Friday Music
Here we go again! I’ve got quite a few for you this week.
First off, I wanted to share the best mash-up I have ever heard. EVER. Most mash-ups are done by amateur DJs, with a few done by pros which easily stand above the rest in quality. This is the first one that I’ve ever found done by a big-name producer. Butch Vig is best known for producing such groups as Nirvana and U2, before starting his own band, Garbage. This is one of his mash-ups: “Sanctuary’s Over (Butch Vig Mix)”, which mixes “She Sells Sanctuary” by The Cult with a live vocal track of The Doors’ “When the Music’s Over”….and does it FLAWLESSLY. This is brilliant.
Speaking of brilliant, when Laura and I lived in NYC, we had a favorite band that we would go to see whenever we could. The Prodigals are a NY-based Irish band, who started out as the house band at Paddy Murphy’s pub (and still are, I think), but have since gotten much bigger and now tour the country. Laura and I first saw them at the Guiness and Oyster Festival, and were immediately hooked. They play rocked-up and funked-up versions of traditional tunes, as well as originals. Give a listen to The Prodigals – “Ballybay” for an example. Bass fans should especially enjoy Julliard-trained bassist Andrew Harkin’s bass fills and solo. (Update: The original file disappeared during the day, so I’ve re-linked to a copy on my own server)
I already showed a few of you this one, but I decided that it needed wider exposure: The Scala Choir – “She Hates Me”. A full choir doing a cover of Puddle of Mudd’s single. I like it more than it deserves…I think because I enjoy hearing a choir sing the work “fuck”.
Here’s another one of Laura’s favorites. MC Solaar – “La Belle et Le Bad Boy”. Another stand-out French hip-hop track, which we discovered when it was featured in the series finale of “Sex and the City.”
Staying in the hip-hop vein for a moment, here’s one of my faves, which goes against the grain of the usual “bling bling” lowest-common-denominator bullshit that passes for popular hip-hop right now. Lyrics Born – “Callin’ Out”. Most of you probably know this one as the backing music to the Diet Coke commercial featuring Adrian Brody.
Puffy Amiyumi is a Japanese duo (known as Puffy in Japan, but forced to change their name in the US because of Sean “P.Diddy/Puffy/Puff-Daddy/No-Talent Asswipe” Combs). They’re probably known for two things here: Their show on Cartoon Network (“Hi Hi Puffy Amiyumi”) and singing the open title music for “Teen Titans”. Here’s a special version of that track, sung entirely in Japanese: Puffy Amiyumi – “Teen Titans Theme (Japanese Extended Version)”.
Here’s an older track that I’m quite fond of…most of you will know it as part of the soundtrack accompanying the “drug crazed” sequence in Martin Scorcese’s “Goodfellas” (“I had to sell the guns, pick up Michael at the doctor’s, then get back to the house to make the gravy…”). Nilsson – “Jump Into The Fire.”.
An extended dance mix of a lesser known track from Eurythmics, which is one of my favorites: Eurythmics – “Beethoven (I Love To Listen To) – Extended Version”. This was from the album Savage, which wasn’t as popular as their earlier releases.
Last, but about as far from Least as you can get, we have a track from one of my favorite bands of all time, from my favorite of their albums. The English Beat – “I Confess”/ My uncle gave me a dubbed-from-vinyl cassette copy of the Special Beat Service album when I was in 8th grade. I wore it out. The Beat (with the “English” added in the US, because of conflict with some other band with the same name that is now long forgotten) were one of the best and most influential bands of the British Ska movement, and released several amazing albums before splitting up (forming General Public and the Fine Young Cannibals).
Hope you liked this week’s selections. A quick reminder: A lot of these links are only active for a week, so if you like a track, grab it while you can.