Waitress; Live

Come on baby leave some change behind
she was a bitch, but I don't care
she brought our food out on time
and wore a funky barrette in her hair
come on baby leave some change behind
she was a bitch, but good enough
to leave some change
everybody's good enough
for some change
the girl's got family,
she needs cash
to buy asprin for her pain
everybody's good enough for some change
we all get the flu, we all get AIDS
we've got to stick together
after all, everybody's good enough
for some change
Some fucking change!

Envy; The Tiger Lillies

A few weeks ago, visiting the überblog Boing Boing, I found an article about the Tiger Lillies’ creepy cabaret punk. Cabaret music style is a piece of gold, very cool and charming, but cabaret punk? I needed to hear it. At first sight, the look of the three members of the band made up my mind. Okay, the video clip loaded on Boing Boing was entrancing! Really! From this moment, Tiger Lillies became one of my favorite bands ever!

In my opinion, Tiger Lillies’ best album is “Freakshow”, but I couldn’t hear them all. “Freakshow”, “Shockheaded Peter”, “The Gorey End” (with Kronos Quartet) and “Seven Deadly Sins” are the ones I listened to. The most interesting thing is that they write theatrical pieces not songs for an album.

This week I started to listen to “Seven Deadly Sins”, 2008, wandering if they whistle in any song. Really! The sung sin “Envy” is the whistling song. “Envy” explicits another good peculiarity of Tiger Lillies: the guys use a minimal thing (like this wistlings or like a musical saw or even one word in the lyrics) as the trump card of their songs.

“Envy” is cruel and ludic at the same time. So ludic that I want to sing it to my child, if I have one! ^^

Don’t forget to envy every man
His suffering and his torment is a lifetime planned
So don’t forget to envy something that don’t exist
A phantom of your fantasy that writhes and licks and twists

Look he’s got a big car you’d like to fuck his wife
You’d like to have his money, you’d like to have his life
So you burn with envy soon you’ll burn in hell
Soon you’ll burn… oh well

You be nasty to him, you be so unkind
Every kindness you become blind
So you burn with envy soon you’ll burn in hell
Soon you’ll burn, soon you’ll burn… oh well

If only you had this or that then it would be fine
You’d like to take it from him he’s just a filthy swine
Stab the bastard in the back it’s just what he deserves
He’s just a little toerag he’s just a little turd

Broken Chairs; Built to Spill

http://www.builttospill.com/
http://www.timmcmahan.com/builttospill.htm
“But what about Neil Young? The last track on Keep It Like a Secret, ‘Broken Chairs’, contains mighty, Crazy Horse-style riffs, slurring guitar solos and Martsch’s sweeping high-end vocals that, if you close your eyes and try hard enough, will remind you of a certain Transformer Man.

“‘Actually, now that I think about it, that song totally reminds me of a Neil Young song’, Martsch said. ‘It sounded more like Neil Young when I first wrote it, though. The rhythm guitar part that you can barely hear was in a different key and was a little stronger. I thought the melody was pretty Neil Young-ie, but by the time it was recorded, it didn’t remind me of Neil Young at all.

“Martsch said he’s been more influenced by Dinosaur Jr.’s J. Mascus, who also was ‘pretty Neil Young-ie’.”


Broken Chairs your body conforms to
Out beyond the quieted garden
You can bring the man form into trust
Through the holes in my everydayness
Lends sustenance where starvation's necessary
Cause my head's a dictionary
Of long spring days and the speech of crows
Who themselves are mirrors of apprehensions
In the fallen sun

Where starvation's necessary
Cause my head's a dictionary
Of long spring days and the speech of crows
Who themselves are mirrors of apprehensions
In the fallen sun
Who themselves are mirrors of apprehensions
In the fallen sun

Well, alright
You can make it stay
Well, alright
Well, alright
Well, alright
You can make it stay
Well, alright
Alright
Alright
Well, alright
Alright
Alright

Punky’s Dilemma; Simon & Garfunkel

I took this interview from Art Garfunkel's website. Of course, Paul Simon (in his solo career) has a much more famous whistling song — Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard — but this hidden gem deserves as much consideration as "Me and Julio". "Punky's Dilemma" is, in my opinion, the most romantic song ever done without meant to be one... It could be the "would you put my photo on your piano" part — it makes a beautiful image in my mind.... But I'm suspicious to say that, Simon and Garfunkel are more than perfect!

Redbeard:
Welcome back to In the Studio. This week highlighting Simon & Garfunkel’s legendary Bookends album. I’m Redbeard. A few months before Bookends came out, Simon & Garfunkel’s music had been featured prominently in the Mike Nichols movie The Graduate. A big hit at the box office. The Graduate catapulted newcomer Dustin Hofman to stardom and set up the release of Bookend in the process. I asked Art Garfunkel how he had been fortunate enough to have the songs of Simon and Garfunkel spotlighted in the movie The Graduate.

Art Garfunkel:
Let’s see — it started with Mike reaching Paul saying “I want you to come see the Graduate because I see your music in it and I want you to write a couple of tunes.” And I had just come back from Europe and Paul was saying “there’s a very funny film with this new actor Dustin Hofman that Mike’s got me looking at. I’ve now seen it a whole bunch of times, come take a look.” And I saw it and laughed. And he said “Mike wants me to write 3 songs and he wants us to sing them. Here’s the deal and such.” And Paul wrote a song called Punky’s Dilemma which ended up on our Bookends album and Mike didn’t like it. It was meant to be, if you know the film the Graduate there’s a scene when Dustin is home from college and he’s floating in his pool on a float, and so Punky’s Dilemma........ “wish I was a Kellogg’s cornflake floatin’ in my bowl takin' movies”..... kind of a slow jazz campy hip tune. Mike didn’t quite like it.

would be this scene?

Wish I was a Kellogg’s Cornflake
Floatin’ in my bowl takin’ movies,
Relaxin’ awhile, livin’ in style,
Talkin’ to a raisin who 'casion’ly plays L.A.,
Casually glancing at his toupee.

Wish I was an English muffin
'Bout to make the most out of a toaster.

I’d ease myself down,
Comin’ up brown.

I prefer boysenberry
More than any ordinary jam.
I’m a "Citizens for Boysenberry Jam" fan.

Ah, South California.

If I become a first lieutenant
Would you put my photo on your piano?
To Maryjane —
Best wishes, Martin.
(Old Roger draft-dodger
Leavin’ by the basement door),
Everybody knows what he’s
Tippy-toeing down there for