Lady Gaga
plus Lady Sovereign
minus Madonna
Monday, August 23, 2010
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Top 5 shallow reasons I'm liking Hyper Crush
I spent the better part of a decade or more avoiding any form of hip-hop dance stuff. My prejudice is a result of being a middle and high schooler in the early 90s and recalling the backlash I got from thinking bands like C&C music factory were cool. ... oh the shame ...
But it's 2010 now, and I'm not scared. And turns out, the shit's gotten better. And even though they're no Black Box, I'm finding myself and my itunes account drawn to Hyper Crush. Problem is, I can't come up with a justifiably good reason to listen to them from a music appreciation standpoint. However! I have five perfectly good shallow reasons to like them.
1. They are feeding the 80s child in me with big fat donuts of pop culture. In one song, The Arcade, they make references to Hypercolor, Mario Brothers, Zelda, Duck Hunt and The Wizard (Fred Savage's greatest film to date! You heard me Princess Bride fans!) Check it yourself!
In Robo-tech, half the video is like a Tron sequel and it even features the lyric, "Cool like Mr. T."
Reasons 2. and 3. So, this is Holly. And that's all I have to say.
4. In the last pic, you may have also noticed Donny and Preston. It's like looking at Snow and Vanilla Ice! In a group together. How cool is that!? Shit, where's Everlast ?
5. I'm still not sure how good they are, but I am in desperate need of good workout music. Since I first discovered them at they gym, I think maybe that's the best part. Great beats and fun mindless lyrics. They are serving as a sublte treadmill reminder for me right now. So there.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
It's Ok to like Covers!
It was 1996. I was ... younger than I am now. And I was listening to a conversation between two guys about how one of them believed that Seal was undoing the very fabric of music by daring to remake Steve Miller's "Fly Like an Eagle," which Seal did for the Space Jam movie.
The other guy was looking at him in that sympathetic way we all do when someone tells us that the sky is falling, or in this case when someone tells us, "So, now ... NOW, all these young kids today will grow up all talking about how Seal was the original writer of Fly Like an Eagle!"
And I guess the world would end after that.
It's now 14 years later and Seal is busy creating a small army of children with Heidi Klum, Bill Murray is waking up in cold sweats wondering why the fuck he appeared in the second worst Bugs Bunny film of all time, the Seal remake of "Fly Like an Eagle" is currently playing on zero radio stations across the country right now, and nobody under 35 gives a crap about Steve Miller's sleepy ass, overrated hit! Oh yeah, I said it!
And that guy, wherever he may be, has likely moved on to cursing Seether for daring to screw with the classic "Careless Whisper."
He epitomizes an entire section of the population that thinks to cover someone else's work is to insult the original artist and the listening audience that loves the original song. And if you want bad examples to back up that thinking, well, there's plenty out there. Seether may have taken a whack at a Wham tune, but do you remember Limp Bizkit's "Faith"? Yeah. Wish you hadn't, right? Britney Spears may be the only living person with as many issues as Bobby Brown, but her "My Prerogative" ate more crap than a dung beetle. And Counting Crows didn't have to remake "Big Yellow Taxi," but it was cheaper than Adam Duritz getting a sex change, I guess ...
But that's weak sauce. Because if you dare to bash the idea of covering someone else's song, then you'd better not be a fan of The Beatles, or Elvis (who would not have existed without song covers), Aerosmith, Van Halen, Jimi Hendrix, Clapton, Bowie, STP, GNR, The Who or Talking Heads. We love covers.
And damnit, we'd better! Bar bands across the country would be torturing us with their ghastly original songs, instead of helping us sing along at the top of our lungs while they play stand-in for our favorite artists. And even when we go to a concert to see a band with a million hits or just several albums' worth of songs, the night's not ever really complete until they try to tackle just one hit that ain't theirs.
Covering a song is a grand experiment. It can be a complete Homage: Lenny Kravitz's American Woman. Or a rougher-edged tribute: Aerosmith's Come Together. Or a total subversion: Marilyn Manson's Sweet Dreams ... or they can be embarrassing: Mick Jagger and David Bowie singing Dancing in the Streets (the video still makes me feel such pity). Or self-important and bloated: Madonna should be imprisoned for daring to tread on American Pie; and Ike and Tina ... well, they raped poor Proud Mary. Worst of all, remakes can be impotent, pointless: Kylie's Locomotion, Clapton's I Shot the Sheriff, 311's Lovesong.
And if one more motherf*****... remakes Hallelujah ... so help me ...!
But I still like covers. They bring us gems like this.
Some I'd even argue are better than the original. Jimi's All Along the Watchtower, Aretha's Respect. But they're so old and established, it's hard to think of them as remakes. For more modern songs, it's a tough debate whether there are remakes that are actually better than the original. With that in mind, I submit, the much easier to do, top-5 list of covers of modern songs that are at least as good, if not better. In no particular order...
Fiona Apple - Across the Universe. Almost everything John Lennon wrote and sang during the Let it Be era comes across to me as being as much performance art as true music. Fiona Apple's low mumbling songs rarely did it for me, but on Across the Universe, she actually makes the song feel as melancholy as the original was meant to. It's contemplative instead of random.
No Doubt - It's My Life. A definite contender for "better than the original" except among Gwen Stefani haters and 80s music purists. And not for Gwen's voice. I can take it or leave it. I think her warbling and howling is more than tolerable in this song, but to me it's everything else going on. Roxy Music made a great song, but it didn't have Tony Kanal's brilliant bass work and Adrian Young's crisp drumming and Tom Dumant's retro guitar work. It's the ultimate 80s homage. Only cleaner and slicker.
Mary J. Blige - Sweet Thing. You can't tackle a legend. Unless you're about to become one, yourself. What's the 411 was the first we heard of Mary J. and she went for broke four tracks into the record with a Chaka Khan standard. Almost no song is more identified with Chaka Khan (that doesn't start with "Chaka Khan... Chaka-Chaka Khan ...) and Sweet Thing is something you don't go after, especially with some forgettable weak-ass synthesized arrangement. But Mary J. Blige smoked that song's ass with power, passion and what every melismatic over-singer from Mariah to Christina Aguilera still doesn't have; control, baby. So much control. Even Chaka gave her props, and yet the debate rages on youtube still ... "whose version was better."
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Higher Ground. Who has the stones to mess with Stevie Wonder? And good Stevie Wonder at that. It's not like Kiedis and company were remaking I just Called to Say I love You. Higher Ground is an important tune. And now, thanks to the Chili Peppers, it's an important tune that you can workout to! Booyah!
Disturbed - Land of Confusion. (tie) I was originally sold on this cover being sooo much harder and angrier than Genesis version. I blame it on my fading memory of the 80's, the Kroft puppets that were used in the video and the fact that it came off the same album as Invisible Touch. Turns out, Phil Collins comes across as pretty damned pissed. So it's harder, but not phenominally so. Plus, it makes me remember how much I love the original, without making me wish I was listening to the original. Disturbed takes the heart of a great tune and updates it without changing it in a stupid way. That almost never, ever happens. Ever.
Orgy - Blue Monday. (tie) Also a grittier update of a cranky classic. At the time it came out, Orgy was poised to fill New Order's niche. So the song feels like as much homage as remake. It's the last we've heard of Orgy; and a one-radio-hit band can be more forgettable when their one hit is a remake. But Blue Monday stands up pretty solid.
The other guy was looking at him in that sympathetic way we all do when someone tells us that the sky is falling, or in this case when someone tells us, "So, now ... NOW, all these young kids today will grow up all talking about how Seal was the original writer of Fly Like an Eagle!"
And I guess the world would end after that.
It's now 14 years later and Seal is busy creating a small army of children with Heidi Klum, Bill Murray is waking up in cold sweats wondering why the fuck he appeared in the second worst Bugs Bunny film of all time, the Seal remake of "Fly Like an Eagle" is currently playing on zero radio stations across the country right now, and nobody under 35 gives a crap about Steve Miller's sleepy ass, overrated hit! Oh yeah, I said it!
And that guy, wherever he may be, has likely moved on to cursing Seether for daring to screw with the classic "Careless Whisper."
He epitomizes an entire section of the population that thinks to cover someone else's work is to insult the original artist and the listening audience that loves the original song. And if you want bad examples to back up that thinking, well, there's plenty out there. Seether may have taken a whack at a Wham tune, but do you remember Limp Bizkit's "Faith"? Yeah. Wish you hadn't, right? Britney Spears may be the only living person with as many issues as Bobby Brown, but her "My Prerogative" ate more crap than a dung beetle. And Counting Crows didn't have to remake "Big Yellow Taxi," but it was cheaper than Adam Duritz getting a sex change, I guess ...
But that's weak sauce. Because if you dare to bash the idea of covering someone else's song, then you'd better not be a fan of The Beatles, or Elvis (who would not have existed without song covers), Aerosmith, Van Halen, Jimi Hendrix, Clapton, Bowie, STP, GNR, The Who or Talking Heads. We love covers.
And damnit, we'd better! Bar bands across the country would be torturing us with their ghastly original songs, instead of helping us sing along at the top of our lungs while they play stand-in for our favorite artists. And even when we go to a concert to see a band with a million hits or just several albums' worth of songs, the night's not ever really complete until they try to tackle just one hit that ain't theirs.
Covering a song is a grand experiment. It can be a complete Homage: Lenny Kravitz's American Woman. Or a rougher-edged tribute: Aerosmith's Come Together. Or a total subversion: Marilyn Manson's Sweet Dreams ... or they can be embarrassing: Mick Jagger and David Bowie singing Dancing in the Streets (the video still makes me feel such pity). Or self-important and bloated: Madonna should be imprisoned for daring to tread on American Pie; and Ike and Tina ... well, they raped poor Proud Mary. Worst of all, remakes can be impotent, pointless: Kylie's Locomotion, Clapton's I Shot the Sheriff, 311's Lovesong.
And if one more motherf*****... remakes Hallelujah ... so help me ...!
But I still like covers. They bring us gems like this.
Some I'd even argue are better than the original. Jimi's All Along the Watchtower, Aretha's Respect. But they're so old and established, it's hard to think of them as remakes. For more modern songs, it's a tough debate whether there are remakes that are actually better than the original. With that in mind, I submit, the much easier to do, top-5 list of covers of modern songs that are at least as good, if not better. In no particular order...
Fiona Apple - Across the Universe. Almost everything John Lennon wrote and sang during the Let it Be era comes across to me as being as much performance art as true music. Fiona Apple's low mumbling songs rarely did it for me, but on Across the Universe, she actually makes the song feel as melancholy as the original was meant to. It's contemplative instead of random.
No Doubt - It's My Life. A definite contender for "better than the original" except among Gwen Stefani haters and 80s music purists. And not for Gwen's voice. I can take it or leave it. I think her warbling and howling is more than tolerable in this song, but to me it's everything else going on. Roxy Music made a great song, but it didn't have Tony Kanal's brilliant bass work and Adrian Young's crisp drumming and Tom Dumant's retro guitar work. It's the ultimate 80s homage. Only cleaner and slicker.
Mary J. Blige - Sweet Thing. You can't tackle a legend. Unless you're about to become one, yourself. What's the 411 was the first we heard of Mary J. and she went for broke four tracks into the record with a Chaka Khan standard. Almost no song is more identified with Chaka Khan (that doesn't start with "Chaka Khan... Chaka-Chaka Khan ...) and Sweet Thing is something you don't go after, especially with some forgettable weak-ass synthesized arrangement. But Mary J. Blige smoked that song's ass with power, passion and what every melismatic over-singer from Mariah to Christina Aguilera still doesn't have; control, baby. So much control. Even Chaka gave her props, and yet the debate rages on youtube still ... "whose version was better."
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Higher Ground. Who has the stones to mess with Stevie Wonder? And good Stevie Wonder at that. It's not like Kiedis and company were remaking I just Called to Say I love You. Higher Ground is an important tune. And now, thanks to the Chili Peppers, it's an important tune that you can workout to! Booyah!
Disturbed - Land of Confusion. (tie) I was originally sold on this cover being sooo much harder and angrier than Genesis version. I blame it on my fading memory of the 80's, the Kroft puppets that were used in the video and the fact that it came off the same album as Invisible Touch. Turns out, Phil Collins comes across as pretty damned pissed. So it's harder, but not phenominally so. Plus, it makes me remember how much I love the original, without making me wish I was listening to the original. Disturbed takes the heart of a great tune and updates it without changing it in a stupid way. That almost never, ever happens. Ever.
Orgy - Blue Monday. (tie) Also a grittier update of a cranky classic. At the time it came out, Orgy was poised to fill New Order's niche. So the song feels like as much homage as remake. It's the last we've heard of Orgy; and a one-radio-hit band can be more forgettable when their one hit is a remake. But Blue Monday stands up pretty solid.
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