Friday 19 June 2009

King Biscuit Time - I Walk The Earth lyrics

King Biscuit Time - No Style
King Biscuit Time - No Style
Buy on Amazon
Lyrics to "I Walk The Earth" by King Biscuit Time from their second EP, No Style. I couldn't find the lyrics for this awesome tune online so here they are! Not in any way cheesy music, just quality indie.

King Biscuit Time is the solo project of Steve Mason who was lead singer of The Beta Band - As John Cusack's character in the High Fidelity film will tell you, check out the Beta Band compilation, The Three EPs if you've never heard their music before.

The basic drums, repetitive bass line and vocals make this an awesome song. Really uplifting too.

Facts
On EP: No Style / Buy on Amazon
Released: 19 June 2000
More info: Wikipedia / Official site / Discogs

I'm not definite on two lyrics, comment if you think they're wrong. First one is "Take me a day", could it be "take me all day"? Second one is "Hey, knock me," which i first thought was "Hey, not me" but changed to "knock" after reading a comment by ironman9 on the YouTube music video.

I Walk The Earth lyrics
Artist: King Biscuit Time

When I walk through the earth,
I get stuck in the middle,
I can't see your love,
I don't know your love.

When I walk through the earth,
I get stuck in the middle,
I can't see your love,
I don't know your love.

Why won't you take me away?
Take me a day,
Keep on rising higher.

Why won't you take me away?
Take me a day,
Keep on rising higher.

Chorus x 8
Hey, knock me,
Picking on your own reality.

When I walk through the earth,
I get stuck in the middle,
I can't see your love,
I don't know your love.

When I walk through the earth,
I get stuck in the middle,
I can't see your love,
I don't know your love.

Why won't you take me away?
Take me a day,
Keep on rising higher.

Why won't you take me away?
Take me a day,
Keep on rising higher.

Chorus x 8
Hey, knock me,
Picking on your own reality.

Instrumental break

Chorus to fade
Hey, knock me,
Picking on your own reality.

Wednesday 18 February 2009

Icehouse - Hey Little Girl single review

Hey Little girl is a slice of 'could not be anything but' 80s electro pop. Practically bursting at the lycra'd seams (watch the ballet music video) with synthesisers this Aussie band stormed to number 17 in the UK charts in February 1983.

Think Talk Talk, Tears for Fears and the more electronic Bryan Ferry stuff and you'll know what you're in for. Led from formation in 1977 to the present by the now blond headed Iva Davies (previously known to try out every hair crime of the 80s) Icehouse has had no less than 22 band members come and go over their 32 year history. World famous in Australia, Hey Little Girl was their best assault on the UK top 40, although they did reappear, just, 5 years later with their single Crazy. I don't recommend listening to this one though, there are far better things to do with 4 minutes.


The many hairs of Iva Davies
Iva Davies in 1978Iva Davies in 1982
Iva Davies in 1983
Iva Davies in 1985
Fuzzy
hair
Greasy
hair
Astley
hair
Hoddle
hair
Iva Davies in 1988
Iva Davies in 1990
Iva Davies in 1995
Iva Davies in 2008
Wet wet
hair
Pantene
hair
Raver
hair
Dyed
hair

Like so many half decent tracks of the 1980s with a riff or chorus that propel the tunes from dodgy Soho 2am fodder to worth playing at an 80s spandex night, Hey Little Girl has an annoyingly catchy little chorus,
Hey little girl,
Where will you hide?
Who can you run to now?
Hey little girl,
Where will you go?
Who can you turn to now?
The verses? The rest of the song? Meh. Let's stick to the chorus. Remember Waiting for a Star to Fall by Boy Meets Girl? Of course you do, but which bit? Go on, sing me the verse, I bet you can't... Perhaps the reason why the Cabin Crew remix of that particular tune in 2005 discarded the verses completely and just repeated the chorus over and over again.

I mention this because Hey Little Girl by Icehouse is certainly due a remix (the remixes I’ve heard are all rubbish, and I’m sure that's because they all maintain the verses), I reckon a Cabin Crew-esque reimagining and chorus looping could body-pop it back onto the dance floor.

Facts
Single released October 1982
UK chart position: 17
Original album: Primitive Man \ Buy on Amazon
Listen on Last FM
More info: Wikipedia \ Discogs \ Lyrics \ Fan site

Where I have it:
Track 2, Disc 8, Greatest Hits of the 80s - Album review \ Buy on Amazon

Thursday 5 February 2009

Thin Lizzy - Whisky In The Jar air guitar

We got the band back together last week to have a jamming session to Whisky In The Jar by Thin Lizzy. Vaguely in time and using the latest Fender air guitar and Pearl air drum we played a few bars.

We're clearly in need of more studio time, plus a vocalist, bass guitarist and air triangulist will be needed before we venture out into public again.

Wednesday 14 January 2009

Wang Chung - To Live And Die In L.A. OST album review

Wang Chung - To Live And Die In L.A. OST
Wang Chung
To Live And Die In L.A.
Buy on Amazon
If I was to say to you that Wang Chung, the 80s new wave group, best known for #21 hit Dance Hall Days and the disco classic Everybody Have Fun Tonight, had produced a soundtrack album I’d expect, like me, you'd consider the film itself to be the biggest load of crap since the day after King Kong had a night on the Guinness and a kebab.

Wang Chung's music takes advantage of the electronic sounds that burst into the 80s, such as drum machines, keyboards and no doubt keytars given the chance. As such the two aforementioned hits wouldn't be out of place in a set that also included Duran Duran, Simple Minds and The Human League.

Luckily I watched the film before I’d been introduced to Wang Chung so had no preconceived ideas about gorilla excrement. Directed by William Friedkin (of Exorcist and French Connection fame) it's a wonderful clash of 80's exuberant greed mixed with a down to earth cynical honesty provided through the dusty realism of an L.A. backdrop and seat gripping action that probably wakes Bruce Willis at night in a jealous cold sweat. This post isn't a film review (I’ll link to a decent one once my friend gZa writes it) so I’ll now leave the over-adjectised sentences to the professionals and get on to the music.

Friedkin states he commissioned Wang Chung to compose an original soundtrack because they stand "out from the rest of contemporary music." If I was standing next to him when he made this outlandish statement in 1985 I may well have given him a slap and told him to listen to a different radio station. However what becomes clear from listening to the soundtrack is that beneath the 80 cheese of the Wang Chung sound Friedkin has deftly identified a quality to Wang Chung's music that reflects everything that the film portrays, in fact it adds to it.

Wang Chung
The members of
Wang Chung
Yes it's cheesy, to an extent, and that plays perfectly with Willem Dafoe's black Ferrari but it also has that grimy edge that made New Wave such a popular genre. The side of New Wave that rockier bands such as Siouxsie & the Banshees, The Cure and The Psychedelic Furs wallowed in so magnificently. The grime that, in this film, leads us through an often violent narrative on the edge of the law summed up by William L. Petersen's line:

"Let me tell you something, amigo. I'm gonna bag Masters, and I don't give a shit how I do it."
1. To Live and Die in L.A.
The title track is a light ode to this exciting thriller and gives you a taste of what might be coming. Every time I hear this I think of the album cover, the red sun setting on a palm tree littered L.A. wasteland.

2. Lullaby
This starts with a verse that despite its title makes me think of waking up and the sun coming up on this dangerous and glamorous world. A jumpy, fresh verse contrasts with a straight out of the 80s ballady chorus that takes you from the waking world to blasting along desert roads in a convertible, presumably while $50 notes and loose cocaine blows out from the back seat.

3. Wake Up, Stop Dreaming
And after my waking dream in Lullaby I’m told exactly what to do by a grittier foot tapping track. "I'm talkin' 'bout dream and reality, I'm talkin' 'bout love and brutality" - lyrics that could be used on the film poster.

4. Wait
The only non-original track on the album. This was originally on their second album, Points on the Curve. This plays over the closing credits of the film and is an appropriate place for it. I say that as I’m reminded of something I heard while listening to the extras DVD for 1994 film The Crow - they had a completely original soundtrack so that the first time people heard a track was when watching the film. They didn't want the viewer to get distracted thinking of the first time they'd heard that tune (at a disco or on the radio). The songs were also more relevant as they were written for the film. All the other album tracks for To Live and Die In L.A. were written after Wang Chung had seen a rough cut of the film so it makes sense that the one song that wasn't isn't placed directly over the action.

Car chase from To Live And Die In L.A. film
A scene from
the car chase
5. City of the Angels
This is the first tune on side two of the original LP release. These last four tracks are all instrumental. After an atmospheric intro this tune takes off at 1:07 and brings back the memories to me of the car chase and excitement that follows the relentless pursuit for Defoe's character Masters. Like with many an instrumental soundtrack the tunes are designed to run with the action so on their own you can be left thinking, what happened in this bit again? I could just watch the film again but this is an album review and as such I’m looking at this as an independent entity.

6. The Red Stare
It's amazing music's ability to inspire emotion and this song is depressing, and as it goes on slightly scary. The screaming synth, slow piano and 'whooshy' noises will freak you out if you play this loud.

7. Black-Blue-White
OK, we're back on it with Black-Blue-White. The city's flashing past, sirens burst and that drum machine is threatening to take over again as I nurse my bruises. I've got that mix of 80s cheese that I love so much with a certain urgency in the drum beat that's making me type faster. If I had a gun, an open shirt and a hairy chest I’d jump behind a wall now, dripping sweat and lean out to try to spot a moving dot on the horizon that was slowly making his way toward me.

8. Every Big City
I'd be very surprised if Friedkin hadn't had Bladerunner in his head, even to just a tiny extent when he was making this film. This track reminds me of the dark satanic rain soaked towers of that Harrison Ford classic. Its suggestive and repetitive audio sample 'jump, jump' builds through the track. It suggests not only the physical action likely in any chase scene but also the metaphor that if it's all too much why not leave it all behind. After all, who really cares in the end, we all die, let's get on with life.

Facts
Album released September 1985
More info: Wikipedia \ Film on IMDB