MPS MIXTAPE PRESERVATION SOCIETY HR 15

This week I just threw together a playlist of songs that are in my MP3 player in my vehicle. I have titled this episode "What's BJ Fornicatti Got In His MP3 Player?" As lazy as this sounds, I actually put some thought into this: dubbed as an Emergency Backup Hour in case I wasn't able to put together a real podcast, I actually took the time to make sure the songs segued properly into each other. I also had to make some changes here and there, as I ended up pillaging songs from the playlist for other hours; indeed, this backup show has been in the can for a few weeks now, and since I'm in the middle of moving house for the first time in 6 years I haven't had any time to devote to normal operating procedures. I had a few interviews fall through, mostly due to my own distracted state of mind, which is no one's fault but mine... so this is what we have today. I hope you dig the selections, speaking of which...

I started out with The Gun Club's "For The Love Of Ivy" from the classic Fire of Love album. A relatively obscure L.A. punk band from the early '80s, this song has been in heavy rotation in my truck stereo for the past two decades. It's been covered by the likes of The White Stripes and is the greatest song to blast while driving late at night through the depths of any city or rural backwoods.

I lay down a brief spoken explanation for the listeners while playing some instrumental music I composed for a friend's film project in the '90s, then I spin some classic Tribe: my all-time favorite cut from the seminal rap group, "Electric Relaxation" off Midnight Marauders. A Tribe Called Quest have plenty of ill joints but this one always makes me smile and makes for great driving music as well as the backdrop for an intimate night with a shorty and a forty.

The Raspberries' "Go All The Way" is next. Recently this song was on the soundtrack of the first Guardians Of The Galaxy movie, so its profile is a bit higher than normal. But most people have no idea who Eric Carmen is these days, and it's too bad. This is some mighty fine pop song craft, with the requisite Beatles nods and mono sound production that harks back to the days of AM radio and the hit pop single supreme.

I am a huge fan of the '60s garage band Love, who were The Doors' favorite group back in the Summer Of Love/Sunset Strip/Whisky-a-Go-Go era of the Los Angeles club scene. The late Arthur Lee and the equally late Bryan MacLean had vastly different styles but merged together to create a distinctive sound that made them rock royalty in those heady days. This song is a minor masterpiece off the criminally underrated Forever Changes album from 1967, covered by such groups as UFO and The Damned... they were much bigger in Europe than in their homeland, which is usually the case for the unsung underground heroes of rock history.

Johnny Thunders left the New York Dolls and put together The Heartbreakers in the  mid-70s. Their album L.A.M.F. (stands for "Like A Motherfucker") was considered lost for decades until an immaculate copy was discovered and released. The rock-and-roll on this album is so potent that I wish I could just play the whole damn thing and let that be the podcast. It is definitely one of my nominees for The Greatest Rock Album Of All Time. It's so savage and mean and edgy, everything rock should be. "I Wanna Be Loved" smashes you in the face and kicks you in the gut.

I dig Black Sheep; they were probably (for a minute) my favorite group in the Native Tongues collective that included Tribe and De La Soul. Any time a DJ puts on "The Choice Is Yours (Revisited)" in a club, the joint pops off. Everyone knows that "engine engine number 9" part and raps it in unison. It's just the epitome of old school hip-hop flavor, a grand example of why that period of rap history is so incomparable. If you ever get a chance to peep A Wolf In Sheep's Clothing, you owe it to yourself to bump that shit in your ride all day long.

My older brother got me into Men At Work during the early '80s, and this single from their Cargo album was the follow-up to their smash debut (the one with "Down Under" on it)... a bit darker than their first album, this song is just mesmerizing; as a chronic night owl and insomniac, this song has a special place in my heart and soul, and it gets lots of airplay when I'm driving through town trying to get home from wherever it was I was trying to be.

This acoustic version of Lou Reed's "Perfect Day" is from a deluxe reissue of the legendary Transformer album produced by David Bowie and which also features "Walk On The Wild Side". I now prefer this version to the original because its simplicity and stark beauty move me to the point of tears. The best tune to play when driving through a quiet Midwestern countryside wondering where it all went right or wrong...

And speaking of quiet Midwestern countrysides, The Thrills' one-hit-wonder "One Horse Town" captures that feeling when circumstances uproot you from your familiar surroundings and drop you smack dab in the middle of nowhere and nothing. That is to say, it's both lovely to listen to musically and something of a cautionary tale lyrically. The album was called So Much For The Big City and may as well be the soundtrack to my time here in Indianapolis. A severely overlooked album and group; give them a listen when you get the chance.

Phish. "Horn". Rift. Not much else to say... either you love them or you loathe them. This is one of my favorite songs of theirs, mostly for the delicate instrumental passage in the middle. One of these days I'll dig out the cover I did of this song, if only for shits and giggles... LOTS of giggles.

The Young Rascals' "How Can I Be Sure?" is a stone-cold ballad with European undercurrents and a soaring lead vocal by New Jersey native Eddie Brigati. What I love about this group is how many hits they had that didn't sound anything like their last hit. Their best collection of songs, Time Piece: The Rascals' Greatest Hits, is all over the place musically and you can't believe these songs all came from the same group. Excellent music from a sorely neglected band.

Of all the MCs in Wu Tang Clan, perhaps only GZA aka The Genius truly has the rock-solid reputation as an MC's MC. He often surrounds himself with capable rappers with amazing verses, and the posse cut "4th Chamber" on the seminal Liquid Swords joint is the Clan at their best. This is the song I play for people who aren't fully aware of how dope the Wu is. I know every word of every verse on this jam. RZA's "camouflage chameleon" verse is some wicked shit, but it's not like Ghostface and Killah Priest are any slouches on this track. And GZA really is a genius-- hi wordplay during his verse closes out this track and leaves you hungry for more. It's one of the most perfect rap songs I've ever heard IMHO.

Brian Eno released some glam-y solo albums after he left Roxy Music... it can even be said that they sound a lot like Roxy Music without Bryan Ferry. (In fact, they were: almost everyone from Roxy makes an appearance except for Ferry) "The True Wheel" is culled from Taking Tiger Mountain and lies in some weird musical Twilight Zone between the genuinely weird and the irresistibly catchy. The song's odd structure and peculiar production serve as punchy counterpoint to Brian's limited vocal range, something he compensates for through some bold experimentation texturally and sonically. I just like blaring this in traffic while everyone else is listening to their Top 40 country pop music.

I had to include The Misfits' "Where Eagles Dare" because it's such a righteous fuck-you to everything and anything within the realms of proper decency. What a chorus! "I AIN'T NO GODDAMN SONOFABITCH! YOU BETTER THINK ABOUT IT BABY!" Good for negotiating through Sunday drivers and maneuvering around road hogs who can't seem to go one mile above the speed limit.

Finally, I get to Silversun Pickups and their one good song, "Lazy Eye". I like the band, don't get me wrong... but this song is The One. I recall hearing it for the first time late at night on a station in L.A. called Indie 103... that station is defunct now but for one summer they were playing everything I liked, and then I heard this song and was totally amazed. I picked up Carnavas just for this cut, and was somewhat disappointed that the rest of the album didn't live up to the promise of "Lazy Eye". I guess that just makes this song greater in my mind, because I can never get enough of it. I always flash back to that night by myself behind the wheel listening to the radio and discovering something beautiful and sexy and rockin'.

I end the hour with my usual mashup tag and a little parody of a Black Eyed Peas song that I did years ago. The animated video that accompanies the song is somewhere on You Tube but I'm not going to link to it-- you'll just have to look it up yourself. I was a minute short and needed to fill up the hour, so there ya go.

I hope you enjoy the artists on this podcast, and I also hope you go out of your way to look some of them up if you like them. My whole point in doing this podcast is to play you something that's been around for years that perhaps you just never heard before and are now intrigued by. If I can get at least one person to go out of their comfort zone and take a chance on something unusual or obscure, then I've done my job.

KEEP PRESERVING THOSE MIXTAPES, Y'ALL!