ON REPEAT #2: Sonic Youth, cumgirl8, Leila K, Coast Contra & PPJ

Left right punch kick, getting jumped no shit, oh shit broke ribs, still throwing both fists, don't miss

This week, I am bravely continuing this project, which is really just an excuse to be a bit more intentional about the music I consume and not let my tastes ossify.

Every week, I’ll pick a handful of songs I have on repeat, and you can find the running playlist of these here! I’ll also select one song which is THE GOLD STANDARD (just an old song I already like and am revisiting). Also send me song suggestions, if I like it, I’ll write a dumb thing about it!

THIS WEEK:

• Leila K “Open Sesame”

• Coast Contra “Never Freestyle”

• cumgirl8 “cicciolina”

• PPJ “Forró”

• Sonic Youth “Bull In The Heather”

Leila K “Open Sesame”

(video link)

Putting an 8-minute song on this betrays the Wire fan in me, but this song fell into the rotation thanks to my good friend Darren, who hosts a wonderful show on WFMU.

Leila K is a Moroccan singer and rapper who made waves in both Bergsjön and Ibiza, two cities whose names are very fun to say. In Sweden, she was a Neneh Cherry-style rapper with a group called Rob ‘N’ Raz. Then she went solo in Spain, and pivoted to a ragga Eurodance flavor which is where this song comes in. (Note the video which is weirdly Kate Bush-y.)

A few years later she was nominated for the Swedish Grammis, but lost. To protest(?) she supposedly pissed on the floor of the theater. She later sued the newspaper that reported on it. It’s all here in this documentary called Fuck You, Fuck You Very Much, where the main takeaway is that she seems like she had some problems and a few rough years would follow.

This song was produced by Denniz PoP (also very fun to say), the producer of those early boy band hits of the 90’s, until an untimely death in 1998. His mentee, Max Martin (the world’s most successful songwriter & hitmaker) would take over but Leila K’s biggest cheerleader was gone and her career effectively ended.

The song was covered a few years later by Daisy Dee, and the video is worth a look because Daisy wears what looks like the SoBe logo as a shirt alongside Deep Space Nine-esque CGI. Leila K has a cameo in the video, and she gets exploded.

Coast Contra “Never Freestyle”

(video link)

I honestly don’t keep up with enough current hip-hop. I’m too busy reading about the controversy of the guy who actually wrote “I Got The Power” by SNAP!

Hopefully, this project fixes that gap in my musical intake. I stumbled on this video (stumbled—this thing has 11M views) and I’m so glad I did. It’s just four dudes in a podcast studio spitting fire and each one seems to be better than the last. The 4th dude blasts in like Busta Rhymes in “Scenario” and levels everything up. It’s incredible.

Well, it turns out two of them are Ras & Taj Austin, the twin sons of Teedra Moses who had a great 2000’s R&B jam, “Be Your Girl,” and Rass Kass, who I honestly only know as the other guy on the Mystikal’s version of Triple H’s theme song from WWF Aggression (it’s not very good). The other two guys are Rio Loz & Eric Jamal (the 2nd coming of Busta).

A lot of people know about them! But do those same people know about…

cumgirl8 “cicciolina”

(video link / bandcamp)

Fun story: I first heard of cumgirl8 because I used to do these fake OkCupid profiles that I would put on Tumblr. I would adopt a fake persona and one happened to be Namaste-Yall, a Raymour & Flanigan receptionist and yoga instructor in Tennessee who seemed to be obsessed with Dale Spalding, the lead singer of Canned Heat:

What I’m doing with my life
Currently looking for someone who will *rock my gypsy soul* to quote Van the man!! I’ve made a commitment to personal growth after the incidents; understanding reality as a concept…

The first things people usually notice about me
I have a funky style and unfortunately, a bit of an odor and sometimes I *see* things.

The most private thing I’m willing to admit
I’m a little quirky (but genuine), and my feet absolutely stink! Sometimes I stink up the yoga studio with my smelly feet and also my gas.

I should also mention that I’m still in love with Dale SORRY!! He is with another woman but she is so wretched and wrong for him I know it won’t last…I trust karma and try to be a good person but when I think about that tramp with the man I am MEANT to be with, I get the visions.

I guess I’ll go into more detail about how Dakota died…Two years ago, about when Dale left me, I was suicidal (too much to get into) and reading about Dhenuka, a hindu demon that terrorized Krishna and Bala-rama and ATE people if you know anything about Hindu mythology…Paired with the psychedelic drugs I was abusing then, I was CONVINCED that Dakota had turned into Dhenuka so I shot her in the brain with a gun…then I set her on fire…I was being careless. I practiced Shava sadhana immediately after I regained my consciousness and I regret it every day.

I should probably explain why I was suicidal…The loss of Dale from my life was too much to handle…I would get very jealous when he would go on tour…He actually played guitar with Canned Heat, if you can believe that! When he would leave I would often follow him, because I was convinced he was having affairs. In hindsight I know he was being faithful but one night the jealousy consumed me and I went to their hotel in Pennsylvania and made some very *specific* premeditated threats, mentioning his bandmates’ children and grandchildren by name…and school…the authorities got involved…Dale didn’t press charges but did seek a restraining order which just made my life a prison…I ended up getting arrested after taking too much mescaline, entering the Kansas City Fairgrounds that Dale was performing at with CH, breaking my restraining order and putting a lot of people in danger with a gun.

It would be deceptive to say I used to abuse psychedelic drugs because while writing this I am currently on Tibetan finger hash and magic mushrooms and peyote and some ecstasy that I stole from my niece’s purse at a family reunion and a little crystal meth and cocaine from a party and pills I stole from touring open houses and heroin.

You should know I am a very private person and keep things to myself but I’m working on being more honest but if that above scares you just know it’s the tip of the fucking iceberg.

It’s pretty fucked up, whoops. Didn’t think it would ever actually catch the eye of the actual wife of Dale Spalding…

Brett, you lying crazy funny fool! I caught you ok cupids profile, using my husband, Dale Spalding, front man for Canned heat.. for comic material. I have to say..you have benched me!! Laughing my ass off. https://www.brettdavis.rip/okcupids/okcupid-user-namaste-yall-44-f-eads-tn-my Keep in coming man..I have an awesome photo of him that would have been an excellent joke pic..anyway. Cheers! Namaste bitches!
pS ,my daughter lives in NYC..check out her band @cumgirl8 yeah I know (shakes head) lol

So that is how I first heard of cumgirl8! I had just seen they were playing The Broadway in Bushwick and they lodged a permanent spot in my brain. Thankfully, their music is also great no wave-indebted post-punk. And about that name, this is from the drummer:

“cumgirl8 is clickbait, like a DM from a cam-girl. The name is founded on the only emotions that seem to really affect people.. to be sexy and disruptive. cumgirl8 is clickbait!  First, we draw you in; then we radicalize you.”

Now onto the song. This is also from the band:

“cicciolina is an Italian icon, porn star and former politician elected to parliament in the 90s. as a politician she advocated for human rights and the eradication of nuclear weapons. Cicciolina said ‘make sex not war’ and used her divine power of femininity to troll the status quo while disrupting it from the inside.”

Cicciolina (meaning "little chubby one"), was the stage name of Ilona Staller, a model, musician and radio DJ (her radio show was naturally called “Voulez-vous coucher avec moi?” ), but would be most well-known for being an adult film actor. I am not familiar with her work because I’m saving those types of films for my wedding night.

One look at her kinda informs the whole cumgirl8 aesthetic:

Cicciolina was a disruptor her whole career, fully embracing sexuality as a tool to shake things up and generate real change. She would join Italy’s Green Party and was elected to Italian Parliament in 1987, doing things like publicly offering to have sex with Saddam Hussein (twice) to end both Gulf Wars and calling her fellow Parliament members her “cicciolini” (little tubby boys). She also had a child with Jeff Koons and is a champion chess player!

cumgirl8 just signed to 4AD and one could safely assume the more this band grows, the more they will disrupt the status quo.

PPJ “Forró”

(Bandcamp)

PPJ (formerly Páula, Povoa & Jerge) is a French/Brazilian group that I have been very into lately. This song sounds like a picnic on a beautiful day of Spring. This whole project just feels like nice, beautiful people having a nice time with one another. It’s aspirational!

Sonic Youth “Bull in the Heather”

(Video link)

I’m by no means a Sonic Youth completionist, but this is my favorite song of their catalog. I love every part of it. Kim Gordon’s vocals, the sparse drum solos, the occasional noise, the guitar weaving through everything…and it just keeps building and never hits any sort of a hook…it’s a perfect song. All credit to Butch Vig, the producer and best member of Nirvana. Bonus points for the perfectly edited video, which just has Kathleen Hanna bothering the band. The director, Tamra Davis also directed Billy Madison, Half-Baked and Crossroads. Julian Casablancas was right to rip it off for the “12:51” chorus.

Also, I just learned Bull in the Heather is the name of the winner of the 1993 Kentucky Derby. What a beaut.