1. The Beatles, “Yellow Submarine.” What can be said about this song that has not been said 7 billion times in the past? Sure, those seeking deeper meaning have always pointed out its apocalyptic undertones, of people living in submarines after the Cold War suddenly heated up and the only way to avoid blisters and roving bands of cannibalistic mutants is to live underwater, presumably harvesting krill or plankton to keep your shipmates from envisioning you as having a roasted turkey for a body.
But I digress. All I know is that my son, Sam, was having a bad morning today — screaming his perfect little head off on the way to daycare/work. He only quieted down while “Yellow Submarine” played. Those guys knew how to make the kiddies happy and blow the minds of their parents/older siblings.
2. M.I.A., “Fire, Fire.” — This made him scream again. Somehow, polyrhythms and Third World rapping don’t cut it with Sam.
3. Roxy Music, “Same Old Scene.”
4. Hot Chip, “ABC.”
5. Princess Superstar, “Wet! Wet! Wet!” — Concetta Kirschner has a mouth about as clean as gas station plunger, but because Princess Supe (and her testosteroney colleague, MC Paul Barman) never moved beyond cult status, parents groups never rose up against her, thereby securing Platinum sales and enough bling to spangle Long Island. She’s also now 36, which makes her Jean Stapleton in hip-hop years, and makes her two and half times as old as Miley Cyrus, so the music industry’s already got her on the (Logan’s) run.
6. Josh Rouse, “Car Crash.”
7. The Postmarks, “Summers Never Seem To Last.”
8. Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin, “Half-Awake (Deb)”
9. Paul Weller, “Sweet Pea, My Sweet Pea.”
10. Ivy, “Digging Your Scene.” This is a cover of an over-electrified 1986 hit from the Blow Monkeys — you know, that kind of kitchen-sink production in which the mixer threw so many synth lines into the arrangement that it made people both twitch uncontrollably and buy parachute pants? Well, Adam Schlesinger, Dominque Durand and Andy Chase did it French Pop style, which perfectly rectifies a pretty great song about dangerous coupling.
October 19th, 2007 at 1:53 pm
Howdy George!
1. Randy Newman “Burn On”
2. Madonna “Cherish”
Yeah, that’s right.
3. Paul Simon “Kodachrome”
4. The New Pornographers “Challengers”
Nice tune, I haven’t heard the whole album though.
5. Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Handel’s Water Music
A brilliant orchestra if you like things REALLY tight and clean. They do not employ a conductor
6. The Beatles “If I Fell”
7. Randy Newman “The Greaet Nations of Europe”
8. Fog “inflatable Ape Pt. 3″
9. The Chieftains “Callaghan’s Hornpipe”
The Chieftain’s 70’s albums are so great. rough around the edges, wild sounding. This one’s off of Chieftains 2
10. Guided By Voices “Surgical Focus”
October 20th, 2007 at 5:20 am
1. David Bowie, “Panic in Detroit”
2. Lily Allen, “Knock ‘Em Out”
There you go, George. I really don’t understand why anyone could think Amy Winehouse is any better than this gal. Lily’s wittier, more creative and a thousand times prettier (I don’t know how much that matters, but I remember Lily was having some self-image problems earlier this year).
3, Jeff, “Margaret”
Jeff is a band made up of former Be Your Own Pet drummer Jamin Orrall and his older brother Jake, both sons of Robert Ellis Orrall. They’re a bit No-Wavey but with that kind of snot-nosed teenager kind of mindset, though not to the point of being obnoxious or annoying.
4. Les Savy Fav, “Patty Lee”
5. Sonic Youth, “Silver Rocket”
Speaking of No-wave…
6. The Arcade Fire, “Une Annee Sans Lumiere”
7. The Radio Dept., “Gibraltar”
8. The Strokes, “Barely Legal (John Peel Session)”
Say what you want about their third album, the boys have got some talent with those guitars, and Julian continues to grow as a songwriter. They can do no wrong.
9. Beck, “Lost Cause”
10. The Postal Service, “There’s Never Enough”