The Not-Pop Jukebox

I've been pondering for weeks just of whom Chewing on Tinfoil reminded me. Finally today I bumped into The Rumble Strips again and the light flared.

Despite the obvious differences in instrumentation, the two bands just mesh in my head. I can imagine them playing at the same show, perhaps jamming together. Or maybe I just want Chewing on Tinfoil to have horns.

Whatever the reason, I'm sharing Alarm Clock today as an example of why I think they go together like cheese and peanut butter. If you're not familiar with The Rumble Strips you can find a great whack of their songs at Grooveshark. If you like this one, try No Soul, too.

Before Jenny could be reached at 867-5309, before 634-5789 became famous as the number for Soulsville, USA, there was Glenn Miller’s seminal telephone number song, Pennsylvania 6-5000. While all three scored hits in their respective genres, the last remains my favorite.

You trivia buffs will appreciate knowing that the number was that of the Hotel Pennsylvania in New York City, at which the band and many others of the day stayed. For me, this proves that great musicians can take inspiration from the most trivial of subjects (though the musicians in this case weren't Glenn Miller and his Orchestra but Jerry Gray and Carl Sigman). Alternatively, you could point out that the lack of lyrics means that the composers could have substituted any phrase that fit the beat of the song.

While that may be true, I couldn’t think of eight syllables that better suited the song. I tried “applesauce and fat back bacon” and “pencils, pens, and staple pullers” but neither really flowed. That may be because I know the song so well or it may just be that the words and music work so well together that the original combination was a stroke of genius.

I challenge you all to come up with an eight-beat phrase that fits into Pennsylvania 6-5000 better than the phone number. Get creative and shout along with the song! Then let me know what you tried and whether you think you’ve found a better fit. Note: “Pennsylvania Pittsburgh Steelers” doesn’t count, although perhaps the team should consider this as a theme song.

Today for You Pick the Winner we compare another current pop song with a classic: Cooler than Me and You’re So Vain. In truth, I don’t much care for either song but I’m curious to know which song you think covers the concept better.

And so we have Mike Posner singing about wanting to be able to make someone fall in love with him but failing because she thinks he’s beneath her. One would think such a song would be bitter but, except for a little snark here and there, it’s more of a lament that she thinks he’s not cool enough to notice. It’s a classic nerd theme done in, well, a much “cooler” style.

Contrast that with a song about Warren Beatty in which Carly Simon complains almost the exact same thing: "You think you’re so cool." In this version, however, the song doesn’t admit to unrequited love so freely. Instead it refers obscurely to dreams being “clouds in my coffee” and then foolishly (and repeatedly) asks if the person about whom the song is sung thinks the song is about him. My answer? Duh.

I put it to you, my dear readers and listeners: does Cooler than Me or You’re So Vain better address the question of how a snub by someone out of your league (at least in their opinion) make you feel? Do you get bitter and call them names or do you strategize ways to get noticed? (Don't miss the part where Mark Posner quotes Carly Simon.)

I found an awful lot of places where people had quoted the press release for the new Doctors & Dealers EP to be released on December 10th, 2010. Very few of them, however, seemed to have had any desire to actually listen to the songs or post some for you to hear. I thought that was a bad sign but it turns out that I just uncovered a slew of lazy bloggers. Sparrow has recorded a set of slightly-creepy and very memorable songs, just up-tempo enough to keep from being mired in goth territory and just weird enough to avoid the "stalker song" label.

Of the four songs on the "Trouble EP" I like Backstabber, the first track, most. It's like a cross between The Pierces and Tim Burton covering Siouxsie & the Banshees, with a sort of carnival funhouse feel and enough tempo changes to keep you guessing. You can listen to Backstabber right here and enjoy the whole Trouble EP at Grooveshark. Apparently there's a full-length album in the works as a follow-up with Gordon Raphael. I look forward to hearing it!

While most people know Aretha Franklin's version of Rescue Me, I have to say that Pat Benetar really rocked the song. Her rougher, tougher voice gives an edge to the lyrics that lets you believe that she really might need to be rescued. Aretha wails it but Pat nails it. That's why it seems so silly that they had her record a version for the cute and fluffy Ms. Bullock in Speed. Maybe Aretha Franklin didn't want her name associated with...wait, this isn't a movie review.

As I was saying, Pat Benetar has a strong enough voice to carry an Aretha tune like Rescue Me and survive the inevitable comparisons. Let me know if you disagree.

I almost feel like I should apologize to you for this video except that I was laughing so hard throughout it and, well, I like the song. JJ Grey & Mofro have a bluesy grumble thing going that makes me shake my groove thing, with a funky sound just made for gettin' down. It turns out that Barbie and Ken feel the same. If you're offended, meh, you'll live. At least you don't have to watch live strip club footage, but then if you did I wouldn't be posting the video.

I don't know why I like David Byrne so much. It isn't like he has such a lovely voice that he could sing the phone book and I'd listen, all dreamy-eyed. But I consistently find myself drawn to his music, from the Talking Heads days all of the way through his latest Brian Eno collaboration.

I can only presume it's the combination of quirky lyrics and popping up in unexpected places, like with Forro in the Dark or that great Money song with NASA et al or with Dizee Rascal and The BPA.

If that isn't enough links for you, here's a prime example of the "quirky lyrics" portion of my fascination. Civilization starts with knives and forks and take a tour of a lot darker and stickier corners of what David Byrne thinks makes us "civilized". His imagery is built around an awkward dinner date but, as often seems to be the case, the song goes a lot farther than the surface suggest.

I've had Cake's Race Car Ya-Yas stuck in my head all morning for no discernible reason. I haven't heard it for ages and yet the lyrics, such as they are, have attached themselves to my brain for all eternity and emerged as I showered this morning to torment me. I can't listen to a sustained amount of Cake's music, acerbic with notwithstanding, but that song has stuck with me for years. I blame the repeated testicle reference.

You know by now that I feel obliged to share my delightful pain. Due to its brevity, I though you might appreciate a spare song to go with Race Car Ya-Yas. Since Arco Arena also runs about a minute and a half and is about the place where concerts were attended in my youth, and because I like it, I thought it would make a good counterpoint to the fuzzy dice. They hang proudly, you know. From rear view mirrors.

Shaving: The Album

The darling boys with Chewing on Tinfoil have been kind enough to send me their latest recording. While hubby loved the first album, "Get Rich or Try Dying", I was a little more reserved in my opinion. I liked it but I didn't love it.

Now, with "Shaving", the Dublin crew have captured my attention. The songs are grittier, more ska-influenced, and quite strong. I've been enjoying them for some time trying to decide which one best represented the album. I've decided Forty Shades of Grey gave the best picture of Shaving. The songs are all autobiographical and explore issues that everyone shares at some point. If you'd like, you can hear the whole album on Grooveshark but in the meantime have a listen to Forty Shades of Grey and see what you think of the new sound.

I've considered adding a sub-category of Unfaithful Covers to my Versions tag, here at The Not-Pop Jukebox. In general such genre-bending covers either crack me up or bring a new appreciation of the original song. But I'm too lazy to go through and mark them all. None of that has much to do with the songs I'm posting today except that they are both unfaithful covers of Black Sabbath's War Pigs and that I quite like both of them as different approaches to the original.

Before this morning I hadn't realized quite how many people have covered War Pigs. I chose these two because the Bonerama cover is a glorious mess and the Hayseed Dixie version country-fries it half to death but keeps the anger of the original and because I couldn't bring myself to post anything by Weezer or Ween.

I started out today working on my page about Danny Kaye and happened upon his lovely version of The Music Goes 'Round and Around from The Five Pennies, in which he played Red Nichols who sings the song with his polio-doomed daughter. Naturally, it brought to mind the Tommy Dorsey version of the songs with Edythe Wright, the first version I ever heard. Of course, you know that means you get a whole list of various takes on it, including those two and Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Prima. It's a goofy little song for a lazy Saturday evening. Enjoy!

I was discussing with KonwayEast of WaterCoolerThe the strength of Meatloaf as a stage name the other day, inasmuch as a Twitter exchange can be called a discussion. He opined that it was so obvious as to be ironic that a lumpy white boy would take the name of the ultimate suburban meal stereotype. I made derisive noises and opined that Mr. Loaf was more likely to have been eating dinner when someone asked him under what name he’d like to be billed and he simply chose what first came to mind.

My dismissive attitude toward Meatloaf’s ability to think deeply is rooted, I admit, in a complete disregard for his musical efforts. I find the man’s catalog derivative and predictable in the extreme and his sweaty efforts at being sexy repulse me. I may possibly have referred to him as White Bread more than once. But perhaps that is unfair of me, having formed this opinion at keg parties surrounded by frisky college boys who thought the lyrics somehow seductive. Well, that and his voice makes me cringe.

In the interest of objective reporting, I subjected myself…err, listened to some lesser-known Meatloaf tracks. I’m sorry, my darlings, but I just can’t see the appeal. Meatloaf does nothing that hasn’t been done, better in my opinion, by people with far cooler pseudonyms. His involvement with The Rocky Horror Picture Show does not exonerate him for decades’ worth of “rock” pap filled with cliches. I've thrown in Midnight at the Lost and Found as not-awful and Nocturnal Pleasures as the sort of thing I'd respect him for doing, if he wrote more like it.

It seems to me that everyone knows Minnie the Moocher, whether they know the name or not. Cab Calloway performed what, for me, was the definitive version in the Blues Brothers movie, that film that warped my fragile little mind (an obsessive Carrie Fischer with a rocket launcher at the height of Star Wars mania, anyone?) and turned me on to blues standards.

But that was by far not the only version of Minnie the Moocher recorded, even by Cab Calloway. For this lovely, fall into autumn sort of day, let’s take a listen to some mooching, including some updated versions that are less swing-inspired than one might like and a lovely version that includes Dr. House himself, Hugh Laurie. You'll also find a version from Danny Kaye, whom I adore, that includes some French goofiness and fantastic giggling and yodeling from the master.

I considered making this a gold-digger version of You Pick the Winner but that seemed too easy. Instead, let’s just enjoy the song itself and let the other tunes about ladies (and gents) who pay their rent in various unsavory ways for another day.

Unless, of course, you have a recommendation, in which case I do wish you’d add it to the comments (except for Roxanne. We all know about her little foibles and Sting’s wish to have her for his own. And she’s now stuck in my head, thank you very much.)

I’m not much of a shoe-gazer, when it comes to music. Every once in a while, though, an ethereal construct of musical layers will catch my ear and I’ll find myself staring uselessly at something and just listening to it. As a rule, that doesn’t last an entire seven-minute indulgence of a song because so much “shoe-gaze” is repetitive in the extreme. More exciting or interesting music would distract you from your contemplation, after all.

Naturally, I’m writing this to point out an exception to the rule. Champion’s L6 (The Blooded) meanders around for 6:48 and keeps adding layers, changing patterns, and generally switching it up enough to keep me zoned out the whole time. Songs like Alive Again and So Big make me want to jump around and dance but L6 proves that Champion doesn’t need vocals or five other guitarists to make a great song.

And so I give you what is likely to be the only song I’ll ever post with the label shoe-gaze. I can’t help it; I’m just so surprised that seven minutes of bathing in sound can be so entrancing. I hope you like it at least half as much.

Today we have a double-download, down and dirty, mashup-a-mashup contest built around the Beastie Boys and No Sleep 'Til Brooklyn. First up: DJ Schmolli with Shut Up Brooklyn Sandman, in which the Beastie Boys are joined by The Ting Tings and Metallica. I know, you can't imagine anything better than such a genre-bending combination. But wait! You haven't considered DJ Lobsterdust's Brooklyn Rocks in which he's replaced The Ting Tings with Joan Jett and dropped Metallica altogether.

For me, this one is too close to call. You can download Shutup Brooklyn Sandman and Brooklyn Rocks for yourself, for free, from their respective sites and let me know what you think. That is, after all, what You Pick the Winner is all about.

I was writing the other day about the first five videos shown on MTV. For those of you who don't know, the very first song was Video Killed the Radio Star. And there I was practically the next day listening to The Limousines telling me how Internet Killed the Video Star. Who will end this senseless cycle of violence, I ask you?!

Okay, so maybe the songs don't literally mean "kill". But while The Limousines are a little pop-flavored for my taste overall this particular song was right up my alley with its lyrics. It bemoans the fact that kids today (these kids today, I tell you) think they've seen and heard it all and that their processed Velveeta music makes the most of it. Sure, there's some great stuff coming out of unexpected places in this hyper-connected world. But there's also still the same steaming piles of tripe just cheesy enough to trick youngsters into thinking its fresh and new.

If you're sympathetic to this view, that "that drum machine ain't got no soul", then have a listen to Internet Killed the Video Star. If you're not, you're clearly on the wrong blog. I love it when you visit anyway, though.

I've been enjoying some nasty, old-school funk tonight, stretching back into the mid-1970s. That may or may not be why I haven't gotten around to posting all night; I'm not confirming either way. But I had to share Chicken Lickin' with you all, the song that, for me, earned Funk, Inc. their name. I know they had an awful lot of great music but it was this song that made me say, "Oh, yeah!" back in the day, as they say.

If you're a fan of funk (or saxophones) give this one a listen. If you aren't, then you had better hear it. You might change your mind. If you don't behave I'll make you listen to Ceasar Frazier's funky take on Hikky Burr. Aw, who am I kidding? I'll probably post it anyway.

Like much of the planet, I’d completely forgotten about Electric Light Orchestra’s Hold on Tight. When it popped up on my computer this morning I thought, “Oh, I haven’t heard this forever!” I bopped along, paying little attention until, suddenly, it was in French (at about 1:30, if you're curious).

I do believe I’ve mentioned here before my unseemly weakness for songs in French. I’m sure I don’t have to connect the dots for you all but I will anyway. Naturally, that one chorus vaulted Hold on Tight to song of the day status. And so, my dears, here it is. Happy Tuesday!

Really good lyrics cling to your brain for years, popping up in odd circumstances and entering your conversation. (Unfortunately, really good lyrics can’t carry a mediocre song but that’s a different post.) She’s Actual Size from They Might Be Giants makes my point for me.

Hubby and I regularly, if not often, include references to this song in our conversation. It’s impossible for us to discuss something seen in the mirror of a vehicle without pointing out that “it’s actual size but it seems much bigger to me”.

If you’re not familiar with TMBG, or only know their most recent releases, She’s Actual Size will introduce you to the wackiness that makes the duo so infectious. Not all of their left-field lyrical attempts are as successful but this one hit that intersection of weird and memorable that made it permanent resident of my brain.

Then again, if you’re not familiar with the TMBG of the 80s and 90s you may not have ever heard Istanbul (Not Constantinople) and there may be no hope for you. I’m joking, of course. There’s always hope for those who missed quirky hit songs a decade or three ago. It’s called The Not-Pop Jukebox.

When I get a new album, as I did from Gogol Bordello this week, I listen to the whole thing straight through immediately. Then, if I own more from the same artist, I listen to the whole shooting match on shuffle to see how the new stuff fits with the old. If it’s someone like They Might Be Giants or Taj Mahal I just pick two or three other representative albums from across their lengthy career.

This year’s “Trans-Continental Shuffle” marks my third “hard copy” purchase from Gogol Bordello so I spent some quality time listening to their work yesterday. I’m happy to report that this album fits beautifully with the songs on “Gypsy Punks” and “Super Taranta!”, continuing the sound you (may not) know so well. The wild energy continues, the defiant but hopeful theme remains, and their softer sound emerges on a few songs like Sun Is on My Side.

No one song stood out as “the best” to me on this one, because I like so many of them. I’m going to share Uma Menina because it’s stuck in my head right now, but the first two tracks would likely intrigue those of you new to Gogol Bordello just as well. I can't help but think you'll be wandering around singing, "She she she she she she she she she she she she told me."

I wandered about the world of music this evening looking for that perfect WTF song to bring you all on a Friday night. As I worked on some other virtual irons I have in the fire I listened to songs after song. Finally, I bumped right into Klaus Nomi. It took all of four seconds of this video before I knew I had the perfect song to make you all sit back and say, "What the..." You're welcome.