Center Of The Universe #23

Giant Sand, “Center Of The Universe”
The 6ths, “Pillow Fight”
Everything But The Girl, “Nobody Knows We’re Dancing”
Throwing Muses, “Hook In Her Head”

A bit of a theme this week - artists who appear on my Top 300 Albums Of All Time list that haven’t yet appeared in the Center Of The Universe. Not necessarily songs from those albums, just the artists. I still haven’t explored the second 6ths album, so here’s a track from the all-indie-star Stephin Merritt celebration Wasps' Nests featuring Mitch Easter not just on vocal but on guitar solo! A guitar solo on a Stephin Merritt song! Then a number from the blessed new Everything But The Girl album, Fuse, which certainly has a narrative I'm inclined to overrate. I don’t know why Throwing Muses' classic debut isn’t online (is it in print? Remember that Rykodisc In A Doghouse 2CD?), but almost everything that followed is up there, including The Real Ramona.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs, “Soft Shock”
The Feelies, “In Between (Reprise)”
Disco Tex & The Sex-O-Lettes, “Get Dancin’”
Gang Of Four, “To Hell With Poverty!”

I will never understand why “Soft Shock” wasn’t a single. Maybe the Yeah Yeah Yeahs were worried about becoming known for power ballads? I refuse to believe it won’t score apocalyptic adolescent heartbreak in a movie someday, if it hasn't already. It matches perfectly with The Little Mermaid in the clip below, and could probably be matched to anything intensely romantic. The Feelies at their most krautrock on 2017’s In Between, their latest and hopefully not last. While a poor master of Disco Tex’s self-titled album came and went online, I believe the singles remain (a lot of K-Tel uploads are re-recordings, but I feel like the arrangement would be considerably chintzier in that case; usually horns become synth presets). Gang Of Four would get dancin' either way, especially with cheap wine. Their original bassist has worked for a couple streaming services, after all.

Allen Toussaint, “A Dear Old Southland”
Cocteau Twins, “The Spangle Maker”
Das EFX, “Brooklyn To T-Neck”
Steely Dan, “Lunch With Gina”

Allen Touissant’s The Bright Mississippi might be some of the loveliest New Orleans jazz I’ve heard, autumnal without being remotely sodden. The music compiled on The Pink Opaque by The Cocteau Twins inspires even more poetic descriptions when I risk it. I’m worried my love of Das EFX’s Dead Serious might diminish as I dig deeper into the lyrics, but musically it’s a tremendously tight ten tracks of post-EPMD pop-off (shame their style was taken to the top of the charts by literal schoolchildren a year later. That would throw off any group). Steely Dan’s Everything Must Go isn’t the reason they’re on this playlist, but I like it a lot more than most fans. I tend to enjoy the most casually sardonic album someone with a long career makes.

Madonna, “Where’s The Party?”
David Johansen & The Harry Smiths, “Darling, Do You Remember Me?”
Radiohead, “All I Need”
Ice-T, “Hit The Deck”

Madonna’s You Can Dance is the rare pop “remix” album that truly feels designed for a cohesive dance party, achieving a level of euphoria that even her hits compilations can’t manage. I wouldn’t say fans of Harry Smith’s archival work need to hear David Johansen’s albums interpreting the blues standards, but David Johansen fans certainly do. It’s a little embarrassing how much I’ve grown to love Radiohead’s In Rainbows. But I’m proud of how much I’ve appreciated Ice-T’s The Iceberg/Freedom Of Speech…Just Watch What You Say ever since my sister randomly gave me a used CD copy for my birthday in college. Where his critical breakthrough O.G. Original Gangster has skits explaining why he won’t be bothering with sex & violence, The Iceberg jumps from ridiculous sex and ridiculous violence to political pronouncements and skill displays with lots of wry self-awareness and without apology.

Little Richard, “Slippin’ And Slidin’ (Peepin’ And Hidin’)”
Big Star, “Like St. Joan (Kanga Roo) - Demo”
Dinosaur Jr., “Outta Hand”
Pixies, “The Happening”

The appeal of Here’s Little Richard is hard to put into words, but I’ll eventually write something suitably mammoth about Third/Sister Lovers, the only album I currently have on LP, on CD, and on a box set with demos and rough mixes. Dinosaur Jr.’s Without A Sound and The Pixies’ Bossanova are far from my favorite albums by either, but I enjoy hearing J Mascis luxuriate in grand strums and mellotron like he's auditioning for ‘90s 4AD, and Black Francis hypnotically describing a visit from beyond.

Stooges, “Free And Freaky”
ABC, “The Power Of The Persuasion”
Louis XIV, “Paper Doll”
Les Savy Fav, “Raging In The Plague Age”

One of these days I’m going to double check if I actually like The Weirdness more than Raw Power, or if that was just pique in righteous celebration of Ron Asheton and Iggy making music that’s more Half Japanese than Billy Idol. I’ve probably bought and sold Beauty Stab three times in the last twenty years, and it’s songs like this one that make me think I need the whole thing. Louis XIV’s The Best Little Secrets Are Kept is probably the most problematic rock album of the ‘00s that I love. Les Savy Fav’s Let’s Stay Friends is another fantastic rock album from the ‘00s from a band whose name probably pisses off the French. I knew this song before GTA IV, but I'm grateful I could drive to it in GTA IV.

Brian Eno, “The True Wheel”
Le Tigre, “They Want Us To Make A Symphony Out Of The Sound Of Women Swallowing Their Tongues”
Flatlanders, “All You Are Love”
Pavement, “Shoot The Singer (1 Sick Verse)”

Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) might be my least favorite of Eno’s four vocal albums in the ‘70s, and part of my beef is that he was capable of a song as jubilantly twisted as “The True Wheel” and didn’t bother making more. A local band of twentysomething dudes did a surprise cover of this on campus at Penn State in my late adolescence, scraps of paper with lyrics written in pen, extra guys on synths. I'll always remember my surprise and delight at how well they pulled it off. This was probably a little before Le Tigre first showed up in the college radio mailbox, their early stuff with Sadie Benning on Mr. Lady still my favorite material. It’s the once-obscure ‘70s stuff that gets the Flatlanders on this playlist, but their 21st century reunion albums are joyful too, three veteran singers and songwriters from Texas whose failed Zen country band with just an 8-track to their name is now a supergroup. And finally, we depart The Center Of The Universe with some Pavement. Yup, I’ve played some Pavement. Thanks for your time!