2005.

After an unintentionally long hiatus, I'm back with my year-end post. There's not going to be much rhyme & reason here: An amalgam of my favourite songs/covers of 2005 and a bunch of random stuff that topped my iTunes playcounts for this year.

Andrew Bird - A Nervous Tic Motion of the Head to the Left

A few years ago I had a big Squirrel Nut Zippers phase (still going...) and started branching off from there to hear some of the band member's side projects like Katherine Whalen's Jazz Squad, James Mathus Knockdown Society, and... Andrew Bird's Bowl of Fire. His first couple solo albums were sort of in the vein of SNZ's 1920's jazz stylings. Then the Weather Systems album started to showcase Andrew Bird's extraordinary versatility on the violin and other instruments in a variety of genres, which is further displayed on his new album from this year: Andrew Bird & The Mysterious Production of Eggs. It's fascinating to watch him play live as he uses a sampling machine to record his voice and various instruments to perform a multi-layered song by himself. There's some good shows of his on archive.org's Live Music Archive.

Hockey Night - For Guys' Eyes Only
Another plug for this song, which surprisingly became one of my favourite songs of the year via a random download. Musical quotage of the Pinball Number Song only makes this catchy song catchier. Speaking of the Pinball Number song, head over to I Dig Worms who features a video link to a Family Guy clip that features (!) the classic Sesame Street ditty.

The White Stripes - Red Rain
This summer, I got to see two of the best concerts I've ever been to: The White Stripes on back-to-back nights in Vancouver. Very little overlap in playlists between the two shows that for lack of a better description, just plain rocked. I had only listened to their new album a couple times and then watching Red Rain live was electrifying... like hearing it for the first time.

Best covers of 2005:
Hayseed Dixie - Holiday [orig. by Green Day]
Karen Abrahams with The Austin Lounge Lizards - White Rabbit [orig. by Jefferson Airplane]
Phantom Planet - Our House [orig. by Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young]
Jon Brion - Play the Game [orig. by Queen]

Some current top covers (pre-2005):
Danny Michel - Young Americans [orig. by David Bowie]
Favourite cover I've heard all year.

Inspection 12 - I Think We're Alone Now [orig. by Tommy James & The Shondells]
The Polyphonic Spree - Five Years [orig. by David Bowie]
The Shins - Baby Boomerang [orig. by T. Rex]

Covers From Hedwig & The Angry Inch [written by Stephen Trask]:

I've yet to see this musical or the film, but I really should because I'm addicted to these songs from it.

The Polyphonic Spree - Wig in a Box

The Bens - Wicked Little Town (Tommy Gnosis Version)
One of my most listened to covers this year from the one-off meshing of Ben Kweller, Ben Lee, and Ben Folds.

Ben Jelen - Wicked Little Town
By jove, another Ben doing another cover of Wicked Little Town, no less. Jelen covers the "Hedwig Version" of the song, so it doesn't even overlap with the other Bens' cover. Makes a nice companion piece.

Miscellaneous tunes:
Georgie Fame - Somebody Stole My Thunder
I caught the tail-end of a Wal-Mart commercial this year and was excited because I thought they were using a Fantastic Plastic Machine song. As I listened to it more closely, I realized that this song had different lyrics and was in fact the source of a sampled riff from the FPM remix. The original song itself is a groovy hoot, but also check out this remix from The Escalator Team (featuring Yukari Fresh), which remixes Fantastic Plastic Machine's Bon Voyage with samples from Georgie Fame:
Fantastic Plastic Machine - Bon Voyage (Escape Mix)

Jason Forrest - War Photographer
This is another sample heavy track, which I discovered last week and became instantly hooked. The video was listed by Pitchfork's top 5 music videos of the year, which is where I first heard it. Check out the video here. The song reminds me of 70s funk mixed with the guitar-heavy electronica of Tomoyasu Hotei (probably best known from "Battle Without Honor or Humanity" used in Kill Bill). Unexpectedly near the end of War Photographer, he works in samples from Blood, Sweat, and Tears' Spinning Wheel. Awesome!

The Greenhornes - Shelter of Your Arms
The White Stripes - Shelter of Your Arms
I saw the Greenhornes open for the White Stripes earlier this year, but didn't realize that they had worked with Jack White on Loretta Lynn's Van Lear Rose album and that he had produced their latest album. Then, the b-side of their latest single The Denial Twist is a cover of this Greenhornes tune. Both versions are good though fairly similar... The Greenhornes reminds me sort of The Doors, while Jack White just does his Jack White thing.



Best concerts I went to this year:
The Killers with Tegan & Sara [Shaw Convention Centre; Edmonton, AB]
Jeff Healey's Jazz Wizards [Arden Theatre; St. Albert, AB]
Beck with Le Tigre [Queen Elizabeth Theatre; Vancouver, BC]
Aimee Mann [Commodore Ballroom; Vancouver, BC]
The White Stripes with The Greenhornes (two nights!) [Orpheum Theatre; Vancouver, BC]
Ben Folds, Ben Lee, & Rufus Wainwright [Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery; Woodinville, WA]
Robert Plant & The Strange Sensation [Rexall Place; Edmonton, AB]

Other tracks I dug from this year that I won't post:
Ben Folds - You to Thank
Ben Folds - Landed
Gorillaz - Feel Good Inc.
Jamie Cullum - Get Your Way
Death Cab for Cutie - Where Soul Meets Body
Harvey Danger - Cream and Bastards Rise
Andrew Bird - Skin is, My
Andrew Bird - Opposite Day
Beck - Girl
Supergrass - Low C
Billy Talent - Red Flag
Eleven featuring Josh Homme - Stone Cold Crazy
Hot Hot Heat - Running Out of Time

'Tis

It's about that time of year when the bloggers take to posting their Top Tens or some sort of mix of x-mas songs, which invariably consists of copping some tracks from the Maybe This Christmas series. Generally, I can't stand most traditional Christmas songs or their covers because of their inherently saccharine nature (combined with a healthy dose of cynicism for the holidays), but here are a few choice tracks in the spirit of giving:

Jet - Back Door Santa
I didn't really realize until earlier this week that there's this large anti-Jet contingent and that the band's artistic credibility is "hotly debated". The other day a friend and I were in the car listening to Take It Or Leave It and I suddenly asked "Why the hell hasn't Jet had another album?". So I followed this up by doing a google search for their new album and after a news article on an album possibly coming out next year, there was page after page of adamant Jet-bashing. And according to the Wikipedia entry on Jet, my fellow Jet fans and I suffer from "obvious, but mostly mild, cryptomnesia". Mmmmmmmmmokay, if that's not rock snob pretentiousness, I don't know what is. Or maybe I'm just a chronic cryptomnesiac.

Everclear - Santa Baby [originally sung by Eartha Kitt]
A rousing cover by Everclear. I love the underlying cynicism of the lyrics.

Rockapella - You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch [originally sung by Thurl Ravenscroft]
Though narrated in the classic 1966 film by Boris Karloff, the original song was actually sung by Thurl Ravenscroft, the voice behind Tony the Tiger.

Whirling Dervishes - You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch
Another nice cover of the Grinch song with awesomely ridiculous lyrics written by Dr. Suess himself. "I wouldn't touch you with a
thirty-nine-and-a-half foot pole." Classic. There's also another great version of the song by the Asylum Street Spankers on an archived episode of Coverville.

Ben Folds - Lonely Christmas Eve
This song written by Ben for the regrettable Jim Carrey remake is from the point of view of poor ol' misunderstood Mr Grinch. Wouldn't the Whos kinda piss you off too?

Harvey Danger - Sometimes You Have to Work on Christmas (Sometimes)
Last Christmas was an exciting time for HD fans as they staged a reunion concert and released a X-Mas EP. They even sent me a signed Christmas card with my order. Of course, back in September they released their first album in 5 years. It's available online for free from their website, though of course the physical album would make a snazzy Christmas gift...

Hayseed Dixie - Holiday [originally by Green Day]
This isn't really a X-mas song... or a holiday song for that matter. But I've been giving this a few listens lately. Like Richard Cheese, Hayseed Dixie takes a gimmicky stance towards contemporary covers. And like Richard Cheese, I find that some of their songs actually transcend the novelty value of a hillbilly cover. I actually think these guys got better after they evolved past the original AC/DC tribute album they did. Way better than those generic Pickin' On albums.... (Amazon lists 120 Pickin' On albums - do they crank out a new album every 3 days??)

The Polyphonic Spree - Happy Xmas (War is Over) [originally by John Lennon]
The Polyphonic Spree are an inspired choice to do cover this. By the way, this is from the Maybe This Christmas Tree album (my token offering).

Happy Holidays!

Triptych

[EDIT: OK, QuickDump sucks. I'm sorry. SaveFile's down. Um, links will be down until I figure something out here.]

[EDIT 2: Alright, I've now managed to host the songs on our shaw account. Much easier to upload, might I add. This seems to have solved the problem for the foreseeable future. Fingers crossed.]

Three is The Magic Number by Embrace [originally from Schoolhouse Rock]


3 Covers:
Danny Michel - Young Americans [David Bowie]
Tom Jones & Stereophonics - Mama Told Me Not to Come [Randy Newman]
Brad Roberts - Bette Davis Eyes [Kim Carnes]

3 Originals:
Andrew Bird's Bowl of Fire - Case in Point
Harvey Danger - Cream and Bastards Rise
The Dresden Dolls - Girl Anachronism

3 Mash-ups:
Dirrty Girl [Christina Aguilera vs. Jet]
Screaming Pro [Beck vs. Michael & Janet Jackson vs. AC/DC]
Crazy Little Fool [The Beatles vs. Queen]

6 Degrees with Winnie the Pooh, Radiohead, & Bette Midler

The wonderful thing about covers:

1. Carly Simon - Winnie the Pooh
[composed by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman]

2. Radiohead - Nobody Does it Better (live)
[originally by Carly Simon]
Thom Yorke prefaces this live version with "This is the sexiest song that was ever written..." and they perform it like they mean it. Indeed, I've never heard a better cover of this.

3. The Darkness - Street Spirit (Fade Out)
[originally by Radiohead]
Pretty good 80s metal interpretation of Radiohead, who are not sacred in my books.

4. Ben Folds - Get Your Hands Off of My Woman
[originally by The Darkness]
Pounding keys replace the heavy guitar riffs of the Darkness with Ben doing his best falsetto.

5. Bette Midler - Boxing
[originally by Ben Folds Five]
This is one of, if not the only studio recorded cover of a Ben Folds Five song. This cover scares me in the same way as clowns & carnivals (makes me involuntarily twitch). Midler sings it with about as much poignancy and pathos as a cardboard box. Though, I may be biased toward the original.

Not quite 6 degrees, but I think Kevin Bacon would be proud (or spiteful).

Dead links

Is it just me or are all the savefile links dead?
Um, I'll figure something out in the next few days.

[EDIT: They're alive!!! No worries, they were just upgrading their servers.]

Now That's Edutainment!

Over at I Dig Worms, the latest post features Sesame Street Fever, a disco Sesame Street album sporting a cover with a vaguely disturbing image of Grover striking a John Travolta stance -- disturbing, I think, mainly because a full-bodied muppet is a little creepy. Ernie looks unsettlingly dispropotionate too... but I digress.

The highlight of the post is a full 2:41 version of the Pinball Number Count! Remember the animated pinball rolling through a plethora of obstacles to the beat of the funkiest little number ditty imaginable? Rock on. Here it is in all its glory. I remember several years ago going on a mission to find this song and eventually downloading a shortened version (just the number 4) through Napster. This was also pre-"google-takes-over-the-world", so I never did really find out anything more about it. What a difference a few years makes. Inspired by I Dig Worm's uncovering of this long-lost childhood relic, I googled "Pinball Number Count" and found this swack of cool links:

1. A Letter from Walt Kraemer
This guy composed and produced the Pinball Number Count. A couple years ago, some guy (obviously way more determined than I was) tracked this guy down and e-mailed him about the song. Here's his response, which details the hitherto secret history of the Pinball Number song. I didn't know this, but the vocals on the track are, in fact, The Pointer Sisters. Nice!

2. The Dead Hensons
A Muppets/Sesame Street cover band... bloody brilliant. Guess what: a cover of the Pinball Number song. Get it here. There's even a cover of "Can You Picture That?". This made my day. Possibly my month.

3. whytheluckystiff.net
Year-old blog entry on the Dead Hensons and the jackpot: a 26Mb avi movie of the Pinball Number Count. I am currently wallowing in nostalgia.

4. Hockey Night - For Guys' Eyes Only
A couple weeks back I downloaded this awesome track by Hockey Night, which I admittedly only downloaded because the band was called Hockey Night. About 1:30 into the song, an unexpected quotation of the Pinball Number Count. Must have been an omen.

Some related tracks:
Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra - Sesame Street theme
Captain Vegetable [from Sesame Street]
Goodness - Electricity, Electricity [originally from Schoolhouse Rocks]
Deluxx Folk Implosion - I'm Just a Bill [originally from Schoolhouse Rocks]
Moxy Früvous - Photosynthesis [re-lyricization of their own Jenny Washington]


"Out of his secret garden somewhere in New Jersey..."

Neil Young covered

[EDIT 11/16/05: OK, I've (hopefully) fixed all the broken links there. I'm not sure why some links worked and others didn't but I'm back to SaveFile until I find something better. I did in the meantime get a hold of that Phantom Planet cover and have added a link to that below as well.]

So the new Philosopher Kings album Castles hits stores in less than 2 weeks. I've got all their albums (only 3) and I thought I had heard all their one-off contributions to compilation albums such as "Work", which was on a 30 Hour Famine charity album. I was wrong. Just a couple weeks ago at the library I stumbled onto Borrowed Tunes, a 1994 2-disc tribute album to Neil Young, and lo and behold: there's another Philosopher Kings track. The entire album features Canadian artists covering Neil Young and includes such names as Treble Charger, 54·40, Big Sugar, and Randy Bachman. Here's a few tracks from that album (I particularly liked OLP's cover) and some other Neil Young covers:

The Philosopher Kings - Coupe de Ville
Our Lady Peace - The Needle and the Damage Done
Lawrence Gowan - Heart of Gold

Oddly enough on a Canadian tribute album to Neil Young, there were no contribution from Tragically Hip or Rush. Though Rush did do a version of Mr. Soul on their covers album Feedback: Rush - Mr. Soul

Pixies - Winterlong

Devo - Ohio [originally by Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young]
Interesting factoid: Devo founders Mark Mothersbaugh and Jerry Casale were on campus during the Kent State shootings. Casale's first-hand account of the shootings can be read here.

Dread Zeppelin - Suite: Judy Blue Eyes [originally by CSNY]

Some big names covering For What It's Worth [originally by Buffalo Springfield]:
Robert Plant
Ozzy Osbourne
Rush (also from their Feedback album)

Phantom Planet also does what sounds to be a pretty good cover of CSNY's Our House for the soundtrack to The Chumscrubber (a snippet is featured in the trailer). I intended to buy it via iTunes but for some reason it's only available in the US and it wouldn't let me buy it through my Canadian account. Bah!

[EDIT 11/16/05: Got it! Check out Phantom Planet's Our House]

(Yeah, trying a new file-hosting site too)

11:11

11:11 by Andrew Bird's Bowl of Fire

Zkippy Stardust

Oops, kinda slacked off on the postings there. I'll try to add something more substantial tomorrow. For now, here's an Italian David Bowie tribute band Zkippy Stardust and an mp3 album of one of their live shows "The Garden of Reality". It's actually pretty cool and it's great to hear an electric cover of Queen Bitch, one of my Bowie fav's.

Check it out here: Zkippy Stardust

Boo.

Well, here I am on All Hallow's Eve haunting the ol' library. Found out today that Hallowe'en is also known as Pooky Night in some places, which is decidedly unscary. Although, it does have a cute ring to it. Pooky Night. Ok, from now on I'm calling it Pooky Night.


When I was but a wee lad, I remember watching some Disney Pooky Night special with clips from Disney films/shows set to music like ELO's Evil Woman, CCR's Bad Moon Risin', Rockwell's Somebody's Watching You, and Stevie Wonder's Superstition. It was all diabolically narrated by the evil "mirror-mirror-on-the-wall" from Snow White. The most frightening clip was from Disney's adaptation of Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. In the scene, poor Ichabod Crane is chased through the menacing forest by the unstoppable Headless Horseman, and it culminates with the horseman rearing and throwing his flaming pumpkin head at the camera. Now, both the original short story and the Disney short film add a little epilogue that reassuring admits that Ichabod Crane's disappearance is likely due to his self-exile out of sheer embarrassment. However, in the Hallowe'en special, the clip is truncated and ends with him apparently murdered in a blaze of pumpkin inferno by the evil headless spirit. Ah, wholesome family fun.




Another treat from the special was an abbreviated version of Bing Crosby's Headless Horseman from the 1949 Disney adaptation. For years this tune would crop up in my head, but it wasn't until last year that I watched the whole film (now on DVD) while doing a group presentation on adapations of Sleepy Hollow for a film class. So here's Bing Crosby's awesome The Headless Horseman and even a cover of that song by Kay Starr, which came out not long after.




Bing Crosby - The Headless Horseman
Kay Starr - The Headless Horseman

Bonus Pooky Night cover:
Ian Brown - Thriller