#Mike Viola and the Candy Butchers

[azlyricsdotcom]

Killing Floor // Mike Viola and The Candy Butchers // Falling Into Place (1998)

[modernelectricvinyl]

THE WONDERS - “That Thing You Do” b/w “Dance With Me Tonight”

1996 U.S. PROMOTIONAL 7″ single on Play-Tone/Epic Soundtrax

A note-perfect 60′s pop song, written by a 90′s indie rock musician, from one hell of a fun movie directed by Tom Hanks.

Penned by Adam Schlesinger from the band Fountains Of Wayne and sung by Mike Viola of The Candy Butchers, “That Thing You Do” was a legitimate Top 40 hit in 1996, and was nominated for both a Golden Globe and an Academy Award. It is a ridiculously catchy ear worm of a song, and a great musical pleasure of mine, as is the film itself.

I saw this single in the record store with a $5.00 price tag on it, and bought it immediately, because as you can see after pulling it up on Discogs, it’s worth significantly more than five dollars. That’s a pricey meatball.

[quarantineroulette]

28 Albums in 28 Days

Last month, I participated in #MWE for the first time. In short, it’s a 28-day long music writer / music lover exercise in which you listen to an album you’ve never heard before and tweet a few thoughts on it. A longer explanation of its genesis can be found here. I really enjoyed it for the most part but, as with all things Twitter, there were some pros and cons. 

Pros: I’ve had a real lack of desire to listen to music since the pandemic began, so this exercise really got me out of that rut, at least for a month. It also pulled me out of my comfort zone of listening to the same 10 bands over and over, and I discovered some things I really loved! However...

Cons: I fear I chose poorly / just don’t like much music because most of what I listened to left me lukewarm. Somewhat surprisingly, a lot of the albums I listened to by indie artists I flat out did not like / found completely forgettable. Also, some shit went down in our home about halfway through the month, which made active listening incredibly difficult. 

But these are just my poor excuses, and all this said, I flat out loved the first 10 records listed below. The rest ranged from “pretty great” to “very meh,” but I’m glad I listened all the same. And, yes, it’s ridiculous to judge an album on one listen, so I look forward to revisiting a lot of these, just probably not the Foxygen record (sorry). 

28 Albums I listened to for #MWE, in very loose ranking: 

Alice Coltrane - World Galaxy

Jarboe - Sacrificial Cake

The Leather Nun - Force of Habit

Ought - Room Inside the World

Handsome Boy Modeling School - So...How’s Your Girl?

Gazelle Twin - Unflesh

Mos Def - The Ecstatic

Danger Mouse - The Grey Album 

Madonna - Confessions on a Dance Floor

The Time - Ice Cream Castles

Tyler, The Creator - IGOR 

Muddy Waters - Fathers and Sons

David Sylvian & Holger Czukay - Flux & Mutability

Wipers - Youth of America

Miley Cyrus - Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Pets

Billy Nomates - Self-titled

John Foxx - Metamatic

The Whispers - Self-titled

Ryuichi Sakamoto - Thousand Knives

Special Interest - The Passion Of

Mike Viola and the Candy Butchers - Falling Into Place

Kool Keith - Sex Style 

The Stockholm Monsters - Alma Mater

Sweet - Desolation Boulevard

The Apples in Stereo - New Magnetic Wonder 

Foxygen - We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic

Swamp Dogg - Rat On!

Ezra Furman - Perpetual Motion People 

[the-picked-last-club]

CANDY BUTCHERS/”YOU BELONG TO ME NOW”

[musicreviewroulette-blog]

This week I feature songs from Blue Sky Black Death, Mike Viola and the Candy Butchers and my old friend Tim Angsten.  

Blue Sky Black Death // Sky With Hand - From Noir // BUY

Mike Viola and the Candy Butchers // All I Have - From Falling Into Place // BUY

Tim Angsten // Hold On Me from Unheard Melodies // BUY