5. Jay Ferguson, “Thunder Island.” Staticblog friend Chase and I talk about this one frequently as a kind of running joke — a relic from the halcyon days of yacht rock that was quite literally about hairy ’70s sex in vague tropical locales. It sounds like an uncleaned room at the Hotel California thanks in large part to Joe Walsh’s slide guitar, a noise that connotes Laurel Canyon decadence like almost nothing else. Ferguson went on to do soundtrack work, and these days, you hear him every week performing the theme to “The Office,” a piece of music that definitely does not inspire images of doing tequila body shots with Linda Ronstadt, Stevie Nicks and Joni Mitchell in 1977. Watch this clip of Ferguson in all his silk-scarfed freaky glory, and recoil in horror.
6. Nico, “These Days.”
7. Amy Winehouse, “Cherry.”
8. Sparks, “The Very Next Fight.”
9. The Pipettes, “Why Did You Stay?”
10. April March, “Laisse Tomber Les Filles.” April March is not actually French, but the California singer’s Francophone recordings perfectly capture the Serge Gainsbourg pop aesthetic — the nasty old man even wrote this one.
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God bless you, George — and God bless Jay Ferguson! For me, nothing speaks to the feathered, big-heeled charm of the Seventies like that “sha-la-la-la-la-la m’lady…” And I had no idea he wrote the theme for “The Office.” Wow, Staticblog isn’t just entertaining… it’s educational, too!
And need I point out that April March is quite marketable? Not as marketable as Isla Fisher, mind you, but still … she’s no McDLT.