Category Archives: Music

Here, you should listen to this right now because it’s a song that changed my life. Maybe it will for you as well. Or you might just hate it.

Karaoke Tuesday: “Don’t You (Forget About Me)”

August 19, 2014Music#KaraokeTuesday, 80s, alternative, karaoke, movies, simple minds, songs, soundtracks, the breakfast clubLance

“Don’t You (Forget About Me)”
by Simple Minds
from The Breakfast Club: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
1985
Buy the album on Amazon

Whenever I submit #116365, I always think it’s going to be a big crowd pleaser. When I get to the “Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!” part, I expect the whole bar to enthusiastically shout along, but it never happens. It’s usually just me on stage doing my own thing. I’m still having fun, but I want us to be having fun too.

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Cover Friday: “Theme From NARC”

August 15, 2014Music#CoverFriday, 80s, 90s, alternative, arcade games, convenience stores, covers, high school, junior high, pixies, video gamesLance

“Theme From NARC”
by the Pixies (originally by NARC)
from the album Complete ‘B’ Sides
2001
Buy the album on Amazon

Every time this track shuffles up, I’m instantly transported back to high school. My buddy Houston and I would spend a good portion of Friday afternoons playing video games at the local convenience store or Wal-Mart (our pseudo arcades). Between bags of Chili Cheese Fritos and cans of Cherry Coke we’d play whatever they had in stock that month. Wal-Mart usually offered up far such as Double Dragon, Super Off-Road and our favorite co-op, Silkworm. Minit Mart kept Bad Dudes, GI Joe, Bubble Bobble and NARC in the corner between the beef jerky and the fountain drinks for what seemed like years. Which was just fine with us. Particularly when the machines of the late 80s/early 90s put out such good theme songs:

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Cover Friday: “Against All Odds”

August 15, 2014Music#CoverFriday, 00s, 80s, alternative, ben gibbard, coveroke, covers, death cab for cutie, karaover, songs, soundtracks, the postal serviceChris

“Against All Odds”
by The Postal Service (originally by Phil Collins)
from the album Give Up (Deluxe 10th Anniversary Edition)
2004
Buy the album on Amazon

Keeping it simple this week and doing a karaoke/cover pair. Karaover? Coveroke? I’m a fan of the Postal Service and of course of this song. This is a much “colder” (in feeling) version and less heartfelt than the original. Wikipedia tells me that this cover was named by the NY Post as one of the best covers of all time. I wouldn’t go that far, but it is enjoyable.

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Karaoke Tuesday: “Cigarette Dangles”

August 12, 2014Music#KaraokeTuesday, 90s, alternative, canada, karaoke, music videos, rockvideo monthly, songs, the pursuit of happinessLance

“Cigarette Dangles”
by The Pursuit of Happiness
from the album The Downward Road
1993
Buy the album on Amazon

I’m picking a song that I’ve never performed for my Karaoke Tuesday post… which is straight-up cheating. It doesn’t even fall into the category of I always look for this song, but they never have it. But upon stumbling across the music video recently, I think this song might actually be the prototype karaoke song for me back in college, before I had the balls to sing in public, or more accurately, the ability to pound Jack and Cokes until I didn’t care that I was singing in public.

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Karaoke Tuesday: “Against All Odds”

August 12, 2014Music#KaraokeTuesday, 80s, karaoke, music videos, phil collins, songsChris

“Against All Odds”
by Phil Collins
from the album Against All Odds
1984
Buy the album on Amazon

Aaaannndd…I’m back.

There are a couple of reasons I’m going with this song this week. One is that last week on the This American Life podcast, they replayed one of my favorite stories they’ve ever done, about getting advice from Phil Collins on how to write a breakup song (highly recommended listening!). When I first heard it a few years ago, it totally made me respect Phil Collins and especially this song (I hadn’t given him much thought before, except I always chuckled when I thought of an off-color joke I heard once about Susudio). It also made me consider singing this song.

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Cover Friday: “War Pigs”

August 8, 2014Music#CoverFriday, 80s, alternative, black sabbath, covers, faith no more, metalLance

“War Pigs”
by Faith No More (originally by Black Sabbath)
from the album The Real Thing
1989
Buy the album on Amazon

Let’s get things straight. “War Pigs” is a bad-ass song all on its own. Even if you’re not an Ozzy-worshiping Sabbath fan, you can most definitely appreciate the bad-assedness of “War Pigs” I mean the lyrics alone are the fucking jam, but you layer in some sludgy bass and rusty chainsaw guitar licks over the top and that’s a recipe for successful head-banging. But what happens if you add about 25% more funk?

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Karaoke Tuesday: “Under The Bridge”

August 5, 2014Music#KaraokeTuesday, 90s, alternative, karaoke, music videos, red hot chili peppers, songsLance

“Under The Bridge”
by the Red Hot Chili Peppers
from the album Blood Sugar Sex Magik
1991
Buy the album on Amazon

This song was an early addition to my karaoke playlist and stayed there for two or three solid seasons. It’s great track to force the night to catch its breath, and slow down the pace a bit.

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Cover Friday: “Treat Her Right”

July 25, 2014Music#CoverFriday, covers, motown, movies, music videos, songs, soulLance

“Treat Her Right”
by The Commitments (originally by Roy Head and the Traits)
from the soundtrack to The Commitments
1991
Buy the album on Amazon

The Commitments was one of our go-to movies for late nights at college. I don’t remember seeing it in the theaters, so I think it was almost exclusively watched on VHS rentals from More Than Video. I’m not sure who in my group found it, but we could recite it from memory, at least the parts we could make out through the Irish brogue. This movie hit some soft spots for me: Motown/soul/blues music, ensemble pieces and weird accents. Plus, what a fun band to listen to. Case in point, the opening song to the movie.

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Cover Friday: “Forever Young”

July 25, 2014Music#CoverFriday, 00s, 80s, alphaville, alternative, covers, music videos, songs, youth groupChris

“Forever Young”
by Youth Group (originally by Alphaville)
from the album Casino Twilight Dogs
2006
Buy the album on Amazon

I’m going to keep this one short. It’s 1 in the morning, and I’m exhausted, but I’m not going to get a chance to post during the day and I can’t very well give Lance a hard time about Karaoke Thursday if I don’t post for #CoverFriday.

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Karaoke Thursday: “Burn After Writing”

July 24, 2014Music#BestSongEver, #KaraokeTuesday, 00s, alternative, karaoke, lyrics, menzingers, perfect albums, songsLance

“Burn After Writing”
by the Menzingers
from the album On The Impossible Past
2012
Buy the album on Amazon

A couple of thoughts before I really dig in. First, it’s kind of fucking amazing that neither one of us has talked in-depth about how fantastic this album is. And it’s not like the band puts out constantly stellar material, but this particular album I’ll put up there against most of my favorite albums from my favorite groups. Second, it’s totally Thursday and I never did a Karaoke Tuesday post, but two days late is hard to fake, so I’m coming clean. The shame of this Karaoke Thursday post title will haunt me at least until I finish writing this post.

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