Heavy Rotation 70

Back in action after a very brief hiatus, it’s the presumably world famous Heavy Rotation! Starring Indian Jewelry, K-X-P, Mean Wind, 23 Skidoo, and the Death Set. Extra-special appearance by Ninjasonik.  Contains pretty much a little bit of everything, most of it distorted.

LINKS

How to not write a book and still sell the hell out of it.

A brand new, searchable archive of recently declassified FBI files. Tons of stuff, including organized crime, pop culture figures (including John Denver[?]), religious cults and the unexplained phenomena.

Neil Gaiman on why defending free speech means defending the indefensible:

“Freedom to write, freedom to read, freedom to own material that you believe is worth defending means you’re going to have to stand up for stuff you don’t believe is worth defending, even stuff you find actively distasteful, because laws are big blunt instruments that do not differentiate between what you like and what you don’t, because prosecutors are humans and bear grudges and fight for re-election, because one person’s obscenity is another person’s art.

Because if you don’t stand up for the stuff you don’t like, when they come for the stuff you do like, you’ve already lost.”

Previous versions available:
The Heavy Rotation Archives

Indian Jewelry – Cutthroat.mp3

A growly, grungy slab of Helios Creed-esque rock. Distorted and ill-tempered, Indian Jewelry run through the swampier side of space rock and emerge jaded and unamused. It’s the kind of music that leaves you feeling like you might need a shower. But not yet. There’s still some night left…

K-X-P – Pockets.mp3

Space pop, perhaps. (It gets even poppier when Annie sings it. Which she does, believe it or not. But not in this version.) Plays out like “Where Is My Mind?” relocated to waist-high. K-X-P uses his spacier tendencies to bury everything under a glacier-thick layer of fuzzy distortion while he bemoans the loss of… well, something indefinable. You can sing along to it, too which will makes this a weirdly empathetic track about losing your shit.

Mean Wind – Darius Rucker Is Dead.mp3

This some weird hybrid jangle-pop-nu-folk cynical piss take on an alternate future where news of Darius Rucker’s death brings life to a standstill. (Temporarily.) At some point, everyone gets naked and sings the second verse of “Let Her Cry.” The passing of a pseudo-icon will never be the same again. But alas, it is only a dream and we all have to come to terms with the fact that D.R. is now plying his trade as a country singer, leading me to believe this is what he looks like now:

Mean Wind insists this track is a cover of a Chord Progressions song which appeared to him/her/them(?) in a dream.

23 Skidoo – New Testament.mp3

Unbeknownst to anybody (including the band members), 23 Skidoo was constructing the blueprint for witch house/drag with “New Testament,” taken from their 1982 debut, Seven Songs. Minor chords mingle with electronics on their last legs. Every minute of it conveys a sense of doom. (Well, except for the last minute or so when nothing really happens at all.) 23 Skidoo has always been considered “groundbreaking,” but this posthumous attribution shows just how far ahead of the curve they were: 29 years ago they sounded like today.

The Death Set – Negative Thinking About Tight Pants (Ninjasonik Remix).mp3

If you’ve been here before, you know of my love for The Death Set. This track has already been featured in the Heavy Rotation twice, in two different forms: one original and one remix. Here’s another remix, only this one does a bit more with the production. The Death Set brings in Ninjasonik to rap a little something over the beat pertaining to trendiness. It’s nearly twice as fun as the original and gives you plenty of verbal ammo should you choose to diss someone else’s crew.

-CLT