The Not-Pop Jukebox

We Have Band is one of those groups that gets an automatic first listen for having a clever name. Happily, they do enough interesting with their music to keep me listening from time to time. (Note that, should they have gone the LOLcat route of "We Can Has Band", they'd have gotten an immediate pass instead.) Try Honeytrap for a burst of great, 80s-style, Casio keyboard goodness and enough energy to keep you grooving the whole way through. We Have Band combines styles to make this indie group worth a revisit. One of these days I'll post Oh! for you to enjoy. Until then, have a listen to Honeytrap and let me know what you think. Happy New Year!

You poor dears have been left without an Oingo Boingo song for far too long. Let's remedy that with a fantastic Danny Elfman creation like Just Another Day. In fact, let's listen to Just Another Day on this, just another Friday.

If I didn't tell you the age of the album from which Dance Godammit came you'd likely assume this was some quality 80s music. I knew that "Hello Young Lovers" had been released in 2006 and I still think maybe they wrote it for "Music That You Can Dance To" and just decided not to include it in 1986. Whatever the date of origin, have a listen and enjoy the retro 80s sound of Sparks being Sparks. And if, like me, you immediately want to listen to The Violent Femmes singins "Dance Motherf*r Dance", well, that seems like a perfectly good follow-up to me.

When I posted my Mashup of the Month for December I mentioned Bombs Away and panned much of their music but explained that I quite liked Swagger. I wouldn't have posted the song, however, if it hadn't been for the fact that I happened upon the official video for it. It turns out that Bombs Away is a couple of white boys from Australia and they--or at least their writer and director--have a pretty goofy sense of collective humor. And so I thought I'd share with you all the light-saber-wielding duo chasing a hipster around an urban environment. As so often happens, I don't know what the video has to do with the song. I see little "doing something funky with your hands" going on but there's a lot of bouncing and a whole bunch of silly. Enjoy the song and the video. I'm not sure I could sit through a whole album of their work but Bombs Away definitely gets a nod from me for not taking themselves too seriously. Tomorrow we'll be a little more serious as I've got some great, brand new music to share.

As a non-traditional holiday celebrant let me offer you Christmas fans something non-traditional for your evening's listening pleasure. Koko Taylor has a lovely, bluesy, soulful little tune wishing you a Merry, Merry Christmas which fits the bill perfectly. It has two whole merries; what more could you want?!

As a reward for suffering through yet another season of mindless commercial grubbing followed by an orgy of food and family that left you feeling slightly nauseous for one reason or another, tomorrow I'll bring you something extra strange. Merry Christmas!

Let's try a jazzy take on a classical holiday favorite: Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies as interpreted by Duke Ellington. As I'm going to take tomorrow off (I won't be home much and certainly you all have better things to do than spend your Saturday waiting for my erudition and fabulous taste) I thought I'd give you a two-fer.

In this case, you get not only Duke Ellington and his Sugar Rum Cherry but Winford Marsalis with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra doing a slightly more hep version of the same song with bongos. I don't know about you, but I like Sugar Rum Cherry more than the original and not just because it would taste better. Let me know what you think!

I'm going to wax philosophical, here on a holiday season Friday night. I was looking at my post list, enjoying how much some of the weirder songs I've posted have been heard, when I realized how happy it makes me to know that not only are there still hundreds of songs I want to add to this running list (as we approach 900 posts) but that I keep getting new music from wonderful people.

So there's my holiday message to you all: thanks for being along for the ride and I hope you've as much to be happy about this season as I do.

I'm in love with this new Asa song, Why Can't We, which rather seems the point of the song, don't you think? The video is fun to watch but the song gives you more than enough to make you try these moves on your own, at home, in your living room. Or maybe that's just me. Watch the video and let me know.

People seem so taken with my recent post of CJ Chenier's Zydeco Christmas that I thought I'd find some more zydeco songs for the holidays. For this chilly, almost-Christmas Wednesday, enjoy Michael McDonald and Aaron Neville performing Christmas on the Bayou and Louisiana Christmas Day, respectively. If that doesn't fill your daily quota of accordion then there's just no helping you. Happy solstice!

How can you resist a mashup that combines well-known classical music with Dizzee Rascal? You can’t. Eine Kleine Big Booty Bonkers gives me the giggles every time I hear it, thanks to the deft touch of DJs from Mars

Our extraterrestrial friends have taken Mozart, Dizzee Rascal, and Bombs Away and made them into this song that’s just bonkers. (If you don't know Bombs Away, try their pedo-bear song Super Soaker or their version of Du Hast. I kid you not. Or try Swagger, which I actually quite like.)

I know Eine Kleine Big Booty Bonkers isn't really a seasonal song but I figured we could all use a break from holiday music by now. Let go of the holiday hustle and bustle and shake your booty. If you like it you can, of course, download it for free from Mashuptown. Tomorrow I’ll post something a little more appropriate to the season.

I've been playing Star Wars: The Old Republic this weekend, and what could Star Wars make me think of more than Taj Motel Trio? But I posted Vader long ago and it's the holiday season, after all.

So I offer you, today, a fabulous ska take on my favorite traditional Christmas Carol. (Geez, I've got a link for everything today!) Taj Motel Trio has abbreviated the title to Angels but it's really a driving, horn-filled version of Angels We Have Heard on High.

So if you've a penchant for unusual holiday music (I'm restraining myself from linking that one), have a listen to Angels and pick up their album "Pretzels and Beer for Santa". If you want more to try before you buy, check out God Rest which was my Christmas Day song last year.

For a speedy Friday night post, lets have some old-school Ladysmith Black Mambazo from before the likes of Paul Simon got a hold of them. I don't particularly care for a lot of their instrument accompaniments, although I do love what they've done with Mr. Simon. But in Bamnquobile we have how LBM sounded when I first heard them. I hope you like it as much as I always have.

The winter weather has been toying with us, of late, with freezing rain and now frozen wind. I never thought I'd say, "I wish it would just snow and get it over with," but I did today. In the spirit of crappy winter weather, let's take ten crappy versions of Winter Wonderland to make us all cringe and wish we lived in the Southern Hemisphere. [Note to those of you who do: I don't hate you...yet. Check back around February 1st.]

It entertains me that I was able to pick some of these dreadful versions just by artist name. Stryper for Christmas, anyone? A steaming pile of 80s cheese from Air Supply, REO Speedwagon, and Chicago? Got them. But some of them show up because I was so disappointed. I love A Fine Frenzy but her take on Winter Wonderland is more like Winter Depressionland. And then there's Billy Idol.

If you actually like one of these, feel free to lambaste me for being an elitist snob or someone who wouldn't know good music if it bit her on the nose. I could use the laugh.

The gents with Chocolate Robots were kind enough to send me links to two videos and their Bandcamp page. Upon a thorough listen, I knew I wanted to share them with you.

While the first two songs, for which they have videos, Impossible Princess and Young Luff, are perfectly enjoyable indie pop it was Summer Krushhh I wanted you to hear. I defy you not to think about The Violent Femmes while you listen to that track (particularly now that I've put the thought into your heads).

So have a good time listening and let me know what you think. If you like, you can wander over to Youtube and have a look at the guys but I always like to listen first and look second so as to avoid any pre-conceived notions that capes and mullets might have given me...not that that's a hint or anything. And if you just don't hear the Femmes in Summer Krushhh let me know that, too.

You remember Pomplamoose, don't you? You may think they only do amazing re-imaginings of other people's songs like that wonderful cover of September, but you're wrong! They write even more clever and fabulously catchy original songs.

As proof, I offer you today two original Pomplamoose compositions. Bust Your Kneecaps tells the classic story of a sorrowful breakup while If You Think You Need Some Lovin' gives you what could be a classic Uppity Blues Women song except it isn't.

The duo offers a holiday album, too. If you click over to the official Pomplamoose web site you...well you won't find anything at all. They released it last year in the midst of a collaboration with Hyundai and you could only get it by donating a book through Amazon. But the videos are on YouTube and well worth the finding. As a hint, the album is titled "Christmas in Space". For now, just groove on If You Think You Need Some Lovin' and Bust Your Kneecaps.

In hearing Wanda Jackson you are immediately transported back to the 50s and the tie when rockabilly, soul, and blues were turning into some great amalgam of rock and roll. Thus I presumed that she had recorded Rip It Up back then. I was mistaken. Now the song does date back to 1956 but Bill Haley and His Comets released the song then. Well, so did Little Richard. You may be unsurprised, in listening to both versions, that Little Richard's Rip It Up was a much bigger hit. Bill Haley sounds a bit bored, truth be told. But the Wanda Jackson version came out in...wait for it...2011. So I decided to find covers from the decades between the two. Here I've got The Zombies, Chuck Berry, Los Lobos, and T. Rex sounding like a refugee from the Rocky Horror Picture Show. I also found Elvis Presley, Brian Setzer, The Queers, and Commander Cody & His Lost Planet Airmen. Oh, and The Everly Brothers to round out the full dozen. Let me know which you like best. And if you've got one that doesn't appear hear, let me know. It seems like there must be more than a round dozen--and, no, the Nazareth and Razorlight songs are not the same tune. I kinda liked the Nazareth one, though.

It's Friday night. We need fros (froes?) and wide lapels, proof that hipsters don't have the worst hair and beards ever, and some juicy jazz. Thankfully Stan Kenton and his orchestra can provide all of that in one 1977 package. Turtle Talk comes complete with trumpet, sax, and trombone solos and some quality bongos and upright bass to go with them. What more do you need?

I haven't the faintest idea how I first happened to find Chilly Gonzales. Most of his stuff isn't really my thing but there are a couple of songs that I'd like to share with you. Bongo Monologue gets to be first on my list because it's so darned interesting. Well, that and the line "I'm like a gay jazz musician, I come out swingin'." If all rap were that clever I'd listen to a lot more.

Sometimes I choose to inflict songs on you because they're stuck in my head. Today is one of those days. I've had She's Crafty lodged firmly in my brain for three days. Clearly, the Beastie Boys want you to listen to it. I'm willing to oblige, if they will let me off the hook for it. Actually, She's Crafty is a song you should all know, anyway. If you've never heard it then enjoy this piece of late 80s rap nostalgia. If you haven't listened to it for a few years, you're definitely due. When the song first came out I didn't get why the cab driver could recognize her "by the back of her head". It's actually funnier now that I do.

In what can only be a blatant attempt at white-people pandering, The Isley Brothers recorded a version of their own Twist and Shout titled Surf and Shout. Out of curiosity, I looked up the home town of the group. It was Cincinnati, Ohio. For those of you unfamiliar with the geography of Ohio, the city is landlocked. I suppose after their 1962 hit they felt spent some time in California and one of the guys was from Teaneck, New Jersey. But, really, can you picture the smooth soul brothers surfing? That said, Surf and Shout is fun. And so I'm sharing it with you today in the hopes that the great music and the goofy image of them in their 1960s matching suits hanging ten. Happy Monday, my dears!

Until I decided to post Deep in the Jungle I had never looked at the soundtrack for Weird Science. Perhaps that's because I already owned the Oingo Boingo title track and the Killing Joke song that set the background for the party scene that makes Katy Perry's stupid song look like a tame Tuesday. I also owned Wall of Voodoo, at some point, but I haven't listened to them in ages. I quickly found I couldn't sit with a full album and just get down, like I could with some others, and back then if you didn't have it on a mix tape or a compilation you just didn't listen. No one listens to a single song on a cassette and then switches to another and this was long before the days of digital music. At any rate, I heard Deep in the Jungle again today and was reminded of how much fun Wall of Voodoo could be. For those of you who assumed they were a one-hit wonder after Mexican Radio, here's proof that they made it to at least two. And if you've never listened to them or aren't too familiar with 80s New Wave this song makes a pretty good introduction. Of course, you could just listen to Oingo Boingo. Nah, do both.