Category: Music

It’s been a while, yeah? I know, I know. I’ve been remiss. So let’s just get to it, right?

First up — as the picture up there indicates — one of my favorite tracks of the Disco era. Two artists at the peak of form, doing a duet at the tail end of the movement: 1979. What kills me about this every time: They start with a sweet ballad, voices melding perfectly, and then around a minute and a half in, Streisand hits a beautiful, wistful bell-like note, and holds it. As the dance beat kicks in, and Summer is doing the vocal warm-ups leading up to the drop, Streisand continues to hold that note, but it is changing timbre, going from wistful to powerful, defiant… and just when you think she can’t possibly hold the note any longer, she pushes it up an octave, forcing even more power out of it — and then BOOM! Disco. It really doesn’t get any better than this. Barbra Streisand and Donna Summer – “No More Tears (Enough is Enough).”

A Youtube artist who does full-on noodly metal guitar-wankery, and whose website is filled with mp3s of his arrangements– This is my favorite: EROCK – “Harry Potter Meets Metal.”

R.E.M. announce their official break-up this week, after 31 years. I figured that I’d post the song of theirs that made me a fan. I’d heard earlier tracks from them in the early 80s (“Pretty Persuasion”, etc.) but they never made an impression. In 1985, though, the first single from Fables of the Reconstruction exploded onto MTV and college radio, and they had me. R.E.M. – “Can’t Get There From Here.”

Last week, I saw Men Without Hats in concert in Kansas City — another item crossed off the musical bucket list. MWH are one of my all-time favorite bands — I probably wore out three copies of Rhythm of Youth on cassette. I never heard or saw the follow-up, Folk Hits of the 80s, Part III, until well into college. It was like discovering a bunch of new favorites. This is the single from that album, which Ivan Doroschuk brought the house down with at last week’s show: Men Without Hats – “Where Do The Boys Go.” Ou est les garçons?

One of Laura’s favorites, posted by request. This one tops my list of “Best Songs From Worst Bond Movies.” Shirley Bassey – “Diamonds Are Forever.” Ah, Dame Shirley.

This is a recent Indie track that wormed its way into my ear via the coffee shop where I often go to write. This is from the Brooklyn-based band’s 2010 album, High Violet. The whole album is really excellent, but this song blows me away every time. The National – “England.”

Let’s end with a little Grime, shall we? A new track from the UK, featuring one of my favorite MCs (since his work with DJ Shadow, back on “GDMFSOB”): Toddla T with Roots Manuva – “Watch Me Dance.”

There ya go kids. Check ’em out, buy the albums, and I’ll see you again soon. (Sooner than I have been, promise.)

Hoping to get back onto a regular schedule with these, now that the madness of Summer is drawing to a close.

A couple of weekends back, I found myself listening to the local alternative radio station’s “Resurrection Sunday” broadcast: a four-hour block of “classic alternative” (i.e. what we used to call “new wave”, “punk”, and “college rock.”), which had me digging back through my collection, and has led me to a desire to do an 80s-themed Friday Music. I hope you bear with my sad, 40something nostalgia.

First up, my favorite track from Berlin’s Pleasure Victim album, almost always ignored in favor of the far more popular “Sex.” This song, though, remains not only my favorite from that album, but my favorite Berlin song, period (narrowly edging out “The Metro”). Berlin – “Masquerade.”

Spooky, ethereal, odd, and just plain KATE. Before “Who Let the Dogs Out”, she was pretty much one of the only folks who could get away with vocalizations of barking in a song… Kate Bush – “Hounds of Love.”

I discovered Shriekback through the Michael Mann movie “Manhunter.” This soon became my favorite song of theirs. “Priests and cannibals, prehistoric animals, everybody happy as the dead come home…” Shriekback – “Nemesis.”

The lead track on a mix tape given to me by my high school girlfriend. I knew it was The Church, and I knew the title of the song, but it took the invention of the Internet for me to track down the album. The Church – “Unguarded Moment.”

The first song I ever heard from Sinead O’Connor’s debut album The Lion and The Cobra, before she became mainstreamed, the butt of jokes, and villainized for being one of the first to protest the Catholic Church’s cover-up of the abuse of children. Her anger, her energy, her howl, it’s all in this first single. Sinead O’Connor – “Mandinka.”

One of my favorite pieces of music from Genesis, a little-known instrumental track from their Invisible Touch album, which I discovered when it was used with chilling effect as backing music to a scene in a Magnum, P.I. episode where he’s gone a bit off the deep end and is preparing to murder an old enemy. Genesis – “The Brazilian.”

I’ve always loved story songs. This odd bit of noir-ish narration from Robbie Robertson struck that chord in me, and I’ve always loved it as a result. Robbie Robertson – “Somewhere Down The Crazy River.”

There you go, kids — enjoy. Back with more next Friday.