d a n c i n g xxa b o u t xxa r c h i t e c t u r e

G Peter Gabriel Djivan Gasparyan

N Naked City Negativland Nine Inch Nails Gary Numan The Nylons

A Abba Barry Adamson Air Alesini + Andreoni Herb Alpert Anderson Joan Armatrading Eddie Arnold Art of Noise

H Nina Hagen Haircut 100 Hapa The Harmonic Choir Emmylou Harris The Hitmen

O Oingo Boingo Roy Orbison OMD

B The Beach Boys The Beatles Beck Blondie Boston David Bowie Bow Wow Wow Michael Brook Junior Brown Buggles Byrne + Eno

S Severed Heads The Shaggs Jane Siberry Elliot Smith SPK Carl Stalling Donna Summer David Sylvian Synergy

Y Yello Yello Magic Orchestra

C Meryn Cadell California Guitar Trio Walter Carlos The Cars Toni Childs Cibo Matto Patsy Cline Cocteau Twins Coldcut BJ Cole Combustible Edison Julee Cruise

Z Frank Zappa

M Manhattan Transfer Bob Marley Martha + the Muffins Massive Attack Material MC 900' Jesus Bobby McFerrin Malcolm McLaren The Mills Brothers Ministry Joni Mitchell Ennio Morricone

Q Quasi Queen

X XTC

U U2 Ultravox Underworld United Future Organization

D David Darling De La Soul Dead Can Dance Deee-Lite Deep Forest Devo DJ Shadow Thomas Dolby

P Penguin Cafe Orchestra Perrey + Kingsley Pink Floyd Jonny Polonsky Public Enemy

E The Eagles Rinde Eckert The Electric Chamber Dean Elliott Emergency Broadcast Network Enigma Brian Eno Roger Eno Enya Esquivel Eurythmics The Everly Brothers

V Vangelis Velvet Underground Visage

W Tom Waits Jennifer Warnes Gillian Welch Slim Whitman Thomas Wilbrandt George Winston Bernie Worrell

F Fantômas Fatboy Slim Fats Comet Foetus Forest for the Trees Fountains of Wayne Robert Fripp

T Talking Heads Third Bass This Mortal Coil Tipsy Tom Tom Club Trees

I Icehouse Chris Isaak Hal Isbitz

R Radiohead The Ramones Leon Redbone The Roches Roxy Music

J Joe Jackson Michael Jackson Japan Jean Michel Jarre Jude

K King Crimson Kraftwerk

L Landscape kd lang Lanterna LA Style Lonesome Pie Lene Lovich Low Lucky Stars

MC 900’ Jesus – The City Sleeps

Texan Mark Griffin chose what has to be the strangest name possible for a rapper. I’m down with the MC (as in Master of Ceremonies – the guy who raps (or toasts, in Jamaica) over the beats and beds provided by his partner in crime, the DJ, or Disc Jockey), but what’s up with the 900 foot Jesus? It is somewhat catchy, I suppose, and was taken out of context from an Oral Roberts sermon (you gotta wonder what the context was) but it runs the risk of being kind of a one joke name that you get tired of quickly. Fortunately, the music holds up well enough that the absurdity of the name quickly fades.

MC 900’ Jesus debuted with his partner DJ Zero on the album Hell with the Lid Off, which was a bracing mix of rap, rock, and industrial music. It was competent, certainly, and had a couple of good tracks (e.g., Truth is Out of Style), but it wasn’t until his sophomore release, Welcome to My Dream, that he really found his footing and established a unique and identifiable sound. Dark and brooding, and heavily influenced by jazz chords, progressions, and sensibilities, Welcome to My Dream is an enchanting album, and contains his best work. I know I’m in the minority on this, most people who have an opinion think his last album, One Step Ahead of the Spider, is his best, but he tips a little too far into the jazz idiom at that point for my tastes. Welcome to My Dream percolates with the slick, urban sound of modern noir – rain slicked streets and tasty beats, and throws enough different elements together in novel ways that it sounds more like innovation than imitation.

The highlight of the album for me is this track, The City Sleeps. A haunting portrait of an arsonist, the song chronicles the late-night adventures of someone who “lights the fires while the city sleeps”. The lyrics are frightfully authentic sounding, as if MC 900 has spent a few nights crouching with an old box of matches and a gasoline can himself. He understands that arson is only incidentally about fire, and ably captures the hopes and fears of a firestarter with his polished and literate lyrics. But all that poetry would be for naught if there wasn’t a killer beat smoldering underneath the rhymes, and (uncredited) DJ Zero supplies an serious groove. I love the deep echoey beat that begins and ends the track and the great simple electric piano riff that propels the piece along. I also really like the incredibly tasty scratches that DJ Zero drops throughout the breaks. All in all, an incendiary track (sorry).

Shortly after I moved to Los Angeles, the “civil unrest” brought about by the acquittal of Rodney King’s attackers occurred. It was a thrilling and frightening experience, watching society come undone, no matter how briefly. I was sent home from work two hours before the rioters got to the Circuit City a block away (damn, if I had just stuck around for a few more minutes, I could’ve scored a free TV!). As the city burned, I climbed up on the roof with some friends and watched the smoke fill the sky and wondered how much closer it would get to our apartment. I didn’t feel particularly nervous about it, and, sure enough, the fires stopped about a mile away. I was almost sad to see the city come back to its senses – so justified are the complaints against the powers that be. I knew I was supposed to be horrified and concerned, but there was a part of me that was really excited that the city was going up in flames and that people were mad as hell and not going to take it any more. I tried to keep my opinions to myself and to those I really trusted and to publicly shake my head and cluck my tongue in concern. Then a week later, I heard that MC 900’ Jesus’ track The City Sleeps was the number one requested song of the week on my favorite station, KCRW, and I knew I wasn’t alone.

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