The show must goooo onnnn.... Music thread

[Reply #600 on:]

It's almost 3am.

Ah crap, now I have to listen to it.

Another song that's been popping up in my head these past few days has been "Where Is The Love?" from The Black Eyed Peas' album Elephunk (also 2003 ).

[Reply #601 on:]

Another great band in this '90s pop/rock mixing pot that I grew up listening to would be Lifehouse, particularly their album No Name Face (2000).

Oh, I am also quite fond of Lifehouse. They show up a lot on my Pandora radio when I set it to shuffle, because I have a number of stations dedicated to the quirkier side of '90s music (your Cakes, your They Might Be Giantses, your Barenaked Ladies...es) and apparently Pandora thinks it is more the decade itself and less the musical sensibilities that draws me to these particular artists. (Dave Matthews and Matchbox Twenty also make frequent appearances on my Pandora shuffle playlist, I'd imagine for the same reason.)

[Reply #602 on:]

I've never been a fan of Pandora's algorithms, or pretty much any algorithm that's supposed to guess what I want. They've been getting better over the past few years, but I usually end up with a bunch of songs that I don't really like or, worse, listening to the same rotation of 30 songs over and over again.

When I was the Station Manager at my college radio station a few years back, a group of computer science graduate students approached me to see if they could have access to our library of music since they were doing a project where they were creating an online radio system similar in concept to Pandora. Unfortunately, we had to turn them down because their need was for an online music database, and our digital library and automation system was not connected to the internet.

A few months later, I saw an flyer on campus asking students to be in a test group of users for their internet radio station. I think they paid $10 for participation, but I was interested regardless of the money. Maybe a few dozen students were in the program as test users. We were each given a unique account and were requested to use the website for at least a couple hours per day over the course of three weeks or so. At the end, we were asked to fill out a survey.

Despite my general negative feelings towards such algorithm-based programs, I absolutely loved the program. Similar to Pandora, you could create different personalized stations. However, whereas Pandora just asks you to input artists and songs to influence the station, this website also allowed you to adjust different qualities of the songs you sought on the station using a series of sliders. The more I used it, the more I enjoyed it. You can imagine my disappointment when, upon completing the survey at the end of the test run, I asked them how much longer the accounts we were given would work. "Actually, we've already taken the site down." "Ah, man," chimed in another test user. "I really liked it."

The program was called AuPear. I've periodically searched the internet for any trace of the program since, hoping to find any articles on the experiment or maybe even a public launching of a program based on this one. No such luck, however.


Speaking of 1990s grocery store music, another '90s alterna-pop-rock fare (that I heard at the grocery store last night, mind you) is Tonic's If You Could Only See (1996). Or, as I usually call it, "That One Song From The Nineties That I Really Like, What's The Name Of It, Oh, I Don't Know, I'll Hear It Again In A Couple Months." I don't know why I can never remember the name of the band or the song; I really do like the song. It's just one of those data that my brain never bothers to remember.

[Reply #603 on:]

You're dead on. I recognized it instantly, of course, and also had no earthly idea of the title, let alone the band's name

[Reply #604 on:]

Hahahahaha!

I only knew the song and artist name yesterday because I Shazamed it. I only knew of the song and artist name tonight because I screenshotted the Shazam result, knowing that I would not remember it when I wanted to post about it on here.

[Reply #605 on:]

Next ScrappyLive is going to trick us into listening to the Goo Goo Doll's Slide.  I've already caught onto this ruse, and have in preparation listened to the entire album by Alanis Morissette titled Jagged Little Pill, yes, even that one song whose lyrics have nothing to do with irony, ironically titled Ironic.

[Reply #606 on:]

Slide (1998) by Goo Goo Dolls is pretty great, though I personally much prefer Iris (1998). It so beautifully and eloquently expressed anxiety, depression, and the human condition long before I developed the vocabulary to express it for myself.

I remember Ironic (1996) being on the radio when I was about seven years old or so. This was around the time that I was discovering what pop culture was, and the idea of temporal popularity like songs on the radio. Another song that was on in this time frame was The Smashing Pumpkins' Tonight, Tonight (1996). (Indeed, these two songs were released within four months of each other.)

Also, Ironic is ironic. There are three types of irony and almost every line from the song fits one of these types.

[Reply #607 on:]

I have had a coming back to Goo Goo Dolls recently. Speaking of algorithms, I think Spotify's daily playlists tend to be spot on at sorting my music tastes into distinct groups. Thought they can become repetitive, probably because I never thumbs up/thumbs down tracks so that they can better refine them. One of the playlists just cycles through 90's rock such as the above, which suits me just fine.

[Reply #608 on:]

Remember when Cyndi Lauper told us about Time After Time?

[Reply #609 on:]

Last night I may have made the semi-drunken decision to watch through R. Kelly's opus, Trapped in the Closet, on YouTube. If you can temporarily suspend judgment of R. Kelly as a human being (because, you know, he's a piece of garbage) then I really do recommend it: it is sublime. I'd compare it to The Room, actually, in terms of both its visual aesthetic and its basic (poorly-written) plot. Behold:



For what it's worth, this viewing decision was precipitated by my trying (and failing) to come up with the name for, quote, "the other famous Steve Miller Band song, the one that's not 'The Joker'" during a conversation about bands from that sweet spot of American music between the mid-1970s and the early 1980s. I knew the song had something to do with eagles and/or flying, and I wanted to say it was "I Believe I Can Fly" even though I knew that was an R. Kelly song, and while I eventually deduced the Steve Miller song to be "Fly Like An Eagle," the seed was already planted, the die cast, and I needed to spend the next hour watching this beautiful nonsense.

[Reply #610 on:]

Regarding Steve Miller, if you enjoy bluesy rock, be sure to check out the work he did before he poured all of his effort into pop rock.

[Reply #611 on:]

Once my roommate were pretty drunk and we put on the first "episode" of trapped in the closet as a joke....hours later, we were through the saga. It's just AMAZING what asinine plot twists they decided to throw in there.

[Reply #612 on:]

Before last night I'd definitely only gotten through the first...eight "chapters," maybe? I just remember giving up during a previous viewing when the ever-loving midget (Mr. Kelly's word, not mine) popped out from under the kitchen sink. Admittedly, I only made it to chapter 18 this time around, but it was still a deeply enriching experience.

Side note: the Wikipedia entry for Trapped in the Closet is delightfully thorough; it even includes visual aids illustrating how all the characters are related to each other. A very informative read!

Regarding Steve Miller, if you enjoy bluesy rock, be sure to check out the work he did before he poured all of his effort into pop rock.

Can you explain what you mean by "bluesy rock?" Like, I would probably consider some of The Rolling Stones's output pretty bluesy (perhaps more rhythm-and-bluesy, but no matter), but I am at a loss for other rock bands with a similar aesthetic. Provisionally, I'd say I do like bluesy rock, but I'm curious what other recommendations you might have on that front.

[Reply #613 on:]

Once my roommate were pretty drunk and we put on the first "episode" of trapped in the closet as a joke....hours later, we were through the saga. It's just AMAZING what asinine plot twists they decided to throw in there.

THIS WAS THE ART OF MY GENERATION. HOW DARE YOU JUDGE US. :angery:

[Reply #614 on:]

Can you explain what you mean by "bluesy rock?" Like, I would probably consider some of The Rolling Stones's output pretty bluesy (perhaps more rhythm-and-bluesy, but no matter), but I am at a loss for other rock bands with a similar aesthetic. Provisionally, I'd say I do like bluesy rock, but I'm curious what other recommendations you might have on that front.

Yeah, the Stones for sure have done some blusey rock.

Ackk! The host where I play poker on Thursdays has several thousand blues and rock albums, and he puts on Steve Miller maybe every couple of months. But I'm not sure I've even known the name of the album, and for the last 10 minutes I've been sampling Mr. Miller on youtube, to no real avail.

It's frustrating that I can't describe just what makes a song feel "bluesy rock" to me. All I can do is mention examples.

* Tachy browses his music *

Robin Trower plays some of the most soulful, emotive guitar you'll ever hear, and pundits would likely pick the jamming song Too Rolling Stoned as an example of his bluesy rock. But to me, Daydream is much deeper and richer.



I've actually not heard this particular version before (and I like it!), but it's very close to my fave of him, recorded at a concert in New Haven for a radio show, but never broadcast.

Jimi Hendrix' Hey Joe is a perfect example of bluesy rock. And I've always interpreted the song as a repudiation of violence, btw.

Jimi's Little Wing. Cream's Strange Brew, ZZ Top's I Need You Tonight. For the Stones, Honky Tonk Woman comes to mind.

[Reply #615 on:]

Go to the Wikipedia entry for Steve Miller. The introductory paragraph is in exact agreement with what Tachy said: "He began his career in blues and blues rock and evolved to a more pop-oriented sound..." And there we have an entire Wikipedia entry for blues rock.

But first, Ctrl+F for "blues". You will find that "In 1965, Miller and keyboardist Barry Goldberg formed the Goldberg-Miller Blues Band and began playing on the Chicago club scene. They signed with Epic Records and released a single, "The Mother Song", and soon began a residency at a New York City blues club."


The Mother Song | Goldberg-Miller Blues Band

A Google search will reveal the track listing for their eponymous album, some of which I'm sure is on YouTube.

When he became dissatisfied with the Chicago blues scene, then the New York blues scene, then the politics of academia in Texas, he ultimately moved to San Francisco and formed what was initially called the Steve Miller Blues Band. Meanwhile, the Goldberg-Miller Blues Band became the Barry Goldberg Blues Band (which has become a lot more difficult to search for thanks to the crappy show The Goldbergs having a character named Barry).

Fast forward a few decades and, after 17 years of not putting out studio albums, the Steve Miller Band returned to the blues sound and released two blues rock albums: Bingo! in 2010 and Let Your Hair Down in 2011. I haven't listened to any of it myself, but I would imagine that (his) older stuff would have a more raw, bluesy sound to it.

[Reply #616 on:]

Thanks for the great details, Scrappy!

There've only been a few soundtracks I've heard before seeing the movie. At poker one night, the host put the soundtrack album on, and cranked it up on a great sound system. The soundtrack is a great collection. The movie is only so-so.

Here's a cut.

[Reply #617 on:]

Gorillaz still dropping new tunes!



This is taken from the super deluxe vinyl edition of Humanz, which adds an additional 14 tracks to the album's already-strong tracklist (26 songs). Combine that with the fact that the band (Damon Albarn & co.) are in the middle of making another Gorillaz record whilst touring the world, plus the stand-alone track they released earlier this year, I think it's safe to say that the 7-year-wait between Plastic Beach and this new material was worth it.

[Reply #618 on:]

That was some cool stuff Danny.  Has anybody seen Fantasy by DyE?

[Reply #619 on:]

Gorillaz still dropping new tunes!

I love love love Gorillaz!

The fact that they've recently released a new album and are working on another album is probably the best news I've heard in a long time, no joke.

[Reply #620 on:]

This one has clowns in it:

[Reply #621 on:]

Winna, I can't play your DyE clip at the moment. Is it the one with the surprise tentacled creature that you posted a few years back?

For the past month or so I've been playing through some of the less popular music in my collection while commuting. Less popular to me, that is. For the first year and a third after I bought my current car, I played through all of my rock/alt-rock music. Then I played through the soundtracks and Techno. And recently I've gone through my Ambient, Blues, Classical, and am now touching on what little music I have which could be classified as Country. Keep in mind that I'm not terribly meticulous when it comes to classifying music

Last week I was driving to work when Johnny Cash's rendition of Trent Reznor's Hurt began playing, and it was POW, right in the feels. I had to turn it off because my emotional intensity knob cranked itself up to 11. There are a handful of songs that stab me in the heart, for various reasons. And sometimes I'll play them to deliberately redline my emotional side... and even after many years of doing this I can't say whether it's because part of my self is seeking catharsis, or whether deep down inside I somehow enjoy emotional self-flagellation.

Hurt typically has only a moderate effect upon me, so maybe I'm more stressed out about work and life than I realize. Am I the only one who sometimes plays music just to evoke feelings of sadness and loss?

[Reply #622 on:]

It probably was, and it's probably behind an age wall.

[Reply #623 on:]

Mature.

[Reply #624 on:]

Fuck, I love me some Rachel Bloom. Just last week I was going to recommend her show, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend--a musical comedy-drama about navigating life with mental illness that is far, far more brilliant than that paltry description allows--but I don't necessarily know that there's a lot of overlap between the Futurama fandom and, well, the musical theater fandom.

That said, here's an example of the quality of the songs you see in any given episode (and every episode contains at least two, and sometimes as many as four or five, original songs). They're smart and funny and catchy and, uh, busty.



For serious, though, Rachel Bloom is a delight and more people ought to know it!

[Reply #625 on:]

A cute number, which amply demonstrates the typical daily challenges faced by some of our more endowed friends.

It's probably been years since the net was flooded with crazy ex-girlfriend memes, but you've piqued my interest, so...

* Tachy middle-clicks on the link to open it in a new tab so he'll remember to check out an episode or two sometime later today *

[Reply #626 on:]

So cB's post in the Happy Thread about Christmas carols reminds me that there are really only a handful of holiday songs I even like. They are as follows:

1. "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" (but only the James Taylor version, because his version is kind of doleful and depressing and that is totally my jam*; any nominally cheerful song that includes a line like "We'll just have to muddle through somehow" was pretty much made for me):



*Bonus, sort-of-Christmas song in the same vein: Dan Fogelberg's "Same Auld Lang Syne" (yes, I have the tastes of a 70-year old)...




2. "Snoopy's Christmas vs. The Red Baron" by The Royal Guardsmen (a song about violent, bloody (cartoon) battle should not be so dang catchy, but it is):




3. "Linus and Lucy" by the Vince Guaraldi Trio (yes, there is a Peanuts theme (pun intended) here--what of it?):




4. "Do You Hear What I Hear" (I guess there are several decent versions, but the one I have heard most on the radio in recent years--and the one of which I have grown most fond--is Carrie Underwood's):




5. "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" (Boss's version, obviously; it's actually one of only two or three Springsteen songs I even like):




6. "Blue Christmas" (yes I know that Elvis was allegedly a racist piece of hillbilly slime but maybe that's actually apocryphal and anyway man oh man could he sing):




7. "Little Saint Nick" by the Beach Boys (side note: I really love the Beach Boys, just in general):




I also really (unironically) enjoy most versions of "Baby It's Cold Outside" while also acknowledging its possible date-rape-y qualities (though others have made mildly compelling arguments to the contrary, so there's that); anyway, here's the Funny or Die send-up, which features the always-charming Casey Wilson:



Oh, and since we were talking about Crazy Ex-Girlfriend up-thread, here's their version of a Christmas song, which I find rather catchy:



Rachel Bloom also has a song called "Chanukah Honey," which is pretty great:



And, finally, who could forget this gem?

[Reply #627 on:]

.

[Reply #628 on:]

Gorky, have you seen the SNL skit song "Christmastime for the Jews?"

[Reply #629 on:]

I had not, but after having tracked it down on YouTube just now...



...I can say that it is delightful. I particularly enjoyed the bit about seeing Fiddler on the Roof starring actual Jews and getting into bar fights they won't lose. Oh, and that visual gag of reconfiguring the Three Wise Men into the cast of Seinfeld. This is only tangentially related to the song itself, but Claymation kind of freaks me out as a visual art form--something about the stiffness of the movement and the limited emotive ability of the faces makes it seem zombie-like to me--so my ability to actually watch this entire video, let alone enjoy it, is a minor (Christmas!) miracle.

This also reminds me that I was quite fond of last year's Christmas-themed SNL song, "The Christmas Candle"...



In general I think the lady-centric SNL songs of the past several seasons have been amazing; I could link to pretty much all of them, if I were so inclined, because they are summarily brilliant.

[Reply #630 on:]

Aww, I love Claymation. Will Vinton's Claymation Christmas (featuring the California Raisins, no less!) is my favorite Christmas special. The Carol of the Bells segment is a standout. Does stop motion bother you in general, though?

[Reply #631 on:]

That'd be a "yes." Honestly, even some CGI/Pixar stuff bothers me for the same reason--in its efforts to look less "cartoon-y" or stylized and more realistic, it winds up just looking creepily unnatural. Oh, and don't even get me started on puppets. I admire the artistry apparent in all these forms, but they're still just not my cup of tea.

I recognize that I am probably in the oddball minority on this subject, and that probably my reasons (limited movement and ability to convey emotion via facial expression) become less and less true or relevant as the technology advances, but there you have it.

[Reply #632 on:]

So, you're saying that you're not an uncanny valley girl?

Do your feelings of creepiness extend to the animation used on Robot Chicken?

Fun fact: originally, the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park were intended to be animated using models and stop-motion animation. Spielberg had his VFX people rough out some background scenes using CGI to see if he could free up some of the stop-motion animators' time to focus more on the close-ups. Once he saw the results, he immediately decided to use CGI for the majority of the film.

[Reply #633 on:]

Do your feelings of creepiness extend to the animation used on Robot Chicken?

Having only a passing familiarity with that show, I would say probably yes? Really, for as much as I profess to love animation, my tastes are pretty traditional: hand-drawn, decidedly cartoon-y stuff that is interested more in accurately depicting the human psyche than the human body's three-dimensionality. If that makes sense.

On the subject of Adult Swim fare, though: I am aware of the show Moral Orel, which I hear is super dark and super interesting, and one day I would like to overcome my prejudice against its stop-motion style of animation to actually sit down and watch it. In short: I do know what I'm missing, at least in terms of storytelling, by avoiding Claymation and stop-motion and puppetry and the like, but the stuff just creeps me out, man!

In the hopes of bridging the gap between the off-topicness of this animation discussion and this thread's nominal subject, here is an animated music video that never fails to amuse me:

[Reply #634 on:]

Probs not safe for work.

[Reply #635 on:]

Not safe for work?

[Reply #636 on:]

These kids are focken great!



Adult language?  No work safe, eh?

[Reply #637 on:]

I also really (unironically) enjoy most versions of "Baby It's Cold Outside" while also acknowledging its possible date-rape-y qualities (though others have made mildly compelling arguments to the contrary, so there's that); anyway, here's the Funny or Die send-up, which features the always-charming Casey Wilson:

My favourite take on this song is the one by Nina and Frederik that I first encounted on one of my parents old albums.

[Reply #638 on:]

Ha, that's fantastic. Such a silly, spirited rendition--I especially appreciate the crack about the maiden aunt, not to mention the various kooky accents and that role reversal toward the end. I daresay this might become one of my own favorite versions--thanks for sharing it!

[Reply #639 on:]

Alice Merton

A new favorite of mine.

A voice like Fiona Apple.
A bass like Jack White.
A face like Alison Brie.

I can't wait to see her career grow.


No Roots | Alice Merton


Lie To My Face | Alice Merton