The Not-Pop Jukebox

I'm back on the bang-bang theme, again. This time, some poor woman named Lulu takes the beating, at least, that's what the chorus leads you to believe. Whatever the subject matter, the North Mississippi All-Stars bang the heck out of Bang Bang Lulu. It's just the thing to jump-start your body on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Get up and boogie! Their name may be longer than this post, but these southern boys can really rock some blues.

Edit: Yet again the version I'd included has disappeared. Happily, Grooveshark has a live version that's nearly as good as the recorded version (and includes some "wubba wubba"-ing.

Today we have a perfect, mellow song for lazing about on a gorgeous late-spring afternoon. Here's George Benson, live at the Montreux jazz festival in 1973, offering his take on Dave Brubeck's Take Five. Put your speakers in the window, grab your favorite ice-cold beverage, and listen to this one out in the yard. Ah, yes, it's that good.

Let's go back ten years, to a rollicking, self-referential song from Bouncing Souls, done in the best music-industry tradition of explaining just how awesome your band really is. You might not have figured that out from the title, but that's exactly the topic of ¡Olé!, which has enough Oi! thrown in for anyone's tastes. Enjoy the bouncing.

Here's a fun, almost-pop tune from Wave Machines, I Go I Go I Go, which you can probably find all over the bloggosphere over the past week. I don't care - I like it and I'm posting it anyway. I'm looking forward to hearing more from these folks and I hope that you will be, too.

In restrospect, yesterday's post Bang Bang You're Dead seems a bit insensitive for Memorial Day weekend. To make up for that, today please enjoy Freedom Call, from the genre I like to call “cheese metal”, reminiscent of Manowar. This song, Warriors, offers some great imagery and ought to have been used in many a war movie. Witness the driving percussion, the repetitive guitar, and the blindingly obvious key change if you need convincing that the song fits this genre. On the other hand, it's a song about fighting and sacrifice in war. What more could you ask from a Memorial Day song, if you don't want to start sniveling a bit? Blast Warriors while you're grilling some burgers, have a beer for the fallen, and take a moment to remember those that laid down their lives in battle, whatever your feelings about war in general.