August 16, 2004 | Posted by mark at 3:10 AM

Hooray for Yellow Album Covers

Hot Butter

Hot Butter - Popcorn. Hot Butter is the alias of Stan Free, a moog soldier who faught the good fight back in the middle 60s to bring credibility to electronic music. Sideman for the more famous Gershon Kingsley (of Music to Moog By fame), Free snatched up this tune and made it his own, charting his only top ten. Later on this was collected with some other works on a Hot Butter compilation album. [Buy It] . This song is pretty ridiculous, and you've no doubt heard it before, whether you know it or not. Songs like this make me wonder how different the world was in 1972. There's no way this song would chart today, but back then it was wildly popular, if only for a moment.

I just love it when the drums kick in. That beat is just relentlessly fun.


The Heartfelt

Figurine - Way Too Good. Completely unrelated, comes Dntel's other pop project, Figurine. Working Postal Service-style with two friends in different parts of the country, Dntel (billed here as Jimmy Figurine), ably crafts his signature beats while the others sing love songs on top. The songs are less poppy than the Gibbard tunes and have more glitchy breakdowns. However, the vocalists aren't nearly as good as Ben and Jenny, so the album suffers somewhat in that regard. This is one of their stronger cuts as well as one of the shortest, coming in at a tight two minutes and twelve seconds.

This is from their second proper full-length, The Heartfelt [Buy It]. They also have some remix 12"s floating around, as well as a relatively recent reissue of their debut. I have no idea if there are plans for another Figurine record, but it would most certainly be welcome.

Comments

Here's an entire playlist of other versions of Gershon Kingsley's song "Popcorn." Enjoy!

Posted by: Oddio Katya at August 16, 2004 9:36 AM

I just gotta thank you for posting "Popcorn". Man this takes me back! I was just 5 years old in 1972 but I remember this song. As soon as I heard it I started thinking of all the cheesy things I loved about being a kid in the 70's. Like cheesy japanese monster movies, Godzilla, Rodan, Mothra. And old school rollerskates, Starsky and Hutch and Charlies Angels. Funny how all this stuff is a goldmine to be rehashed in the 90's and 00's. Thanks again!

Posted by: Keith Fox at August 16, 2004 11:12 AM

I checked out Figurine before, and this stuff is terribly, terribly weak compared to Postal Service and Dntel's solo material. It's incredibly hard for me to imagine that it's the same producer at the mix desk.

I doubt with Dntel and Ben doing live shows still as The Postal Service that there won't be a Figurine record anytime soon.

Also, do you have the song "Don't Get Your Hopes Up?" Dntel released it back in 2002 on a split 12" picture disc on the label Rocket Racer. The problem is that there's only 1000 copies out there. IMO it deserves a post here.

Posted by: Rob at August 16, 2004 11:14 AM

Rob, I'll keep an eye out for it.

Thanks for the tip.

Posted by: robot mark at August 16, 2004 11:48 AM

awesome post mark - i love that figurine song, though not quite as much as IMpossible, which is so sweet and so sad, but the music is so blindingly tech-pop! that its got a really funny balance.

Posted by: robot blair at August 16, 2004 12:29 PM

By the way you can listen to the IMpossible song (and what a song!) at Epitonic.

Posted by: hugues at August 16, 2004 3:10 PM

Mark, you know how I love "Popcorn". Thanks, baby.

Posted by: David at August 16, 2004 9:05 PM

I can't tell if that figurine song is a parody of an emo song or if its for real. Or maybe things have gone so far that there is no difference any more.

Anyway Popcorn rules!

Posted by: diccon at August 18, 2004 7:37 AM

here you can find a lot more on Popcorn:www.popcorn-song.com

Posted by: Jones at August 21, 2005 5:50 AM

robots are owesome!!!!

Posted by: nino valeroso at September 4, 2007 3:20 AM
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