I get a little shifty when people talk about things being sexy; it never quite feels right. It will take years of therapy to get across exactly what I mean, but it has something to do with the music here. It’s the naked awkwardness of our intents, our attempts to appease our id but keep it tamed. The confusions manifest themselves in a kind of glorious shame, with these intense erotic charges bubbling underneath and seeping out in the weirdest ways. It’s a loose thread, a less-is-more feeling of uncertainty and ambiguity. I’m not going to get all psycho-sexual on you; after all, this is an MP3 blog. These songs represent a little of what I am trying to articulate, this semi-creepy faux-unassuming/naïve sexuality that masks our enormously interesting repressions. Plus, they’re great songs.

Beat Happening- Bewitched

Calvin Johnson (in all his projects) gets labeled as a bellowing hunk/cutesy naïf hybrid, which is probably pretty close, but people often overlook the weirdness of the intersection: “Bewitched” is a great example of fake ‘50’s youth overdosing on hormones, phone books between their hips at school dances, all raw passion and jitters. Great, especially the huge toms at the end—beating heart, throbbing hips. Screw the garage-rock revival as “sexy,” this is ten times more awkward and ten times better.

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Elvis- Blue Moon

A few years before his gyration TV scandal that set American skirts ablaze, Elvis Aaron cut a meditative cover of this instantly recognizable pop classic for Sun Records. For all the pelvic action he pioneered, there’s something infinitely more understated, creepy, and generally sexy about the chilling falsetto break in his song; it’s like all the energy goes straight to his head because he’s afraid to let it out, and it’s thrilling.

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Sonic Youth- Shadow of a Doubt

From 1986’s towering Evol, a kind of darkly camp role-playing of the same vibe; Kim Gordon’s delivery puts a gorgeous dreamy-noir spin on the breathy ‘50’s starlet in a moment of weakness, an indie Marilyn unbridled. One of my favorite songs, maybe ever.

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Shangri La’s- Past, Present, and Future

A slightly morose, but nevertheless really nice rip of Beethoven’s ubiquitous-for-a-reason “Moonlight Sonata.” This starts out fairly innocently, but I get goosebumps thinking about the girl leading the boy along the beach murmuring the condition “don’t try to touch me, ‘cause that will never…happen…again,” only to ask, “shall we dance?” Love—totally self-indulgent, totally messy and confusing. There’s something almost surreal about the string break’s grandeur, a feeling that runs through much of the Shangri La’s music. (Fun fact: Sonic Youth’s “Little Trouble Girl” is blatantly girl-group derivative, aided by the blasé eroticism of the Breeders/Pixies leading lady Kim Deal; the song pinches its great closing “we were close… very… very… close” section from the Shangri La’s “Give Him a Great Big Kiss”: “Is he a good dancer?” “What do you mean is he a good dancer?’” “Well, how does he dance?” “Close… very… very… close.”)

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