THE POP OPEN: Group C - Sex

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Poptimists everywhere, it's time for...THE POP OPEN.

This first week we have 5 songs on the theme of "Sex". You don't have to judge songs by how they fit the theme, just pick the two you like most - BUT! you can't vote for one you already know ("know" doesn't include "know a remix of" or "know a version of" or "know what it must be but haven't actually heard it before"). You don't have to use both your votes - you can just use one.

And you don't have to be a player to vote - anyone can!

The songs are all in a zipfile here: http://www.sendspace.com/file/b52yp8 (18 Mb)

And you can get them streamed here: http://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/2007/06/pop-open-week-1/ (NB if you just hit play you get Track 5, not Track 1, for some reason, so make sure you hit each play track link separately) ALSO: if possible download the zipfile - the streaming tracks are on FT's bandwidth :)

[Poll #1001691]

What happens next? On Thursday I put up a post revealing what each track is (and giving my opinions!) but not who voted in it. On Monday the poll closes and I reveal who has WON. The top THREE tracks go into the next round. Then next Tuesday we have another group (most likely Money or Death).

Thanks to bengraham, carsmilesteve, infov0re, mcarratala and strange_powers for this week's tracks!

Oh and I forgot a really important question - what would YOU have submitted?

Comments

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I have to applaud the players this week for their committment to um avoiding the conventionally 'sexy' (mostly)

[byebyepride.livejournal.com]

OH NOES -- you mean it's all goth-s3chs.

Also: HURRAH!! Orga-fun is back. I am, appropriately enough, gagging for it.

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

so, no NSFW tracks then?

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

What happens to the players who go through? I mean, will eg Injustice players get the chance to play Sex at a later date?

Streaming is actually a v good idea - wouldn't be able to do that at work either (at home today) but much less hassle than d/lding and unzipping.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

And you can d/l any you like!

The next round will have different, genre-based, themes - all TBA next week.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Hurrah that was easy. Knew one but wouldn't have voted for it anyway. My first place winner was WAY out in front because it's AMAZING - I recognised the singer instantly but not the song.

Something I ought to stress

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

You don't have to vote for any of them - don't feel you need to reward a track you hate with a point just cos you don't know it!

[umlauts.livejournal.com]

I knew three, so I feel well smart this time. I only voted for one, as it struck me as the clear better of the two I didn't know.

Re: Something I ought to stress

[byebyepride.livejournal.com]

Glad you clarified this. I know three, so it's a question of whether I like either of the other two, and which (if any) I like the most.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

I knew two and recognised a third as the originator of a very famous sample (but which I'd never heard). Smug+++

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

And you don't have to be a player to vote

although you do have to be a PLAYA, obv ;)

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Thanks for streaming these, Tom! I'm much more likely to hear them this way.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

When I got track one I thought to myself, "Crikey that's a bit risky", as I assumed everyone would know it. Then it struck me that there was no reason *why* everyone would know it, and maybe it wasn't very famous - it's never been a HIT as far as I know!

But it seems like lots of people do know it!

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

hahaha, it's been on a fair few early 80s comps quite recently i think, although i think my copy might, like almost everything else weird on my computer, have come from the TRAWL cds...

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

MAN, it is so hard commenting without giving away which track is or isn't mine (although i'm guessing several ppl might have a fair idea...)

[boyofbadgers.livejournal.com]

Well, given that thebopkids is not taking part...

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

Hurrah for the Pop Open, great concept working well so far.

I knew 2 tracks and I realised what track 2 was eventually because of the title tho I didn't include this because I've never heard the song in full. Didn't like it tho.

[boyofbadgers.livejournal.com]

Aye, four good tracks, knew two of them => easy winner selection.

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

I would probably have submitted some obvious late 80s/early 90s rap/RnB-ish thing e.g. Bell Biv Devoe's 'Do Me' or Mellow Man Ace's 'Mentirosa'. Or tried to find a current equivalent.

If it had been me...

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I'm not totally sure what I'd have submitted for this group. Do you go for a track which is about sex, or a track which is sexy? Or both? & of course the question of "what gets to be sexy?" is not unproblematic. Plus the VOTERS are likely to be sitting in office or computer chairs when they hear it so yr full-on breathy kitten or quiet storm or booty-bass sex raps may not have quite their full or intended effect. I'd have probably picked a booty track anyway tho and hoped to sneak third place from a small but hearty constituency of fans.

This format is interesting in terms of which themes attract a diversity of picks and which don't, by the way.

Re: If it had been me...

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

i think you'll pick booty bass whatever the category is ;)

these five certainly run the gamut of styles though, hope it continues.

Rules query!

[braisedbywolves.livejournal.com]

Does 'know' cover "I have heard this song loads but assumed it was one of two artists, and googling reveals that in fact it's neither"?

Re: Rules query!

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Know the song. You can know a song without knowing who it's by.

I knew you would be first with a rules query Andrew!

[martinskidmore.livejournal.com]

I am still deaf, so I don't know if I'll vote or not. And I'll refrain from mentioning my favourite choices until I have listened to them, in case I give away the identity of a track that is there, unlikely as that seems.

Seksi

[koganbot]

We MySpace denizens applaud the appropriateness of the letter c's following on the word "sex."

(And I gave up and finally Googled Track Two, so I could then kick myself for not remembering. If I hadn't known it, it'd have been in a tight battle with tight-like-that Track Four for my second spot.)

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

I knew two of these. Have allocated a first place vote. Will wait for the reveals before deciding whether to give a second place vote - it may depend on exactly when one of the tracks was recorded.

I agree with Tom that how folks respond to the theme is potentially going to be the most interesting aspect of the Pop Open.

My Notes

[mcatzilut.livejournal.com]

Track One:

I have a suspicion that electronica only equals sex in the mind of people who frequent clubs. I use electronica/techno tracks as background music while I write/play video games/read, so the fact that something sounds metallic doesn't associate with sex in my mind. Not to mention the difference between sex and sexy - though "leather rats" or "never hats" or whatever he's singing isn't sexy either way. Rats are never sexy. Proof: We were waiting at the subway the other day, and what could be described as a cute rat (tiny, unoffensive) was there. And it STILL wasn't sexy. I mean, a tear of petrol? Maybe this song is some kind of European sex fantasy.

(It's droning too, and boring, so I couldn't vote for it either way.)

Track Two:

Sounds like a lot of modern singer-songwriter music. And I'm pretty damn sure I know who it is, but I can't put my finger on it - mostly because the singer sounds like a lot of other singers. He sounds like Ben Folds, Ben Kweller, and possibly other Bens. Or maybe that [redacted]. (On that note, I heard a Bright Eyes song in Knocked Up that I thought, for a moment, was Beck. It was an interesting mistake, because I otherwise wouldn't have associated the two.) I'll google the lyrics after I vote.

(It's an interesting take on sex. Sex as fantasy? Sex as dream? Sex as hypnotic despairing in a post-coital blank world?)

It still doesn't sound like any kind of sex I've actually had, but it's closer to a kind of sex I'm familiar with. Kind of like watching sex in a movie.

Track Three:

Mmmm. Now this *sounds* like sex. It's not a song that particularly speaks to me on any other level, but at least it fulfills the criteria perfectly. That said, I now wonder if I should be voting for the tracks that fulfill the criteria the best, or the tracks that I like the most - even if fulfilling the criteria is only incidental. I'm hoping that one of these tracks will be both - great AND fulfills the criteria, making the question moot.

Track Four:

I've never heard this before. Thank god, because it's fab and exactly the kind of song I'd suspect I would've heard before. My only problem is that it's a *bit* over the top, which I suspect was intentional. But that puts it in the category of songs I appreciate, but couldn't really love. It's not the kind of song I could listen to over and over and over again. But I'm sending a copy around to all my friends.

So funny, though.

Track Five:

To answer the question about what kind of track I'd submit: This is very likely the kind of track I'd submit. This has always been my idea of what sex sounds like in music. Moreso than Prince or that late 90s song with the woman orgasming being used as a sample. Actually, the epitome of sex in art in my eyes is the final page of Ulysses, but this is a close second. The verbal experience surrounding sex, as opposed to description of the act itself.


Results:

I know what I'm voting for, though if you read my paragraphs above, I don't think my results are obvious. All in all, I knew 1/5, but I didn't remember the artist for that one, so I'm counting it as not knowing all five. I'd say that 3 of the 5 are quite good, one really works for me, and one I'd listen to again in the future. So, all in all not a bad mix.


Quote: "sometimes like fire and the glorious sunsets and the figtrees in the Alameda gardens yes and all the queer little streets and pink and blue and yellow houses and the rosegardens and the jessamine and geraniums and cactuses and Gibraltar as a girl where I was a Flower of the mountain yes when I put the rose in my hair like the Andalusian girls used or shall I wear a red yes and how he kissed me under the Moorish wall and I thought well as well him as another and then I asked him with my eyes to ask again yes and then he asked me would I yes to say yes my mountain flower and first I put my arms around him yes and drew him down Jo me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes."

Re: My Notes

[koganbot]

I heard Track One in plenty of clubs and I don't associate it with sex, thankfully.

[martinskidmore.livejournal.com]

I have listened now. I know and love track 5, and always enjoy track 4 too. I quite liked three, and didn't like the first two. My top ten possible sex tracks for something like this (i.e. leaving out too obvious classics like Sex Machine):

Hank Ballard & the Midnighters - Sixty Minute Man
Nuclear Assault - Buttfuck
Outkast - Spread
Richard Hell & the Voidoids - Love Comes In Spurts
Wynonie Harris - Lollipop Mama
Lolita Storm - You Make Me High (When You Go Down Low)
Ghostface Killah - Who Would You Fuck
Robyn - Jack U Off
Alex Chilton - Bangkok
NWA - Just Don't Bite It

[martinskidmore.livejournal.com]

Goddammit, what am I thinking? I obviously don't mean Hank Ballard at #1 (I did think of including something like Sexy Ways by them), I mean Billy Ward & the Dominoes. I realise I have lost your respect with that mental typo, assuming there is any to lose...

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

I would have submitted either 'Swallow' by Emilie Autumn for Comedy Pr0ntastic Pun Potential ('I will swallow' are the first three words also it is about unfortunate sex, possibly with Billy Corgan 0_0) or also 'One More Night' by Stars, which is all about sad-but-hot breakup sex.