The Not-Pop Jukebox

You, my cruel darlings, have been keeping secrets from me. You've let me go all these years without telling me about Sugar Pie DeSanto, you evil things. Now, I might punish you by withholding all of the fantastic music I listened to today but I'm not like that. Instead, I'm going to flaunt Soulful Dress, just like Sugar Pie is in the song.

For those of you who aren't in on the conspiracy, Ms. DeSanto has put out some of the best soul and bluesy funk I've enjoyed. She's been rockin' for sixty years but her biggest hits came in the 1960s. How do I know Etta James and not Sugar Pie DeSanto, you ask? I have no idea, but apparently they had a pair of big hits together. Clearly, I've not been reading the credits and liner notes carefully enough.

Whatever the case, I'm catching up now. I'll definitely be posting more, but if you're in the mood for some have a search. You can find her all over the web, though sparsely (sadly) at Grooveshark. And if you're one of those who's been keeping quiet about DeSanto, 'fess up with your favorite song of her.

I thought I'd long ago posted Whodini but, when I went to link to one of them, I found that I'd left you darlings without this classic rap group. To make up for that lack, enjoy the truth of The Freaks Come Out at Night. I'll be bringing more Whodini to you in the future, particularly Haunted House of Rock without which no Halloween collection is complete.

I hated to include the full credits for this song in the post title, but you should know that Buckjump features The Rebirth Brass Band and The 5th Ward Weebie playing with Trombone Shorty--or the other way around. As real life interfered with my listening pleasure this evening and I spent the evening at a massive band concert, that's all the introduction I'm giving you. Well, that and I can only hope my son can one day play something that jams this hard. Enjoy!

I know Primal Scream was once a bit mainstream from my usual fare. For the weekend, however, I thought you could really use a barnburner, which they do in spades. The band doesn't always hit the mark but when they do they really get your butt out of your chair. What can I say? I'm a sucker for horns and there Primal Scream is, blaring them right at me. Get Your Rocks Off is a perfect example of this.

From the classic rock opening to the sex, drugs, and rock-and-roll theme of the song you just can't help but imagine a group of soused young people jumping up and down, cheering the chorus while they spill beer all over one another. Well, I can't. Whatever mental images it brings, have a listen to Get Your Rocks Off and let me know what you think. It wasn't actually the song I'd intended to post, which was less rock and more pseudo-jazzy, but it's a good introduction to the band if you missed them along the way.

Have you heard? Bongos Ikwue will have his first US release in February! It's likely you're not familiar with the talented and musically diverse Ikwue, but happily I'm here to help you understand how excited you should be to hear this news.

I've included the title track from the new album, Wulu Wulu. As an added bonus, it's a studio video so you can see it performed live. I dare you all to listen to it and not smile. It's a lovely mishmash of jazz, afrobeat, funk, and blues that you can't help but love. Sadly, I can't find previews anywhere of the rest of the album (and the official site is yet under construction) but I'll keep and ear out and bring you more, assuming the rest of the songs are as wonderful.

If you just can't wait, there are a few of Bongos Ikwue's older songs, mostly from the 70s, on Grooveshark. Features? Horns, guitars, and--naturally--Bongos.

As so often happens, I saw the combination in this Mashup of the Month and thought, “Really?!” But, yes, The Jackson 5 manage to make Naughty by Nature more fun than offensive, and about time somebody did. Thank goodness A Plus D were around to take some of the jerk factor out of a song celebrating getting someone’s significant other to cheat on him or her.

While OPP never was a favorite of mine, ABC long has been. And so I bring to you today this outrageous mix that still manages to work beautifully. As always, you can download ABC OPP for free from the A Plus D Bootie Mashup site for free. You’ll find a mess of other great mashups there, too. Take a listen to We’ve Got the Soulja Boy while you’re there for another example of genre bending.

As a tidbit, the reason the songs work so well together (and the reason that I've embedded a different mashup below for your listening pleasure as I couldn't find the A Plus D version to share) is that Naughty By Nature sampled ABC when they made OPP. And, yes, I did completely miss MotM day again this month. At least I still brought you a great song.

Wildlife sent me their first single off their new album "...On the Heart" and I wanted to share it with you folks. Born to Ruin is solid indie that makes me want to learn to make mashups so I can combine it with Born to Run so that I can see if it works as well as my mental jukebox insists it will.

Whatever the case, enjoy the harmony and the really delightful drums. My only complaint about Born to Ruin is the same one that I have about so many songs: a minute and a half of expository instrumental at the end of the song. I'm not saying it's not enjoyable, just that it's a little much. As with writing, a lot of songs could do with some good editing to tighten up the excesses.

Should you enjoy Wildlife's new song, do pop over to their Bandcamp page to pick up their first album, "Strike Hard, Young Diamond", for more. If you like things on the mellow side, start with Drunken Heart and if Born to Ruin tickled your musical fancy have a listen to Stand in the Water. Let me know what you think!

Do you know what's cool? Famous musicians finding obscure bands and recording with them. And so I bring to you more Forro in the Dark with David Byrne because I think it's cool.

I Wish is typical Byrne fare: a straight-forward yearning for love in unexpected language. Mr. Byrne himself is the titular Bundle of Contradictions wishing for someone to love him.

And then you get forró in the background, a talented bunch of Brazilian ex-patriots that play great music on their own. Add the two together and you get an album I can't stop playing, in part because of I Wish (Bundle of Contradictions). Lest you think it's all David Byrne, Bebel Gilberto and Miho Hatori appear on the album as well.

The Very Best get turned into goats after drinking Kondaine. Okay, they don't really, but a goat really was sacrificed in the making of this video. Be careful what you drink this weekend or you might find yourself at the end of a leash in a tiny African village. I think that's the lesson, here.

I was going to just post a good song today, Black and White from INXS, but then I got to wondering what other songs there were out there with that title. That led me to develop this list specifically selected to induce genre whiplash. It's got Django Reinhardt, Static X, Three Dog Night, Eminem, and five more on top of the INXS song I meant to share. Enjoy, and let me know if I missed your favorite Black and White song. (Please note that Michael Jackson's song contains an "or" and thus is not eligible for this list even though I do like it.)

Before I rhapsodize too much about this song, let me confess to being a fan of what I like to call the "Nazis get theirs" genre. Mostly it's books and movies that offer the most satisfying variations on this theme but every once in a while something else sneaks into my list of favorites. Such was the case with Primo Victoria.

Now maybe it's the pounding drums, maybe it's the throbbing guitars (or the "dun diggy dun" as the case may be). Whatever the reason, this song about the Normandy invasion makes me want to stand up and cheer...and head bang.

Before van Canto introduced me to Primo Victoria I'd never heard it, though from the first listen I knew it had to be a cover. I sought out Sabaton to hear the original and, after adjusting to the inexplicably unexpected accent (I'd not considered the band's Swedish origins), decided I really do like it as well. I'm not going to make this a "You Pick the Winner" round, just a chance to enjoy two versions of a great song about invading Nazi territory and taking it back for the Allies.

If they'd had this on recruitment drives in the forties it would have stirred a lot of folks to volunteer...or run away screaming. It probably would have been terrifying to them, actually. There wasn't much in the way of electric guitars going, then. Whatever, just enjoy the songs and please do let me know which you like better or if you think the van Canto version rocks as hard as (or harder than) the Sabaton original. (Oooh, look, Grooveshark gave me back my colors!)

I find Mr. E's Beautiful Blues an infectious, feel-good kind of song. Despite the less-than-cheery lyrics, I just can't resist that chorus:

Goddamned right it's a beautiful day.

While you could let the verses depress you, while you could let the sarcasm turn to bitterness, you could also let the beat infect you and do some serious getting down. And the next time someone says, "Nice day, hunh?" you'll have an answer ready. Then you can do a little dance off down the sidewalk with an excellent song in your head. Or it could just be me.

Today is the anniversary of Stephen Foster's death, that pioneering gent so far ahead of his time that he tried to make a living as a songwriter and died, penniless and destitute, at the age of 37. Even if you have never heard of the man I guarantee you know at least one or two of his songs. He was that influential, eventually, he just couldn't make any money.

For today, let's have takes by well-known folks on Stephen Foster's well-known songs. I've started with a fantastic version of Old Folks at Home by Ray Charles titled Swanee River Rock. Then Taj Mahal's bluesy, harmonica-filled Oh, Susannah, Sam Cooke's soulful I Dream of Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair, and noddle around with Dave Brubeck and his quartet offering their take on Camptown Races. Finally, we come around full-circle to Louis Armstrong back on Old Folks at Homes.

Spare a thought for the music makers among us today and, the next time you download something that's "pay what you like", throw in an extra buck for them. You never know who's going to be the next lynchpin in the musical vocabulary of a country or even the world.

You don't hear a lot of songs these days about how to do various dances. Happily I bumped into Azonto, which teaches you how to do a dance that I hadn't even known was apparently sweeping large portions of the world. As far as I can tell, it's pretty much doing whatever you want, which means I can do it as well as anyone. That's my kind of dance.

At any rate, this is Fuse ODG and Itz Tiffany sharing their versions of the Azonto dance. I recommend a fair amount of volume and enough room to really boogie if you're going to give it a listen. At least don't chair dance too close to the windows. And if you need visual instructions, too, check the video for it. Otherwise, get ready to Azonto!

If there's one thing a punk group likes to do, it's sing about punk rock girls. For today, let's take two iconic bands and compare their takes on the women they know. First, The Ramones with Sheena Is a Punk Rocker, creatively names as so many of their songs are but still a seminal song. Then The Queers take their swing at it with Tamara Is a Punk.

One presumes The Queers stopped short of naming Tamara a punk rocker because of the Ramones song. If you listen to the chorus she is, indeed, one and you're now to knock her. The Ramones, however, do much less pining and more celebrating of the the fact that Sheena is, indeed, a punk rocker.

Have a listen to both and tell me which you prefer. Naturally, if I've missed a great song about a punk rock girl (except, of course, Punk Rock Girl, which is just too easy), drop me a note and I'll have a listen.

With enormous thanks to Eli S from Google+, and the other fine folks at the listening to... community there, I bring you the adorable and talented Riff Cohen. She's Israeli but sings in French and, in both the video for J'Aime and A Paris, she looks like she's having more fun than any grown person should...or all of us should and she's the only one doing it.

Whether we should all be so happy or not, watch J'Aime and see what I mean. Riff Cohen looks and sounds about as happy as one can get and you already know of my weakness for French lyrics. Ms. Cohen comes by her French honestly: via her Algerian mother. Unlike A Paris, which was filmed in Paris, this one shows her enjoying her home country on the streets (and in the clubs and businesses) of Jaffa. Watch, enjoy, and go find more from her!

Hesitant as I am about posting Skinny Bitches (I'm almost afraid to look at what searches bring people here), I do want to share Gunsmoke and its video with you. For those of you mildly offended by the name it may make you feel better to know that it's actually a male-female pair out of Toronto.

Whatever their name, the duo make some rockin' music, none more so than Gunsmoke. This is one of the few cases where I actually feel like the video adds to the song rather than distracting the listener: the frenetic and somewhat inexplicable action give you a reason to listen closer.

If you like what you hear, find Skinny Bitches on Bandcamp (I'm almost afraid to leave that as a link in case I get tagged as adult content). You can download their six-song EP for whatever amount you name and listen to the whole thing before you pick your price. It's well worth a listen and a few bucks.

Some days, you need a song that's all kinds of wrong. Thankfully, I've got some Nuclear Rabbit here in my virtual pocket for just those days. That holds true for just about any of their songs but none more so than Champion of the World.

Note that this song contains a significant amount of cursing and ridiculous amounts of attitude. What else would you expect from someone who can punch a guy so hard his mother starts on fire? That's just a sample of how amazing this Champion of the World really is. Have a listen to the rest of his autobiography and tell me what you think!

Today is one of those days when, in the pursuit of one thing, I find myself distracted by something entirely...ooh, shiny! Wait, where was I?

In truth I can't even remember where I started when I found myself confronted with a song titled Bim Bam Boom from four different artists, one of them the Oingo Boingo song from the Forbidden Zone soundtrack. Naturally I got to wondering if that song had been a cover, as Violent Love was.

Happily, I can say that that particular bit of bizarre is, in fact, not a cover. However, we're left with The El Dorados with their doo-wop song, Roger Klug with his neo-swing song, and Surferosa with their synth-heavy 80s surf-punk shouter. Yet all of them are named Bim Bam Boom.

I blame Percy Faith for this. He recorded a raucous, swingin', late-60s ruckus of a track that made everyone want to use that name for their own. They don't have that one on Groovshark so I've included a static video so that you can hear the whole thing. I'm not generally a fan of his but, dang, this one really moves.

I know it's a little late for a New Year's post, but this was the only new year song I had that wasn't either U2 (from back when they were awesome), sappy, or crappy. Seriously, have you heard ABBA's? Do yourself a favor and don't.

At any rate, Dengue Fever is always interesting and, I suspect, doubly so when you're partying. I've never listened to them drunk but I can't help but feel they'd be extra-entertaining, particularly Sober Driver.

I have no idea what they're singing but musically the song keeps me bopping. Enjoy, Happy New Year, and I hope your 2013 is filled with unusual music. I'll do my best to help with that part.