Iain and Pete are members of the amazing Shark and great music conoisseurs, as the setlist they played when guest djing for 20JazzFunkGreats last month demonstrates…
Tracks Iain played:
Art Ensemble of Chicago- Rock Out
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band- When Big Joan Sets Up
5 Amp Fuse- Power To The People
Whirlwind Heat- Yellow
The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion- Flavor
Can- Pinch
Money Mark- Power House
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band- I’m Gonna Booglarize Ya Baby
Tracks Peter played:
John Cale- Chicken Shit
Swellmaps- Full Moon In My Pocket
Pere Ubu- Non-alignment Pact
The Fall- I Am Damo Suzuki
The Creepers- baby’s on-fire
Wire *******
As all fellow conspirators in the XXJFG thing, they are also guesting in the blog with reviews of two tracks they like, we are sure you will too!! (and thanks Iain and Pete, they made people bounce to Captain Beefheart’s stap and stort craziness!)
The Swell Maps- Full Moon In My Pocket
The Swell Maps to me are the essential arty punk band, not that any of them ever went to art school or learnt deconstruction or any shit like that. Cut-up lyrics, toys, out of tune pianos, sub eighties art work and great stage names. Full moon in my pocket is a bit Can-ish with its throbbing bass line, but that’s it for comparisons.
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band- When Big Joan Sets Up
This is a sad tale about Big Joan, who can’t go out in the daylight because people laugh at her body, not because she is fat, which she is, but because her hands are too small (it happens to me all the time). Told over music which on first listen, sounds like it was made by locking a bunch of epileptic musicians in a studio with strobe lighting set on full. On closer aural inspection however, you realise that apart from the Captain’s truly freeform saxophone strangulation, this is a highly-ordered sound structure, albeit one born of a deranged jazz/ blues logic. Suffice to say, this is my favourite Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band Track. Play it before you go to work, it will stick in your head and help you stave off the dull conformities and ritual humiliations you’re bound to encounter. If you really want a laugh, try dancing to it. Genius.
“
never been a big fan of the swell maps but that track’s one of their better things. the beefheart is, as almost always, near perfect.
Yours sincerely
Phil1st November 2004
“
s’really funny you posted that swell maps track, as i seriously *just* finished writing about the reissues on secretly canadian (which sound good and have cool liner notes). they really are just the shit. full moon in my pocket is a great song but it’s really not complete without the two tracks that it segues into on the album, blam!! and full moon (reprise). i love the part where nikki sudden coughs and holds it out to that long sustained note (i even blogged about it). from there it goes straight into blam!! which is possibly the most life-affirming song they ever wrote (ever written?), and which also for some reason reminds me of an old chemical bros track off their first album. go fig.
Yours sincerely
trmw2nd November 2004