ψέμα

I first heard the song liar, liar, by the non-existant-except-for-the-song-liar,-liar band the castaways, when I was about 8. I had bought a record (I am so old that I had bought it new on vinyl) called frat rock, volume 3. I'd never heard the word frat but it sounded brutal to me, & liar, liar struck me as immensely powerful caveman music. & the band was called the castaways, so I pictured them as a bunch of high-foreheaded loinclothed lunatics waving rocks at each other on a little green island somwhere. (in an intriguing turn, the castaways were the only band of whom there was no photograph on the album sleeve.) that angry brunhilda & her crazy husky castaway voice! the song remains an absolute favorite. (I've since learned it's best known now for being played in the movie good morning vietgivemeafuckingbreak & for being on nuggets.)

the record also had some over-caffeinated commentary from someone named Gene Sculatti:

What we have here: a bone fide land 'o lakes frat band, formed for the sole purpose of playing campus beer busts. As one shots go, the Casts' is a riffin' wonder, and oh so '65.

now, Gene, nothing personal (Gene, Gene, I love you Gene), but reading that when I was 8 I understood about as much as a dog would. I'd never heard the words bona fide, & they sounded vaguely consonant with my caveman idea. I did not know what beer busts were, but they sounded like scoundrels would have them. as one shots go seemed to have two verbs. & so on.

I now of course realize that the upshot of Gene's comments is that this is a great song to listen to at parties, by a band from minnesota. (goooooooo Franken, let's re that count, fellows!) but it's a dark, brutal, beautiful song. fantastically well-produced: the sounds work together perfectly, the band sounds like they're precisely somewhere. they sing like they can't say what they want. that fantastic guitar sound! something else that's true of liar, liar is that it is, to borrow an adjective from health class, real gateway music: so rich, lively, & pleasing that it drives me to want to hear all kinds of other music -- powerful organ sounds, songs that describe blunt & childlike emotions, duets, dark songs, thick songs, music that involves a lot of repetition, music where someone screams. one of my metropsalmoi (μήτρόψαλμοι, is that right?). music is a wonderful gift of childhood!

click here to download liar, liar by the castaways.

then, really very recently, a spray of finitudes clouded the glass of my wonder: I saw this clip of the movie it's a bikini world, wherein I learned that the castaways look like a breakaway from the hitler youth: tidy youths all, & blond. my brunhilda is a minnesota farmboy's grimacing falsetto! if the song were capable of being ruined, this would do it for me:



I don't know much about the dutch group the opposites, but they have a pretty terrific song called ik ben dom, lomp en famous (which means I'm dumb, nasty, & famous). at least I think it's terrific. does anyone speak dutch? still it's an exciting song & they are fucking ridiculous: double delight. this song will make you want to become a greezy evropean. (& yes, that's a very cognate lomp, in the song title. here's a hint: dutch marXists talk about the lompenproletariaat. absolutely.)

click here to download ik ben dom, lomp en famous by the opposites.

& now, to close on a really depressing note, here is what the castaways are like now, still playing this same fucking song. if there's one thing we can learn from watching this, it is always do something different. for real. but I mean, really, put the kids to bed first. this is just about the most depressing thing I have ever seen, ever.



wow. I mean, the guy actually says senior moment. for something a lot more vernal, take a listen to this fun song by the zargozan rapper Rapsusklei. his accent is dense brush, & I have no idea what this song is about either, but I love the fervor of it, the sense I get from his delivery that he counts it a privilege to make music. this one won't turn you inside-out, but I bet it is the perfect thing if you are CLEANING THE BATHROOM. I like the way he says como tanta. I like the way he says mushiqa. I like to imagine him coming to new york city & getting dorky over how tall the buildings are. maybe he is really street. maybe he is rapping about his grampa's fishing boat. surely someone can understand this & enlighten, por favor? I guess I like to imagine that he is rapping about how good he is at spinning sumptuous fabrics. not that I expect to be right.

anyhow, click here to download the untitled rap by Rapsusklei from his decimoctavo tape.

the major chuvash russian poet Gennadij Ajgi (or Gennady Aigi, or Aygi, or, because of his connection to gallia, Aigui -- Геннадий Айги in all cases is the original) was born in 1934 in chuvashia & needs no introduction from me. he died two or three years ago, leaving a life's worth of verse not much more easily comparable to anyone else's than one death is comparable to another. here's an example, with my best shove at a translation:

теперь

друг мой
о мама-ребенок
младенца лицо отдаляется
силу иметь
чтоб приближаться сияюще-равным
к обликам-крyгам
любимых-и-любящих
(много
отдельно
Одно)

& now

my friend
you motherchild
the baby's face grows distant
have strength
to draw near shining by even
to (images are to circles)
loving/loved
  a lot
  is separately
  one

Aigi's son Aleksej (Alexey?) is an interesting musician who participates in a lot of different projects. one of these is with Pierre Bastien (do you know who that is? I don't know who that is), & their musique pour la relaxation is interesting & lovely. I love the way figures spin in & out. I love the weird fish saxophone sound. this is intriguing music. I don't know how relaxing it is.

click here to hear &/or download musique pour la relaxation by Aleksej Ajgi & Pierre Bastein.

& that really makes me want to hear Jazmine Sullivan's song lions, tigers, & bears. beside the distinction of having the dumbest lyrics of any song ever written, it's great. it reminds me of ben-hur (the Charlton Heston one). her singing is bombastic & the strings are played with no conviction. but sing she can, & there are strange & surprising moments thruout the song. the line is lumpy with an added chord that doesn't make sense, the intruments are arranged kind of oddly. but there's one chord change (the one that happens in the first line of the song right as she gets to the word bears) that gets me listening, & enjoying all the funky cereal prizes of strange chord & inane lyric ("why do we love love when love seems to hate us?"). also, the use of the word affair can't help reminding me of my old jewish relatives from the wastes of queens. it w as a lovely affair. what an odd word. (in rusland I taught anglisch from a textbook called affairs.)

click here to download lions, tigers, & bears by Jazmine Sullivan.

"you know, it pisses me off a little that this supreme court is going to outlive me
a couple of young italian fellows & a brother on the court now, too
but I defy you anywhere in the world to find two italians as tight-assed as the two italians we've got
& as for the brother... well pluto's not a planet anymore, either"

I fucking love a few words in defense of our country by Randy Newman. if a tinge of disney has worked its way into his sound, he's still acerb, transgressive, tough, sincere, funny. thru the election (aka "that foul & half-remembered dream of being poked at for 23 months") head after head acknowledged the recent End of America (EOA) only by talking about our inevitable re-ascent to dominance. & (maybe it's no coincidene he, unlike anyone qualified to be president, does not pal around with religion) Randy Newman has a far healthier attitude toward our prospects. this song is just what I've been wishing someone would sing in front of me for a long time now.

click here to download a few words in defense of our country by Randy Newman.




(ps, have you heard Q-tip's new record? it's a blast, just like they're saying. here's a song; give it a listen.)