I've got to give it to the Spotify artificial intelligence sorcery used to cook up the Discovery recommendations for me this week.
It's downright spooky they were so on the nose with some of the selections, not to mention the absolute genius of leading it all off with Wire's Ex-Lion Tamer, an unbelievably ripping great song on a record chock full of them.
It was a moment of pure serendipity - how'd they know that song was just the audio tonic my mind needed after being inconvenienced with changing out a flat bike tire on the way to work?
Which naturally got me thinking about the amazing Soulside cover of the song - a pretty incredible rendition in its own right. To my discriminating ears - notwithstanding the long hairs snaking out from them - Ex-Lion Tamer by Soulside is arguably the best of all the Wire covers that have come and gone.
This provided the perfect excuse to take an aural stroll down memory lane as I immersed myself in a lot of other old Soulside tunes, especially from Less Deep Inside Keeps. So double my thanks to the great Spotify wizard in the cloud for that initial suggestion. And more on Soulside in future posts.
For those Spotifiers, here's a playlist to give you the ideal back-to-back Ex-Lion Tamer experience.
Otherwise there's poor-quality YouTube to help you re-create the effect.
But whatever you do, play this loud!
I have no clue what the words really mean but damn I get goose-bumps as I sing along and type them out while the song caroms off the walls of the Papa Punk den.
"Next week will solve your problems
But now
Fish fingers all in a line
The milk bottles stand empty
Stay glued to your TV set...TV!
Stay glued to your TV set...TV!"
(repeat ad infinitum or for at least 30 secs)Wire, Ex-Lion Tamer
