thoughts on individual songs
A Night at the Drugstore, found on National Skyline’s 2001 album This=Everything. The band started by Hum’s bassist after that band’s demise. This song is smooth and laid back with a looping, but grounded ethereal quality.
[audio:061031NightAtTheDrugstore.mp3]I think it belongs on your iPod; I know it’s happy on mine.
Here’s today’s song of the day. Michael Jackson’s Pretty Young Thing from Thriller. For all Michael’s recent problems, the fact remains he was absolutely amazing in his time. Thriller, Off the Wall and to a lesser extent, Bad are still phenomenal albums.
I like the quasi-funk backing on this song. Groove it.
[audio:061030PYT.mp3]
Oh, and tomorrow is Halloween; you know what that means.
What do you get when you remove Eminem from an Eminem song? This, the instrumental version of Without Me.
You supply the rap.
[audio:061027WithoutMe.mp3]
Even in 8-bit audio, the theme to The Legend of Zelda is a rousing piece of music. But add a full orchestra to it, and you have something phenomenal. The Tokyo Symphony really imbues the song with both an expansive power and a lofty tenderness. Give it a listen:
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Fire, as performed by Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock, New York. August 18, 1969. This rendition is just great; I prefer it.
While it is a song with an incomprehensible name Puncture In The Radar Permutation from an album with an incomprehensible name Cobra And Phases Group Play Voltage In The Milky Night, here’s the song that got me hooked on Stereolab. It’s a song with several movements, beginning with a haunting tension that mounts to a climax around 2:20. Then it totally breaks down and melts that tension with super-smooth percussion, which persists until about 4:25, when the strings bring it to a graceful coda.
[audio:061024PunctureRadarPermutation.mp3]
This song never fails to put a smile on my face. Coming at you from 1945, here’s June Christy singing with Stan Kenton and his orchestra on the song Shoo Fly Pie and Apple Pan Dowdy.
It’s full of jazzy soul. Enjoy.
[audio:061023ShooFlyPie.mp3]