2 with ten – the letter f
drat. once again, in efforts to abide by my own rules i find myself plagued by the limits of my itunes library. since i can only pick from what i have in the f’s im going with the first 2 artists that jump out to me. alas, they arent new but they both had an instant effect on me when i heard them and have since stood the test of time.
FC Kahuna. is a dj duo from london that made some pretty big beats. at one point they had a band that was touring. anyway, the song i picked called hayling came out in 2002 and features gus gus vocalist haftis helde. many a night i would sit in my truck with this song on repeat. i love the dark sparse bouncy use of electronics (fyi some samples on this song were lifted from tangerine dream). bottom line: this track is full on vibe – its minimal, beautiful, futuristic, trippy and sultry. damn, the cymbals are wonderful in this song too. oh, i first heard this song via a great double disc released my the ministry of sound label called the chillout sessions. this cd was a monster.
in a weird twist of fate my other f happens to have also appeared on the aforementioned double disc. crazy huh…also the first time i heard of this band too!
Fischerspooner. usually when one thinks of fischerspooner a song like the one im posting doesnt come to mind. tone poem has always been my favorite fs song. we opened 3 shows on the west coast for them in 2005. at the time those were probably the biggest shows we played. adding to the fact that i love casey spooner this was a no brainer for me. check out this trip down memory lane. scroll down to june entry toward the middle of the page to see some of those show reports.. wow that’s a trip. ya know if anyone ever questions the amount of work and shit this band has gone through i guess i should just tell them to scroll through the archives of this blog.
ok, on to the “f”uture. f me now please.
About The Author
Francis Ten
Other posts byFrancis Ten
Author his web sitehttps://www.facebook.com/francisten
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ewckqytgLM and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bv9UM4zis1M and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upWUuByQLxQ and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gna8GzfOa8I
And I know the Commodores created Easy and it is a cover song …..
As the letter journey goes on I think of my favorites after the fact like D ~ Dead Can Dance how could I forget that one. Any hoo you’re on F- Well Faith No More comes to my mind as does Fugazi but i didn’t listen to the latter. Faith No More The Real Thing 1989 was a solid record going all over the place emotionally for me. Epic of course is played out but going back and listening to it after an absence it sounds very melodic mixing punk with rap IMO. And Easy by FNM was a very good song during and after sex. He added humor to it as well. Faith No More was some of what I grew up on 20 years ago… and it was a branch off of the whole metal/glam/rock i was listening to at the time. different and good.
Fischerspooner? Yes! Yes! Yes! Saw them at Coachella many years ago and it was quite….a spectacle. How could you not like that Epoxies stuff though Fran? Anyhoo…
.
Right, so for my “F”s. Thankfully I can submit some new stuff that all came out this year. Here we go.
.
Frightened Rabbit – “Heads Roll Off” – Yes, it is possibly the stupidest band names in ages, but whew, what a track this one is. One of the catchiest to come out this year: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBcbDS5AGnk
.
Fever Ray – “Triangle Walks” – Probably the most intriguing band that came out this year. Their live show was incredible. Weird Scandinavian tuneage that has a penchant for Native American themes? Now that’s a two-pronged attack indeed: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUqZKzCH34E&feature=related
.
Enjoy!
“F”
Fever Ray.
http://www.myspace.com/feverray
Fantastic Magic.
Pre- “Wavves” Nathan Williams was in this hometown band. Have to give the 619 shout out.
http://www.myspace.com/fantasticmagic
Thank you for the new music!
Folk Implosion is one of my favorites for a lazy afternoon sitting in the sun. They’re a little granola, but not quite guilty pleasure territory. They briefly hit it big when their song Natural One was on the Kids soundtrack in the mid-90’s. The aong I chose is Free to Go (bonus F!) from their album, One Part Lullaby.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnTwDLKOgCM
My selections for F are Fat Rhabit and Flobots. Fat Rhabit is a local (Phoenix, AZ) rock group that I am not sure are still together. It seems their website redirects to a dead myspace page, however, they still have stuff up on last.fm ( http://www.last.fm/music/Fat+Rhabit/Fat+Rhabit+EP ). I would recommend the songs Brat and Vultures.
Flobots ( http://www.myspace.com/flobots ) are a protest alt/hip hop group from Denver. They had some airplay with their song Handlebars ( http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=100005760 ). Second song from them i guess I would go with Rise ( http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=45161651 )
For my “F” selections I looked eastward, honed in on New Mexico, and chose a band that’s been around for over 50 years. I then looked farther to the east, zoomed in on Brooklyn, and selected a rapper I like.
***
The Fireballs formed in the late 1950’s in Raton, New Mexico, and cut some instrumental sides that influenced the beginning of surf music. In 1963, as Jimmy Gilmer and the Fireballs, they had a #1 hit with Sugar Shack (one of the first 45s I owned as a 8-year old in fall ’63), and five years later they hit the charts again with Bottle of Wine. Leader and guitarist George Tomsco has kept the band going ever since. He seems like a cool guy with a fun attitude toward music, and he plays some mean guitar licks. Here is the Fireballs’ Web site. http://www.fireballs-original.com/main.html. You can hear five of their best songs in full on their MySpace site. Don’t miss Harlee Guitar. http://www.myspace.com/thefireballsnm. Here’s a video of a recent George Tomsco performance of Bulldog, with a funny story at the beginning. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXNhywa5qHc.
***
Until recently I wasn’t a hip hop fan, but in the past few years I started to like some tracks, mainly because my quest for new music led me to radio station 100.3, which played great hip hop and R&B, sometimes in 20-minute continuous segments with the same beat under each song. Incredible driving music! I couldn’t enjoy this format for long, though. 100.3 switched to smooth R&B before becoming The Sound, which plays the same classic rock songs as KLOS. Don’t get me started on how much I hate classic rock radio! Anyway, one rap artist I like is Foxy Brown. I know, violent temper, throwing things, jail time. What can I say, she’s my favorite bad girl. Gorgeous, too. I picked up “Brooklyn’s Don Diva” last year and loved it. The samples effectively support her voice, which is a remarkable narrative instrument. She is incredibly dramatic and she gives me chills. I hope we hear more from her. Listen to song samples via this link. http://www.amazon.com/Brooklyns-Don-Diva-Foxy-Brown/dp/B000WGWCLM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1261347379&sr=1-1
Foals-Balloons-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGrZkUQ6_r8
Friendly Fires- Skeleton Boy- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyA8zfouG4Y
Ok, for “Fâ€, I debated throwing in some Flaming Lips, but I decided to go for a couple much more obscure suggestions. My first one for this week is Fuzzbox. Oh shit, this band brings back some memories! I started listening to Fuzzbox in high school when they were known as We’ve Got A Fuzzbox And We’re Gonna Use It. They started as a REALLY weird pop-punk band with really weird songs and crazy technicolor hair. Their early tunes from the album “Bostin’ Steve Austin†were pretty manic, like “Rules And Regulations†http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkOj282VD-Q, and by their second album “Big Bang†they completely reinvented themselves as more of a dance pop band, with much more polished and catchy tunes like “Self!†http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4b3aHuPE7fA.
My next recommendation is the now-dufunct Orange County ska band Forces Of Evil. Aaron Barrett of Reel Big Fish started this band in 2001 with members of other ska bands. Unfortunately they only released one album, but it was fun while it lasted. I can always count on their song “Angry Anthem†to put me in a good mood when I’m having a shitty day. See if this works for you. http://www.last.fm/music/The+Forces+of+Evil/_/Angry+Anthem. Another surprising little gem off their “Friend or FOE?†album is their cover of the Van Halen classic “Dance The Night Away†http://www.last.fm/music/The+Forces+of+Evil/_/Dance+the+Night+Away