WRMC 91.1 FM On Rotation

Author: Tristan Hayes

I like to imagine while writing this music column that I work for a bustling metro newspaper circa 1950. Men with names like Frank and Bill are madly shouting at each other about fact-checking the cop beat, their shirt sleeves rolled up on arms gesticulating wildly about ink orders and circulation numbers. I pound manically on my typewriter, sweating out this morning's stale coffee and last night's cheap whiskey as the impending deadline looms. The copy editors leer madly, angrily checking their watches as my lack of diligence keeps them from white picket fences and meatloaf.



Actually, that is not all entirely true. I usually imagine this not while I'm writing but instead of writing. However, in my imagination the editors are looking fiercer than ever and are increasingly taking on more concrete forms, such as threatening e-mails from the arts editor of the Campus. So I figure I'd better write this thing. Unfortunately, I still can't think of anything remotely interesting, so I'm just going to write about the next few songs that come up on Winamp's random play until I've hit 600 words. Here we go:



The Mountain Goats - "Golden Boy"

"There are no pan-Asian supermarkets down in Hell, so you can't buy Golden Boy Peanuts." John Darnielle, the man behind the Mountain Goats, can make lines like these sound more natural to a song than your standard top-40 lyrics. This song kicks off the excellent 2002 compilation "Ghana," which showcases the raw early years of the Goats, when it was just Darnielle, an acoustic guitar and a Panasonic tape recorder.



Autograph - "Turn up the Radio"

I hear this song surprisingly little around dorm room parties, considering that it is just as much cheesy '80s pop-metal as Ratt, Y&T and Dokken. Oh. I see.



Jamiroquai - "Black Capricorn Day"

Fun fact: the name Jamiroquai comes from the combination of "jam" and "Iroquois." I'm not too up on my Native American music, but I think the music is inspired by more of the former and less of the latter. From their 1999 album "Synkronized," "Black Capricorn Day" features the group's '70s club sound at its best. Break out from your Napoleon Dynamite soundtrack; "Canned Heat" is good, but it's not this good.



Mindless Self Indulgence - "Capitol P"

The name of this industrial/hip-hop group is surprisingly accurate, and the song is so obscenely addictive and, well, obscene that it's a good thing it's only two minutes long. Otherwise someone might catch you listening to it.



Connie Francis - "Siboney"

This song, from the soundtrack to Wang Kar Wai's latest feature length film, 2046, is as much a representation of the 1960s pop singer as the Hong Kong director's genius in soundtrack selections. Jazz, Latin, opera, and contemporary classical all make an appearance. This is the right CD if you're looking to broaden your little horizons, as my mom likes to say.



Bob Dylan - "Bob Dylan's 115th Dream"

This song, I believe, is somewhat of a sequel to the more well-known "Bob Dylan's Dream." The venerable songwriter recounts an assuredly drug-fueled dream, featuring references to a Captain Arab, the Pope and the Mayflower.



The Beatles - "I'm Looking Through You"

From the oft-overlooked album "Rubber Soul" (as much as a Beatles album can be overlooked), "I'm Looking Through You" is one of the best songs from the transitional 1965-66 period. There's something about the way Paul shouts the chorus and George riffs at the end that suggests the way the group was about to burst out of their boy band image into something much, much bigger.



REO Speedwagon - "Keep on Lovin' You"

Okay. Now this is just embarrassing.