I Believe I Can Fly!

After posting a couple of new tunes I figured it was time to go back into the vault. I've dug out five more classics from the stacks for you to enjoy. There are a couple of bigger names here this go around but there are a couple of bands you might not have heard of as well.

No real theme to these, just five randomly cool tunes that I still enjoy listening to. Hopefully, you will as well. So with that...get clickin...

The Bluetones - Marblehead Johnson
This is probably my favorite Bluetones song and has been since it's release back in 1996. The second this song starts your hooked. That little riff just lures you in and then Mark Morris starts singing and it turns into this perfect dark hearted pop song. The best line of the whole tune is when Mark says, "You owe my patience quite a debt." What a great line. Unfortunately very few people in the states actually had the pleasure of hearing the Bluetones. The first album Expecting to Fly came out here and then for some strange reason nothing else was ever released. The sad thing is, this band got better and better as time went on. Their three other albums are brilliant and I highly recommend finding them somewhere. Luxembourg is particularly cool.

Hopper - Bad Kid
When I first got this single, I wrote as a note to myself that it was more Sleeper than Sleeper. Looking back I'm not completely sure if I agree with that. But much like Sleeper, Hopper was a spiky, punky little band and "Bad Kid" was a perfect combination of Salad's quirkyness, Sleeper's pop sensibility, and a bit of Elastica's aggression. The tune is loud, brash and still sweet enough to sucker you in. Still a faveorite of mine.

Pulp - O.U. 12" Mix
Oh sure everyone knows Pulp. Well let me rephrase that...everyone knows two songs by Pulp. Even your neighborhood stripey t-shirt, white belt wearing scenester knows "Disco 2000," and "Common People." (If you don't believe me...put on "Pink Glove," and watch the dance floor clear out.) The thing is, those two songs are among the weakest they've written. Yes, they were anthems back in the day and if you have a "I'm Common" t-shirt you are cool but, Pulp has a back catalog that puts those singles and Different Class to shame. "O.U." is one of those tracks and happens to be my favorite Pulp song. Originally released on Gift Recordings, "O.U.," shows Jarvis at his sexually frustrated best. It's an instantly danceable song geared for the dancefloor and it has Candida using her arms and legs to play all those keyboard parts. The first time I heard this I had a 102 degree fever, just sat in a plane for 7.5 hours and still could not resist hopping around to it. A classic.

Slingbacks - All Pop No Star
They were originally on Vinyl Japan but then got picked up by Virgin and then disappeared by 98. Yet they put out some great tunes in that short amount of time. "All Pop No Star," is one of those tunes. It's as if the ghost of T.Rex jumped in the body of the Slingbacks and this song came out. This is a glam infused stomper of a song that's as trashy as Britpop got. It's sparkly, hot, irristable and it wants to take to back to its place. Who are you to refuse it the pleasure?

Straw - The Aeroplane Song
I love airplanes. It's a geek thing. Some people spot trains, I love to planespot. Flight is an amazing thing. When I used to live in Miami, I would watch all the international flights come in while I ate lunch. To see the huge birds land or take off always made me think about where the planes came from and who was on them. It also made me slightly jealous because I'd rather be on a Virgin 747-400 headed to
London Gatwick then sitting in Miami(or Jacksonville for that matter). When Straw released this single, it was instantly my ode to aircraft. When they belt out "Lufthansa...go where you wanna go," you could just see the video of a 747 taking off. Why Lufthansa (A German airline) never used this song in an advert is beyond me. It's the perfect summer song because it just makes me want to get the hell out of wherever I'm at. Aufwidersehn!

From over the Atlantic...

Paul the Anglophile