search

Rock-n-Roll Exhibition: MARCEL THEE

Edition: May 19, 2010; 8-10 PMRock-n-Roll Exhibition: MARCEL THEEIt's Fascist-lite, I Know, But Yeah...:: Playlist & notes, handpicked & written by Marcel Himself :: These are songs I grew up and down with. Songs I took my first and last hit with. Songs I played various livid games to. Some of them are current, most are old, but all are part of my 29-odd years in the world. Tentu aja ada terlalu banyak yang juga dapat merepresentasikan hidup gue dengan sempurna sampai sekarang; tapi gue memilih spesifik lagu-lagu ini karena kontrasnya mereka yang mencerminkan kontrasnya public persona gue dan band gue sehubungan dengan pertanyaan: "Kok Sajama Cut berubah-rubah terus sih musiknya?" Don't limit your love, that's what I say. Lastly, I hope this song will let people know how to approach your love for music to as opposed to listening to what the white jeans-ed guy next to them - or SPIN (Yuhhccc) or maximumrocknroll or RS or whatever is telling them to. It's fascist-lite, I know, but yeah...
Facebook
Twitter
WhatsApp
Email
Print

Edition: May 19, 2010; 8-10 PM

Rock-n-Roll Exhibition: MARCEL THEE
It’s Fascist-lite, I Know, But Yeah…

:: Playlist & notes, handpicked & written by Marcel Himself ::

These are songs I grew up and down with. Songs I took my first and last hit with. Songs I played various livid games to. Some of them are current, most are old, but all are part of my 29-odd years in the world.
Tentu aja ada terlalu banyak yang juga dapat merepresentasikan hidup gue dengan sempurna sampai sekarang; tapi gue memilih spesifik lagu-lagu ini karena kontrasnya mereka yang mencerminkan kontrasnya public persona gue dan band gue sehubungan dengan pertanyaan: “Kok Sajama Cut berubah-rubah terus sih musiknya?”
Don’t limit your love, that’s what I say.

Lastly, I hope this song will let people know how to appraoch your love for music to as opposed to listening to what the white jeans-ed guy next to them – or SPIN (Yuhhccc) or maximumrocknroll or RS or whatever is telling them to. It’s fascist-lite, I know, but yeah…

The Playlist:

01. Butthole Surfers – Creep in the Cellar
Got this when I was 12. Still sounds as melancholically demented now as it did then. Ironically, this ‘joke song’ has better songwriting than most bands today, me thinks. Me thinks you’d agree.
Album/Year Released: Rembrandt Pussyhorse/1986


02. Yo La Tengo – Sudden Organ
I never really got into YLT for some reason and feel incredible indie guilt because of it. But this album perfectly encapsulates mid-90s Matador Records for me.
Painful/1993


03. GZA – Swordsman
Not much of a Hip Hop fan past the mid-90s, but this one is a mainstay on my tape deck during my City Slang/Drag City/Kranky Records-era when I was only listening to what today is described as Post Rock (ughhh)
Liquid Swords/1995


04. Eels – Rags to Rags
The record that came after this was über-bleak, but to me this record has a nostalgic quality that can’t be matched. It also helps that that it came at the right time in my life. I completely believe E is one of the best living songwriters out there. Read his book!
Beautiful Freak/1996


05. Bedhead – Foaming Love
I interviewed The New Year—the Kadane bros post Bedhead band—for Deathrockstar years ago. That was cool, I thought. I had this song, in particular in repeat on a borrowed walkman for about two years when I was living alone in Perth. For Slo-core, this is pretty, uhh, un-slow and threatening.
WhatFunLifeWas/1994

06. Grateful Dead – Boxful of Rain
One of the most gorgeous melody lines ever. Great album too, duh! We are so much more influenced by the Dead than any hipster journalist care to imagine. We also never play the same songs twice the same way live—but that’s cause we’re sloppy Indie Rock schmucks.
American Beauty/1970


07. Don Caballero – Ones All Over the Place
I can’t play drums at all, but Damon Che damn near speaks with his kit. I hear him the same way I hear Hendrix speak through his Strat. This is one of my fave Touch and Go releases. I used to spend so many hours leafing through their catalogue. Remember those?
American Don/2000


08. Guided By Voices – Blimps Go 90
I fell in love with them through this song, actually. I also remember not understanding how this was “lo-fi”, because at the time we were recording our songs with cheap boomboxes and walkmans which made their version of lo-fi our version of hi fucking fi.
Alien Lanes/1995


09. Steven R. Smith – A Celebration
An outsider musician like Jandek, but I consider him having a spacier appeal than the rest of them. I ordered some of his album through some website in the early 2000s, but got ripped off. So I stole it off of the net. Sorry.
Tableland/2001


10. The Jesus Lizard – Nub
Like Fugazi, one of those bands that you could not imagine would have been the same had it not been this particular group of people. Punk Rock intensity all the way through.
Liar/1992


11. The Fall – I am Damo Suzuki
Fell asleep to this whole album once and had the scariest dream I ever had. I was in a band with Mark E. Smith and was fired after I helped completed The Fall’s farewell record.
This Nation’s Saving Grace/1985

12. Xiu Xiu – I Luv the Valley Oh!
We worked with their visual guy, David Horvitz, who let us use some of his movies for our remix album. That was pretty cool. One of the most interesting current bands out there.
Fabulous Muscles/2004

13. Songs: Ohia – Dogwood Gap
I like Will Oldham’s Bonnie Billy outings a teeny bit more, but we’ll get to that. This is glorious in all its desperation. I like the acoustic guitar sound too, reminds me of early Sebadoh – Weed Forestin’ era.
Songs: Ohia/1997

14. Guided by Voices – Queen of Cans and Jars
You’re gonna see a lot of Robert Pollard on this list. This is one of the many great songs he’s written, and one of the many superb one on Bee Thousand. You see kids/young adults talk about how they like Motley fucking crew or some other or some ‘classic’ good old rocknroll crap band these days, which is suppose to give them some badge of hipness. But those guys wouldn’t listen to great written melodies and glorious lyrics if it bit them in the ass if it hasn’t been hyped up by whatever they’re reading or what their friends are saying they should be listening to. I sound like I’m fucking 50 with a beard, by the way.
Bee Thousand/1994


15. Unwound – Disappoint

Pretty much anybody I like on a personal level loves Unwound. I met a few Hardcore, Punk, whatever kids a few years ago who were spouting shit about owning London Calling and PIL or something, and they told me Unwound was “emo shit”—that’s a direct quote. I thought that was funny. Those kids pretty much represent our “cutting edge” audience right now.
The Future of What/1995

16. Leonard Cohen – Heart With No Companion
It’s no Hallelujah but it has that same Gospel appeal. I’ve got tons of Cohen-wannabe songs I recorded when I was in my teens. Good for some cringe laughs.
Various Positions/1984

17. Built to Spill – Made Up Dreams
Great record. I picked this cause it’s the shortest songs and all the songs are quality. I know some music journalists that don’t even know this record. They listen to Rolling Stones.
Perfect From Now On/1997


18. The Church – Aura
I lived when I was a kid in Australia. I was falling for The Church perhaps when I was 7, and then completely abandoned them. Came across an article about this on the internet a few years ago, and was reminded why they sound so good. Sounds equally nostalgic like Fremantle Port as it does the outback.
Priest = Aura/1992

19. Tobin Sprout – Paper Cut
Another GBV-related piece. He paints these amazing realistic paintings too. This whole album, if you can get it, sounds like the most melancholic side of lo-fi period GBV.
Moonflower Plastic/1997

20. Flying Saucer Attack – She is the Daylight
My dad bought me this in Japan when I was 13, I think. If this doesn’t give you goose bumps, it’s probably because you’re dead inside. Shoegazing for shoegazing sake is pretty low in my list of things to do. But with FSA it doesn’t sound like a gimmick, but something of a necessity.
Further/1995

21. Beach Boys – Till I Die
Makes me know I’m still a speckle of shit in the songwriting universe. Look, I keep going back to music fans who don’t even know this album exists. There’s something wrong with that. Anyway, this is definitely in my top 5 best songs ever.
Surf’s Up/1971


22. Polvo – Sure Shot
Another great Touch and Go related band. Math-rock, I suppose, but never feel indulgent. And when it does, still sounds good.
Today’s Active Lifestyle/1993


23. Wire – Lowdown
I’m not really adverse to heavy British accented singing, but sometimes it makes me think of 70s punk which I never really liked. I love listening to the groove on this song, especially when I’m driving back from work.
Pink Flag/1977

24. Melvins – Night Goat
I grew up with the album that was released after this, Stoner Witch—used to spend my time smelling the album sleeve. That’s how I got high. But this album is also solid from front to back. I like their 90s outing the most.
Houdini/1993


25. Neu! – Weißensee
I was going to put it Hallogallo, which is the obvious choice but would be too long. This whole album sounds like the best era of Tortoise, which I wish they could indulge more on. This comes closest to what I want us to sound like in the studio.
Neu!/1972

26. Crosby, Stills & Nash – You Don’t Have to Cry
Harmonies abound!
Crosby, Stills & Nash/1969

27. Nirvana – Very Ape
Anybody who doesn’t like this band is only saying so because 1. They want to look cool and 2. They don’t know what music is. I’m serious.
In Utero/1993


28. A Silver Mount Zion – 13 Angles Standing Guard ’round The Side Of Your Bed
I understand hpw they might be perceived as pretentious to some. But I appreciate the obviousness, which I think goes hand in hand with sincerity, somewhat. This is pretty brutal emotionally.
He Has Left Us Alone but Shafts of Light Sometimes Grace the Corner of Our Rooms…/2000

29. Robert Pollard – Stiff Me
He probably wrote this in the same amount of time it takes to actually sing this. Great song and I’m just randomly picking his songs from his repertoire.
Elephant Jokes/2009


30. Port O’Brien – High Without the Hope
They’re a newish band, I think. This song’s a glorious medallion of the ages.
Threadbare/2009

Songs remixed by Marlowe Bandem.

Note: Marcel is the mastermind of Sajama Cut. He’s one of the founder of Deathrockstar webzine. He writes for Jakarta Globe and a few others. Yes, he’s one in a million. Me likey.

_________________

:: If you wanna listen to the songs, go to Big Audio Dynamite—see top right—and pick the playlist ::

Upcoming shows/exhibitions*:

– July 07, 2010: David Tarigan (Professor Honoris Causa in alternative music)
– July 14, 2010: Heru Wahyono (singer of Shaggydog, half part of Dub Youth)
– July 21, 2010: Dedi Kristian (ex-Music Director of CDBS FM Bali, HipHop activist)
– July 28, 2010: Ade Putri (publicist of Millionaires Club)
– August 04, 2010: Sammy Bramantyo (bassist of Seringai, radio announcer of Gen FM)
More exhibitions in August and September by Oddie Getah, Jimi Multazham, Marzuki Mohammad, Veroland, Pratiwi Sasotya, Alfred Pasifico, Santi YZ, Nasta Sutardjo, Dewa Palguna, and many more.

See y’all again next Wednesday!

Boozed, Broozed, and Broken-boned,

RUDOLF DETHU

*subject to change
____________________

The Block Rockin’ Beats
Curator: Rudolf Dethu
Every Wednesday, 8 – 10 PM
The Beat Radio Plus – Bali, 98.5 FM

120 minutes of cock-melting tunes.
No bullcrap.
Zero horse shit.
Rad-ass rebel without a pause.

Shut up and slamdance!

Facebook
Twitter
WhatsApp
Email
Print
Rudolf Dethu

Rudolf Dethu

Music journalist, writer, radio DJ, socio-political activist, creative industry leader, and a qualified librarian, Rudolf Dethu is heavily under the influence of the punk rock philosophy. Often tagged as this country’s version of Malcolm McLaren—or as Rolling Stone Indonesia put it ‘the grand master of music propaganda’—a name based on his successes when managing Bali’s two favourite bands, Superman Is Dead and Navicula, both who have become two of the nation’s biggest rock bands.
Rudolf Dethu

Rudolf Dethu

Music journalist, writer, radio DJ, socio-political activist, creative industry leader, and a qualified librarian, Rudolf Dethu is heavily under the influence of the punk rock philosophy. Often tagged as this country’s version of Malcolm McLaren—or as Rolling Stone Indonesia put it ‘the grand master of music propaganda’—a name based on his successes when managing Bali’s two favourite bands, Superman Is Dead and Navicula, both who have become two of the nation’s biggest rock bands.

Related

Scroll to Top