After watching The Rock-afire Explosion jam out to Usher (see Love in This Club), I thought they needed some indie love too. Should I bid on the song with the biggest play count on my iTunes? A classic indie song? One of my favorites from a fallen icon? Or instead of digging deep, should I think in the moment like I did as a kid and say you know, it would be bad ass to see a bear with Tom Gabel’s voice and a pom pom wielding Mitzi Mozzerela as Tegan Quin.
My fondest memories amidst jamming out to The Rock-afire Explosion include the time a friend found a Little Person’s wallet at the bottom of the plastic ball pit, and long car rides with a group of sugar-induced kids singing their hearts out to random eighties hits, NKOTB and A Nightmare on Elm Street theme song (nine, ten, FREDDY’S BACK AGAIN!) Although I am much older now, I still have bad days where I exclaim to friends that “only skee ball can make me happy”, and it never fails.
“Borne on the FM Waves of the Heart” is a collaboration by two artists from amazing bands (go buy their albums if you haven’t already), and has been playing in my headphones since its release. If you have yet to hear this song, enjoy a version that will take you back to a day of working hard for tickets instead of pay checks, eating bad cheese pizza like it was the Last Supper, and watching life-sized kinda-creepy stuffed animals sing and dance for your viewing pleasure.
I won this bid in a landslide, and it was worth every token…
Against Me! (featuring Tegan Quin) - Borne On The FM Waves of the Heart
from New Wave, 2007
Performed by The Rock-afire Explosion. Choreography by Aaron Fechter.
Want to place a bid to see your favorite song performed by The Rock-afire Explosion? Visit Fan Programs now.
Biography from Wikipedia: Pinback is an indie rock band from San Diego, California, currently signed to Touch and Go Records. The band was formed in 1998 by singers, songwriters and multi-instrumentalists Armistead Burwell Smith IV (also known as Zach Smith) and Rob Crow. The band’s moniker is a reference to a character in the film Dark Star and audio samples from this film are used frequently in the band’s early works.
I spent a life time knocking ’round the same old patch of concrete. I waste all my time breaking rocks and painting smiles on my feet.
Pinback - Avignon
from Nautical Antiques (yet released as a B-side many moons ago). 2006
A Handful of Favorite Pinback Words and Songs from Past Albums:
If the line snaps, there’s no air, will you hold me? If I’m asleep, will you wake me? If this rises, we hit the waves, will you dive back down? Someday I will sail again, to a distant shore far away. Pinback - Boo
And the ripped ones say goodbye, while the others meet. Attached somewhere, at least they’re shared. And the ripped ones never collide, while the others… Pinback - Loro
It’s good to see you. Strange when your mind burns. It’s good to see you go. Strange when your mind burns. Oh no, I hit rock bottom. Pinback - Good to Sea
Oh Penelope, are you filled with air? Swallowed oxygen, made you float up. Is it dropsy? Will your lungs swell? It’s depressing me, to see you struggle. Pinback - Penelope
Late at the station, feeling all wound up. Got to walk several blocks past you. Try to read a t-shirt, thinks that I’m a pervert. Sorry, wasn’t getting fresh, but…everything I say to you will probably come out wrong anyway. Pinback - Concrete Seconds + Penelope(fast version)
Nothing makes you writhe. Nothing makes you move as far down the wire. A sudden gesture. Bruise your faith into right. Read yourself into history. Re-write your dementia. Revision.
Co-sign my letter. Pinback - From Nothing to Nowhere
What’s the oddest song in your playlist today? Bongwater, an indie band formed in 1985, released four albums and a debut EP before breaking up seven years later over financial issues. The band consists of Ann Manuson, a performance artist, nightclub performer and actress most known for her role in the 1985 film “Desperately Seeking Susan”, and Mark Kramar, a member of an assortment of bands including Butthole Surfers and Ween, also having produced several artists such as Galaxie 500, Low, GWAR, and Daniel Johnston under his now bankrupt Shimmy-Disc label.
Psychedelic Sewing Room is a trippy tune with spoken word that tells a peculiar story of corporate imagery, betrayed business partners, and a tiny female reincarnation of Christ (making for an appropriately titled song…and band name). The first time I listened to this track, it brought to mind the spoken word of Miho Hatari (from Cibo Matto) in Handsome Boy Modeling School’s “Metaphysical”, another far out track that’s worth a listen.
Bongwater - Psychedelic Sewing Room
from Too Much Sleep, 1989
Bongwater - Psychedelic Sewing Room Lyrics (starting at 2:47)
In the psychedelic sewing room.
One side of the room is filled with Disney icons.
Donald Ducks, Mickey t-shirts, Peter Pan figurines…
All with the official Disney tag of approval hanging from them.
The other side of the room sells expensive jewelry.
Watches, pearls, gold chains, rings.
I pick up two miniature leather wallets that open up in several sections.
Embossed in gold on the front are two men’s names,
linked together in corporate matrimony.
They are partners in a very high powered (?) conglomerate and I am told by the salesman that they have been buddies since childhood.
They loved each other like brothers.
The brothers they never had.
Except recently there has been financial trouble within the firm and each are accusing the other of double crossing them.
Bringing ruin upon the business.
So each man has had the other wallet engraved with insults.
Etched into the expensive leather:
To John, a two-timing scum bag.
To Bill, the viper.
On one of the display cases sits a (?).
A low shallow basin tech container designed for Ikebana, the art of Japanese flower arranging.
The (?) is filled with water and inside is a tiny women dressed in a brown Monk’s rob.
She tells us that she is the second incarnation of Christ.
She is furiously scrubbing a pair of natural ceramic feet with a wire brush.
The vigorous brushing turns the feet to brilliant shimmering brass.
As she brushes she begins to disappear, and she and the feet dissolve into thin air.
The water in the (?) slowly turns bloody.
The water soon becomes pink and two roses appear.
Everyone looks at the roses and they begin to cry….
Islands - Creeper Lyrics
Right from the start I was stabbed in the heart.
Didn’t
know I wasn’t breathing.
Didn’t
know I had been bleeding.
Open my door.
Thought I was alone but someone was hiding in the dark room in my home.
Haunted.
You will remember some of it.
But if you solve it,
you will remember all of it.
Creeper in my home.
Crawled in through the window.
I grabbed the kitchen knife.
Couldn’t stick it in. No.
Creeper had his own.
Shinin’ in the moonlight.
My home was very cold.
And something didn’t feel right.
Right from the start I was stabbed in the heart.
Didn’t
know i wasn’t breathing.
Didn’t
know i had been bleeding.
Open my door.
Thought I was alone but someone was hiding in the dark room in my home.
Girl Talk - Let Me See You Tracklist
0:00 Donna Summer - “Bad Girls”
0:00 Cameo - “Word Up!”
0:02 Dem Franchize Boyz - “Lean Wit It, Rock Wit It”
0:15 Gwen Stefani - “The Sweet Escape”
0:30 Bizarre Inc. - “I’m Gonna Get You”
0:30 R. Kelly with T.I. and T-Pain - “I’m a Flirt”
1:13 Daft Punk - “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger”
1:15 Fleetwood Mac - “Gypsy”
1:15 Tone Loc - “Wild Thing”
1:30 Trina - “I Got a Thing for You”
2:15 Rick Ross - “Hustlin’”
2:18 Justin Timberlake - “LoveStoned / I Think She Knows Interlude”
2:22 David Bowie - “Rebel Rebel”
2:44 2 Live Crew - “I Wanna Rock”
2:44 Busy P - “Chop Suey”
2:50 DJ Funk - “Pump That Shit”
2:58 The Jets - “Crush on You”
2:58 M.I.A. - “Boyz”
3:13 The Cranberries - “Dreams”
3:42 Michael Jackson - “P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)”
3:42 Bachman-Turner Overdrive - “Takin’ Care of Business”
3:52 Chicago - “Saturday in the Park
M. Ward - Poison Cup Lyrics
One.
One.
One.
One or two won’t do.
‘Cause I want it all.
And a sip.
A sip.
A sip or a spoonful won’t do.
No, I want it all.
And I hope.
I hope.
Hope you know what I’m thinking of.
I want all of your love.
I need all of your love.
She said if love.
If love.
Is a poison cup.
Then drink it up. Cause a sip.
A sip.
Or a spoonful won’t do.
Won’t do nothing for you.
Except mess you up.
And I hope.
I hope.
Hope you know what this means.
I’m gonna give you everything.
I’m gonna give you everything.
