Hope you’re enjoying our exclusive season of stuff from Austin’s very own melody-merchants Wild Child, who have presently been crowned our February Artist of the Month. We’ve already interviewed them and revealed their personal playlist … now we ask them to pick their personal highlights from the massive musical vault here at BAMM.tv. Which great artists did they choose? Check out the list below …
1. Birds and Batteries – ‘Trouble Makes Three’
It’s day n-n-n-n-nineteen of our BAMM Advent Calendar Countdown, and even the normally gloomy Mark ‘E’ Everett of the Eels is getting into the festive mood. How else could you explain ‘Everything’s Gonna Be Cool This Christmas’, a great (and little-known) Eels track in which he swishes off his usual melancholy for a life-affirming yuletide message: that Christmas is actually, y’know, kind of fun. There’s also a spot of whistling in this record, and – as any qualified musicologist will tell you – whistling automatically makes a song ten times more awesome.
One of the saddest musical events of the last few years was the announcement that L.A indie-rock troopers Rilo Kiley were to call it a day. The band’s folksy harmonies – coupled with the luscious tones of lead singer Jenny Lewis – caught the attention of the mainstream press for a short while roundabout 2007, yet (despite notable success) they never quite lived up to the world-conquering ‘next big thing’ label. Whether that’s a good or bad thing is entirely up to personal taste, but no-one can deny it’s a shame we won’t be hearing any more tunes as good as ‘Portions For Foxes,‘ ‘The Execution Of All Things’ or ‘Xmas Cake’ – today’s entry in the BAMM.tv Advent Calendar Countdown.
Day Two of our festive countdown, then, and we’re going to showcase one of the best Christmas tunes ever made. Picture the scene: it’s 1981, and this new-fangled thing called ‘rap’ is all over the place. You’re the new-wave post-punk outfit The Waitresses. How do you react? By releasing a yuletide song titled ‘Christmas Wrapping’ of course, in which awesomely cool (and much-missed) frontwoman Patty Donahue narrates the story of a very mundane holiday season – with, naturally, a happy ending to round things off. Enjoy!
In case you hadn’t noticed (or unless you’re one of those hyper-organized freaks who does all their present-buying in July, and can freely cast such worries to the back of your mind) this little thing called ‘Christmas’ is fast approaching. We’ve decided to help you get into the festive mood with our very own BAMM.tv Advent Calendar!
Now, because technology has yet to grant us the opportunity to throw chocolates through your monitor (soon, Apple, soon), we’re giving you the next best thing. That’s right: a classic Christmas tune, every day from now until the 25th of December.
And we’re not going to be really obvious with the whole thing, either: we’re hoping to show you a selection of underrated, unknown, unappreciated but still genuinely great Christmas songs. Think of it as a public service – when you hear Mariah Carey’s ‘All I Want For Christmas’ blasted out of the shopping mall one too many times, this little place will be your safehaven for awesome Christmas music.
But, yeah … we’ll be throwing in a few of the classics too. Just wait and see.
Today, we start with a real curiosity. You may know Harvey Danger from their crossover hit ‘Flagpole Sitta’ (which reached a new audience as the theme tune to hit sitcom ‘Peep Show’). Sadly now defunct, the band released a Christmas song in the late-nineties: ‘Sometimes You Have To Work On Christmas’, a gloriously twisted tribute to anyone who’s ever had to pull an Xmas shift in a job they hate. It should be far more well-known, and hopefully that’s a journey which starts right here.
Let the Christmas Countdown begin:
We asked our Artist Of The Month The Flashbulb to pick his favorite moments from the sprawling BAMM.tv music archive …
“I think I’ve actually gone through every BAMM video for this process. It made for a splendid Sunday morning. I kind of feel like an A&R guy, but my coffee isn’t expensive enough.
“After watching Who Cares – Show Me Some Change (below), I was reminded of how deceiving looks can be. I expected the sound of “Mouse Rat”, for those of you familiar with Parks And Recreation. The actual sound was an unexpected blend of 70′s Harlem, some open mic’d drums, and a filthy loop that sounds like the groan a baby didgeridoo would make while bashing out police car windows. The point is, this is unique, and it is great. The other point is, I need to grow my hair out and stop wearing tracksuits before I make another video.
Meet electronic mastermind Benn Jordan. He’s a man of many different names, collecting pseudonyms the way a hyperactive 90s kid collected Pokemon. You may also have heard him referred to as (deeeeeep breath now) Acidwolf, CHR15TPUNCH3R, DJ ASCII, Dr. Lefty, Dysrythmia, FlexE, Human Action Network, Lucid32, rapemachine, rnd16, 66x or Q-Bit.
For the purposes of our Artist Of The Month celebration, however, we fixing our beady eye on Benn’s most well-known alterego: The Flashbulb.
Benn is particularly direct when it comes to the origins of Flashbulb. “In the mid-70′s,” he recounts, “Lee Jordan and Denise Richardson met while vacationing in Virginia. Many sexual instances later Denise noticed she was more nauseated than usual. 9 months later the band was formed, but did not record music for another 14 years.” In other words: it’s just him. Flashbulb is a one-man operation, and Benn is the brains and talent behind it.
Hope you’re enjoying the hooks-and-handclaps ultra-melodic indie-rock from our Artist Of The Month Hollerado (we’ve already unleashed an in-depth article on the band, plus discovered their favorite musical moments from the BAMM.tv archives). Now we’re widening that search to the big old world of music in general, and finding out exactly what Hollerado are listening to right now …
Pup – ‘Reservoir’
Charity begins at home, the old phrase goes – and if the history of Canadian melody-merchants Hollerado is anything to go by, it seems that musical genius begins in that area too. Born and raised in Manotick, Ontario (infact, three of the band members grew up on the same street together), the four Hollerado boys – Menno Versteeg, Nixon Boyd, Dean Baxter and Jake Boyd – officially came together in April 2007. Relocating to Montreal, they’ve since been gathering a well-deserved reputation as everyone’s favorite Bright Young Things.