Saturday, July 31, 2010

Steve Martin & Bernadette Peters - Tonight You Belong To Me

Saw a Jerk/Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid double feature the other day, and it reminded me that Steve Martin's schmaltzy stuff tends to be hit-or-miss. For example, here's a miss, from LA Story, a movie I completely love otherwise.
Here's a hit:

I've heard other versions of this song, and it works so much better as a duet.

Friday, July 30, 2010

Elizabeth Mitchell - Little Bird, Little Bird

No, not that Elizabeth Mitchell.

If you've heard this one, then you're probably watching Futurama. If not, it featured in a perfect little scene at the end of last week's episode that was heartbreaking and beautiful. It's a kids' song so if you're reading this and you have little ones, go buy this album.

Thursday, July 29, 2010

The Gun Club - Idiot Waltz

I've been driving around Westchester, looking for a job a little bit, listening to the Gun Club's last album. It's not the prettiest time.



* This era Gun Club is the answer to the question "What if Guns N'Roses were good" as you can see there.

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - Round and Round

Let the '70s AM pop wash over you, like a bald man making out with a fox.



The whole album is laudable, but man, that hook.

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Jimmy Ruffin - Tell Me What You Want



This one goes out to the Ladies, at least those not already claimed by the hyper-sexual Papa McKeel, and those castoffs papa saves for his misbegotten son, Tyles.

Love, is, what... you need...?

Dig.

Sunday, July 25, 2010

The Arcade Fire - Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)

So this came out (read, leaked) the other day. I am going to assume we all know how to find linkage if needed. It's a pretty fun album. It helps that I sort of gave up hope on them ever surpassing Funeral, which was probably an unfair thing for me to even consider hoping for.



Enjoy your Sunday, hugssquadron.

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Freezepop - Here Comes A Special Boy

Have you heard?

Here comes a special
Here comes a very special

Boy

Friday, July 23, 2010

Clem Snide - Faithfully

So, first of all, I'm not talking about that other thing at all, because whatever.

I mentioned the AV Undercover series in this post. Someone finally got around to doing "A Rush and a Push..." and it was a complete abortion. Like I said, the series has mostly been a disappointment but there are a few gems, and I am as shocked as you are that I'm putting this song into that category. It turns out that the song has a pretty solid skeleton and, with the awful 80's production stripped away, it's actually kind of nice.


Clem Snide covers Journey

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Pixies - I've Been Tired

Sorry, friends, I've been tired.

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Chalkdust - Eric Loves Me

(Even when I call him an asshole.)



My primary motivation for posting this -- though Eric's love for me is no doubt eternal -- is to champion a fantastic cover to one of Chalkdust's other albums:



It's calypso Harder They Come, guys!

Garish red vest, shades, no shirt, mini-fro, big-ass revolver: This one has it all. And look at that belt buckle. I found it at Easy Street a month or so back, and I was probably a fool not to buy it. But the title track skipped something awful, and $15 seemed like a premium for wall art. I don't know, maybe I'll go back and see if it's still there.

Plus it's a nice little motif for the other thing. Rally the legion!


...


Aw hell, just one more thing:

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Miniature Tigers - Gold Skull



That dude in the video is rockin' that special ed look. I guess its a mercy killing at the end there. Whatever.

The OGL is dead? This saddens me a little, what with all the time spent there in the past, but oh well. We'll find something new for ourselves.

Friday, July 16, 2010

Melodians - Rivers of Babylon

When I went on my trip a few months ago, I brought this book with me to read. Well I mean, I didn't "bring it with me", it was just the book I was reading at the time and hadn't finished. Anyway, I had my iPod on shuffle and this song came up. It's based on a couple of Psalms - 137 in particular, and also 19. That passage from 19 comes up at...some point during the year, so that even a completely unobservant Jew like me knows it:

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight,O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.

So anyway, the point of this long and rambling story is that, as that song was playing, I happened to be reading the exact part of the book where he mentions one of the Psalms listed, and I can't remember which because the important part is that he mentions the song too, that the words of the Psalm features prominently in a song from the The Harder They Come soundtrack. Get the book (it's a fun read, at least I think so), you'll see. I laughed, the people on the plane probably thought I was a crazy person. I couldn't figure out if it was a good or a bad omen, but it was a weird coincidence.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

The Moondoggies - It's Hard To Love Someone

First, some music from Seattle-area roots-rock heroes The Moondoggies, which you might remember from their best of 2008 effort "Don't Be A Stranger." I picked up this tour/Seattle-only EP for a few bucks at an independent record store here in town. It's comprised of five tracks that didn't make the cut for their forthcoming album, "Tidelands." They are an awesome band and you should listen to them.



And now a little something for the being banned excellent fun times.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

The Mynabirds - Numbers Don't Lie



I specialize in nice little songs, so here's a nice little song, won't you sample my nice little song?

(Cleveland? *chuckle*)

Monday, July 12, 2010

The Beatles- Octopus's Garden

THE WHOLE WORLD IS AN OCTOPUS'S GARDEN, ACUS PAUL RUNS THIS SHIT.

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Nas & Damian Marley - Patience

I actually had plans to post something from Big Boi's new album, because it is lots of fun and I love it, but I got beaten to the punch. So we will go with this.




(And a late additional video.)

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Big Boi feat. Andre 3000 - Lookin For Ya

How long must we, as Americans, wait for an album to come out by a successful musician? I highly recommend you read this article about the windy exodus from studio to iTunes of Sir Lucious Leftfoot, and why this track wasn't included on the release (you guys it is with Andre 3000. How fucking stupid do you have to be to fight an Andre 3000 collaboration on Big Boi's first ever solo album. That is insane.). And, of course, it's great.

Friday, July 9, 2010

R.E.M. - Cuyahoga

Lol Cleveland. The only thing the Cuyahoga is on fire with tonight is #23 jerseys and also maybe tears because if you lived in Cleveland you'd probably drink and then your tears would be made of alcohol and they would burn and you would have a lot of tears because again, you live in Cleveland.

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Jose Gonzalez - Far Away

Before I begin, let me say I do have a few quibbles about Red Dead Redemption, which I won't get into here. For the most part, it's hard to imagine a game being more deserving of its acclaim. The music is no exception, and this song in particular is integrated into one of the game's best moments.

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Cocorosie - Lemonade




This song reminds me that I never did get around to returning that Startropics game I borrowed from John back in 1990. What the hell, what happened to that NES? I bet I got that thing in a box somewhere gathering dust, but I'll never really know for sure. *shrug*

Sunday, July 4, 2010

Saturday, July 3, 2010

Frank Sinatra - Maureen is a Champ

This is pretty adorable. The Beatles asked Frank Sinatra to record a version of "Lady is a Tramp" about Ringo's wife Maureen, for her birthday. Hence, Maureen is a Champ. As far as I know, there's only one record in existence of it, but here's a bootleg. Enjoy!

Friday, July 2, 2010

Steve Earle and the Dukes - State Trooper

The original is amazing (and a Suicide pastiche, specifically "Frankie Teardrop", as my brother pointed out to me) but I did a Highwaymen cover of a Steve Earle song, so here's Earle covering the Boss (and I'll have to find Springsteen covering someone else eventually so I can keep going.)

This one came up for me because the original closes out "I Dream of Jeannie Cusamano", the last episode of the first season of "The Sopranos". I decided to do a full series rewatch this summer and, while there are still things about the show I don't love, it generally holds up awfully well, and it's interesting to see the show as a whole piece, already knowing where everyone's arc is headed. It's a show that I have some qualms about (unlike other shows we've discussed, like "Breaking Bad" or "The Wire", that I love wholeheartedly) but you know, it really is damn good, and it laid the groundwork for those shows in a pretty straight line from A to B.



(And not to go off on another tangent but this is obviously from "Austin City Limits", another great repository of televised live music.)

Thursday, July 1, 2010

The Stooges - No Fun

These two days without the World Cup are a preview of the next four years of your life. Despair.



(Here is some fun, though, hugs anyway, hugs in the face of the overwhelming awing upcoming soccerless letdown-maw, etc.)