Monthly Archives: September 2010

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More Viva TV – “Reimemonster” by Afrob & Ferris MC. I really like Ferris MC’s gravelly voice.

(Source: http://www.youtube.com/)
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I was singing this chorus to myself and had to track it down.  Haven’t heard it since my honeymoon back in ‘99 but I’ve found myself going, “hammer-hammerhart (hammer-hammerhart)” now and again in the intervening years. I think it’s aged well.

Note: Wikipedia tells me they are now known as Beginner instead of Absolute Beginner as they were when this was released. Goes to prove their are no absolutes in this day and age.

Stay tuned for more Viva TV hits from May of 1999 – I’m in that kind of mood.

(Source: http://www.youtube.com/)
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Day 08 – A Song That You Know All The Words To

“The Humpty Dance” – Digital Underground

There are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of songs I can sing along to, but there is only one Humpty Hump. In my teens hip hop seemed so full of possibility that even hicks from the sticks like myself couldn’t resist its allure. The popular culture was trying to feed my Winger and Warrant, the New Kids and their ilk, and artists like DU, Public Enemy, Eric B. & Rakim, the Biz, De La Soul, BDP, LL, etc were exciting and vibrant, and — most importantly — utterly different. 1989-90 was a watershed: “The Humpty Dance”, “Bonita Appelbum”, “No Bones In Ice Cream”, “Fight The Power”, “Children’s Story”, Straight Outta Compton”, “The Gas Face”, “Me So Horny”, “Hey Ladies”, “Wild Thing”, “Around The Way Girl”, “Peachfuzz”, “Me And The Biz”. Changed my life, and I can sing at least eight of those still.

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via douglaswolk:

When rock stars do too much cocaine, they tend to do ridiculous things, like drive cars into motel swimming pools, or hire hit men to snuff out their bassist, or make Be Here Now. David Bowie, on the other hand, produced Station to Station… (via Pitchfork: Album Reviews: David Bowie: Station to Station [Deluxe Edition])

Lede of the month.

By the way, you NEED this reissue. Bowie’s best album, now paired with Bowie’s best live album (And I really love Stage — it’s my second favorite official Bowie release (if the Stevie Ray Vaughan rehearsals were cleaned up and released they’d be hard to beat) — so that should give you an idea of how much I think of the Live Nassau ‘76 show).

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Day 07 – A Song That Reminds You Of A Certain Event

“Jamming” – Bob Marley & The Wailers

February/March of 1988. My friend Matt & I decided we would have a go at making maple syrup. His parents had a small boiler on the edge of their yard (though I can’t remember if they built it or it was on the site when they bought it a few years prior) and their were plenty of maples in the area that we could tap and collect the sap from. We diligently did that for a few weeks and it was time to boil it down into syrup. If you’ve never seen it or done it, making syrup is a time-consuming activity; boiling it down takes hours upon hours, with a fire that constantly needs feeding and sap that needs skimming; not really an activity tailored to fifteen year old boys. With two of us, however, it never got too arduous, and we goofed off and listened to music and had snowball fights and the like.

One of the musical choices was Bob Marley’s Legend collection. [An aside: my cassette was different than the standard release in that it had the studio version of “No Woman No Cry” instead of the live version on other editions. Wikipedia does not list this variant as existing, but my friends and family can vouch for it.] Playing reggae in the heart of a New England winter may seem incongruous, but it gave us a bounce and buoyancy when the long day was trying its best to wear us down. Some of the other songs have come to be associated with other people, places and times, but “Jamming” is always making syrup, and Matt’s “we’re jamming!” exclamations in the key of E-gad always spring to mind. Matt was an enthusiastic singer, but his zeal outweighed his aptitude by quite a large margin. I’m no great shakes myself — I can find a flat note when I’m humming — but in comparison I was golden. But effort outshines reluctant competence and I will always have fond memories of Matt’s bellowing refrains.

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via unbornwhiskey:

MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE: “NA NA NA (NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA)”

What I said on ILX:

“THOUGHT YOU WAS BATMAN. Okay this song is wonderful.”

“dumb spoken word part is dumb and so, so great.”

“it sort of sounds like what would happen if manic street preachers acknowledged that every platitude they ever broadcasted was dumb as hell and just embraced that with keyboards.”

What I said on Facebook:

“Song of the year; fuck you.”

Always been kind of meh on My Chemical Romance – not worth fighting over one way or the other. This song, however, is stupidly awesome and catchy and one of the best sing-alongs I’ve heard in quite some time.

(Source: http://www.youtube.com/)