31.10.07

Trick or treat!

Hmmm...okay, TREAT! Put this in your Halloween bag!

Seriously, I've been addicted to this song all week. The original is on
The Crow: City of Angels soundtrack, and there's a live version on PJ Harvey's Peel Sessions 1991-2004 album. This shit cooks, and the rest of that Peel album is just as good. Check it, then go out, get your own and thank me later.

PJ Harvey > Naked Cousin

28.10.07

Please don't leave me all by myself

This is pretty sweet, I found it randomly over the summer, kinda forgot about it, and just rediscovered it in my inbox the other day. It's a remix of The Supremes' Where Did Our Love Go? done by someone called Quarterbar. I don't know the specifics of Quarterbar, but just check out the link and it'll probably give you an idea. There are a few other Motown remixes in this manner, this one is my favorite of the bunch. I love the original track as it is, this remix adds a new spin to it which is kinda nice. Take it around the block and see for yourself.

The Supremes > Where Did Our Love Go? (Quarterbar Redo)

25.10.07

Now that we've lost our way, the rest can all fall apart

I have no idea who The Twelves are, but this remix is pretty awesome. Man, Yuki is gorgeous. Pick up the Citrus album, which sports the excellent original version of this track, right over here.

Asobi Seksu > Thursday (The Twelves Remix)

22.10.07

Feel sunshine sparkle pink and blue

And onto another soundtrack. Tonight, I was driving around running a couple errands (trying to get home before Heroes started), and listening to the soundtrack for Quentin Tarantino's Jackie Brown. Tarantino is a guy whom people either love or hate, there doesn't seem to be any middle ground. Say what you want about him, he picks out great songs for his films. He's a music nerd, pure and simple. The song I'm about to drop is Strawberry Letter 23, by The Brothers Johnson. Hell yeah! This track was the the fucking bomb way back when. I had the 7" that had the little strawberry scratch n' sniff sleeve, I played the record to death and I sniffed the sleeve so much, you'd think I was getting high off it. Awesome. You can find this on their album, Right On Time. The original version was written by a then 15 year-old Shuggie Otis, and it appears on his Freedom Flight album. I've read that it's been covered by Bonnie Raitt, which sounds like it could be the worst cover ever.

The Brothers Johnson > Strawberry Letter 23

17.10.07

Sing a happy song, and we will sing along

One of my favorite movies is The Royal Tenenbaums. The ending is great. Even though the movie ends with a death, it's still sort of a celebration of life and looking ahead. Van Morrison's Everyone, which plays as the film ends, pretty much embodies that feeling. It's a perfect fit and it's difficult to think of another song that would be better in this situation, just because that scene is so ingrained in my brain. It's also a little testament to director Wes Anderson, who picks some really great and fitting songs for his soundtracks. You may or may not like his movies, but his soundtracks are stellar. Despite the song appearing in the film, it's not on this soundtrack. However, you can go straight to the source and find this song on Morrison's classic album, Moondance. Check it out.

Van Morrison > Everyone

14.10.07

My new favorite toy

No tune spam for this post, but this is still sorta music-related. I've had this browser plugin, FoxyTunes, for a little while now. A lot of the stuff I do at work requires me to use a web browser, and FoxyTunes lets you control your media player from the browser, instead of having to flip back and forth between windows. A couple weeks ago, I accidentally clicked on the song title in the FT display and was taken to the FT homepage.

Holy shit, it's great!

You can search the artist/band you're interested in and it brings up a sweet little page of info. It collates content from Wikipedia (artist bio), Youtube (song videos), Hype Machine (mp3s), LastFM (similar artist recommendations), Pandora (similar artist radio station), Lyric Wiki (lyrics by artist/album/song), Flickr (pix), and buy links from Amazon. Whoever created this didn't have to come up with any content at all. Brilliant. So yeah, I really dig it, as you can tell. You can download the plugin for Firefox here. And if you're using IE, you can get it here. I think it's only available for Windows, at the moment. Hopefully they'll have a Mac version running soon.


FoxyTunes

11.10.07

I want to be that girl tonight


Sticking with the girl groups thing, (and this is the part where I get laughed at but i don't care) I'm really annoyed with myself for missing the Go-Go's at the Independent, last week. Yeah, I love 'em. Jane Wiedlin is freaking awesome, that girl is sex on a stick. Anyways, after the Go-Go's had been broken up for something like five years, they reunited in 1990 for what was supposed to be a one-off gig, a benefit for the California Environmental Protection Act. So a friend and I drove down to Los Angeles to catch the show, and it was great. They ending up touring a little more, I saw them again a year or so later, and I also caught them in 2001 when they were touring in support of their album, God Bless The Go-Go's. How Much More, from Beauty and the Beat, is perhaps my favorite song. I always liked how most of the songs were so uptempo, but the lyrics were kinda sad. Man, look at that pic; the 80s were responsible for some really heinous fashion trends.

The Go-Go's > How Much More

8.10.07

Give us your mind and we'll scan it

I bought tickets to see The Pipettes at the end of the month, they're playing at the most excellent Bimbo's 365 Club. Just last week, their album finally got a US release, so I'm guessing the US tour is supposed to coincide with that. Just a side note, if you do end up liking this, I recommend tracking down the original release on Memphis-Industries, as the US version is being distributed by the evil Interscope. Anyway, they're kinda like cotton candy (eat too much and you get sick) but they're still really fun. I got to see them a few months back at the tiny Rickshaw Stop, so I'm gonna go again. I even mass-spammed my friends in an effort to get them out there to have a good time and support the band, but I doubt any of them will go. Fuckers. Anyways, I love this song. It's great fun, and sometimes that's all you need.

The Pipettes > We Are The Pipettes

5.10.07

Open up your skull, I'll be there

So the new Radiohead album will be available next week (you get to pick your own price for it) and I'm pretty interested in checking it out. Seems like people either love them or hate them. They're one of those weird bands that are in the mainstream of public consciousness, even though they probably have no business being there at all. Anyways, Climbing Up The Walls, from OK Computer, is probably my favorite Radiohead track. I love the slow-burn, ominous pace to it, and it definitely has a soundtrack feel to it. It feels like it could fit somewhere in a movie like Se7en, The Descent or Fight Club. The track has a nice texture to it, kinda muffled but metallic, listing like a ship that's dead in the water. Thom Yorke's voice is sorta unintelligible and there's a fuzzy quality to his vocals. My favorite part of the song is at the end, when everything is peaking and he lets out a chilling scream. It's like the sound of ultimate horror. Awesome.

Radiohead > Climbing Up The Walls