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
Too many of my F’s are mainstream. I’ve been trying to pick something that maybe would get passed by, or isn’t so well known. Front 242, Front Line Assembly, Foo Fighters, Fear Factory, Fat Boy Slim, all things that I think you’ve heard already. The Flaming Lips was tempting band to list regardless (I impulse-purchased Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots one day and was pleasantly surprise how much I enjoyed it), but in the end was still too popular for me to list. Tf someone out there hasn’t heard anything by TFL, good stuff there.
More Germans! My F’s are dominated by Funker Vogt. It took forever to pick something, I settled on Red Queen.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9yR0qIUNSc
Thanks for Nothing is also a good song, and is closer to what you will hear from most of their tracks. No link because I couldn’t find a youtube link without grotesque video. And really, who wants to see war footage of people dieing?
While I can’t stand behind her music fully, every once and a while it’s a good listen. Sure you may know the song from an ipod commercial, but the vid is, different.
Feist-1234
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZ9WiuJPnNA&feature=related
The only problem I have listing this there is something about the CD that bugs me. Perhaps because I bought “Yoshimi” with it (must have been an F day).
Here’s the other good song off the disc (everything else was sort of blah for me):
My Moon My Man
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWrNCCx2p5U&feature=PlayList&p=26F2BDCD0621335A&index=32
enjoy!
pants
F is for Fran…
1) OK selection 1 is an 80’s toss up for me. I am going to choose Frankie Goes to Hollywood from my Library (over an honorable mention of Fad Gadget).
Must for the library:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyl5DlrsU90 … and the list goes on…
2) A little more contemporary but not for everyone : FLUNK
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDCVYbrWn9Q
lifted this one off the Nancy Drew soundtrack…sweet cover, wish I liked more of their stuff but this one is all right too…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sOm6R9B-GM
Happy New Year
First F is a Japanese band called Fake? featuring a half Japanese-half British vocalist named Ken Lloyd and the guitarist Inoran from another one of my favorite bands Luna Sea. The song I picked from them is called Belleza and its in English. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWMZe7-mupA&feature=related
My other F is my favorite trance song by DJ Ferry Corsten – Out of the Blue. I know he went by System F when he made it but I need to save my S’s for other bands. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qgx_V0So0qk&feature=related
Most would probably hate it – but ‘F’ wouldn’t be complete without one of the greatest acts to come out of NYC – Fannypack
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TmNrFEOh2A
They got a lot of attention last year, but this guy is still a beast –
F’ed Up
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPWFnti4pas
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh… too many I know but I’m going to have to say my absolute favorite “F” group is also Fever Ray. I was just introduced to them by my co-worker and I’m completely obsessed with them. Their other band The Knife is incredible and I have a sweet live video of them but I’ll save it for the “K”‘s per Fran’s request… and besides, I don’t want to be dogged as if I posted something like Easy-E *ahem*… 😉
Ok… sooooooo… I will go with Fugazi (as mentioned previously) because of the influence they had on my Bass playing and song writing. I was also a little out of touch with this band during their Hey Day in the late 80’s and early 90’s, but I really started to like them when I joined a group who did a lot of covers of their music. I really dig the Bass lines and their seemingly endless, relaxed playing style… Their music always struck me as being slightly off, slightly out of tune just to tweak your ear a little, maybe tickle it. One of my all time favorites to play (and listen to, at a VERY loud volume) is “Blueprint” off “Repeater (1990)”. Have a listen:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qkfy9F5XO4I
another Gem of a song is “Give me the Cure” of “13 Songs”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggLzLJsxe2s
My other “F” is going to have to be Fiona Apple… not sure what happened to her as of late but her debut album really hit a chord with me (“Tidal”) and I listened to it for months thereafter… Although one of my favorites is “Sleep to Dream” off “Tidal” (Awesome Video to boot), I’m going to go with “Slow like Honey” off the same album. Aw hell, I’ll include them both:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9Wnh0V4HMM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQGy9xIrn7w
Runner ups: Mark Farina, Flesh for Lulu, Fluke, Flogging Molly, and Fatboy Slim
When I was a young girl I my mother used to listen to this song over and over again….it may be the only pleasant memory I have of her.
Foriegner…”Waiting For a Girl Like You” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ux8nYxEoUk . Please note the group also has many other jams such as
Cold as Ice (my fave) and Urgent).
I’ve only got one recommendation for “F”,…The Family. I don’t know if you’re a fan of the Minneapolis sound from the 80’s, Fran, but I’m sure you’ll let me know. 😉 The large paragraphs in quotes contain interesting info about the band that I’ve taken from wikipedia and another website that I’ve modified only slightly.
“The Family was born out of the ashes of the then disbanded The Time, with (sadly) their one and only album. With St. Paul (Paul Peterson) and Susannah Melvoin (twin sister of Wendy Melvoin – Prince’s guitarist in The Revolution) on co-lead vocals, the album was arguably the best (non-Prince) product to be released on the Paisley Park label. Under appreciated when first released, it remains a highly-sought-after classic by fans to this day. All songs were written and produced by Prince (barring “River Run Dry” – Bobby Z) and was a pointer towards Parade and Sign O’ The Times. The uptempo tracks were extremely funky, the ballads were poignant enough to move you to tears and the instrumentals planted the seeds for the upcoming Madhouse projects. The clever addition of string orchestration by Claire Fischer to many of the tracks were a revelation and a genius masterstroke. Brilliant, brilliant, BRILLIANT.”
The Family was:
St. Paul (vocals, keyboards and bass)
Susannah Melvoin (vocals and keyboards)
Jerome Benton (vocals, comic foil and percussion)
Jellybean Johnson (drums)
Eric Leeds (saxophone and flute)
“Besides being a fan’s favorite, ‘The Family’ was a relatively important album in Prince’s musical career because it allowed him to test several musical concepts that he would later fully integrate in his music. First, it was the true beginning of his long-term collaboration with Eric Leeds. Leeds co-wrote the two instrumental tracks on the album, which were Prince’s first step into jazz fusion, a genre he’d later explore even more with his Madhouse side-project, then under his own name in the 2000s. ‘The Family’ also marks Prince’s first collaboration with composer and arranger Clare Fischer, as well as the first time Prince added a symphonic orchestra to his music. Though the two men never met (Prince would only send tapes to Fischer with more or less explicit instructions about what he wanted), they have worked together on a regular basis since then.”
The Family was the first band to record the song “Nothing Compares 2 U”, which was later made popular by Sinead O’Connor. QuestLove (drummer for The Roots) is known to be a huge fan of Prince and his projects and has said that The Family’s debut album that came out in 1985 is in his top 20 favorite albums of all time.
The Family – Screams of Passion
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1n63f_the-family-screams-of-passion_music
UPDATE: I just found out that the band has reformed (with all original members intact) as “Fdeluxe” and have a new CD in the works.
And who could forget Faster Pussycat….. (i listened to that with Darren one of your old roomates) The whole album was great from where there’s a whip there’s a way and the first album… i got your # off the bathroom wall. Loved it ..http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuhE-GsG8i8 and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-kXgB21PcQ and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zu4-eCEgQ88 and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDQgI6PTho4
Another F is for Fixx ~ One thing leads to another– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzymBKGV8rw
So on a recent tip, I have recently gotten into Fever Ray. She keeps an edgy vibe, but somehow is not too dark.
http://feverray.com/video/if_i_had_a_heart_video.html
I would like to say Fugazi, as that was one of my first shows, but alas not in the library.
So I have to go with Foetus… though I try not to go to the scary place any more.
This track is called Thrush off the album Love. Whatever one may think about JG Thirlwell, he’s a very influential artist.
http://www.lala.com/#song/1657606172582216412