Things Stuck In My Head

For the last few months I've been trying to make a little money shooting recitals and one local dance studio has hired me to shoot a weekly track out camp recital. It's not that hard and it's not a lot of money, but there is one draw back, the music. I'm not talking your standard pop music I'm talking music designed for preteen girls. Here is the list of shows I have done, Hannah Montana, Spectacular, High School Musical, Princess Protection Program and The Cheetah Girls.

In a singular form I can handle 20 minutes of this music, but the problem is I've done multiple of each. If you click on the links above you can hear the music that is involved. It's very poppy and over the top and once it bores itself into your skull it won't leave, it's the ash borer of music. The biggest offender is The Cheetah Girls, it feels like every other time I shoot I walk into a studio with cheetah print all over the place. Cheetah Girls is Disney at it's evilest, it's basically diva training fro preteens. I think every eighth word has to be cheetah and there is always a whoo involved. I will finish my shoot and I will have one of their songs in my head for the next three hours. No matter how hard I try and force it out with better music or even sports radio, nothing works. The musical flu has to run its course and I hope there is not an out break sometime during the week.

I like the studio, but I don't know how many more Cheetah Girls shows I can handle. I never thought I'd want to hear more High School Musical. With a 2 month old, I know the music in my life is about to get worse and won't get better for a few years.

Travel Music

The Wife is getting stir crazy and is clamoring to go to the beach, even though she is going in two weeks she wants to go on a trip with me. We are taking a day trip to Wrightsville Beach which is just over two hours away. One of the biggest problems we have while driving is music. The Wife is very main stream, while everything I listen too is slightly different from the norm. This has caused problems while driving long distances and the normal rule is who ever drives gets to pick the music. The problem The Wife has is she doesn't drive that much and midway into a trip will start complaining or makes suggestions that she would rather listen to the radio.

With the downfall of our MP3 radio transmitter death this causes even more problems. I will not listen to radio stations and now we have to pack CDs for the trip. Then I get an idea, I'll make a mixed tape collection for the entire drive. The problem is I have to cut out things that we don't agree on, so no Nirvana, Tragically Hip, Gorillaz or Silversun Pickups and for The Wife no Conway Twitty, New Kids on the Block or Poison. Pretty much that leaves us with a small selections but here is the list and order I came up with.

Ice Ice Baby- Vanilla Ice (She loves it and I'll make her happy and get this one out of the way)
Take on Me- A-HA (Classic)
Pour Some Sugar on Me- Def Leopard (Guilty pleasure and happiness for The Wife)
Inside Out- Eve 6
Brian Wilson- BNL
Walking Barefoot- Ash (Since it has a beach reference I slid this one in)
Karma Chameleon- Culture Club (ugh)
Look Away-Chicago (Don't judge me! I like Chicago)
Iris- Goo Goo Dolls
Desperately Wanting- Better Than Ezra
Rock Me All Night Long- AC/DC (I'm not a fan, but The Wife is)
Love Shack- B52s
Business Time- Flight of the Conchords (Greatest two songs back to back EVER on a mixed tape. Go to youtube and find both songs and see why)
Feralicious-Fergie (This song will never leave my head.... get it out!)
Notorious- Duran Duran
Everlasting God-Lincoln Brewster (Happy Wife equals happy trip)
Pocket Full of Sunshine- Natasha Bedingfield
Island in the Sun- Weezer (Somewhere King Tom is Smiling
Dizzy- Jimmy Eat World
Lovefool-Cardigans
Ladies of the World- Flight of the Conchords
1 2 3 4- Collio (Shut Up)
I've Got the Power- Snap (Fav!)
Fellin So Fly- Toby Mac
Unbelievable- EMF
Dancing Queen- ABBA (Stupid Mama Mia)
Summertime- The Sundays
Be My Yoko Ono- BNL
It's the End of the World-REM
Save Tonight- Eagle Eye Cherry
Vacation- Go Gos (Come on, you know you like it)
Let the Praises Ring- Lincoln Brewster (Happy Wife again)
You Can't Have It All- Ash (I will get a look when this comes on)
Right Behind You- Our Lady Peace
Barely Breathing- Duncan Shiek
Slide- Goo Goo Dolls
Leggy Blonde- Flight of the Conchords- (Greatest ending to a song)
Since U Been Gone- Kelly Clarkson
Love Like This- Natasha Bedingfield
Don't Funk Wit My Heart- Black Eyed Peas
Hungry Like a Wolf- Duran Duran (I think of Old School every time I hear this song)
Pump Up the Jams- Technotronic
Mickey- Toni Basil (Obvious)
Just a Girl- No Doubt
I Want to Fly Away- Lenny Kravitz
Sweetness- Jimmy Eat World
Meant to Live- Switchfoot
Good- Better Than Ezra
Here It Go Again- OK Go
Mysterious Ways- U2
Bring Me to Life- Evanescence
Somethin Somethin- Seven Nations (Celtic rock!)
The Most Beautiful Girl (in the room)- Flight of the Conchords
Girl From Mars- Ash (I'm hoping she's asleep on the return trip by now)
Lucky Denver Mint- Jimmy Eat World
Hurricane- Athlete
Clocks- Coldplay (You know how I know you're gay?)
Chasing Cars- Snow Patrol
All I Want- Toad the Wet Sprocket
Don't Speak- No Doubt
The Middle- Jimmy Eat World
Hiphopopotamus vs Phymenoceros- Flight of the Conchords (I have converted The Wife, she loves them.

The Hardest part of a mixed tape is the flow. The movie High Fidelity explains this process the best, you have to start out strong, mellow out and then hit it harder than the start. Everything has to go in and out seamlessly. If not then it's jarring and if you have too many slow songs in a row then you get bored. To much tempo and you get bored. I think I did a pretty good job for building a list that long in under an hour.

Ash-tastic

Musically I'm a little off of center, I'm not as diverse as friends like Gianluige or DJL, but my presets are not any of the local top 40 stations. With that said my favorite band is the Downpatrick, Ireland band Ash. Most of the people I know or 99 per cent of the US readers have never heard of Ash. They are one of those bands that when people hear them they generally like what they hear, but American radio won't play them. So I've given up on hopes that America will know the awesomeness of Ash.

Then I go to a Carolina Hurricanes game, and I started to think the PA guy stole my iPod. Then I was scared because I heard the opening riff of Burn Baby Burn. I squealed "That's Ash!" The guy I was with looked at me strange, but honestly I get that look a lot from him. I sing along and I am in a good mood even though the Canes choked the game away... TWICE!

Then today I'm wasting time away on the computer during the crapfest known as the NFC title game. I hear something from the TV, it looks like a NASCAR commercial with a song I know. It's World Domination off of the Free All Angels album.

Did I miss something? The band has been around for over 15 years and are now getting played in commercials? I don't know how to feel about this; I mean they finally are getting some recognition, but still it's a NASCAR commercial. Who knows, they still are my favorite band.

Weezer

Living in the musical void known as Raleigh I have to rely on people like King Tom to keep me informed on the comings and goings of music. Thanks to Tom I learned that Weezer has a new album due out on June 3rd. I tell you want, from the two songs I have heard I am hooked and I already pre-ordered the album on iTunes.

Weezer is one of two to three bands that I listened to in high school that are still around. With the current carp thats out there I would think bands like Weezer would have died out years ago, instead they keep coming back with new music that is relevant. I currently work in an office where the staff is somehow younger than I am... on average of about 5 years. So when I hear the buzz about Weezer from them it's a little shocking. It just goes to shows you the power of the Weezer, good old classic rock n roll for the masses, yet not made for the masses.

The video above is for the single Pork and Beans, only a few bands can pull of this concept video of grabbing all the web memes and combining them into a video that isn't annoying. I was some what shocked that they got people from these youtube videos into the video. Well, probably not too shocked, they probably need what ever money the Weez threw at them. Just a great video that was not overly complex and yet creative.

Random Music

I'm not a fan of the back-to-back random posts, but I kind of need to, this will be the last post for a few days. We are travelling back to Ohio and the earliest I may get to the Internet will be Friday. I also had a few musical things happen over the last few days and and I want to get them off my chest.

Can't Live Without

OK I mentioned my MP3 player in my last post, but this weekend it saved some lives. I had to do the weekend over night editing, I'm not a fan of having to go to work at 2AM so I usually am a little grumpy. I went to my bay turned the TV on to a station that did not have infomercials and put on the MP3 player. It stayed on till about 9AM, but after a one hour break I turned it back on for the drive home. I had been up for about 28 hours at that point so I went to bed, with the MP3 player going to drown out noise from the outside world. By the time I woke up I'd had the player on for 14 hours that day.

Sunday was the bad day, the associate producer was doing the show and she's not that bad, just young and new. I caught up to here a couple of times and that made the day go real long. I just kept to myself and listened to the sweet sounds playing from the set of small speakers. The MP3 player was on for another 8 hours. I love that little 2GB device, you saved me from going insane over the weekend.

What Am I Listening To?

I have never really liked country music, I'm not for sure why, but I've never liked the sound. I think it has something to do with the area where I grew up, it seemed like everyone listened to country and maybe it was my way of revolting, or it's the fact that I hate the twang in the singing. I will admit I do like the O Brother, Where Art Thou sound track and I like Johnny Cash, but that's pretty much it.

A few years ago while working in West Virginia, I had a reporter who kept trying to get me into country. The one band he kept pushing was Nickel Creek, a trio from southern California. It was OK, but I wasn't interested. I guess over the years, I have softened and come to find out, Nickel Creek is pretty good. The big thing for me is they don't sound "country," that fake twang added to a pop song it make it country. They have a more O Brother sound, but at the same time they add a little jazz sound and some rock. They actually covered songs by Pavement and Bob Dylan. I don't know many bands that would pull that off. So I have a new band to listen to, The Wife is shocked at this and I will still say "I don't like country music, well except for O Brother, Johnny Cash and Nickel Creek."

Black Hole

I was joking on the last post about Raleigh being a radio black hole. Well, I forgot about my home town. Wilson mentioned he bought Sirius Radio and loves listening to the 90s rock station. He mentioned that he is hearing songs that he had never heard of, the reason, we never heard them in southern Ohio. We didn't have a good radio station. They would play average songs that were popular everywhere and nothing else, add in some bad radio banter from a horrible DJ and lots of commercials. I know radio is a business, but how bad is it when good music is not allowed to the masses. Maybe if you played more music you would get more listeners, no one cares about the DJs play some good music.

Blast from the Past: Luscious Jackson

A few weeks ago The Wife allowed me (yes I am whipped... don't you judge me!) to buy some music on iTunes and while searching for some songs that I lost during the great computer crash of aught 7. While searching, for some reason the band Luscious Jackson popped into my mind and remembered that I had lost one album during a move and a second one was lost in the crash.

Back when I was in high school and working at the Ponda-gross-a in Russell, Ky, my friend Tiffany (see you finally made the blog) kept talking about this band Luscious Jackson that she saw at Lalapalooza (yet again I feel old). Since I knew she was cool I gave them a listen. What I found was an interesting mix of sounds that really does not fit one style of music. They infuse jazz, hip hop, blues, disco, rock, dance and pop into their sound. Plus all four members of this all girl band seemed completely different, but they messed well. Jill Cunniff did most of the vocal work and seemed to be the energy and "face" of the band, to me she always set the tone of the song. Vivian Trimble appeared to be the quiet one playing keyboards and back up vocals. Vivian added the jazz and disco sound created through all of their songs. Gabby Glaser has this smokey voice that sounds hot as hell that made songs like City Song and Strong Man wonderful. She also was a fabulous guitarist she could do reggae, funk, rock and everything else. The backbone to the sound was Kate Schellenbach, who was the original drummer for the Beastie Boys when they were a punk band, her sound is the driving force in every song. She is amazing drummer, she has high energy and I truly believe she is one of the best drummers I have ever seen.

As the picture indicates earlier this year they released a greatest hits album of course I used most of my allotted money on the album. It's a solid album that takes me back to my younger days. Most people are probably have no clue who Luscious Jackson is, and in all honesty they had only one "hit" and that was 1996s Naked Eye. A real shame that only one song made any noise. Most of their last album Electric Honey had a sound that I thought played well to the mainstream and I was a little shocked that the song Ladyfingers never took off. If you ever need some high energy music try listening to Luscious Jackson.

Flash From the Past

Yesterday I was driving back from Cleveland after a long and bad day. "Mr. Right" and I were yelling at each other so I just wanted a quite drive back to the station. So I plugged in the ole MP3 player and just drove. While driving and listening as songs came on it made me think about the past. For me songs usually recall certain memories good and bad and I thought I'd share a few.

• Dave Matthews Band, Crash- I have no idea why but it reminds me of an apartment in college where my friends Sarah and Hartman lived. Whenever, Shorty and I went over to there place it was generally a fun time. Oh the good old days
• Stroke 9, Little Black Backpack- This reminds me of my friend Belle. I was living in Toledo and she was a producer at one of the other stations. I don't know why, but I always see us driving around in her minivan. She was 24 and I 25 and here we are driving around in this minivan.
  
• Digable Planet, Rebirth of Cool- This goes all the way to high school. I had a friend named Mark and we both were driving around. He did not like rap, but this song had a great jazz beat and it just flowed.
  
• The Killers, Mr Brightside- If I did not put one from The Wife she would probably beat me. She loves this song and she made a little pantomime for the verse. We are both dorks
• O Brother Where Art Thou, Man of Constant Sorrow- A Great movie with some great old tyme music. Wilson, Radcliff, Joe and I can watch this movie ad nausea and this song always puts us in a good mood followed by us quoting the movie for hours on end. Yes we are losers.
• Elastica, Connection- During my first year of college I went to an Ohio University branch in my home town. This song was pretty big in the Alt. Rock genre of the mid 90s. A couple of us would hang out, bowl, play pool and talk about this song.. Bwaaaaaah! Bwaaaaaaah!
• Seven Nations, Crooked Jack- During the summers in college I worked at a Bob Evans and became friends with Nancy. She was a student at the University of Kentucky and I'd go down every once in a while. She had a friend Steph E. that was a huge fan of Celtic rock and they got me into Seven Nations. I use to have a blast driving down there and hanging out. One time I spent the night in an empty dorm room in an all girls dorm. Yes I spent the night in an all girls dorm and I was by myself. I was such a loser.
• Weezer, Island in the Sun- While working in Toledo I worked a lot of strange hours. So I'd stay up late and play on-line games with my friend Wilson. Weezer's Green album was big and I would sit in this little "den" type room in my apartment listening to this album and play Illusia, while my neighbor the house DJ spun records and the walls would vibrate from the bass.
  

I don't know the connection our brain has with tastes, smell, and in this case sounds that brings these memories to surface, but when you are wanting to kick the person out of the car while drive 75MPH, it makes the trip a little less hellish.