Kitchen Sink Music Vol. 3: Pop Music - Ross Harris

Punk balloons. This is what you are about to receive. A thirty second blast of non-music music involving pops, bangs, whimpers, and helium.

It's been said before, but damn that should have been longer. Filmmaker and VFX artist Ross Harris made this short but sweet number with his daughter several years back and it's been doing viral rounds ever since. Balloons are proving to be surprisingly musical objects.

Chiptune Chuesday: More Power More Pop More Love - Daily Stupidity of a Superhero

Sometimes it's all in the names. This Chiptune Chuesday you're going to enjoy the manic bleeping tones of More Power More Pop More Love by Daily Stupidity of a Superhero. I don't have a lot more to say. Stick this stuff on loud. Start dancing. Find demented 8-bit rainbows burst out of your speakers. Stop panicking. Accept death by 8-bit powerpop rainbow explosions.

Enjoy your Chuesday!

Drivin' Nails In My Coffin - Ernest Tubb

Ernest Tubb, better known as The Texas Troubadour, was one of the major trailblazers of country music. He had a wide range of hits and well known numbers, including the famed honkytonker 'Walking the Floor Over You.'

Today's Best Song Ever is Tubb's cover of Floyd Tillman's (also a respected country music progenitor) song of lost love, booze and metal: Drivin' Nails In My Coffin.

The song is an example of what I call A Damned Fine Line. 'Drivin' Nails' itself isn't a mind blowing country experience. There are songs that freewheel faster and ballads that twang tougher. No, this song is elevated by the perfectly honed simplicity of its chorus. In three lines Tubb and Tillman have cracked the self immolation of the heart. They do it without bombast or histrionics. They're killing them selves slowly, and it's all for you darling. Driving those nails in their coffins. Driving those nails over you.

It's short, sweet, and self destructive. The perfect kind of country. The perfect kind of heartbreak.

A Very Merry Unbirthday - Ed Wynn & Jerry Colonna

Yesterday was my Birthday! Today is not my Birthday! It's probably not your Birthday either (probably)! Therefore, so that no one feels left out of any proceedings, I'm going to wish us all a Very Merry Unbirthday (unless it IS your Birthday in which case get out of here LOSER. This isn't for you. Also Happy Birthday).

Needless to say- any day where Ed Wynn is back in your world, no matter for how long, is an amazing day. Seriously. I've just improved your life by at least 18%.

At LEAST.

Happy Unbirthday everyone!

The Rains of Castamere - The National

Have you been watching Game of Thrones? If yes, good for you! You get a cookie! If not, what's wrong with you? Do you hate good things or something? Go watch. Read this first and all that. But then go. I'm watching you.

The National, the Cincinnati band of the deep voice and the self proclaimed meaningless name, have recorded a version of The Rains of Castamere. The song is from the Song of Ice & Fire book series and tells the story of the crushing of the rebellion of House Castamere by Tywin Lannister. All of which would make sense if you JUST WENT AND WATCHED THE SHOW. But really, the song is gorgeously chilling with Matt Berringer's black velvet vocals gently held up by droning strings.

Now! Here's your cookie. You can download the song here. I'm sure it's definitely legitimate. Definitely. Just don't tell Tywin. Otherwise the fate of House Castamere will be your own.

I Just Started Hating Some People Today - Beck ft. Jack White

Beck and Jack White made a thing! It's called I Just Started Hating Some People Today! Let's listen!

The opening of the song (by which I mean the main bit of the song, by which I mean the… y'know… song bit of the song)  is jingle jangle alt country made for serious alt head nodding where you look up for a moment as you break into an irony free grin at the cheerfully demented lyrics before noticing no one else is smiling so you close your eyes and smile on the inside as you punch everyone's face like Beck because fuck those guys.

I don't think I can put it much better than that. It's got woozy druggy bass, it's got crunchy crashy drums by White, and it's damn funny. It has a pair of false endings: one fifteen seconds of hardcore, the other quasi P-Funk. 

Maybe (stay with me here)- maybe the song is a metaphor for angry sex in it's construction. It's pretty awesome at the start (because sex right?), even though you're pissed off the whole time. Then for a brief moment the anger overwhelms you in blinding climactic fury. But then you've orgasmed and shit... why were you mad again?

Thank you Beck and White for making the country ode to distracted hate sex. There's your cover quote. Where's my money?

Chiptune Chuesday: The Ecstasy of Gold - Glomag

If Clint Eastwood were two inches tall and made of grey and angry pixels he would constantly be soundtracked by Glomag's chipped out cover of The Ecstasy of Gold on Roland & The Lamprey.

This song has convinced me we need more digital Westerns. Maybe Westworld wasn't such a bad idea! No, no, no, this is the song talking. Ignore me.

I was trying to find a clever way to summarize Glomag but I like the description of the album from his website too much. It's the perfect blend of cool and stupid pretentious, which is kind of Chiptune in a nutshell in many ways. So I will leave you with his wise words, and wish you all a happy Chuesday:

'Roland had studied the data on the first four cartridges for a very long time, when he realized that the lamprey was hiding a fifth inside it's mouth. Discovered, the lamprey wheezed and sputtered, blowing air through the cartridge in an attempt to make it sound out a tune. Confused and frustrated, it spat the item out into the sand and disappeared into the vast, toxic lake. Roland dried it off, inserted it into the DMG, pressed start and heard the growling waveforms emerge. This sound brought to him the realization that a year had passed in this wasteland and there was now much work to be done.'

Ball of Confusion - The Temptations

Damn if that song doesn't kick like a mule on steroids.

Ball of Confusion, one of the finest singles put out by harmony masters The Temptations and written by Motown mainstays Norman Whitfield and Barret Strong, nearly didn't happen. The band were originally slated to release the anti-Vietnam number War (also penned by Whitfield/Strong), however concerns from on high at Motown mooted the release. The label worried the song's defiant stance would alienate more conservative listeners, and so War was passed on to Edwin Starr. Whitfield and Strong then wrote Ball of Confusion for The Temptations as a replacement and good God almighty thank the lord they did.

The song growls open with a bumping bassline from Bob Babbit, a member of the famous session musician group The Funk Brothers who have played on nearly every soul and Motown release worth mentioning (including Heard It Through the Grapevine, My Girl, and Ain't No Mountain High Enough). As Babbit's bass oozes out of your speakers echoing guitar lines spindle and flux from dark alleyways as The Temptations begin laying the world to rights like a group of harmony loving street preachers. And all that's before we even get to the harmonica solo from a little known musician named Stevie Wonder.

Politics you can groove to. That's what the world needs today.

Centerfold - The J. Geils Band

It's sunny as all get out this week in London. I have an affliction that tends to become quite pronounced in warm weather: I uncontrollably listen to enormous amounts of cheesy pop music- and it doesn't get much cheesier than Centerfold by The J. Geils Band. But damn it! If I'm going to listen to this stuff then SO ARE YOU.

Centerfold has one of the most memorable organ hooks in pop music. A bit bluesy, a bit americana, a bit glossy eighties pop rock, and every inch an unstoppable ear worm. The song may or may not have been written about lead singer Peter Wolf's at the time girlfriend, actress Angel Tompkins- it's never been totally confirmed but seems to fit.

Either way, allow this bouncing pop rendition of one man's mental anguish over his childhood sweetheart's Playboy debut to soundtrack your sunny afternoon out. Or in. Whatever. The hook is taking over my braiNAH NAH NAHNAHNAHNAH NAH NAH NAH NANANAHNANAHNAH

The Weather Report: Just A Gigolo/Ain't Got Nobody - Louis Prima

Today expect high amounts of Louis Prima coming in from the east and casting it's glow over the whole week. Get outside and find a way of blasting the Just A Gigolo/I Ain't Got Nobody Medley from Prima's Wildest!

The Weather Report: It's A Blessing - Maria Muldaur and Bonnie Raitt

The first in a new series: we will do our best to let you know the weather in London via a song that matches it. Scientifically. We're using weather balloons with guitars attached to them and all sorts.

Today we have the heavy delta heat of slide guitar master Bonnie Raitt duetting with the gravel voiced Maria Muldaur on It's A Blessing.

Mike Compton & David Long - Evening Prayer Blues

Mike Compton is the mandolin. I first became aware of him and his incredible virtuoso flourishes in the Down From the Mountain concert film, which was an evening celebrating and performing the traditional music found in O Brother Where Art Thou.

In 2006 Compton and fellow mandolinist David Long put out an album of traditional blue grass numbers titled Stomp. The album is a celebration of bluegrass music with large sections of the album built out of the duelling instrumental melodies of the two performers. There's a particular focus upon the songs of Bill Monroe, the American musician widely credited with inventing the bluegrass genre (the name of the style comes from Monroe's band the Blue Grass Boys).

And so we have todays Best Song Ever: Compton and Long's powerful reading of Monroe's 'Evening Prayer Blues.'

Chiptune Chuesday: El Scorcho - Tugboat

It's a wonderfully sunny Tuesday in London, so what better way to celebrate the mood than with El Scorcho by Tugboat!

The track is a Weezer cover (though I find the original to be infinitely less interesting), and is part of a wider chip-weezer cover compilation which can be had for the price of zero money here: http://www.ptesquad.com/more/pte018.html

I always thought this would be what Mario would put on at a beach party. Anyhow, stop reading this, get outside, and enjoy your digital sunshine. See you again tomorrow.

I Put A Spell On You - Screamin' Jay Hawkins

A short sharp shock today. Screamin' Jay Hawkins is widely regarded as one of the first Shock Rockers because of his use of gothic props and theatrical costumes in his stage shows. If that's not enough for you though, read on.

Hawkins was also a Prisoner of War during World War II. Accounts vary of exactly what happened to him during this period. However Hawkins himself said (in the documentary I Put A Spell On Me) that upon his liberation he taped a hand grenade into the mouth of his chief torturer and pulled the pin.

Happy Monday!

TRIPLE BILL: Orbital and I

I had never listened to Orbital. Not really. 

I was first properly introduced to the band via the bouncingly brilliant rhythm game Frequency which used a remix of their single 'Funny Break' as part of its soundtrack. Frequency was a fascinating experience because it forced the player (or should that be listener) to break down a song into its constituent parts (bass lines, drum rhythms, guitar licks, vocals etc) and rebuild as they saw fit. Granted you would only do really well if you managed to rebuild the entire song, but the most interesting moments came from finding ways to strip the track into something new. 

'Funny Break' was my favourite song to mess around with. I think it's largely because of the vocal line. Getting the drum loop to drop out of the mix at just the right moment allowed Naomi Bedford's auto-tuned belters to soar off on crackling digital wings, and in that moment of musical control and creation I'd be flying right along with her.

But still I didn't go listen to Orbital. Not really.

It was another video game that brought the brothers Hartnoll back to my attention: Lumines Electronic Symphony, a sprawling technicolor love letter to electronic music. Q Entertainment's rhythmic masterpiece, produced by music obsessive club owner-turned-journalist-turned-producer James Mielke (who you should be following on Twitter) has an enormously diverse soundtrack of electronic artists- a (mostly) complete playlist of which can be found here.

One of the final additions to the mix was the track 'Never' from Orbital's latest album Wonky. It's melancholia you can dance to. It's wistful and funky. It was this song which finally got my ears to perk up and admit I should probably listen to Orbital.

This lead me to Wonky and finding what is now my favourite track by Orbital and a candidate for one of my favourite electronica songs- 'One Big Moment.' 

It samples and chops philosophical ramblings into an opener that slowly morphs into a conversation being held around the world. The chiming synth bells groove over digital car horns before crashing into a galactic bumping beat that is equally at home amongst the stars as it is on the pavement. It's excellent and you should be soundtracking your life with it.

So now I've listened to Orbital (thanks to some digital pushing from Frequency and Lumines) and I'm glad I did. Really.

Kitchen Sink Music Vol. 2: PVC Pipe Medley - Snubby J

PVC pipe ...Xylophones? Malletophone? Paddlewhackypipeorgan? Things. Have been around for awhile, made particularly well known by the antics of The Blue Man Group.

Snubby J builds PVC instruments at home, he has named this particular gargantuan RimbaTubes. This video of Snubby performing a medley of popular hits at the DRS Talent Show went viral in late 2010 but the fun and musical awesomeness remain, and is firmly in the spirit of Kitchen Sink Music- making melodies out of things which have no dang business making melodies.

Donna Summer Dies At Age 63

The Queen of Disco, Donna Summer, has died at the age of 63.

Summer defined the sound of disco, becoming especially well known for her erotically charged performances and recordings. The BBC famously banned her 1975 hit Love to Love You Baby from the airwaves for its intense aural-gasms and because it was just too damn FUNKY (probably). They went so far as to count the number of orgasms (for Science of course) and found that there were twenty three  instances of ladies having too much passion in their lives. Scandalous.

This was of course just in the five minute radio edit. The album included a seventeen minute disco sexathon (before you ask- YES I've tried counting the orgasms in this version, the jury's still out) which we present to you in celebration of The First Lady of Love.

Angry Songs About Food Vol. 3: The Giant Hot Dog That Ate Regina

Of course it's not really the song that's angry, but I have to assume that the giant hot dog was pretty miffed about SOMETHING if he's going to eat a whole town. I think he's just dealing with the frustration over being so delicious and not being able to eat himself, a problem hot dogs often have.

Anyhow this non-angry song about an angry hot dog is by children's music entertainer and educator Bob King. Bob made his musical debut in the wonderfully named band Kornstock in the seventies before gravitating towards family entertainment and educational albums. 

Amongst his other works are a collection of songs about small towns and cities on the Canadian prairies and the novelty hit 'Sandwiches Are Beautiful.' He now mainly does work with the children's record label Casablanca Kids while wearing amazing hats.

Seriously. A-mazing hats.

Chiptune Chuesday: Caramelldansen - The MM Project

For today's Chiptune Chuesday, a chipped out rendition of the heavily meme-ified Caramelldansen by The MM Project!

If you listen to this song through there will be sunshine all around you for three minutes. This is a powerful tool I've given you, use it wisely.

Donald 'Duck' Dunn Passes Away, 1941-2012

Donald 'Duck' Dunn passed away yesterday (May 13th) in his sleep after finishing a double show in Tokyo. Duck was one of the most influential soul and R&B bass players in the history of pop music. He played on an enormous range of Stax records releases throughout the sixties and seventies including Albert King's 'Born Under a Bad Sign,' Otis Redding's 'Respect,' and most famously as part of the organ fried Booker T. & the M.G.'s. While he joined the M.G.'s after the release of their well known song 'Green Onions,' he helped define the bumping and shaking instrumental grooves the band would go on to explore, creating rhythms still built upon and sampled to this day.

Duck, nicknamed after Donald Duck by his father when he was a kid, was a largely self taught bass player. Rather than take lessons or learn specific lines to practice he would play along with records and fill in what he felt was the missing sound in the rhythm. As a result his playing is a relatively unique mixture of fluid lines, hard jazz and grooving funk that fills in the melody of a song as much as it provides a rhythm. It never draws too much attention to itself, but creates a fuller and richer sound for the song over all- the mark of a truly great bass line and player.

We've pulled out a triple bill song selection to celebrate Duck and his contribution to pop music.

The first is the title track from Melting Pot, Booker T. and the M.G.'s 1970 instrumental R&B opus.

Next the final track of McLemore Avenue,  the four part instrumental reworking of The Beatles Abbey Road. The track comprises of a medley of Sun King, Mean Mr. Mustard, Polythene Pam, She Came in Through the Bathroom Window and I Want You (She's So Heavy).

And finally from the soundtrack to Michel Gondry's 2008 film Be Kind Rewind, a rendition of standard I Ain't Got Nobody which reunited him with M.G. members Booker T. Jones, Steve Cropper and Al Jackson Jr.