Center Of The Universe #7
Giant Sand, “Center Of The Universe”
Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, “Going To A Go-Go”
Bananarama, “Rough Justice”
(Welcome to the Center Of The Universe, where Giant Sand rips open the sky so Smokey Robinson and the Miracles can get their groove on, only for Bananarama to remind us what’s going on outside the club. And now here’s Mississippi John Hurt ready to head back to Avalon, slightly more conflicted about it than Bryan Ferry was.)
Mississippi John Hurt, “Avalon, My Home Town - Live”
Death Cab For Cutie, “You Are A Tourist”
LL Cool J, “You Can’t Dance”
The White Stripes, “Let’s Shake Hands”
(The first White Stripes 7-inch, also found on the band’s double-disc best-of. Before that, LL Cool mocked your two left feet for three and half minutes on his 1985 debut, Radio. Earlier, Death Cab For Cutie used “You Are A Tourist,” the first single on their 2011 album Codes & Keys, to note you don’t need to stay in your hometown just because Mississippi John Hurt wishes he did. Now we’ll hear the big breakthrough hit by the the Danceable Jazz Band, “Let It Whip,” which topped the R&B charts in 1982. It's great, but fair warning - there's not a lot of jazz there.)
Dazz Band, “Let It Whip”
The Byrds, “One Hundred Years From Now”
Scrawl, “Rot”
McLusky, “Icarus Smicarus”
(McLusky telling you to get fucked in 2004, Scrawl just implying it in 1996. Gram Parsons and The Byrds - Parsons' lead vocal erased - wondering if such standoffish behavior will still be necessary in 2068. I don’t know a lot about Black Belt Eagle Scout, but I admire how the first song on their new album The Land, The Water, The Sky sounds like it should be the last song on an album. Here it is now.)
Black Belt Eagle Scout, “My Blood Runs Through This Land”
Chavez, “Pentagram Ring”
Blur, “Colin Zeal”
Slowdive, “Blue Skied An’ Clear”
(A noisy trio of alternative rock numbers from the mid-90s. Slowdive at their most extended and ambient, one of Blur’s first fuzzed out songs about a guy with an all-too-apt last name, and Chavez..being Chavez. I never investigated Skrillex much in his heyday, but I now I might have to go back. Anybody who’d put Missy Elliott and Mr. Oizo on a track in 2023 has his heart in the right place.)
Skrillex, “RATATA (feat. Missy Elliott & Mr. Oizo)”
Massive Attack, “Daydreaming”
Kirsty MacColl, “Dancing In Limbo”
Roxy Music, “The Bogus Man”
(Did you know Roxy Music played “The Bogus Man” at shows this year? Badass. Kirsty MacColl, gone for over 20 years now and missed every time I hear her. While I respect the dramatic leaps Massive Attack took in the ‘90s, I truly wish we’d gotten a whole album of 3D and Tricky tossing rhymes back and forth like they do on “Daydreaming.” I still need to listen to Too Much Joy’s first era of existence, but their recent reunion material has been fantastic, and “Normal Never Was,” from last year’s All These Fucking Feelings might be the best political Ramones song since “Bonzo Goes To Bitburg.” I think. Honestly, it’s hard to tell what the lyrics are.)
Too Much Joy, “Normal Never Was”
John Cale, “Guts”
Lou Reed, “Ennui”
U2, “Sunday Bloody Sunday”
(Should I do a series of U2 album discography posts like I did Yo La Tengo? Do I dare for a band I don’t love wholeheartedly? These are the things that I sweat. I do love “Sunday Bloody Sunday,” though. Right up there with “Undercover Of The Night” in terms of mainstream spins on Gang Of Four. Before that, Lou Reed in 1974 and John Cale in 1975 celebrating “Ennui” and “Guts” respectively. Another band I don’t know as well as I should is Orbital, whose new album Optical Delusion sounds dandy to me. But before we leave the Center Of The Universe with the hypothetically profound question “Are You Alive?” we’ll hear Mojo Nixon & Skid Roper pledge faith to the notion that “Elvis Is Everywhere,” a sentiment that blew my little mind when MTV let me hear it at 9 years old. I think I only saw the clip once, but that was enough. Thanks for your time!)
Mojo Nixon & Skid Roper, “Elvis Is Everywhere”
Orbital, “Are You Alive? (feat. Penelope Isles)”