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THE SMITHS - BIGMOUTH STRIKES AGAIN

This month in 1988, the live album RANK by THE SMITHS was released (Sep 1988)

The image of the introspective intellectual with romantic leanings was a character played out in many a Smiths’ lyric. Perhaps none more so than the song BIGMOUTH STRIKES AGAIN.

It’s title was inspired by the tabloid press’s devotion to ramping up every activity Morrissey undertook or every quote into something of a scandal: "The press are still not convinced. We're still at the stage where if I rescued a kitten from drowning they'd say, "Morrissey Mauls Kitten's Body". So what can you do?"

Littered with references alluding to martyrdom, Morrissey first compares his plight to that of Joan of Arc, sentenced to death and burned at the stake, before humorously ridiculing the image, "her Walkman/hearing aid started to melt".

The original mix had Kirsty MacColl on backing vocals but the singer’s harmonies were dropped and instead she was invited back on the following year’s ‘Ask’ sessions. The final mix carried a ‘chipmunk’-like vocal created by feeding Morrissey's voice through an electronic harmoniser. The 'backing vocals' were credited to 'Ann Coates' (a pun on the Ancoats district of Manchester).

The video is The Smiths’ performance of BIGMOUTH STRIKES AGAIN on The Old Grey Whistle Test featuring Craig Gannon on second guitar and the legendary introduction from Andy Kershaw.

MARTHA & THE MUFFINS – ECHO BEACH

[TOTP repeat, Sep 1980]

Back in early ‘80, Canadian art poppers Martha And The Muffins were "far away in time”, mentally escaping from the everyday hum-drum.

Compared often and inaccurately to Roxy Music (because of the sax), the B-52's (they had two female voices) and Blondie (a strong keyboard sound), the band offered melodic pop without a great deal of focus on style.
Their tunes were distinctive, but they didn’t necessarily rely on a single bold signature, preferring teamwork and varied arrangements to flashy musicianship. Some would find their quietly ironic songs bland; others would call them deliciously subtle.

The band's relaxed attitude stemmed from the fact that they weren't aiming for the big time in the first place. When Toronto guitarist Mark Gane and two fellow students at the Ontario College of Art got together in early 1977, they had an equal balance of ideas and technical inexperience. In due time the other two departed and Carl Finkle (bass), Martha Johnson (voice/keyboards), Tim Gane (drums), Martha Ladly (keyboards/voice) and Andy Hass (saxophone) had joined up. The band's first gig was Halloween 1978.

They settled on the odd moniker right before that first date just to have something to put on posters.

"Part of the reason we chose the name was that at the time there was a whole series of bands in Toronto like the Viletones, the Curse, and the Ugly,” Mark Gane recalled. “We wanted something that was the antithesis of that. 'Martha and the Muffins' couldn't be more wimpy."



But the band did have enough drive to put out a homemade 45 in March '79, which started the ball rolling. Toronto radio played it, Virgin subsidiary Dindisc signed them, and a few months later the Muffins recorded Metro Music in England.

'Echo Beach', the second single from the album, shot up the British charts, and suddenly a band with very little experience was under the microscope, learning difficult lessons only success could teach.

After releasing three albums on Virgin-offshoot DinDisc (1980's Metro Music and Trance And Dance, 1981's This Is The Ice Age), the line-up started fracturing, with those still on board heading home, changing their name in 1984 to M+M, signing to RCA Canada and scoring major US and Canadian hits with the 'Black Stations, White Stations' single and Danseparc album.

Martha Ladly would go on to join The Associates for a brief time.

Mark Gane was instrumental in the name change to M+M: "Inevitably, Martha was Martha and I was a Muffin, which I hated. We were never meant to be pop musicians but as the 'Echo Beach' thing got bigger, some band members wanted to be pop stars, which created rifts."
The video here is perennial favourite ECHO BEACH, a graceful, gorgeous, wistful pop tune guaranteed to whisk you back in time

When I first heard her music, I just couldn’t breathe. The register of her voice is one thing, but then it’s combined with her spiritual depth and intellectual and emotional depth. When Nina sings, she is a conduit. Whether it’s pure darkness and shame, or whether it’s pure light of love and peace, she can deliver you.

(Chan Marshall)

Charlyn Marie “Chan” Marshall (born January 21, 1972) better known by her stage name Cat Power. Here Cat Power is singing “I don’t blame you” the song that is supposed to be about Kurt Cobain.

(Fleetwood Mac cover)


______

We’re born and we die alone, I guess. So you have to take care of yourself… I’m better at understanding that I have to. I always thought I was going to pass away or whatever. I used to wish I had a lobotomy. But I don’t want to pass away any more. I want to keep [she drops her head and claps her hands twice above her in the air, smartly, like she’s sealing a spell] living.“

...pa da tvoje ime pjevuši tko stigne,
da si svatko baš tak na brzinu
puni tišinu.

...da čujem da te fućkaju na pisoaru...

20 million dollars in a car
Girl, tie your hair up if you wanna be a star
Left, right, left, right
Left, right, right, right
30 million people want a shot
How much would it take for you to spread those legs apart?
Left, right, left, right
Lleft, right, right, right
Oh I'm the gatekeeper
Spread your legs
Open up
You could be famous
If you come up anywhere else, I'll erase you
Drink up bitch we got champagne by the cases
Don't you know? Don't you know?
We are the gatekeepers
Spread your legs
Open up
You could be famous
You know we're holding the dreams that you're chasing
You know you're supposed to get drunk and get naked
20 million dollars in a car
Girl, tie your hair up if you wanna be a star
Left, right, left, right
Left, right, right, right
30 million people want a shot
How much would I take for you to spread those legs apart?
Left, right, left, right
Left, right, right, right
Oh I'm the gatekeeper
Spread your legs
Open up
You could be famous
Wait 'til 5 years down the road and you're failing
Keep fucking these regular dudes that are nameless
Don't you know? Don't you know?
That we are the gatekeepers
Spread your legs
Open up
You could be famous
Girl, on your knees
Don't you know what your place is?
Got gold on my dick, girl, don't you wanna taste it?
20 million dollars in a car
Girl, tie your hair up if you wanna be a star
Left, right, left, right
Left, right, right, right
30 million people want a shot
How much would I take for you to spread those legs apart?
Left, right, left, right
Left, right, right, right
We are the gatekeepers, spread your legs, open up
You could be famous, girl, on your knees
Don't you know what your place is?
Know what your place is?
Know what your place is?
Know what your place is?
We are the gatekeepers, spread your legs, open up
You could be famous, girl, on your knees
Don't you know what your place is?
Know what your place is?
Know what your place is?
Know what your place is?
20 million dollars in a car
Girl, tie your hair up if you wanna be a star
Left, right, left, right
Left, right, right, right

@ebenica

Jedna je vrlo topla, intimna, druga je brrr, okrutan prikaz druge vrste tisina.

Ti, svojim glazbenim prijedlozima, uvijek mi malo resetiras um pa krene nekim putem na koji dotad uopce nije pomisljao.

Edit: u medjuvremenu, izbrisala sam par pjesama jer sam se dosjetila najboljeg plisanca, omiljenog mi animiranog filma za kojeg vjerujem da bi se njime trebalo odgajati djecu buducih narastaja. :)



French Animated Films : Le Roi & l'Oiseau (Paul Grimault, 1980)

English Titles : The King & the Mocking Bird / The Curious Adventures of Mr Wonderbird / The King & Mr Bird / Mr Bird to the Rescue / Adventures of Mr Wonderful

Plot : Atop of a dystopian city-state ruled by an egotistical monarch lives one bird, a single father of four. He arbors a personal vendetta against the tyrannical king who killed his wife during a hunting trip. One night, the paintings of his castle suddenly come alive and the king is assassinated by his own portrait who takes his place as ruler of the land. This usurper is infatuated with the portrait of a sheperdess and prompts her to marry him, on the basis that "in fairy tales, sheperdesses always marry kings." But the sheperdess is in love with the portrait of a lowly chimney sweep, forcing the two of them to escape their paintings. All seems lost for these two lovers but the bird is taking some interest in their predicament... Their destiny will affect the fate of the whole kingdom.

Why you should watch it :

• Without a doubt the greatest french animated movie ever made, only because it was so influential on an international level. This is basically our "Snow White." You want to study french animated films, this is the place to start.

• This music. Dear. Gods. In. Olympus. THIS. MUSIC.

• The animation and designs count amongst the most inventive you will ever see in cinema. Tons of ideas jump at you without ever seeming jumbled or out of place. Add to that the detail and care put into the drawings and you get something worthy of belonging in a museum.

• As you can guess, despite its focus on fairy tales, the film has an extremely surreal atmosphere and it's definitely not a classical story. This works for its benefit though, since it makes it much more original and allows for a lot of poetry.

• A must-see for anyone who wants to truly understand the personnality and methods of two other giants in the field of animation : Hayao Miyazaki and Brad Bird. This film has regularly been quoted as one of their greatest artistic influence in animating movies, and it's not difficult to see why. "The Iron Giant" is essentially an hommage to the Great Automaton featured in the climax of this movie. There's a lot that "Laputa : Castle in the Sky" took from it as well, but it's especially in "Lupin III : Castle of Cagliostro" that it's most prominent. You could argue that it's essentially a remake of "Le Roi & l'Oiseau" as an action adventure ; at some points it's essentially copied shot for shot !

(Via french-animation)




Sigurno ti je poznat barem kraj, kad smrska krletku. :)

This week n 1984, DEPECHE MODE were on Top Of The Pops perfoming their latest single MASTER AND SERVANT (September 14th 1984).

Following A Broken Frame, the band’s second studio album written after the departure of Vince Clarke, DM recorded three albums that saw Martin Gore develop as a songwriter, introducing darker-edged lyrics and a more industrial sound.

It also saw the Basildon boys become a permanent fixture at Berlin’s famous Hansa Ton studios and the city’s 24-hour clubs.

"It was a significant time for me personally, because before that I'd been going out with a girl who was a devout Christian who really had me on reins,” recalled Gore who ended up moving to Berlin for two years.

“ She was ridiculous – anything was perverted. If I watched something on TV and there was somebody naked, I was a pervert. When I finally left her, I started going out with a girl in Berlin and suddenly discovered all this freedom."

“Gore's growing interest in S & M found an outlet in Berlin's famously bohemian club scene, and it was there he would compose sado-erotic anthems such as 'Master And Servant' for 1984's Some Great Reward, the more industrial-flavoured sequel to Construction Time Again,” wrote Stephen Dalton for Uncut magazine in 2001.

"There's only about one or two songs that ever touched on S & M," Gore argued. "There was a time when I used to go out to a lot of those clubs anyway, just out of interest. I was never heavily into it, but it was a fascinating scene. But sex is an interesting part of life. I may seem to write about it a lot, but I don't think I overdo it."

Alan Wilder confirmed this: "We certainly saw Martin come out of his shell during this time. It seemed as though he had some catching up to do, having been a quiet and reserved teenager by all accounts. Frequenting clubs and bars became more routine and we all saw a very different side to Martin when he was let loose, so to speak – heavy drinking followed by apparel-removal being top of his list of favourite activities."

Dosta podcijenjen band...