This Track Is Fire!

Posts

Mareux "Gopnik"

Imagine, if you will, if Nine Inch Nail "Closer" and TR/ST "Colossal" were somehow able to have propogage and have a child, because if that were possible, it's very likely that child would be Mareux "Gopnik." I mean, let's face it, who is he fooling with that opening beat that sounds exactly like the opening of "Closer?" Then SURPRISE! at about 18-19 seconds in he drops some eerie synths to let you know that this is not the song that you thought it was. But you know what, fuck it, it's all good, because this song is the perfect amount of slithering darkness that I love so very much. I've listened to it several times already today, leaving it on repeat as I write this up. Why? Because it's fucking good . Open yourself up to the idea of new music. Every once it will surprise and delight you in the most wonderful ways. Happy Monday! Enjoy! Predestiny EP by Mareux

Young Black Teenagers "Tap The Bottle"

It's Friday, let's have some fun! My last two entries this week were a little self-serious, not without reason, but here we are at the end of the week and I wanted to lighten things up a bit. I love this song and it is an important part of my youth, not because it's particularly influential. Come to think of it, it's really the only "hit" that this group had, but for me it was also a part of the soundtrack of almost every gathering for the first few years out of high school. Yes, I was still a teenager, but its release in 1993 coincided with my first year at community college. At 19 I was technically an adult, but I was still a dependent. I was on the cusp of adolescence, exiting, but there was still much I did not know about life, about the world. And that was OK, because that was for later. At the time this song was something fun that me and my friends loved to play at parties, so every time I hear it I am awash in those simpler times. College was different...

New Order "Round & Round"

I am well aware that there are many more popular New Order songs, included amongst those "True Faith," "Blue Monday," "Bizarre Love Triangle," and several others, but as a teenager that had fallen madly in love with Depeche Mode in 1989, it wasn't until 1990 when I started looking to some of their peers for similar music. As it was their most recent release, I started with Technique and though the opening track, "Fine Time," really grabbed my attention, the first time I heard "Round & Round" it really spoke to me. Again, I was creating my own sense of self, as one does during their teenage years. And though the song is more about a relationship falling apart, which was angst and sadness enough to sway my adolescent heart, it was the lyrics shared here that made me take note: the picture you see is no portrait of me It's too real to be shown to someone I don't know and it's driving me wild it makes me act like a chil...

Siouxsie and the Banshees "Peek-A-Boo"

Buckle up, this is a long one... Today is my birthday so it would be no surprise to anyone if I posted yet another Depeche Mode song, but that's not what I am doing. I said the topic this week was all about the songs who informed who I am, and this one was integral to that entire process. I had never heard of Siouxsie and the Banshees before encountering them late one night on MTV, most likely while watching 120 Minutes some evening, probably in the summer. From the very first sound of "Peek-A-Book" with its reversed instrumental track. The effect is jarring, but not uncomfortably so; to my ears it was intriguing. I mean, who the fuck does that? Yeah, Missy Elliott did years later, but other than the Beatles, how many artists have tried to build an entire (alternative) pop song built around a track played in reverse? My mind was blown and I wanted to hear it again and again. This was well before the internet, before YouTube, and certainly before music streaming, so unl...

Beastie Boys "Pass The Mic"

Let's start with some truisms: the Beasties are amazing, Licensed To Ill is really fucking good, but Paul's Boutique is fucking great. Unfortunately, like Weezer's Pinkerton , not everyone immediately realized the genius that Paul's Boutique is/was. I say all of that to set the stage: Check Your Head was considered a comeback for the Boys. Right, wrong, or indifferent, that was the impression at the time, so despite the fact that over the years their second album has been re-evaluated and properly heralded, in 1992 the Beasties needed a hit. Check Your Head was said hit. Now, the point here is not to consider the entire album, because there are many, many , tracks that I could have highlighted here today. Maybe the obvious choice is "So What'cha Want," but I mentioned yesterday that a lot of the music that informed my youth came from going to the the local teen "alternative" club and I cannot even begin to tell you how many times this track...

Pet Shop Boys "It's A Sin"

Like most everyone else, I sat up and took notice of the Pet Shop Boys when they hit the scene with " West End Girls ." The song is a classic for a reason, but I was in fourth grade when it came out, so I was still very young and undeveloped when it came to my music tastes. "It's A Sin" came out in the summer of 1987, between my middle school years, and it was during this time that I was establishing my own likes/dislikes beyond my parents, the formation of my own sense of identity was really picking up steam. I don't know if the song was playing somewhere of if it just popped into my brain at the time, but I have a distinct core memory of walking into my eighth-grade science class with this song on my mind. Why? Because I was 10 when their first hit song came out, and I admit I was not familiar with others they released, but "It's A Sin," with its explosive beginning, myterious voiceover of "20 seconds and counting...", and lightning...