Roy Head sure did have some moves. They're kind of creepy. Also, why can't that chick sitting on the stage clap on time?

With amazing flow, and via Sullivan:

"Of course, it's like he's been dead for years," said a friend discussing Michael Jackson. I got her point, but, um, NOW HE'S DEAD, and any latent dreams of Jackson executing some miraculous third-act comeback (in my dreams, this always involved Rick Rubin, ala Johnny Cash) die with him.

The period has been placed at the end of the sentence. His art will not redeem him. He's a one-of-a-kind musical genius who went crazy, played with morphing his race and gender, slept with children, was repeatedly acquitted of child-molestation charges, and then died, alone and broke.

It's enough to make you cry.

Here's one of the many great songs off Michael's underrated Dangerous.

Over the past decade, American critic Robert Christgau has been Eminem's most intelligent defender—he even found a way to love Encore—and in 2006, Christgau wrote the smartest thing that will ever be written about the art of Marshall Mathers for The Believer. A sample:

Part of the charm, brilliance, and power of [Marshall Mathers III]’s triune persona is the way it disintegrates. On the one hand, it’s a subtly calibrated work of psychological imagination, on the other three-card monte to sucker the thought police. Nevertheless, Eminem’s album titles—The Slim Shady LP, The Marshall Mathers LP, The Eminem Show, Encore, and finally (so far) the greatest-hits Curtain Call—do signify an aesthetic evolution, from persona to person to artist to goodbye to now-I’m-really-going. Once I rated Marshall Mathers over Slim Shady because I thought the debut thinned out toward the end and because, as a card-carrying mature person (it gets me in cheap at the movies), I appreciated the depth of “Stan,” “Kim,” and “Who Knew,” in all of which Marshall the person reflects on the surprising success of Slim the reconstructed id. Shifting and feinting, the debut’s “My Fault” and “Rock Bottom” have a lot of Marshall in them, but not like The Marshall Mathers LP, where the illing title track, for instance, suggests Marshall the real-life homophobe, etc. rather than Slim wilding—Slim gets his own space only in “The Real Slim Shady,” “Kill You,” and “I’m Back.” Some would include “Kim,” but the song’s moral is too powerful for Shady’s purposes. Held up by philistines, ideologues, and ninnies as Exhibit A in the case of The Good People v. Marshall Mathers, Eminem’s second excellent wife-murdering song exposes, complexly but unmistakably, the shameful and indeed unmanly insanity of jealous rage. Go after something dumber—Neil Young’s “Down by the River,” say.

All of which makes Christgau's diss of Relapse—a record that "disappointed, even shocked" him with its failures—all the sadder. (See subject line.)

Re: the alleged failures of Relapse: I'm still trying to figure out what it's trying to do, and only after that can i judge if and how it's failed. (But the would-be confessions about stepfather sex abuse are...something.)

Xgau illo cribbed from his Rock&Roll&... column (and full, highly searchable virtual Xgau vaults here.)

That's right. You heard me. I can't get enough Black Cock.

It's hard to believe but it's been 15 years since these records, the original disco re-edits, came out.

Black Cock Records was the label organized by DJ Harvey and Gerry Rooney back in 1993. Originally a pair of rave DJs, they stumbled into the white label scene that year with these quirky records which were seminal, and rare disco hits, remixed and pressed on pirate vinyl.

The lift you got in a rave when one of the tracks on the first set of Black Cock Records, The Mystic Slot E.P., was played was incredible. On "No Way Back", a Re-Edit of The Dells original, the vocal refrain of "go out and stay out all night" was akin to having your parents tell you it was alright to freak and party all night long, just like they did 20 years earlier. Brilliant.

The records only got better and better and Harvey and Rooney became legends of the scene. Now Harvey runs the amazing night, Sarcastic Disco, in LA and looks like a degenerate hippy you'd kick as you step over him to walk into the club night, which is one of the hottest out there.

He also happily skates and surfs and owns a gallery in Hawaii, as well as runs parties for companies the likes of Volcom and Quicksilver.

Man that's the life.

Black Cock Records have recently been re-issued, and are selling fast. The going price for originals is around $500. So the new re-issues of these seminal re-edits records, at $12 a pop, are a steal.

Enjoy yourself some big Black Cock!

DJ Mozart (aka Claudio Rispoli) was a contemporary and friend of Daniele Baldelli in Italy. At Baia Degli Angeli he and Baldelli would make famous the music that would fall under the description of "cosmic".

After the original Baia was closed by the police (drugs, of course....) Baldelli moved to the new Cosmic club, while Rispoli worked at a club called Tana.

Below, straight from Pilooski's ALAINFINKIELKRAUTROCK blog comes this beautiful full-on disco mix of DJ Mozart at the Tana Club circa 1978. There's no tracklisting, sorry, but you definitely get the vibe of what it was like to swing in Italy during the late '70's. Ahhhhh. Good times, I imagine!

In 1993, Rispoli, produced a single for the Italian label Rec In Pause. The song took off like a storm all over the world.

I had just moved to Seattle in the previous year, and was starting to spend all my time with my friend Jason, at a club, Re-Bar, that was hosting a hot new night, promoted by the infamous Harler Twins called The Mocambo Lounge.

Rispoli's nam-de-disco was Jestofunk, and the massive hit was "Say It Again". In classic "cosmic" style, Rispoli took a sample of Colonel Abrams proto-house track "Trapped", and slowed it down until Abrams vocals become a yearning Barry White styled growl. Added on top were a funky stumbling beat over a synthesizer which blares to and fro with a stutter in stereo.

This song would come on and people would freak! The first time the music stops and you here Abrams yell "Hey!" was a signal for arms to explode in the air on the dance floor.

Sorry to make you all read about my memories of this long forgotten night, but sometime you hear a song and they just come washing over you....

God, I miss those times. Relive them now.

Here's an embarassing fact.

Until recently the only way I had ever heard Ofra Haza's hits "Galbi" and "Im Nin'Alu" were in their remixed versions from the album Shaday.

Of course I'd heard her voice in it's myriad of samples and background vocals for other people, but I don't think I'd ever heard her folk versions of these two songs, until I found the LP, Fifty Gates Of Wisdom in a bin at my favorite local used vinyl shop.

I'm gonna be honest here, and admit that "World Music" is my second least favorite genre next to "Modern Jazz". Genres that are used as methods of aural massage for lazy white folks.

But there is something enticing about these songs by Ms. Haza. They're distinctly middle-eastern in tonality, but mystically jewish in lyric and nature. I was surprised by the strict rules that these songs follow. For instance, each song is seperated into three parts. An opening, nashid, often of free rhythm, a center section, shira, of rhythmic singing, and an end section, hallel, primarily of rhythmic riffs meant for dancing to which trails off.

Since the Yemenite Jews live surrounded by orthodox Muslims who banned singing and musical instruments meant for praising anyone but allah (imagine that!), they resorted to banging on cans and bottles for rhythm.

The remixes I came to know as a teenager, by Mark Kamins and Pascal Gabriel from the double a-side 12" Im Nin'Alu/Galbi.

And speaking of Giving Me A Break: the use by cut and paste masters Coldcut of "Im Nin'Alu" on Eric B. and Rakim's remix single of "Paid In Full (Seven Minutes Of Madness)" was seen as a milestone in creative sample usage in Hip-Hop.

The remix of "Galbi", in particular, was a huge bomb from my teen years. It appeared on volume two of the Sire compilation series Just Say Yes! from 1988 called Just Say Yo!

I spent many days roaming the streets of Spokane, WA rocking that CD in my '67 Plymouth Barracuda....

Samples can be heard here.

This song has been swirling around my head for the last few days.

First off: Wow. A music video from 1968. Crazy.

Check out that production too, when he goes into the chorus line, how it sounds like he's on the phone. Who thought to do that? And Why?

Anyways, I digress. This song was never really a hit in the U.S., but was a moderate seller in the U.K. Not really a top hit however, which makes the popularity of the song with so many other artists that much more incredible!

Irishman David McWilliams based the song around a homeless friend of his, and the original lyrics end a bit dour. We can only imagine so did his friend. McWilliams was as close to Glen Campbell as an Irish singer/songwriter could be. His country inflected songs were popular among a small set, and wildly popular in continental Europe, which helps make more sense of the first cover of the track.

I just woke up and realized that it's 2009 and I forgot to put this up. Please enjoy.

Davila 666: Davila 666
These dudes sound a lot like the Black Lips—a good thing in my book—only they're from Puerto Rico. The songs are catchy as Hell, and all the singing is in Spanish. Fun! Hear some of the stuff here.

A.H. Kraken: A.H. Kraken
These guys are from Metz, France. Their self-titled debut is equal parts Arab on Radar and PIL. I also hear aspects of A Frames in there. Just think an approximate amalgamation of those bands, but with a lot more distortion and weirdness. I missed their show at Funhouse a bit back, but I'll try not to next time, as the album has been on my heavy rotation list lately. It's particularly good to crank on the stereo over hear in the Web office when no one else is around.

The Helio Sequence: Keep Your Eyes Ahead
I know everyone's shitting their pants about the Fleet Foxes, but a similar Sup Pop release from last January blew me away, and I still listen to it often, even 11 months later. The title track is downright stellar. Hear it and some other songs here, but check out the whole album.

Blood on the Wall: Liferz
Also released in the first month of 2008, Liferz doesn't stray too far from previous BOTW work, and that's a good thing.

Beach House: Devotion
I came across this because my predecessor left it on the shelving that I now use to hold my crap. Score! The songwriting here is excellent, and the melodies are subdued and haunting. Good for when you're hungover and/or depressed and/or stoned. I've been told the previous album is also nice, but have yet to hear it.

The Dutchess and the Duke: She's the Dutchess and He's the Duke
My review is here.

Vivian Girls: Vivian Girls
I would write about this if everyone else hadn't wrote a million words about it already. It is good.

That's about it. I didn't hear nearly as much as I wanted to this year, largely due to the fact that I'm constantly broke, which is largely due to an inability to ever save money. Also, you may realize that this list is rather In the Red-Records heavy. I am fine with that.

Just back from a few festive days in the dial-up internet backwaters of Oregon, with some new regrets to add to the already considerable piles:

1. If you read the print edition of my column, you no doubt were surprised to see Girl Talk's 2008 album referred to as Girl Talk—in fact, the album is Feed the Animals. We regret the error.

2. In that same column, I parenthetically questioned if the Dead Science counted as local anymore, as I at the time seemed to recall something about them moving to Berlin for a while, but maybe that was only Implied Violence proper and not the Dead Science? We regret the error (?).

3. There was something else I regretted in this issue which I can't quite recall right now...I know it wasn't do to with talking shit about Ghostland Observatory—I mean every bilious word of that, especially, "The sooner this band are shuffled off into the dollar bin of history, the better."

4. Maybe it was not listing Lee Ciszek's (sp?) name along with Same Sex Dictator's band name for their entry in this year's list of regrets? .No, that doesn't seem like the sort of thing I'd really regret. Les Savy Fav was misspelled in this issue? I don't think that was me... Ah well, it'll come to me.