Next Tuesday sees the release of the new U2 album No Line on the Horizon (I should have a review up by at least Thursday of that week) and one of my favorite songs from the group that never was a big hit was What If God Will His Angels. I guess that happens with songs that have overtly religious song. The song was off the equally ignored Pop album. It may have been the worst U2 album, but bad U2 is still ninety percent better than any music that has ever been released.
Bit busy today so I will keep it brief. The album I am most looking forward to this spring not named No Line on the Horizan is by Michelle Branch. I am not sure when it is coming out but both of her previous solo album are worth checking out. My favorite song off of Hotel Paper is the song below.
Seems like everyone I know owns The Ultimate Experience yet no one owns a Jimi Hendrix studio album. I understand how daunting getting into an artist that died before you were even born and I have a large collection of Greatest Hits myself as the lone album I own by that artist. But the thing with Hendrix is that he only released three studio albums all of which are must owns. But if you want to start small, my favorite non-ultimate Experience track is Bold of Love. Unfortunately when I searched for the song on YouTube all I found were hacks butchering the song in their basements or live versions with crappy audio. So I have to go with a John Mayer version, but defiantly hunt down the Hendrix version.
Naturally in this fractured musical era there are plenty of great songs that slip through the cracks many of which I hope I brought to your attention on my 100 Best Songs of 2008. One group that landed two songs in the top thirty (as well as a top ten album) was the Black Keys. They didn’t get there placement solely because they are an Akron based group and I may have taught the orientation class of one of the members, but because they are that good. They get a lot of comparisons to The White Stripes because of the guitar and drum only competition, but musically they are better because of a much better drummer. And they were added by having Danger Mouse release their latest album, the first outsider they ever let in, to add some chattiness to the already high musical IQ. Strange Times may have ranked higher on my list, but since I have already highlighted the laser-tag inspired video a couple times, here is I Got Mine, both of which are worthy of space on your iPod.
Some indie/underground bands are great but you understand why they never achieve any mainstream success, but then their are ones like Old 97's who write catchy and easily accessible songs. The lead singer of that band, Rhett Miller released a solo album a couple of songs that should have at least had moderate success, like his duet with Rachael Yamagata, but sadly did not sniff the charts. I love the dichotomy of the Fireflies with Rhett singing your token The One That Got Away song, but Rachael's response is basically, you're a moron, stop stalking me.
Out today is the new album by Nikka Costa, Pebble to a Pearl, which I may have a review later this week (if not, a quick thought: her first Stax release is worthy of a release on that legendary record label). As for the one song of Costa’s that should be on your MP3 player is Like a Feather, a song that if there were a list of the greatest beats of this decades, this song would be in the discussion for the top spot.
There have been no more soother musician this decade than Jack Johnson becoming this generation’s James Taylor with a surfboard. So hearing that the Handsome Boy Modeling School, which features producers Prince Paul (Del La Soul) and Dan the Automator (Gorillaz), remixed the song for one of their album didn’t sound like it would work, but surprisingly managed to update the song and making it just as good, if not better than the original.
What ever happened to City High? They were poised to be the next big thing after the success of the great What Would You Do. Then nothing. Even when the hot chick from the group hooked up with Wyclef Jean on this great song it failed to get much recognition. Then continuing with that bad luck, the next time she hooked up with ‘Clef was for Dance Like This that later got turned into the massive Shakira hit Hips Don’t Lie two years later.
Recently John Mayer released a live album, Where the Light Is and even if you have Any Given Sunday, the new live album is also worth picking up. It is really three sets in one, an acoustic one, a blues rock set with the John Mayer Trio, and a full band set. The latter features the highlight. Slow Dancing in a Burning Room. The version is so epic I had thought the song was going on for ten minutes or so even though it really clocks in at under six. The Where the Light Is version isn’t on YouTube currently (it is at MSN video but it is not embeddable. You think if they make you sit through a commercial the least they could do is let you is embed it. But anyways. Click the link to see that) but below is another live version. But you definitely want to check out the WTLI version because like I said, the solo is just epic, even more so than the one below (but below he does work in some a Tom York song).
Feed Your iPod was created to highlight songs that may not have been hits, or even released as singles, but deserve a much bigger audience. Hopefully of the first nineteen I have posted you have a least found a couple that you may not have heard before but have made it into your regular rotation. Of course Feed Your iPod is just a catchy title and any of these can be for any mp3 devise, just your computer and now you can make a CD out of them as the first set comes in at 78:24. You can even help create volume two by emailing me (or use the comment section) song suggestions and a short description on way everyone should have it on their iPod for me to post. Click the links below to be taken to iTunes where you can download the songs or use the widget below to go to Amazon MP3 to get them DRM-free (and sometimes a dime cheaper) or use the label function to scroll threw what I had to say about these songs and full song previews.
Last month, southern rockers Old 97's released a decent new album Blame it on Gravity although I may never have heard of them had it not have been for Veronica Mars which featured two of their songs during Donut Run. The song that had me running to my computer to see who it was, which is actually a rarity, was the episode closer Adelaide. Then once I got the song I played it ad nausea for about a month afterwards. There is just something about the line, "Looking down she says things are looking up." Below you can see the Veronica Mars scene is question. I could not find a place you could stream the whole song without being autoplay, but you can download the song for free from the band's label's website New West Records.
It was 85 degrees yesterday, and is supposed break 90 today, so there is no better soundtrack to global warming that Sunny Hours by Long Beach Dub All-Stars. The band was formed by the remaining members of Sublime and yes that was will.i.am making a cameo in the song before he met Fergie, who basically is good music kryptonite and turned the Black Eyed Peas into crap. I guess you can attribute the lack of success of this song to the album it was on was auspiciously released on 9/11/01 (the song landed in at number three on my list of the best songs of that year). But it is definitely a song you should be on everyone’s iPod:
One song I was listening a lot to last month was Someday We'll All Be Free by Donny Hathaway. Hathaway (no relation to Anne) is a lost gem of seventies soul that has seemed to not get the credit he deserves despite the string of hits that decade. But some of the biggest artist of today list him as an influence and he even got named dropped by Amy Winehouse when she said she would rather stay at home with Mr. Hathaway than go to rehab. And I utilized Alicia Keys version of the song in my fifth anniversary of 9/11 post. But everyone should have the original in there collection somewhere.
St. Patrick's Day just isn't St. Patrick's day without Denis Leary's Traditional Irish Folk Song (fun fact: this was my answering machine message for a semester in college).
Inexplicably Scarlett Johansson of all people will soon be releasing an album of Tom Waits covers. Thankfully my personal favorite song of his didn’t make her cut. I Hope That I Don’t Fall in Love with You always remind me of closing time circa college in the winter. There is a very cold feeling to the song that really hits on the loneliness of the winter months which we are smack dab in the middle of right now.
Here is one for all the lovebirds out there celebrating Valentines Day today (or as I like to call it, Thursday). Two summers ago when writing a long diatribe about Your Song’s I called Have a Little Faith in Me the most romantic song ever, so really there is no better song for a day like today than this.
Last night saw the last pre-strike episode of Friday Night Lights (hopefully not the last one ever, much more on that tomorrow) and thanks to Explosions in the Sky, the show has some of the most distinctive music on television. As for the non-instrumental music, there are some great picks that you may have heard of most notably Devil Town by Tony Lucca featured at the end of the first season finale. There really isn’t a good version of the song on YouTube so I thought; I have this Hulu account that I rarely use so why not just feature that whole episode. And if your iPod or mp3 player, any and all episodes of Friday Night Lights are worthy of some space on it.
I doubt anyone was actually reading back then(if you were you rule), but on my list of the Best Albums of 2005, topping that list was Wreck of the Day by Anna Nalick. My review for that album was so long ago, it was the fourth ever on the 9th Green, it even predated the Song to Download at the end of the review. It I had it back then, Catalyst would have been it. Many of you may have figured out that I love the uber depressing sad songs and there are not many sadder than this song. The crescendo at the end is just heartbreaking as her voice starts breaking as she goes into falsetto. No proper video for this song so I hope you like the Spike from Buffy The Vampire Slayer/Angel theme that I found on YouTube.
The reason I bring this song up now is because a new song from Anna hit the internet this week and Shine definitely stands up with anything on Wreck of the Day and is definitely more powerful than anything on that album. Someone has already made a really cool video for the song as seen below:
The line “There are times when the poets and porn stars align and you won’t know who to believe in, well that’s a good time to be leaving” is in early contention as the best lyric of 2008.
Just in case it is gone by the time the next 57 Channels comes around, recently Jo pointed out that Season 3 of Veronica Mars recently dropped below $20 recently. In fact all seasons are on the cheap. Sometimes these sales last a month, sometimes a week or less so check the ads below to see if they are still at bargain bin prices.
Near the end of last year VH1 unveiled their 100 Greatest Songs of the 90’s which I have still haven’t seen all of it yet because I know I would spend too much complaining what did and did not make the list. Right around the time that I aired, a song from that decade popped up on random on my iPod that made stop and go, “wow that was a great song.” Now I’m not sure if Summertime by The Sundays made VH1’s list, in the parts I’ve seen it wasn’t, but it definitely should have.
If you are currently in a winter doldrums, this is definitely the song to lift you up, but be warned you may find yourself singing, “And its you and me in the summertime, walking hand in hand down in the park” which may garner some weird looks by passerby’s when there is white stuff on the ground as the song is a less cheesy version of Walking on Sunshine. But no matter what time of year, Summertime is certainly worth a listen.
And a note to all the female karaoker out there, singing with your hands behind your back like in the video below is uber-cute. Although for the dudes, if you try this, you will end up looking like a tool like Liam Gallagher.
Certainly some of you have already threw a shoe at your radio for playing All I Want for Christmas Is You for the hundredth time or are completely sick of you’re a Very Special Christmas collection, but luckily I have stayed away for those stations and stick primarily to my Holiday playlist that is currently up to four and a half hours worth of cheer. So before you break your radio, here are some suggestions to start your own playlist (feel free to hit me up with suggestions in the comment section):
For you pretentious types there is Sufjan Stevens who has put out an insane amount of Christmas songs. Here is my favorite of the bunch which isn’t as depressing as the title suggests.
Winter Song - Eisley
Less of a Christmas song than just a wintery song (duh) but if are enjoying a white Christmas or just dreaming of one, this song will do the trick. Unfortunately the EP it is on i not currently available on iTunes.
(I should have a review up by at least Thursday of that week) and one of my favorite songs from the group that never was a big hit was What If God Will His Angels. I guess that happens with songs that have overtly religious song. The song was off the equally ignored Pop album. It may have been the worst U2 album, but bad U2 is still ninety percent better than any music that has ever been released.
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theme that I found on YouTube.