Friday Night Music Club

Welcome back to third instalment of my mammoth six-part cut-out-and-keep series of mixes.

This one starts off a little political, which, since I’ve not had a Rant on a Saturday morning for a while, I hope you’ll let slide. I’ve tried to puncture the serious tone by chucking in a seemingly out-of-place indie tune (which only seems out of place in respect of the musical jump, not the theme), and then by a late 70s/early 80s children’s TV theme, which I’ve deliberately not named in the track-listing (partly because I want it to be a surprise, mostly because I have no idea who to credit it to), but will make sense in the running order. It’s nicely juxtaposed, I think, with some Rage Against the Machine. Look, it made me smile when I thought of including it, and these days that’s enough reason.

After that, we take brief trip through some late 80s/early 90s rap and hip-hop (I’ll be honest, I’m still not entirely sure what the difference is) including a track by House of Pain. Not that track, no; instead I’ve selected their final UK Top 40 hit, It Ain’t a Crime (which, were it not for the bad boy lyrics probably would have appeared in one of my Saturday morning Rants with reference to our ‘Crime’ Minister – see what I did there?) partly because it’s the only single of theirs that I ever actually bought back in the day, but mostly for the very reason that I bought it back then: it has some of the most cringe-worthy lyrics ever committed to vinyl (or in the case of the format I bought it on: to cassingle!).

Telling the story of Johnny (I bet it took them ages to come up with that name) who “…was a bad boy, he was a juvenile delinquent/He had his picture on the wall of every precinct…” it contains these gloriously bad lines:

He hit the backdoor like his name was Carl Lewis
Dipped to the payphone to find out where his crew is
He called up his homeboy Jose, “What up!”
“Can I come over my man?”, he said, “No way
A cop was here he was looking all over for ya
But I told the pig I didn’t know ya”
He said, “Cool meet me up at the school
I need a ride cause I’m wanted for homicide

..which I’m sure you’ll agree are a bit special, but not in a good way.

A History of Dubious Taste in no way condones the actions of Johnny, by the way, who sounds like a very naughty young man indeed.

I wish I could say it was planned to drop this mix on the day after the anniversary of his passing, but in all honesty it’s a complete coincidence. See, Llŷr was a massive hip-hop fan (and tried many times to explain the difference between it and rap to me, with no success), but also of the genre which makes up the last few tracks (as was I): electro-clash, a short-lived bubble of dance music from the early 2000s.

In fact, for a even shorter time, I was dating a woman who was also into electro-clash, so I got Llŷr to knock me up a mix CD of some of his favourite moments to give to her, which he happily did. All of the tracks featured today were on it, I think. Certainly Tiga & Zyntherius’ brilliant cover of Corey Hart’s Sunglasses at Night, which Llŷr proudly owned on vinyl, did.

She split from me about two weeks later, by the way. I’m pretty sure the two facts weren’t linked. Her boyfriend before me was, coincidentally, also called Jez and, having dated probably the only two Jez’s in Cardiff, she decided to move on to a different name and work through them instead. Good luck, Ji – I hope you’re very happy.

Often, mates would came back to ours after we’d all been out clubbing (they usually didn’t want to go home and face/wake up their partners, so, since Llŷr and I had no such concerns, our flat would generally end up being their place of refuge for a few hours) and I would slip on Vitalic’s wonderful OK Cowboy album, a noisy and gloriously beaty but odd record, and watch our guests either get right into it or sit terrified. Included in this section is a single from said album.

The mix ends with the archetypal electro-clash tune, Emerge by Fischerspooner. Released in 2001, right at the start of the electro-clash, it always felt to me that it would never be bettered, and so it proved.

Anyway, to the tunes, by way of my usual disclaimer: any skips and jumps in the mix are down to the mixing software; any mis-timed mixes are down to me (although I think I’ve done pretty well on this one, I think); all record choices are 100% mine.

Oh and one more thing: there’s a fair bit of effing and jeffing on this one, so I’d probably better slap this on it:

Friday Night Music Club Vol 6.3

  • Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy – Television, The Drug Of The Nation
  • Gil Scott-Heron – The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
  • Ned’s Atomic Dustbin – Kill Your Television
  • Surprise Track!
  • Rage Against the Machine – Bullet in the Head
  • Public Enemy – You’re Gonna Get Yours
  • Cypress Hill – When the Shit Goes Down
  • House Of Pain – It Ain’t a Crime (Madhouse remix)
  • Credit To The Nation – Call It What You Want
  • Andrea Doria – Bucci Bag
  • Vitalic – La Rock 01
  • Tomcraft – Loneliness
  • Tiga & Zyntherius – Sunglasses At Night [Radio Edit]
  • Golden Boy With Miss Kittin – Rippin Kittin
  • Fischerspooner – Emerge

See you next week (or before that if you fancy swinging by).

More soon, in other words.

Friday Night Music Club

It’s Children in Need night in the UK, a night when almost the entire BBC1 content is given over to a fund raising live event, usually hosted by Terry Wogan, but I see that tonight Dermot O’Leary has stepped in at the nth hour as Terry is unwell. (Wig malfunction, perhaps..?)

That decision not to host The X Factor this year is looking smarter by the second, isn’t it, Dermot?

Ok, I’ve mentioned Terry Wogan, so I cannot resist sharing this, the most defiantly, knowingly awkward appearance on Top of the Pops ever. And this, just in case you want to hear/download the studio recorded version of the same.

Terry used to host the Radio 2 Breakfast show, and after he quit Chris Evans, who I think it’s fair to say is a very different kind of DJ, took over. I listened once, and heard him play this, proclaiming it an excellent record to wake up to (which it is). But the cynic in me can’t help but wonder if he was taking the piss a little given that he’d just replaced Sir Terry.

Anyhoo, I have a lot of time for Dermot (and for Sir Terry, of course. Evans? Not so much…have you seen the reboot of TFI Friday…?), probably from his days of hosting Big Brother’s Little Brother, but his Saturday afternoon show on Radio 2 is often worth a listen, even if he does every now and then give the impression of someone who doesn’t really know much about music. I swear I once heard him announce that he had never heard of The Velvet Underground.

Anyway, you know what Children in Need is all about: various BBC related personalities perform an amusing skit on their usual personas, generally culminating in the BBC newsreaders dressing up and doing a song, in an effort to raise funds for a very worthy cause.

Here’s some examples of their awfulness: BBC Newsreaders do “Weapon of Choice”

And just so there’s some semblance of order round these parts, the video they were taking off. Yeh, you totally nailed it guys.

And here, perhaps the very nadir of this kind of thing: The Time Warp.

They could’ve saved a few quid on suspenders and high heels if Frank Bough had still been a newsreader then.

The only thing worse than watching that was witnessing my parents trying to do The Time Warp at a wedding a few years ago. I’m so mentally scarred as a result, I have no idea whose wedding it was.

(NB. Is it just me, or is it ironic that the BBC should have a “Children in Need” night every year, when they housed so many of our now discredited/imprisoned/dead and discredited TV celebrities in the 1970s…? I’ll ask Alanis. Or Ed.)

If you’re anything like me, at some point while watching Children in Need, you will undoubtedly feel a rush of shame as you reach for the remote and search for something a little less…well, shit.

Fear not, for the next five songs in the Friday Night Music Club are here to save you.

(NB. There seems to be an issue with my usual download provider, so I’ve switched to a new one for now. Let me know if there are any issues…? Or if you prefer one over the other? Or just don’t give a flying shit?)

41YCMV56P2L Tomcraft – Loneliness

5021392951195 Kelis – Friday Fish Fry

artworks-000011524153-5tnr45-original Friends – I’m His Girl

homepage_large_e7c05d6b tUnE-yArDs – Hey Life

item Michachu – Golden Phone

Oh and of course, you can donate to Children in Need here. Please do.

More soon.