Monday 26 March 2012

Holding Back the Years

Centrelinked jumped in the Delorean this week for a spot of time travel through the ages, stopping only where songsmiths had deemed a year exciting enough to celebrate in song. Taking in everything from the recent past and the distant future these were the songs that got played:

Also Sprach Zarathrustra - Theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey (Disco Version)
1969 - The Stooges
Sexcrime (1984) - The Eurythmics
1901 - Phoenix
1976 - RJD2
1977 - The Clash
1981 - Public Image Limited
Holland, 1945 - Neutral Milk Hotel
69 Annee Erotique - Serge Gainsbourg
New York Mining Disaster 1941 - the Bee Gees
You Keep It All In - The Beautiful South
1979 - Smashing Pumpkins
3030 - Deltron 3030
In the Year 2525 (Exordium and Terminus) - Zager and Evans

And other stuff that didn't get played for one reason and another
Miss Freelove '69 - Hoodoo Gurus
1993 - Carter USM
1974 - Ryan Adams
1985 - Manic Street Preachers
1974 - Robin Hitchcock
Disco 2000 - Pulp
Pop Song 89 - REM
Carnival 2000 - Prefab Sprout
1992 - Blur
1963 - New Order
Summer of 75 - Vic Reeves
1966 and all that - Half Man Half Biscuit
It Ain't 1918 - Sparks
December 1963 (Oh What a Night) - Frankie Valley and the Four Seasons

So no Eels songs this week but once again Blur, Pulp, Sparks and Half Man Half Biscuit all offered their Centrelinked services.

Next week - songs about breakfast!

Centrelinked - Saturday mornings from 10.30am on 98.9 North West FM (northwestfm.org)

Feel free to join in using @mintcustard or @northwestfmmelb and #centrelinked

Monday 19 March 2012

Know Your Product

Advertising. It can be evil, subliminal, insidious, sometimes genius. Advertising companies can spend millions trying to get brand names into our minds and often fail. Thank goodness then for our old friend Rock and Roll and it's uncanny ability to capture zeitgeists and enshrine aspects of popular culture in musical aspic in ways that ad men (and women) can only dream. Here are just a few examples, as celebrated on this week's Centrelinked:  

What Got Played
Know Your Product - The Saints
She Don't Use Jelly - Flaming Lips (Vaseline)
Vaseline - Elastica
Paninaro 95 - Pet Shop Boys (Aramani, Armani, A-A-Armani)
Wearing My Rolex - Wiley
My ADIDAS  - Run DMC
Razzmattazz - Pulp (tights)
Perfume - Sparks (every perfume under the sun)
Hymn to the Cigarettes - Hefner (every brand of cig you can think of)
Valium - Ffa Coffi Pawb (housewife's friend)
Under the Milky Way - The Church
Mars Bar - The Undertones

I desperately wanted to play I've Got a New Hoover by Reeves and Mortimer, which is one of the best starts to any comedy show in history (and certainly the best ever song about vacuum cleaners) but sadly copyright wouldn't allow. Here's some others that I had shortlisted, plus a few suggestions by our lovely listeners:

Advert or Blue Jeans - Blur ("Air Cushion Soles")
Man at C&A - the Specials (menswear)
National Express - the Divine Comedy (coach travel)
Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana (deoderant)
Supersonic - Oasis (Alka Seltzer and BMW)
Down Under - Men at Work (Vegemite)

By far the most common suggestion was for car songs (Little Honda by the Beach Boys, Prince's Little Red Corvette, Natalie Cole and Pink Cadillac etc) but the undisputed king of the road for me is Y Reg by John Shuttleworth. sadly I ran out of time to play it, but you can watch the video here... 

Centrelinked: Saturday mornings at 10.30am on 98.9 North West FM. Listen on your wireless or online at http://www.northwestfm.org/. If you'd like to play along, follow @mintcustard or use #centrelinked on Tw*tter.  

Monday 12 March 2012

Long Tails and Ears for Hats

Centrelinked marked International Women's Day this week with a quick fire 14 songs in 45 minutes of songs by all female bands.

A simple task, I hear you cry... yet when I reached for my CD shelves I found bands with token blokes at every turn. No Slits, Breeders, Veruca Salt, Elastica, Hole, Bikini Kill or Huggy Bear this week then but stay tuned for a Token Bloke special one day soon...


What Got Played
Cherry Bomb - the Runaways
We Got the Beat - the Go-Gos
Woo Hoo - The 5,6,7,8s
Pretend We're Dead - L7
Bruise Violet - Babes in Toyland
Supermodel Superficial - Voodoo Queens
Nowhere to Run - Martha Reeves and the Vandellas
Be My Baby - the Ronettes
Stoned Love - the Supremes
Those Dancing Days - Those Dancing Days
On Parade - Electrelane
Banned from the End of the World - Sleater Kinney
Who Do You Think You Are - Spice Girls
Spice Girls (Who Do You Think You Are) - Period Pains


I really wanted to play some Cibo Matto, Biftek, Cookie Crew and Fuzzbox's camp classic International Rescue too but it wasn't to be.  


Centrelinked on your wireless every Saturday at 10.30am, 98.9 North West FM.

Friday 9 March 2012

A Fully Trained Actor Reduced to the Status of a Bum

Oh actors, poor loves. They just don’t get enough attention do they? Centrelinked decided to do something about it in Oscar’s week by celebrating anyone who has been name checked in song. There’s more than you think – and that’s just James Dean songs. Names of actors in brackets if not in the title.

What Got Played
20th Century Fox Fanfare – London Symphony Orchestra
Robert de Niro’s Waiting – Bananarama
Clint Eastwood – Gorillaz
Jo Jo's Jacket - Steve Malkmus and the Jicks (Yul Brynner)
Lenny Valentino – the Auteurs (Rudolph Valentino - possibly)
Scream - The Stuntcar Drivers (Neve Campbell)
Rattlesnakes – Lloyd Cole and the Commotions (Eve Marie Saint)
John Wayne is Big Leggy – Hayze Fantayze
Look at me (I’m Sandra Dee) – Stockard Channing (Sandra Dee, Doris Day, Rock Hudson, Troy Donahue, Elvis)
The Unknown Stuntman – Lee Majors (too many to mention)
• Purple Underwear (Michael Caine from Get Carter)
Michael Caine – Madness
Mohammed Ali and all his friends – the Lovely Eggs (Kirstie Ally)
Raquel – Neon Neon (Raquel Welch)
Bruce Lee – Underworld
Lee Remick – the Go-Betweens
Fanny Ardant et Moi – Vincent Delerme
Initials BB – Serge Gainsbourg (Brigitte Bardot)
Tom Courtney - Yo La Tengo
Julie Christie - Stephen Duffy
• Grace Kelly Blues – Eels
Like Dylan in the Movies - Belle and Sebastian (Bob Dylan)
Marlon JD – Manic Street Preachers (Marlon Brando)
(He’ll Never Be) An Ol’ Man River – TISM (River Phoenix)

Ran Out of Time (or usurped)
Tom Baker – Human League (Tom Baker of Dr Who fame)
Just like Fred Astaire – James
Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge On Seattle – Nirvana
Butterfly McQueen – The Boo Radleys
I helped Patrick McGoohan Escape - the Times
I Hate Nerys Hughes – Half Man Half Biscuit
Kylie's got a Crush on Us – Teenage Fanclub (Kylie Minogue)
Zombie Zoo – Tom Petty (Boris Karloff)
Shoot Doris Day – Super Furry Animals
Michael Douglas - Neon Neon
The Right Profile – the Clash (Montgomery Clift – post accident)
Sean Penn Blues – Lloyd Cole and the Commotions
Clark Gable – The Postal Service
Celluloid Heroes - The Kinks (Greta Garbo, Rudolph Valentino, Bela Lugosi, Bette Davis, Marilyn Monroe, George Sanders and Mickey Rooney)

Suggestions and Requests
Bela Lugosi’s Dead – Bauhaus or Nouvelle Vague
Lee Remick – Hefner
You Jane – Stephen Cummings (Kris Kristopherson and Genevieve Bujold)
Frank Sinatra – Cake
Hackensack – Fountains of Wayne (Christopher Walken)
Whatever Happened to Corey Haim? – The Thrills
Winona - Matthew Sweet
Candle in the Wind and Roy Rogers - Elton John
Grace Kelly – Mika
Marlene on the Wall – Suzanne Vega (Marlene Dietrich)
Halle Berry (She's Fine) - Hurricane Chris
Bill Murray – Gorillaz
Crispin Glover - Starling
Denzel Washington – Charmillionaire
David Duchovny – Bree
Kurt Russell – Ultrasound
Rosanna – Toto (Rosanna Arquette)
Cary Grant’s Wedding – The Fall
Shelley Winters - Charles Jenkins and the Zhivagos
2 HB – Roxy Music (Humphrey Bogart)
Keanuville - Rain Perry (Keanu Reeves)
Madonna, Sean and Me – Sonic Youth (Sean Penn)
I Want to Do it With Madonna – The Androids
Bette Davis Eyes – Kim Carnes or Gwyneth Paltrow
Kung Fu – Ash (Jackie Chan)
Steve McQueen - Drive by Truckers
Where Do You Go To MY Lovely - Peter Starstedt (Marlene Dietrich)

James Dean Tribute list
Many thanks to Peta for a glut of James Dean related songs including: James Dean by the Eagles, Movie Star by Harpo, Rock On by David Essex. Jimmy Dean also cops a mention in Billy Joel’s We Didn’t Start the Fire, Vogue by Madonna, Blue Jeans by Lana del Ray and is the subject of Suede’s Daddy’s Speeding from Dog Man Star… pretty fly for a dead guy.

This week, we’re celebrating International Women’s Day with all-lady bands.

All women mind, no token blokes (I’m looking at you Elastica…)

Centrelinked is on your wireless or streaming live on 98.9 North West FM (http://www.northwestfm.org/) Saturday mornings at 10.30 Melbourne time.