It's been a long time, I know, but I was swamped with travails (ie, french assignments), and felt unable to lift my head above water. What's more, this whole get-interested-in-my-life blog thing was getting a tad stale, so I was thinking about how to revitalize it.

Enter the New Concept!

Matthew Perpetua's Fluxblog is a fantastic blog, and the biggest reason it's fantastic is that he write about good songs and makes them available. Linked right there on his main page are MP3s so you can know what he's talking about, and get excited too (or not). It's a great way to get exposed to new music, to read about music, or simply to gain insight into how other people listen to music.

Of course, I couldn't ever do that here because it would suck the bandwidth outta tangmonkey like some giant vacuum beast. Luckily enough, I am now the proud owner of shakeitlikeapolaroidpicture.com, and, most recently, elvith prethley.com, so I've got extra webspace and bandwidth to muck around with. Rejoice! Starting today, then, I will try to center my blogposts around available-for-a-limited-time MP3s, either drawing on new-and-wonderful tracks on the stereo, or things from the archive. (Also: I continue to seek ideas for the two aforementioned domains... something must be done with them!)

Ceelo - "I'll Be Around. In honour of the new Missy album, which came out today (and which Andrew the Scot will be reviewing for tangmonkey soon), here's my favourite new Timbaland track -- and no, it's not from the Missy Elliott album. The trumpets aren't "Crazy in Love," but I love the oldschool music-hall feel, the busy-ness of what's going on in the background, Ceelo's dragging-rushing flow. I keep hearing the chorus ("When you want me to come") as 50 Cent ("When you walk in the club"), but that's just fine - so long as that guitar keeps ticking along like a children's TV mystery theme.

Billy Bragg - "Walk Away Renee". If this wasn't basically spoken-word (and thus, non-"catchy"), it would certainly be my Obssession of the Moment. A Billy Bragg b-side (and sought-after rarity), "Walk Away Renee" has just become widely available as part of the excellent new Best Of, Must I Paint You a Picture. Though Johnny Marr's guitar fiddling in the background is a touch woeful, this is Bragg's lyrical genius at its best: direct, honest, unflinchingly cliched in bits, but ultimately, beautifully beautifully beautifully true. The last line - delivered without gravitas or even non-gravitas - is almost as great as Ira Kaplan's closing lyrics in Yo La Tengo's "The Crying of Lot G" (which I'll leave you to discover on your own).

What was most surprising to me, the apparent pop illiterate, was that "Walk Away Renee" is a sequel. Or a cover. Or a tribute, or something. It's hard to nail down the connection. The NYC trio The Left Banke released "Walk Away Renee" in 1967. It climbed the charts, peaking at #5. Although I'd never heard it, the track is frequently cited as one of the best singles of the 60s.

But how does it sound? Well, listen for yourself. What makes the Left Banke-Billy Bragg relationship strange is that the two "versions" are completely different. Not just in style - Bragg with unaccompanied guitar vs the Left Banke's harpsichord-driven baroque pop - but in toto. Though the melody is essentially the same, you'd never really know it, and the lyrics are absolutely different. Michael Brown yearns for Renee like a sort of proto-Robert Smith, making it a pretty (if slightly rote) song about teenage love. Bragg, on the other hand, took Brown's simple 2:42 snapshot, and in lines of spare prose, imagined the relationship that sparked it.

I like music.