Song #27: Giuseppe Andrews - "Electrocuted"

Song #27: Giuseppe Andrews - "Electrocuted" (2010)

Songs from 'Look'

"Yesterday I was prosecuted by a jury of soccer moms. Though I tried so hard to dispute it, they said they don't wanna hear that song."

"Electrocuted" was the first song I ever heard by avant-garde musician Giuseppe Andrews, and instantaneously fell in love with the song's incredibly different sound, aura, and mixing. Much like most of Andrews' songs, I struggle to find meaning within the song (from what I can gather, it concerns a man who murdered his neighbors and, after being found guilty by a jury of soccer moms, is about to get the electric chair), but I return to the idea James Brown conveyed with his music that "if it looks good, sounds good, and feels good, it's music."

That line could, in turn, formulate the thesis for Andrews' entire career. "Electrocuted" was the first song to be played on Look, the Showtime Television show Andrews starred in, playing Willie, a gas station worker who was a struggling musician. In one of the show's early episodes, while playing the song one day with his pal Carl, who was dancing and prancing through the aisles, Willie suggests that him and Carl make a music video and put it online to attract attention. Carl suggests to get crazy costumes, invite Willie's girlfriend over, dance all throughout the aisles and around the counter of the gas station like he was previously doing, and to film it all through the security cameras/ATM cameras inside the gas station. Look's subversive quality as a Television show was that it was all shot through security cameras, and centered around the idea that these people (even though they were fictional characters) had know idea they were being filmed.

"Electrocuted" plays like a lost eighties song that contributed to the sounds and vibes brought on by new wave/techno music, a genre I'm increasingly finding myself attached to. "Electrocuted" is not only a fun song, but it sounds wonderful, with Andrews' uniquely mixed vocals creating a level of dance and infectiousness rarely seen in such independently made music. The song is as complex as it is simple, and therefore, earns a place on the list.

Give "Electrocuted" a listen (the video is the finished product of Willie's music video from the Look Television series), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7QxQT5gzQY