I'm Mikal Cronin, I sing and play bass in Moonhearts. There's no real theme to this Selector, just songs I've been listening to a lot lately with sounds that make their way into Moonhearts songs I write. These aren't the most “underground” bands or whatever but I don't care, and hope you don't either.
The Wylde Mammoths, “Gone Away” [MP3]
From their 1987 album Go Baby Go on Crypt. Really great album and amazing production that makes it hard to believe they're not some 60s garage gods. The album was recorded on a two track and sounds perfect. The Intelligence rip this song off pretty hard on “Thank You God for Fixin the Tape Machine” on Fake Surfers… Not sure if it was intentional, but both songs rule regardless.
Del Shannon, “Stand Up”
I've been obsessed with post-1966 Liberty Records-era Del Shannon stuff lately, specifically the album The Further Adventures of Charles Westover. This song isn't from that record but it's my jam at the moment. I was just driving from San Francisco to LA yesterday by myself, blasting this song and air-keyboarding the organ solo on the dashboard. Didn't notice that I accelerated to like 90mph. His falsetto vocals give me chills and I love how dark mostly all his music is. I guess he killed himself in the town I'm currently living in. Hmm…
Eric Burdon & the Animals, “Orange And Red Beams”
Love this record, The Twain Shall Meet…. I was going to post “Sky Pilot” which is epic and amazing, but I can't deny that this song has been dominating my mind lately. The vocals are great, how they scoop in with that weird reverse reverb thing, and I love the horns and flute. Go find this record and lay on your floor and absorb it.
The Kinks, “When I See That Girl Of Mine (demo)” [MP3]
Got this demo on a mix that Ty (Segall) gave me a while back. Not sure what release the demo comes from but it's great. I just imagine them playing it in some little room, putting it together, and wishing I could be there on a couch pretending to be cool and reading a book or something but really just freaking out at the pop magic that'd be happening right in front of me.
Cheap Trick, “Surrender” (Live at Budokan)
I'm not sure if Cheap Trick is “cool”. They're probably not. (I think most my friends hate this song.) But I don't give a shit because it's way overplayed for a reason. I picked the live version for two reasons: First, I want to play fuzzy chuggy rhythm guitar/backup vocals at this show SO BAD. Second is the drum break right before the key change (at 2:19 in this video), the simple snare BADA BADA BADA BADA… thing, and how during it there is this swell of little Japanese teenage girls fucking loosing their minds. I LOVE IT. Power pop, man.
The Ramones, “Today Your Love, Tomorrow the World (demo)”
There's no real reason I picked the demo of this song rather than the album version, but it's probably because the blown-to-fuck production of these demos is so great. Love the catchiness of vocal line in this song… This is one of the songs that always eventually crawls into my head when I'm on a long walk or something. The lyrics rule, and then the slow break at the end leads to some serious fist pumping. Can't say this is the best Ramones song, but I've been listening to the S/T record a lot again lately and this might be my favorite song from that. Speaking of the Ramones, The Spits rule.
