The Not-Pop Jukebox

I try not to overwhelm you all with awesome, Danny-Elfman-filled goodness but some days I just have to share. While Everybody Needs finishes out the theoretically solo 1984 album, "So Lo", we all know it was a record contract dodge and the rest of Oingo Boingo is backing him.

The real question about this album is, "What is it that Everybody Needs?" As with so much Boingo, this album as well, the answer is usually, "A release." It's often, "A way to escape my life," and sometimes, "To know that I'm not the only one." Considering the depth and breadth of bad behavior Elfman and Co. explored over the years, you'd be hard pressed to find something you know better than to do that you keep finding yourself doing that isn't shared by plenty of others.

Of course, now we have the Internet and need Oingo Boingo much less. We can get that reassurance via a simple Google search that will bring us thousands of results to soothe our sense of deviance. Personally, I still like to go back to the old-school way and let Danny Elfman tell me I'm okay.

Today's songs all started with one that isn't even on it. I've not mentioned my love for spy music for some time but it's still there and a song like Undercover Agent for the Blues is right up that alley. Once I started down it, though, I thought I'd find more undercover songs.

Find them I did! While you get the Billy Joe White version of the original song (as I've never really been a fan of Tina Turner's voice), you can also listen to that ubiquitous 70s hit Undercover Angel as well as Snoop Dogg and Bootsy Collins going undercover for funk. Technically, Agent 13 doesn't have undercover as the first word in the title but I really wanted to include Undercover Ska and the song seemed to fit beautifully.

I've also included some rockin' Monster Truck, a little Two Door Cinema, and some badly-mastered Silver Bullet (are you still rapping back there? I can't hear you!) If that's not enough, I threw in OPM and their surprisingly enjoyable Undercover Freak. Have a listen to all nine and let me know if you've got a favorite undercover song that I missed.

I defy you, my darlings, to scowl through this song. I double dog dare you to resist the urge to pop your hips with Michael Jackson at the brilliance of the Prado Perez track that is the backing music to Lou Bega's Mambo No. 5. Beat It No. 5 shows you all precisely why I love mashups: Mambo Jackson that somehow still works, though you'd likely never have thought to yourself, "I wonder if the King of Pop ever did the mambo?"

This wondrous piece of smile-inducing mashup gold is, as are all my Mashups of the Month, available free of charge from it's sharp-witted creator, DJ Rozroz. Should you wander over to his profile you will see that he's a wizard with the oldies as well as a fan of the 80s.

You can't really classify David Stephenson because you never know what his next song will sound like. He does some lovely acoustic guitar numbers, some punk-y rock tunes, and then--out of the blue--you get Back That Booty Up. It's playful disco with the least deep lyrics you can imagine, which is pretty darned shallow if you your imagination is colored by pop songs.

Nonetheless, the song has cracked me up this morning while making me do some quality chair dancing. Thus I've brought it to you, my darlings. Have a listen and then head over to SoundCloud to hear more from this musical chameleon.