Belly - Now They’ll Sleep

(from King, 1995)

I’d always counted Belly’s debut album Star (1991) as one of my favorite albums of all time.  And then… and then, I heard King, which is an apt title because it goes above and beyond what I thought the band was capable of.  Where Star’s sound is sort of rough and eclectic, King is a dark and cohesive listen, like spiraling deep into lead singer Tanya Donelly’s mind.

Oh, dirtysexy 90’s alt rock.  Sassy girlsingers only add to your appeal.

Lady of Rage - Afro Puffs

She is the roughest, roughest, roughest and the toughest, toughest, toughest thing to listen to while I bake cupcakes.

Bake on, with ya bad self.

David Bowie - I Dig Everything

This is Bowie in 1966… before Berlin, before Iggy, and even before Ziggy. 
If it’s sincere, this song is about feeling so cool, you just don’t give a fuck.  If it’s satirical, this is about loving everything, even if all signs indicate that you are kind of lame.  Maybe it’s about going through life in a drugfilledlovehaze.

Any way I slice it, I can still relate.

When Tristan and I talked about Bowie-ing up FSM, I said, “Too bad I already shared ‘I Dig Everything,’ I fucking love that song.”

Turns out, I hadn’t yet.  But I can see why I thought that.
Because, really, I fucking love this song.

Future Bible Heroes - Losing Your Affection

FBH is another project of the prolific Stephin Merritt and Claudia Gonson.  Rather than helming the ukelele (as he does with many of his projects), Merritt enlists musician Chris Ewen to provide the band’s dancey, electronic sound.

While Merritt’s music is already pretty diverse, I appreciate that FBH sounds different from anything he did with The Magnetic Fields, or The 6ths.  This is still very much Merritt at his witty best, though, with lyrics that read more like poems than pop songs.

Let’s face it… there are few people that can get away with lyrics like:

I would rather rub the hair of a bear in a lair / In the opposite direction.

I would rather put the make on a rattlesnake / Than be losing your affection.

The Dead Milkmen - Takin’ Retards To The Zoo
(Day two of TDM Thanksgiving Special)

Anyone who has ever been involved in a musical outfit that plays shows knows that three to four songs in you should slow or tone it down a notch for a tune (so the impact is felt once you break back into the Rush covers). I figured since there are only four days of the FSM TDM Thanksgiving Extravaganza that rule would apply for the second post.

I made a slight alteration to the “slow it down” rule in that I didn’t pick something slower or more mellow and it’s about retards. Have a gas celebrating Manifest Destiny.

The Dead Milkmen - Stuart
(Day one of TDM Thanksgiving Special)

Welcome to Part 2 of today’s TDM extravaganza!  Next up is one of my all time favourites - “Stuart”, from 1988’s “Beelzebubba”.  The song is inspired by a show the band played in an actual trailer park on the 4th of July, 1985 in West Lafayette, Indiana:

Stuart had invited us to play the trailer park picnic for the 4th of July. We appreciated his effort, but his knowledge of public address systems was limited - so we had to make due with something that looked like it belonged on top of a pole next to the football field. I remember going into town to watch the fireworks on top of a parking garage. There was an elevator that took up up maybe 3 or 4 floors and out onto the roof of the garage. There was a family on the elevator with us and I swear we heard the young boy with them exclaim it was the highest building he’d been up in.

Everybody knows
the burrow owl lives.
In a hole.
In the ground.
Why the hell do you think they call it a burrow owl, anyway?”
Now Stuart, do you think a kid like that is going to know what the queers are doing to the soil?

The Sugarcubes - Birthday

Maybe it’s because I have a thing for Björk. But I think I have a bigger thing for Cedric Bixler-Zivala.

The Dead Milkmen - Big Time Operator
(Day one of TDM Thanksgiving Special)

Being about as American as we possibly can be for a Canadian soldier and someone going to school to learn a foreign language in order to get work out of this country, Ralph and I have decided to bring the Thanksgiving spirit to all our friends and dedicated readers of Friends Sharing Music.

We considered a more traditional approach, initially, but pox-blankets presented too many logistical complications in regards to our contact with you, dear reader, being limited to the internet. Thus we settled for four days (mostly because I’m actually not sure what day Thanksgiving lands on) of music from a band we are both very thankful for…The Dead Milkmen.

It was actually rather difficult to narrow down my choices for this post, but something about Big Time Operator just makes it perfect for the inaugural post to something that I feel will soon be a common household Thanksgiving tradition.

Look out Stevie Ray Vaughan
Look out Charlie Sexton
Look out you cheesy Texas motherfuckers!

Poi Dog Pondering - Pulling Touch

Are you the cup that I hold by the cheekbones?
I pull you close and I drink you up.