What’s On The iPod?

Jonathan Coulton – BEST. CONCERT. EVER.

Albums labeled “comedy” don’t usually appeal to me with very few exceptions. The ones that do are the ones that seem as though the artist is just too serious about their craft to be comedy, and as a result are hilariously funny. The two that come to mind first are the A Mighty Wind soundtrack and Flight of the Conchords.

On its initial listen, you might think that Jonathan Coulton’s work falls into that same category, but it really doesn’t. Sure, some of his songs are funny; like Mr. Fancy Pants, Tom Cruise Crazy, or his cover of Sir Mix-A-Lot’s Baby Got Back. But the ones that succeed even more are the ones that are multi-layered with tragedy and sadness.

From his internet sensation Code Monkey, a semi-autobiographical tale about a software writer who hates his job, to I Crush Everything, a song about an introspective, self-loathing giant squid’s sadness because he ends up killing everything that he loves, to Skullcrusher Mountinan, a love song about a conflicted evil genius, JoCo’s catalog is filled with songs of pain and loneliness that are somehow still very funny.

BEST. CONCERT. EVER. Is Jonathan Coulton’s first commercially distributed album. The rest of his catalog falls under what’s called “Creative Commons” licensing and was distributed primarily through the internet. It’s also his first live album which brings a whole different vibe and intimacy to many of the songs.

I was probably initially drawn to JoCo because of his tendency towards themes of geek culture, science fiction, and semi-educational topics like science and history. It probably also didn’t hurt that he is friends with Daily Show correspondent and the star of the “I’m A Mac” commercials, John Hodgman, who I also find ridiculously funny.

Here’s one in the form of a business memo from a former colleague who happens to now be a zombie, gently prodding his coworker to let him eat his brains, called re: Your Brains

Friday Five – Dirty Old Men

I’m not sure why musicians tend to always write about girls who are entirely too young. But they do! So young in fact that when you sing along, if you pay attention to the lyrics, they make you feel like a creep. They do me anyway. More than once I’ve been singing along and abruptly blurted out, “GAAAAAHHH! That’s younger than my daughter!“

I mean, you know where Chuck Berry was coming from – he was arrested for messing around with a 14 year old girl. At least Paul McCartney was only 20 when he wrote his contribution. Here’s the rest of my list:

• Sweet Little Sixteen – Chuck Berry
• Sexy & 17 – Stray Cats
• Christine Sixteen – Kiss
• I Saw Her Standing There – the Beatles, “Well, she was just 17 / You know what I mean / And the way she looked was way beyond compare”
• Only Sixteen – Dr. Hook (originally by Sam Cooke, but I remember listening to the Dr. Hook version from my Mom’s vinyl collection)

(Imagine what kind of weirdos are going to find my page now!)

Friday Five – What’s on the iPod?

This week I’ve been grooving to the mellow sounds of the new Iron & Wine album Around the Well, an excellent compilation of B-sides & Rarities. I’m digging it so much, I thought for Friday Five I would just throw some videos up for those of you who aren’t familiar with Sam Beam’s work. Seriously, take a listen. It’s good stuff!

Friday Five – Guest DJ Project

Lately I have been listening to the KCRW Guest DJ Project podcasts where they invite famous or influential people on to choose five songs and talk about them. It’s interesting to hear what different people pick and their reasons why. So I thought I would do the same today with my Friday Five; it would fulfill the usual FF format and at the same time allow me to write a little bit.

My brother once blogged about how a lot of his musical tastes can be traced back, or “bottlenecked through” as he put it, a short list of other artists. I’m not sure I can do that, but I can trace my musical tastes back to certain people or specific times in my life.

The first of which is Kiss.

I will forever trace my love for Kiss back to my brother. It was the first band that I can recall being crazy about. In 1979 our parents took us to Evansville, IN to see them live in concert. It was the first real concert I had ever attended. I was a month away from being 8 years old, but I can still remember quite a bit of it. I picked the song Love Gun because somewhere around that time I called into a local radio station and won that album, completely oblivious to the not-so-subtle double entendre (if you can even call it that).

It was actually more difficult to narrow down my second choice because I wanted one that would exemplify just how influential my father has been on my musical tastes over the years. To put it as simply as possible, Dad loved music. He exposed us to a wide range of great stuff that we both still listen to today; Blues, Country, Soul, Doo-Wop, Rockabilly… I picked Miss Etta James’ Stop the Wedding because first of all no singer in history can match the level of emotion Etta could convey with just her voice, but most of all because of how Dad’s face would light up when she belted “WAIT – WAIT…”

Next we have John Cougar Mellencamp.

JCM’s Scarecrow Tour was the first concert I went to without parental supervision. Technically they drove me to the arena, but they didn’t go in with us since I wasn’t quite old enough to drive. But I still see it as a major step not only in my musical history, but also in my life. To me John represented what I referred to in my youthful ignorance as “denim rock”, which included basically just the music I liked at the time like Springsteen, Tom Petty, and stuff like that because most of the bands that other people my age were listening to at the time wore a lot of spandex.

Tori Amos represents another time of transition in my life. In the 90’s I had to try to find myself again after having a baby girl too young, getting married and divorced, and moving away to finish college and do something with my fife. I discovered her by accident along with my close friend and classmate Chris. It may seem odd that two college guys would get into Tori Amos, but she was so different; beautiful and chaotic. Her voice fulfilled some unknown need in our psyches.

And now I can’t see or listen to Tori without thinking about Chris and that time in my life.

My final choice is an odd one, but one that I will always associate with another transitional moment for me as well as with my beautiful wife. During the time that we were dating, before I had even asked her to marry me, she absolutely loved the band Savage Garden. One day she needed to borrow my truck for some reason, so I drove her little red Pontiac Firebird to work. This cassette was in the player and I listened to it because it made me think of her. I remember vividly that the song To The Moon & Back was playing when I found myself in a five-car accident, busting-up that pretty Firebird real good.

And she married me anyway!

Pulling my thoughts together

I’ve not been blogging much lately. Not because stuff in my life hasn’t been blog-worthy, more because I’ve just had too much going on. I feel like I need to curl up and sleep for about three days and maybe when I wake up I will not only feel rested finally, but things will also look brighter and less complicated. I will eventually be able to commit more thoughts to this boring blog; it’s fairly therapeutic and I enjoy it so I’m certainly not giving it up. But until that time presents itself, enjoy the most recent video from my favorite band…

Friday Five – Mother

Mother – Danzig

Mother – The Police

Mother – Tori Amos

Mother – John Lennon

Mother – Pink Floyd

(When you start out with Danzig, it’s all downhill from there, AM I RIGHT?!?)

What’s on the iPod?

Ben Harper & Relentless7 – White Lies for Dark Times

Ben Harper and his newly assembled band Relentless7 decided to release an all-out, back to basics rock and roll album! I bought it yesterday after work, and have been bobbing my head along with it ever since. This is the Ben Harper album that I needed, right when I needed it.

Friday Five – Oh Baby Baby

Okay – How about Friday Ten?

1. Rock Me Baby – Etta James
2. It’s All Over Now Baby Blue – Bob Dylan
3. Oh Baby Doll – Chuck Berry
4. Baby, What You Want Me To Do – Elvis Presley
5. When Something is Wrong with My Baby – Sam & Dave
6. Be Bop Baby – Ricky Nelson
7. Baby Please Don’t Go – Muddy Waters
8. Baby Face – Little Richard
9. I’m Here to Get My Baby out of Jail – Johnny Cash
10. One for my Baby (and one more for the road) – Billie Holiday

And as Spinal Tap taught us, this one goes to Eleven:

And We Danced

This past Christmas, I bought my brother a melodica with the stipulation that he learn to play the opening to this song…

This video was the first time I had ever laid eyes on a melodica. And I didn’t know what it was called until just a few years ago when I watched a Jack Johnson concert DVD and he had one in his band. Once I saw that & remembered the Hooters, I knew someone with some musical talent in my family had to have one. It was between my brother & my daughter. Will got the nod since I had recently bought the kid a set of bongos. See, I love music, but have no talent for it. So I live vicariously through my family members who do by buying them instruments & stuff. It’s just how I roll.

I’m still waiting on that song, bro!

Friday Five – Photography (nudge nudge)

Pictures of You – the Cure

Wishing (If I Had a Photograph of You) – Flock of Seagulls, sadly enough one of the few 45’s that the wife & I both still have copies of.

Photograph – Def Leppard, included this one exclusively for the wife since I can’t really stand Def Leppard.

I Turned Your Picture to the Wall – Norah Jones

Burning Photographs – Ryan Adams