#80 London Calling - The Clash

#80 London Calling
The Clash



I have been listening to The Clash Live at Shea Stadium a lot recently . I don’t know where it came from but it just felt right. Maybe it was partially Shea Stadium nostolgia, but I don’t know. But as I wrote in an earlier post it is a phenomenal live album. The other thing I’m pretty obsessed with is Zombies.

It makes me think about London Calling. What a phenomenal song. It really epitomized that the Clash were much more than their punk rock contemporaries, they could actually play their instruments and make melodies. The song is so catchy you can’t help but tapping your feet while it is playing.

Even though the song is about the lousy conditions in London in the late 70s, and several other things. But I am pretty convinced that it is about a zombie invasion of London, Shawn of the Dead style. But I digress.

The Clash was such an awesome band, they had so many great songs, London Calling (of course), Rock the Casbah, I Fought the Law, Magnificent 7, and The Guns of Brixton among others. Its too bad they played all of these awesome songs, a mere 9 miles away from my home when I was eight.

Fresh beat band theme song

Olivia you need to watch a new show ... I was humming this song when I went to the Men' room after a big meeting. damn you Kiki, Marina , Twist and Shout!!

I'm back ... again

As part of my new years resolutions I will focus back on the craft of writing. So I'll get back to posting regularly on this blog (and my two other new blogs) I don't know what I thinking.

#81 Master of Puppets

#81 - Master of Puppets
Metalica


Metallica has had many classic songs during their nearly 30 year reign as Heavy Metal Gods, but none more awesome than 1986's Master of Puppets.

MOP from the album also called Master of Puppets is hard hitting and intense. It is the prototype for late 80's speed metal but it still sounds fresh and relevant nearly a quarter century later.

The song starts with some grinding riffs by guitar virtuoso Kirk Hammett. That beginning is iconic, you know exactly what it is when you hear it in a movie (Old School) honestly it pumps me up when I hear it during the Nationwide car racing commercials on ESPN. It almost gets me to watch car racing. Almost.

I love the idea of the puppet master. A wicked Gephetto running things from behind a dark curtain. Though Lead singer James Hetfield says its about the grip drugs can have on you. I like to think its about "Wicked Gephetto."

This song was on the last album original bassist Cliff Burton played on before his tragic death while on tour in Europe. It was raw and brash. In the years since MOP Metallica has become more refined musically and commercially successful. But in the hearts and minds of metal fans MOP was Metallica's greatest achievement.

"Family" Laurie Berkner Band

This song has been stuck in my head all day!!! Thank you Laurie Berkner.

Yo Gabba Gabba Live - Party in Your City - October 2nd

This past weekend we blew Olivia's mind as we took her to the Yo Gabba Gabba live show at Radio City Music Hall.

For her the excitement started when we took the escalator up at the 53rd street train station. But in earnest when we were waiting in line and she saw the poster for the show. She was pointing at it and wouldn't move away. We told her, there was something better to see really soon. We walked into the theatre and she was amazed by the scope of the place, they gave her a pair of DJ Lance Rock glasses, she noticed the logo on a giant screen on the stage, and the noticed the thousands of balloons on the celling. She was in a state of pure bliss. The last time I saw her in that much gleeful awe was when we were on the Its a Small World ride at Disneyland.

Soon the house lights dimmed and the familiar sound of DJ Lance Rock filled the hall, the squeals of preschoolers delight was deafening. He introduced the gang, Muno, Toodee, FooFa, Brobee and Plex. Parents and kids alike were going nuts.

I felt a kinship with the other parents who were singing along to the songs like Eat, The Name Game and Differences. I was clearly not the only one with a YGG cd in his car CD player.

Ani and I got a good workout holding Olivia during the songs when they said "Stand up!" Which was most of them. Olivia got the chance to dance in our arms and on the seat back of the row in front of us.

There were three musical guests and honestly two were kind of disappointing.

Urge Overkill - they were the band for the Super Music Friend show. They were good, but they were so irrelevant for the crowd. At least they didn't play Girl You'll" be a Woman, that would have been creepy. They couldn't get The Roots, who work across the street?

Moby - he was the Dancey Dance guy. And he couldn't care less, and he seemed distracted. I know he's in New York ... But they couldn't get someone else?

Biz Markie - Hew did Biz's Beat of the Day and blew the roof off of the place. He was funny and intense, and as Ani said "he's more than just a friend."

The crowd was good, everyone played nice and I didn't have to throw any elbows to get Olivia a balloon. I'm pretty sure I haven't been to a concert that intense since we saw U2 a few years ago.

#82 Dus Bahane

#82 Dus Bahane
Zayed Khan and Abhishek Bachchan



Several years ago I was flipping through the channels and then I ran across a show called Namaste America which features the best of Bollywood music. And I saw the video for a song called Dus Bahane. It was really cool, kind of looked like an action movie. So, the next week I caught it again and saw that it was from a sound track to a movie called Dus.

I looked up the movie and soon it was on the top of my Netflix queue. As an American you don’t expect much from non-American action movies, but DUS delivers in every way. Now back to the song, sung by the two stars of the movie Zayed Khan and Abhishek Bachchan. It is traditional for Bollywood stars to sing in their movies and Khan and Bachchan really deliver. Much like their characters their styles are very different, Khan is more hi-pitched and poppish while Bachchan is a cool baritone. I don’t think Bachchan is much of a singer (but he is a better actor). The song is sung half in Hindi and half in English, so I really have no idea what the song is about, but the beat is great and I want to dance to it. And dance to it in a room of other people all dancing in sync with me.

I thought of this song when we were watching the new NBC show Outsourced and during the opening sequence there was a Bollywood style song and Olivia started dancing.

#83 In Bloom

#83 In Bloom
Nirvana



I'll say it Smells Like Teen Spirit is kind of overrated. I'm not saying it’s a bad song, but it would have made a better name for an album. Personally I prefer In Bloom also from Nevermind.

In In Bloom Nirvana spreads its musical wings, its not all mumbling, snarling and screaming. You can actually discern a few words in there. Its funny the song was on an album that would make the band huge rock stars and it was a shot at a part of their fan base. They were smart enough to know that their loud aggressive punk music (which would be called Grunge) would attract meatheads and jocks who would be into something because it was popular and they could mosh to it. But as Kurt says "he's the one he likes all our pretty songs, but he don't know what it means."

Though they would hit their peak as musicians in their In Utero album a few years later, In Bloom is Nirvana at their snarky-punk-rockiest.

Awesome

We just got our Yo Gabba Gabba tickets in the mail. Olivia is going to flip out when she realizes that she is in the same room as DJ Lance and the gang.

#84 - painkiller

Years ago when I was a metal neophyte I was introduced by buddy Mike to the Judas Priest song Painkiller.

From their last album (for a while) with original lead singer Rob Halford The song starts out with those pounding drums and then that screaming guitar attack. Painkiller is about a metal messiah sent to earth to set us free by way of Armageddon. Honestly I always thought it was about drug addiction, while others contend it was about some guy Halford was into.

"Faster than a lazer bullet
Louder than an atom bomb"

Those lyrics from the song describe the band to a tee. No one in the New Wave of British Heavy Metal was faster or louder. People always talk about the double guitars but for me Judas Priest is about the voice. Halford's voice is the voice of Heavy Metal. Unrelenting, intense and honest.

As the years have gone by there are other Judas Priest songs I like better but Painkiller was that first taste that has stuck with me all these years later.

Back from a break

I've been a bit negligent with this blog. Here are a few reasons:

• new baby
• broken thumb
• general laziness
• trying to understand the appeal of the music of Hannah Montana and the Jonas Brothers

So I'll be back with new songs starting tomorrow.

The Suzi Shelton Band

With a new little brother having been born the day before, Olivia needed to cool off with some toe-tapping rock-n-roll music. So we headed off to Madison Square Park to check out The Suzi Shelton Band.

The park was filled with pre-schoolers who like olivia were jumping and bopping all around. The band was good and we ended up doing a circle dance with two other kids and their nannies. I think our favorite song was "Honey My Love", Olivia liked it when i swung her around, carefully avoiding other swinging children. Since the concert was very playground accessible, Olivia wanted to swing and slide. So we ran around the playground and Olivia splashed around under the sprinklers all while the music filled the air. A good time was had by all.

Star FIsh

I was looking in Time Out New York's kids section for fun things to do with Olivia and we found a cool free concert at Bryant Park by a band called Starfish.

So we packed up the car and heading into manhattan. 9 month pregant women hate walking up and down subway strairs in 90 plus degree heat. Who knew.

We arrived at the park just before the band from New Jersey was about to start their set. On the nice shady part of the park there were seats set up and a row of mini chairs were set up for pint sized rockers. Sitting in the front row with the kids was a bald guy named Stingray. He was the lead singer and he had tons of energy and enthusiasm as he, Ant Farm, Dr Yes, Moose, and Grateful Dave rocked out with an hours worth of awesome music. My favorite song was the kind of Primus sounding "My name is No!"

The preschoolers were bopping around as were all their adults. They intertwined lots of references to everyone from ACDC to The Clash to Cream. It was our first taste of Kindie rock but not our last.

Check out Starfish for yourself at their website

#85 Golden Years

#85 - Golden Years
David Bowie



A few years ago my iPod was broken and ti took it to this place where they repair them. The guy loaded a bunch of test music to make sure the device was still working and as I took the seven train home that day I was treated with the best of David Bowie and that is where i discovered Golden Years.

It is a really cool song, in sort of a Taking Heads kind of way, especially the backing vocals. Musically its fun and light with a really funky beat. I like the idea of golden years and made a really great slide show with this song as its soundtrack.

#86 – We Will Rock You/We Are the Champions

#86 – We Will Rock You/We Are the Champions
Queen



Its an anthem at sporting event around the world, its been parodied by Gymboree teachers and despite being two separate songs they are always played together, Queen’s classics We Will Rock You and We Are the Champions .

The two songs couldn’t be any more different. From the bombast and anger of We Will Rock You, to the elegancy and regality of We Are The Champions, but they are like Yin and Yang, perfect together. As I write this all I can hear is the sound of We Will Rock You “BOOM BOOM CLAP BOOM BOOM CLAP”. And guess what its in your head right now too.

While We Will Rock You is the war cry, We are the Champions is the “hey guess what, we won, second place is is just the first loser, get off our field as we enjoy the spoils of war,” cry. So its both high class and bratty all at the same time. And when the Mets win the World Series next time, I will be driving all around town blaring this song. It will be very obnoxious, people will be very embarrassed.

Queen had so many great songs , but these two are among the best.