Day 13 - A Song That Is A Guilty Pleasure

I try not to have guilty pleasures. If I enjoy something, I rarely feel guilty about it. But I suppose, if I had to try to embarass myself, I really do enjoy "This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race" by Fall Out Boy. I know, conceptually, that Fall Out Boy is not a band that I should like. But that song is a lot of fun, despite some unfortunate lyrical issues for radio play. It's surprisingly smartly-written and catchy, okay?

Day 12 - A Song From A Band You Hate

"Burn It To The Ground" by Nickelback. Awful song, awful band. That's all I have to say.

(I wrote this yesterday but didn't publish it. So sue me, me.)

Day 11 - A Song From My Favourite Band

My favourite band, even more than The Beatles (which is just a hair’s breadth away at number two), is NoMeansNo, a fantastic Canadian punk rock band with jazz and funk influences. I don’t know what the best song would be that would best represent them to other people, but “Now” is a pretty good choice. It’s got a lot of the loud angry energy that they portray so well, as well as some really creative musical choices that you wouldn’t expect from a punk rock band but come so naturally to NoMeansNo. I love it.

Day 10 - A Song I Fall Asleep To

I haven't fallen asleep listening to music in a really long time. It's mostly been Old Time Radio shows, standup comedy, or Bob Ross for the past few years. But if I had to I think one song that might be fairly nice to fall asleep to would be "Blue in Green" by Miles Davis. It's a soft little ballad and while Miles' trumpet can be a little loud to drift off to, Bill Evans' piano work is really beautiful and soothing, a lovely cloud to sink into.  I don't really know, but you can judge for yourself. Whether you could fall asleep to it or not, it's a beautiful song.

Day 9 - A Song I Can Dance To

I am putting this song on because it is a newly-discovered song and it is incredibly dance-able while also being funny, creative, and a surprisingly good pop song. That song is "(Rockin') All Nite Long" by the folks at Bad Lip Reading. They took a Taylor Swift song that I have never heard, watched the video, figured out other lyrics she could have been singing by watching her lips, and then wrote an entire new song about it. And then added a rap by doing the same thing to a Wiz Khalifa song. And the funny thing is? It's actually a really well-crafted pop song and you can dance to it to boot. So yeah. I was surprised too, but really, you have to check it out. (And then find Gang Fight on YouTube by the same folks.)

Here it is. Marvel at its majesty.

Day 08 - A Song You Know All The Words To

So, so many songs fit into this category. But I think that I will cheat and pick a song I sing in my a cappella group, Apocalypse Kow. And my favourite song to sing lead with them is "Uniform Grey" by Sarah Harmer. It's a sweet, beautiful little song that I think everyone should hear, and it makes me happy and sad at the same time.

Here's Sarah's (superior) version. You could find ours if you looked really hard.

Day 07 - A Song That Reminds You Of A Certain Event

Took me a second (again, all the stuff that immediately comes to mind is either negative or makes me more depressed) but R.E.M.'s "Begin The Begin" reminds me of the happiness EXPLOSION that poured out of my lungs and throat when I finally got to see my favourite rock band play live for the very first time. I was in Thunderbird Stadium in Vancouver with my then-future-ex-wife and when the opening guitar riff started the crowd and I roared as one, and I just felt the relief and joy flood out of me as I prepared myself for an amazing concert. I still remember that feeling when I hear the album version. (Don't know if it's cheating if the event is a rock concert or not but I'm going with it.)

Couldn't find video of the Thunderbird stadium show but here's the album version:

Day 06 - A Song That Reminds You of Somewhere

John Denver's "Rocky Mountain High" always reminds me of the highway into Jasper just as you make it into the mountains. My parents loved John Denver (and I did too when I was a kid) and my mom loved singing along to that song on our road trips to the mountains during summer vacation. Just thinking of the chorus invokes the giant snow-capped peaks and the highway winding in between them.

Not much to say about this song: it's cheesy and not everyone's taste - it even grates on my nerves at times - but there are times that I find it almost transcendent. Weird how nostalgia and memory works like that.

Day 5 - A Song That Reminds You of Someone

There are a lot of songs that could fall into this category. And after a while, I actually came up with a positive one! "Bring The Noise" by Public Enemy always reminds me of my good buddy @worstninjaever. Not just because it is our karaoke song (and we ROCK THE HELL out of that song live). But it's part of the reason we're friends, I think we really started becoming better friends when we found out we were both PE fans, and that happened when we both started singing that song at a party once. It was a big deal in my life. And also: we are AMAZING. I am the Chuck D to his "Flava Flav and dude from Anthrax."

While he prefers the Public Enemy w/ Anthrax version, I prefer the original (although I do like the guitars on the remake). A little slower delivery makes for a better song. I'm presenting this live version (starts at about 2:00 on this video) because he and I were actually both at this show. Me at the front of the stage, him sitting way at the back at a table. Because he's a gimp. And if you check REALLY closely, you can see me in the crowd. Just look for awesome sideburns.

Day 04 - A Song That Makes You Sad

“You Were Here” by Sarah Harmer. Nearly the entire album is about the end of relationships and every song is some variation of sad, but this one is hauntingly beautiful and makes me bittersweetly sad. Partly because it’s sad on it’s own and partly because it reminds me of the two breakups that define my life. So yeah. It’s a beautiful song and I love it, but it makes me very sad. Not “crying while driving the car and trying to hold it together so as not to crash” sad, the good kind.

Day 03 - A Song That Makes You Happy

Definitely one of the best songs that fits this criteria is "Move On Up" by Curtis Mayfield. That song is over eight solid minutes of happy. The killer drum riff (boom-boom-CHACK-ba-boom-ba-boom-CHAK), with a beautiful layer of guitar and a cool quasi-funk bass line. Hell, it has both a horn section AND a string section! And Curtis Mayfield’s smooth amazing voice singing those uplifting lyrics (Hush now child/And don’t you cry/Your folks might understand you/Bye and bye). Just thinking about the opening section (DRUMS! HORNS! GO!) makes me smile and sets my toes to tapping. A good antidote to a foul mood.

Here’s the full length song, a solid eight minutes and forty-nine seconds of funk soul goodness. There are radio edits out there you can search for, but for me this is the version.

30 Day Song Challenge - Day 02

Your Least Favourite Song

Not many songs can make the bile rise in my throat like “You Were Meant For Me” by Jewel. Insipid lyrics, inane delivery, inexplicably popular when I was in my youth and hearing it sets my teeth on edge. Even thinking about the lyrics hurts me. “I crack the eggs and make a smiley face…” I am literally shuddering with frustration as I type this.

(Also: my What's Up Wednesday will be delayed as I wrote a very long entry for it that promptly got erased. Because I am dumb. It'll be up tomorrow for sure.)

30 Day Song Challenge - Day 01

Decided to do something CRAZY and do a two-year-old internet meme to try to improve my writing ability and frequency. Look at me keeping up with the times.

Your Favourite Song

As a man with over 700 physical albums and even more downloads, "My Favourite Song" is really, REALLY goddamned hard to think of. A number of them come to mind right off the top of my head, all battling it out. However, I think at this very moment, the only one that is coming out as the king of the hill is "If I Had A Boat" by Lyle Lovett. When I first heard the chorus of this song, I groaned aloud at how stupid I thought it was. And then less than three minutes later when I heard it the last reprise of that same chorus, it gave me chills. It's a poignant, whimsical, slightly cheesy song about the desire to be free that breaks my heart and makes me choke up just thinking about it. Ask me tomorrow and it might be "Maggot Brain" by Funkadelic or "A Kiss To Build A Dream On" by Louis Armstrong or "Coffee Stain" by Sarah Harmer or "Swan Swan H" by R.E.M. or "The Graveyard Shift" by NoMeansNo or "Move On Up" by Curtis Mayfield or any number of other songs. But today it's "If I Had A Boat." And I have no problem with that.

(Here's a live performance of this song. The mix isn’t perfect - some of the instruments are a little loud - but it’s the best version of it I can find.)