I first heard Clap Your Hands Say Yeah on the way back from a trip with my friend Jenn up to New Hampshire for potato skins. If the lengths we’re willing to go for good potato skins doesn’t tell you something about our character, I don’t know what will.

So anyway there we were going south on 3, scanning the dial and we heard the end of “Upon This Tidal Wave Of Young Blood”. I instantly liked the music, but we had the bad timing of tuning in right as the singer launched into his “child star, child stars” rant at the end of the song. Which does quite honestly sound like Elephant Boy from the Howard Stern show yelling “chasta” over and over. And over. THIRTY VERDAMT TIMES!!! But something about the music, and the fact that I was hearing their name all over the place, stuck in my head.

So when my friend and new-music-purveyor Bob gave me a copy of their album, I launched right into it to find that damned “chasta” song. It turns out I love this stuff. It sounds like a young David Byrne or Tom Verlaine freaking out over Modern English tracks. I called up Bob and thanked him for the CD, saying I hadn’t heard any NEW new wave for a couple decades and wondering what vault they found these master tapes in. We comiserated a bit over the awkward position “chasta” puts one in; either be moved to chills at the unbridled emotion being breathlessly released to a beat (similar in that way to both Byrne and Verlaine), or be moved to hit the skip button.

I feel no such qualms about “Yellow Teeth”, and have played it over and over for days now. I may not be going out on much of a limb with these best-sellers, nor am I really in danger of seeming ahead of any particular curve. But I just love this song. Pop it on, cuff your jeans, dust off your Ray-Bans and stonewashed denim jacket, immerse yourself in a cloud of Aqua Net and stop the world and melt with me. And Molly Ringwald.

• “The Skin Of My Yellow Country Teeth” - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah (mp3)
  (Right-click/control-click link to download)

This will be quick (I think):

My monthly crush for March is David Gilmour - you know, the portly, balding gentleman who happens to be the “voice and guitarist behind the legendary Pink Floyd” (if you believe the ad copy on his latest disc, On An Island). And I’m sure his new album is great, though I’ve yet to pick it up (read: gotta pay dem bills).

But this has been a crazy month, full of all sorts of things like travel, classwork, spring break, skiing, cycling, meetings, visits with friends, etc. So I’ve tended toward some of the Floyd’s more long-and-winding songs for some breaks of calm. My favorite of these is “Shine On You Crazy Diamond,” a song that, to me, most perfectly balanced the abilities of Gilmour, Roger Waters, Rick Wright and Nick Mason.

So I offer up this new version of “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” from a recent made-for-the-Beeb concert featuring his new touring band:

• Gilmour on guitar and vocals
• Rick Wright on keyboards and vocals
• Jon Carin on keyboards, guitars and vocals
• Guy Pratt on bass and vocals
• Phil Manzanera on guitars and vocals
• Dick Parry on sax
• Steve DiStanislao on drums

Note that some members of this band played with the post-Waters version of Pink Floyd (Carin and Pratt), and another (Manzanera) did a lot of work on the first post-Waters Floyd album, A Momentary Lapse Of Reason.

This take on the old Floyd standard is a bit of a hybrid: a mix of the lush, orchestral bombast that is the hallmark of the Floyd, and a stripped-down, guitar-and-organ blues treatment in other parts. And it works incredibly well.

Enjoy!

• “Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts I-V)” - David Gilmour (mp3)
  (Right-click/control-click link to download)

Welcome to a new feature here at Selective Service, the monthly crush. Wait a second, how can this be a new feature? The whole website’s new, for cryin’ out loud. I hear ya, but this idea is new to us, so, therefore, it’s new to Selective Service, too. Oh, okay - cool. So what’s a monthly crush? On the 15th of each month, the other uncles & I will post an mp3 of the song that’s most rockin’ our iPods, stuck in our heads, haunting our dreams, etc. Sounds like fun, no? So without further ado, on to my pick for March ‘06:

I don’t know why it took me so darn long, but I recently realized that there’s a ton of fantastic music being made north of the border.

I gave Montreal’s Stars‘ Set Yourself on Fire a whirl last year based on good reviews & good online song samples, but somehow, for no good reason I can tink of, I didn’t give it a fair shake with enough repeated listens - I probably only listened to it twice in 2005. One song in particular stuck in my noodle, tho: “One More Night.” It’s a lush pop song with sharp, heartbreaking lyrics and a sturm-und-drang instrumental outro - it easily made the cut for my year-end compilation CD, and while working out that disc’s tracklisting, I probably listened to it a dozen times. I started playing it in the car for my wife when we took long car trips, and she quickly became a big fan, too. Then, again, for no good reason I can think of, about a month ago I began to spin Set Yourself on Fire frequently at work, and I got completely hooked on Stars. I’ve listened to Fire loads, and have really enjoyed their last album, Heart (which I recently snagged), too.

While reading up on Stars, I noticed that many of the band members also play in Toronto’s Broken Social Scene, which is a loose, experimental collective of Canada’s finest lo-fi rockers. I tracked down their well-received self-titled release from last year & really dug it. In fact, I dug it so much that I also downloaded their previous disc, You Forgot It In People. BSS’s stuff is much more experimental & less refined than Stars’ output, but it has similar playful instrumentation & organic feel. Then I realized that Emily Haines, one of the fantastic vocalists in Broken Social Scene, has her own band, Metric, in Toronto. I checked out a few samples online & promptly bought their latest disc, Live It Out - it’s excellent; feels like a poppier, northern Pixies.

So what does this all mean? Am I only 3 steps away from buying Anne Murray’s complete back catalog? Am I going to follow the pied piper to a land of Olympic curling medals and free healthcare? Only time will tell, but for now I can tip my hat to Whitney Houston and confidently say “Hell to the no.” I can, however, try to get you all hooked on some excellent Candian indie rock, so here’s my track of the month for March ‘06:

• “One More Night” - Stars (mp3)
  (Right-click/control-click link to download)

Bonus: Stars’ label Arts & Crafts have made another track from Set Yourself on Fire available as a free dowload - go get it!

• “Ageless Beauty” - Stars (mp3)
  (Right-click/control-click link to download)

Hosers.

Cheers to Reese Witherspoon’s Best Actress win for Walk the Line at this year’s Oscars - great film, great performance; bummer that Joaquin Phoenix didn’t get a trophy - guess he’ll have to cry himself to sleep on his gigantic pile of money next to his Golden Globe.

In any event, my wife and I are both big fans of the movie, and we ran out & bought the DVD when it was released last week. After watching it and all of the bonus documentaries, we chatted about how good a job both Witherspoon & Phoenix did in portraying these people in the film. We both agreed that while Phoenix was good, his voice couldn’t hold a candle to Cash’s, but my wife said that she actually preferred Reese Witherspoon’s voice to June Carter Cash’s. I’m not in her camp on that one - June’s voice is certainly different than most and I can see how it might be an acquired taste, but Reese’s is a little too thin & chirpy for me. I think our difference in opinion could be tied to how we first encountered June’s voice - I was used to hearing her sing with Johnny, but Alexis’ first exposure came after we saw Walk the Line when I played her the original versions of a bunch of songs from the movie - she knew the Witherspoon versions first.

I’m curious: where do others fall in this debate? I’ve assembled a few mp3s for your listening pleasure - one from their early career, one from one of their last public performances, and one from the movie. Enjoy!

• “Jackson” - Johnny Cash with June Carter, from At Folsom Prison (mp3)
  (Right-click/control-click link to download)
• “Jackson” - Johnny Cash with June Carter, Live @ Irving Plaza - 9 July 1996(mp3)
  (Right-click/control-click link to download)
• “Jackson” - Joaquin Phoenix with Reese Witherspoon, from Walk the Line(mp3)
  (Right-click/control-click link to download)

Want to be notified when we update the site? Drop us a line at selectiveservice[at]gmail[dot]com and we’ll send you an email when we post new playlists or other new features. It’s the best way to keep up with the Joneses, er, Uncles.

Cover songs are great escapism. I’ve always been a fan, probably since I spent many a sleepless Sunday night tuned into “The Dr. Demento Show,” where I marvelled at covers and parodies from “Weird Al” Yankovic, Rolf Harris, Spike Jones and Tom Lehrer. So when Uncle Sam proposed this as the opening salvo of “Selective Service,” I knew it would be a fun endeavor.

And from the look of things, it looks like Sam and Matt had fun with it, too.

(If you want to cheat & find out what the song titles are, just highlight the invisible text next to the artist name)

1. George Martin and His Orchestra, “Help!”
   He wrote a lot of the incidental music for The Beatles’ movies, all of which appeared on the United Artists soundtrack albums which are, alas, unavailable on (legal) CDs. But every so often, George Martin recorded stuff under his own name, and this is the product of one of these endeavors. You can hear a lot of Martin’s influences in this song: jazzy breaks, cool lounge underpinnings, and some occasionally brassy sections. Think of this as an old friend after some extreme plastic surgery. “Plastic soul, man - plastic soul.”
2. Brave Combo & Tiny Tim, “Hey Jude”
   Take one part olde-tyme crooner and add five parts polka/latin fusion, and you get this unlikely meeting of the minds. This was one of Tiny Tim’s last projects before his untimely death, and one of Brave Combo’s more “out-there” early works. I love how the latin rhythms add counterpoint to Tim’s dancehall phrasing.
3. The Beatnix, “Stairway To Heaven”
   This band is Australia’s hottest Beatles cover band - on a par with the U.S. Fab Faux or 1964: The Tribute. And they’re willing to add their signature sound to a song whose authors flat-out refuse to perform these days. If you grew up listening to classic rock stations, prepare to be confused.
4. Tiny Tim, “Highway To Hell”
   More Tim - can’t go wrong with Tim. This recording is from one of Tim’s last live shows, and he has a lot of fun with it. A lot of people misunderstand Tiny Tim and his place in modern music history. He’s not just “Tiptoe Thru The Tulips” and a televised marriage to Miss Vicky. In many ways, he prevented the death of Vaudeville ukelele crooning. And he wasn’t alone in his love of the genre: other fans included George Harrison, Paul McCartney and Joe Brown.
5. The Andrew Oldham Orchestra, “Time Is On My Side”
   Andrew Loog Oldham was the first manager and producer of The Rolling Stones, Sam’s favorite band. And, like his buddy George Martin, he did a lot of orchestral work on the side. Oldham’s work never reached the level of exposure that Martin had - after all, the Stones never made dramatic films. But the Verve did manage to give some of Oldham’s work some mass exposure due to the hit “Bittersweet Symphony.” At any rate, here’s to Andy Old Ham!
6. Me First and The Gimme Gimmes, “Leaving On A Jet Plane”
   I love this band! They are the ultimate in genre-bending chaos, making anything - absolutely anything - into a punk anthem. I first heard them via a cover of Simon & Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water” that had me rolling in the aisles. They know no boundaries in terms of cover songs, though this song’s author did not live to hear this loving (and fast) tribute.
7. Nigel Kennedy, “Fire”
   What? A classical musician in this list? Why the #%$& not? After all, Nigel Kennedy is well-known for breaking through the stuffed-suit stigma of a lot of classical performance, showing up in goth or punk garb, with multi-colored hair, and still wowing with his sublime violin skills. So it was only a matter of time before he tackled the music of another person who refused to conform…
8. The Andrew Oldham Orchestra, “Satisfaction”
   Oldham again, this time performing the ultimate hold music for disgruntled users. I should know - I work for a computer support hotline, and I’d love to hear this every so often.
9. Me First and The Gimme Gimmes, “The Longest Time”
   Another repeat “offender” (or charmer, if you like their style). This song is one that almost every college a’cappella group knows by heart (and often beats to death), and the breath of fresh air that the Gimme Gimmes lend is worth every broken string and strained voice.
10. Leonard Teale, “Stairway To Heaven”
    Leonard Teale was a legend in Australian radio and TV. From a bio and interview of the man: “Leonard Teale was a multi-talented performer, well known for his radio rendition of ‘Superman’, his recital of ‘The Man From Snowy River’ and, of course, his role as Det. Sgt. Mackay in ‘Homicide.’ He was the longest serving of all the ‘Homicide’ detectives, appearing on screen from 1965 through to 1973.” So it’s only right to have a true legend close the set.

Download Onkel Rudi’s Playlist!

Here’s my first submission to the whole mixcd project: U.N.K.L.E. Matt’s Cover Story. My recollection is that the genesis of this idea was a quick seemingly innocuous conversation at the comic shop one day, and actually mainly between fellow employee Ryan and Uncle Sam. I had started a conversation with Sam but then had to go talk someone out of buying Witchblade or something, and off in my peripheral vision I saw the two of them hash out the framework for a mixcd with really interesting cover tunes on it: nothing recorded for a tribute album, no Richard Cheese-type parodies or Paul Anka-style kitsch, and no goofy punk covers. I thought it was an interesting idea and left it at that. Not so with our intrepid Avuncular Forepac! He came storming into the shop next week, enthusiastically outlining how we could set up a site with these lists for download, and how his buddy Rudi is onboard, and how the rules have been set up and hey when am I going to get your mix, Matt? Pleasantly taken aback (and similarly pleased that someone else had already done all the legwork), I then grabbed the reigns and started combing my collection of Too Many Albums, looking for interesting and obscure cover tunes. From pretty early on, I decided I wanted them to be album tracks, by artists that sincerely had something personal to say through their interpretation of these well-known songs, not just a B-side bonus track or live recording. I wanted them to be very listenable, well-executed recordings that I could picture standing on their own should someone not recognize the source material. But they had to be different enough to catch one’s attention - I hate remakes that are virtually identical to the original, what’s the point? Anyway, enough blabbing. I’ll just say that I feel I succeeded in finding some stuff that most people have not heard, is fun to listen to, easy to recognize, and yet is not kitschy or tongue-in-cheek (that would have been Devo’s “I Can’t Get No Satisfaction” or Men Without Hats’ “I Am The Walrus”). There’s nothing here I downloaded from a random Napster or WinMX search (though The Flaming Lips’ “If I Only Had A Brain” almost made it on). All are album tracks, with the exception of the Biz Markie track, which I had to take from his first vinyl EP. Anyway, enjoy - it’s all available for download now! Now NOW NOW!!!

(If you want to cheat & find out what the song titles are, just highlight the invisible text next to the artist name)

1. Lick the Tins, “Can’t Help Falling In Love”
   This is the closing credits song for the film “Some Kind Of Wonderful”, and kicks in right after Eric Stoltz tells Mary Stuart Masterson “You look good wearing my future”. The song stuck in my head instantly, so when I found a copy of the soundtrack in a cheapo bin many years later, I snatched it up. It’s also the opening track to the band’s album “Blind Man On A Flying Horse”, long out-of-print. It’s actually become my favorite version of this song, though my bandmate Tom hates it. He’s a big Elvis fan…
2. Toots & the Maytals, “Louie Louie”
   This also entered my life through its appearance in a film, though it ended up being a doorway through which a whole new chapter was written in my musical history. This appears briefly in the Coen Brothers’ first film, “Blood Simple”, in the scene where John Getz goes to meet M. Emmett Walsh in his VW Bug, surrounded by a bunch of teenagers. One of them yells out in perfect time to the beat, “Hey mister, how’d you break your p***y finger?!!” It was a while before I could hear this song without missing that line where it belonged. Anyway, I looked in the credits, went looking for anything else by Toots & The Maytals, and was pleasantly surprised to find the world of Roots Reggae waiting for me. Toots, Clancy Eccles, Desmond Dekker (see below), The Techniques, Derrick Harriot, etc… All because of one little catchy bit in a film. Toots also has a dynamite cover of “Take Me Home Country Road” that I recommend, but this is the one that got it all started.
3. Ray Charles, “Eleanor Rigby”
   I don’t have much personal connection to this, having never heard it before I picked up the Rhino boxed set a few years ago. But I love the re-arrangement of the vocal patterns to fit a rollicking 4/4 time (something P.M. Dawn also accomplishes below), and the background singers chiming in with “People! People!”
4. Ike & Tina Turner, “Whole Lotta Love”
   I first heard this on one of the many Ultimate Beats & Breaks albums my friend Charlie picked during his years of spelunking vinyl crates from New York to Boston. It’s been sampled here and there, and has a great bassline, but ultimately I do not prefer it to the Zeppelin version. But in a way, Page was just channeling old blues riffs into distortion pedals and Marshall amps anyway, so it really goes all the way back to the delta…
5. The Red Elvises, “Rock & Roll Music”
   Yet another discovery through my love of film. The Red Elvises did the music for “Six-String Samurai”, which quickly became one of my favorite soundtracks and is loads better than the actual film. The way that The Clash found the bridge between punk and reggae, and The Police found the bridge between that and new wave, and Shinehead found the bridge between that and hip-hop, and Sublime found the bridge between that and skatepunk, these guys took all that and built a bridge to Fiddler On The Roof. What you might call “Chuck Beria”. (long pause for readers to cringe) Really great stuff, this is from their album “Surfing In Siberia”. If you like this, I suggest the “Six-String Samurai” soundtrack, as well as those for “The Man Without A Past” and “Everything Is Illuminated”.
6. Desmond Dekker, “Yakety Yak (Don’t Talk Back)”
   This track demonstrates one of the most charming aspects of roots reggae; that these Jamaicans were picking up tons of American AM radio from places like Florida and Texas, and would do their own weird interpretations of the pop and country songs of the time. In this version of this oldie but goodie, Dekker really turns on the theatricality, holding true to the mini-musical aspects of most of The Coasters’ songs. What Lieber & Stoller used to refer to as “three-minute operas.”
7. P.M. Dawn, “Norwegian Wood”
   Here’s one that could be seen as complete novelty kitsch were it not so damned good! Again, like the Ray Charles track, this restructures the vocal patterns to fit a steady hip-hop beat (itself sampled from an instrumental remake: Dee Felice covering James Brown’s “There Was A Time”). Cordes’ voice is perfectly suited for the bed of harmonies, though hearing him talk about burning down a girl’s apartment because she wouldn’t sleep with him seems a bit out of character. The other prominent sample is a snippet of Prince’s famous guitar solo in “Let’s Go Crazy”, more famously sampled for Public Enemy’s “Brothers Gonna Work It Out”. Anyways, enough sample tutorial. The fact remains that although P.M. Dawn are remembered as a bit of joke (whether lampooned in “Fear Of A Black Hat” or being beat up onstage by KRS-One), I’ve nevertheless always liked his/their music, and this track has historically been a pleasant surprise for those I play it for.
8. Candi Staton, “Stand By Your Man”
   Aretha Franklin is the undisputed Queen Of Soul. Among the many competing for the title of Princess (Lyn Collins, Mavis Staples, Marva Whitney, Yvonne Elliman, Martha Wash) Candi Staton gets my vote. Her voice slides effortlessly between a conversational whisper and a piercing ring that blows out the microphone and creates a distinctive distortion to her voice. Most have not heard of her - I urge you to hear as much as you can. This is not my favorite track by her, though it is my favorite version of this song. And that includes The Blues Brothers, which is saying a lot.
9. Biz Markie, “They’re Coming to Take Me Away, Ha Haa”
   Ha ha ha ha… I have to admit, I hope people recognize this song. I may be prejudiced since I grew up glued to the radio every Sunday night for the Doctor Demento show. All I know is when Biz released his classic first “Make The Music With Your Mouth” vinyl EP, I was the only hip-hop fan around that knew where this song was from. But leave it to Biz, the clown prince of rap, to establish his niche early. To those who only know Biz as the obviously slow, marble-mouthed “Just A Friend” guy, I only have to play this song and point out that there aren’t many rappers today, let alone in 1986, who could tackle the tricky timing required to rap to this beat. Guy is not an idiot. My favorite bit is where Biz says, “Shan, you know you laughed, I heard you laugh…” and I can’t help but break into a big smile at the image of Hip-Hop God MC Shan sitting on the other side of the glass next to legendary producer Marley Marl, both doubled over in laughter as Biz gets busy.

Download U.N.K.L.E. Matt’s Playlist!

Like I said in the main post, far too many covers of famous songs end up being rote replays of the original. Cuts like The Ataris’ “Boys of Summer” and My Chemical Romance’s “Under Pressure” end up being the professional equivalent of an episode of American Idol - when you hear it, all you can think of is how great a song the original was. A really great cover, though, is a special thing - it makes you remember the original, but it also makes you aware of how creative the fresh take really is, and they end up feeling like completely new songs as a result. Those are the kinds of covers I sought out for this month’s Selection.

After seeing the picks that Matt & Rudi have made, I realize that my playlist is heavy on recent songs and acts, but that’s okay - the songs should still be familiar enough to y’all to make it fun & easy to pick them out. Hope you like ‘em!

(If you want to cheat & find out what the song titles are, just highlight the invisible text next to the artist name)

1. Los Straitjackets, “My Heart Will Go On (Love Theme from Titanic)”
   This was actually this song that inspired not only this Selection topic, but the site as a whole. It surfaced on my iPod one day while walking home after work, and inspiration struck. This is also what I’m talking about when it comes to re-inventing a song. Not only does it have a different pace than the original, but it completely recasts it in a new genre (instrumental surf-rock!). It also manages to improve upon it by removing the cloying vocals, which isn’t hard given the treacly source.
2. The Folksmen, “Start Me Up”
   Who? The Folksmen are a fake band from a fake documentary about folk music (A Mighty Wind), but their chops are for real. Comedians Michael McKean, Christopher Guest, and Harry Shearer wrote & performed the song themselves, and you may know them better as another fake band from a fake documentary about heavy metal music: Spinal Tap. This cover is a little silly, yes, but some of the best ones are.
3. Scissor Sisters, “Comfortably Numb”
   It’s disco and it’s fabulous. It also kills at the Sisters’ live shows.
4. Jimmy Eat World, “Firestarter”
   You might need a couple minutes to recognize this one since the change in genres and sound is so drastic, but it’s worth it. The danger and menace of the original are still intact, but the new dirge-like setting gives the song a more direct emotional impact & a much creepier vibe. Great stuff.
5. Ryan Adams, “Wonderwall”
   This song’s author had stopped playing this in public because it he’d overplayed it so much that it had lost all meaning for him. Then he heard Adams’ significant re-interpretation of it and was impressed. So impressed, in fact, that he added it back into his live show setlists and now plays it frequently in Adams’ style. Now there’s an example of the power of a good cover.
6. Willie Nelson, “Time After Time”
   I guess what’s good for the goose (Johnny Cash, “Hurt”) is good for the gander, but the gander’s certainly peppier. People always look at me funny when this cycles up during a party at my apartment, but they usually dig it. It’s an odd pairing of artist & song, but I think it works.
7. Travis, “Baby One More Time (From VH1 Storytellers)”
   This is my favorite example of reinventing a song through covering it. The original is a slick, cheeky slice of modern pop pap, but by slowing it down, playing it acoustically, and changing a chord here and there, Travis have made it into something mournful, tragic, and beautiful. It also never fails to kill at their live shows.

Download Uncle Sam’s Playlist!

Welcome to Selective Service, a blog that has absolutely nothing to do with the draft or student loan eligibility. So what’s going on here? Let’s have Admiral James Stockdale ask the questions:

Who are we?
I’ve known Onkel Rudi for almost 8 years, and he and I have had a free-flowing exchange of music the entire time. If it weren’t for him, I’d probably not have the affinity for George Harrison’s music that I do, nor would I understand why Keith Moon was probably the greatest rock drummer ever. I’ve only known U.N.K.L.E. Matt for a little over a year (he’s the manager at my friendly neighborhood comic shop), but a few months ago we discovered that we have very similar tastes in music and have been exchanging mix CDs & recommendations ever since.
(more…)

Any no-talent schmoe can sing a famous song exactly like the original artist did and have a hit. Sixpence None The Richer (”There He Goes”) and Uncle Cracker (”Drift Away”) recent purveyors of this kind of cover hackery. Heck, even artists as talented as David Bowie can be guilty of this - his cover of the Stones’ “Let’s Spend the Night Together” on Aladdin Sane is surprisingly & sadly faithful to the original.

It takes a special kind of artist to cover a song and really make it their own, and those are the songs we decided to focus our selections on this month: songs that are familiar, but that have been drastically changed by the artist. Old songs that sound fresh and new thanks to a creative, new interpretation.

To make this month’s Selection a little fun for everyone, we’re only going to post the artists of each song here. The songs are all popular ones, so figuring out the title should be easy & fun. Enjoy!

• Onkel Rudi’s Cover Story
• Uncle Sam’s Cover Story
• U.N.K.L.E. Matt’s Cover Story

Once you’ve downloaded all 3 of the playlists & imported all of the mp3s, try downloading this XML file (PC: right-click to save/Mac: control-click to save) and import it into iTunes - it’s a master playlist for all of the songs from this month’s Selection. For best results, set your iTunes/iPod to ’shuffle’ when you listen!