The Not-Pop Jukebox

With Florence and The Machine I have another example of an artist I recommended elsewhere and never included here. Yet the powerful voice, unusual sentiments, and all-around strong music make them a must-have in my music collection. Today, I rectify that oversight.

Though Kiss with a Fist was the first of the their songs I heard it's been posted and played in plenty of places. I thought we would more enjoy Drumming Song, a love song in the Florence and The Machine style. If you've not heard them then you'll just have to listen to get the idea: it's enormous and beautiful and strange, just the way I like my music.

The sheer size of the sound here comes not from a fabulous horn section or seven back-up singers but from Florence Welch's amazing pipes and songwriting. If you like this one I really do recommend the entire album, "Lungs", and the previous one, "Dog Days Are Over".

By the way, if you're a Beastie Boys fan head over to Hot Sauce Committee where you can stream their entire new album. It's got a lot of funk (like Funky Donkey) and even some punk-rap, old-school, with Lee Majors Come Again.

Last October I reviewed the Trouble EP from Doctors & Dealers and, to my delight, the full album I promised in that post, “Every Sinner Has a Future”, arrived in my e-mail box last week. I performed my due diligence and have listened to it several times. The songs from the EP appear on the full album (with the exception of Stubborn Liar, which is too bad) and Backstabber still claims the “best of the bunch” title in my book.

But how dull would it be to post the same song for the full album release? And so I offer the runner up, Carpet Burn. Sparrow has filled this one with the same carnival bizarreness that flavored the songs on the EP with even more merry-go-round sensibility. Yet it's not a fun song, exactly. It's not even about getting carpet burn the fun way, like you might be thinking, you dirty-minded things.

Now that I've mentioned merry-go-rounds, I'm picturing her singing this one one. In fact, I can see her going straight into Bankruptcy Blues on that same, indubitably black horse. But that mental image has little do with with my review of the album except to point out that the songs that work best for me on “Every Sinner Has a Future” are the faster ones.

You can listen to the whole album at Grooveshark. I recommend having a listen to Fishes Like Me as well as Backstabber and Steal Your Life which were carried over from the Trouble EP. The title for the album was a line in Backstabber, in case you were wondering from where it came. I know I was.

EDIT: Ha! I forgot the song. Sorry, all.

Yesterday in the Big Boned Gal post I promised many versions of Caldonia as I couldn't find where I'd done so. Silly me, it was there all along. If you'd like to read about and listen to Caldonia, please do.

For today, let's have something else. I bumped into a great little blues-rock band called MonkeyJunk when browsing the CDs at my favorite local library. Strangely, Grooveshark offers only one song from the album "Tiger in Your Tank". It happens to be a good one so I'll take it!

Small Time Evil at least stays true to my "songs about women" theme. In fact, it's not a bad follow-up tune to Caldonia. It's also a good example of the band's sound. You have to respect musicians that take their band name from a Son House quote, right? If you've got a hankering for more MonkeyJunk you'll have to visit YouTube. Try the title song as a good place to start.

I'm not a fan of country music in general but I adore kd lang's voice and spirit. After I mentioned her in yesterday's Rose Garden post I thought I should post something of hers, as well. And because she's so much fun to watch I thought I'd include a video that not only fits my "big is beautiful" play list but because it's just a great performance. And tomorrow I'm going to post another song that fits, Caledonia, for which I could have sworn I posted half a dozen versions. Until then, my dears!

Unexpected covers make my day. In the interest of making yours, I'm sharing The Suicide Machines and their cover of I Never Promised You a Rose Garden, something you would not expect a ska-punk band to tackle. They've even got the strings, though I'd think they were not live in the studio with the band.

Now, a lot of bands do unexpected cover songs. But this particular song seems like an "out there" pick. Martina McBride and kd lang both recorded versions of the song, both of whom fall under the sorts of folks who wouldn't surprise you with it (particularly the latter who recorded a twang-filled treatment in 1987 rather than the lush sound she usually achieves nowadays but has a lot of fun with it, live). In my world, that's half the fun of looking up who else recorded a song. Have you got any other suggestions?

After a couple of days off every week sometimes I want to give you a big beast of a song. For today I found just the thing: !!! and their nine-minute behemoth of a song, part punk, part techno/dance, and all toe-tap inspiring.

Now, I hesitated to post a band whose name that you cannot pronounce at first sight. But I decided that anyone who bases their name on the subtitles of a movie so delightfully weird as The God's Must Be Crazy deserved a shot. Should you be curious, the three exclamation points are often spelled "Chk Chk Chk" but can be any sort of percussive sound per repeated band member responses in interviews that invariable ask the pronunciation question.

If you like Me and Giuliani Down by the School Yard have a listen to When the Going Gets Tough the Tough Get Karazzee and Jamie, My Intentions Are Bass. !!! tends toward long songs and titles that take almost as long to type as the songs do to enjoy.

How, my darlings, have you managed to let me get so very far without posting a thing from the Red Elvises? It's shocking behavior like this that makes me inflict horrible cover songs on you, you know. Today I break free of your shackles and offer you I Wanna See You Bellydance , or what Gogol Bordello could sound like if they planted their tongues very firmly in their cheeks. Well, more firmly. While doing the occasional Elvis impressions...and being Russian immigrants from LA.

Red Elvises has been around for more than fifteen years and still tour like mad but they're not the same band any more and they haven't released an album since a couple of the members left (one to join the circus, thank you very much) in 2009. Happily, there are still a dozen or so floating around, including one recorded as Limpopo, and the soundtrack for Six String Samurai (which includes the delightful Surfing in Siberia). I will say that their last album, "Drinking with Jesus", marked a very different sound for the group. I'd recommend starting with "Grooving to the Moscow Beat" and working your way forward.

And yes, I do have Istanbul Not Constantinople stuck in my head, now.

Today I bring you an example of my least favorite musical habit: bands or singers who get self-indulgent and keep going on a song after it should have ended. Cage the Elephant does this plenty, and Indy Kidz remains their worst offender. Both this song and Sabertooth Tiger would have been great songs, had they ended at about 1:40. The latter goes on for more than a minute after that with gratuitous screaming. Indy Kidz takes another three full minutes to doodle and scream its way to the end. We won't even talk about Flow from the same album.

Now, I don't know if record companies say to people, "We can't sell an album with a dozen songs less than two minutes long," or what. Clearly they can, if it's a punk band with a strong enough following, but maybe they got too many complaints about 30-minute albums for $15 and told people that they have to make their songs longer. That would explain the rampant...wait, no it wouldn't. Those same complaints and this same habit has been a musical pet peeve for me for decades. I still think it sucks. Enjoy the first third of the song and do let me know if you think the rest of it adds anything. Maybe I'm just impatient!

Today let's take two songs with the same title, Headlock, that looks at the opposite ends of a relationship. Imogen Heap seems to be seeking a way into someone's heart (one kept inaccessible in a headlock, hence the title) and to convince that person to let go. Esser, on the other hand, is fighting to get out of a crappy relationship and yet can't quite escape the emotional headlock in which the other party holds him (them?). In truth, the former always makes me want to point Ms. Heap to the latter as a cautionary tale of love going bad.

But as this is a round of You Pick the Winner the flavor of the songs is as important as how they relate to each other in my head, if not more so. So tell me, dear readers, which song do you like better? I don't have a favorite in this pair: I quite like them both but for very different reasons.

Edit: Apparently I've posted Esser's Headlock before. Oh, well, enjoy it again!

It's been a long time since I posted something from Thao with Get Down Stay Down but I find myself enjoying their 2010 album "Know Better Learn Faster" lately and I wanted to share the delightful Fixed It! for this lovely, sunny day on which spring has finally fixed its inability to bring decent weather. So I am.

I'm still stuck on cover songs, my dears, and today we've got a great car song: Charlie Ryan's Hot Rod Lincoln. Naturally, I've begun with the version I know best, Johnny Cash, and included some well-known versions, Junior Brown and Asleep at the Wheel in particular. Then I added George Thorogood because, well, how could I resist?

But the reason I really wanted to share this list with you all was the Les Claypool cover of Hot Rod Lincoln that took me completely by surprise. The album was some promo for NASCAR racing on Fox TV, which seems like a rabidly commercial move for a guy so interested in experimental music. I suppose even a creative genius has to eat. And, while you can tell he's in there, Claypool stayed faithful enough to the original that NASCAR fans may not even have realized it was no country music star performing the song. have a listen and let me know what you think.

I don't live in Europe and I don't have cable or satellite TV. But Eurovision was the talk of the web last night and Moldova's Zdob şi Zdub caught everyone's imagination with So Lucky. I had never heard of the band and now wonder how I could have lived so long without them.

Because everyone and their brother has posted the delightful, gnome-hat-filled video of that performance I thought I'd share one of the many songs that I enjoyed yesterday evening, Ruta Ruta. I'm sad that no one recommended them to me before so that I could have said, "I love those guys!" instead of, "Who are these wonderful maniace?!"

Apparently Zdob şi Zdub has been around, in various forms since 1994, evolving and changing their sound as they've gone. All I can say is that they push all of my music-fan buttons: horns, folk music reinterpretations, goofy lyrics, and crazy stuff I don't understand but still makes me want to dance. I'll be listening to--and sharing--a lot more.

When, several months ago, I posted Pennsylvania 6-5000 I mentioned a couple of other phone number songs. Tonight, I want to share those two, 867-5309 (Jenny) and 634-5789 (Soulsville, USA) and a bonus pair. The Marvelettes did a great little bit of pop called Beechwood 4-5789 and Etta James did an even better song titled 842-3089 (Call My Name). I threw in a lovely, Glenn Miller take on Pennsylvania 6-5000 while I was at it.

So what I need from you folks is simple: let me know if I've missed a fantastic phone number song. It seems like there must be more out there but, short of searching random strings of numbers, I don't really know how to go about finding them. Please, share!

It's Friday and I'm fever-free! That means we need some horns, some funk, and some awesome vocals. You know I would never let you all down. So I have for you Etta James. I've heard her do a lot of jazz and blues, soul, and even a little swing but I never heard Sookie Sookie until recently. It's official: I love her. I hope you enjoy this one as much as I'm enjoying feeling well enough to chair dance again.

As this marks my 700th post (and I didn't really do anything in recognition of my other milestones along the way) I thought I'd offer you all something into which you can really sink your musical teeth. And so for today I give you 49 versions of Ain't Misbehavin', from great musicians like Benny Goodman, Sarah Vaghan, Fats Waller, Lena Horne, Willie Nelson, and Django Reinhardt. Naturally, it's dull if you can predict everyone on the list. I threw in Scatman John, Chet Atkins, Sam Cooke, and a whole mess of others as well.

I wanted this to be a nice, round fifty versions but alas! there were only 49 different artists on Grooveshark. Much to my surprise there was no Ella Fitzgerald version. You'll have to settle for Eartha Kitt and Hank Williams, Jr. I'm afraid.

I have had such a great time creating The Not-Pop Jukebox and sharing my love of music with you all. Please consider this mess of great versions of Ain't Misbehavin' as my thank you for your feedback and support. I hope to still be having as much fun when I hit 1,000 posts.

Let's try some old-school James Hunter today. You can, if you like, pretend this song is a Mother's Day song but really I don't think he's that kind of guy. He is, however, fantastic at what he does.

Hallelujah I Love Her So comes from his 1996 album "...Believe What I Say". I didn't realize he'd been recording that long and I was pleased to see how true he'd remained to his sound while still developing as an artist. Isn't he about due for another album or did I miss one?

EDIT! I may have forgotten to mention that this is a Ray Charles song. It is. It was wonderful. So is this version.

I'm sorry, I can't help it: Devo covered Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka-Dot Bikini in their own inimitable way and that meant I had to find other covers. Do you really think I'd let you escape the horror? (Apparently I'm having a weekend of horrific cover ideas. These bands will keep giving me fodder.)

What I'm trying to say is that I'm inflicting on...er, sharing with you all such luminaries as Sha Na Na, Neil Sedaka, Brian Hyland (the original artist), Dr. Demento, and The Muppets. I've also included a short steel band version, a Peter Kraus cover in German that's changed it to Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Honolulu Strand Bikini, Die Toten Hosen's cover of that song, a dub remix, and, naturally, Devo's version. Sadly, the Richard Anthony versions in French would not play on Grooveshark but YouTube was happy to help. That makes twelve bikinis in all, and I didn't even touch Teeny Weeny String Bikini. Happy summer, a little early (or late, whichever applies)!

After a song so right yesterday I figured we should have one that full of seven kinds of wrong. In case you can't translate that: it's mashup day! I've got a peach for you today. Marc Johnce took Lady Gaga, fed her full of Korn, and gave her a Cameo. First, who says "word up" any more? Second, Korn covered Cameo? The horror!

In the interests of full disclosure, I don't like Korn and I'm not a fan of Lady Gaga. I never particularly cared for Cameo, either. But the three together have made for pure, mashup gold. You can download Word Up This Way for free from Mr. Johnce's blog.

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And for some bonus giggles on this Friday evening, let's have the original Word Up from Cameo. Check the high-top fade!

I discovered that Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings are playing at the Fargo Theater in a couple of weeks. Then the gent on the radio noted that Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears would be appearing with them. He proceeded to play Booty City and I knew that I would have to hear more. It’s like Tower of Power but Dap-Toned, bluesy funk with great horns. I’m sorry you missed the happy dance. It was a good one.

If you enjoy this one take a listen to Bitch, I Love You and Livin' in the Jungle, the former more blues (and, I warn you, definitely NSFW as the title may have suggested) and the latter back to the horns and the funk in a James Brown-ian sound. The more I listen the more I really, really want to see the show. For those of you not in town, there's plenty more of Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears to enjoy on Grooveshark.

‘Way back in the 60s The Monkees were reviled when it was revealed that (gasp!) they did not actually play their instruments or write their own songs. Yet the producers and members seem almost prophetic in hindsight. They were somewhere between the first boy band and Britney Spears, but with a TV show that was not labeled “reality” and didn’t involve child neglect and embarrassing drunken antics. Well, there were plenty of antics but it was more Scoobie Doo than Big Brother.

So I thought I’d post a song from The Monkees today to celebrate the fact that, superb instrumentalists or not, they sang some great songs. But I won’t post Last Train to Clarksville or, heaven forbid, I’m a Believer. After all these years those are still pop songs. (Well, everything they did was a pop song by genre definition but these are still popular enough to carry the title lo! these many years later.) And so I'm including Goin' Down, sung as most of the songs were by Mickey and a lot less country-flavored than many of the band's lesser-known tunes. It's just a good song by a much-reviled bunch of guys.

It's the first of May and time for something fun! You can all thank hubby for this one. He was burning some vinyl and has been wandering around the house singing Hong Kong Phooey for months. I finally got around to looking it up and I knew it had to be the song for today. Apparently, it was a cartoon. I've never seen it but this song makes me ridiculously happy, probably because my children are currently jumping around the living room singing along at the tops of their lungs.

But out of curiosity I had to get a picture. That's when I realized that I had seen the cartoon, after all, of a long-ago Saturday morning. So I'm offering to you all the mental image of this fluffy like martial arts master beating up the members of Sublime, because that's the image of Hong Kong Phooey that I've got in my head now. I hope it entertains you as much as it has me.