ON REPEAT: Big Black, DOOPEES, Lambrini Girls, feeble little horse, System Exclusive, The Covids, Cindy Lee, Erika De Casier

RIP Steve Albini

Hello. Before I get into the songs that I think are kinda neat, I want to tell you about my friend John Gentle.

There is a new episode of The John Gentle Show with Cole Escola, who is having “a moment,” as they say. I cannot recommend Our Home Out West enough, and I hope I get a chance to see their Mary Todd Lincoln show—on Broadway, no less! Cole reprises the role of Joyce Conner, who was briefly married to John and now is wanted for treason. Catch it on The Best Show Patreon.

John also just appeared on Hollywood Handbook, where he coughed saltine dust all over the studio. It was very fun to do.

Lastly, here is a story I liked about a guy who got arrested for walking his dog by the NYPD because they thought he was a pro-Palestine protestor and the police were like “oops” and he was like “help me find my dog” and guess who helped him find his dog—it was not the police, it was the scary anti-genocide college students. Free Palestine of course.

Ok now the songs that I think are neat. Here is a playlist of them.

System Exclusive “2 Little 2 Late”

No this is not a Jojo cover, though I’d like to see that. It’s Pasadena’s System Exclusive, who I’ve been a fan of for a while—and who just played The Best Show! I was in studio and we didn’t have a monitor for the synths so this song just sounded like early Gang of Four which was interesting, but the synths add a lot. Watch this whole performance here:

Erika de Casier “Right This Way”

I’ve written before about Erika De Casier and my favorite thing she does, which is like semi-unironically doing these super cheesy flourishes in her music that you’d hear in 90’s R&B. Like the narrating throughout. When I saw her live, the best thing was seeing her just a little embarrassed to do those live, knowing she kinda put them in as a joke. As someone who does the dumbest shit imaginable onstage with a straight face, I find it endearing to see a rapidly rising pop star do it. She sounds like the 90’s in the way that I like but not in the way that I don’t like.

The Covids “Light A Match (Farmboy)”

This song from these Amsterdam punks are great and I sincerely admire how they were the first to get to “The Covids” as a punk band name. Please send me more stuff like this.

Lambrini Girls “God’s Country”

Sometimes it’s nice to hear some old-fashioned political punk rock ripping on the UK. Some of the best people and art and music—constantly held back by some of the oldest, dullest assholes and clearly defined classes and a fucking queen who wears a crown and jewels. Really watch that video and look at all the facts that pop up.

Look, America is worse. But at least America has the excuse that it’s soooo big that of course its population would be all over the place. Also every other vote from a city gets canceled out by a vote from a cactus. but England is small and half of it is empty fields and abandoned cottages.

I’d still like to live there one day but I’ll be pissed off about it the whole time, which is one English tradition I can get behind. Fuck them. Free Palestine.

Cindy Lee “Heavy Metal”

Yes I’ve heard it, yes it’s my kinda shit and yes it’s great.

feeble little horse “Freak”

feeble little horse is a cool band that’s from Pittsburgh, I think they’re 15 or something and they’re blowing up these days. They sound like the 90’s in the way that I like but not in the way that I don’t like.

THE GOLD STANDARD:

DOOPEES “Doopee Time”

One of my favorite songs ever. I heard it once on WFMU in high school and still listen to it like, once a month. Great walking song. Great I Dream of Jeannie and I Love Lucy samples.

The whole Doopees band is technically fictional. If you’re a Japanese music nerd like me, you probably have heard of the prolific Yann Tomita. He is maybe best known in the US for his beautiful “Clair de Lune” and his collaborations with Water Melon Group. He played steel drums, which he called “the closest sound to outer space,” along with his hero Van Dyke Parks. He’d later work with The Boredoms, Cornelius and even Grandmaster Flash.

Doopees was inspired by Tomita’s love of “space age pop,” which fit into the weird exotica and lounge revival of the 90’s, which is the sound of the 90’s in the way that I like but not in the way that I don’t like.

Doopees were Suzi Kim and Yumiko Ohno of Buffalo Daughter (a band I’ve discussed here before). Ohno portrayed “Caroline Novac” (a very solid fake name, inspired by the Beach Boys song “Caroline No” which also closes out the album), and is so “sad” during the recording process and cries while playing Chopin. It’s weird, whatever. The album is all over the place with tributes to Sun Ra, Petula Clark, and Phil Spector.

It’s something that almost plays like a joke, but just like the Erika De Casier stuff mentioned above—there’s a sincere love of the source material there that can be enjoyed straight.

After an EP was released, there was supposed to be a follow up to this record in 2006, Monalisa, but it never materialized. However, there was a remix EP and lucky fans that attended a Doopees 20th anniversary show received a special 7” vinyl, full of liner notes and a tracklisting—that was intentionally just silence.

I also used this song for a music video for my old wrestling podcast Wrestling Club, in tribute to wrestler Kaori Yoneyama. In Stardom, she portrayed this character Death Yama-san, who was this death metal loving…imp? Just screamed “DEAAAATH” all the time and kept her fingers in devil horns throughout the match. Would occasionally hang upside down like a bat. Spits. Loved it.

Then she became like a happy clown? I’m sure there was more to it but she basically became a baby clown who still screamed “death” but happily instead of angrily. Her name was Gokigen Death, which kinda means “in a good mood” and she was!

But then she got kidnapped by the heel gang Odeo Tai, and became Fukigen Death (“bad mood”) and was frustrated for a while. She’d often cry (just like Suzi Kim), but then started to become bad herself, pantomiming smoking and breaking the rules. Here is my tribute to the many faces of Death:

THE GOLD STANDARD:

Big Black “Kerosene”

RIP to the realest one, Steve Albini. He was only 61, which is way too young—but he’s proof positive you can let artists do their thing without meddling and have punk ethos til the very end.