I just know today is going to be a bad day at work. Actually the way it has gone so far, the whole week is shaping up to be bad. So here is some DMX to psych me up for it.
OutKast is too much fun. Some of the lines are too cool. “Lend me some sugar, I AM YOUR NEIGHBOR!”
I cannot remember if it was G or me who recognized it first, but the real hook in this song, the real genius, is the extra 2 beats. There are 20 beats in each set of measures, and then there are 2 extra beats making the last measure half as long. Over and over. Gives it a subtle funky syncopation that you’re addicted to before you realize what you’re addicted to.
PS: I put all my album cover images in a directory and seeing them all together looked cool. I used a little collage making program so you might see what I mean, including all the album covers I’ve posted so far. If viewing a sea of albums you know and love all together does not make you happy, then are you really a music lover? I know it makes me happy.
With the passing of the late and great Michael Jackson, I couldn’t help but poke around my collection of Michael Jackson albums and songs. I put on the album Thriller, and there I heard it: The reason why he is referred to as “The King of Pop”. The beat. The energy. The singing. The conviction. Just watch the “Beat It” video and you’ll see what I mean.
The album released with hit after hit after hit at a time when most albums had one, maybe two… er… still do, I guess. 5 of the 9 songs hit #1 on the charts in the US. In retrospect, I think the album contrasts greatly with the Post-Punk and New Wave that was becoming dominant on the radio in the 80s, and may have granted an outlet for those who craved a different sound. There was the MTV boost too. The Thriller video helped catapult the still infant MTV and MTV helped catapult Thriller. Sure Michael paved the way for a lot of bad and lesser pop, but I think maybe it set the bar high for what Pop should be and was hard for even Michael himself to follow up.
It is the best selling album of all time, with over 100 million copies sold. (Number 2 and 3 being AC/DC – “Back In Black” and Pink Floyd – “Dark Side of the Moon” respectively, and both around the 45 million mark.) With that said, and with his passing being so recent, it is easy for me to say you should want, listen to and love this album (100 million of you already do), but I am going to say it anyway. I believe it to be true and this is my own little ‘tip of my hat’ to Michael.
(Pick up #2 and #3 while you’re at it. Apparently I am more of a popular music slut than I thought. However, #4 is Meat Loaf – “Bat Out Of Hell” with 43 million? Really? I would not have guessed that! Now I have to go listen to it.)
Oh and the Thriller video! So cool. With the story line, and the dance, and even Vincent Price with the spoken word and all. You know that scene in “13 Going On 30″, when Jenna (Jennifer Garner) gets the whole room doing the Thriller dance… you KNOW I wished I knew the moves so I could dance along in my living room when I saw it. Excuse me well I go to my mirror and yell “freak” at it or try out the moves. Both perhaps.
Here are my 5 favorites from the album, with “Thriller” being my favorite.
I was thinking of posting this song, but then I thought no wait, I must have already posted a song by The Decemberists!
But OMG! No! I just realized I’ve been posting songs all this time, but not a single one by The Decemberists! They are one of the few I have actually seen in concert (with G and G’s sister), and recently too! I saw them around the end of 2008 and they were fantastic! Very entertaining. They played so many of songs, it must’ve been like half their material. They played all my favorites. Colin Meloy is passionate when performing too. We was like climbing out onto flimsy spotlight ladders and speakers to be closer to the crowd. It was just great.
Work has made me super late in all my plans for the day. It is 5 PM, and I’m doing things I thought I’d would’ve started at 11 AM. Things like this post…
Although I have been mostly careful not to post songs by the same artists over and over, I kind of have two playlists in my life. One is my song of the day and bonus song that I’ve been posted as matches what is stuck in my head or fills my fancy at the time. The other are the “new to me” songs that I play over and over. There always seems to be one. These new to me songs give me chills (in a good way), but only for so long. Then it usually isn’t long until another song takes its place.
I would post them all as “my song of the day”, but my fear is it would make it quite dull, to hear about the same artists over and over for a week and then never again for months. I might just have to create a new category or something?
For today though I am going to cave to my desires, and post the song I am obsessing over by Keane even though I have recently posted a song by Keane. I think it might be the fun drum part that lures me, but I do like to belt out the lyrics in the car. (Yes I sing in the car, doesn’t everybody?)
PS: The album cover for Keane’s – “Under the Iron Sea” (2006) is surprisingly similar to The Sounds’ – “Crossing the Rubicon” (2009) cover, don’t you think? Hmmm. (Listen to “The Sounds” here!)
This bonus song was actually the song stuck in my head this morning (and thus usually would’ve been “The Song of the Day”, but given the news of the passing of the great and infamous Michael Jackson, I had to show Michael during his best of times.
The Smiths are one of the greatest bands most people do not actually know. When I say “most people” I mean the masses, not the hard core music listeners, but I do find here in the USA it is like a litmus test for how much people were paying attention to music in the 80s and early 90s or if you know any Indie Music at all really. Not that you have to like them, you just have to know them. That is all I ask. (Liking them should come naturally, I think!)
Amélie” (or “Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amélie Poulain” as I first knew it) has got to be one of my favorite movies of all time. (I have a huge poster in my office.) The music is suited to match, and this song is probably my favorite, with all the vigor and excitement one should feel when in love. I looked it up and “La Noyée” translated is “The Drowned” (in love presumably). I wonder what it is about the French that can make the accordion romantic (especially compared to these guys, not that those guys are trying)? Perhaps I am missing G for she is away.
I love how everything is red and green, and slightly saturated in the movie too. It is like eye candy. Highly recommended!
I woke up late. There are flying ants all over the place this morning. (Typically flying ant swarms are a multi-day event. The colony living in my foundation seems to like to swarm in the middle of the night in my dining room. Yay!) I have to go to work where projects are coming due. Though I think I might actually want to go to work and just leave all the ants. Oh the good times I’m going to have this weekend. I can see it now. Perhaps this song will take my mind off things. It is worth a try.
Enough with the geekery of the past few posts. Time for the pendulum to swing the other way with a song about what happens after you die! “Them Bones”! ROCK ON you GDMFPWs!
The marching drums! The harmony with the horns! The climatic music! Chills man, chills! All in 60 seconds! This song rocks!!! Thank you Lolita Ritmanis!
And it was the theme music in my head this morning as I borrowed G’s energy mace to destroy the invading drones!
Ok, so it was really just a flip flop and the invading drones were ants in the dining room. (Again. Apparently I have been a little lax on controlling them this year. This happened 3 years ago too!) They climb in the corner from floor to ceiling and then the flying ants fly towards any and every light source. They suck at flying too so they are likely to fly into you. It is enough to make your skin crawl for hours. Fortunately between the energy mace and the moat (AKA plates of vinegar on the table under the light with the ceiling fan on above to help them fall), they all either are crushed or stuck in the vinegar later to be flushed.
Really it would’ve all been easier if I just had that green ring I use to have when I was in that “club”…
In addition to Cyndi Lauper, I also had the “Electric Boogie” (AKA “Electric Slide”) in my head this morning. Yet I have not been to any weddings or anything lately. But I know the moves. Oh yes I do. And no I will not demonstrate them unless the song is playing loud and clear. Do you know them?
The video above is from the 1990 release of the song on her album “Carousel”, though the song was first created in 1976. The “Electric Slide” dance was created in 1974, setting the stage for all the other line dances that most people either run to or run away from. See “The Macarena”. (And yes, I know that one too. Oh tasty alcoholic beverages, what have you done to me!? Oh who am I kidding… I was sober!)
Here is the “how to” for the “Electric Slide” by the creator of the dance, Ric Silver:
Listen on Blip.fm!