unskinny bop

Today I was reminded of what a dumb song this is. Not a terrible song (which, of course, is up for debate), but certainly a dumb song.

getting tubes in my ears

Tomorrow morning, I’m going under the knife for an extremely simple surgery to put tubes in my ears (a myringotomy for you doctors at home). Way too much fluid in my right ear that won’t drain (I’ve been able to hear each pulse of blood to my brain for the past month… good to know it’s still getting blood, I guess), and my left one is marginally better.

Though it’s a routine surgery, I’m always nervous when it comes to my ears. Without my ears working, there’s obviously no music listening.

I sometimes wonder what effect my losing some of my hearing in 1992 had to do with it. I was seeing the Buzzcocks here in Madison and got stuck next to the speakers on the right side of the stage. I couldn’t hear for an entire day afterward and found out later that week that I had lost some hearing.

Like most people who don’t want others to make the same stupid mistakes that they did, I would recommend to all that you use earplugs during most all concert events you choose to enjoy.

Anyway, have a good labor day weekend, all. Here’s Tori Amos’ celebratory Labor Day song, “Happy Workers.”

should i be watching american idol?

I have to admit, I’ve never watched American Idol – ever. Not even a second of it. The entire premise of the show is just not at all interesting to me. And I’m continually surprised by the sheer number of people who I never would have thought watched it that do… friends of mine who just don’t seem to fit the demographic (or psychographic or whatever).

So, someone just sent me the news (which is a few days old, now) about Kara DioGuardi being added to the judges panel. According to the article, she’s supposed to add some credibility and “hipness” to the show. But, that’s not what makes the show so uninteresting to me.

It’s that fifty-notes-to-sing-one-word style of crooning that I’m just not a fan of. Plus, I think I’m a much bigger fan of instrumentalists than vocalists.

Do you watch American Idol, and am I truly missing anything?

here come the windupdeads

Channel-surfing last night, I came across one of those random channels that doesn’t really have anything on it except for some odd stock photography accompanied by some sales message. I was struck by the music on it, though. So much so that I listened to the lyrics, did a lyrics search and came up with the Windupdeads.

The Windupdeads have only been around about a year, and their first album isn’t coming out until October 7. But somehow – through the show Gossip Girl, it seems – they’re already gathering fans and airplay.

A little while ago, I wrote a bit about the amount of music coming out of Sweden. Well, count the Windupdeads among them. And, they produced a series of videos – all on YouTube – for their new album. My favorite among them is for the song “The End.” You can check it out here…

succumbpromise

When you’re forced into letting someone get their way, too… kind of.

*Thanks to Kay for this insight.

frankie beverly and maze

This past Sunday, I took a walk up the street to my local gas station to pick up a newspaper (it’s several sheets of lightweight paper with news and information printed on it).

When I walked in, I was hit, quite unexpectedly, with some really beautiful soul music. I thought I recognized the smooth voice, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. So, I asked the man behind the counter – Joshua, I learned from introduction, not from nametag – what it was he was listening to.

Turns out he was taking a listen to a mixed CD he had just made for his father. The song was a Frankie Beverly song. For those unfamiliar, Frankie Beverly formed a band in 1970 that was originally called Raw Soul. However, Beverly met Marvin Gaye in 1976 and Gaye suggested changing the band name to Maze. One name change and a tour opening for Gaye later, and Maze featuring Frankie Beverly has been touring ever since.

The entire encounter took me back to a bike trip I had taken from Brookfield, a suburb of Milwaukee, to the downtown area so that I could purchase their 1985 album – Just Can’t Stop the Love. The album featured the song “Back in Stride Again,” their only number one R&B hit.

We started talking about 70s and 80s soul music and he said, “you know, you should really take this CD and check it out.” I couldn’t believe it, but he gave me the perfect Sunday morning CD. I went home and listened to it and was reminded of what it is about funk-driven soul that made me travel to purchase that album back in 1985.

Maze has been touring for nearly 40 years, but there’s surprisingly not that much good quality video footage. Here’s Frankie Beverly with Maze singing Southern Girls. I hope this takes your pursuit of music into a welcome tangent…

ever wonder…?

If you strung every song ever recorded together in one mega-mix, how long would that song be?

join the newtunes group on facebook

Facebook, MySpace… all the kids are doing it these days, so why not us?

I set up a NewTunes group on Facebook that you can check out here (if you’re a Facebook member, that is). Some of the things like this that I’ve set up – the Technorati account, the Digg account, etc – just seem like obligations. This is how social media marketing is done, and I should at least hit the basics.

So, I thought the same about the Facebook group, at first. But there are really several practical and useful purposes.

For instance, if you’ve been reading this blog with any regularity at all, or you’re simply interested in the forthcoming NewTunes website, I would ask that you take a moment to join the group. The first thing I’d like to do with any members we have is offer them a chance to check out the site and provide us with feedback. Anyone who joins that group now most likely has some innate interest in our music search engine and the machine & human combined engine behind it.

I’d like to reward those people for sticking with us and showing interest and, at the same time, use their (your?) insights to improve the site as quickly and often as we can. By launching our site as quickly as we can, we are going to have, on launch day, a list of improvements we know we’re going to want to work on immediately. Your feedback will help us prioritize that list and add to it.

The Facebook group should have some use for us and our members. I would ask that if you join it, that you, too, help us make it a dynamic place at which the members want to be.

And thanks again, from me, Joe and Joe, for sticking with us. It won’t be long now.

Jon

scary monsters – joe jackson does david bowie

During Joe Jackson’s latest tour to promote Rain, his latest album from earlier this year, he’s been breaking out some cover versions of some classic song.

But even though his version of Frank Zappa’s “Dirty Love” is a close second, my favorite remake is his cover of David Bowie’s “Scary Monsters.”

Check this out from July 4th of this year…

And if you’re not familiar with the original, here’s David Bowie doing it…

Joe is touring more this fall, in case you’d like to see what he breaks out for this leg of the tour.

holy product derivatives!

Who knew Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups have spawned 11 related products (12, if you count the now-gone Peanut Butter Cups with nuts)?

I wonder if the scientists in the Reese’s lab are the same ones who work on Pizza Hut products?

What would 11 spin-offs of NewTunes would be like?