World Class

April 30, 2006... As I walked along Bloor Street today, a block or two east of Bathurst, an enormous, cackling, red-faced woman, whom I recognized as a long-time fixture of the streets, lifted her shirt to reveal several rolls of fat ... two of which had saucer-sized, pink "tips" to them. Toronto, you have truly arrived.

Van Halen - Beautiful Girls

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The Just Because Mix

April 23, 2006... I hope I don't jinx myself by saying this, but it looks like my three-years-plus oddyssey of living out of a suitcase is drawing to close. I am scheduled to move into a place of my own, and to be reunited with my record player, on May 6. I hope to gain regular access to a computer on which I actually have administrative privileges soon thereafter.

In the spirit of celebration, I am introducing a new feature here at Afterbirth, "The Just Because Mix."

I walk around most days with a song on my mind. I have no control over what song it is. It just ... appears ... and stays until another song takes its place. It could be the most insipid pile of shiite I've ever heard, but there it is, on my mind.

With the "Just Because Mix," I'm gonna bundle a week or two's worth of those songs together and post 'em, with a minimum amount of commentary, for your enjoyment. So, without further ado, here's some of what's been on my mind lately...

The Wildhearts - Vanilla Radio

Cheap Trick - Oh Caroline

Cheap Trick - Oh, Candy

Material - Cosmic Slop

Art Brut - Stand Down

As should be clear from the Wildhearts and Cheap Trick songs, I've been in a bit of a power-pop mood these past two weeks. Still, listen closely to the lyrics on that second Cheap Trick song, "Oh, Candy." Thematically, it's not your typical pop song, is it?

In a similar, dark vein, check out the lyrics on "Cosmic Slop," a song about growing up poor. A Funkadelic joint covered here by a loose conglomeration of musicians that includes former members of Funkadelic, "Cosmic Slop" is in WMA format because that's all I can do at the moment. (Likewise with the Art Brut track.)

Amidst all the sunny, piss-taking on Art Brut's debut, an album that includes hilarious songs about forming a band, and "considering a move to L.A.," there's this odd, sombre number named "Stand Down." Now, Eddie Argos doesn't come right out and say it in the song, but I can't help but think that he's trying to send a message to Tony Blair, urging him to admit that he's made a mistake by sending British troops into Iraq and stand down. Anyway, that's how I hear it...

Art Brut put on a terrific show, by the way. It doesn't hurt to have Gareth Keenan as your rhythm guitarist.

Thanks to Jim at Vinyl Mine, whose "Coffee and Cigarettes Mixes" are part of the inspiration for this post.

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The Lincolnshire Poacher

April 23, 2006... Da Capo's annual Best Music Writing is always worth a read. The highlight of the 2005 edition is the chilling tale of Akin Fernandez.

Late one night in 1992, Fernandez, a British shortwave enthusiast, stumbled across an odd broadcast consisting of nothing more than repeated series of numbers. Curious as to why anyone would bother to broadcast such nonsense, he sought out, and eventually found, other "numbers stations." The language of the broadcasts would vary from time to time and from frequency to frequency. Often, the broadcasts would consist of repeated series of letters from a phonetic alphabet or of morse code rather than numbers. Occasionally, they would begin with short, repeated snippets of music. The parties involved never identified themselves.

Fernandez began taping the transmissions, which he has since released as a four-CD collection called The Conet Project. He also began looking for an explanation. To find out what he discovered, and to better understand what I was driving at with my cryptic April 14 post, go here.

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Mission educated, Accomplished singers

April 14, 2006... Mission educated Africans in rural often performed Africanized versions of Christian, european hymns. Accomplished singers and drummers, each one, their synthesis of two cultures ultimately became weapon of resistance. Target groups including urbanized Africans returning at contract-end from mines and factories. Neutralized in areas of close Europena scrutiny, politics of resistance was driven from rural under mission influence. Details of applicabilitty in urban context was discussed as adjunct with informal performance. Below rZambezi River, these tendencie was most pronounced.

African Chorus - Resistance Hymn

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