Center Of The Universe #8

Giant Sand, “Center Of The Universe”
Fiona Apple, “Valentine”
Wipers, “The Search”
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, “CYHSY, 2005”

(Clap Your Hands, recalling the days of blogs and roses on 2021’s The New Fragility. Wipers, always restless and unsettled, unsurprisingly on “The Search” in 1987. Fiona Apple with an acidic if not ironic “Valentine” from 2012’s The Idler Wheel. Starting things off was the theme song to this make believe show. Not sure why, maybe it’s a rights thing, but later Killing Joke albums have disappeared from Spotify for months at a time. When 2010’s Absolute Dissent re-appeared, 2012’s MCMXII vanished. Well that one’s back now, and it’s worth a listen. As is just about every Killing Joke album - Outside The Gate a flagrant, excruciating exception to the rule. This here's “Rapture,” which Jaz Coleman says is about how he imagines a Killing Joke show to be for fans. No one ever said they were humble.)

Killing Joke, “Rapture”
Janis Ian, “Friends Again”
John Cale, “Russian Roulette”
Jon Hopkins, “Open Eye Signal”

(“Open Eye Signal” from Jon Hopkins’ Immunity, the rare ambient-with-a-beat I can handle. John Cale’s frothing espionage fantasy “Russian Roulette” from 1981’s Honi Soit, which randomly popped up on Spotify recently. Now if only Sabotage/Live would appear! Janis Ian, a truly under appreciated singer/songwriter in her youth, with “Friends Again” from 1968’s The Secret Life Of J. Eddy Fink. Onwards and all over the place with a little something from Camper Van Beethoven’s debut album, Telephone Free Landslide Victory.)

Camper Van Beethoven, “Oh No”
Jazmine Sullivan, “Stanley”
Rolling Stones, “All Down The Line”
Pretenders, “Time The Avenger”

(Two album tracks that were never released as A-sides but still got plenty of concert & radio play, from the Pretenders’s Learning To Crawl and The Stones’ Exile On Mainstreet. Jazmine Sullivan confidently if uncouthly requesting dinner on “Stanley” from 2015’s Reality Show. And now here’s a deep but sweet cut from Concrete Blonde’s self-titled debut back in 1986.)

Concrete Blonde, “Little Sister”
Bob Dylan, “Where Are You Tonight?”
Pat Benatar, “We Live For Love”
Joan Armatrading, “I’m Lucky”

(A double-dose of ‘80s ladies synth-rock, from Joan Armatrading’s Walk Under Ladders and Pat Benatar’s In The Heat Of The Night. One of these days I’m going to have to confirm and defend the possibility that Street-Legal is my favorite Bob Dylan album in the decades after Blood On The Tracks. I think it has something to do with my fondness for “Idiot Wind” and Lou Reed’s Take No Prisoners. And now back to the synthosphere with Nine Inch Nails in 2013. Yes, Hesitation Marks is ten years old. Hesitation Marks.)

Nine Inch Nails, “Copy Of A”
Guided By Voices, “Waves”
Daft Punk, “Doin’ It Right (feat. Panda Bear)”
Air, “Photograph”

(A double-dose of enduring French electronica. A number from Air’s Pocket Symphony - probably my favorite album of theirs? - and one from Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories. My kid doesn’t understand why I don’t own a Daft Punk album and it's hard to explain that the industry sadly doesn’t believe in one-disc Greatest Hits albums anymore. Daft Punk sure would have a good one. Before that, a Tobin Sprout song from the first Guided By Voices “reunion” album, 2012’s Let’s Go Eat The Factory. Tobin always makes a GBV album better. Now let’s get things sweaty and nasty with Busta Rhymes and Janet Jackson. Show those French we don’t need no irony. Uhhh!)

Busta Rhymes “What’s It Gonna Be (feat. Janet Jackson)”
McFadden & Whitehead, “Ain’t No Stopping Us Now”
Bachman-Turner Overdrive, “Roll On Down The Highway”
Queen, “Action This Day”

(“Action This Day,” a Roger Taylor song on Queen’s eternally underrated 1982 album Hot Space. Dig the sax solo! Yes, a Queen song with a guest musician! “Roll On Down The Highway,” BTO’s third biggest US hit, from their 1975 album Four Wheel Drive. And one-hit wonder/many-hit writing team McFadden & Whitehead with “Ain’t No Stopping Us Now.” We’re going to depart the center of the universe with a song my friends’ band in high school used to cover. I'm serious! They were deep into Stephin Merritt. Bought 69 Love Songs day of release. Oh, and a violin-driven Dick Valentine song threatening Canadian-themed violence. Thanks for your time!)

Magnetic Fields, “The Saddest Story Ever Told”
Dick Valentine, “We Will Leave You In Toronto”