smile
from The Lower East Side
This song is a favorite from my youth. Before Danny Elfman became one of the hottest film composers around, he was the front man for new wave outfit, Oingo Boingo. This track appears on their underrated third album, Good For Your Soul, as well as a few different movies. A later recording of this song can also be heard in […]
This is an interesting song. It’s a great little tune, written and performed by Lou Reed satirizing Bob Dylan. In Allan Arkush‘s 1983 comedy, Get Crazy, Reed plays Auden, a genius folk singer in a creative rut because success and fame have purged his life of tragedy and despair. Auden is coaxed out of his apartment after about a decade […]
This is the first single from legendary L.A. punk band Fear, released four years before they recorded their first album. It’s been one of my favorites for a large part of my life; whenever I hear it now, memories of my (possibly misspent) youth come flooding back. Happy Friday, people. If the embedded audio player doesn’t load, click to listen […]
The name of this song literally translates as The Creole Parrot, but the sentiment is really The Creole Rapper. Rapper’s Delight is widely acknowledged to be the pioneering rap record, but at the time, the genre hadn’t been named. Rap was still a slang word for talk or conversation, so when Rapper’s Delight was released in Venezuela, it was called […]
Marvin Hamlisch, the composer of the music to this Carly Simon hit, passed away yesterday, so this one is for him. I would have posted it here sooner or later anyway. It’s the theme from the James Bond movie, The Spy Who Loved Me, so it’s all about how great he is at fucking women, which is in a similar […]
In honor of NASA landing their most advanced Mars Rover, Curiosity, on the surface of the Red Planet, I’m posting David Bowie‘s classic song. At first listen, it seems to be a simple, understated track, but it holds up to repeat listening because of the depth and complexity of the arrangement. The lyrics make little sense, and are probably not […]
Often the simplest things are the best. This is one of The Mamas & The Papas best loved and most covered songs and their only Number One hit on the Billboard Hot 100. Have a great week people. If the embedded audio player doesn’t load, click to listen to Monday, Monday by The Mamas & the Papas at Grooveshark.
A mellow slice of uplift on this Sunday. This is the first track on Stevie Wonder‘s landmark, Songs In The Key Of Life. If you’re not familiar with this album, you should listen to it in its entirety from beginning to end as soon as you can. It will be one of the best experiences of your life. If the embedded […]
Whether I meant to or not, it seems I’ve been running a sophomore album theme the last few days. This track is the first single from De La Soul Is Dead, the group‘s second album. Q-Tip, Russell Simmons and Vinia Mojica also provide various vocals on this lighthearted ode to the simple pleasures of unwinding on the weekend. If the […]
