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AngerDanger

Graphics
Staff member
Dec 9, 2008
5,452
29,006
"Wallspin," which was arranged by Neil Cicierega. It's a mashup of Oasis' "Wonderwall" and Dead or Alive's "You Spin Me Round (Like A Record)." It's terrible.

 

notmach67

macrumors regular
Aug 25, 2016
247
255
Dark side of the Moon
Some Friday listening to wile away another rainy day at work -

Bees Made Honey In The Vein Tree - "Medicine"
Labeled as Psych/Doom with haunting vocals hailing from Stuttgart Germany and is freakin' awesome...

 
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AustinIllini

macrumors G5
Oct 20, 2011
12,699
10,567
Austin, TX
I love Adele's voice, but Beyonce got jobbed

LemonadeBey.jpg
 

balamw

Moderator emeritus
Aug 16, 2005
19,365
979
New England
Indulging in some of my favorite Al Jarreau albums (Breaking Away, Jarreau, Tenderness) in the mornings since his passing. Great way to start the day.

B
 

decafjava

macrumors 603
Feb 7, 2011
5,516
8,033
Geneva
The drums on that song....THE DRUMS!!! One of Bonham's best.

Just finished a blast from the past...


Sons of Freedom a Canadian band from the 1980s - popular in my neck of the woods - can anyone tell me (without Google) why they were called that??
 
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AngerDanger

Graphics
Staff member
Dec 9, 2008
5,452
29,006
"Are 'Friends' Electric?" by Tubeway Army. It's also the basis of the "IT Crowd" theme which is interesting considering Numan himself said the song had "no recognisable hook-line whatsoever."


The YouTube video has an informative wall of text for a description:

"Are 'Friends' Electric?" is a synthpop song by English band Tubeway Army from their 1979 album Replicas. It was released as a single in May 1979 and reached No. 1 in the UK Singles Chart, staying there for four weeks. It was written and produced by Gary Numan, the band's frontman and lead vocalist.

Despite being over five minutes long and possessing, in the words of its composer, "no recognisable hook-line whatsoever", the single topped the UK charts. Whilst the track's distinctive sound stood out at the time, sales also benefited from the record company's use of a picture disc and Numan's striking, "robotic" performance on the TV shows The Old Grey Whistle Test and Top of the Pops. "Are 'Friends' Electric?" has been a mainstay of Numan's concerts since its release and appears on all ten of his official live recordings to date. A semi-acoustic version appeared on the 2006 Jagged tour set list. The song was sampled by Richard X in a song titled "We Don't Give a Damn About Our Friends" as a mashup with vocals from Adina Howard's "Freak like Me", which the Sugababes then recorded under the latter title and achieved a number one hit with in the UK in 2002. It was also covered by Information Society on their 1997 album Don't Be Afraid, and The Dead Weather for their B-side of "Hang You from the Heavens". "Are 'Friends' Electric?" was featured in the video game Need for Speed: Carbon and the AMC Television show Halt and Catch Fire. The song has also been referenced as the inspiration for the theme song of the British TV show The IT Crowd.

"Are 'Friends' Electric?" features three different sections: a recurring "verse" with a synth riff in C and B flat, a recurring section with spoken word over slow arpeggiated seventh chords, and an instrumental break in F. The instrumentation is quite minimal: there is a conventional drum and bass guitar backing track, some additional heavily flanged guitar (particularly in the instrumental break), subdued vocals and, most prominently, a Minimoog synthesizer. These synth parts include a slow-paced sawtooth bass riff, and some soaring portamento background lines.

Numan stumbled upon synthesizers by accident. While intending to record a punk album, he noticed a Minimoog synthesizer that had been left in the studio. The keyboard’s massive sound became the inspiration for the Replicas album, and is the dominant sound for this song.

Writing for Smash Hits in 1979, Cliff White described the song as "a dark, threatening wall of synthesized sound" which "throbbed ominously behind a gloomy song of paranoia and loneliness". White went on to say it was "gripping stuff, but cheerful it isn't".

The B-side of the single was a more rock-oriented number, "We Are So Fragile". It was performed on Numan's 1979 "Touring Principle" series of concerts and appears on the album Living Ornaments '79. The song was covered by bis on the compilation album Random.
 
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Scepticalscribe

macrumors Haswell
Jul 29, 2008
65,199
47,583
In a coffee shop.
"Are 'Friends' Electric?" by Tubeway Army. It's also the basis of the "IT Crowd" theme which is interesting considering Numan himself said the song had "no recognisable hook-line whatsoever."


The YouTube video has an informative wall of text for a description:

"Are 'Friends' Electric?" is a synthpop song by English band Tubeway Army from their 1979 album Replicas. It was released as a single in May 1979 and reached No. 1 in the UK Singles Chart, staying there for four weeks. It was written and produced by Gary Numan, the band's frontman and lead vocalist.

Despite being over five minutes long and possessing, in the words of its composer, "no recognisable hook-line whatsoever", the single topped the UK charts. Whilst the track's distinctive sound stood out at the time, sales also benefited from the record company's use of a picture disc and Numan's striking, "robotic" performance on the TV shows The Old Grey Whistle Test and Top of the Pops. "Are 'Friends' Electric?" has been a mainstay of Numan's concerts since its release and appears on all ten of his official live recordings to date. A semi-acoustic version appeared on the 2006 Jagged tour set list. The song was sampled by Richard X in a song titled "We Don't Give a Damn About Our Friends" as a mashup with vocals from Adina Howard's "Freak like Me", which the Sugababes then recorded under the latter title and achieved a number one hit with in the UK in 2002. It was also covered by Information Society on their 1997 album Don't Be Afraid, and The Dead Weather for their B-side of "Hang You from the Heavens". "Are 'Friends' Electric?" was featured in the video game Need for Speed: Carbon and the AMC Television show Halt and Catch Fire. The song has also been referenced as the inspiration for the theme song of the British TV show The IT Crowd.

"Are 'Friends' Electric?" features three different sections: a recurring "verse" with a synth riff in C and B flat, a recurring section with spoken word over slow arpeggiated seventh chords, and an instrumental break in F. The instrumentation is quite minimal: there is a conventional drum and bass guitar backing track, some additional heavily flanged guitar (particularly in the instrumental break), subdued vocals and, most prominently, a Minimoog synthesizer. These synth parts include a slow-paced sawtooth bass riff, and some soaring portamento background lines.

Numan stumbled upon synthesizers by accident. While intending to record a punk album, he noticed a Minimoog synthesizer that had been left in the studio. The keyboard’s massive sound became the inspiration for the Replicas album, and is the dominant sound for this song.

Writing for Smash Hits in 1979, Cliff White described the song as "a dark, threatening wall of synthesized sound" which "throbbed ominously behind a gloomy song of paranoia and loneliness". White went on to say it was "gripping stuff, but cheerful it isn't".

The B-side of the single was a more rock-oriented number, "We Are So Fragile". It was performed on Numan's 1979 "Touring Principle" series of concerts and appears on the album Living Ornaments '79. The song was covered by bis on the compilation album Random.

Oh, excellent choice. I remember this song......
 

AngerDanger

Graphics
Staff member
Dec 9, 2008
5,452
29,006
Oh, excellent choice. I remember this song......
I remember first becoming aware of Gary Numan after watching an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000," specifically one where an alien takes control of a child's Simon game and makes it play horrible synth sounds.


I realized that the "in cars" chorus Joel and the bots were singing was actually from a song I liked but didn't know the name of, so I looked it up.

I think the sounds the alien makes are more similar to Numan's "We Are So Fragile," but its lyrics aren't as recognizable.
 
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