A Track A Day

Filed under Dance

I love Bondathons, though I’m not that guy that will sit in front of the TV for 24 hours straight to watch eight James Bond movies in a row. No, I’m the guy that might grab a 30 minute break out of a busy day, flick through the TV listings guide and be pleasantly surprised to find an obscure cable channel is screening a Bondathon. Result! This past weekend, it was the turn of G4 TV, and I found myself watching “The Spy Who Loved Me” – the tenth Bond film, shot in 1977. Because of Marvin Hamlisch’s soundtrack, and the disco toots and beeps, I’m now calling this film the Disco Bond – though I can’t really imagine Roger Moore strutting any disco moves on the dance floor! I love the old Bond movies, because of how cheesy and dated they are, because of the megalomaniac bad guys and their elaborate bases, because of characters like Jaws and Oddball, and because of Q’s gadgets.

Filed under Blues, Rock, mod

“Whatcha Gonna Do About It” was the debut single which the British Mod group Small Faces released in 1966 (A great year for music). The Small Faces were initially heavily influenced by American R&B. The melody was written by Small Faces songwriting duo Steve Marriott and Ronnie Lane, and was influenced by Solomon Burke’s hit R&B song “Everybody Needs Somebody to Love”, which was written two years earlier. Small Faces would go on to sing and write a more psychedelic approach to their records before breaking up in 1969.

Filed under Alternative

This video has seen a wave of popularity this past week, circumnavigating the Internet and giving the boys from OK Go another amazing video to their portfolio. Their video to the song “Here it Goes Again” won a Grammy and has tens of millions of page views on YouTube. “This Too Shall Pass” is the band’s latest single, released a couple of months ago. The accompanying video is a painstakingly brilliant one-take masterpiece (I’m pretty confident this is shot on one take, but this is unconfirmed) that, if given a lifetime of time most people would not be able to come close to replicate.

Filed under Dance, Pop

Happy Birthday Jenny!!!

Let’s get dancing, it’s party time. “Hella Good” has a vintage feel to it, like someone just opened up a time capsule from the 1980’s. I’m getting into a groove here, the beat is totally cool – reminiscent of Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean” (1982) or Madonna’s aptly named “Into The Groove” (1985).

The full track listing for Jen Week:

Filed under Comedy

I can’t go through a week in honor of Jen from JenSpends.com without a mention of Weird Al Yankovic. If Keith Urban isn’t Jenny’s second love, then Weird Al most definitely is (I’m slightly off ease at my lack of long air, should I grow it out??) “All About the Pentium’s” is a parody of Sean “Puff Daddy” Combs song, “It’s All about the Benjamins”, and is from the album “Running With Scissors” which came out in 1999.

If I ever meet you I’ll control-alt-delete you

Filed under Country

It’s Wednesday of Jen Week – and country music star Keith Urban is here! It just goes to show how much I must love my wife to go to the extreme length of devoting a full day to Keith, Jenny’s second love. Fact. I don’t like country music. Fact. I don’t like guys with long hair. Fact. It’ll be a long time before Mr Urban is next on A Track A Day, so make the most of it! One thing I didn’t know is that Keith Urban was born in New Zealand, and lived in Australia from an early age. The lyrics in this song just leave me speechless… actually, a lot of Keith Urban’s songs are like this, describing the everyday life of a country-singer. From putting on a pair of jeans, to losing money, I am at least supplied with an healthy supply of lyrical meaningless to debate with my wife when the inevitable Keith Urban album finds itself in the CD player on a long car ride.

“I pull on my jeans and I feel all right
I pull my blue jeans on, I pull my old blue jeans on
I pull my blue jeans on, I pull my old blue jeans on”

Filed under Rock

It’s Jen Week Day Two!

You know, I bet you 99.9% of the population would be hard-pressed to come up with a song that the Dandy Warhols sang other than “Bohemian Like You”. The American Garage Rock band from Portland, Oregon, definitely are the perfect description of a one-hit band with this song, released as recently as 2000, and made famous because of a TV Commercial and loved by 99.9% of the population. (I could have sworn this was at least five years older than this!) But you’d be wrong to categorize the Dandy Warhols as a one-song band. Take a listen to their third studio album, “Thirteen Tales from Urban Bohemia” and you will find it is actually pretty good, so good for some reviewers on Amazon to label this as “the last classic rock album.” What, exactly, is “classic rock” is entirely a different topic. It’s a shame the mainstream audience missed the boat when The Dandy Warhols boarded because this band as a lot to offer.

continue reading

-->