DUELING OOMPA LOOMPAS

This won't be a timely post, but as I just got around to watching Tim Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory this past weekend, it will have to suffice.

First, I should probably establish the fact that the original Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory was a childhood favorite of mine - shown once a year here in the Detroit area, a la The Wizard of Oz and The Sound of Music. [Of course, there weren't so many channels in those days - for us: just 2 (CBS), 4 (NBC), 7 (ABC), 9 (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) on the VHF (no remote control, so you actually had to get up off your ass and click!-click!-click! that upper dial). On the UHF, you had 20 (Green Acres, Petticoat Junction), 50 (Gilligan's Island; The Brady Bunch), 56 (PBS), and 62 (one-step up from community access) (spin that lower dial!). And that was it. How the hell did we ever survive that primitive, seemingly Amish-dominated era?]

But to get back on point... Johnny Depp certainly amused me in the new version of Chocolate Factory (though no one will ever hold a candle to Gene Wilder in that role), and there were some nice visual bits, as you'd expect from Tim Burton (I especially liked the nut-shucking squirrels). So... C+, I guess.

As for the music, I've always liked Danny Elfman's scores (hell, I even went through an Oingo Boingo stage, though I don't like to talk about that). I was also always a big fan of the Oompa Loompas in the original film. They (and the songs they sang) had a certain "menacing" quality to them that appealed to me as a child (you just know that, given half a chance, they would have turned any number of Munchkins and Von Trapp children into dinner).

I liked the digitally-manipulated Oompa Loompas in the new film as well, though they seemed to be played more for humor than horror. As for their musical interludes, I'll leave it for you to decide which version reigns supreme...

From Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, 2005 >>>
[MP3] "Augustus Gloop"
[MP3] "Violet Beauregarde"
[MP3] "Veruca Salt"
[MP3] "Mike Teavee"

From Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, 1971 >>>
[MP3] "Oompa Loompa Song #1"
[MP3] "Oompa Loompa Song #2"
[MP3] "Oompa Loompa Song #3"
[MP3] "Oompa Loompa Song #4"

SERGE GAINSBOURG

Not too long ago I wrote about Jens Lekman-precursor Scott Walker [here]. Well, Mr. Walker was big-time smitten with the French, dirty-old-man composer Serge Gainsbourg. Today - in Europe, at least - a tribute album to Mr. Gainsbourg will be released featuring such artists as Portishead, Tricky, Michael Stipe, and Placebo. Entitled Monsieur Gainsbourg Revisited, it also sees Franz Ferdinand and Cat Power take a crack at the master - the Monsieurs Ferdinand with Gainsbourg songbird Jane Birkin; Ms. Marshall with White Stripe wife Karen Elson. (The Cat Power track already seems to be drawing an awful lot of vitriol on the web. I don't know; it sounds okay to me. Light. Fluffy. At worst: harmless. And what's up with all these nasty heroin rumors about Cat? I mean, sheesh... I thought the girl just had a grade-A case of stage-fright.)

Regardless, the other three fingers making up today's fistful are originals sung by some of Gainsbourg's too-numerous-to-enumerate female proteges. They are French, and they are fun. No translation required.

[MP3] Franz Ferdinand & Jane Birkin/"A Song for Sorry Angel"

[MP3] Cat Power & Karen Elson/"I Love You (Me Either)"

[MP3] Francoise Hardy/"Comment Te Dire Adieu"

[MP3] France Gall/"Les Sucettes"

[MP3] Serge Gainsbourg & Jane Birkin/"Je T'aime... Moi Non Plus"

THE INDELICATES

Normally, I would never so callously cannibalize another blogger's post as I am about to today. But today is not "normally"; it's Friday. And I'm so ecstatic about this band that I just might wet my pants. So I can't help myself, you see. Not guilty by reason of imminent incontinence.

The band I'm urine-ing for you to immerse yourselves in is the British the Indelicates, and the blog I'm cannibalizing is the Italian Indie for Dummies. The Indelicates hail from Brighton and have only been in existence since September 2005. They are led by Simon and Julia Indelicate - whose married-in-name-and-novelty-only vocal interplay brings to mind the Shane MacGowan/Kirsty MacColl dynamic of "Fairytale of New York." Or maybe they're what would happen if you jammed Jarvis Cocker, Black Box Recorder, and Billy Bragg in a blender. You'd get something thick. A bit bitter. Dark. Delightful. Delicious. Ah, leave it to the Brits....

If you like what you hear below, please visit the Indelicates' website [here] and fling your virtual underthings at them. As yet, they are unsigned, and they no doubt could use the affirmation and affection. [Also, go to Indie for Dummies to download another Indelicates song - "Vladimir" - and to thank him for helping get this train out of the station.]

[MP3] "We Hate the Kids"

[MP3] "Julia, We Don't Live in the 60s"

[MP3] "New Art for the People"

[MP3] "Waiting for Pete Doherty to Die"

LOOKS LIKE THINGS ARE GOING WELL IN THE STUDIO...

... OK, MAYBE NOT...

RADIOHEAD GET 'NUDE'

Well, I was none too pleased yesterday when ever-stylish, ever-elegant Achtung Baby! posted the full-band version of Radiohead's "Nude" (aka "Big Ideas (don't get any)"). Like him, I had heard the other day that Radiohead were finally working on a studio version of that long-time fan favorite. No telling whether it will make the upcoming record, be released as a b-side, or perhaps be offered as a downloadable track before the band takes to the road this summer. (There's also no telling, I suppose, whether they'll actually follow through with the thing till it's finished; they tend to be a fickle lot.)

Regardless, below you will find a few different live takes on the song, starting with a full-band version that is similar to Achtung's but is from a separate concert. The second and third are performed by Thom Yorke solo, the first in Japan in 1998, the second in the UK in 2005.

Also, I've included a couple of other tunes that the band has never properly recorded. "Lift," which is from the post-Bends/pre-Computer period and was performed by the band in 1996. And "Follow Me Around," which is newer-but-not-new, and was played by Thom and Jonny Greenwood (I believe) in December of 2003.

[BTW, the sound quality is somewhat erratic with these, but I think the songs are worth it.]

[MP3] "Big Ideas (don't get any)" [aka "Nude"] [live/full-band]
[MP3] "Big Ideas (don't get any)" [aka "Nude"] [live/Thom 1998]
[MP3] "Big Ideas (don't get any)" [aka "Nude"] [live/Thom 2005]

[MP3] "Lift" [live/full-band/1996]

[MP3] "Follow Me Around" [live/Thom/Jonny/2003]

MATT MAYS