The Not-Pop Jukebox

The Libertines made decent rock, but the whole “sex, drugs, and rock and roll” concept rather went to the heads of some members, or at least to their egos. It's too bad, because songs like Narcissist prove that the group made a terrific songwriting team. They actually managed to make a grungy song that wasn't about their own angst and anger! I like a little social commentary with my pop, so this song won me over to the Libertine side of the fence (musically speaking, if not politically). While the band did meander into melancholy from time to time, The Libertines offered generally interesting, and often smart, lyrics as the cake to hold up their musical icing. I don't rank them among my favorite bands, but I do like several of their songs including, obviously, Narcissist.

Buy Narcissist

Frank Zappa has made some seriously interesting music, over the course of his career, much of it funny commentary as well as musically intriguing. Then again, he ingested a lot of illegal substances, named his daughter Moon Unit, and edged over into “trying too hard” more than once. While not every song was a gem, you can find plenty to enjoy if you're patient enough, particularly from the period when Zappa recorded with The Mothers of Invention. And Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance, off the 1968 album “We're Only In It for the Money”, which seems to me to be a clever mockery of the “Peace and Love” rhetoric of the 60s, is simply fun as well. As with most Frank Zappa songs, you really have to listen to the lyrics. There's nothing overtly offensive about this song, but it may be a bit PG-13 for those of you with little ones in the room. If you've got teenagers, though, an introduction to Zappa and The Mothers of Invention might be much appreciated. They may bump that milquetoast pop music off of the radio, at least for a little while.

You can't download the singles, but you can buy We're Only in It for the Money.

You have to listen to the lyrics to appreciate this one fully. It's filled with sarcasm, snark, and upbeat tempo that makes fun of the basic, "I hate you, but let's pretend to be family for a couple of days" vibe. I suppose it's a bit cynical, but really the misdeeds are so over-the-top that you can't take it seriously. Mostly, A Christmas Duel is an indictment of the one-happy-family face that many people put on for the holidays. It's a bit of a relief from the syrupy love fest you normally get for the season. You can download A Christmas Duel for free from The Hives' web site, as a little holiday bonus, if you're willing to register with them. I had the widget here, but it is set to auto-play and I wouldn't do that to you, or to myself. Do take a listen, though, now that you are fore-armed that it will automatically start playing when you click over. It give a relatively nasty, yet snappy, take on the Christmas season.

Every once in a while, you stumble over something that simply makes you happy. Today, I discovered this video and I’ve been smiling every since. Imagine, watching Harry Belafonte and Nat "King" Cole, goofing around and having fun on-stage, together. I had forgotten that Nat Cole had a television show in the 1950s. Of course he would have invited the delightful, and hugely popular, Harry Belafonte to perform with him. But to discover a video of them, together, fooling around with such a silly song while still displaying that talent makes me remember why music holds such fascination for me. I’m always finding some new (or new-to-me) facet of it to enjoy. I have a soca version of this song from The Bahamas and a Harry Belafonte version, but I think this one stole the “favorite” spot. What I wouldn’t give for a time machine, on days like this, to go see such performances in person.

Buy Mama, Look A Boo Boo

The Seedy Seeds released a new album, "Count the Days", about a month ago. Musically, the new songs are much better than those on their debut album, "Change States". They offer strengthened harmonies and smoother play. What they gave up, however, was the weird fun of tracks like Earned Average Dance America and Little Patton from the first album. While I think Dandelions is a lovely song, I liked the quirky directions that their first album took. Now that they've shown that they really can play--and sing--maybe their third album will take the middle road between experiment and performance. Until then, I'll keep listening. Such diversity explains the need for a shuffle feature on mp3 players, after all.

You can't buy their albums on Amazon, but they do have links on their MySpace profile so please support them if you enjoy the music.

System of a Down mostly screams too much for my taste, but even I must admit that this tiny bit of silliness rocks. It's a song about a pogo stick. I apologize for the short post, but how much can you write about a goofy song, a minute forty-five long, about a pogo stick? Enjoy, and I promise a bit more substance tomorrow.

Buy Bounce

Sometimes, you just want some funky drums. Thanks to Rusted Root, you can take a beat-heavy, Grateful Dead-esque Drum Trip, the first track on their 1994 release "When I Woke". Rusted Root lives in the genre I call "hippies", with the likes of Phish and WookieFoot. They're globally aware, world beat-influenced jam bands, all a mite more esoteric than strictly necessary. Rusted Root is also a lot of fun on songs like Drum Trip, Weave, and their better-known Send Me on My Way.

Buy Drum Trip

Normally, I post only one song, but I found a new artist to love today and wanted to share. Her name is Beatrice Martin, better known as Coeur de Pirate, and she’s got a lovely voice, beautiful instrumentation, and sings in French. She’s also 18 and adorable. For all I know, she could be singing the contents of her living room, but I had so much fun listening to her do so that I don’t care. Well, I do have a rudimentary knowledge of French, so I know that she actually didn’t sing about her couch and end tables on any of these tracks. Coeur de Pirate’s self-titled album has been out for two months, now, but not much has been written about Ms. Martin, at least not in English. Have a listen, and enjoy!

• Berceuse at LADRI
• Comme des Enfants at I Predict a Riot
• C'était Salement Romantique at The Man of Rennes Steals Our Hearts
• Ensemble on her MySpace profile

That last one's my favorite.

As The Killers have a new album on its way in the immediate future, I thought I should post a little something from their last one. I realized that I’ve posted a mash-up of Somebody Told Me but that I’ve never posted about the song itself.

I’m somewhat embarrassed to admit how much of my outside-my-comfort-zone music I’ve stumbled onto through video games, either directly or through an introduction to the artist. Somebody Told Me is no exception to that personal genre. Happily, the song stands up on its own, without being played hourly while you’re driving a car very, very quickly through an imaginary city.

Have fun with Somebody Told Me, from their 2004 album "Hot Fuss", and if you get a chance to listen to Joy Ride off of their newest album, strategically leaked for early release, give that one a shot as well. Not all of their songs show as much energy and creativity, but these two make The Killers a band worth hearing.

Buy Somebody Told Me
Buy Joy Ride (after November 24th)

There’s one thing you can say for Fujiya & Miyagi: they know how to make a good song. Unfortunately, they’ve found a formula that works and they keep using it. From their own MySpace profile:

In total, Fujiya & Miyagi don’t really sound like anything. Instead, they sound like everything condensed into perfectly arranged three minute chunks

Please don’t misunderstand; I’m not putting them down. I quite like the group, including Knickerbocker, which sounds like the other half of Pussyfooting. They two make a sort of set with Collarbone and Dishwasher, although that last actually uses less of a whispered, mock-intimate vocal sound. I’m simply pointing out that Fujiya & Miyagi’s songs have a basic sameness, which means that you know what you’ll be getting from them. If you’re looking for dependably interesting lyrics and mellow but danceable beats, then don’t miss these folks. It’s hard to pick only one to feature, but I’m currently chair-dancing to Pussyfooting, off their September, 2008 release “Lightbulbs”, so that’s what I’ve included here.

Buy Pussyfooting

I really like The Connells. It may be nostalgia, it may because they were indie long before there was such a tag to hang on smart, low-tech, lightly-produced music. Then again, I could like their music because it's so darn good. While many people know Slackjawed and '74-'75, Get a Gun from their 1990 album, "One Simple Word", remains my favorite Connells song. It may be the startling image, which actually refers to a World War II directive that pilots shot down behind enemy lines take their own lives, but sounds much more menacing and haunting with Doug MacMillan's almost wistful delivery. You can't buy the individual tracks, but the album contains only good stuff, so I heartily recommend that you just pick up the whole thing.
Get A Gun
Buy "One Simple Word"

I'm a James Brown fan, and a sucker for a cover song. The combination leads me to unusual bands, and none more so than today's selection. The No Wave, post-punk sound of the 80s was perhaps nowhere more apparent than in the work of The Flying Lizards. Famous for their completely 80s cover of Barrett Strong's (and The Beatles's) Money (That's What I Want), the gritty, industrial-sounding group covered a number of songs with their droll exposing of the seamy underside of pop lyrics. The Flying Lizards covered Purple Haze, sounding much more spaced out and disconnected than Jimi Hendrix, and--my point will soon be apparent--Get Up I Feel Like Being a Sex Machine by James Brown. In their way of stripping niceties from the songs of others, they've recorded the song as a clanking, nigh-robotic piece of anti-funk. The juxtaposition makes both songs even more enjoyable.


Buy James Brown's Get Up I Feel Like Being A Sex Machine
If you've got a reasonably-priced source for The Flying Lizards' 1984 album "Top Ten", please let me know. I'd love to get my hands on a copy (or at least get a digital copy on my hands).

While I quite liked the Red Hot Chili Peppers, back in the early 1990s when they alternated with Jane's Addiction in tape decks on college campuses (campi?!) across the US, Magic Johnson was always my favorite of their songs. Sure, I knew the words to Under the Bridge and Nobody Weird Like Me, but nothing else beat the pure funk and energy of Magic Johnson. Why kick a hole in the sky when you could slam so hard, break your TV screen? Magic Johnson always seemed larger than life to me, and the song celebrated that aura of enormous personality. I still think Magic Johnson is amazing, and I still love this song. Be warned: There are a pair of f-bombs lurking in this song.

Buy Magic Johnson

While Pink can give you a bit of fun, sometimes you really need more meat to your music. What better way to combine the two than by enjoying Shirley Bassey belting out Pink’s Get the Party Started, complete with wacky video? I’ve posted before about my love for spy music and Shirley Bassey’s voice (specifically her performance with Propellerheads). With the new, world-weary and worn Bond, I can’t imagine them finding a use for something as fun as Get the Party Started, but I’d love to hear it in a 007 movie. Actually, I’d love to hear just about anything from Dame Shirley in a movie.

By the by, check out Version Galore and their enormous pile of James Bond-related cover songs, in honor of the relase of "Quantum of Solace" today.
Buy Shirley Bassey's Get The Party Started
Buy Pink's Get The Party Started

I think most Crash Test Dummies songs sound alike, partly because Brad Roberts has such a distinctive voice and partly because, well, they do. I was pleasantly surprised, however, by Here on Earth (I'll Have My Cake). Unfortunately, I can't find the track anywhere except on Rhapsody, unless you are willing to pay for the whole album. I couldn't even find a cheesy video for the song with generic cover art or band pictures, that's how little-known the song is. That's too bad, because Here on Earth (I'll Have My Cake) has up-beat lyrics and sounds like a cross between a Scottish jig and a country song.
Buy the Album, "The Ghosts That Haunt Me"

Is it wrong to patronize a restaurant for their muzak? One place in town never fails to play songs that can be found in the cassette collection gathering dust in my storage room, not a one newer than 1993, or from a record that I still play. We went for lunch the other day, and yet again, I was chair-dancing the entire meal. I fear that my children have picked up that nasty habit.

That's not why I'm posting. This last trip included the Electric Light Orchestra (ELO to those of us who were alive 30 years ago) and their amazing hit, Don't Bring Me Down. For the record, Jeff Lynn did not use the word "Bruce" one time in this video. Check and see if I'm lying. (I've had to replace the video, as the one I posted got yanked. The statement still holds, though. This video includes some very silly dance trends, many of them from the 80s.)

I'm working up a Squidoo lens on Ain't Nobody's Business, the various versions of the sentiment from the past 65 years. I'll update this post with a link when I'm done. I failed to realize that, not only did many fantastic blues artists cover the ever-defiant Ain't Nobody's Business If I Do, including Billie Holiday, but that Taj Mahal's Nobody's Business But My Own has completely different lyrics from, say, Ella Fitzgerald's Ain't Nobody's Business But My Own. As you can imagine, that's very much complicated my life. Until I've managed to compile my thoughts, please enjoy these two classic versions.


Buy Ain't Nobody's Business If I Do
Buy Ain't Nobody's Business But My Own

I'm not generally a fan of the 8-bit genre. Generally the music turns out more cute and retro than enjoyable or danceable. That is not the case, however, with Morgantj's Boysenberry Beat. You can listen to and download the song (for free) from that post at the 8-Bit Collective, as well as read what he has to say about its creation. I don't know if the fact that he used something more musically sophisticated to create the track explains why I find it, well, more musically sophisticated or if I simply haven't been exposed to really well-done 8-bit music. If you've got some stunners to recommend, please post them. I'd love to give them a listen.

Years ago, I found a box of records in my parents' garage, including Simon and Garfunkel's "The Concert in Central Park" from 1982. Considering that this happened only a few years after the fact, I can't imagine how the record came to be there in the first place, but there it was, right next to the album released ten years before, "Simon and Garfunkel's Greatest Hits". I popped them onto the turntable and was introduced to great folk music, a major departure from The Clash, Oingo Boingo, and Suicidal Tendencies that I normally played in those heady days of youth.

Cecilia was the song that, from that day to this, stuck in my head the deepest. I love the song so much that I've made a page dedicated to cover versions of it. While I've heard (and even own) dozens of covers, the original reigns supreme. Just hearing the introduction for Cecilia makes me smile. Happy Saturday! Have a smile, yourself.

Buy Cecilia

Fans of the funky likely already know about Infectious Grooves, but may have missed Feed the Monkey, from the Encino Man soundtrack. Mike Muir has gotten past the anger of Suicidal Tendencies and created this goofy tribute to his manliness. Yes, he refers to "that" monkey, at least indirectly. But Feed the Monkey is a fun, bouncy funk full of double entendre that will make you smile and get you moving. It's perfect for a Friday night out (or in, for that matter).

I couldn't find a decent "buy here" link, but I still think you should support the artist.

Bang Bang makes an excellent party song. It's up-beat and danceable without being genre-specific or intrusive. It's also got enough people-noise already included that your guests will assume the people in the other room are having a great time and that the fault is theirs for not enjoying themselves more. David Sanborn has put together a song that demonstrates not that he can play--heck, we already knew that--but that he can whoop it up while doing so. Bang Bang appeared on Sanborn's 1992 album "Upfront", which was a different direction for the normally-mellow saxaphonist. The songs on the album employ more funk and jazz fusion, including some Latin influences as in this song.

Buy Bang Bang

In a delayed reaction to Halloween, I'd like to draw your attention to Southern Culture on the Skids and their song Zombified. Not only do they give you southern-fried surf rock, about zombies, but Aldofz has put the music to a video of the cast from Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within dancing the choreography from Michael Jackson's Thriller video. Truly, a mashed-up masterpiece has been born!

Buy the Halloween-y Album

Tarareando was the song that introduced me to the Orchestra di Piazza Vittorio. I was so fascinated by the track that I had to find out more. The more I listened, the more I liked, until I decided to make them this month's Music of the Month. While I enjoy a number of the Orchestra's songs, Tarareando still reigns as my favorite.

Buy Tarareando

This mellow mover came from the soundtrack for 1995's Hackers, your basic slacker teen movie with the ever-lovely and, here, short-haired Angelina Jolie. Eyes, Lips, Body makes excellent background music for chair dancing while otherwise occupied. The song offers no lyrics to distract you, a vaguely sexy theme without being explicit, and a nice, groovy beat that sticks with you. In fact, the group's name, Ramshackle, is an excellent name for the song. Interestingly, I couldn't find a single other song by this group, including the original mix of Eyes, Lips, Body. What do you call a one-hit wonder that never even had a hit?

In fact, the Hackers soundtrack offers lots of good groove music, including Robert Birch's Connected, Carl Cox's Phoebus Apollo, and Good Grief from Patrick Ian Tilon. The music doesn't make you want to get up and dance, but it does get your body moving while you might otherwise just be sitting on your butt. And if you have to get up for another cup of coffee, you'll have a little extra bop in your boogie as you make your way to the pot. Isn't that what good music does?

Buy the Hackers soundtrack