song: christian says
album: everything!
band: tones on tail
england - 1988

in this age of frozen freaks
the only highs we get are low
in this age of cold relief
brings only what a way to go
with money in your pocket
you say wise and always free
but with that money in your pocket
you’ve got nowehere to go

song: cuttooth
album: amnesiac (special collector’s edition)
band: radiohead
england - 2009

i’ll build you up to pull you down,
tie you to your feet and watch you drown,
a little bit of knowledge will destroy you,
a little bit of knowledge will destroy you,
i’ll build you up to pull you down,
tie you to the stake and watch you burn in hell,
in hell…
i don’t know why i feel so tongue-tied,
i don’t know why i feel so skinned alive

i’ll find another skin to wear.

+: originally released in 2001, as a b-side on the “knives out” single cd1. some of the lyrics (“i don’t know why i feel so tongue tied / i don’t know why i feel so skinned alive”) were later used in the radiohead song “myxomatosis”, appearing on the band’s 2003 album “hail to the thief”.

song: the prince & old lady shade
album: ninth
artist: peter murphy
england - 2011

the prince was a bird
not guilty or the like
a true friend sip and soft
no suffering cry

all names and some cranks
he’d powdered all off
their sycophantic gifts were never enough

old lady shade turns a vespertilian thing
a motion event
a friend of the jinn! 

song: clint
album: epic garden music
band: sad lovers and giants
england - 1982

and if we meet again someday
i know that you won’t be the same
when understanding is betrayed
just walk away, just walk away

+: their sound blends post-punk, atmospheric keyboards and psychedelia and the band has been described as “a pastoral pink floyd”.

song: i can see through you
album: skying
band: the horrors
england - 2011

some people see you
to me you’re just see-through
no one remembers your name
no one tries

‘cause i can see through you and i don’t get it
i can see through you and there’s no way
i can see through you
i can see through 

song: the afterlife
album: the sea of memories
band: bush
uk - 2011 

song: transparent days
album: gravity the seducer
band: ladytron
england - 2011 

song: dot dash
album: pink flag (cd re-issue)
band: wire
england - 1994

dot dash dot dash dot dash
dip flash dip flash dip flash
don’t crash don’t crash don’t crash

song: on the motorway
album: nights out
band: metronomy
england - 2008

song: the house of the rising sun
album: the house of the rising sun (usa version)
band: the animals
england - 1964

aka “rising sun blues”. tells of a life gone wrong in new orleans: transposes the narrative of the song from the point of view of a woman led into a life of degradation, to that of a male, whose father was now a gambler and drunkard, as opposed to the sweetheart in earlier versions. 

like many classic folk ballads, the authorship of “the house of the rising sun” is unknown. some musicologists believe it is based on the tradition of broadside ballads of the 18th century which were taken to america by early settlers.

alan price of the animals has claimed that the song was originally a sixteenth-century english folk song about a soho brothel, and that english emigrants took the song to america where it was adapted to its later new orleans setting.

an interview with eric burdon revealed that he first heard the song in a club in newcastle, england, where it was sung by a northumbrian folk singer called johnny handle. the animals were on tour with chuck berry and chose it because they wanted something distinctive to sing. this interview denies assertions that the inspiration for their arrangement came from bob dylan. the band enjoyed a huge hit with the song, much to dylan’s chagrin when his version was referred to as a cover—the irony of which was not lost on van ronk, who went on record as saying that the whole issue was a “tempest in a teapot,” and that dylan stopped playing the song after the animals’ hit because fans accused dylan of plagiarism. dylan has said he first heard the animals’ version on his car radio and “jumped out of his car seat” because he liked it so much.

+: read more (wikipedia)

song: needles in the camel’s eye
album: here come the warm jets
artist: brian eno
england - 1974

+: the album features various guest musicians, including robert fripp of king crimson and members of roxy music, hawkwind, matching mole, and the pink fairies.

song: sex dwarf
album: non-stop erotic cabaret
band: soft cell
england - 1981

isn’t it nice
sugar and spice
luring disco dollies
to a life of vice

+: this video generated some controversy in britain. the original version of the music video (showed here) featured almond and ball in a bloody butcher shop surrounded by chainsaws, nude actors, and dwarves. however, the film was confiscated by police and censored before it was even released. as a tongue-in-cheek substitute, a re-filmed “sex dwarf” appeared in non-stop exotic video show featuring almond dressed in a tuxedo, directing a symphony orchestra of transvestites. a copy of the original “sex dwarf” can be found on tim pope’s website.

song: still life
album: skying
band: the horrors
england - 2011

when you wake up, when you wake up
you’ll find me 

song: crystal
album: get ready
band: new order
england - 2001

+: the music video featured a drum set with the words “the killers” on it, which was the inspiration for the name of the band the killers.

the killers lifted a number of elements of the layout of the set in the “crystal” video for their own video “somebody told me”. in 2005, at scotland’s “t in the park festival”, new order performed the song with the killers’ frontman brandon flowers singing the main vocals in a guest performance. 

song: antonin artaud
album: burning from the inside
band: bauhaus
england - 1983

one man’s poison another man’s meat 
one man’s agony another man’s treat 
artaud lived with his neck paced firmly in the noose 
eyes black with pain, 
limbs in cramps contorted 
the theatre and its double 
the void and the aborted 

those indians wank on his bones.