A Swift Crane Kick to the Head

MP3 Karate Feelings / Messer für Frau Müller

Messer für Frau Müller is not even a little Japanese. They’re a Russian group that makes music which is probably referred to as “pastiche glitch-cabaret” on other planets in other dimensions. Nevertheless, the guy who recommended the insane Japanese video clip you were supposed to check out yesterday enjoys listening to “Karate Feelings” while watching said video. That’s right—Gene, our friend and yours, is an international multi-tasker. About this song being spectacular he is right. But I prefer to imagine it as the soundtrack to something else.

Everyone knows that the only good thing ever to come out of Mad TV is the animated version of the Spy vs. Spy comic strips. My pitch: A color version of Spy vs. Spy with Mr. Miyagi as one spy and a plump Jewish guy with a big moustache as the other. The action would involve a great deal of dodging around corners and getting hit on the head with giant inflatable bats and/or plastic xylophones. As a bonus, at the end of every episode the two spies would reconcile, and together they would beat the director of The Next Karate Kid to a bloody pulp. During each installment, “Karate Feelings” plays exactly one time.

MP3 Casiotone Nation / Soul Coughing

I can’t remember which song is used in the real Spy vs. Spy cartoon, but I have a feeling it might be by Soul Coughing. This is not that song. But if for some reason you don't have "Casiotone Nation" already, you're missing out on an awfully impressive display of lyric and mathematic virtuosity (the latter probably inspired by School House Rocks). So here it is, in all its lemony-fresh free-radical glory.