Joshua’s Song of the Day: “Blame It On Cain,” by Elvis Costello
Claire’s Song of the Day: “Hang Loose,” by The Alabama Shakes
Monthly Archives: September 2012
New Series: First Show/ Worst Show
Claire: This week, we're launching a new series, "First Show/ Worst Show," brought to you by live music and the magic of alliteration. We'll roll ours out this week, but Joshua and I want to know: What was your first show? What was your worst show? Who did you see, how old were you, who were you there with, what did they play, what went wrong (may be applicable to both your first AND worst)?
Have you told us about your First Show/Worst Show yet? We want to hear about it! Fill out the form and tell us your stories and you might see your First Show/Worst Show posted here!
Top 5 Songs in My Head, Walking Through Melbourne on Rosh Hashanah (by Claire)
“I forgot how quickly I start narrating stuff out loud to myself when left to my own devices.” –Message to a friend about my month in Melbourne
The other night I walked around for hours, too afraid to listen to my iPod based on my current dreamy state and nervousness about not looking the right way when I looked both ways. I sang songs in my head, like I always do, except maybe at a more fevered pace. It was cold and I was hungry. I wondered, could a night have a Top 5 list? As I walked and shopped, ate and remembered, I came up with mine. Here’s what happened the other night, and what I was singing in my head.
“For the Young Sophisticate” by Frank Zappa
It was raining the first time I realized I had missed Rosh Hashanah. I slept until 1:30pm that day, a blessing when you work until 4:00am, but even all those precious zzs couldn’t help me shake the tired fog that surrounded me. That level of exhaustion veers in two directions: magical or depressing, but the depression is particular. It’s not real feelings and chemicals, even if you think it is. It’s little kid sadness—you’re so tired, you could cry over anything. A stubbed toe is a tragedy, a missed TV show is a reason to call it quits and crawl back into bed. As for the magical—well, sometimes you’re sitting at brunch and you wonder if you’re awake or dreaming. Rain drops twinkle and wink. You wonder if you thought about it really hard, if maybe you could fly.
It was raining and I was walking to my third convenience store, trying to find the perfect Cadburys bar or a flavor of Tim Tams I hadn’t tried yet. I remembered it was Rosh Hashanah. No apples, no honey, no family dinner. I burst into tears. I conjured the song that had been looping through my mind for days. “Dear Heart, Dear Heart, tell me tell me what’s the reason,” I hummed. I turned it into a Zappa mash-up, I imagined his voice saying “Is that a REAL poncho or a SEARS poncho?” I smiled.
“Pablo Picasso,” Jonathan Richman
I went to a souvlaki joint. I ordered a souvlaki, and while I waited, I killed a cockroach on my table with a handful of receipts I’d found in my purse. I wondered why people always ask me twice if I want chili sauce. Did I stutter? I read “Love Goes to the Building on Fire” and I thought about Jonathan Richman. What does his music sound like now? Is he good live? I tried to figure out what my Top 5 Jonathan Richman songs are, but I got distracted by the phantom cockroaches that I kept imagining scuttling across the Formica.
“Dry the Rain,” The Beta Band
High Fidelity showed up on TV a few hours before I left the house. I caught it a minute before it started. It was a Rosh Hashanah miracle. It wasn’t the first time that I felt like Rob Gordon knew I was feeling down, and had arrived to pull me out of a funk, or give me permission to embrace it. And what better song to walk through the rain, in need of cheer and food and a good soundtrack, then the Beta Band’s “Dry the Rain”? Yes, I will be alright. You’re right, Rob Gordon, you’re right as usual.
“Stupid Thing” and “Freeway” by Aimee Mann
I keep coming home and listening to Joni Mitchell. I keep resting my forehead against the cool, calm of tried and true singer songwriters. Joni Mitchell, Aimee Mann, Carole King. I play a little Etta James as the day winds down, I play a little Joni Mitchell during my first late night espresso. I play Carole King when it’s raining really hard, but I only did that once because she kind of bores me, and listening to “Far Away” started to seem downright maudlin. And I listen to an entire Aimee Mann album every night, so the low buzz in my head when I’m not thinking is replaced for days by “Freeway” and “Stupid Thing.” Musical comfort food, Aimee Mann.
“Listen to Her Heart,” by Tom Petty
My friend Amy Berkowitz did a reading from her new book “Listen to Her Heart” a few months ago. There was a line in one of the poems about going to the drugstore when you’re lonely, buying hair ties. I’ve done that a hundred times. I love moments like that in poetry—when you see a bit of yourself that’s always been there, but you’ve never noticed. When I went to the pharmacy in Melbourne the other day, hair ties cost double. No thoughtless buying allowed when they cost double.
My boyfriend was working late, and every day I tried to bring him a treat. I went treat shopping after souvlaki. I flicked through racks of Tim Tams, I dawdled in a myriad of brightly colored candy aisles. At the grocery store, I bought a chocolate bar with raspberry jelly bean bits and honey comb laced throughout. It reminded me of the kind of candy bar a child would make, the first experiment that would’ve come out of Willy Wonka’s factory after Charlie took over. “All sweets together all at once!” I ate half of it on the way home.
So Hot Right Now: September 2012
Let’s be honest…I’ve been listening to Talking Heads 77 on repeat, to the point that very soon I won’t be able to listen to it again (Lies, Talking Heads exhaustion only lasts for a week, tops). There are some ear weevils thrown in too—-I’m looking at you Marina and the Diamonds, and GTO, you short-lived Zappa-fueled oddballs.
Claire’s List
“Put the Message in the Box,” by World Party
“First Week/Last Week…Carefree,” by the Talking Heads
“Cali in a Cup,” by Woods
“Pulled Up,” by the Talking Heads
“My Better Self,” by Tennis
“Uh Oh, Loves Comes to Town,” by the Talking Heads
“Rocky Racoon,” cover by Lena Horne
“I Feel It In My Heart,” by the Talking Heads
“Sincerely,” cover by The McGuire Sisters
“Murder (or a Heart Attack),” by Old 97s
“Victoria,” by The Kinks
“Primadonna,” by Marina and the Diamonds
“Help Me,” by Joni Mitchell
“So Far Away,” by Carole King
“I’m in Love with the Ooh Ooh Man,” by GTO
Joshua’s List:
Let’s be honest – I poop on babies’ faces. Ok, so, I wasn’t being honest. But I’m at least 80% sure I’m gonna be hardcore into these songs all month. They’ve lasted for the first week, so hopefully they will! Also, they’re badass. So pump these badass jams in your whip. For the babies! (They have poop in their faces, anyhow.)
“Solution” by Laughing Colors
“The Suburbs” by Arcade Fire
“Sequestered in Memphis” by The Hold Steady
“Mother and Child Reunion” by Paul Simon
“All the Girls Love Alice” by Elton John
“I Want You Back” by the Jackson 5
“I Wish” by Stevie Wonder
“Take Me To The River” by Talking Heads
“Hoist That Rag” by Tom Waits
“No Rain” by Blind Melon
“Living for the City” by Stevie Wonder
“City With No Children” by Arcade Fire
“Ain’t That A Lot of Love” by Taj Mahal
“Wake Up” by Rage Against the Machine
“People” by Andrew Jackson Jihad
Top 5 Celebrities With Surprising Musical Talent (Or Lack Thereof) (by Joshua)
“Acting is merely the art of keeping a large group of people from coughing,” or so says Sir Ralph Richardson. While that may be true, it doesn’t, however unfortunately, govern the laws of actors becoming singers. We all have seen them try, but they rarely come off well. There’s a reason why so-called triple threats (acting, singing, dancing) happen about as often as a true power switch-hitter who also pitches. It’s better to focus all your talents on one skill (acting, hitting from the left side of the plate) than spreading out your talent thinly over multiple layers. Then again, some people just got it. And others with they did.
Neil Patrick Harris (How I Met Your Mother, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-a-Long Blog)
I am not a fan of sitcoms. I find them puerile and offensive. And yet, very recently, I watched the entire series of How I Met Your Mother within two weeks. I’m a bit embarassed. But, during the watch, I treated to a wonderful performance by Mr. Harris singing a song called “Nothing Suits Me Like a Suit.” Damn, this guy can sing. A musical episode (or at least, a musical interlude) has become a big part of our post-modern television viewing, but most of the time these people can’t sing, and have their voices auto-tuned. But it’s very obvious Harris didn’t in the HIMYM bit, and he took it even further in the Dr. Horrible web series. (Note: Sorry about the lame video, I couldn’t find a good enough version.)
Amber Benson (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
Ms. Benson is not exactly a household name, but she was a powerhouse on Buffy. It was also my favorite shows (though it should be one of yours as well), and while she wasn’t the best character (arguably), she had the best singing voice on the show. The scene in “Once More, With Feeling” (linked above) is the best singing performance in the whole episode, despite it being filled with amazing performances. And it’s really dirty.
Sidenote: Alyson Hannigan hates her singing voice. She gets cut off in the HIMYM song, and in the “Once More, With Feeling” episode, one of the few lines she sings is, “I think this line’s mostly filler.”
Scarlett Johansson
Ms. Johansson is a great actor, and she’s unbelievable beautiful. She’s in my “5,” aka, the 5 people you’re allowed to sleep with despite any romantic entanglements. Of course, you have to have been dating me for a good portion of time to find out who’s in the 5. (Spoiler alert: I’m not gay, but Al Green is on the list.) On face value, I have no problem with how she decided to enter the music world: She released a cover album (badass) and chose Tom Waits (very cool) to cover. But the execution was terrible. The instrumentation was sub-par and her voice has the range of a pitted knife: short and dull. I wish I could say she did good, because she’s so damn hot, but she failed miserably here.
Eddie Murphy
He did “Party All the Time.” Enough said. (Funny fact I learned in the research of this song: Rick James wrote that “song.” Suddenly I’m glad he’s dead.)
Dan Akroyd/John Belushi (aka The Blues Brothers)
Each of these actors were hilarious in their own right, but when they came together in the SNL skits as The Blues Brothers, they were dynamic. Most people have no idea that Solomon Burke originally wrote and recorded “Everybody Needs Somebody To Love” because the Blues Brothers’ version has become the standard. In fact, today, the Burke version came up on my shuffle at work and one of my regular customers looked up at me, recognizing the song, and said, “I hate Illinois Nazis.” (That dude earned my unending respect.) We all have seen the movie (and if you haven’t, for serious shame. And don’t admit it in public.) and we love it. Akroyd provides the bass, Belushi the energy.
Don’t ever watch the sequel.
