So, for today's Rewind, I give you my favorite songs I like to sing along to. If I'm being really honest, it's more like songs I think I can sing the hell out of.
They're mostly one-hit wonders, but such good stuff. Oh, and these videos are some 80's gold.
First up is one of my all-time favorite 80's songs evah. T'pau's "Heart and Soul." Best line: I used to have a lover with a Midas touch. IF I HAD A NICKEL, PEOPLE.
Next would be my theme song, "Goody Two Shoes" by the one and only Adam Ant. Best line: You don't drink, don't smoke/What do you do/The subtle innuendos follow/There must be something inside.
This one would be a duet. It's "Obsession" by Animotion. It's the song that spawned a million stalkers -- if you listen to the lyrics, it's nuts. The video makes exactly ZERO sense. Best line: My fantasy has turned to madness /And all my goodness /Has turned to badness.
Lastly, totally not a one-hit wonder and completely the opposite of the other videos today -- The Commodores with "Nightshift." I love this song. Major love. When I sing this one in the car it's dangerous, because I have to do the hand motions. It's a fab song, more subtle than "Brickhouse," (obviously) and it's about Marvin Gaye and Jackie Wilson, who both passed away in 1984, the year before this song came out. The Kerry Blog is all about musical education, is it not? This video is perfect. The outfits at the end SO remind me of Isaac from the Love Boat, it's good times. Best line: At the end of a long day/It's gonna be okay/On the Nightshift.
So, my good friend Will requested a "where are they now" on Edie Brickell after my 80's Sunday Rewind post (because apparently his Google is broken) and since I am here to educate as well as amuse, here's the update.
It's been 20 years since Edie Brickell and New Bohemians had their hit "What I Am" and New Bohemians have had two good follow-up albums:
1990's Ghost of a Dog and 2006's Stranger Things. Edie's band showed a great deal of promise with their hit album Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars, but Ghost of a Dog didn't come close to matching that kind of success, as is the usual thing with sophomore albums. The only song released from that album was "Mama Help Me" and I bet you don't remember it. Still, it's a good album. My favorite song off Ghost of a Dog is "He Said," have a listen.
On the personal front, Brickell married Paul Simon in 1992. I know, seemed weird to me when I learned this back in the day -- but wait -- it's going to get a little weirder. They met when she was performing on Saturday Night Live and according to Wikipedia she says he was standing by the cameraman, "He made me
mess the song up when I looked at him," she said with a smile. "We can
show the kids the tape and say, 'Look, that's when we first laid eyes
on each other.'" Makes me wonder what would have happened if Steve Martin would have been hosting that night.
By 2005, Brickell was headed for one-hit-wonderland when Microsoft put her song "Good Times" on the Windows 95 cd-rom. Nothing says indie-bohemian like Microsoft. Anyway, there it was and Brickell was in the spotlight for a bit with the song going to #22 on the Adult Contemporary chart. "Good Times" was from Brickell's 1994 solo effort, Picture Perfect Morning. In 2003 she put out Volcano, which didn't fare well at all.
Now for the good news (and that weirder part I was talking about).
Last year Edie Brickell and her step-son, Harper Simon, formed The Heavy Circles and recorded an album of the same name. I don't know what the band name means, they could have called themselves Harper and Edie for all I care because this collaboration is pretty fantastic. I'm just glad they didn't call themselves Oedipus Complex. Harper has inherited his dad's talent and the album showcases the best of what Edie does -- haunting vocals, and then surprises you with rockin' vocals in songs like "Dynamite Child."
The Heavy Circles album is definitely worth getting if you've enjoyed any of Brickell's past work or if you just like good music. It's well-produced, multi-layered, and soulful. I really haven't heard anything like The Heavy Circles in recent years. The album is decidedly different from her work with New Bohemians and the songs are full and interesting, a little poppy, a little rock and roll. I had to look at my iTunes to see what they were classified as and they're under Alternative, which proves Alternative has come to mean anything that doesn't easily fit a category.
A good example of not fitting any of the standard classifications is the first track, "Henri," which needs to be in the David Lynch film about Henri Matisse's paintings. What? It could happen.
"Better" is a fun song reminiscent of The Beatles with fun piano and guitar, so of course I love that. Oh, did I mention that Sean Lennon did some work on this album as well? He did, but I can't find any information on what he performed on.
My favorite song on the album is "Confused." It's ethereal and lovely. I super love the melodies on this one. By the way, I would SO put it in the title sequence of a film where the heroine is deciding between two men. Seriously, will someone please give me a job picking music for movies? I'm adding this to the list of jobs I'd be perfect for -- this is not a long list, believe me (but that's another post).
Everyone's going to get The Heavy Circles now, right? Good. It's good stuff. I hope y'all feel bathed in knowledge now, I'll be back to my usual shenanigans later. I'll dig up something for 80's Sunday Rewind tomorrow and I've planned something special for Tunes You Need Tuesday (although this post would definitely suffice). Y'all have a superfantastic weekend, download The Heavy Circles, jump in a pile of leaves, have a nap, and take a drive: this is the stuff autumn weekends are made of.
So, I got the new Photoshop app for iPhone today and took a pic of myself in carline to show y'all the new hair color (and straight). BUT the Typepad app makes you crop your iPhone photos to upload, so it cuts off the border off that I added with Photoshop. The app is free and you can adjust saturation, tint photos, crop, etc -- but I wish the app developers could make their apps work together better. I'm just sayin'.
A tank you made into a deep v-neck and your bra does not make a shirt. This is elementary stuff. Do better or I'll demand that you start wearing Garanimals. They really should make Garanimals for adults (hippo top + hippo pants = outfit), but I digress, that's another post.
We know you're proud of your new boobs. And you should be, you bought them -- good for you. Look into buying some shirts now.
Regina Spektor is getting quite a bit of attention of late and it's all well deserved and wonderful. She has a great story and I thought you might like to hear what her Wiki says:
Spektor was born in Moscow, USSR to a musical Jewish family. Her father, Ilya Spektor, is a photographer and amateur violinist.
Her mother, Bella Spektor, was a music professor in a Russian college
of music and now teaches at a public elementary school in Mount Vernon, New York.[1]
Spektor learned how to play piano by practicing on a Petrofupright that was given to her mother by her grandfather.[2] She was also exposed to the music of rock and roll bands such as The Beatles, Queen, and The Moody Blues by her father, who obtained such recordings in Eastern Europe and traded cassettes with friends in the Soviet Union.[1] The family left the Soviet Union in 1989, when Regina was nine and a half, during the period of Perestroika, when Soviet citizens were permitted to emigrate. Regina had to leave her piano behind.[3]
The seriousness of her piano studies led her parents to consider not
leaving the USSR, but they finally decided to emigrate, due to the
ethnic and political discrimination which Jews faced.[4]
By now y'all know I love my quirky pianists. Spektor is most certainly the quirkiest and most eclectic girl in the music industry that I know of. Not to mention wildly talented as well being a lovely vocalist who doesn't have to dress up in outrageous costumes or make the tabloids for attention. Her music speaks for itself.
Her 2006 album Begin To Hope is superfantastic. Here's "Fidelity" from that album.
I went back and forth over whether to share this next song with you or not. "Samson" is a jewel. It's my favorite song of the past few years (period) and it's one that can make me cry and I strangely identify with and just adore it. I play it often. "You are my sweetest downfall/I loved you first/Beneath the sheets of paper lies my truth" just kills me. You'll have to hear it, but I think "you are my sweetest downfall" may be the most poetic phrase I've heard in years. The "beneath the sheets of paper" part reminds me of my unpublished novel (sigh). So, that's my song. Maybe you'll like it too.
Spektor's latest album, Far is out now and the current single is "Eet." It's lovely.
And the perfect song to listen to after "Eet" is "Dance Anthem of the 80's" for the -eet sounds. Here's a fabulous live clip.
So, that's my Regina Spektor post. I hope y'all enjoyed it as much as enjoy her music.
I'd like to let you know I'll be watching Ida all day now and adding margarita mix to my hurricane kit when I go to the store in the morning. One can never be too prepared.
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