Hey, Ashurbanipal!

Today's post is about songs about bands, including autobigoraphical songs (e.g. most rap) and songs from the point of view of a bands. Actually, just songs by They Might Be Giants because they're awesome and their latest album inspired this post, but also because they do this very frequently. Check it:

The Mesopotamians from TMBG's latest album "The Else" is a catchy little song about the kings of Mesopotamia driving around in their tour bus. It's been stuck in my head for several days now. People keep comparing it the the Monkee's Theme Song, ("Hey Hey We're The Monkees") except that the characters have cooler names.
Los Angeles (sometimes "Hollywood") from TMBG's "Venue Songs" release (in which they wrote a new song for every venue they visited) where they document the problems of copy-cat bands. (here's the video)
Working Undercover For The Man off the "Mink Car" album is the whimsical story of a group of musicians who are actually spies using their band as cover. It's got some nice "sha-la-la"s in it.
Dr Worm from the (mostly) live album "Severe Tire Damage" is sung from the point of view of a worm who is not a real doctor, but who is very enthusiastic about playing the drums
We're The Replacements (from the Don't Let's Start EP, and elsewhere) about the rock band of that name. TMBG are fans, apparently. It's also about the touring life.
Rhythm Section Want Ad is on TMBG's eponymous first CD (sometimes "The Pink Album") and it's about how no record producer will take you seriously when your drummer is a machine and both members of your band look like they spend their Saturday nights playing D&D. Pretty much sums up their first years of existance as a band.

Wow, it turns out they've done quite a few songs that fit into this category. It works even better if you include songs that mention musicians, then "End of the Tour," "The Guitar (Lion Sleeps Tonight)," "How Can I Sing Like A Girl?" and many others get in on the action. That's pretty crazy, but they say to write what you know, and I guess the thing a rock band knows the most about would be, well, being a rock band. Q.E.D.

Sorry about the continued lack of links to songs, I'm still working on that whole "uploading songs" thing. Stay tuned.

Prance Prance

The theme of todays post is "good songs with the word 'dance' in the title," I'm lazy, so this post will be short.

1. "Safety Dance" ~ Men Without Hats
2. "Seventh Grade Dance" ~ Smash Mouth
3. "Disco Dancer" ~ Devo
4. "Dance With Me" ~ Adam Green
5. "The Hampster Dance" ~ Hampton The Hampster

1. Great song. And the video has a midget in it.
2. Teen dance-angst, but in a happy sort of way.
3. "I'm a disco boy, I'm a disco boy"
4. I don't know what this song means, but I like it.
5. How can you not love dancing Hampsters. I have the album.

That is all.

PS I've found someone who will teach me how to post music. Which is awesome, so you should check out her awesome blog.

May The Horse Be With You

Relient K won my heart with creative wordings, ("Life After Death And Taxes") pop culture references, ("Maybe It's Maybeline" uses the Maybeline makeup advertising jingle in it's chorus) catchy hooks, and a willingness to be unapologetically Christian, without stuffing a sermon down your throat. The new album ("Five Score And Seven Years Ago," released tomorrow) does not disappoint, and the reason that I can safely say this is because the entire album is available for listening on their MySpace page.

Talk about feel-good songs, the album's lead single fits the bill perfectly. "Must Have Done Something Right" is the kind of song that I imagine as the soundtrack to a sunny afternoon. It's fast, but not too fast, happy without being hyper, and totally comfortable in it's cliché nature, to the extent that the line "I know that it's so cliché" makes an appearance. Any song that starts with a phrase "We should get jerseys, because we make a good team." is worth a listen in my book.

Another great song that I feel needs some attention is the new Fountains of Wayne single "Someone To Love" off the upcoming album Traffic and Weather. All the pop-rockish goodness you've come to expect from F.o.W. and more. It doesn't have the same feel as "Stacy's Mom" or "Maureen," (which is fine, people need to realize that Stacy's Mom is not their only song) but it's a great song and I can't wait for the album.

Relient K is going to be on tour shortly with Sherwood (who rock) and Mae (who are alright).

Disrespectin' Nerdcore

Suggested listening for this blog: "Nerd Alert!" by The Aquabats!

You'd think that for all my talk about the need for more happy music, I'd be Mr. Positivity, but this is not the case. Right now, I'd like to talk about something that I'm not inclined to be at all positive about: Nerdcore Rap. (aka "Geeksta") This genre includes such streed un-credited white boys as MC Frontalot, MC Chris, MC Lars and Optimus Rhyme. Don't get me wrong, I love nerds, nerdiness and all types of nerdity; I consider myself to be a "nerd," I've lip synched (and performed a dance routine) to "White And Nerdy" for a competition at school and I enjoy Magic the Gathering. I also like geek rock, (bands like Weezer, They Might Be Giants, Devo, etc.) but I just can't get into Nerdcore.

The main problem I have with the genre is the same problem I have with Gangsta/Crunk Rap, Christian Rock and Wizard Rock: severely limited subject matter. I can't understand how any musician can decide that they will devote all of their creative energy into such a limited range of topics. I'll admit that I don't have enough listening experience within the genre to really make a call here, but all the songs I've heard from MC Frontalot (apparently the godfather of Nerdcore) have to do with either (a) being a nerd, or (b) being MC Frontalot, the latter of which falls prey to the bane of all rap: Self-Referenciality. (i.e. rapping only about yourself and how awesome you are, which gets really old really fast) I could be completely wrong about all of this, but I'm not going to waste my time wading through all the crap to find the good stuff, so unless someone wants to point me in the right direction, I'll keep disin' on Nerdcore.

The one exception to the "Nerdcore sucks" rule is MC Lars, who revels in his nerdyness, while freely ranging over any topic he pleases, from litterature ("Ahab," rhyming about Moby Dick) to music in general ("Signing Emo" and "Download This Song") to the times we live in ("iGeneration") to more nerdy topics like the internet ("Internet Relationships (Are Not Real Relationships)") and his own whiteness. ("White Kids Aren't Hyphy") MC Lars proves that it's possible to be your nerdy self without being confined to a narrow topic set, and I'd be glad to hear about more rappers (and musicians) like that. Peace out, Homeslice!

Feels Like Sunny Days Are Coming Soon...

I would try to link to all the songs I'm about to mention, but I don't know how, so until I learn how to to that, you'll have to find them yourself. We apologise for the inconvenience.

I like all types of music, I like to think that my tastes are fairly varied, but the other day I realized that I don't have enough happy music. I've been into Power-Pop/Pop-Punk for a while now, but when I listen closely to the lyrics, I realize that a significant number of those songs are really depressing. That's not to say I stopped liking those songs, but it made me think about how much I'd like to find more happy, upbeat music. So I thought, why not try to find people who know where the happy music is? I've been using Hype Machine for a while, so I thought I might try my hand at music blogging, and thus here I am.

I'll get the conversation started by mentioning my current favorite band, a group called Sherwood. Their music reminds me of some combination of Fountains of Wayne, Switchfoot and Relient K, while being completely distinctive. They've got an album coming out on March 13th called "A Different Light," which features a few examples of the type of music I was rambling about in the first paragraph. I would suggest listening to the song "Best In Me" and the title track to get a feeling for their music. Then for a change of pace, I might suggest listening to the song "The Town That You Live In" (from their previous album) as an example about how a song can be down-tempo and minor-key'd and still send out that positive vibe. (Some of those songs are available on their MySpace)

That's about all I have to say today, I'll try to update this at least once a week, especially if people actually start reading it, eh?

One More Good Song:
"Radio #2" ~ The Ataris (so long, astoria)