music

Shuffling on My iPhone: I Don’t Know Why

Posted on by Derek

Wow, I haven’t done one of these in a long freaking time.
Oh well, I got inspired to do this installment of Shuffling on My iPhone (formerly Shuffling on My iPod but who still uses iPods?)  because on May 13th the legendary Stevie Wonder celebrated his 68th birthday and to commemorate the occasion I have been listening to a metric ton of Stevie songs over the past couple days. I have gone from “Fingertips” to “Part-Time Lover” and everything in between. But the one song that has gotten the most replays from me is 1968’s “I Don’t Why”.

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Shuffling On My iPod: The Arcs

Posted on by Derek

Black Keys frontman/keyboardist/lyricist Dan Auerbach has put together a very cool side project called The Arcs that is a fully collaborative band made up of Auerbach and some notable indie music notables like Richard Swift, Homer Steinweiss, Nick Movshon, Kenny Vaughan, Leon Willis and members of the group Mariachi Flor De Toloache. If that eclectic grouping wasn’t interesting enough it turns out that the inspiration behind most of the songs on The Arcs’ LP are inspired by the Floyd Mayweather/Manny Pacquiao fight from earlier this year. At least something good has come from that shitty over-priced borefest because I have enjoyed all the songs I have heard from The Arcs so far with the posted song, Stay In My Corner, being my current favorite.

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Hello! I’m Shelley Duvall…

Posted on by Derek

Jebus, I love that video. And I love Shelley Duvall, too. I especially love how batshit insane she was able to make a simple “hello” sound as host of FAERIE TALE THEATRE back in the 80s. I also love that I just found out Shelley once did a Christmas album with one of the most irritatingly cloying songs I have ever heard before.

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Cover Me Monday: Postmodern Jukebox

Posted on by Derek

This week’s installment is going to be a little different. Instead of focusing on a cover of a single song I figured I would put the spotlight on a band instead. Postmodern Jukebox, if you have not heard of them, is an assemblage of really talented singers and musicians who get organized by bandleader/pianist Scott Bradlee to perform re-imaginings of songs ranging from today’s biggest pop hits to classic pop from the last few decades.

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Whitney Houston’s Mom Is Absolutely Captivating

Posted on by Derek

Aretha Franklin is out promoting her upcoming CD of cover songs and one of her first stops was the LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN to perform her rendition Adele’s “Rolling In The Deep”. And as much as I love Aretha and think she sounds better singing this song live than on the CD (thanks to no Auto-tune), this performance is great mostly because of the taciturn presence of Whitney Houston’s mom, Cissy.

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Cover Me Monday: Rolling In The Deep

Posted on by Derek

covermemon
Aretha Franklin joins the millions of YouTubers around the world who have made cover versions of the Adele hit “Rolling In The Deep” as part of her upcoming cover record, DIVA CLASSICS where The Queen of Soul sings songs made famous by other musical divas.

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Britney Spears Is Quite The Awesome Talent

Posted on by Derek

britney-jean
So somebody with a delightful mean streak leaked a copy of Britney Spears’ untouched recording of her song “Alien” and the sound of Miss Britney Jean warbling along without the benefit of thousands of dollars of technology. The poor girl couldn’t hit a note to save her life.

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Cover Me Monday: Life Round Here

Posted on by Derek

covermemon
It’s been a while since I did one of these but this seemed like a good time and song to do one since I had been listening to the remix (i guess that is what you’d call it) of “Life Round Here” by James Blake that he released with hip-hop artist Chance the Rapper and planned on posting it as a Shuffling On My iPod entry. But then I heard the cover by Ellie Goulding and Angel Haze.
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Cover Me Monday: Pump Up The Jam

Posted on by Derek

covermemon
Now I know what you are thinking…who in the right mind would waste their time covering Technotronic‘s “Pump Up The Jam” of all songs? And their is no way it could possibly be any good, right?
Well the cover artists are a jazz trio from Canada called The Lost Fingers and they made the overly produced, synthesized dance hit from the 90s into a swinging, full-bodied jazzy barn burner that would get the flappers flapping in any speak-easy in the 1920s.

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Cover Me Monday: Never Give You Up

Posted on by Derek

covermemon
It has been a while since I have done one of these but the cover of this song inspired me to pull the old Cover Me Monday out of the mothballs. And don’t be alarmed this isn’t the Rick Astley song (that catchy bit of pop trifle is actually “Never Gonna Give You Up“) and you are not being Rickrolled either. Scout’s honor.
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