Media Potluck is proud to present, Terminator: The Party!
In celebration of the release of Terminator: Salvation we will be watching The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
This will be a media potluck and also a REAL potluck, so everyone is asked to try to bring some food to share! We will be providing a Terminator cake as well as "I'll Be Back" hot wings. Please RSVP and comment with what treat you will bring.
One of Media Potluck's first articles, "Musique D'Express (1990)" has been re-vamped as an Audio Archeology post for our pals at Consequence of Sound! It's one of the articles that I hold most dear to me so I'm very glad to have spruced it up a bit. Instead of reposting the article, I've just updated the original post.
Check out the new "Musique D'Express (1990)" HERE.
I know it's been non-stop Audio Archaeology for the past few months, but never fear. We'll resume covering the full spectrum of media again soon!
Comedic music is a fickle mistress. Morethanafew mainstream bands flirt with comedy, and some comedians have an impressive musical presence, but there are very few artists who deal exclusively in comedic music, leaving the genre for the most part overrun with one-off novelty songs. However, the comedic music world has recently begun to make something of itself. “Weird Al” Yankovic is, of course, still the king (and probably will be for the next century because the man doesn’t age) but, for the first time in a long time, he’s not the only player in the game. Tenacious D’s unprecedented success with their skillful musical compositions mixed with comedic antics paved the way for other new artists to join them. Recent acts such as Flight of the Conchords and The Lonely Island have taken television, Internet, and music listeners by storm with a consistency and integrity that suggests they’re here to stay. This sudden boon has even prompted older faces to return to the scene. The group that practically created the genre back in 1962, Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, have recently reformed and the legendary Spinal Tap have come out of hiatus. Things are looking up for the comedic music world, but there are many brilliant acts who have burned out before their time and many more that have gone unnoticed. Among the greatest of these lost musical comedy groups is Corky and the Juice Pigs.
Corky and the Juice Pigs were Phil Nichol, Greg Neale, and Seán Cullen, a trio of Canadian gentlemen blessed with powerful gifts: music and comedy. From 1987 to 1998 the band coupled cleverly composed musical style parodies, astounding witticisms, baffling weirdness, and insane improvisation into a beautiful goulash of sight and sound. Chances are you’ve heard at least one Corky song. Their immortal classic “Eskimo” still frequently makes the rounds on the Internet, though it’s commonly accredited to other comedy acts and is often under the punch-line revealing title “I’m The Only Gay Eskimo”. Perhaps an illustration is in order, so take a gander at this live performance of “Eskimo” complete with style parodies of the Proclaimers, Bob Dylan, Portishead, Ric Ocasek, Oasis, and Van Morrison:
“Eskimo” may be the band’s lasting legacy, but it’s far from their finest work. Lines like “I go out seal hunting with my best friend Tarka, but all want to do is get into his parka” only begin to scratch the surface of the Juice Pigs’ comedic prowess. They can go toe-to-toe with the best of those in their field. The Juice Pigs’ self-titled debut was released independently in 1993. Their folksy, predominantly acoustic comedy predates the similar traits of modern musical comedians Stephen Lynch, whom they surpass in cleverness, and the Conchords, whom the Juice Pigs have much in common with, though the Conchords are much slicker customers. “Corky and the Juice Pigs” is a twenty-six track long hodgepodge of short skits, short songs, and a few regular-sized songs. While there’s definitely some dead wood there is also brilliance, such as the sitar-fueled ballad to Indian food and romance, “Love Affair”:
You’re my little curry puff I’m your vindaloo man I want to take you where samosas run wild And lay you in a bed of nan
“Truckers” praises life on the open road: “I’ve hauled a million tons of freight from Pheonix to Omaha and sometimes I fall asleep at the wheel and I kill carloads of tourists” and “Americans” is a tragically real parody of American politics, ethics, and patriotic ballads:
We are Americans, we are Americans We carry great big guns, ‘Cause we are Americans We’re strong and we’re free We are Coke, we are Pepsi
There’s even a mention of fighting a war in Iraq. Who would’ve thought this song would be even more pointed in 2009?The Juice Pigs may disguise their songs with unrevealing titles, but they’re quite blunt in their comedy. Any normal-seeming situation will quickly break down into insanity such as in the opening verses to their early track, “Pandas”:
White and black, the friendly bears of China White and black, they rarely reproduce What shall be done about these Chinese bears? What shall be done about these friendly bears?
Die, they must die The pandas must die Die, they must die The pandas must die – Yaaaay!
Or the sophistication of their later works, like “REMember”:
I look over out of the window I see your face And I’m frightened ‘Cause I live on the eighth floor And you must be really, really tall
“REMember” is a prime example of three of the band’s strongest suits – improvisation, style parody, and surrealism. The song starts inexplicably with a tranquil rendition of The Cult’s “She Sells Sanctuary” and then becomes a very unique R.E.M. parody. Rather than riffing off of any one of R.E.M.’s songs or tackling aspects of their more famous works, “REMember” targets the idea of R.E.M. Seán Cullen emulates Michael Stipes-esque vocals and spins a web of comical nonsense akin to the alt. rock band’s subjective lyrics. The Juice Pigs had practiced with this format earlier in their career with the song “Suzanne” - a Suzanne Vega parody not featuring a note of her hit “Tom’s Diner”, but lampooning its style of winding narrative. Both tracks make use of Cullen’s trademark improvisation which rambles to dadaist heights of humorous confoundment. When performed live these tracks are mostly raw improvisation from Cullen leading to varied results as seen in this performance:
The second track in the above clip, “BVG” (aka “Burn Victim Girl”) shows the Juice Pig’s subversive traits and their aptitude towards clever, short songs and skits. Their second album, 1994’s “Pants”, retools the presence of the first album’s skits and P.S.A.s into a clever unifying segway of changing radio stations that play in the pregap (negative numbers) between most tracks. This fun new take on skits is just one of the many aspects of “Pants” that makes it far superior to the Juice Pigs’ debut. In addition to tighter song-writing, the album has more complex production; allowing for a greater variance in sound and styles. “Pants”s title track, and first track on the album, flourishes their new complexity with a parody of early 90s dance hits complete with a wailing female vocalist and substituting record scratches with zipper sounds. “Come on everybody now/ men and women, young and old/ I can feel your pain/ …if you touch my pants.” In true dance fashion the track is remixed at the end of the album as “The Boot Cut (Pants Trance Dance Mix)”.
“Pants”’ diverse sound serves it well, from the ska-infused “Picnic Party” (about Third World nations having fun in the sun), to the melodic ballad “Dolphin Boy” (the tragic tale of a boy who abandons the land to be with his favorite sea mammals), the hard rock “Hot Squat Hombre” (about the kind of love only the vertically challenged can give), or the country-western weeper “Christmas Dreams” (scope out videos of the last two songs by clicking their links). “Pants is also home to “Janitor”, the Juice Pigs’ most brilliant and endearing style parody. In it, they riff off of fellow Canadian, Neil Young’s distinctive vocals and folk-rock sound to spin the story of an eccentric grade school janitor who “cleans the bathroom and tells dirty jokes …dresses like a woman and rolls his own smokes.”
By now you’ve certainly noticed that most of these clips come from MADtv. Believe it or not there was a time when MADtv was good. During its first three seasons (1995-1998) the show was at its best - trying to do things better and different, while SNL was at an all-time worst. Corky and the Juice Pigs were the first musical guest ever featured on MADtv. They appeared nine times between the second and third season. This was where I first experienced them, prompting my middle school self to record every episode of MADtv so that I wouldn’t miss a performance. Beginning with the forth season, when the show started pumping in mainstream musical guests, as SNL does, it was the beginning of the end; not just for MADtv’s quality, but also for the band. The Juice Pigs’ appearances on MADtv were as far as they ever got to stardom. In 1998, while assembling new material for a third album, their record label, Denon, went belly-up and the band went separate ways. Two of their last songs “Phone Sex Girl” and “Too Fat to Rock ‘n’ Roll” (a Meatloaf parody) exist only as MADtv performances.
The Juice Pigs had a good run. Barenaked Ladies used to open for them back in the old days until the tables turned. After eleven years, two albums, many festivals, and an attention-getting number of appearances on American television, surely the band could walk away somewhat satisfied. However, things appeared to be looking up before the record company closed its doors, so what exactly led to the end of Corky and the Juice Pigs? I can’t seem to find any definitive word. Seán Cullen went on to pursue a stand up and acting career. You may have seen him on Comedy Central Presents. He still does musical improv and recently even did a comedy P.S.A., just like old times. Phil Nichol is also a comedian and keeps his guitar close in tow. He recently appeared on the Graham Norton Show celebrating an award from if.comedy. The band’s tallest member, Greg Neale, has faded into the mists of mystery.The Corky and the Juice Pigs’ albums have been out of print for a long time and have never been made officially available online. You can find their music floating around the Internet without too much trouble, additional videos continue to appear on YouTube, and there’s a long-running fansite good for soundbytes and additional info. Below is a taste of Corky’s porky goodness, from their self-titled debut and “Pants” - but that’s not all. Internet magic has also made available their extremely rare, only ever released on cassette, demo album “Buck A Song” which you can check out HERE.
I firmly believe that Kansas is the greatest American progressive rock group of their generation. Throughout the 1970s they composed some of the most memorable prog-rock songs of all time and achieved mass appeal. “Carry On Wayward Son”, “Dust in the Wind”, and “Point of Know Return” are legendary tracks. Even beyond these well-known hits, Kansas’ repertoire is constant in its awesomeness. No matter the decade, no matter the hardships, Kansas has kept its heart beating.
Many ’70s progressive rock outfits struggled through the 1980s. Only a solemn few emerged from the gauntlet of the drastically changing music industry with their integrity untarnished. Acts such as Genesis, Rush, and Yes kept afloat by meshing their prog-rock talents with the synthetic sounds of mainstream pop. They met with unprecedented success, but not all groups who attempted the switch can say the same. Jethro Tull’s 1984 effort, Under Wraps, fell on deaf ears despite cool synths, drum machines, and a chic spy noir motif. Kansas’ 1983 album, Drastic Measures, met a similar fate. It sold poorly, alienated longtime fans, and has since been forgotten, but even more so than Tull’s album it begs to be rediscovered.
Mainstream.
At the onset of the 1980s Kansas underwent major changes. They had ridden a tsunami-like wave of success since the 1976 release of Leftoverture followed a year later by Point of Know Return. However, their two following albums, 1979’s Monolith and 1980’s Audio-Visions saw that wave break. The music still harnessed Kansas’ unique blend of mysticism, the American West, and violin-heavy rock ‘n’ roll, but their cohesion was slipping and the state of rock was moving on. Lead-singer, keyboardist, and prominent songwriter, Steve Walsh, left Kansas to form the band, Streets. His replacement was John Elefante, whose voice was compatible to Walsh’s and who took over his portion of the song writing and keyboard playing. Their next album, Vinyl Confessions, was a stepping stone, between classic Kansas and the modern state of rock, but still not the breakthrough success they had become accustomed to.
The changes didn’t end there. Bassist Dave Hope and guitarist, keyboardist, and lead songwriter, Kerry Livgren, had recently become born-again Christians as was Elefante. This led to Christian overtones appearing in Confessions‘ lyrics. The lyrics are loose enough that they associate with whatever best suits the listener. I never noticed them until they were pointed out to me. U2 is obvious, Kansas… not so much. Regardless, this generated a sudden influx of evangelical Christian fans. They began handing out religious pamphlets regarding the album’s lyrics at Kansas’ shows and Contemporary Christian Music Magazine named Vinyl Confessions the #1 album of 1982. In response to this, Robby Stienhardt, the band’s distinctive violinist and on-stage front man, left the band.
Guitarist Rich Williams and drummer Phil Ehart were the only original forces in Kansas still present and fundamentally unchanged. They remain the only members never to leave.
“Everything was changing, and the future wasn’t bright. The only reason I didn’t leave was that I was too curious to see what was going to happen. If Kansas was going to go down in bloody flames I wanted to be there. I wanted to go down with the ship.”
Drastic Measures is exactly what its name implies it to be: a desperate attempt to hold on to rock stardom at all costs. Two key members were gone, Loverboy and Foreigner were tearing up the charts, and synth-infused rock ‘n’ roll was the only clear path to commercial viability. Taking stock of all this, Kansas dove head first into the genre of mainstream rock. But there was a twist. The band’s progressive nature turned this very self-conscious transformation on its head. If they were going to make a pop-rock album it would be on their terms.
Fight Fire With Fire.
“Fight Fire With Fire”, opens Drastic Measures with a bang: a searing grind of guitars over ominous synth harmonies that bleed into dreamy digressions. “There’s nothing to lose, ’cause it’s already lost. In a runaway world of confusion - I’m not gonna take it!” sings Elefante defiantly. “Fire” is pure rock ‘n’ roll machismo - cryptic lyrics of struggle based around a catch phrase. The song rocks to degrees others groups’ tracks in the format can’t measure up to: a powerful wall of sound that doesn’t let up; even in mellow moments. It makes you feel like a sexy electric badass riding a post-apocalyptic war machine. Try and deny it.
The next avenue of pop-rock cliché Kansas tackles is the inherent obsession with wealth and fame. “Everybody’s My Friend” is a catchy song about the excitable populous’ hunger to interact with the famous. Like the majority of songs on the album “Everybody’s My Friend” was penned by John Elefante and his brother, Dino. The song’s subject is a reaction to Elefante’s sudden fame as lead singer of an international act and the disillusionment caused by absolute strangers trying to connect with him. “Have you met Mick Jagger? Ringo, George, or Paul? Do you have my number? Will you give me a call?” asks the eager fan.
“Mainstream”, written by Livgren, mirrors “Fire”’s digital warfare spirit. It calls to mind Apache helicopters firing rockets over a futuristic cityscape, and has a seething rhythm breakdown perfect for stalking prey through the urban jungle. “Mainstream” is the heart of what makes Drastic Measures successful and unique, its self-awareness.
“It’s so predictable and everybody judges by the numbers that you’re selling Just crank ‘em out on the assembly line and chart ‘em higher Just keep it simple boys it’s gonna be alright as long as you’re inside the Mainstream.”
Livgren makes plainly apparent the beautiful irony that Drastic Measures embodies; consenting to studio demands but playing by his own rules and criticizing the marketplace. “Really loved it, didn’t earn a cent, no one’s buying your experiment” writes Livgren, bitterly mocking studio bosses. “Are we moving too far away? Is it worth it if it doesn’t pay?” muses the chorus, answered by the reoccurring line: “survive another year.”
“Get Rich Now” harnesses a quintessential Kansas sound atop the backdrop of modern production. It continues the theme of mainstream awareness and chronicles greed through the ages. The chorus is a mechanically filtered mantra of the words “get rich now”. The song’s dark undertones not only targets major perpetrators of greed but subtly accuses the current direction of the band itself. This sentiment reoccurs in Livgren’s “End of the Age”, a ballad about the time of Revelations. This track in many ways sounds more like a traditional Kansas song than any from either of the previous two albums and is the only song on Drastic Measures that features Livgren’s distinctive organ playing.
With a beautiful swelling of synth strings interposed with rock guitar, “Going Through the Motions” turns a critical eye to the audience. “Do you really mean to tell me that you’re satisfied?” the song asks while musical and lyrically depicting a scene of city dwellers marching unison, briefcase in hand, to their appointed places. “Don’t Take Your Love Away” is a power ballad tried and true and appeals to all standard conventions - the title says it all. Where the song prospers above other power ballads is that it’s Kansas. It has the harmonies, rising musical surges, and smoking guitarmanship to prove it.
One of the most unusual tracks on the album is “Andi”, a very pretty soft rock song. It’s rich with all the melodies and magic of the 80s prom of your dreams. Think “Time After Time” meets “Forever Young” with a pinch of Tangerine Dream’s soundtrack to Legend. What makes the song truly unique is the subject matter. It’s about a transgendered girl “trapped inside a little boy’s body.” Some suggest it’s just about a girl who can’t wait to grow into a woman, but the lyrics side with the alternative. The song is lush with beautiful sounds, like a fantasy film; an aspect of enchantment bringing to mind fabrics twirling in slow motion, soft focus, and a voice that promises to grant her dreams. Despite her divergence from the norm “Andi” is granted the same beauty and understanding one would grant to a “normal” girl. I applaud Elefante for reaching beyond his evangelical Christian background to give unconventional subject matter the tenderness and understanding it deserves.
The final song on the album, “Incident On a Bridge”, is powerful Livgren work with a triumphant sound to it. The lyrics are allegorical certainly of spiritual tribulation and successes, but also speaks of Livgren’s long road with Kansas and the hint that he might move on.
“It’s all too real, all these things we feel As the years go by, things intensify And I know, for each life there is a reason And I know, for each time there is a season Now the bridge leads on, to a brighter dawn It’s waiting for me.”
Going Through the Motions.
“Fight Fire With Fire” made it to #3 on the mainstream rock charts, though it floundered past 40 in other rankings. The videos for “Fire” and “Everybody’s My Friend” don’t do the songs justice. They’re what you might call “concept videos”, but the actual concepts are anyone’s guess.
In “Fight Fire With Fire” some guy is having dreams within dreams where he’s enslaved in a coal mine by the Spanish Inquisition and can throw fireballs. Also a giant mosquito sucks his blood. Awesome. Be sure to note Kerry Livgren and Rich Williams’ funny hats.
I love the ending. “Oh hey man, you were having a nightmare and we were standing here… watching you.” Wait, why’d the color drop out? Oh! Kansas = Wizard of Oz! I get it.
In an interview on the Sail On DVD Rich Williams is particularly resentful:
“They made me wear this STUPID hat… I don’t know why I didn’t have the balls to say “I’m not wearin’ that hat.” Because that’s what I was thinkin’. But you know, who am I? Everybody’s pointing and telling me what to do…”
The same director returned for “Everybody’s My Friend”, which is a better video, but makes just as little sense. The coolest part is that it features the bazooka-toting bow-tied musician from the cover of the album. As to why he’s also a luchador, well...
End of the Age.
Just six months after the release of Drastic Measures, Kerry Livgren and Dave Hope left Kansas to form a new band, AD.
Even without the violin or many of their other conventions, Kansas’ distinctive harmonies and instrumentals survived and adapted into the era’s new sound. Producer, Neil Kernon who’d produced several Hall and Oates albums, as well as Walsh’s band, Streets, assisted them in the transitory process. Some aspects of the sounds he cultivated with Kansas returned a year later when he produced Autograph’s lone hit “Turn Up the Radio“. That same year, Kernon and Kansas (minus Livgren and Hope) reunited one last time to produce a new track for the band’s first greatest hits album, The Best of Kansas. The resulting song, “Perfect Lover”sounds far more like conventional mid-80s rock than any track from Drastic Measures. Though a well-crafted and fun rock song, it’s definitely not the same.
Elefante left the band to go on to become a giant in the Contemporary Christina Music scene. The following year Steve Walsh returned to Kansas and brought on bassist Billy Greer. Since then they have produced five wonderful albums all leaning back towards their classic style, particularly their last album, Somewhere to Elsewhere, which reunited them with Livgren and Stienhardt. The lineup of Walsh, Williams, Ehart, and Greer remains the essential core of Kansas to this day. They still play “Fight Fire With Fire” at shows, but largely their work on Drastic Measures collects dust. Put a stop to that and check out these outstanding tracks now:
I can't think of a better way to kick off this column than with one of the greatest musical compilations of the 20th century, the Voyager Golden Record.
If there's one good thing I could say about the Cold War it's that it had America looking to the stars. The space race was both a beautiful and chilling thing. America was a country of cowboys again, pioneering a frontier, a frontier which nurtured the dreams of scientists and philosophers. What wasn't possible? In this spirit of profound curiosity and exploration we sent humans to the moon and machines farther beyond. Voyager I and 2 are exploratory probes that took photographs and scientific measurements of the farthest planets in our solar system. They will continue to travel, even after their mission has ended and their systems shut down, carrying with thema profound message of peace: the gift of music.
During the mid-nineteen seventies, a group of scientists and producers, led by astronomer Carl Sagan, complied the mixtape to end all mixtapes. An offering of 31 tracks, painstakingly selected as defining examples of humankind's good intentions and accomplishments. These tracks, along with 116 images, were encoded on two gold and copper LPs and launched into the stars. At this very moment, these relics of Earth's cultural history are riding on the backs of the twin Voyager probes as they push past the threshold of our solar system and into the unknown.The records serve as bottled messages adrift in the infinite sea of stars. If other life exists in the universe, chances of them coming across the Voyager probes are next to impossible. Nonetheless, the gesture is profound and inspired. Over the span of six months, Sagan and his team scoured the globe assembling a diverse and worthy collection of just the right music and sounds to represent our planet. The compilation begins with human voices. An introductory greeting from UN Secretary General, Kurt Waldheim is followed by greetings in 55 languages, beginning with Akkadian, an ancient Sumerian language, and ending with Wu, a modern Chinese dialect. Not all greetings are simple "hello"s. They tell something of the attitudes of their regions. "Friends of space, how are you all? Have you eaten yet? Come visit us if you have time" is the humorous greeting in Amoy. Whereas the Rajasthani greeting reads more like a veiled warning, "Hello to everyone. We are happy here and you be happy there." The English greeting, which concludes the tack, is a young boy saying, "hello from the children of Planet Earth."
The next track is of personalized introductions from each of the UN delegates to the extraterrestrials. Unlike the previous track of greetings, this track is more of a sound collage. The dialogue often fades from one voice to another before they even finish. Check out this delegate's interesting suggestions about what an extraterrestrial would bother to know about Earth:
"My dear friends in outer space, as you probably know my country is situated on the west coast of the continent of Africa, a land mass more or less in the shape of a question mark..."
It's certainly odd, but about a minute in, things get really strange. Whale noises. For the remainder of the delegates' introductions, a whale song rises and falls in the background, until, for the last minute of the track, there's nothing else. Sagan was a true science-hippy visionary. Star Trek IVanyone?
The whale song blends into the music of the spheres, the geometric ratios of our solar system translated into harmonies. This begins a twelve minute tour de force collage, featuring soundscapes from all over the planet. A roar of thunder, rain, wild animals, and the wind mesh with human heartbeats, footsteps, the sounds of industry - Saturn 5 lifting off. The track ends on a fascinating juxtaposition of concepts: a kiss, followed by a mother's first word to her newborn baby, blend into bizarre electronic thrumming and a pulsing static hiss. Though the latter half may be cryptic, these are all messages of love. It was during the creation of the Voyager records that producer Ann Druyan and Carl Sagan realized and pronounced their love for one another. They were together until his death. The thrumming is Druyan's brainwaves, the pulsing is a pulsar beating like a heart in the cosmos, just as Druyan's human heart had beat earlier in the track.
"I had asked Carl whether or not it would be possible to compress the impulses in one's brain and nervous system into sound...put that sound on the record and [whether] the extraterrestrials of the future would be able to reconstitute that data into thought. [He] said, 'well, you know, a thousand-million years is a long time. Why don't you go do it, because who knows!...' And so my brainwaves and R.E.M., every little sound that my body was making was recorded... This was two days after Carl and I had declared our love for each other, and...what I was thinking [during that] meditation was about the wonder of love and being in love and...it's on those two spacecraft even now."
Druyan refers to the remaining 27 tracks as "a cultural Noah's ark." The first Earth music the aliens will hear is the First Movement of Bach's "Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F." Just think. Think about that complex sound, that painstaking, beautiful music locked in coldness and darkness, waiting - farther from Earth than any other object humankind has laid its hands on.
In addition to the Germans (2 more Bachs, 2 Beethovens, and a Mozart), Anthony Holborne and Igor Strazynski round out the classical music. (Can you imagine hearing "The Rite of Spring" in space? Yikes!) Mexican composer Lorenzo Barcelata's "El Cascabel" provides a full-scale mariachi ensemble. And rock and blues are aptly represented by Chuck Berry ("Johnny B. Goode"), Louis Armstrong ("Melancholy Blues"), and Blind Willie Johnson ("Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground"). Pretty good, but where's the Beatles, right? Sagan wanted "Here Comes the Sun" on the record. A perfect choice. The Beatles said 'yes' but EMI said 'no'. And that is why, despite our best efforts, we beckoned down a holocaust from the stars. Way to go EMI.
The rest of the album samples from non-Western cultures great and small all over the world. It is the most highly eclecticized collection of music I've ever heard. Senegalese percussion clangs and thumps in the primal rawness that time has transmuted into the call of the discotheque. The harmonized vocals of a Pygmy girl's initiation song lull into the vibrations of a didgeridoo as an Australian aboriginal calls out to the Devil Bird. Humanity's creativity and diversity is laid out dynamically in all its sadness and joy. Only on this record, meant to travel through space, is Mozart's "Magic Flute" followed by a rural Georgian male voice choir ("Tchakrulo") and Louis Armstrong and His Hot Seven's jazz complimented by warbling and transcendental Azerbaijanibalaban playing. It must be heard to be understood.
For decades, finding a copy of the Voyager record was a near-impossible task. In 1992 it was released as an enhanced-content CD with a re-issuing of Sagan's Murmurs of Earth, a book on the process of making the Voyager record a reality. The CD has since become very scarce. Fortunately, the internet perpetually makes life easier.
You now can experience the entire Golden Record online, including all 116 pictures HERE.
For a quick fix check out these tracks:
And, while you're at it, please enjoy this cosmic debris from my childhood:
Media Potluck and seriously up-and-coming music blog, Consequence of Sound are teaming up for a bi-monthly feature called Audio Archaeology!
Since September of last year, yours truly has been writing articles off-and-on for Consequence of Sound. Now, I write for them weekly. Audio Archaeology is the same as any other Media Potluck audio post. You know what to expect: eclectic, detailed, and personal articles about awesome music. The articles will be featured on Consequence of Sound and Media Potluck, that we might spread the gospel of awesome music off the beaten path.
My introduction to Frankie Goes to Hollywood was much like many others. I was first mesmerized by the pulsating bass stab of their hit single Relax. I had heard the track many times prior but hadn't really studied it until I bought an 80s compilation CD that featured the song. Funny thing is, I bought the compilation for the song Video Killed The Radio Star by the Trevor Horn fronted Buggles. Mr. Horn would go on to produce Relax, Frankie's debut album Welcome To The Pleasuredome, and the executive produce one of my favorite albums of all time, Liverpool.
A few years ago I was helping out a local record shop with a summer warehouse sale. I basically sat in a hot industrial sized storage unit filled with the extra stock and memorabilia of a 30 year old record store. It was not a bad deal at all. I would walk out with boxes and boxes full of records. Prime stuff too. Eric, the employee from the shop, would play Blue Oyster Cult 8-tracks for me and we would talk about the weird breathing noises that open, close, and are found throughout Depeche Mode'sSome Great Reward.
Somehow we got on the subject of Frankie Goes to Hollywood and he asked me if I had ever heard their second album, Liverpool. He praised it highly and gave me an extra copy he had bought in the bargain bin. I had played Welcome to The Pleasuredome quite a bit. The singles off the album (Relax, Two Tribes, The Power of Love, Welcome to the Pleasuredome) are great but the rest of the album is primarily made up of cover songs. I don't mean to discredit Pleasuredome in any way. It definitely deserves a potluck post. Heck, Relax could be a post all on its own. The bottom line, I was not sure what to expect of Liverpool.
The album opens with the soft syth pads and angelic female vocals that fill their first album, but soon gives way to an enormous and powerful drum roll backed with a thick bass and guitar onslaught. Warriors of the Wasteland, the opening track, has begun. I was completely confused and wasn't sure what to make of it. It sounded nothing like Relax or anything offered in their earlier works. I spent the rest of the car ride home baffled and ecstatic at the same time. Why had I not heard of this album before? Why wasn't this on one of the top album lists of the 1980s? Where Pleasuredome had been some sort of politically influenced sexual romp through all that was conservative, this felt like it was addressing darker issues and building a unique style and audio aesthetic not as present in their first album.
The lyrics throughout Liverpool create a sense of desolation, poverty, and a battle between the the lower and upper class. Pleasuredome seems to be riddled with thinly disguised sexual innuendo but nothing of the sort exists in this album. Instead one gets the feeling that Liverpool takes a sympathetic look at the blue collar worker, a suffering manufacturing industry, and high unemployment rate in the city that shares the same name with the album.
Warriors of the Wasteland:
It seems to be that the powers that be Keep themselves in splendour and security Armoured cars for megastars No streets, no bars, yours wealth is ours They make the masses kiss their asse(t)s Lower class jackass, pay me tax take out the trash Working for the world go round Your job is gold, do as you're told The pay you less then run for Congress
Lunar Bay:
In the common age of automation, where people might eventually work ten or twenty hours a week, Man for the first time will be forced to confront himself with the true spiritual problems of living
For Heaven's Sake:
We don't need aggression We don't need recession Just give us some money Our life could be sunny too
The album retains many of the elements that make Pleasuredome good and builds upon them to make Liverpool great. The percussive bass lines of Mark O'Toole are present and Holly Johnson's unmistakable voice shines, marking the tracks as uniquely Frankie. Just because guitars and live drums are the name of the game on this album, it doesn't mean synthesizers don't play a heavy role. Every track on Liverpool features some form of electronic flavor, achieving sounds only capable with machines. Both albums share a heavy use of orchestration, which appear more extensively in the extended and alternate mixes on the what seems like uncountable number of 12" and single releases across both albums.
Both albums share a unique art direction. The albums and singles are covered in cryptic messages and photos that often seem to have little to do with the content inside. Liverpool continues Frankie's tradition of outsider music videos with several stunning (albeit odd) videos:
It has been said that this new direction into the area of rock and dark lyrics, over synth and tongue in cheek humor, was a decision made by the other members of the band against lead vocalist Holly Johnson's liking. In fact, it is partly blamed for the eventual break up of the band and poor sales of the album. But after the popularity of Relax, and the advertising monster that was the "Frankie Say Relax" shirts, how could anyone be expected to top that? It is rumored the band expected it to be as popular and at one time had been their intention to name the album Liverpool... Lets Make it a Double. It is a shame that for an album that takes such leaps and bounds beyond its predecessor, Liverpool has not received more recognition. It may be that the album was doomed from the start, forever to be overshadowed by Relax and eventually swept under the table with the decadence of the 1980s.
their comedy. Any normal-seeming situation will quickly break down into insanity such as in the opening verses to their early track, “Pandas”:
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