Party Mix

The other night we had a small party at Lucid Culture headquarters (LCHQ). This is what we played: just for fun, and to eliminate any doubt that we practice what we preach. In order:

 

Tony Bennett – MTV Unplugged

It’s somewhat embarrassing to mention the three letters M, T and V consecutively in anything other than absolute derision, but this was the album that all the kids got into when it came out in 1994 during the first invasion of camp, right after Sonic Youth decided to tell the world what a pantheonic genius Karen Carpenter was. But it’s not camp. 68 years old when he made this album, not everything on it is great – there’s some schlock – but he sings like someone forty years younger and he has an excellent jazz trio behind him. This was to get the party rolling, gently.

 

Dave Brubeck Quartet – The Last Time We Saw Paris

Vinyl album from 1967, tragically out of print. Got this at Tunes in Hoboken for three bucks, if memory serves right. One partygoer’s theory was that this was a couple’s favorite album. When she broke up with him, he unloaded it at the record store (perhaps thinking it was worth something, which it certainly was!). Clueless, the clerk put it in the cheapo bins and the rest is history. It’s the last live album the quartet recorded and Paris brought out the absolute best in all of them.

Les Chauds Lapins – Parlez-Moi d’Amour

These Brooklyn oldtimey types have singlehandedly revived the wittily literate, innuendo-laden, lushly romantic work of French songwriters from the 1930s and 40s, notably Charles Trenet. This lusciously produced vinyl album (also available on cd) came out last year and was one of our top picks. It’s Kurt Hoffmann (ex-Ordinaires) plus Meg Reichardt from the Roulette Sisters along with some terrific string players.

 

El Radio Fantastique – Stories for Little Atoms

Some of the crew here discovered this marvelous New Orleans noir cabaret band when they played their New York debut at the now-defunct Blu Lounge in Brooklyn a few years ago. An eerie circus atmosphere prevails, lots of horns and keyboards. Recorded before Katrina, they already had some great stories to tell.

 

Poi Dog Pondering – Wishing Like a Mountain and Thinking Like the Sea

The Pete’s Candy Store band ten years before there was a Pete’s Candy Store. These Austin hippies’ jaunty, upbeat oldtimey stuff and reputedly excellent live shows earned them a cult following in the 80s and early 90s. Too bad the production on this album is so stereotypically 80s and sterile. They’re still around, playing a cd release show at the Vic in Chicago this March.

 

Microscopic Septet – Surrealistic Swing

We spun the first of the two brilliant and frequently hilarious cds in this reissue, which is their 1986 album Off Beat Glory plus bonus tracks from their first album. To some extent, they’re the Spinal Tap of jazz, but so much more. A killer party album, as the other night reaffirmed

 

Peter Gabriel – Up

The great solo album it took him thirty years to come up with, all epic grandeur, string sections, ominous percussion from what seems a thousand years ago and a death-obsessed, apocalyptic feel. Not exactly what most people would call party music, but it didn’t clear the room, maybe because it’s so gripping.

 

Hazmat Modine – First Album

This isn’t their acclaimed 2006 album Bahamut: it’s a collection of live outtakes, covers and early mixes that the band sells at live shows. Two harmonicas, a tuba, eerie electric guitar, trumpet, drums and one of the most ecstatic grooves ever known to man. Minor keys have never sounded so celebratory.

 

After this, the picture gets fuzzy. Botanica vs. the Truth Fish by Botanica was in the pile of cds but it’s not clear if it ever made it to the cd player – a lot of the crowd had cleared out at this point (it was a cold night and the trains were all messed up, as usual). An old Little Milton album from the 60s may have also have been in the mix. At one point somebody wanted to hear This Is the Day by The The, but nobody had an ipod adapter for the stereo and the album was nowhere in sight, so somebody pulled out Soul Mining but that lasted about a minute and a half before it got pulled. Which may have or may not have been a couple of hours before Botanica or Little Milton. At this point, who knows. Now it’s your turn.