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Music
Rocktober – Saturday Night Shirley
Rocktober begins again, bringing the rain today after a stretch of nice weather, just in time for a Saturday Night Special Studio with Shirley Manson and Garbage –
The band is probably best known for two songs – the above and the radio mainstay “Stupid Girl” –
Shirley doesn’t hesitate to let people know where they stand, does she?
Have an entire concert from 20 years ago, when they were just starting out.
Norwegian Black Metal Musician Unwillingly Elected, Cat Declines Statement
Glyve “Fenriz” Nagell – a black metal musician, disc jockey, and postal worker – was elected against his will to town council in Kolbotn, Norway.
“Don’t vote for me! Really!!”
A postal worker? Taking a risk there, aren’t they?
Fenriz, of the band Darkthrone, explains –
My campaign was a picture of me holding my cat saying, “Please don’t vote for me.” But people just went nuts. After the election, the boss called me and told me I was a representative. I wasn’t too pleased, and I’m not too pleased about it. It’s boring. There’s not a lot of money in that, either, I can tell you!
Here is the cat, whose name loosely translates into English as “Peanut Butter” –
Peanut Butter will dictate town policy through its human host
Basically, I have to step in when the usual people who go to the big meetings are sick or something. Then I have to go sit there and feel stupid among the straight people.
Day Of The Waffle
August 24 started out as nothing…. literally –
Waffles are the highest form of breakfast food. One can deduce the greatness of waffles through the scientifically-proven “New York Times Test” – if the New York Times says something, there’s a 95% chance that the exact opposite is true. NYT columnist Tom Friedman is a hardcore supporter of pancakes. Therefore, while pancakes are indeed great, waffles are betterer. Indeed, pancakes are fabled in story and song for not living up to their golden-brown promise –
Pancakes may be more versatile, but waffles reign supreme as the breakfast choice. It’s mathematically proven. [Click to embiggen]
Thanks to my wife for providing the mathematical research.
Saturday Night Studio – 1 Year & Monkeeing Around
This week is one year since I started Saturday Night Studio, which now has it’s own page. Every studio is listed there with a brief description and a link to the post.
Speaking of firsts and anniversaries, this year is the 50th anniversary of the first band I ever liked – the Monkees. Here’s the very first episode from September 1966 –
The first concert I ever saw was in 1986, and it was, of course, the Monkees on their reunion tour. I later picked up a tape (remember those?) of the tour,-
Apparently their influence reached to areas where one would not expect, judging from the story Davy tells at the start of this video…
“We touched a lot of musicians, you know. I can’t tell you the amount of people that have come up and said, ‘I wouldn’t have been a musician if it hadn’t been for the Monkees.’ It baffles me even now,” Jones says. “I met a guy from Guns N’ Roses, and he was overwhelmed by the meeting, and was just so complimentary.” – Chicago Tribune
So the 80s would have been quite different if not for the Monkees.
Other than influencing metal bands, the 80s also saw the debut of The New Monkees, which I’m sure you all remember fondly. I tried to watch an episode once back around 1988, and didn’t get very far.
I recently discovered that the Monkees released their newest album in 2016. They collaborated with several other songwriters and musicians. I found it on youtube, but sadly I can’t say I was all that impressed with most of it (although “Birth Of An Accidental Hipster” did amuse me a bit). However, one song did stand out, the second version of “Me & Magdalena” –
Really digging that tune.
As a kid, I never, ever, ever expected to be hearing new Monkees music in 20-bloody-16!
I Just Wanna Tell You How Someone Else Is Feeling
“If you must write prose and poems, the words you use should be your own, don’t plagiarise or take on loan” – The Smiths, Cemetry (sic) Gates
Melania Trump came under fire for allegedly plagiarizing a speech given by Michelle Obama in 2008. Melania’s speech was also apparently hacked by someone on staff who snuck in a rickroll. However, journalists and music buffs are still discovering more stolen bits that were slipped into her speech.
From the Home Office in Cleveland, Ohio (Hello Cleveland!)…
The Top Ten Other Speeches and/Or Pop Songs “Borrowed” In Melania Trump’s Speech!
10 – You and I have the courage to say to our enemies, “There is a price we will not pay.”
9 – If the way that you need is too much like greed, decide if you are rich or you’re poor.
8 – Lift up your eyes upon The day breaking for you. Give birth again To the dream.
7 – If we lose the time before us, the future will ignore us, we should use it, we could use it, yeah.
6 – If spending money like water was the answer to our country’s problems, we would have no problems now.
5 – Standing tough under stars and stripes, we can tell, this dream’s in sight.
4 – As a young girl, I dreamed of being a baseball. But tonight I say, we must move forward, not backward; upward, not forward; and always twirling, twirling, twirling towards freedom!
3 – Take my thong off and my ass go boom!
2 – Stand up, Chuck, let ’em see ya.
And the Number One speech and/or pop song discovered in Melania’s speech…
1 – What else could I say? Hillary Clinton is gay!
Chasing A Song Along the Yamanote Line
So over at What Do You Do For An Encore, wdydfae posted a video of a song called ““Kawaberi no Ie” (“house next to a river”) by Nao Matsuzaki. I tried to give it a listen, but the video’s not available in my country. I let him know, and he replied with another version of the video. Which also wasn’t available here. Wdydfae had included links to both Nao’s site (where I was totally lost) and a site where one can purchase the song (shipping alone would cost 2 or 3 times as much as the actual CD, never mind that I was only wanting to hear one song). Since he had mentioned the song was used in some documentary, I asked the name of it, thinking I might find that on youtube. He posted a video of said documentary, this video finally working.
72 Hours – Dreams Along The Yamanote Line, song at about 22:50 –
After this most roundabout path of finding a way to hear it, I listened to the song, which was all right, quite mellow even. But then I went and watched the entire documentary.
It’s just under 25 minutes long, and I enjoyed it quite a bit. They start at Shibuya Station on the Yamanote Rail Line in Tokyo and walk their way around it, interviewing people they meet along the way. Give it a watch.
Saturday Night Studio – Getting Ahead with Lionel
Those of you who remember the 80’s can’t help but remember Lionel Richie, whether you want to or not. For you kids, here’s a quick rundown…
Richie was a member of the Commodores for years, with a number of hit songs. We’re gonna skip that and jump to the 80’s, when he went solo. He scored a string of hits, including “Running With The Night” –
Catchy tune.
Soon after came “All Night Long,” with a video directed by former Monkee and music-video-pioneer Mike Nesmith…
There were others as Lionel racked up hit after hit, such as “Dancing On The Ceiling,” which had a novel idea for the time. In true 80’s fashion, it also had keytar.* Another was “Say You, Say Me” (which I hope to never hear again).
But probably the most-remembered (and definitely most-ridiculed) Lionel Richie song was “Hello.” The song was already syrupy enough to supply every Waffle House in America, but the video just added so much more… you just gotta watch it –
Makes you wanna murder a kitten, doesn’t it? Still, he made hardcore bank off that one, adding more “Rich” to the “Richie.”
Jimmy Fallon, music fan unparalleled and former member of Blue Oyster Cult, actually polished that turd –
Brilliant. I am moved. As should you be.
*To be explored in another post soon.
Today’s Annual Xtortion And Other Thefts
So I was looking for some good tax-related songs that weren’t “Taxman” or the other obvious choices for today’s happy funtime payments. There are some songs that reference taxes, but not too many that are flat out about taxes, per se. So we will do as Daddy G does and profit off of someone else by skimming off their efforts…
…much like that song did. Wonder if they paid Pharrell any royalties?
Yeah, I used that one before. What of it?
I did find an L7 song that disses the taxman, but it’s just the first in a list of grievances about life in general when you’re an 80-90s Riot Grrrl.
Sounds a little like this song by Screaming Trees which came out a few years later, doesn’t it?
Finding that L7 song reminded me of another tune of theirs, “Pretend We’re Dead” (which I suppose is a way to avoid paying taxes)…
I always thought the song “She Hates Me” by Puddle Of Mudd sounded familiar, but I never could quite nail down why (uncensored version ahead) –
I wonder what other bands have been, uh, inspired by L7? And, given how often musicians borrow government-style from each other, one also has to wonder who was L7 ripping off?
nightskyradio 