One Stupid Mop

We like music. You should too.

Woozy Viper - It's Such A Drag

(download)

Right off the bat, I like these guys. They're giving away their whole album for free so that fans can discover and love them, and then eventually spend money on them. The fact that they don't suck is very important too.

Yeah, it's true that these guys sound like the Black Lips. This thing is, they sound like the Black Lips on their live album, rather than on the studio albums. That means that there's far far less of that unnecessary fuzz and feedback that's become so cool in the last couple years.

No, don't get me wrong, I like noise, but bands like Times New Viking and the Black Lips are writing great songs. I wanna be able to hear them. I wanna know the words. I wanna jam to the groooooooves. But whatever.

Woozy Viper is two guys who play that garage rock sound that dirty indie guys really love. It's a sound that works as well on a Saturday night with two four-packs of PBR tallboys as it does on a Sunday morning with the family at the breakfast table. Trust me - I've done both.

Vue - "Pictures of Me"

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Everybody likes The Rolling Stones. Just like everybody likes The Beatles. And everybody is also either a Beatles or Stones person. I am the latter. But I didn't get that way until I got to college, when I would, on a regular basis, stay up until four in the morning, writing and doing what college kids do: Listening to records.


I got stuck on Let It Bleed. Since I've had the same copy on vinyl since high school, and my car didn't have a turntable in it, the middle of the night was the best time for me to flip that record over and over and over.

At some point, while studying the constant stream of bands rolling through Gainesville, FL, I realized that Sub Pop was sending just about every one of its not-yet-hip-or-huge bands through the city. I got them to start sending me these band's albums before they got there, so I could preview the rock and roll for the kids who like to drink and watch that sort of thing.

I can't remember when my copy of The Vue's Find Your Home got to my desk. But I remember it clicking in my head immediately. There was just enough of a rip off of the Stones in their early 70s prime to pick up on, but not nearly enough to call them a complete rip off.

The song I couldn't lose, and truthfully, a song I still can't lose, is "Pictures of Me." The track is about being a star. Not only is it about being a star, but it's about being a big big big fucking star. Magazine appearances. Panties thrown on stage. Free drugs. Jams that those of us without talent insist they could write if only they picked up an instrument and stayed sober long enough to learn how to play. 

San Francisco is no bedrock of the blues, but Vue brought it to life. Their lead singer, Rex Shelverton, he wore a glittering shirt when the band pulled up in front of Common Ground in Gainesville, when it was still in a strip mall, next to Wing Zone. He was rock and roll. I mean, yeah, I was drinking my way through the afternoons and had this album on endless repeat in my headphones. But Rex, he oozed it. It wasn't just a pose in the studio - he could do it on stage too.

At the end of the day, the band signed to RCA, and RCA promptly buried them as they recorded their third album. Which is a shame. The Vue put out two albums on Sub Pop though that burn with the intensity that makes young men and women obsess of music in public and worship it like religion in private.

My delusional college years, when I thought success would slam into me effortless and deserved, that's the place I've got for Find Your Home, and especially "Pictures of Me." 

"Well we talked about you/ and we've heard about you/ in the hearts of the magazines. All the soft frank glances of the waiting world/ they're gonna dream about me." Yeah, you and me Rex. We're gonna get there.

The Chemical Brothers - "Where Do I Begin"

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I watched "Vanilla Sky" for the first time in, I don't know, 20 years, last night. Granted, the movie isn't that old but it damn sure felt as if it's been that long since I've seen it. If I remember correctly, Tom Cruise had a run of great roles around that time where he played a series of complete psychos. He was brilliant every time and this movie holds up. Even Cameron Diaz puts on a hauntingly freaky and completely perfect performance - she makes you kind of sympathize with Cruise over and over, and we all know how difficult sympathizing with Tom friggin' Cruise can be.

"Where Do I Begin" runs over the credits, a fitting song for a movie where the main character has no idea what reality he lives in and where his mind stops and that reality starts. For part of The Chemical Brothers best years, i.e. the late 90s and first few 00s, I'm sure the song served a similar purpose for a lot of people.

The second-to-last track on Dig Your Own Hole, the Chems sophomore stroke of ecstatic beat pounding, is about exactly what Beth Orton is singing about: A night of hard partying, whatever that entails, and the hazy morning after.

For my purposes right now, and mind you, I haven't heard the song in a year or two at least, I'm using it to open the week. This one starts a bit lazily for me, because of a couple of lazy vacation days, so if I'm Beth, I can see straight this morning. The beat crashes in mid-way. A big part of me wishes Tom and Ed made beats that sounded like this any more. Further may be their best album in nearly a decade, but it's still not Surrender, let alone Exit Planet Dust or Dig Your Own Hole.

Let's be honest though. I might decide to get really drunk this afternoon, you know, just because I can. If that's the case, I'll need a lot more than just Beth wondering whose bed she's in. I'm sure it could help though.

The Mooney Suzuki - "Do It"

(download)

I love the sound of rock and roll in the morning. Thankfully, the best thing to come from watching six hours of election coverage last night is that I saw a commercial from SAP. The commercial itself is, you know, a commercial. SAP means nothing to me. But that soundtrack. Oh, the soundtrack.

The Mooney Suzuki, at least until they signed a major label deal and seemingly calmed down, were an ass-kicking quartet from New York City. They were the American version of The Hives, but with better solos. The idea, as they put it, was to rock "the fuck" out.

If you need more - and believe me, you NEED more - download People Get Ready (which includes "Do It") or the world-beating Electric Sweat.