The French in general are a most unhappy, unapologetic and miserable breed of person. Evidenced by their recent demise at the 2010 FIFA World Cup, or their catalog of general work-strikes on an all too often a basis. Their transportation and public restrooms have the same smell, and it isn’t pleasant. But, they do some things which I love. Paris – beautiful! Monet – a dream! Brie, Camembert, coq au vin, french toast… all very yummy. (What, French toast isn’t French!?) Another is the Tour De France, or has their logo suggests, Le De Tour France.
Le de Tour France
A bicycle race that climbs over two of Europe’s tallest mountain ranges, covers a few thousand kilometers and is a three-week trial of stamina and strength. It is man versus the road. And it is very unlike the white-flag-yielding nature of the French. It isn’t a surprise that it has been quite some time since a Frenchman won the Tour (Bernard Hinault, in 1985). Le Tour was originally devised to be so challenging that only one man would still be in the saddle at the end of the race, and if you have ever viewed old footage, it was quite amusing, with cyclists getting lost or hitching rides in cars.
I was recently introduced to a cool new social-music service, Rdio (pronounced ar-dee-o). A worthy shout out to Matt at songspeak.com! This is the best music option I have come across post-lala – the past few weeks I have switched between Grooveshark and Last.fm, but have been frustrated by both services. Grooveshark tends to stall out, and I don’t like how sometimes, a track added to my library one day will not play on subsequent days. I do use the Grooveshark widgets substantially throughout my blog, and have not found a better method of posting tracks so that everyone can listen to them, legally. I enjoy Last.fm for random streaming music remains my favorite option, but it does seem to have a limited number of tracks available, and often seems very repetitive with the tracks that come up.
Will Rdio grow to become my preferred option to listening to music online? Maybe. There is one catch – there is a subscription fee involved – $5 per month for unlimited access to their music catalog online, or $10 for mobile access. That isn’t too much dough, considering I can listen to a few hours of music per day… the $’s per minute usage would be miniscule.
With an invite, you can try the Rdio service free of charge for 3 days, which is extended another 10 days with a credit card. After that, you will need to shell out for a subscription to keep your account active – I’m currently at the end of my 3-day trial. If you would like an invite to the Rdio service, leave a comment (with a valid email address in the correct field, which isn’t published) and I will send one your way. First come, first serve, there is a limited amount of invites available. If demand outstrips supply hopefully anyone that earned an invite will share their invites to those that missed out!
And what song to post for a post about Rdio? Why, Radio Clash, of course!
Ever found yourself trapped in a long, sweltering and sticky heatwave? You step outside and are greeted by a damp, oven-blast of heated air, hot enough to fry an egg on your stomach. Well, there’s no need to fret as you can escape to the coolness of your air conditioned home / vehicle / place of work and dance away to these great heat-related tunes!
1. Walking On The Sun – Smashmouth
Smashmouth, a Californian (where heat is plentiful) rock band’s added to the Summer heat in 1997 with their debut single, “Walking on the Sun”. And who doesn’t love some 90’s chart music?
2. Burning Down The House – Tom Jones & The Cardigans
The original was written and song by Talking Heads, in 1983, but old-crooner and Granny-idol Tom Jones paired up with Welsh Rock Band The Cardigans and covered “Burning Down The House” in 1999. Tom was almost 60 when he released “Reload”, a 1999 album that went to #1 in the UK Charts and featured a series of duets with other popular artists who were young enough to be his grandchildren.
3. In The Summertime – Mungo Jerry
Wouldn’t you agree, the old classics are the greatest? Mungo Jerry, a British blues/pop group gave us this classic Summer rocker from 1970, and it is certainly hard to beat. What can be better than the care-free days of Summer? Okay, maybe an excessive heat wave will make you think twice about that statement, but listening to this record has the effect of dropping the temperature a few degrees. Dee-dee-dee-dee-dee da-da-da-da-da.
4. Boogie Nights – Heatwave
Disco needed to make the list, and it was a last minute decision to place Boogie Nights ahead of Disco Inferno. “Heatwave”, the name of the British funk-disco group that recorded Boogie Nights in 1976 had the advantage.. after all, this is a list of heatwave-related songs, how could I avoid “Heatwave”, the group!? Boogie Nights is probably the most famous song of the disco-era that originates from a British-based band, reaching number 2 in both the UK and US charts.
5. Hot In Herre – Nelly
Hip-Hop makes it on to A Track A Day. Not that I am much of a fan of this genre of music, but the song does have reason to make it onto this list. The lyrics are more than enough reason to feel the urge to cool down on a hot, day.
6. All Summer Long – The Beach Boys
However much it feels like this heatwave is going to stretch out until the dog-days of Summer, it won’t, ad we’ll soon be able to have fun again. The Beach Boys never shied away from having fun in the Summer heat – your girl, surfing, miniature golf – what more could a Californian kid need to spend the Summer vacation?
7. Hot Stuff – The Rolling Stones
“Hot Stuff” has already featured as it’s own entry on A Track A Day, but there’s no reason why this song cannot appear twice. Hot Stuff is exactly what I am thinking when I look out of the window and up to what should be a clear blue sky. But, instead, I see a steamy gray color, a hazy sky, which isn’t quite an overcast cloud. When will this weather break? Mick Jagger and The Rolling Stones couldn’t get enough, but I certainly can get enough… please, bring on the rain!
Do you have any personal favorite heat-related songs that you think I missed? Please, post them below, and I will add them on to the playlist above.
I must confess, I do not know anything about Japanese popular music. Is this a good representation of the Japanese contribution to World music, I do not know? What this sounds like though is an attempt to mix traditional African bush music with a modern disco-boy band. Fail! What I don’t understand is how a country so technically advanced as Japan is, can tolerate such a crappy sense of taste, in everything! Music, fashion, television… have you any examples that are world-leaders? But maybe it is because this is the future… well, if this is what tomorrow is going to turn into I need to make the most of my today’s!
Have you ever been in an authentic Mexica restuarant.. you know, where the owners, workers, cooks and even the food on the menu comes from Mexico? One where the walls are festooned with Mexican artwork – woolen pictures, colorful looking portraits, and at least a dozen national flags. Where the tiny TV in the corner is blaring out some Latino soap-opera, or better yet, a Latino music chanel. ¡Si!
Well, I was glad to see England are not only the other country insane enough to have a full sub-culture devoted to World Cup pop songs. Emmanuel is a Mexican ballad singer, who was most popular in the 1980’s. This year, he emerged from the barrenness of the Copper Canyon with his country’s official World Cup song. “Bam Bam, Un Gol Por Ti” tells the story of a young boy who has a dream of becoming a world class athlete. There’s dancers dressed as lions, zebras, monkey’s and giraffes – all set in some kind of haunted dungeon. Why, I cannot tell you… maye the Mexicans are not very optimistic about there chances in South Africa!?
It’s World Cup Fever! And for every football tournament England partakes in, there are a number of official and unofficial anthems that are released to support the band. Yes, I’m thinking of such classics as the 1998 disastor titled “Vindaloo” by Fat Les, and probably the best of them all, Three Lions on the shirt (Football’s coming home) from the same year. Sadly, even with David Beckham and his hair, football did not come home.
This year there seems give us an assortment of anthems. Dizzee Rascal (a British Rapper) and James Corden (film/TV actor/host) get together to give us this. Shout. But really, can they come up with something good, for once? “Shout, shout, let it all out” … “Come and have a go if you think you’re hard enough” Those are real original lyrics. Nice one guys! The typical English football hooligan is going to love this song, as his beer belly dangles over his belt after the eighth pint, but that is as far as it is going to go.
Later this week, there will be a sort of anniversary. It will be “Five Years” (as David Bowie glumly prophesizes), since I arrived into this country. But today isn’t the end of the world. A lot has happened in the past five years, as my wife will testify – for a start, I wasn’t married five year’s ago, but the reason I did move to this country on a fiancé visa was to get married! We started off with my wife supporting me as I job searched, but now it’s the other way around; with my wife home raising a little soon-to-be two year old, and me working the 40-hour work week to pay for the food he eats and clothes he grows through. It’s a shame we haven’t been able to travel as much as hoped, but I am hoping that the next five years will bring a little bit more wealth to my family so we can venture out of our State a little more! That’s something my family would always do – take a week off in the Summertime and spend it by the sea-side, allowing my brother, sister and me to build sandcastles, construct waterways and explore rock pools on the beach. Fun times!
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I was recently introduced to a cool new social-music service, Rdio (pronounced ar-dee-o). A worthy shout out to Matt at 
4. Boogie Nights – Heatwave
7. Hot Stuff – The Rolling Stones
