Phil’s Faves: Videos, October 30, 2011

Posted on November 6, 2011 by PhilMaq

This will be a personal weekly Top Ten list of what I consider to be the best videos currently available on TV. I don’t, as a rule, go searching for old music videos, so that’s why it will focus mostly on current or recent videos.

This will be a personal weekly Top Ten list of what I consider to be the best videos currently available on TV. I don’t, as a rule, go searching for old music videos, so that’s why it will focus mostly on current or recent videos. For this category, I am also going to include any live performances on talk or variety shows that I see during the week.

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Wally Pleasant stays at the top for another week, but there definitely is some competition starting to enter the list. There were a number of great TV performances, and fun seemed to be a connecting theme!

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Top 10 Videos for the week of October 30, 2011

1. Stupid Day Job–Wally Pleasant
2. We Owned the Night-Lady Antebellum
3. Sparks Fly—Taylor Swift
4. Gonna Get Over You-Sara Bareilles
5. Red Solo Cup-Toby Keith
6. A Thousand Years–Christina Perri from “Breaking Dawn, Part One”
7. Hello Again–Amos Lee with Calexico from “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno”
8. Blood Pressure-mutemath on “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon”
9. Shadowcasting–Ra Ra Riot on “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon”
10. We’re Gonna Party Today–Yo Gabba Gabba on “Late Night with “Jimmy Fallon”

1) “Stupid Day Job”—One more week at the top for Wally! That’s really really good for a “stupid” video!
2) “We Owned the Night”—Lady A looks like they’re having fun in this video! That makes me have fun watching it!
3) “Sparks Fly”—Taylor looks like she’s having a lot of fun in this video, too! Unless you have a good plotline, why not make it look like you’re having fun?
4) “Gonna Get Over You”—Another fun video! There’s a theme here………………..
5) “Red Solo Cup”—A video that looks like they had too much fun! Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like it’s catching on. Too bad. Maybe people just don’t appreciate stupid things……….
6) “A Thousand Years”—I honestly don’t know anything about this “Twilight” series, but I hear from my teenage daughter that the girl should have married into the werewolf family. Yeah, whatever. All I know of is that this 12/8 song shows Christina in almost natural light, so she looks the best she ever has! This video and song should be HUGE!
7) “Hello Again”—Amos Lee with significant help from Calexico did a superb performance of this song from “Mission Bell!” Calexico gives the song just enough of a mariachi feel!
8) “Blood Pressure”—First of all, I hate their video for this song. Fortunately, I think the song is incredibly awesome—which is what this performance is!
9) “Shadowcasting”—Ra Ra Riot made a rare TV appearance and killed when they played this song from their excellent “The Orchard” CD!
10) “We’re Gonna Party Today”—Alright! This is another silly and fun performance!
Everybody went crazy on this live performance! Guests included Biz Markie, Erica Badu, Bootsy Collins, Mark Mothersbaugh from Devo, and The Roots who all joined in on the insanity! It’s all about fun, baby!!!

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13 Halloween Hauntings: Day 13

Posted on October 31, 2011 by PhilMaq

For the next 13 days, I am going to list my all time favorite Halloween songs. There will be a new entry every day in reverse order, and the list will be kept on the “lists” page. I will also provide some commentary with each entry. HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Halloween

13 Halloween Hauntings:

1) “Rockin’ in the Graveyard—Roy Loney & The Phantom Movers

Or

“Rockin’ in the Graveyard—Jackie Morningstar” (Original version)

My favorite Halloween song, at least until something else catches my attention, is the rockabilly ghost tale, “Rockin’ in the Graveyard.” It starts out with the artists explaining that they’re doing it for the money. They both reference David Seville’s “The Witch Doctor” and Sheb Wooley’s “Purple People Eater” as selling a million copies, and this one’s supposed to do the same. This beginning explanation is kind of slow and extended. After this part, the song starts rockin’!

The singer describes walking past a graveyard where he sees and hears a lot of strange things made by the ghost inside. But the strangest thing he hears is when the ghost says, “I WANT YOOOOOOU UUUUUUUUU!!!!

The chorus is the best part as the ghost sings: “Wait a minute, boy/Wait a winute/ Wait a minute boy I say/Wait a minute boy/ Wait a minute/Wait a minute/Before you run away!” The song is meant to be fun, not scary, and the rockabilly beat keeps it light.

My only complaint is the intro. Jackie Morningstar did his tongue-in-cheek version when the mentioned songs were popular. Roy Loney didn’t have to, but to his credit, he really hams it up for that section. I would have dropped it for the remake. But either way, this song’s a true Halloween classic!

Well, that’s it. I hope you found a song that you liked or were motivated to check out something new!

Happy Halloween!!!!!!!!!!

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Until next time, take care of yourself, and take care of each other!
Peace!
Q

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13 Halloween Hauntings: Day 12

Posted on October 31, 2011 by PhilMaq

For the next 13 days, I am going to list my all time favorite Halloween songs. There will be a new entry every day in reverse order, and the list will be kept on the “lists” page. I will also provide some commentary with each entry. HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Halloween

13 Halloween Hauntings:

2) “I Want to Bite Your Hand”—Gene Moss from “Dracula’s Greatest Hits”

These last two songs are very personal favorites of mine. They are also relatively unknown songs.

Song number two, “I Want to Bite Your Hand,” came out of the same cauldron that ‘created’ “Monster Mash,” with some distinct changes. AM radio was still king, and monster movies were still a hot fad. But that mash potatoes dance had moved on thirty minutes after everyone was into it. To take its place was the British Invasion, and in particular, in a very big way, The Beatles!

The Beatles were so big that one of the fads at the time was to make money off of them. This was the age before big marketing deals that pretty much started with The Beatles, but they were not prepared to stop the onslaught of merchandise that bore their name.

So Gene Moss, taking his cue from Bobby Pickett and his Boris Karloff imitation, decided to do a spot on Bela Lugosi impersonation while satirizing both The Beatles’ “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and Dracula. An extra added touch is the Motown or Girl Group soulful backup singers that make Drac sound really hip! It is too cool for words!
And some of the words are hilarious: “And when I bite you I feel happy inside/It’s so delicious that my thirst I can’t hide! I can’t hide! I can’t hide!!!

You can find this song on a CD called “Dracula’s Greatest Hits.” It is worth tracking down!

One more scary song to go…………………………….

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Until next time, take care of yourself, and take care of each other!
Peace!
Q

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13 Halloween Hauntings: Day 11

Posted on October 30, 2011 by PhilMaq

For the next 13 days, I am going to list my all time favorite Halloween songs. There will be a new entry every day in reverse order, and the list will be kept on the “lists” page. I will also provide some commentary with each entry. HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Halloween

13 Halloween Hauntings:

3) “Monster Mash”—Bobby “Boris” Pickett

This is the Halloween song that would make number one on most people’s personal lists…and it is worthy of that honor! It is a perfect blending of two campy satires from a time when Monster movies and AM radio controlled a teenager’s mind—when they weren’t thinking about sex!

The music of the song satirizes Dee Dee Sharp’s biggest fad dance craze hits: “Mashed Potato Time” and the follow up “Gravy” (For My Mashed Potatoes).” I guess she thought she would make a career out of doing the “mashed potatoes.”

Monster movies also were a huge fad in the early 60’s including ones that were made in the 50’s and even further back than that. They were shown for matinees and on late night TV. These sci-fi classics were so popular they were even used for several series of bubblegum cards that kids would trade like sports cards. Bobby Pickett does a spot-on impersonation of Boris Karloff, who was often featured in many of the best ones, to seal the deal!

I feel there isn’t a need to discuss the lyrics because I am going to guess that almost everybody has heard either this version of the song or some awful recreation. Unfortunately, there are a lot of those and the reason is obvious. If you can’t recreate that impersonation, there’s no reason to attempt it. But many punk and metal bands still give it a shot. After all, it’s a song that “cuts” across all genres and ages. The only alternative version that I find amusing as an alternative option is by the doo-wop accapella vocal group The Mighty Echoes.

The only reason I’m not making it my personal number one is because it is sometimes played to death. (No pun intended.) To programmers, this is the only acceptable Halloween song on many radio stations and they use it like the all Christmas format uses schmaltzy Christmas songs.

It has been “resurrected” and placed on the Billboard charts many times over the years.
I still love it and I always will! And my hope for it is that it gets reanimated every Halloween forever!

Down to the terrifying two…………………………….

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Until next time, take care of yourself, and take care of each other!

Peace!
Q

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“Q” Bombs: October 30, 2011

Posted on October 30, 2011 by PhilMaq

A “Q”bomb, like an “H” bomb, will be my term for a music video that I consider to be subpar in music, video, or both. This will be a recurring weekly list that will focus on the worst videos that are currently on TV. I don’t, as a rule, go searching for old music videos, so that’s why it will focus on solely on current or recent videos.
I hate to be so negative about music, but when an artist takes a “bad” song and then brings more attention to it by creating a “bad” video to support it, it will appear on this list. I honestly hope, and it could happen, that this list will be less than 10 items, but I have serious doubts that that possibility will happen. We are, after all, talking about an industry that uses art for huge profits. The companies can’t help themselves.
However, at this point, I will not do a 10 worst music list. I see absolutely no reason to waste time reemphasizing bad music. Once is enough.

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It was a mixed week for bad videos. Both “Dirt Road Anthem” by Jason Aldean and “Not Over You” by Gavin DeGraw both fell off! YIPPEE!!!!!!! But good taste fell by the wayside as Beyonce’s “Countdown” made it on to the VH1 Top 20 Video Countdown….

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Worst Videos for the week of October 30, 2011

1. Remind Me—Brad Paisley with Carrie Underwood
2. God Gave Me You–Blake Shelton
3. Poison and Wine—The Civil Wars
4. Countdown-Beyonce
5. I Love You This Big–Scotty McCreery
6. Moves Like Jagger–Maroon 5 with Chritina Aguilera
7. Skyscraper—Demi Lovato
8. Pumped Up Kicks—Foster the People
9. Easy-Rascal Flatts with Natasha Bedingfield
10. Like My Mother Does—Lauren Alaina

1) “Remind Me” —Still #2 on the CMT Top 20 Countdown. A fitting position for it…….
2) “God Gave Me You”—It just seems that this one could’ve been better for such a personal song. I mean, putting Blake with his band in such a sterile setting. The blame for this one has to be on the director…………………….
3) “Poison and Wine”—The “poison” is the video. Uh, where’s the wine…………………..
4) “Countdown”—This video is really boring. Sorry……………………
5) “I Love You This Big”—Yeah. Whatever……………………
6) “Moves Like Jagger”—The law of diminishing returns is proven every week for me with this video. This should be the last week………………
7) “Skyscraper”—Still clinging to the countdown ledge…………….
8] “Pumped Up Kicks”—Come on, guys. Do us a favor and kick yourselves off the list…
9) “Easy”—I have ignored putting this video or song on a list for a long time. But I have an open slot, so……….. First reason for ignoring it would be that Natasha Bedingfield is very “easy” on the eyes. But I’ve tried to figure out the “Cinderella” plot line and it doesn’t make any sense to me…………….
10) “Like My Mother Does”—I almost feel guilty putting this song on. Again. Lauren seems nice enough. I just don’t care for the video. Too sappy………….

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Phil’s Faves: Songs, October 23, 2011

Posted on October 30, 2011 by PhilMaq

This will be a personal weekly Top Ten list of what I consider to be the best songs that I listened to the previous week. Most songs will be current, but there are no boundaries. I’ve already stated on this web site that I am obsessed with music. I am constantly hunting it down whether it’s online, on CD, from my personal collection, from a library (Yes, I think the library is a great source of music–especially for music that you aren’t sure about.), TV, or radio. Since most of these sources mostly emphasize new music, the odds are pretty good that most of the songs on this list will be new. But in my search, I don’t use any boundaries for the other sources. I am just looking for good music that I haven’t heard, or happened to forget about. Everyone, including myself, has forgotten way more great music than they can ever remember-even if they are also music fanatics.
Also, there will be no rules concerning songs on this list. A song can show up or drop off a number of times. This will be the most volatile of my lists. It all depends on how much music I am exposed to during the week and what I find interesting. On really obscure stuff, I will try to include the source, if I know it.

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This was a great week for good music! That made the choices even harder for me! And then George Bedard goes and places a second song on my list with a pull-yourself-off-the-floor live performance! I wish every week were like this one!

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Top Ten Songs for the Week of October 23, 2011

1. Time Spent in Los Angeles–Dawes
2. Down at the Plaza–Pat Bergeson featuring Dan Anderson, Tom Roady, and Steve Shapiro)
3. (I Want To) Come Home–Paul McCartney (From the movie “Everybody’s Fine”)
4. Sparks Fly–Taylor Swift
5. Cold Cold Feeling—George Bedard at the Scarab Club with the II-V-I Orchestra for The Detroit Blues Society
6. Nut Rocker–George Bedard
7. We Owned the Night-Lady Antebellum
8. Stereo Hearts-Gym Class Heroes with Travie McCoy and Adam Levine
9. Red Solo Cup-Toby Keith
10. Chase the Tear-Portishead

1) “Time Spent in Los Angeles”—My favorite for another week!
2) “Down at the Plaza”—Holding strong for another week as the “bridesmaid!”
3) (“I Want To) Come Home”—I don’t know if it’s just the time of the year or what, but I have become totally attached to this song!
4) “Sparks Fly”—I still like it, but I think it has had its run…………….
5) “Cold Cold Feeling”—This live performance of a T-Bone Walker song was flatout the best music I heard all week! I only heard it once, but it deserves recognition. Regardless, I have heard George play this song at least 50 times over the years, and I have never heard him do it better than he did with the II-V-I Orchestra! The horns added so much more depth to the song and George dug down deep to provide an astounding vocal! If you missed the performance, you can still find a GREAT version of this slow blues classic on “Upside!” by George Bedard and The Kingpins!
6) “Nut Rocker”—Maybe it’s nostalgia, but this one still sounds fresh to me!
7) “We Owned the Night”—The harmonies are just perfect on this romantic pop song!
8) “Stereo Hearts”—Some more great lyrics: “If I was just another dusty record on the shelf/Would you blow me off and play me like everybody else?” For someone who’s crazy about music, this song has multiple treasures!
9) “Red Solo Cup”—I thought this one would’ve moved up much faster for me, but the competition is tough this week……………………..
10) “Chase the Tear”—I would have put this on my favorite videos list for the week because I saw them do it live on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. At least I think I saw them doing it. The set was so dark and they were all dressed in black that might just as well have flipped the light switch. Watching it on Hulu, I think they did. I am not a Portishead fan, but I like this electro rock song. As a matter of fact, I felt compelled to “watch it” several more times after I heard it. It’s great!

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13 Halloween Hauntings: Day 10

Posted on October 29, 2011 by PhilMaq

For the next 13 days, I am going to list my all time favorite Halloween songs. There will be a new entry every day in reverse order, and the list will be kept on the “lists” page. I will also provide some commentary with each entry. HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Halloween

13 Halloween Hauntings:

4) “Psychic Voodoo Doll”–Deadbolt from “Halloween Hootenanny”

Or

“Psychic Voodoo Doll”–????????

Number 4 has a dual option as well, and both are also worthy choices. But there is a problem with the second one: I can’t figure out who it’s by—and it’s the better choice.

About the song:

First, I have no idea why it has “psychic” in the title. The word is never used in the song. As a matter of fact, until I looked it up for this list, I thought it was just called “Voodoo Doll.” Oh, well. It’s a very minor detail.

The song itself is an atmospheric rock song with very nice tremolo swamp guitar! It has great lyrics about a guy who is under the spell of his lover. The chorus drives home the point because he says, as multiple scary voices support him, “I guess I’ll always be/your voodoo doll.

Now this version, which is available on “Halloween Hootenanny” by Rhino Records, is quite good, but I feel there is a better version out there. I have searched for other artists who do this song, but I can’t locate it. It’s a little darker and there is an awesome thunder crack after the opening line, “You take a pin/and then jab it through my brain.” I have a copy of it, but it’s unidentified. So, I guess there’s a Halloween scavenger hunt here: If anyone knows the band who does my preferred version, e-mail me.

Either way, this one is the perfect number 4 Halloween song!

Down to the terrifying three…………………………….

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Until next time, take care of yourself, and take care of each other!

Peace!

Q

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Phil’s Faves: Videos, October 23, 2011

Posted on October 29, 2011 by PhilMaq

This will be a personal weekly Top Ten list of what I consider to be the best videos currently available on TV. I don’t, as a rule, go searching for old music videos, so that’s why it will focus mostly on current or recent videos.

This will be a personal weekly Top Ten list of what I consider to be the best videos currently available on TV. I don’t, as a rule, go searching for old music videos, so that’s why it will focus mostly on current or recent videos. For this category, I am also going to include any live performances on talk or variety shows that I see during the week.

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Wally Pleasant regains the top spot by knocking out Taylor Swift! Who could have seen that one coming?………………….

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Top 10 Videos for the week of October 23, 2011

1. Stupid Day Job–Wally Pleasant
2. Sparks Fly—Taylor Swift
3. Gonna Get Over You-Sara Bareilles
4. We Owned the Night-Lady Antebellum
5. Brighter Than the Sun–Colbie Caillat
6. All Your Life-The Band Perry
7. Red Solo Cup-Toby Keith
8. Criminal-Britney Spears
9. Someone Like You-Adele
10. All at Once-The Airborne Toxic Event with The Calder Quartet From The Tonight Show with Jay Leno

1) “Stupid Day Job”—To me, this is one of the best videos of the year! More people need to see this! wallypleasant.com
2) “Sparks Fly”—Still good, but I’m starting to lose interest….
3) “Gonna Get Over You”—I love the ending when the music ends and the security guard is escorting the girl out who appears to be imagining the video and song!
4) “We Owned the Night”—I think I like this video so much because it’s so much better than the very wimpy, “Just a Kiss!”
5) “Brighter Than the Sun”—It looks like the Colbie run may be ending…………….
6) “All Your Life”—This is not a great video. I just happen to like the song more than the other videos that are out there…………..
7) “Red Solo Cup”—Ah! The reason videos were invented……………………
8) “Criminal”—The video is strong with its pseudo movie treatment! I’m not sure I will like it as much as her last few. It’s kind of dark……………
9) “Someone Like You”—This extremely monochromatic video conveys the exact feelings in the song……….
10)”All at Once”—I really like to see bands deliver the goods on one of their rare national appearances. A band should want their song to sound as good as possible when most people will hear it live for the first time! Awesome job!

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13 Halloween Hauntings: Day 9

Posted on October 28, 2011 by PhilMaq

For the next 13 days, I am going to list my all time favorite Halloween songs. There will be a new entry every day in reverse order, and the list will be kept on the “lists” page. I will also provide some commentary with each entry. HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Halloween

13 Halloween Hauntings:

5) “I Put a Spell on You”—Creedence Clearwater Revival

Or

“I Put a Spell on You”—Screamin’ Jay Hawkins

Number 5 has a dual option and both are worthy choices.

I personally prefer the CCR version. The song was a follow up to their first hit, “Suzy Q.” I don’t think that John Fogerty and the band were particularly looking for a perennial Halloween favorite—and maybe for that reason, it hasn’t been. But it contains one of the greatest guitar solos of all time!

Fogerty even does his best to make eerie sounds with his guitar during the solo. And although the song appears to be just a sped up version of the original, they play around enough with the time signatures to make it sound nothing like it. The vocal is incredible, too, and that’s just because the listener is so drawn to the guitar work! I saw John play this a few years ago and it blew me away! First, I didn’t expect to hear it, and secondly, he just shredded it!

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Now, the Screamin’ Jay Hawkins version is no slouch, either. First, the horn arrangement is very strange just by itself. And talk about an incredible vocal! The spastic singing at the end plus the music is otherworldly. And he must have known it too because he usually performed the song while coming out of a casket! It’s difficult to decide which one is better. So, you make the choice on this one……………….

Only four more to go…………………………………..

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Until next time, take care of yourself, and take care of each other!
Peace!
Q

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13 Halloween Hauntings: Day 8

Posted on October 27, 2011 by PhilMaq

For the next 13 days, I am going to list my all time favorite Halloween songs. There will be a new entry every day in reverse order, and the list will be kept on the “lists” page. I will also provide some commentary with each entry. HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Halloween

13 Halloween Hauntings:

6) “The Ghoul I Love the Most”—Tommy Frenzy (From Tuff Darts)

This is the freshest entry on my list. It’s basic four on the floor classic rock. There’s a very good, loud guitar solo in the middle. Other than that it sounds like something from the late 70’s or early 80’s. The melody is simple but memorable. So what’s to like?

Well, all of the things that I just mentioned, I happen to like. There really aren’t many straight ahead Halloween rockers that are catchy and melodically good. Many bands try to overdo it for Halloween songs. This one gets it right.

What puts it over the top for me is the story. The singer is the main character who goes to what he thinks is a Halloween party with costumed guests, but it turns out that all of the monsters are real! They’re all dancing to a skeleton band, having a great time, and now he’s being followed/ by the ghoul he loves the most!” My favorite line is when he realizes that she isn’t fake and falls in love with her charm. “While shaking her hand/I pulled off her right arm!!!!”

That’s pretty much it till it fades. Good ol’ classic rock and Halloween! What else do you want?

The Top 5 is left! Check in tomorrow for the next one…………………………

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Until next time, take care of yourself, and take care of each other!
Peace!
Q

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