com.metafilter.MeFiSwap.artlung.2011

From 1985 and at the height of the cold war. The world will indeed turn "pink vapor stew" but at least we can dance. Fishbone is a peer to the Red Hot Chili Peppers and in a just world would have been the Stones to their Beatles. Alas.

Saadiq is from Tony! Toni! Toné! This song doesn't move quick, but is heartfelt. And watch for the best possible tuba solo at the bridge. In the music video for this, and this came out when music videos were still happening, the tuba bit manages to be really really funny and yet does not disturb the truthful emotion of the song.

I bought this on cassette in 1989 at the Tower Records in Georgetown. Then, a song about falling in love with software would be novel. The movie "Her" would come out 24 years later.

I read a six word review of this song by Paul Ford. Paul's review, associated with SXSW 2008, was "Finally, a definitive robot pony song." Perfect gateway to get me to listen. This predates my robot collection but contributed to it. It made me think about the wide variety of ways we talk about and think of robots.

A perfect pop song. "WITH EYES OF PORCELAIN AND OF BLUE." I think they're a new wave band but now they just sound like a rock band. The longing in the voice of Benjamin Orr is perfect and earnest and though I've never done in karaoke it's the kind of song I would do.

A Mad Max landscape filtered through a Steely Dan lens. William Gibson used a fair number Steely Dan phrases in the Sprawl novels and short stories. Seek them out. "Assassins, cons, and rapers, might as well die." That's a sentiment that ought not be placed in a mellow pop song.

I missed Richard Hell when I was listening to the New York punk and new wave from the 70s and 80s. I was mostly a Talking Heads fan but the anarchy of this particular song stuck with me when I started listening to D.I.Y.: The Blank Generation- The New York Scene 1975-78 .

Another song about another possible future. Rather more hopeful. But also sort of silly and goofy. "I like chihuahuas and chinese noodles!"

Another song I would rip up at karaoke. I love a song that takes me to the dictionary. A "cerlew" is a kind of bird. "Cathay" is the old name for China. How old? . When I lived in the Philippines I learned "Cathay Pacific" is a large international airline. Cathay is a term hundreds of years old and strikes me as explicitly colonial. But the song is set in the future, that "Newsweek on her knees" might be a thing anymore, but the "microcameras hidden in her hair" hints better at the strange future we live in now. For a song from the year 1974 it's good.

A terrific cover that is hard to come by. From a cover record of Beatles songs by Japanese artists. It's clear Ms. Chiwaki is singing phonetically but it is super energetic.

The Muffs were so good it could bring me to tears. Again, evoking a would-be future and what it means to survive into it. Or just fade away?

"Maybe someday I'll die, who cares?"

Perfect line.

X is a band from Los Angeles. This is another sad-as-hell song. Not just sad, but it reckons with Regular old American complicity of so much horror around the world. It also mentions some other great important punk and punk-adjacent bands: The Minutemen, DOA, Black Flag. It's kind of meditative.

From the sad to the sublime. I think this was orignally titled Punk Rock T-Shirt Melting which is maybe a better title. The longing for someone sexier, smarter, cooler is the feeling I've had so many times in my life. When I thought that the solution to my sadnesses existed outside of myself. But the lesson is happiness isn't outside you. If you're going to find it, you have to go find it.

I have sung--or rather shouted--along to this one in the car while crying more than zero times.

"They know your mom fucked you up or maybe let you watch too much TV."

Ben Folds and his piano can get it.

Another one about war and how stupid it is. This time by Frank Zappa with the Bozzio's playing on it. Dale Bozzio's voice is used as comedic counterpoint at the tail end. It's another song with a feel that's contrapuntal to the words. And there are lyrics in this that are just weird sniffs or grunts that somehow work.

Missing Persons are seminal L.A. new wave pop. They deserve every revival. And Words is a great pop song about the modern age we live in. We've been worried that the world is going to hell and we're disconnected from each other forever and songs like this one and many others are a reminder and warning to not do that. And again lyrical phrases that are just squeals. Dale has a helluva range.

Tom Tom Club are so good and continues the theme of "words" begun with the Missing Persons song. I always like how unassuming Tom Tom Club. Their words are not trying to be cleverer than you. That unguarded thing is great. And more songs should begin with typewriters.

And another song about being in love with a robot. This one hits at the explicit possibilities of such a setup. The lead singer of The Dresden Dolls is a bit much but she does right by this song.

Second ska song. This one from The Bosstones. Also with the theme of "words"--and trying to use them to get more peace from the world. And in a song that I have moshed to. Heavier on rock than ska, but that's cool.

U2 from when they were still grandiose but before they were the LARGEST BAND IN THE WORLD which they fulfilled for a long time. And hey, more about wine at the end of the world. But not the poison wine from the Steely Dan song.

An instrumental that is so beautiful it seems like it could not come from the ribald and ridiculous Zappa. But there it is.

Another Zappa instrumental. This time in a pure guitar format which leans into the beauty of the Sofa series of songs. Too pretty and another one which makes me cry. This one because it reminds me how young Zappa was when he died. We could have had more music by him, and inspired by him. But we don't. Dudes, get your prostates checked.

I knew this song of course. But it really struck me how great it is watching the great war film Three Kings. It's not really focused on, but there it is in the background at one point. It's a big world and hip-hop and rap got to be everywhere. This song is from 1978. I don't speak French but the thing is about moving on and living and going on. And we can stop, or keep going. Keep going.