Normally electronica is not a musical genre I pay much attention to.  Other than my forays into the solo work of former Dream Theater keyboardist, Kevin Moore, under the Chroma Key moniker I've given electronica a rather wide berth.  That's not to say I dislike electronica more that it's never really been on my radar.

I was recently introduced to Gotye by the husband/wife musical blogging duo YourZenMine who were generous enough to send me Gotye's 2006 album, Like Drawing Blood.  Given Wally De Backer's rather transient nature, the story behind the recording of the album reads like lost chapters from John Birmingham's He Died With a Felafel In His Hand- as the album was recorded in various Melbourne bedrooms between 2003 and 2005. 

Gotye (pronounced go-ti-yay, like you would pronounce the French "Gaultier") is Belgian born, Australian bred Wally De Backer and while somewhat unknown here in the United States, De Backer is an ARIA award winning singer-songwriter who derives his music (self-admittedly) about 99% from sampling. 

Like Drawing Blood is a delightful lo-fi album with a decidedly indie feel that is thoroughly enjoyable from start to finish.  De Backer's voice is very listenable and well suited to his music.  The mastering however is purely brilliant and betrays the lo-fi nature of the recording of the album giving this lo-fi gem a well polished hi-fi feel.

There's an ambience to the music that feels perfect for long relaxed drives with the windows down.  While the CD is still only available as an import here in the United States it is available for download from Amazon's mp3 store for a very reasonable $6.99.  The album is well worth such a reasonable price tag.  Given its accessibility and pop sensibilities I'd argue that this is the perfect "gateway" album to either introduce new listeners to electronica or to win over listeners who in the past have been rather apathetic to the genre. 

She had me on this one too.  I think I might have at one point heard of this band in passing but my knowledge of them is so limited they weren't on my radar. 

Boomtown Rats?

2 more...

--NOT THE KING--YET Prince
--BIG APPLE'S TIME SIGNATURE New York Minute

You've still got me stumped on the detonating rodents... I'm wracking my brain on this one but I've got nothin' so far.

I've got a few of them...

--HILARIOUS YOUNG FEMALE Funny Girl
--PUMPING ORGAN AND BEING Heart and Soul
--MY SIGNIFICANT OTHER HAS RETURNED My Boyfriend's Back
--RED PIGMENTED DWELLINGS Red House (as in the Hendrix tune)
--PORT SIDE HUMAN ORGAN Heart
--APPARITIONS ENCLOSED IN A MOVING-PART DEVICE Ghosts In the Machine
--EXTRA LARGE COLD BLOODED WATER VERTEBRATES Great White
--BEEFEATER BUDS - Gin Blossoms

I'm pretty sure I know what Mike's is too, but I'll defer to him on that one.

I was able to get a handful of them...

--Marks the spot for an afternoon drink near the ocean - XTC
--Handsome Childish Maneaters - Fine Young Cannibals
--Drumming Organization Rhythm Syndicate?
--Cement Towhead - Concrete Blonde
--Small Acheivement - Little Feat
--No moss is held on these - Rolling Stones
--John, Robert, & Ted - I know this isn't it but "Lennon, Plant, & Nugent"-- I don't believe those 3 cats ever worked together... Can you possibly begin to imagine the music they would have made if they did?!
--Yapping Craniums - Talking Heads
--Cunning and related rocks - Sly & the Family Stone

Peter Gabriel... I like Dick Prophet better... Maybe that will be my stage name or nom de plume if I ever get published...  I was leaning towards Tatsuro Watanabe as my stage name (despite not being or even resembling anyone remotely Japanese) but I really like Dick Prophet.

California Transit Authority
Beach Boys
Black Sabbath
Little River Band?
Aerosmith ("Arrowsmith")
Dream Theater
The Village People

From bands to artists: (remember name sounds not spelling help sometimes)
Wracking my brain on this one.  All I can come up with is "Dick Prophet" but I've never heard of any musician by that name.

"Kneel" Diamond ;-)
Actually I think he preferred "Restroom" over "Toilet" but "Jon Lenin"- John Lennon
This one took a second but then I remembered Tasha Yar was played by Denise Crosby... so Bing Crosby.

Favorite Christmas Albums:
5.  REO Speedwagon - Not So Silent Night
4.  Roch Voisine - L'Album Noel (French Christmas album)
3.  Chicago - What's It Gonna Be, Santa? (2003 re-release of 1998 X-mas album with 6 extra songs)
2.  Roch Voisine - Christmas is Calling (English Christmas album)
1.  Steve Lukather & Friends - Santamental

REO Speedwagon's Christmas album is a valiant effort.  I appreciate the uptempo arrangements.  Musically it's thoroughly enjoyable.  However, vocally Kevin Cronin's voice isn't what it used to be.  If this had been recorded when Cronin was at his vocal peak (late 70s early 80s) this likely would be ranked closer to the top of the list.

Voisine is a French Acadian Canadian who releases albums in both French and English.  Growing up on the NY/Quebec border I had some exposure to his music from listening to radio stations out of Montreal.  He had a big Canadian hit in 1993, I'll Always Be There which was co-written by David Foster and by the sounds of it it was at least co-produced if not fully produced by Foster as well.  He has a great voice that works perfect for Christmas music.  I'm not a big fan of the French language.  But if anyone can make French sound good, it's Voisine.

The Chicago Christmas album would rank #1 with the simple removal of their god-awful funeral dirge interpretation of Feliz Navidad and the 2 songs by the children's choir... Addition by subtraction, if you will.

As for individual songs, I'd stick to the classics... Bing Crosby's White Christmas, Sammy Davis Jr. doing Jingle Bells, heck even Burl Ives Holly Jolly Christmas. 

I think the disparity between my taste in Christmas albums vs. individual songs is that while the classics are great-- listening to entire Christmas albums by some of the old crooners... well they get to sound a bit dated.  If I'm going to commit more than 3-5 minutes  to Christmas music I'd rather listen to something more contemporary.  But if I'm only in the mood for a song or two I'd much prefer to listen to the old school stuff over the contemporary material.

I've seen this one before.  Not their best song but still a lot of fun and the music video is quite amusing. 

I prefer this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtFxo4mpiKg

Another good one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-VOB8ajbzY

Unfortunately, one of my favorites of theirs How to Explain doesn't have a music video.  There are performance clips (audience clips) on YouTube but no music video.

This is more an album marketing/packaging thing than a band name idea:

I still think Chicago XXX should have been packaged in a plain brown envelope with their logo in the "Return Address" area a small window for the "Recipient" address that would have had "XXX" on it and right above that window in small print: "Adult material enclosed, not intended for children under 17" 

That would have been so much more fun than the three Xs etched out with the jackhammer (a la Mayor Daley's shennanigans on the former Meigs Field Airstrip).

When I was growing up my grandmother had a selection of vinyl records featuring classical music.  Waltzes, Rhapsodies, etc.  It was all the classical stuff most of us are at least peripherally familiar with.  It was with this vinyl collection that I was first introduced to one of my favorite pieces of classical music, Franz Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2.  In the years since I've picked up some of Liszt's other works (including most of the other Hugarian Rhapsodies he composed). 

I've come to quite enjoy his works.  Any other fans of Liszt's work?

Here are the lyrics to Crow's song for Kevin Gilbert.  I love the lyrics.  It's sad to think that it took his passing to inspire some halfway decent lyrics out of her that she wasn't copping from someone else (at least not to my knowledge):

Sad Sad World

I know you hate me, I see that now
If I was unhappy, I'd be someone you could still care about
I think it's stupid and sad that everything turned out so bad
Enemies make the most interesting friends

I'm gonna write you a long letter
I'm gonna give you a telephone
Three little words to make it all better
Maybe I'll leave this whole thing out

It's a sad sad world without you in it
And I'm a bad bad girl for lettin' you down
I remember every crazy minute
But it's a sad sad world without you around

We're too much alike for our own good
We both hate fighting no matter how misunderstood
But I wanna tell you that you're stubborn
I wanna tell you I never lied
And I wanna tell you that your friends talk way too much
And I wanna know what happened to that friend of mine

Oh it's a sad sad world without you in it
I was a bad bad girl for lettin' you down
And I remember every crazy minute
Oh it's a sad sad world without you around

Oh it's a sad sad world without you in it
And I'm a bad bad girl for lettin' you down
I remember every **** up minute
Oh it's a sad sad world without you around


I'm not necessarily a fan of the tone, but I think I like the song because there's an emotional honesty to it that seems missing in much of Crow's other material.  Right or wrong it does come across as how Crow actually feels as opposed to coming across as her channeling the feelings of others and faking an emotional conviction or connection to the material.

A little background on Sheryl Crow and why I have no respect for her.  Back in the early 90s keyboardist/producer Patrick Leonard teamed up with an up-and-coming young talent, Kevin Gilbert, to form Toy Matinee.  They released 1 album before having a falling out before they even had a chance to tour to support the album.  Gilbert formed a band to perform live as Toy Matinee.  Included in that band on guitar was Marc Bonilla (who would later team up with Danny Seraphine in California Transit Authority) and keyboardist/background vocalist, Sheryl Crow. 

Gilbert & Crow became friends (possibly more, honestly I'm not sure how close they were) and were part of a group of musicians/songwriters who would get together on Tuesday nights to jam and right songs, The Tuesday Night Music Club.  Crow and Gilbert inevitably had a falling out.  It is believed by many fans of Kevin Gilbert that he had more than a passing influence in the songs that appeared on Crow's debut album, Tuesday Night Music Club but the closest Crow came to giving him credit was a brief note in her "thank yous" in the liner notes.  If you listen to the lyrics on Crow's Tuesday Night Music Club and compare them to the Gilbert penned lyrics on the Toy Matinee album or even on Kevin Gilbert's 1995 solo album, Thud you might find the claims of plagiarism on the part of Crow deserve more than a passing shrug or offhand dismissal.

Sadly Kevin Gilbert was found dead on May 17, 1996 at the age of 29, a week before he was scheduled to fly to England to audition with Genesis to replace Phil Collins.  He was a fan of old school Genesis and had hoped to return Genesis to their Peter Gabriel era prog-rock roots.  He had even performed Genesis The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway in its entirety with his band at Progfest 1994. 

After Gilbert's passing Crow wrote the song Sad Sad World about Gilbert's passing a posthumous making amends to her old friend.  Gilbert had more talent in his pinky than Crow has in her entire body.

Well I'm not crazy about Sheryl Crow either.  That duet is one of only 2 of her songs that I like.  The other is a bit more obscure, Sad Sad World her song about and in tribute to the late Kevin Gilbert.  It's got the great lyric, "Sometimes enemies make the most interesting friends."  And I like that tribute more because I'm a fan of the late KG than because of Sheryl Crow.


I don't consider what Weird Al does to be desecration.  I think it's because with Weird Al, that's his thing.  That's what he does.  With Kid Rock... well he's usually more creative than that.  He usually doesn't sample other songs QUITE that blatantly.  And honestly All Summer Long is the only song of Kid Rock's I ACTIVELY hate.  Other than the aforementioned duet that I like, I don't really have strong feelings one way or the other about most of the rest of his material.  I don't dislike him or the rest of his music... Just the one song.  There are artists I like who have put out albums I absolutely loathe (ELP's Love Beach for example) so disliking one of Kid Rock's songs is no biggie (in comparison).  FWIW I felt the same way about Puff Daddy/P. Diddy's I'll Be Missing You as I feel about All Summer Long back when that song came out.  And I actually like P. Diddy... Not as a musician but as an actor.  He was HILARIOUS in Made and in Get Him To the Greek


LOL!!!  I HAVEN'T!!  I haven't even been able to STAND THE SMELL OF IT FOR 5 1/2 years...I don't pay particular attention to the commercials any more...LOL.
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It's one of those really bad commercial ideas that for some reason people don't pick up on.  Back in the 90s it was Taco Bell (the pre-Chiahuhua days).  They had a "Run For the Border!" slogan that prompted a good friend of mine to ask, "Is that slogan more for the employees because INS has shown up looking for the illegals?!"