Laughing Song - The Residents

The Residents are an avantgarde music and visual arts group from San Mateo, California. All members of the group prefer to remain anonymous, frequently appearing in public wearing eyeball helmets and tuxedos. Like so:

Duck Stab is their fourth album. It is also considered to be their most accessible. Let that sink in while you allow Laughing Song to claw and dig it's way into your brain while letting off streams of giggles. Then go and find more and more and more.

Witch Doctor - David Seville

How many Chipmunk vocal effect songs can you handle in a week? At LEAST one more? But of course!

Here are the helium infused origins of Alvin and the Chipmunks- only not yet the chipmunks. Ross Bagdasarian Sr. was a singer-songwriter-producer-actor-chipmunk enthusiast (probably) who, under the name David Seville, penned a novelty number titled Witch Doctor.

The song utilized a VM tape recorder which allowed Bagdasarian to shift the recording and playback speeds to create the distinctive high pitched vocal effect we all know so well. This wasn't the first time manipulation like this had been employed, however the use of the VM allowed a new clarity of voice to come through lacking in early muddier and distorted experiments.

Despite the Chipmunk voice, Bagdasarian wouldn't invent (and thus market songs via the characters) till later that year with 'The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don't Be Late).' A re-recorded version of Witch Doctor featuring all-helium-all-the-time would come later.

And now you know how Alvin, Simon and Theodore got their bit part start in the high pitched and only mildly racist (in a cuddly don't know any better sorta way) chorus of Witch Doctor.

Saudade - Love and Rockets

Saudade is a Portuguese word which means (approximately) nostalgic longing. This definition does sort of kill the romance behind the term, but it's hard to describe in English. It's not just nostalgia. It can be longing for a loved one or place. It can be the melancholy accompanying the realization that you will never know everything the world has to offer. It looks back at what has been and forward at what may never be. And that pretty much sums up the mood (and is the title) of today's Best Song Ever: Saudade by Love and Rockets.

Love and Rockets (named after the Hernandez brothers comic series) are better known for their heavy and gothic music. Their first album Seventh Dream of Teenage Heaven however (from which this song was taken) explored more psychedelic territories and soundscapes. Saudade, appropriately, closed the album.

There is something quietly final, even apocalyptic, about the song- like the empty ruins of a city. Drenched in echo, acoustic guitars gently jangle debris across the streets. Far off in the distance drum girders crack and tumble off the rusted skeleton of skyscrapers. Liquid bass pours down through the cracks and crevices into parched dirt. Heart strings push and pull against distorted electric squalls and murmurs before quietly dying into the ghostly call of a radio broadcast.

Bridget the Midget - Ray Stevens

Bridget the Midget is a song to listen to while feeling conflicted, giggling, and silently mouthing 'What The Fuck?' to the nearest person.

The song reached #2 in the UK and #50 in the States. I'll be honest, I don't know what that means.

Happy Sunday.

The Train Kept A Rollin' - The Johnny Burnette Trio

'Train Kept A Rollin'' is a seething and steaming powerhouse of a rockabilly number cut by The Johnny Burnette Trio in 1956 and is one of the earliest recorded examples of distortion in rock music.

Lead guitarist Paul Burlison stumbled across the sound when he accidentally damaged his amplifier during a particularly raucous gig. By some reports the band were unsure of the rough buzzing tone, but reviews of the gig were all unanimously crazy about the 'new sound.' Burlison then proceeded to intentionally damage the rest of his amplifiers and use them to brilliant effect on the Trio's further tracks, starting with today's explosive Best Song Ever.

The song smashes you down like a runaway freight. Each snare smack shoots a puff of steam into the air as upright bass plunks and slams down tracks in front of the wildly out of control machine, the guitars and Burnette's howling vocals squealing with the force of wheels bursting into sparks and smithereens.

Sadly it would also prove to be the brightest moment for the Burnette Trio's far too short history. While guitars have gotten heavier, there's no denying the influence the song has had on popular music. It's telling that the number was the first song an early Led Zeppelin would play together.

Smashing - Giant Drag

Giant Drag are a two (and sometimes three) piece band that make music of the grungy-shoegazery type, often with cat meows. Meows are an underrated tool in popular music.

The band consists of guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Annie Hardy and drummer/synth player (at the same time) Micah Calabrese. They have broken up and reunited and rebroken and rereunited on and off over the last several years. Clearly fate wants more of their scuzzily dreamy music. And they have to pay the bills. But probably mostly fate.

Today's Best Song Ever is 'Smashing,' from the duo's debut album Hearts and Unicorns.

'Smashing' sits more firmly in the shoegazer end of the band sound. If I had to think of one word to describe the song, it would be expansive. It feels enormous, yet achingly empty. The synth heartbeat echoes like an SOS signal through the empty shell of a derelict space station slowly crashing towards Earth, bursting into sparks of guitar haze and drum beat detritus. Over this distant chaos Hardie's ghostly vocals float and whisper before fading into the din.

And then it ends with towels! Perfect.

Walking on the Moon - Lucia Pamela

Lucia Pamela has a lot of incredible claims to her name. She won beauty pageants. She lead the world's first all female orchestra. She holds a world record for memorizing ten thousand songs. Oh and did we mention that she's been to space and hung out with moon chickens?

Whether or not (cough) that last claim is entirely true, there is most definitely a record of Pamela's lunar travels: the joyously eccentric Into Outer Space With Lucia Pamela, from which we have pulled the track 'Walking on the Moon' for today's Best Song Ever.

The record is somewhere between a children's song cycle and a travel diary. Reportedly Pamela played all of the instruments and of course belted out the tales of her lunar voyages. And what voyages they are! Pamela's moon is populated by alien dogs, cows and chickens. She was quoted in an interview with the New York Press stating 'All of the music is true...most of it is from experience.'

Alongside the album she produced a coloring book for child and adult alike titled Into Outer Space With Lucia Pamela in the Year 2000.

The final unfinished step in this lunar odyssey would have been a theme park with a roller coaster that went to the moon. Sadly for everyone, work was never completed on the project.

Shanghied - The Fabulous Wailers

Shanghied - The Fabulous Wailers (Spotify)

In the late fifties and early sixties proto-punk bands began to explode out of the Pacific North-West. The Fabulous Wailers (not those Wailers) were a garage rock band from Tacoma, Washington chiefly active from the late fiftes to sixties. They are widely hailed as one of the original garage bands, and are chiefly known for their song 'Tall Cool One.'

Today I have pulled out the instrumental number 'Shanghied.' The song opens with a drum hook almost stolen straight from 'Suzie-Q' before gently gliding into two minutes of smoke filled guitars and gurning sax.

Little Girl - John and Jackie

Today I'm going to throw some 50's sex in your face. You're welcome in advance.

John and Jackie were a one hit wonder duo lost to time who recorded 'Little Girl' in 1958. The song is catchy but straightforward rockabilly with thump-a-whacking bass, spindly guitars and (of course) call and response orgasms.

There isn't a lot more to tell. I don't know how this managed to get airplay back in the day. I like to think it's because John and Jackie were obviously that John and Jackie but, like any good conspiracy, all the evidence has disappeared.

Needless to say it's an easy forerunner to the auralgasms of Donna Summer, Robert Plant and more.

I Owned Five McDonalds - Dr. Willie Wilson

I Owned Five McDonalds (Spotify)

So. Dr. Willie Wilson (he owned FIVE McDonalds). Dr. Willie Wilson is an entrepreneur from Louisiana. He built a multi-million dollar empire off the back of his faith, determination, and the money he made from McDonalds (did we mention he owned five of them?) He has sung gospel, founded a television production company, donates to a whole bunch of churches and is probably a nice guy. Which doesn't explain the above.

Smoothe Mixx. Smoothe Mixx are an audio production company. An audio production company created with the sole function of helping businessmen set their speeches to the funkiest of funky-fresh beats. That's the What. The Why is a little harder to explain.

The company claims listening to their smooth mixes will improve your literacy, performance, and give you a little taste of the EXCELLENCE which only the Best and Brightest will ever taste.

Their client list includes Jon Rohn, Les Brown and Duncan Bannatyne.

I'm not trying to pass judgement on this. These people have enough money that they can spend it how they want.

I will say that as inspiration it falls short. Lynchian would be a better description.

Norwegian Wood - Kevin Roth

Norwegian Wood (Spotify)

Time for an Appalachian Sunday morning.

Kevin Roth is one of the world's foremost mountain dulcimer players. This is a bit like saying he's the worlds foremost amplexus coordinator as far as how much people understand or care. Which is a shame, because the mountain dulcimer (different from a regular dulcimer) is a beautiful and unique sounding instrument.

The instrument has its origins in the Appalachian Mountain range and is considered a key part of the indigenous music of that region, though Roth plays the dulcimer in an unconventional style almost more like slide guitar.

This is Roth's reading of The Beatle's Norwegian Wood. As opposed to a straight cover of the song, Roth has used the melody framework to create a mini suite more suited to the sound of the dulcimer.

Bend Me, Shape Me - The Models

The opening thirty seconds of The Models 'Bend Me, Shape Me' (which should only ever be listened to through headphones- loudly) are the equivalent of drowning in a bath tub made of gelatin guitars while drums implode like bubbles. The song is so drenched in reverb and echo that it sounds more like a bacchanalian transmission from another dimension than a pop song.

'Bend Me, Shape Me' was initially a track by the group The Outsiders (though some claim The Models put their version out first), but only became a hit in 1967 when the so soporific-it-rivals-valium American Breed cover hit the airwaves.

There's not a great deal of information available amount The Models. They were part of the growing army of Sixties Garage girl groups and supposedly were made up of Vogue magazine models. The latter part is a little hard to verify but it's a striking image especially when placed against the sound of the song.

Unlike their contemporaries, such as The Shangri-Las, The Models didn't fully embrace pop. 'Bend Me, Shape Me,' with it's effects heavy production (courtesy of Tom Wilson) and stop'n'start rhythms is both hypnotically groovy and icily alienating. There's an edge of unease, like you're hearing music made by doppleganger Garage girls in a concrete bunker.

In The Hall of the Mountain King - Woody Phillips

For those with Spotify

For those without Spotify

Woody Phillips is the son of a wooder worker and a classically trained composer/arranger/cellist who enjoys making music on power tools. And not just sampling them. This is the real deal. If this music fell on you while in motion, it would kill you.

Here is his wonderfully manic rendition of In The Hall of the Mountain King which (according to the liner notes) features 'Hammer, wood rasp, duct tape, anvil, pneumatic nailer, hand saws, 2x4s, pipes, table saws, jointer, power drills, drill press motor, jigsaw blades (plucked).'

It's an incredible effect. The music sounds like an army of tin men running on player piano music rolls toiling in a scrap yard before exploding.

I'm sure you have more questions. Woody, I'm sure, answers all of them in his latest dissertation: 'The Contemporary Composer: 120-Grit Sandpaper and its Effects on Margarita Making in Central California at the Dawn of the Third Millennium.'

Definitely.

TurretMalfunction - Mart815

TurretMalfunction by Mart815

A short and sweet update for a short and sweet song.

Eleanor (our extraordinary artist) has been playing through Portal 2 recently, which reminded me of this awesome dubstep remix of the Aperture Turrets. Because the soundtracks of Portal 1/2 are built around organic and electronic sounds meshing, the style is a natural fit for the samples.

The mix is generally pretty great, though understandably without a background in Portal it becomes a dubstep song with a bunch of overly polite helium voices apologizing, screaming, and killing.

Okay wait actually that still sounds pretty awesome.

Get it for free forever here.

I Wany Candy - The Strangeloves

So this song was going through my head on a loop yesterday. Not the version in the video mind you, the one by Bow Wow Wow which Beavis and Butthead (critics extraordinaire) unanimously voted sucks.

So I decided to look up where the song came from. It was written by the song writing/producing team FGG Productions, made up of Bob Feldman, Jerry Goldstein and Richard Gottehrer. The trio had already written hits for a string of other artists, most notably with 'My Boyfriends Back' for The Angels. In late 1964, presumably tired of sharing royalties with other artists, the trio decided to create a band to perform their work.

Taking a page out of The Monkees play book, the trio created a fake back story for the band to set the public's imagination on fire. They decided the band needed to be exotic (makes sense) so they settled on being from Australia (well...), and they needed a feel good care free back story (okay sure-) so they decided they were sheepfarmers (what?). Not just sheep farmers! (Oh-) Wealthy sheep farmers! (-kay.) And, because it was the sixties, all of their names would rhyme- making them the Brothers Niles, Giles and Miles Strange of The Strangeloves!

So. The story didn't really catch on. But the music did, especially the Bo Diddley-raga drum lead 'I Want Candy,' which is an undeniably catchy song. And sounds a bit like a lounge band playing in the middle of the jungle. Which can only ever be a good thing.

Thank God for wealthy, eccentric, bored, sheep farmer brothers.

Code Monkey - Jonathan Coulton

You probably know Jonathan Coulton. In some circles he is not just a musician, he is the musician. If nothing else you have almost certainly heard his contribution to the video game Portal: the ending song 'Still Alive,' which (while totally awesome) has gone viral-with-rabies and has since been mostly put down.

Coulton is an insanely prolific song writer. His 'Thing A Week' podcast ran from late 2005 to 2006 in which each week he would write and record a new song and release them into the wilds of the Internet. Simply managing to stick to the schedule would have been impressive in and of itself, but what's really staggering is how good every composition is. Coulton has cracked the art of the pop song in a head spinning myriad of styles and genres. From folky turns (A Talk With George) to choral ballads (When You Go) to manic acousti-punk (I Feel Fantastic) every song has slick arrangements and a decidedly powerful case of earworms (that's one of the most unpleasant compliments I've ever delivered). Every song causes itches of familiarity in your brain even upon a first listen because of how well they have cribbed, twisted and built upon the lexicon of popular music.

Coulton often gets branded as both a novelty musician and a geek-rock hero. In many ways these two titles are interlinked, and both are largely unhelpful in describing his music. He does look at social and pop culture touchstones which have become part of wider Geek culture (Cthulu-esque beasts, programming, math, zombies). Combine this with his initial breakthrough online and you have a match made in tech-pop-nerd heaven.

However taking Geek ephemera and singing about it does not necessarily make for awesome listening. The reason Coulton's numbers have become so popular and even beloved is because he has a remarkable ability for marrying the mundane with the epic in well observed ways. For example take 'Re: Your Brains' which frames the zombie apocalypse in an interoffice e-mail from the zombies to the survivors. Or 'Ikea' which turns a song about the flatpack furniture store into a power pop ballad about Vikings and home decorating. They are anthems for the everyday.

And they will make you laugh, which is where the novelty label rears its head. I think there's a tendency (and it's one true of many art forms but seems to come up particularly often with music) where if a song is funny we will often consider it to be a less valid piece of work. And Coulton is very funny (I've had to switch off listening to him in the background while writing this because of that problem). Yet he always marries the comedic with the heartfelt, the songs are funny because we recognize elements of ourselves in them (whether it's the cheerfully honest diplomatic e-mail sent from the zombies or in lines like 'You ruined everything in the nicest way.') It's because of this that in the Official Pantheon of Songwriters (definitely a real thing), Coulton seems less of a Weird Al Yankovich and more of a Loudon Wainwright.

All of this can be seen in today's Best Song Ever: 'Code Monkey.' The song is one of Coulton's better known numbers and a great slice of pop-punk. If nothing else, writing a song which will have you fist pumping along to the daily trials of a computer programmer is an accomplishment worthy of going on a tombstone. The fact that he knocked the song out in a week is just the icing on the cake.

Back Water Rising - Napoleon Strickland

Back Water Rising for those with Spotify

(Well it was there a week ago, guess it's gone now so...)

Back Water Rising for those without Spotify everybody

Fife and Drum Blues is one of the less well known variations of the Blues genre. The music does what it says on the tin: Fifes (usually one, sometimes more) blow melody over a massive drum line, with spare vocals shouted out over the top.

The origins of the genre are disputed. Some point to the military march music of the American Revolutionary War, built as it was upon carried snare drums and fife pipes, while others argue that the sound can be traced back to African folk music. Either way it's agreed upon that the use of the instrumentation to play blues music began in the southern United States, with examples to be found all the way from Georgia to Tennessee.

Today we're looking at one of the most well known practitioners of the genre, Napoleon Strickland and his song Back Water Rising.

Born near Como, Mississippi in 1919 Strickland was a multi-instrumentalist, showing skill at percussion, guitars, harmonica and more. He was taught to play the fife by musician Otha Turner during his younger years, and it was this instrument which he consistently stuck to through most of his career.