Showing posts with label Feed Your iPod. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Feed Your iPod. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Feed Your iPod vol. LXVII: Helplessness Blues



As I have stated many time, February is the worst month of the year. It is bitterly cold, the days are short, the is a lull in the sports schedule in-between the Super Bowl and March Madness, it features the lamest holiday on the calendar (and before you get too excited about the groundhog avoiding his shadow this year, Phil turns out to be wrong more times than he is right. There is rarely any good music or movies released in the second month of the year. It is no wonder why it was the least amount of days in a month. So I embrace the most horrible time of the year with a little Helplessness Blues. I love the song as soon as I heard it (it landed at number 6 on my list of the 100 Best Songs of 2011) but recently I have found the opening verse really poignant.

I was raised up believing I was somehow unique
Like a snowflake distance among snowflakes, unique in each way you can see
And now after some thinking, I’d say I’d rather be
A functioning cog in some great machinery serving something beyond me
But I don’t, I don’t know what that will be.


Helplessness Blues - Fleet Foxes


Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Feed Your iPod vol. LXVI: Winter Song


I am a huge Christmas music fan; I just recently downloaded my 500th holiday tune which means I can listen to my playlist for a full twenty-four hours straight without hearing a song twice. Let me amend the original, I love Christmas music in December, the other eleven months I skip it when they come up on random. But there are a few songs from the season I will not skip even when it is ninety degrees outside, one of which is Winter Song by Eisley. It is not really a holiday song per say, there is no fat men or babies born in a manger, but then again neither does Let it Snow, and that even gets skipped come January (probably because Christmas is the only time I actually want it to snow as long as it is all melted by New Year’s Eve).

The Winter Song


Thursday, August 02, 2012

Feed Your iPod vol. LXV: Sometimes I Rhyme Slow


Even though they were never huge successes when they first came out, it seems like mot artists from the Golden Age of Rap have gotten their due as great artist from A Tribe Called Quest to Gang Starr. But one group that seems to have fallen through the cracks from that time period is due Nice and Smooth. Greg Nice and Smooth B had great repore, playing off each other, creating some humorous lyrics (they once sampled The Partridge Family Theme) and beats made for the boombox. But their best song was the anti-drug Sometime I Rhyme Slow which featured Tracy Chapman’s Fast Car as the hook. Sadly the song got bastardized by Diddy years later (at least they did not have hamster lip-syncing their song while trying to sell cars), but the song, and the duo’s catalogue is a must for any hip-hop head. And if you wondering if there is a reason why I have mentioned the Golden Age of Rap twice in two days, yes there is, you will find out in a couple weeks.

Sometimes I Rhyme Slow – Nice and Smooth Sometimes I Rhyme Slow - Ain't a Damn Thing Changed


Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Feed Your iPod vol. LXIV: Silver Springs


Emotion is always a sign of a great song. If a song moves you to feel a certain way, the songwriters are doing their job. One of the most heartbreaking songs of my lifetime is Silver Springs by Fleetwood Mac, a lost track from the Rumours era that got found when the band performed it on the MTV reunion special The Dance (remember when MTV would do these grand specials back in the 90?). And as heartbreaking as the first two verses are with Stevie Nick pleading to a former lover to stay (a not so subtle nod to bandmate Lindsey Buckingham) the song turns on a dime at the bridge where Nicks creepily sings, “I’ll follow you down until the sound of my voice will haunt you” and the song has haunted me ever since.

Silver Springs – Fleetwood Mac Silver Springs (Live) - The Dance (Live)



Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Feed Your iPod vol. LXIII: Hey Stephen


Like I mentioned yesterday, these days I spend most of my days listening to hardcore gangsta rap, Taylor Swift and bands no one’s ever heard of. I cover the latter in yesterday’s post and let me tackle the middle today. I know Taylor Swift is much maligned by pretentious music types and some of their critiques are warranted: her live performances are not always on key, most of her lyrics sound like they came straight from the diary of a middle-schooler, and she has horrible taste in boys. But let’s face it, flaws and all, if you hate Taylor Swift you hate America, and you don’t have America do you?

My favorite song of Swift’s may be the song that sounds the least like her. With every successive album her songs get more and more poppier but still have an underlining hint of country be it the addition of some banjo or fiddle, but there is none of that on Hey Stephen. The song is build on a fun groove and you can tell Swift is having fun herself singing along and the softer and smoother delivery perfectly hides any limitations she may have vocally. It is a perfect template if Swift ever wants to transition into adult contemporary, I for one would not mind if she made an entire album that fits this mold.

Hey Stephen - Taylor Swift Hey Stephen - Fearless (Platinum Edition)



Sunday, July 31, 2011

Feed Your iPod vol. LXII: Stomp (Remix)


The late nineties was a weird time for music. The two biggest musical movements from earlier in the decade grange and gangsta rap seemed to die with Kurt Cobain, Tupac and Biggie while teen pop did not start its domination until the last year. So there was a short period where weird songs from Cake and Harvey Danger crept into the public consciousness. Maybe the most surprising song to get played on MTV at the time was a straight ahead gospel song by Kirk Franklin. This was not a pop artist touching on religious themes like Kanye West and Jesus Walks or a Christian artist like Amy Grant crossing over by making secular music. Kirk Franklin was a gospel artist making a gospel song that was getting legitimate airplay at the time. Religious themes aside, Stomp was just a fun song which worked in the church and dance club and even featured a guest appearance from Salt of and Pepa fame, a group that had some very non churchly type songs. Which may have made the song that much more fun to listen to even today.



Monday, May 23, 2011

Feed Your iPod vol. LXI: I Will Follow You into the Dark


Death Cab for Cutie is known for soaring melodies and lush arrangements, but one of their best is the stripped down I Will Follow You into the Dark. But with a song that is about a love so strong they would accompany them into the afterworld, an acoustic guitar is really all you need. Hopefully Codes and Keys, out next week, is filled with songs this good.

I Will Follow You into the Dark – Death Cab for Cutie I Will Follow You Into the Dark - Plans



Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Feed Your iPod vol. LX: Strobelite Honey


Every time I see the commercial featuring The Choice Is Yours it is like Kia Soul created a time machine to go back in to my Middle School and kill my childhood. Watching hamsters rapping the classic is like being forced to watch Glee on a loop. For those that only know Black Sheep from the commercial (or did not even know the name or were an actual group), their debut A Wolf In Sheep's Clothing, which features The Choice Is Yours is full with bangers including my second favorite track of the album Strobelite Honey, an ode to chicks who look a lot better inside the club than outside (something I unfortunately became familiar with when I went off to college). Hopefully Kia pulled the Hamster ad in the near future because it shaves months off my life every time I see it, until then, I will have to jam to their other classic tracks like this one. Hopefully no other car companies ruins Strobelite Honey.

Strobelite Honey - Black Sheep Strobelite Honey - A Wolf In Sheep's Clothing



Monday, May 02, 2011

Feed Your iPod vol. LIX: Super Disco Breakin'

What better way to start your day, let alone an album, than with the line “Well its 50 cups of coffee and it’s on”? And that is how we were introduced to the Beastie Boys’ Hello, Nasty and showed the boys shying away from their traditional guitar heavy riffs of their earlier albums to a more electronic sounding album full of 808 beats. Though I would recommend paranoid druggies to avoid this song thanks to the multiple sirens throughout the album. Hello, Nasty may be the groups best party album and Super Disco Breakin’ can get any party started off right.

Super Disco Breakin’ – Beastie Boys Super Disco Breakin' - Hello Nasty (Remastered)



Monday, April 18, 2011

Feed Your iPod vol. LVIII: White Blank Page


Over the past year, very few acts have very much staying power on the album charts beside Justin Beiber (of course it is easier when you release four albums in that time). The only other act is the antithesis of Beiber: Mumford and Sons. For those that still have not yet caught on to English lads it is time to jump on the bandwagon. A bandwagon that recently welcomed Taylor Swift who performed the band’s deep cut White Blank Page. The country starlet turned the passionate song and turns it into a subdued ode of yearning. Both are worth a listen.

White Blank Page – Mumford and Sons White Blank Page - Sigh No More




White Blank Page – Taylor Swift



Wednesday, April 06, 2011

Feed Your iPod vol. LVII: My Hooptie


Watching VH1’s 40 Greatest One Hit Wonders of the 90’s, it amazes me who is considered to have only one solitary hit. I lived through the nineties; Vanilla Ice was too huge to have revisionist history change him into a one hit wonder. Play That Funky Music was just as big as Ice Ice Baby (and was also a top five hit to boot) and who can forget Ninja Rap even though most of us would like to. Last month I made an argument that EMF (see Feed Your iPod vol. LVI: Lies) should not be considered a one hit wonder and I could also make arguments for Digital Underground and House of Pain, both artists of which I bought multiple albums of. But I want to take aim at today was on top VH1’s list: Sir Mix-a-Lot. Sure Baby Got Back was absurdly big thanks in part to MTV’s ban (oddly the video got more plays on the channel after it got the pre-8:00 ban than before it), but it certainly should not be the only song of his on your iPod. I could run down the list of his classics (like Posse on Broadway, Beepers, Put 'em on the Glass, Jump on It, Buttermilk Biscuits), but if I could only choose one, it would have to be the most played song in my very first car, a 1976 Malibu with three different shades of blue (not including the grey hood). That song was My Hooptie, and my car may have actually been worse than the one Mix rapped about. Note to teenagers, if your parents give you a choice of taking the bus or buying you a car that is older than you, take the bus. If they would have allowed multiple winners, The Boat, as I affectionately called it, would have won the school paper’s Heap of the Month for two straight years.

My Hooptie – Sir Mix-a-Lot My Hooptie - Seminar



And as angry as I was about the one hit wonders on their lists that were not really one, do not get me started on the songs the omitted. I scratched my head when I saw the list was only going to be 40 songs deep and I could off the top of my head come up with 40 songs that were snubbed. I have never been keen on doing my owe one hit wonder lists (my exception for my 100 Greatest One Hit Wonders of the 00’s was because I only used songs that only had one song on my Best Songs of the Year lists from the decade, and not a traditional one hit wonder list), but VH1’s list made me so angry I may have to knock one out at some point. But do not expect it anytime soon because I have a couple other lists I am working on that I would like to do first.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Feed Your iPod vol. LVI: Lies


You have to feel bad for two hit wonders, enough talent to conjure that elusive second hit, but not enough to sustain a career. Everyone can sing along with Lou Bega with just the mention of his name, but who remembers Nine Days? Then there are the strange class of one hit wonders whose other songs are forgotten by the annals of time despite being as big as the original. Seriously, Vanilla Ice’s Play That Funky Music was a top five hit, not to mention the show jam I Love You got plenty of airplay. EMF is also a group whose songs not named Unbelievable (which was #31 on VH1’s 100 Greatest One Hit Wonders of All Time) vanished from conscienceless. This is a shame because Lies (which reached #18 on the Billboard’s Hot 100) is another great track from the band. Sure I may be part of the problem considering I got a couple arguments saying that songs on my 100 Greatest One Hit Wonders of the 00’s did not belong, but let me rectify by reminding everyone that EMF does not deserve the one hit wonder status.

Lies - EMF Lies - Schubert Dip



Thursday, February 24, 2011

Feed Your iPod vol. LV: (There You Go) Tellin' Me No Again


For last week’s Lyrics Quiz (there are plenty of songs left) I included Macy Gray’s line about “feenin’” and went to my iTunes library to do a spell check because apparently Word is still twenty years behind in adding it into its dictionary only to find the Jodeci song was sorely missing. While scouring my boxes of randomly forgotten CD for Diary of a Mad Band copy I posted the video onto my Facebook page wondering whatever happened to the group. As my buddy Doug pointed out the group was trying to mount a comeback on Keith Sweat’s Platinum House on some channel called TV One; I have never heard of the channel let alone the show. Seriously, how is that show on some network I have never heard of when VH1 hasn’t aired anything watchable since the last season of Tool Academy? But anyway. This only led me to realize that Keith’s Keep it Comin’ is another CD hiding in one of my boxes that needed to be added to my iTunes library. After some scavenging it turns out that I also own his self title, which I completely forgot I had.

The one track of my scavenging weekend that stuck out more than any other was Sweat’s (There You Go) Tellin’ Me No Again (seriously, what did early nineties R&B acts hate about the letter “g”?). Yesterday I mocked so many artist using cassette tapes in their music videos, but I first heard the song on cassette for the New Jack City Soundtrack. I played out the cassette so much because of the song; I had to buy it again on the more durable CD format. It’s sad that modern R&B has morphed so much into rap music that smooth R&B from the nineties has all but disappeared, but as long as I keep finding gems like this in my myster box of lost CD, it will soften the blow.

(There You Go) Tellin’ Me No Again – Keith Sweat (There You Go) Tellin' Me No Again - Keep It Comin'



Wednesday, February 02, 2011

Feed Your iPod vol. LIV: C U When U Get There


Over the weekend I was listening to a mixtap that my college roommate made and dude had an eclectically weird taste with everything from Vanilla Ice to Fleetwood Mac to Metallica to the theme to Dukes of Hazard. One song that stood out in an I can’t believe I forgot the awesomeness of this song was Coolio’s inspirational track C U When U Get There. It was also the first rap song that I can remember sampling classical music, Pachelbel's Canon - Christmas - A Love Story. Coolio slowly slipped into obscurity afterward accepting every reality show offered to him and even wrote a cookbook, no seriously, I even own Cookin’ with Coolio: 5 Star Meals at 1 Star Prices. I reccomend the Bro-ghetti with the Strawberry Fields Banana Muffins Forever for desert.

C U When U Get There - Coolio C U When U Get There - My Soul



Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Feed Your iPod vol. LIII: Sad Songs and Waltzes


Cake released their new album this week after a six year hiatus, Showroom of Compassion and it is pretty much what you would expect a Cake album with monotone singing and quirky lyrics. One thing that is missing from their album, and their last couple, is an off the wall covers which they have done in the past ranging from Gloria Gaynor to Black Sabbath. My favorite of their covers is of Willy Nelson’s obscure gem Sad Songs and Waltzes but adding a horn to the track, but keeping the melancholy. Sad songs and waltzes may still not be selling for the fourth straight decade, but the song is still worth a lesson and maybe the Teens (is that what we should call this decade despite the first three years are technically teen years?) will finally be the decade of sad songs and waltzes.


Cake – Sad Songs and Waltzes Sad Songs and Waltzes - Fashion Nugget (Deluxe Version)




Sad Songs and Waltzes – Willie Nelson Sad Songs and Waltzes - Shotgun Willie





Monday, November 22, 2010

Feed Your iPod vol. LII: By Your Side


While watching Scott Pilgrim vs. the World this weekend (which comes highly recommended) there was a song that caught my ear when to characters were about to get very comfortable in one’s bedroom that distracted me because it took me a while to place the song (which is why I wait to watch movies when they come out on Blu-Ray, because I have yet to find a theater that will let me pause or rewind to re-watch something I may have missed). What threw me off was it was a cover and eventually realized it was an alt-rock take on By Your Side originally done by Sade.

When most people think Sade they think of her big eighties ballads, but for me, By Your Side from 2000 was her best outing which got plenty of plays when I was getting very comfortable in one’s bedroom. I am not sure the Beachwood Sparks, the version in the movie, will get the same consideration, but it is an interesting, if not trippy, take on the RnB classic.

A quick review of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: I had high hopes for this film and it totally lived up to it with plenty of Nintendo-era references mixed with comic book graphic and an adorable Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Sky High) as the object of Michael Cera’s (Superbad) affection. But it was the bit players like Cera’s teenage girlfriend Knives Chau and the hilarity of how they get around Aubrey Plaza’s (Mystery Team) dirty mouth that make the movie great. Now I need to download the 8-bit Double Dragon style game adaptation off the Playstation Network. The game better do something cool when I press up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, triangle, O.


By Your Side – Sade By Your Side - Lovers Rock




By Your Side – Beachwood Sparks By Your Side - Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) [Deluxe Version]



Monday, October 11, 2010

Feed Your iPod vol. LI: How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore?


It should be a requirement that every album have a Prince cover on it because let’s face it, very few artists today can write a song as great as even some of his obscure songs. Case in point, one of the stand out tracks on her debut album, Alicia Keys covered How Come U Don’t Call Me Anymore? a B-Side to Prince’s 1999 single which is probably known to most casual Prince fans when it appeared on his three disk 1993 Greatest Hits/Rarities album. It is unknown as to why Keys retitled the song How Come You Don’t You Call Me, but the punchy piano and attitude remains and both versions are worth a download.

How Come You Don't Call Me - Alicia Keys



How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore? - Prince



Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Feed Your iPod vol. L: Long Black Veil


In my youth I hated country with a passion, I believed that just listening to it would lower ones IQ. Then in college I was listening to a Dave Mathews Band live album and heard an amazing version of Long Black Veil, a heart wrenching tale of a convicted murderer who won’t clear his name because he was with his best friend’s wife. Since I was not familiar with the song and cracked opened the liner notes to learn more about the song and saw it was written by Johnny Cash and had to check out the original. After that I became a huge Cash fan and softened my stance on the genre as a whole (though I still find a majority of mainstream country IQ reducing). Below are both versions that should find their way to your iPod.

Long Black Veil – Johnny Cash Long



Long Black Veil – Dave Matthews Band Long



Thursday, July 22, 2010

Feed Your iPod vol. XLIX: Gotta Get: Closer


There have been many bizarre covers in the history of rock and roll, but most of them are novelties (think Cake’s version of I Will Survive). There is only one really bizarre cover that really transcends novelty and is a legitimately great song on its own: Maxwell’s version of Nine Inch Nails’ Closer. Yes for those that didn’t see his Unplugged performance from back in the day, the RnB crooner did his own version of the industrial band’s ode to dirty, dirty loving. Maxwell makes the song his own, the first time I heard it, it took me to the infamous chorus, “I want to (love) you like an animal” before it clicked in my head that. And considering the original content, Maxwell goes even further into left field when halfway through the song; Maxwell takes the song to church with a gospel style in the middle before ending with a funky goodbye. And yet every second of his version worked brilliantly.

Gotta Get: Closer – Maxwell Gotta




Closer – Nine Inch Nails Closer



Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Feed Your iPod vol. XLVIII: Tequila


My buddy Doug knows every obscure song ever made (remember Deeper Shade of Soul by the Urban Dance Squad? No? Well he does) or at least I thought he did until I finally stumped him the other day when I brought up A.L.T. and the Lost Civilization and their early nineties ode to alcohol Tequila which sampled The Champs song of the same name (which everyone in my generation will know best as the Pee Wee Herman song). I figure if Doug doesn’t remember the song most of you out there never have either, and that has to be rectified because the song is just cheesy goodness and should be right up there with Skee-Lo in the terms of great nineties one hit wonder rap songs.

Tequila – A.L.T. and the Lost Civilization Tequila