The Not-Pop Jukebox

I recently came into a huge pile of half-tagged, loosely organized music. I've been categorizing and tagging it for days. As I cruise through the thousands of songs, I uncover treasure after treasure hidden between Elton John songs and mis-labeled tracks from "Willy" Nelson. A cover of Jeannie Cheatham's Meet Me with Your Black Drawers On leapt out at me this morning and I immediately knew that I had to share it with you. It's got a bluesy and guitar-filled sound, with a little bit of naughty and a lot of bit of fun. The song claimed to have been performed by Professor"'s Blues Revival", by which of course it meant Eddie "Professor" Lusk who recorded the song with Gloria Hardiman for his 1987 blues revue album, "The New Bluebloods". Whatever my issues with the spelling errors and sloppy genre-assignment, I remain forever grateful to the gent who shared his collection with me. With such gems hidden inside, who wouldn't be appreciative?

Okay, people, I admit it: I like Billionaire. Who can't sympathize with the lyrics, with the actions in the video, and with the cute guy who looks like a skinnier, younger, tattooed version of Will Smith? Every once in a while a pop song will sneak under the radar of my not-pop snobbery and lodge itself in my ear. Travis McCoy and Bruno Mars have done just that. I promise I'll get back to the weird and wonderful next week. For Sunday, just enjoy a popular little tune and feel free to confess any current hits you actually like.

When I think of Fire on the Mountain I think of Asa and her clear voice lamenting the ostrich-like lives of so many. Yet when I traveled over to Grooveshark to get it for a post the first results were from The Grateful Dead and Keller Williams (which is a real estate company in my neck of the woods). This stunned me, as I presumed it meant the darling Asa had covered the song.

Those of you familiar with the work of Widespread Panic and Rob Thomas likely already know what I soon discovered: not all fires on mountains are created equal and they're certainly not all the same song. It appears that the common imagery leads people in very different directions. I spent some quality time listening to the variations on the theme. I must admit that Asa's Fire on the Mountain remains my favorite. And what about you, dear listeners? Do you know other songs with this name and do you disagree with my pick?

I was preparing to post about how I always wanted a theme song for The NPJ that included the word jukebox in the title but couldn't find one that I actually liked. I started putting together a list of such tunes to support my case (Jukebox Hero alone made my case for me) when I uncovered Bullying the Jukebox from The Bouncing Souls. How I've managed to miss out on this gem I'll never know but I'm officially declaring it my theme song. You can't tell me you haven't done this, if you spend a fair amount of time at a place with a jukebox and people with execrable taste in music or been subject to someone with a fascination with Pink Floyd or Stone Temple Pilots inflicting the downer of their music on a bar on what could have been a fun Saturday (or Tuesday) night out with your friends with infinitely better taste. Or maybe it's just me. Whatever the case, have a listen to Bullying the Jukebox, performed with tongues firmly in cheeks as far as I can tell, and let me know if you think it's a good fit for my little musical haven from crappy, overproduced, cheese-filled pop crap.

If you ever doubted that rock and roll has its roots in the blues you need look no further than ZZ Top for clarification. Take a song like La Grange and compare it to, say, John Lee Hooker. Add amps and a wah-wah pedal and you could hardly tell the two apart. Okay, visually it would be pretty easy but that’s not what I meant and you know it. Anyway, La Grange is a classic rock song from 1973, not pigeon-holed as blues (except on my computer where I’ve tagged it that way). I posit that a cover by BB King would have been. You get three-foot beards and flashy cars and people call you a rock band when all along you’ve only been playing the blues. Poor ZZ Top. (In fact, the band got sued for copyright infringement because the song sounded so much like Hooker's Boogie Chillen. They got off on a technicality: the court ruled that the song was in the public domain and thus free to adapt at will.)

- This message brought to you by the Committee for the Elimination of Genre Discrimination. We here at CEGD support all talented musicians, regardless of the style in which they choose to play.

I've probably heard White Lines a hundred times in my day. (As a side note, I can't hear it without thinking of Shaun of the Dead but that's a different story.) But in all of the years since the song was released (not quite thirty, yet) and over all of the times I've listened to it I never knew that Grandmaster Flash and Melle Mel recorded a version with Duran Duran. I listened to them an awful lot, as well--my sister was a huge fan.

Now, I realize that the DD version is only fifteen years old but you'd think I'd have tripped over it somewhere before now! At first I didn't care for the re-mixed version but, upon a couple of listens, it's started to grow on me. I'm not going to consider this a version of "You Pick the Winner" because, well, I just posted one. But I did want to share both with you all. I was not surprised to discover a distinct dearth of White Lines covers. It's too iconic, in my opinion, and there wasn't a lot of room for improvement in the original. I'm glad that Grandmaster Flash was involved in the remakes because who else could do it justice?

I've bracketed the entire recording career of Firewater in this post to give you an idea of how much awesome you've missed. Twelve years, six albums, and you may never have heard of the band. That, my darlings, is my bread and butter. When I Burn This Place Down was released on their first album, "Get Off the Cross...We Need the Wood for the Fire" in 1996. 'Way back then, Firewater sounded more like Gogol Bordello than the native New Yorkers they are (at least, I think they are. The web seems to lack details on the origins of the gents in question beyond their other bands and projects.) Fast forward to 2008 and you get Three-Legged Dog, a fabulous song in its own right and a clear evolution of the sound to something cleaner but still retaining the energy and verve of the original album. That's the sort of progression I like to hear: better but still themselves.

Today, we address the fact that a band, successful at what they're doing, can be heavily influenced by a record company and end up doing something completely different. Blondie gives us a perfect example of this with Once I Had a Love (The Disco Song) as released on "Plastic Letters" in 1975 and the commercial smash hit version Heart of Glass from the 1978 album "Parallel Lines". The former describes a relationship as a pain in the ass while the latter explains that her partner had a…well, heart of glass. You tell me, darling readers, which song do you think better explains the situation? I fear I have tipped my hand on this one but I still want to hear which song you think wins this competition.

It’s a drizzly, chilly August day and I need something to get my blood pumping. I need a song with power and speed, something wild and angry. Shortnin’ Bread isn’t doing it, Me First and the Gimme Gimmes can’t quite stir me, not even the Mighty Mighty Bosstones can bring me up with their slash-and-burn cover of Enter Sandman. I try David Byrne with Forro in the Dark, with The BPA, and by himself. Nothing. I listen to mashups and Union Underground, Nuclear Rabbit and Refused, Prince and Queen. I try Magic Johnson, which never fails. It does. Even Black Betty and Ministry can’t catch my interest.

So what is a music freak to do when she just can’t find that perfect song? Go completely the other direction, of course. I cranked up some old-school Motown and grooved to Agent Double-O Soul, Heeby Jeebies, and—a family favorite—I Spy (for the FBI). Ah, those days of radio innocence, regardless of the poor behavior up to which those folks got outside of the recording studio. I don't know why I don't post them here more. To rectify that, I’ll include Apples Peaches Pumpkin Pie, Betty Harris’ Ride Your Pony, and the ever-strange stalker favorite I Spy (for the FBI).

Bands simply don't make enough use of the humble whistle, the ones that referees use at sporting events. You're lucky that I have found perhaps the best use of a sports whistle in any song, complete with full horn section, and am willing to let you in on the secret, my darlings. La Luz del Ritmo comes from an amazing band, of course, Los Fabulosos Cadillacs. For this fine Monday morning, enjoy this rollicking title track from the Argentinian band's fifteenth album. As always, if you like this one (and their cover of Should I Stay or Should I Go), you have plenty more to hear on their Grooveshark page.

It's Sunday and you know what that means: Vegas, baby! Okay, so it doesn't. But I happened to bump into The Dead Kennedys and their cover of Viva Las Vegas this morning and thought I'd contrast and compare. Naturally, once I started looking I uncovered even more entertaining versions, including the mournful Shawn Colvin cover and a rockin' take from ZZ Top. I encountered only one problem: The Blues Brother version that I have doesn't appear on Grooveshark. Thus I offer you nine versions of Viva Las Vegas to entertain this fine afternoon, with Elvis trailing at the end to remind you who made it famous. You'll find Bruce Springsteen, Vince Neil, and Dread Zeppelin lurking there, as well. If you've a favorite cover that I've missed please, do share.

A few days ago I got a lovely e-mail from a gent by the name of Tristan Clopet offering me a crack at reviewing his new EP, "Purple". Naturally, I hopped over to the official Tristan Clopet web site and snagged a copy. You know I can't resist free music. I like to go at these things unprepared, to avoid preconceived notions and prejudices. The first song, Proximity Bomb, made me check whether it was a Red Hot Chili Peppers Cover. (Hint: it isn't.)

It seems the plan for this album was to alternate between songs the RHCPs would be proud to claim (seriously, Black Panther Party could have come straight off of "Mother's Milk") with ballads, well done and including Mr. Clopet's very nice voice, but not as enjoyable as the rougher, tougher songs. So Alive is nice but Ethereal Evidence grooves. I'm including this video for two reasons: you can get a look at Tristan Clopet and see that, although "The Juice" don't appear to be mentioned on the album art or the web site they really do exist.

For the most part, The Gay Blades make me go, "Meh." They're pretty good but not the sort of band that makes my ears perk up and listen. They're standard fare--competent and listenable, catchy name, but essentially indistinguishable from a hundred others. Somehow, though, O Shot snuck its way into my head and stayed there.

The song has turned into an earworm that returns again and again, reminding me that I "should have had a lot of fun". As I type this it is beating against the back of my brain, requiring that I share it with you. Don't you love to hate that? Share some of your earworms with me, my dears (as if I need more songs wandering around this beat-filled brain of mine). Which songs have crept into your heads and sneak out to poke you when you least expect it?

Who doesn't know the world's most popular angry geek, the guy who brings whining to an art form, Elvis Costello? He's been around long enough that just about anyone who follows music outside of the mainstream (with the occasional foray into popularity) has heard at least one of his songs. But you don't hear much from him any more. Songs like Pump It Up show why that's too bad. The 1978 album, "Last Year's Model", was re-released in 2002 but the album never got the sort of play it deserved. It's a gem of a set and, for me, this is the best thing on the record. With the bar set this high, I hope that makes you curious enough about the rest of the songs to give them a listen. He's still around and, with a backlog this big, if you're new to Elvis Costello you've got days' worth of listening ahead of you to enjoy. Pump It Up is a great place to start.

Theresa over at Sleeping Kitten, Dancing Dog was kind enough to introduce me to The Blackbyrds with a request that I post some jazz. I queued up a little pile and was immediately blown away by the funk that this jazz included. It turns out that I know one of the songs well--Walkin' in Rhythym, something I often do, if a little faster than the lovely song does. I don't believe I've heard it in the past fifteen years but every swoop of flute and key change, every funky sentiment was as familiar as my childhood back yard.

I needed something a bit more upbeat for posting here, though. To that end, I am happy to bring you the hand-clapping, bass-twanging, head-bopping goodness that The Blackbyrds call Do It, Fluid. It's like a little package of disco funk, wrapped up in boogie. And thanks, Theresa, for this wonderful recommendation!

As if you didn't already know, I collect coffee songs. It's been quite some time since I shared one with you, however, and ages since I posted a ska song. Handily, Dance Hall Crashers have provided me with a song that fits both categories: a ska song about a coffee addict. My air conditioner is on the fritz and it's too hot for me to work up much enthusiasm for anything right now, but this song did get me tapping my toes. That's like jumping up and dancing on a cooler, drier day.

Do you know what we need for this Saturday morning? No? I'll tell you: an all-girl punk rock band from the 1970s, one whose alumni went onto become famous in their own rights. That's right, we need The Runaways, from which sprang Joan Jett and Lita Ford. If you ever needed proof that women could be just as raunchy and play their guitars just as hard as the boys, here it is. Cherry Bomb was their first hit from their self-titled debut in 1976. The girls (and they were girls, 'way back then) came on the scene with a vengeance and played with the big boys almost from day one, including The Ramones and The Damned.

The Runaways gave rebellious teen-aged girls a new set of idols. They were loud, nasty, and aggressive, all of the things that little girls are taught not to be. Is it any wonder that they hit the big time so quickly? Unfortunately all sorts of "creative differences" and music-industry hanky panky wrecked the cohesion heard on that first album. They went through five bassists in the four years they hung together, if that gives you a hint of how turbulent being a Runaway really was. At least they left us with hardcore gold like Cherry Bomb.

Long, long ago I posted Can't Get a Job from WookieFoot, so long ago I had not yet discovered Grooveshark. For this recessionary Friday, I thought I'd post it again in a listener-friendly format. Besides, I haven't posted a WookieFoot song all year! I still love the song, and I still listen to the band plenty. I often forget that they aren't as well known as, say, Rusted Root, the other neo-hippie jam band I enjoy. Those of you who can't get a job because you can't afford to work, this one's for you.

From time to time I find music in my possession and I’ve no idea from where it came. For example, I keep an auto-list of the songs to which I’ve listened fewer than three times. (I believe in giving every song a chance to convince me that it’s good. Many of them fail but sometimes I get a surprise.) Yesterday up popped Average White Band with Stop the Rain. It’s not that I don’t like AWB in general (who wouldn't love Scottish funk from the early 1970s?) but I don’t particularly care for the song and I don’t own a single album by the band. In fact, it appears to be the only of their songs I do own and came from an album called “Feel No Fret…and More” (of which I can’t recall hearing and from which I own nothing else).

Out of curiosity, I decided to give them a listen today. I discovered that their only #1 hit, Pick Up the Pieces, has appeared in about a million places. I've included it here because I'm curious to see how many of you react as I did: "It's that song!" Obviously I've found a hole in my music collection that needs filling with some white-boy funk (and, yes, they did record a version of Wild Cherry's Play That Funky Music, White Boy) from Average White Band. They also have a pretty great version of Lime and the Coconut taht you can hear at Grooveshark.

Because of my stated mission of ignoring popular songs (most of the time), I can’t possibly post Spandau Ballet’s biggest hit, True. Everybody knows that one still (although many people don’t realize that it’s a cover). Thankfully that doesn’t affect my favorite of their songs, Chant No 1 (I Don’t Need this Pressure On). This one dates back to 1982 and, while well-known in New Wave circles, never reached the pinnacle of popularity to which True brought the band a year later.

For those of you who missed New Wave in the 80s (either because you weren’t born or you didn’t care for it at the time), this Spandau Ballet song serves as a good primer: horns, unusual lyrics/vocals, and danceability. And because it’s been days upon days since we had a video I thought I’d give you a live performance so that you can enjoy the 80s fashion that went with the song, as well. I kept the album version because the horns didn't make it into concert. You must know by now what a sucker I am for horns.

Quite some time ago I happened upon two very different bands with very similar names: Bombay Laughing Club and Bombay Bicycle Club. (I actually bumped into Tokyo Police Club about the same time but I've already posted about them.) I don't know what, if anything, these two bands have in common because it sure isn't music. Bombay Laughing Club sounds a lot like Cage the Elephant. Bombay Bicycle Club sounds a lot like a pretty typical indie band. Regardless of their differences, I still associate the two in my mind. I'm including Kill You Dead from the former and Always Like This from the latter. Let me know if you have any other "club" bands to share. (Leave out the Tom-Tom Club, though, or I'll post Wordy Rappinghood next week.)

By the way, I've finally started updating my pages with songs listed by title and by artist. I'm only up to the end of March, so far, but it takes me about an hour to add a month's worth of songs to both pages. But if you're looking for something particular (or if you'd like to browse) you can try there instead of the search bar in the sidebar.