So my friend Christine has a friend, Travis, who's real smart about music, especially cool techno electronic stuff. Y'know. He lives in Columbus, OH, which you wouldn't think would be the real nexus of the music world, but somehow Travis stays ahead of the pack on the whole technolean thing. Now that I think of it people from Ohio will probably get real mad about me saying that.

Anyways, Travis gives music tips to Christine, and Christine passes the good ones on to me. On a recent trip to SF they were browsing in Amoeba and Travis grabbed a disk, handed it to Christine, and said, "You should check out Solex."

He was right! Solex's album, "Solex vs. the Hitmeister", is my favorite completely sideways classic of 1998. Why? First, Solex is not a band, Solex is a single woman. But she calls herself Solex! I love people who make up a name for themselves! Second, Solex is Dutch, and we all know the Dutch are highly perverted and evil.

Third, the music is _freaky_ and bizarre -- I'm thinking of Tom Waits + Shonen Knife + Lamb. The songs are danceable, yeah, but only if you're highly weird. Fourth, all the song titles have the word "Solex" in them, like "When Solex Went Walking" and "Solex All Licketysplit" (my favorite track _and_ title -- go figure).

Fifth, Solex sings with this doped-out babydoll voice. Squealy, sighing, sexy, annoying. Kinda like what you'd get if you'd passed around a tape recorder at a party at the Playboy Mansion in 1978.

Sixth, the lyrics are over-the-top insane and non-linear. But catchy! Like: "As soon as I got a paycheck/You asked me to make it high-tech/A-AND to BLE-EACH my FLE-E-CKS". What does that mean? Fuck if I know! But I do know I like it.

I've got a tape of Solex in the Mighty 4Runner of Doom, and I listen to it about twice a day. I love it! You will too! So, listen to Travis, because he's smart. And check out Solex, eh?