R.I.P. Poly Styrene

Punk pioneer and icon Poly Styrene, lead singer of X-Ray Spex, has died of cancer. She was 53.

Of the very few punk bands I actually tried to listen to over the years, X-Ray Spex was easily my favorite. Where other bands screamed “messages” over 3 chords, the Spex blended pop and punk with actual lyrical content. The band featured a sax player, which gave the songs a different kind of appeal than other run-of-the-mill bands of her era. But most importantly, it was Poly Styrene’s presence, look and sound that put her band head and shoulders above most every other punk band that emerged from the late 70’s, and her influence on the direction of X-Ray Spex allowed them to remain relevant all of these years later. She will be missed.

An excellent article about her life and recent passing can be found HERE.

Scrambled Crates #6!!!

Check this out. Last month, I received a sample from the lovely @Jillzworth via e-mail. The only rule was to make a 2 minute beat using the sample provided… a rule I, of course, misunderstood (which will become apparent as you listen to the other entries). I ended up creating an entire beat out of sounds derived from the sample ONLY, while the rest of the producers involved incorporated other sounds into their beats. Sooooooo, my beat definitely scores points for degree of difficulty, but I really could have expanded the sound a lot had I understood what I could and could not do. There’s always Scrambled Crates #7 (coming soon)!

Anyway, here is the original sample provided:

sample by Them_Fighting_Words

And here is the result of my efforts:

Dusty Fingertips by Them_Fighting_Words

I like my beat more and more considering the unnecessary restrictions I placed on myself. It kind of sounds like a hippie made a beat… which is, I’m sure, a total surprise!

You can check out the other 19 producers take on this task right HERE. There is some pretty amazing stuff!

OLD VIDEO – They Might Be Giants – “Birdhouse In Your Soul”

This is, and always will be, my favorite song by They Might Be Giants. It always reminds me of a dear friend who I haven’t been able to see in many, many years. This song is one of the few tunes that I can say always warms my heart, and not feel like a total sap for saying it.

This might be the most magnificent live version of “Birdhouse” that I have ever seen. TMBG and the Johnny Carson-era Tonight Show band. The only unfortunate portion of the video is that it is not introduced by Carson himself… I’m not sure why that is. So, you get to see a young Jay Leno introduce them, after he complains about having to buy their album when he could have gotten a copy for free.

What a douche.

Anyway, enjoy!