Today, I am going to select a brief excerpt from We're Only In It For The Money, by Frank Zappa And The Mothers Of Invention, entitled Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance. For any of you who have never listened to this album, it is quite possibly the greatest satire of 60's culture on record (the parody of the Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band sleeve is just for starters), and it is also extremely diverse, musically, exploring a whole host of genres and styles. Ideally, it should be listened to as one long continuous piece, but this part is a particular favourite.

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Hymnals, hymens, and the deep dicking of deities... here is my song of praise for Sunday! What You Want by My Bloody Valentine. Whilst not the most highly regarded cut on the Loveless album (apparently it has never been performed live in concert, although rumoured to have been performed during a soundcheck) it remains a firm favourite of mine. An ambrosial aural actuality, and what can we say about Bilinda Butcher's celestial backing vocal melodies? I haven't a clue what Kevin Shields is actually singing about, but in the grand scale of things, his voice is merely accompanyment. Anyone who listens to MBV for their lyrics is missing the point entirely...

(For those of you who are curious, most of their songs intimate love and coitus, in some fashion or other...)

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After a great deal of deliberation, today's selection is by none other than a wonderful little collective from Osaka, Japan. Yes folks, we're talking about Shonen Knife, and this is the first track from their Burning Farm album. An earlier version of this song, on their Minna Tanoshiku release, is similar in structure, but is far less accessible to the untrained ear... This version is a safer bet. I love the drumming on this song... A simple backbeat, in the vein of Tommy Ramone. As for the vocals... sheer saccharine brilliance.

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It's Tuesday, so it's time for a noisome asseveration from Napalm Death. Hilariously, this song was the PENULTIMATE song on Side 1 of the cassette and vinyl of From Enslavement To Obliteration... What? With an outro like THAT?! That should be the last song EVER!
Oh, for those of you who fancy a Walt Disney Sing Along style experience, I've provided the lyrics.. Sadly, there's no bouncing testicle or anything to guide you as you sing along with Lee and Mick... You're on your Todd!

Think For A Minute

Thoughts, ideas, hopes, ambitions
Sincere in declaration
Or merely token gestures?

Think for a minute…

The pressures we emphasize
Are pressures we all have to bear
And opinions and feelings we should be able to share

But are we slowly crawling up our own arse?

Has the influence drawn from positive expression
Now lost it’s strength to external tips on fashion?

And if our music serves as a means of communication
Why should so much emphasis stem from competition?

Slow down and think…

Are our hearts still there?
Is enthusiasm burning?
Has integrity surpassed
The stage of reviving?

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I'm currently competing in a race against the clock, so I don't have a great deal of time to get my funk on and say what I would, ideally, like to say about this classic song... Eh... It's by the delectable Marva Whitney, and the song is called This Girl's In Love With You.
Wait... wasn't I supposed to post Everybody Needs Love, by Gladys Knight and The Pips?! I'm cool as a cucumber under pressure, ain't I? Jesus Christ.

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Daddy, I Want A Pony, taken from a demo recording, by Period Pains.

Has anybody here, apart from myself, even heard of them, let alone remember them?! Don't worry, you're not the first nor last person to have never heard of this very short-lived band of naughty schoolgirls.
Their moment of glory was their vitriolic tribute to Baby, Sporty, Posh, Scary, and Fishy Halibut, in Spice Girls (Who Do You Think You Are?)... That was their one and only single, as far as I'm aware...
Who's who in the photograph below? I'm not entirely sure... Er, from left to right... Second drummer Magdalena Przybylski (who probably isn't the drummer on this song... it's more likely to be Laura Viney), bassist Laura Warwick, guitarist Felicity Aldridge, and lead vocalist Chloe Alper. I'm probably way off with the facts there, but the girl on the left most definitely played the drums, and I am 100% positive that Chloe Alper is on the far right. Her Nazi salute was unscrupulously cropped from the photograph...

They must've been about 14-15 years old when they recorded this song...

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A belated song for Friday. I'll deal with Saturday's selection on Thursday.

This one is for you Natasha... I Love You, by the Pipettes. It's just over a minute and a half long, but I think it's a nice song, with a little humour, and it's perfect just as it is, like yourself... I could almost have written the lyrics to this song.
Although I never saw the original Pipettes lineup, I was fortunate enough to have seen what is considered the "classic" lineup, four times. Those shows were great fun. What pop groups these days play 20-odd song sets including b-sides and unreleased songs live?! The Pipettes were wonderful, right up until Rose and Rebecca left, and I was genuinely quite upset when I read that they had both left. I have absolutely no interest in the current direction of the band...
My favourite recollection was at one of their shows at King Tuts Wah Wah Hut, when my friend's girlfriend overheard him commenting that "the brunette was hot". I had to agree with him though, as Rose was my favourite Pipette... Oh, the girlfriend was so pissed off, so much so, that he wasn't allowed to go and see them again! True story!
Their album cover sucked, so I've just posted a more recent picture of Rose instead, seeing as she had the most prominent vocals on the song. It's not because she's pretty or anything...

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=VISDTEY3

Ok, so who will it be tonight? Mental As Anything? Fiction Factory? A Flock Of Seagulls? Kajagoogoo?
No such luck... You wanna hear that, you'd best get your sweet loins down to the 'theque, and outta my topic!

How about we have a little sophistication tonight, in the shape of the main theme from The Conversation, by David Shire? Oh yes, that will do nicely...

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You don't really want a picture of Gene Hackman, do you? Thank goodness for that...

Jerry Lee Lewis, Live At The Star Club, Hamburg. To make up for a weeks worth of silence, here we have Jerry Lee Lewis, his Pumping Piano, and his backing musicians, performing back on the 5th of April 1964... The full kaboodle! This is a truly exhilarating live documentation. One of the greatest, if not THE greatest live album out there. No Sleep 'til Hammersmith? If You Want Blood You've Got It? Live and Dangerous? Live After Death? It's Alive? Frampton Comes Alive!?! No chance... This is immediate, immoral, deep down and dirty Rock 'n' Roll to the nobility...

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