Tunes stuck in my head this week

I don't know why songs always get stuck in my head in pairs, these days. But, here are the current troublemakers.

Earworm of the week #1 is Caustic's remix of Perfection Plastic's Bad Girls, off the new freebie album of remixed tracks from Echec de la Matiere. It's tongue-in-cheek hygiene film powernoize that plays out in a series of changes that never loses momentum - I haven't paid much attention to Caustic this year, somehow, but I ought to start. The guy seems to recognize what was right about the original track, and finds a way to increase the stomp factor without weighing it down. I would definitely dance to this. (Hint, flist DJs, hint.)

 

You can grab it here, but I'll add the caveat that it's very much genre-insider dance music. If powernoize isn't your particular crayon in the dance-industrial box, don't expect it to sound like much of anything. (Also be warned that criticisms that it's repetitive, primitive and sounds like crap will age you by 5 years per utterance.)

 

#2 should be a flashback, no matter who you are: Elvis Costello's Party Girl. Due to circumstances I'll explain soon-ish, I've  been prowling my collection for mix CD fodder, the last couple of days*, and this is one song I've always wanted to work into a sweetheart mix.

 

 It's from Armed Forces, which I'll hold up to any other rock album, ever, as a lyrical masterpiece. Somewhere in all its poetry on the politics of control, the album sneaks in something close to a straight-up love song. But it's a love song in the E.C. tradition, which means its love layered with all of the fear and hope and impatience that make the real thing so dangerous. It's about longing, really, but it's about the moment where longing has to give way to something else. "I can give you anything but time." Worth a repeat listen, every once in a while.

 

*(And no, it's not who you're thinking! Stick around. I've got more plot twists than a Hitchcock movie.)

Orientation

I got to sneak out of work early today, so I could get to the student orientation at the college. I can count the days until class starts on one hand, and milestones are coming close and quick: I've now listened, for the first time ever, to an hour and a half of nervous lecturers reading powerpoint presentations. Soon I'll be buying textbooks for the first time ever. Then, school will be the present, instead of the looming future it's been for so long. I think I'm ready for that.
 

Right now I am chilling at home and reliving nice memories and listening to old Eno and drinking Evening in Missoula, and it is all very, very good. It's been a very strange week, but who knows? With a good night's sleep, maybe it'll all fit in one head.

 

Good night.