Ignored, Maligned, and Forgotten Music

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The Ghost of Stephen Foster - Squirrel Nut Zippers

In honor of Halloween, and the fact that I like swing music, please enjoy The Ghost of Stephen Foster from Squirrel Nut Zippers. In the immortal words of Andrew Bird and Jim Mathus:
If we were made of cellophane
We’d all get stinking drunk much faster!
Happy Halloween!
Ghost Of Stephen Foster - Squirrel Nut Zippers
Buy The Ghost of Stephen Foster

She's a Bad Mama Jamma - Carl Carlton

As a little Halloween bonus, consider Mama Jamma Jiver from DJ BC, wherein Mos Def masquerades as George Michael pretending to be Carl Carlton. It’s a mix of Mos Def’s Brown Sugar, with George Michael’s cover of Jive Talkin’ and Carl Carlton’s She’s a Bad Mama Jamma (which is the song I was originally going to post). Bits of Sean Paul’s Get Busy and Herbie Hancock’s Rockit have been added for a little spice. You can download the mp3 from DJ BC’s site. You'll have to scroll 'way down in the singles.

In case you are, like I am, a fan of Carl Carlton’s original version of She’s a Bad Mama Jamma, you can listen to the original here, instead. Or you can do what I did, and enjoy them both.
Bad Mama Jama - Carl Carlton

Dick Around - The Sparks

I was never a huge fan of Sparks in the 80s, but the band certainly has had their moments over the past thirty-plus years. Dick Around is probably the best of those moments, and the video makes it even better. In fact, I like them much better since their 2006 release "Hello Young Lovers", the album on which you can find Dick Around and the goofy Here, Kitty. What more do you need for an introduction—click the thing already!

Buy Dick Around

Rage in the Cage - J Geils Band

Ah, back from my mini-vacation and ready to share. I kept buying, and playing, records well into the 1980s. In part, I persisted in this behavior because of 45s, and the fact that the B-sides were often as good as, if not better, than the single you bought the thing to hear in the first place. A prime example of that was the 45 for the J Geils Band hit Centerfold. Sure, everyone knew the song. What they didn’t know was the little gem on the back titled Rage in the Cage.

While Centerfold was burning up the charts, I was playing the groove right through the record on Rage in the Cage. I still have that 45, and I still like Rage in the Cage better than Centerfold. I thought I’d share the track with you all. Have a listen!
Rage In The Cage - J. Geils Band
Buy Rage in the Cage

Mahna Mahna, Cake, and Muppets

For those of you who grew up hearing Mahna Mahna, whether on The Muppet Show or the earlier Ed Sullivan Show version (as posted below), I thought I should share the Cake version of the song. No, no one has made Muppet-desserts. The band Cake released their "B-Sides and Rarities" album in 2007 and it included their versions of Mahna Mahna. What could be more entertaining than that? The fact that you can download it for free from the Cake web site, that's what.

Michael Feels Like Green Onions

I love blues and I grew up on Michael Jackson. Imagine the pleasure I take in Michael Feels Like Green Onions. I've spent the better part of an hour attempting to find a direct link to the creator of this little mash-up masterpiece. The closest I could come was this Mashuptown post from February of 2006. So, to whoever comprised The Corporation, I thank you for this slice of pop-blues, mashed up heaven. I still associate Green Onions with The Blues Brothers, but Booker T and the MGs own the tune.

Should you have not figured out the starting points for Michael Feels Like Green Onions, the song is comprised of Booker T & the MGs performing Green Onions under Michael Jackson singing The Way You Make Me Feel. It's musical virtuosity as the original artists never intended, and a mash-up that demonstrates how the whole can be even greater than the sum of its parts. If you enjoyed this one, you can find about ten thousand (that's a myriad, by the way) other mas-ups of his work.
Get the song now

Saturday Night

I have to admit that I was prepared not to like Pale Young Gentlemen, when first I read about them. I’d become a bit burned out on “indie” bands experimenting with different instrumentation and ending up with pretentious sounds and lyrical blather. I took a chance on them, however, and was very pleasantly surprised. Pale Young Gentlemen take themselves seriously, but don’t take their surreal lyrics to ridiculous lengths. They’ve also go enough talent to carry off oddities like The Crook of My Good Arm. But Clap Your Hands and Saturday Night stole the show for me. Give it a listen, then check out more from the Pale Young Gentlemen.
Saturday Night - Pale Young Gentlemen
Buy Saturday Night

Nobody's Business But My Own

A blues artist like Taj Mahal does some of his best work live, and none more so than his inventive improvisations on Nobody’s Business But My Own. Likely the best version is the one on 1998’s “In Progress & In Motion (1965-1998)”, a fantastic three-disc set. Nobody’s Business But My Own was recorded with The Pointer Sisters, as were a couple of other previously-unreleased, live tracks on the second disc. I love this for the verse that begins about 1:45 and includes a Wolfman Jack impression. I’ve included a couple of Taj Mahal’s other recordings for your entertainment, as well.
Aint Nobodys Business But My Own (Live In Chicago) - Taj Mahal
Nobodys Business But My Own - Taj Mahal
Buy Nobody’s Business But My Own
Forget that! Buy "In Progress & In Motion" and get 54 songs for $26!

Wanderlust King

I realized that I've made Gogol Bordello the Music of the Month for October, and thus have been listening to them quite a bit, but have never included a track from them here. Because I'm still messing around with finding an mp3 host, I'll include the video here for Wanderlust King off their most recent album, "Super Taranta!" (That's their excalmation point, by the way.) The more I listen to these guys, the more I like them. Enjoy!

Buy Wanderlust King

mp3 Frustration

I apologize for the sudden post drought, but I've discovered that none of the songs I've uploaded at boomp3.com will play. That rather defeats the purpose of posting the things, which means that I've got to find a new place to put them and then replace the player on all of my posts. [Insert screaming sound of your choice here.] If anyone has a recommendation for a cheap (read: free) place to upload the songs, preferably one where I can mark the songs for listening only, and with a player for individual songs that I can embed into my posts, I'd love to know about it. Until then, I am researching and being repeatedly disappointed.

Edit 10/19/08: Apparently, the songs load on the individual post pages and work just fine. I've replaced a couple of songs with links on different sites, but I don't really like any of them, for various reasons. I'll keep searching and am still open to recommendations for sites where I can upload, stream to this blog, and not allow downloads unless I choose to do so. Thanks for being patient!

Edit 10/20/08: Well, the boomp3 songs seem to work, now that I've removed the widgets that loaded before them, but still move painfully slowly. If that's as fast as they load then I can't keep the site. Who wants to wait five minutes for a song to load?!

(I Wish That I Could Shimmy Like My) Sister Kate

I’m a sucker for the Andrews Sisters sound – gals in harmony, with some swingin’ music behind them, harking back to the days of World War II with some double entendre and matching outfits. Technically, the clothes aren’t part of the sound, but are all but required for latter-day imitators. The Ditty Bops sound and look nothing like this, except for one crucial exception: their cover of (I Wish That I Could Shimmy Like My) Sister Kate.

The song has been around for (depending who you ask) nearly a hundred years. Various versions have added or subtracted verses and instruments, but the basic idea remains. Each time I listen to the Ditty Bops version, I get the Tube Snake Boogie stuck in my head. Then I digress to Black Betty. But I keep coming back to Sister Kate. It makes me want to dance…to shimmy, to be exact.
Boomp3.com
Buy Sister Kate

I Am a Scientist - The Dandy Warhols

When I first heard the Dandy Warhols’ I Am a Scientist, I immediately started building a mix-tape in my head, leaping straight to She Blinded Me with Science and then Weird Science, and off from there. But I Am a Scientist kept sneaking back into my head. I decided to do a bit more research - if a band came get me with one earworm like this, it’s likely they’ll have another up their collective sleeve.

It turns out that the Dandy Warhols recorded an entire album of songs (2003’s “Welcome to the Monkey House”) about a book of Kurt Vonnegut short stories with that title. I happen to own and love that book. You can’t buy the album with a copy of the book, but if I were Amazon I’d have bundled the two together from the start. I’ve linked both of them below, for your convenience. I know that Vonnegut didn’t record music, but he wrote some songs in his books so I don’t feel too badly about including him here. At any rate, take a list to I Am a Scientist and make up your own mind.

I Am a Scientist by The Dandy Warhols on Grooveshark

The Dandy Warhols’ Welcome to the Monkey House Kurt Vonnegut’s Welcome to the Monkey House

See Fernando

Jenny Lewis has been wandering off from Rilo Kiley, most recently for a solo album titled “Acid Tongue”. I’ve found a lot of mixed reviews on the album, but the reason I started reading them in the first place was not that I knew who Jenny Lewis was or was a fan of Rilo Kiley, but because of See Fernando. I caught the song starting at the middle drum break when I flicked on the radio and happily scribbled down Ms. Lewis’s name to research when I was back at a computer. The only other song I managed to preview from the album was the introspective title track that really didn’t catch my interest. Had I not known the name, I’d have assumed the song was called Liar, since that’s the only harmonically interesting (and oft-repeated) word in the song.

See Fernando, however, is a toe-tapping, rim-cracking song that mostly sounds like Jenny Lewis having a lot of fun. That’s what I like to hear - an artist doing a little boogie that makes him or her happy. For all that “Acid Tongue” was released in September See Fernando works as a terrific summer tune, and one that I expect to hear popping up more come next June.

Buy See Fernando

Mack the Knife

Sure, I could have written a fabulous post about Mack the Knife, but I got so involved with trying to pick a version to feature that I made a whole lens about the song. Check it out to see who covered this standard, and to learn where it came from in the first place. In the meantime, try this video of Frank Sinatra singing about Mack, with Tony Bennett.

Kung Fu Jumping

It's time for another mash-up, this one from DJ Schmolli. He's taken House of Pain's Jump Around, Kriss Kross (remember them?!) and Jump, and mashed them into Carl Douglas's retro smash Kung Fu Fighting. The result? Kung Fu Jumping, a fun little mix of the best parts of each. You can give the track a listen here and download it for free on his blog, linked above, and at a dozen other sites.
Boomp3.com

UB Jesus

David Byrne always finds something interesting to say in his lyrics. Whether he’s critiquing US culture in Miss America or exploring loneliness in Glass, Concrete, and Stone (or his cover of I Wanna Dance with Somebody, for that matter). Religion pops up in a more than one song, most notably in Dance on Vaseline and UB Jesus, two of my favorite songs from Byrne’s solo career. The combination of symphonic backgrounds, Brazilian or African rhythms, and David Byrne’s unmistakable voice offers more variety than straight pop because he’s willing to do that exploration.

Listening to “Feelings” or “Look into the Eyeball” feels more like hearing a series of stories than merely indulging in a little ear candy. Even though many of the songs have heavy themes, the music itself is creative and catchy enough to engross. You find yourself chair-dancing while trying to catch the lyrics. Well, I do, anyway. David Byrne’s taken the Talking Heads sound he helped foster and run with it, experimenting with Latin themes and personal stories. Take a listen and then go find more.
Boomp3.com
Buy "Look into the Eyeball"

Summertime

I’ve known the lyrics for this song since before I knew what it was called. I have no idea where I first heard it or who performed it, but the words stuck themselves into my impressionable little mind. Rather than ramble on for six paragraphs here with a million links, I made a page dedicated to Summertime as the best cover song ever. Pop by and give me your opinion of the song. The video I’ve attached here is a pseudo-biographical depiction of Billy Stewart’s life, including clips from several different versions of the song.

Can't Get a Job

Can’t Get a Job, from WookieFoot's "Domesticated" album, reminds me of Arrested Development, which is not the case with most WookieFoot's other songs. The band is intentionally all over the musical map, with the thread of social consciousness tying their hip hop-py, reggae-influenced, bouncy pop, and even Irish drinking songs together into their own sound. Because they are on their own label, and because they focus more on charity and philanthropic work than selling records, their popularity spreads by word of “mouth” (i.e. blogs and other web sites) rather than through air play and advertising. Don’t be fooled by their dirty hippie look. These folks make even such blatant commentary as Can’t Get a Job into something fun to hear. Be patient with the introductory ranting and enjoy it.
Boomp3.com
Buy the album

Man of My Dreams

I am posting this plea for help, if anyone actually has this song. I was listening to the radio today and heard a song called Man of My Dreams by Canadian Brenda Baker, from her second album, "Daughter of Double-Dare". It slayed me, with its retro-pop chorus and surreal lyrics. The only information that I was able to unearth was on her official web site, where I listened to a few more songs from the album. I highly recommend Call Yourself a Woman, but I'd love to get my hands on Man of My Dreams.

If anyone knows where I can get a listen to more of Ms. Baker's work or buy this song individually, please leave me a note. I wish I could link to it, but all of my normal sources have failed me. Indeed, I was so distraught that I completely forgot to post yesterday. Help!

Who Put the Bomp

Instead of writing scintillating posts for your musical edification, I've spent the morning creating a place for people to argue the merits of the cover song. My love of cover versions inspired me to seek the opinions of others. To get the ball rolling, take a listen to the Me First and the Gimme Gimmes covering Who Put the Bomp, which I think may be even better than the original. Then wander over to Cover Songs Rock! and let me know your opinion.

Teachers

I wouldn't say that Teachers is the only Soulwax sign that I like, but it is the only one I've got on my jumbo mp3 playlist. I generally catch half a dozen or more of my favorite bands, and not always the same ones, every time I listen to the song. Also, it's got that lovely Daft Punk sound without being a carbon copy - Soulwax has used the premise and inserted their own influences. It seems to me that another band with female lead vocals, did a similar "Thanks to my influences" song. I thought that it was Manhole (later Tura Satana), but I could not lay my hands on it. If you know of similar songs, please drop them in the comments. If I remember the one that's been driving me nuts for the past hour, I'll come back and add it.
SOULWAX - Teachers
Found at bee mp3 search engine

Sweet Lobster

Finally, someone has answered the age-old question, “What would happen if The Eurythmics played with the B52s?” Not only has DJ Le Clown put them together, combining Sweet Dreams with Rock Lobster, but he’s made a video starring none other than the ever-damp Sponge Bob. Truly, you must hear Sweet Lobster to believe it. Long live mash-ups!

(Mr. Insurance Man) Take Out That Thing

Today has been a long series of reminders that bands make and sell music that I don’t like but that other people love. Despite piles of new music appearing almost hourly, nothing has made me say, “Wow, I have to have that!” Instead of highlighting something brand new to me, I’m posting (Mr. Insurance Man) Take Out That Thing, the song that introduced me to Saffire: The Uppity Blues Women. It was the naughty sense of humor and the wicked kazoo solo that made this song a must-have. I went straight out and bought the 1990 album, “Hot Flash”, and uncovered feisty, raucous blues that make those “grrl power” folks sound like naïve children. The Blues Women have been around the block enough times to really come into their own. Head over to their web site (linked above) and take a listen to (No Need) Pissin’ on a Skunk, after you’ve heard this one.

Because We're Dead

Apparently I've got some fascination with songs about death lately, although none of them are emo or hardcore. Slow Club's Because We're Dead demonstrates the difference perfectly. This bouncy pile of strange offers too much fun to bring you down. Enjoy the wacky video, ideally suited to the unusual sound of the band, which just released its first EP.

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