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#873: King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard – Mr. Beat

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After furiously headbanging at a continuous tempo for the first four tracks of King Gizzard’s Nonagon Infinity, ‘Mr. Beat’ brings a much needed cool-down to the proceedings. Not that I don’t enjoy those four songs. When I heard the album for the first time, I was sure that I hadn’t heard music that propulsive and driving before. My face was constantly screwed up just from how nasty everything sounded. ‘Gamma Knife’ is fantastic, it’s 6/8 on top of 4/4 drumming – can’t get better. ‘People-Vultures’ is the same. But while those are more the soundtrack for a high-speed drive, ‘Mr. Beat’ is more the song for a casual stroll down the street.

‘Mr. Beat’ relies on the whole play on words in its title. You see, the track is 7/4 time, so in a way the band ‘missed a beat’ when performing the track. Pretty clever. I do really like the song for just how it sounds though. A lot of delicate chords played, the bass is really upfront but playing some really nice melodies that mirror the vocals. Those organ breaks that come in are quite nice too. Funnily, those organ breaks are replaced by Stu Mackenzie playing the flute when they play this one live. But overall, the song has a very light feel to it – like I’m gently ascending into a sunny sky on a cloud. That’s just what I imagine, okay? The lyrics I haven’t put that much thought about because I think the music sounds so great already, though I think it’s just another case where the words are meant to fit around the music rather than having any significant purpose. That doesn’t stop it from being worthy of your time.

I should probably catch up with King Gizzard’s discography. Completely went head over heels for Nonagon in 2017, but I could never keep up with the rest of their stuff because they release one album after the other so quickly. I believe the last one I listened to in full was Infest the Rats’ Nest from 2019. Since then, they’ve released three more albums. It never ends with those guys.

My iPod #524: They Might Be Giants – Hey, Mr. DJ, I Thought You Said We Had a Deal

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“Hey, Mr. DJ, I Thought You Said We Had a Deal” was originally going to be released on the Purple Toupee EP, when the title track was to be released as a single in 1989. For some reason the EP was shelved and the song was later placed as the opener to the band’s B Side/Remix compilation Miscellaneous T, two years later in 1991. The compilation is loved by many a They fan due to the fact that for a B Side album, the stuff on there are as brilliantly written and performed as any other song you would find on the three albums they had released by that time.

The song is a tale of a lad who is eager to get his new song on the radio, going to the local DJ to see if he can sort some things out. From the wordy title, you can probably tell that things don’t go as planned. The tale is told accompanied by catchy rhythms, an infectious melody and a delightful Carribean-like (xylophone? glockenspiel?) line and backed up by the witty lyrics of John Linnell. Notice how he cleverly pulls of a ‘Glass Onion’ and sneaks in some references to other TMBG songs in a verse. So much fun.

I could imagine this being a lead single for any album. Seeing as it was to be released with “Purple Toupee”, I assume that it was recorded during the Lincoln sessions. Goodness. I enjoy Lincoln enough as it is, but it would have been cool to have this on there. Though it’s title would have stuck out like a sore thumb on the track list.

My iPod #88: The Beatles – Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!

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John Lennon bought a poster one day in 1967, from an antiques shop whilst filming the video for “Strawberry Fields Forever” with the other three guys. This is a picture of the poster. This is a picture of John standing next to the poster which is the real deal and not edited by Photoshop at all. It actually isn’t.

To put it simply, everything in the song is from the poster. The horse’s name wasn’t Henry though. It was actually “Zanthus”. I don’t think “Zanthus the horse dances the waltz” would have been as good of a lyric though. Mind you, if they had used that lyric it wouldn’t have been banned on the BBC for supposed “drug references”. Silly BBC.

If you own the vinyl version of “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”, this song closes the first side of the album. To emphasise the circus theme of the song, their renowned producer George Martin asked the engineer to chop up recordings of various faiground organs and calliope music, throw them in the air and reassemble them at random. These are the noises used for the instrumental break, and also during the outro of the song. It took five days for the band to make this, and is regarded to be one of the more complex songs on the album.

It’s used in this epic mix on the LOVE album from 2006 too.

Until tomorrow.

Jamie.

Kings of Leon – “Supersoaker”

Alright! So Kings of Leon are back, and this is their new single “Supersoaker”. There’s the audio-video right up there.

It premiered yesterday on Zane Lowe’s radio show on BBC Radio 1. I missed the first time it played.

But then it played again later….. and I was quite pleased! Only a few posts ago was I talking about how I didn’t like the new sound that they were going for now and how I was dissappointed that they had sold out or whatever. But this song is like a mix of that sound and their “Aha Shake Heartbreak” material. Reminds me of “Taper Jean Girl” in particular. This is what I wanted. They’ve gone back to where they once belonged. You can hear their roots in the song. The only recent song I can think of when they have done this is “Back Down South”, and that’s not even a bad song. I find myself singing that from time to time. Stick to your roots, KOL.

It’s a thumping four-on-the-floor western rocker with Caleb’s crooning vocals over the relentless guitars and jumpy bassline in the verses and everything. Yeah… I can dig this. This is a good first single.

Their new album “Mechanical Bull” is released in September.

Bye!