Five Song Friday: Rejigger Your Bits

This Week: Earworms, Narcotic Nostalgia and Questionable Mustaches

Pete Humes

Mar 25, 2022

Good morning!

You look great today.

It’s time for your weekly break from the news.

Turn off the talking heads and CNN’s “war weathermen.”

Stop doom-scrolling. Mute NPR. Refold that dirty newspaper.

I’m here to change the channel in your head from “WE’RE ALL GOING TO DIE!” to something a little less drastic, like “I ENJOY THE WAY THIS THUMPING BASS LINE FEELS IN MY PANTS.”

Don’t worry, all the terrible things that are happening will still be happening 15 minutes from now.

In fact, they’ll probably get worse. That’s how it goes with terrible things.

In the meantime, let me book you a short musical vacation. Grab some headphones, press play and welcome these happy/funky/silly sounds into your brain.

Close your eyes if you want. Lay back on a recliner or couch. Go ahead and put your feet up on the cushions (I won’t tell anyone).

If you prefer to stand up and dance, that’s also absolutely fine. Moving your body is always a good idea (something about circulation and shuffling your internal organs ).

I’m not here to judge. Go ahead and dance like nobody’s watching.

Get that blood flowing and rejigger your bits.

Just remember to put a sticky note over your computer camera unless you want all that uninhibited nonsense showing up online.

Yours truly,

DJ Crankypete

Five Song Friday 006

“I’m the Boss” - Stanley Brinks, Freschard

If you like thick and twisty spy novels, you’re going to enjoy reading up on the history of Stanley Brinks. His background is a doozy, full of exotic international locations, secret identities and questionable mustaches.

The Paris-born musician is half-Swedish, half-Moroccan and all kinds of mysterious. In the late 90s, he performed in an indie trio as Herman Dune before changing his name to Stanley Brinks to explore his own playful, “anti-folk” song stylings.

According to his bio, Brinks’ passion for Trinidad carnival music earned him a place as the “unquestioned master of European calypso.”

After accepting that dubious title, Brinks went on to defend his crown by recording something like 100 albums. One hundred? That seems like a lot.

Several of those albums feature his French muse, Freschard.

Legend has it that the indie-pop chanteuse baked pies and cakes in a Paris cafe where Jenkins was a regular. He wrote some songs for her. She sang into a microphone and recorded them and now I have one to share with you.

Full disclosure: This fun, folky and funky oddity is a bit of an ear-worm.

I apologize in advance.

But also… you’re welcome.

“Close the Dam” - Shaun Ryder

Here’s a proper head-bobber from the former lead singer of Happy Mondays.

In the late 80s and early 90s, Shaun Ryder was one of the original 24-hour-party-people who helped put Manchester on the pre-millennial musical map. His exploits as a working-class pop poet and drug-addled mayor of “Madchester” are legendary, as was his fall from grace and the dismantling of his band.

But Ryder bounced back with Black Grape and has continued to make music into the 21st century. “Close the Dam” is from his 2021 album, Visits From Future Technology.

If you grew up digging the sound of Happy Mondays, Stone Roses and Inspiral Carpets, this song feels like a nostalgic, groovy throwback.

For best results: Slip into a pair of baggy, flared pants, pull a bucket hat down over your ears and, if you can’t score any ecstasy, treat yourself to a double portion of your favorite multivitamin gummies. I know it’s not the same, but think of all that extra riboflavin! Riboflavin is GOOD for you!

“Farout” - Prof

Jake Anderson could have clocked out in 2012. Nobody would blame the man (known musically as Prof) if he just coasted from there. He already made it to the mountain top.

What else was left to prove after getting named the 19th Best Rapper in Minnesota? Not much.

But mad respect to the midwestern MC for keeping it going. If he quit back then, the world would have missed out on this catchy tune from his 2015 album, Liability.

As far as I can tell, the song is about a young lady that Prof would like to get to know better. He wants to approach her, but the club gets crunk and he has to leave before they can meet.

“Farout” is a classic, romantic tale of unrequited love and a booty that just won’t quit.

I hope it moves you as much as it moved me.

“Bird Girl” - Julia Bhatt

This song is a true story.

It happened on a Tuesday morning in Miami. The sun was shining. It was a beautiful day. Singer-songwriter Julia Bhatt rose to greet the first day of the rest of her new life.

“You wake up one day with feathers and a beak and you think, oh no, it’s finally happened,” she said. “All those days that I stared wistfully out the window wishing that I could fly, all those hours spent pining for a life coasting above the treetops, someone beyond the clouds has finally heard my prayer and turned me into bird.”

Julia was small and covered in feathers. Her tiny bones were hollow and her claw feet could barely work the Keurig machine.

Luckily for us, she retained her human voice.

After contemplating her plight over coffee and a light breakfast, she flew straight to the studio to write and record “Bird Girl.”

The song was supposed to be a dark and sorrowful ballad about a young life forever changed. But she wasn’t feeling the dark vibe.

Julia realized that she loved flying and pooping on things from really high up, so the song came out happy and quirky. It was a celebration of her transformation.

Today, Julia Bhatt is still a bird. If you listen closely, on some spring mornings, you can hear her singing a brand new song in the trees.

It goes like this: “Help me. Help me please. I want to be human again. Help me.”

Frankly, it’s not as catchy and a little unsettling.

“Too Young to Burn” - Sonny & The Sunsets

Sonny calls his music “busted beach pop songs” and “a beautiful West Coast thing… birthed from the surf, the sand and the twilight campfires.”

He invokes the names of Michael Hurley and Jonathan Richman, citing their humor and laidback style as inspirations.

Pitchfork recently wrote that “his best songs, about long-lost loves and fringe-dwelling stragglers, tell classic stories populated with well-worn American archetypes: They’re country at heart, even if gilded with garage-rock harmonies or post-punk synths.”

But with all due respect to the artist AND Pitchfork, they should leave the explaining to me. I am, after all, a professional explainer. I’ve been explaining things for years, long before “Sonny” was born and back when Pitchfork was just a digital gleam in Ryan Schreiber’s eye.

You want to know the real deal when it comes to Sonny & The Sunsets?

Follow the money.

Figure out who has the most to gain from a delightful song like “Too Young to Burn.”

Ask yourself: Who benefits most when this jangly musical gem sticks in your brain long after the song stops playing? Is it the artist? Or the label?

Could it be the guy at work who keeps leaving Sonny & The Sunsets informational brochures in the conference room? Do you even know which department he works in?

Think about it.

That guy is definitely UP TO SOMETHING.