Follow Up: Chris Zane On "Look At Who You're Talking To"

Readers will recall our Clicky Clicky 200 post a couple weeks back about Human Television's transcendant little ballad "Look At Who You're Talking To," the title track to the band's sophomore set which ranks 86th in our countdown of our most-played/most-enjoyed tracks. In the item we speculated about the genesis of the very nice and emotive string arrangements in the song, which in our opinion seemed a little too nice to have sprung from the mind of someone unfamiliar with orchestral composition. And it turns out we were right. Upon reading our rank speculation, producer Chris Zane dropped us a quick note with some hard facts about the sessions he helmed during the recording of Human Television's Look At Who You're Talking To. Mr. Zane reports that when finishing the tracking, Billy Downing, the band's primary songwriter, still had a bit of a song, "In Front Of The House." left over that Zane fancied. So Zane brainstormed recording it with just acoustic guitar and voice, and then adding in the strings. And, indeed, as we noted earlier this month the strings were arranged by a John Fields, but not the John Fields we referenced in our earlier item. Instead, the Mr. Fields in question was "a guy working at an ad agency in midtown," Zane recalls.

The producer said he played Mr. Fields Nick Drake, or something like the work of the tragic British singer/songwriter, and instructed him to "rip this off, long notes only, nothing shorter than a quarter note." After some minor tweaking, some heavy string talent was brought in from a city orchestra and paid cash to run through the parts while Zane rolled tape. The strings were recorded in about six takes. And while that was occuring Zane thought to capture some video, which makes up the bulk of the video that topped our original post. On a related note, our favorite radio personality also read the post and brought to our attention that Philadelphia trio RunRunner had covered Human Television's "In Front Of The House," the fraternal twin of "Look At Who You're Talking To," during a radio session broadcast by Princeton University's WPRB in January 2007. As luck would have it, the cover ended up in our inbox late last week, and we're posting it below. We don't hear much about what RunRunner is up to these days, but hopefully they are working on a follow-up to its self-titled debut, which we reviewed here in April 2007.

RunRunner -- "In Front Of The House (Live)" -- WPRB Radio Session, Jan. 16, 2007
[right click and save as]
[buy Human Television records from Newbury Comics here]
[buy RunRunner music from EMusic here]

Today's Hotness: Johnny Foreigner, RunRunner

>> Hi everyone. We have no idea why you are all here today. Our best guess is that everyone just realized 1) the new Johnny Foreigner record is on its way and 2) that we can't help but track the band's every move, and additionally there must have been some news having to do with '70s rockers Foreigner at the same time. Or maybe Google started hitting us in new and interesting ways today? Cards on the table, we usually get about 200 people a day here reading this stuff. It's 6:30 and we've already had that many while not really posting anything substantive today. Unusual.

>> Speaking of Johnny Foreigner, we cracked open our Technics SL-4 direct drive turntable today to spin the band's single that we received earlier this week in less than satisfactory condition, and we found the vinyl disc was pretty well warped on top of the jacket being messed up. HMV, you rock. Fortunately there was no audible problem, but it is easy to notice the edge of the single undulating as "Our Bipolar Friends" and then b-side "The Houseparty Scene Is Killing You" unwind under the tone arm. Hot on the heels of selling out that single pretty much before it was even released March 10, the indie rock superheroes have posted their planned next single to its MySpace shack. The song is "Eyes Wide Terrified," and you may recall that the band had posted a stream of a radio session version of the track late last year. The studio version is a dramatic improvement (although we're still on the fence about the gang vocals at the breakdown at the end, the rest of the song is a real rocker), as guitars crash and bass pops in pleasing ways that were more muted in the radio performance. "Eyes Wide Terrified" will have two b-sides, the surprisingly still unknown to us (save for references on the psychogeographical map thingy) cuts "Ties Up Cats" and "Kandy Cane." The single will be issued as a limited release 7" -- some signed, and you can bet we're not ordering ours from the dolts at HMV again -- and digital download. No release date has been disclosed, but we do know that guitarist Alexei Berrow believes Johnny Foreigner's full-length debut will hit racks in June, so perhaps the single will come in May? Just speculating. Another interesting thing about June -- the band has no shows booked that month, according to MySpazz. That's odd, considering they have spent most of the year on the road and they are booked pretty solidly through the end of May, and then festival dates pick up in July. We can only guess that the band is going to spend the month doing press and relaxing. Or perhaps they'll do some international touring? Say to a large, largely English-speaking country with an incredibly unpopular president? We can only hope.

>> You know what we've been loving today, besides our new wireless router (which hasn't quite fixed our computing problems, so either Dell or Comcast are next on our sh** list)? Philadelphia power-pop trio RunRunner's new video for "Bad Timing," a highlight from the band's self-titled, self-released set that came out in 2006 or 2007, depending on where you looked for it. The clip below gives the band some concrete context for us. We thought RunRunner exhibited clear '80s power-pop influences (Plimsouls, etc.), but the somewhat drab colors and earnest performances in the video for "Bad Timing" seem particularly contemporary. We're hopeful that the clip draws a lot of new fans for the band, because we fear that the band will be yet another Philly act unable to break free of the city's invisible tractor beam. Check out the clip below, and read our review of the band's record here, which we posted almost exactly a year ago. And while we're at it, what the hell, here is the MP3 of "Bad Timing."

RunRunner -- "Bad Timing" -- RunRunner
[right click and save as]
[buy RunRunner from the EMusic here]

Today's Hotness: Frightened Rabbit, Distophia, Mobius Band

>> We're back. It's nice to be here.

>> We were just thinking the other day that Glaswegian powerfolk trio Frightened Rabbit would be a bunch of silly Scots if they didn't release their tune "It's Christmas, So We'll Stop" at Christmas time, for obvious reasons. A demo version of the tune has been hanging around on our hard drive for months due to the kindness of a nice, connected fellow. According to this AngryApe item, Frightened Rabbit will indeed release the tune as a limited-edition single on FatCat Dec. 17. The flipside is a choral version of "It's Christmas..."

Perhaps, like us, you scratched your head at this YouTube clip posted a month ago of FR drummer Grant conducting a chorus; well, now it all makes sense, doesn't it? The song will not be featured on Frightened Rabbit's forthcoming sophomore set, which is expected to be released in late Spring 2008, so you'd best grab the single while there are copies to be grabbed. If you'd like to try before you try to buy, you can stream the track at FatCat's web site: click this link and hunt around for the media player and click "New & Forthcoming." We reviewed Frightened Rabbit's Nov. 11 Boston show here earlier this month.

>> We continue to be blown away by the great songs recorded by Birmingham, England's defunct Distophia, who you may recall we first wrote about here. The band has posted four-track and eight-track demos at this MySpace domicile, and every song is a gem. Particularly arresting is the track "Ten Inch," which wraps a nice melody around a stuttering 5/4 tempo. The track packs tons of tricks into 1:57, including airy "bops" in the bridge, an extra sludgy chorus, some really present ride cymbal work at one point, and incisive guitars with a really nice jangle hear and there. It reminds us of the incredible tracks on Mock Orange's First EP, the only Mock Orange record we've ever been able to get into, but well worth hunting down. Anyway, "Ten Inch" is an impressive, impressive song. Distophia is giving it away at the MySpace coordinates noted above, but we'll save you the trip. Distophia, why'd you have to go?

Distophia -- "Ten Inch" -- MySpace Demo
[right click and save as]

>> Mobius Band doesn't want you to forget they are kicking off another leg of their fall tour this weekend. And if you are cool you already received the email and MySpace bulletin telling you as much. One item of particular interest is the Brooklyn-based act has dug into its catalog to offer up an MP3 of "Snow On Snow," a track from the trio's 2002 EP Three. Longtime fans know that Mobius Band once had a much more pronounced post-rock bent, and while "Snow On Snow" isn't particularly post-rock-flavored, the band's first three EPs had that flava, and we've missed hearing those songs. So it is nice see the band take an interest in this very good track again. Perhaps a clue as to what to expect in its current live set? Mobius Band plays Cambridge's Middle East Downstairs Sunday night. We'll be there with our mental paper and mental pen.

Mobius Band -- "Snow On Snow" -- Three
[right click and save as]
[buy Mobius Band recordings from Newbury Comics here]

>> Jeanette Sliwinski, the suicidal motor vehicle operator who senselessly killed Silkworm drummer Michael Dahlquist and two of his colleagues two years ago, has been sentenced to eight years in prison. Pun Canoes has a few more details here. Eight years hardly seems like punishment enough.

>> We really, really, really wanted this Idolator item to be about Kelly Clarkson covering the amazing Judas Priest song "Screaming For Vengeance," the title cut to the very first cassette we ever bought, purchased in the record section of the Devon, Pennsylvania K-Mart in 1982 or 1983. Can you imagine Ms. Clarkson hitting that first Halfordian howl that kicks off this killer jam? Oh well, maybe she'll get around to it. Have you never seen this live video of "Screaming For Vengeance"? It'll change your life.

>> Well would ya look at that: Robert Hazard. It seems only yesterday we were comparing Philly power pop trio RunRunner to Mr. Hazard's great rock/pop concoctions of the early '80s. We reviewed RunRunner's self-titled debut here in April.