Sadly, I’ve had no time to put together a Friday Music mix this week — too much stuff going on, with The Minion’s graduation this weekend, Family visiting, etc.
I’ll resume next week.
Friday Music
Part of having a teenager in the house is that we end up watching American Idol. It’s usually worth some snark, but occasionally I end up discovering some musical tidbit. During this week’s results show, they had a previous contestant perform, and damned if it wasn’t a brilliant song. So, with absolutely zero apologies, here is a surprisingly excellent bit of neo-Funk: Fantasia – “Bore Me.”
Invisible Conga People are a NYC-based electronic duo, who record on a small label. I discovered this track via its posting on a couple of mp3 blogs that I read, and I really like it. Invisible Conga People – “Cable Dazed.”
Another new track from the sophomore album by Gnarls Barkley, The Odd Couple. It seems, from lack of radio play, that they’re falling into the “one-hit wonder” category — it doesn’t look like the larger American public has a taste for them beyond their initial single, “Crazy.” Too bad — the new stuff is good: Gnarls Barkley – “Going On.”
I always like playing this track to people who are only familiar with Men At Work from things like “Down Under” and “Who Can It Be Now.” Just like The Police featured album tracks written and sung by Copeland and Summers, which often sounded nothing like the rest of the band’s output, Men At Work had tracks written and sung by guitarist Ron Strykert — which had more of a New Wave feel than the more recognizable sound of the singles. Here’s one of my favorites, from the second album, Cargo: Men at Work – “I Like To.”
Sometimes, you need a song so classy, so smooth….that it has gone beyond smooth and into schmoooove. This is one such song. Lou Rawls – “You’ll Never Find Another Love Like Mine.”
Lastly — I think that this is one of the most beautiful songs ever recorded. I hope you’ll agree. Badly Drawn Boy – “The Shining.”
The Police with Elvis Costello
It took me 25 years, but now I can say that I’ve seen one of my favorite groups in concert.
Great show — made even more so by the fact that they played my favorite Police song of all time, the non-single “Regatta de Blanc” (which they included as part of a mash-up with “Can’t Stand Losing You.”). This more than made up for the fact that they didn’t play “Synchronicity II” (the only track from the wiki-listed “North American III” set list that was missing).
Perhaps the best part, though, was watching the people around me — folks who really only knew the big hits and are the sort targeted by the ret-conning of “Sting AND the Police”. It was great watching their faces as they suddenly discovered that Andy Summers is a guitar virtuoso and Stewart Copeland is, as
Elvis Costello’s set was a nice collection of older material and some tracks from his new album (including one which I featured on last week’s Friday Music) — he didn’t play “Radio, Radio”, which disappointed me — but Sting came out for a duet on “Alison”, which was quite nifty.
The Sprint Center is a nice play to see a show — I especially enjoyed the giant HD screen behind the stage, which gave us amazingly clear close-ups of Sting’s beat-to-crap and well-loved P-bass, and Andy Summers’ “Oh My God! They Killed Kenny!” guitar strap.
Waiting 25 years means that today my ears are ringing and I’m sore, but I finally got to see The Police — and I got my tour shirt, which, in true gamer fashion, I’ll wear for the NEXT 25 years.
