Tag Archives: 90s

Karaoke Tuesday: “Father of Mine”

August 19, 2014Music#KaraokeTuesday, 90s, alternative, everclear, karaoke, lyrics, music videos, songsChris

“Father of Mine”
by Everclear
from the album So Much for the Afterglow
1997
Buy the album on Amazon

Finally making a jump back to the 90’s this week. Admittedly, I’ve never actually done this song, but it’s on my list to try next time. I was just a casual fan of Everclear when they were getting big (except my still unwavering love for Summerland and Santa Monica, which should pop up here on Lance’s list one of these days), and have a couple of their albums, but this song never really caught my ear.

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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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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: “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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Karaoke Tuesday: “Torn”

July 22, 2014Music#KaraokeTuesday, 90s, comedy, hollow men, karaoke, music videos, natalie imbruglia, pop, songsChris

“Torn”
by Natalie Imbruglia
from the album Left of the Middle
1997
Buy the album on Amazon

Like a wandering storyteller traveling the land, regaling the local townfolk with stories of adventures from afar, I often like to tell new friends and old tales of great karaoke adventures. As I’m also clearly not above self-deprecation, one of the stories I like to share is of the lowest karaoke moment for my dear friend Lance and I.

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Cover Friday: “Money”

July 18, 2014Music#CoverFriday, 120 minutes, 90s, afghan whigs, alternative, beatles, covers, foo fighters, gumball, karaoke, motown, music videos, nirvana, r.e.m., songs, sonic youth, soul asylumLance

“Money”
by the Backbeat Band (originally by Barret Strong)
from the soundtrack to Backbeat
1994
Buy the album on Amazon

Oh man, I had two songs in mind for my cover selection today, both covers of Motown classics, but this one gets the nod today because I’ve been listening to a lot of Afghan Whigs lately. I’ll file that other one away for later. This is actually an all-star 90s alternative cover of a Beatles cover of a Barrett Strong track. It features members of REM, Gumball, Foo Fighters, Sonic Youth, Soul Asylum and Afghan Whigs.

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Cover Friday: “Like a Prayer”

July 11, 2014Music#CoverFriday, 80s, 90s, bigod 20, covers, dance, madonna, songs, workoutChris

“Like a Prayer”
by Bigod 20 (originally by Madonna)
from the album On the Run
1992
Buy the album on Amazon

To show how bad my memory is, I didn’t remember I posted a Madonna cover last week as well until I came to post this.

I’ve never enjoyed going to a dance club that just plays electronic music, but, though I haven’t done it in years, I used to love going to dance at clubs with industrial/goth/alternative nights. I like to dance but I want music that has words, that I can sing along to (even if it’s just in my head), that I know has an end and that I know well enough to dance to the timing of it. This is one of the songs I used to love hearing and dancing to. It’s such a great dance song and also such a great subversion of the original. The original was the only Madonna single I ever bought, and I listened to it a ton, so it made me love this version more.
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Cover Friday: “Like a Virgin”

July 4, 2014Music#CoverFriday, 80s, 90s, alternative, covers, madonna, songs, teenage fanclubChris

“Like a Virgin”
by Teenage Fanclub (originally by Madonna)
from the album What You Do to Me
1992
Buy the album on Amazon

I’ll write some other time about how I came by Teenage Fanclub (and some #CoverFriday I’ll post Buffalo Tom covering Teenage Fanclub), but decided to go with this for the week. This cover was first released a year earlier on Teenage Fanclub’s second album The King, but I know it from this EP/”maxi-single”, which I picked up along the way.

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Karaoke Tuesday: “Chloe Dancer/Crown of Thorns”

July 1, 2014Music#KaraokeTuesday, 90s, covers, eddie vedder, grunge, karaoke, mother love bone, movies, singles, songsLance

“Chloe Dancer/Crown of Thorns”
by Mother Love Bone
from the soundtrack to the film Singles
1992
Buy the album on Amazon

The Singles soundtrack is the most consistently good compilation that came out of the 90s. I think Chris would agree that by and large, most soundtracks are disappointing in that they have one or two great songs and the rest is just filler. But with Singles, the music supervisor totally nailed it. Super music fan and journalist Cameron Crowe directed the film so it’s not surprising. What was surprising for me at the time, was that the heart of the album wasn’t a track by Alice in Chains or Soundgarden or even Pearl Jam, but rather Mother Love Bone.

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Cover Friday: “Surfin’ U.S.A.”

June 27, 2014Music#CoverFriday, 90s, beach boys, covers, pennywise, punk, summer songsChris

“Surfin’ U.S.A.”
by Pennywise (originally by The Beach Boys)
from the album M.O.M.: Music for Our Mother Ocean Vol. 1
1996
Buy the album on Amazon

So I completely blew it this week with no Karaoke Tuesday entry. There have been a few times in the past where Lance or I or both of us have been a little late, but this week I just totally dropped the ball. Normally at worst I might do it Wednesday and cheat by backdating the entry, but it just feels wrong to do that when it’s already Friday night. So you win this week, Lance. And apologies to all of our loyal fans (which is also just Lance).

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