Death of a rubbish rapper

 And if you think peace is a common goal that goes to show how little you know. 

Malcolm McLaren loved to stir up trouble. Annabella Lwin was 13 years old when he plucked her from her Saturday job in a laundrette and made her lead singer of BowWowWow. He teamed her up with a bunch of musicians he robbed off Adam Ant. Their first single was a song about the joys of music piracy and the cover of their first album prompted a police inquiry due to the naked image of adolescent sex kitten Lwin on the cover.

News of McLarens death saddens me. I saw an interview with Nile Rogers a while ago where he talked about working with McLaren on his Duck Rock album back in the early 80's and said what an awful rapper McLaren was. Apparently he had no natural rhythm. I found this strangely endearing. 



Malcolm McLaren - Double Dutch

Are you ready for mammal beats?

An animal themed mix inspired by Mrs Barbara Woodhouse and a trip to the pet cemetery at Powerscourt.

Download it here

Tracklist
Les Georges Leningrad - Mammal Beats

This raucous three-piece from Montreal make songs that sound like they're barely held together. Taken from their 2006 Sangue Puro album 

Y Pants - The Fly

Y Pants, an all-female punk band from New York, had a unique sound based around a toy grand piano, a thumb drum and a ukulele. They only released one album, and this is my favourite song off it, a story about a woman who, at the moment of her death, is visited by a fly. Despite the gloomy subject matter the whole thing is quite upbeat. The lyrics are taken from this Emily Dickinson poem.

Suburban Wives Club - Casual Cat at a Laudromat

Another all-girl group, Suburban Wives Club wrote punk songs about the overwhelming minutiae of suburban life. They imagined how Chairman Maos wife must have felt picking his socks up off the floor, they fantastised about finding love at the laudromat.


Kid Congo and the Pink Monkey Birds - Rare as the Yeti

Kid Congo was a member of the Cramps, Gun Club and one of Nick Caves original Bad Seeds. His music has a primal swampy garage rock feel to it. For some reason he seems to be doing an impression of Dr Frankenfurter on Rare as the Yeti.

Interlude - a few words from Mrs Woodhouse

Prince - Pussy Control

Pussy Control sees Prince try his hand at gangsta rap. It dates from his creatively dodgy 'artist formerly known as' period in the mid 90's when he was madder than a bag of cats.  Despite all of the above it's completely amazing. 




White Lies - Farewell to the Fareground (Rory Philips White Horse remix)
La Horse - Cyanide and Happiness


BowWowWow - Where's my snake?

BowWowWow were formed when Malcolm McLaren nicked Adam Ant's backing band and paired them up with 14 year old scantily clad sex kitten Annabella Lwin. Like most of their songs 'Where's my snake?' is less than three minutes long and fuelled by a combination of furious tribal drum beats and innuendo.



Bumblebee Unlimited - Ladybug (Devlin extendit)

Taken from their disco concept album 'Sting like a Bee' this song tells the story of the romance between two insects - Ladybug and Barry 'B', which, alarmingly, seems to culminate in rape.




Golden Bug - LookLookLook

The Pixies - Monkeys gone to Heaven (Minigroove 45 remix)

Simian Mobile Disco - Hotdog (Cosmo Vitelli remix)

SMD celebrate their favourite mammal-based snack.





Woolfy - Oh Missy (In Flagrantis 'Barbara Woodhouse' remix)

In Flagranti's remix of a dreary Woolfy song thankfully bares no resemblence to the original. With some added encouragement from Barbara.





Idiotproof - Gorilla (Siriusmo's Ass of the Baboon remix)

Crash Course in Science - Cardboard Lamb (David Caretta remix)

David Carretta's incredible 2003 remix of CCIS's 1981 original. I love the way the singer manages to work a W into her pronunciation of cardboard.