If Audioslave Likes It, Then So Should You

Yep, I'm going to connect the dots and tie in an upload to the news story of the week, which is Heath Ledger passing away a few days ago.

I've seen Heath act in a few movies, including the film Lords of Dogtown, where he plays a character that is far away from how Heath looked and was in real life. As the film was set in the 70's, it had a nice soundtrack from that era. One song that wasn't on the official soundtrack but was in the movie was one from Funkadelic, one of the bands of George Clinton's empire.

The song in particular was Super Stupid, a rock tune from their Maggot Brain album. It almost sounds like something from Hendrix, and it rocks. It's one of the hardest rock songs I've heard from Funkadelic, as usually their music varies between rock and R&B; I say that just in case anyone wants to download… er, I mean purchase any albums from them in the future.

Also, I don't mean to post the song in bad taste concerning that it IS about drugs, and yes, Audioslave has done the song live in concert before.

Funkadelic-Super Stupid (5.4 MB, 192Kbits/second)

http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/12/28/1667157/funkadelic%20-%20super%20stupid.MP3

I'll be busy in the next week so my next upload will be up a week from tonight.

Whoops

In my last blog I neglected to mention when my next upload would be. Expect it to be up tomorrow night.

Let's All Chant

Here is something that is a little different; I'll be spotlighting a song on here and a mashup of it will be spotlighted on my mashups blog at the same time. Why not do it if you have the chance?

The song I'm picking out here is a disco one, which I realize is not for everyone, but hey, if you do like that genre, then you should enjoy this, as it's not something you hear on the radio or even find on many disco comp CD's, but it's pretty cool. Plus, I heard it on a great music streaming site known as 1Club.FM. That site has many different stations which can offer high-quality audio, a tremendous selection of songs AND it's all free.

It is Let's All Chant, by the Michael Zager Band. This version is the "Original 12 Inch Mix", just for the record. Michael Zager actually had a nice career aside from this one hit wonder song.

Michael Zager Band-Let's All Chant (Original 12 Inch Mix) (7.98 MB, 192Kbits/second)

http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/12/28/1667157/Michael%20Zager%20Band%20-%20Let%27s%20All%20Chant%28Original%2012%20Inch%20Mix%29.mp3

Check out my mashup blog in a minute to see the second part of this.

Whip It Right

There have been a few interesting ideas that have popped into my head as to what I want to blog about in the near future, but ultimately a commercial I saw recently inspired me to do an entry on this particular song, or rather the original and a remake of it that was in a movie.

I saw an ad for ReeseSticks and it used a well-known song from the 80's, Let It Whip, as done by The Dazz Band. I am glad the original tune appeared in the commercial, instead of some soulless and placid version done by session musicians or whatever.

Seeing the ad also reminded me of how I heard a pretty good rock cover version of the song a few years ago when I saw a movie. Unfortunately, that film was The New Guy, a flick I mainly saw because it had Eliza Dushku in it (and the scene of her trying on various bikinis… a great moment in American cinema!) but for the most part it was rather unfunny and a chore to watch. It's a shame, as a nerdy kid who likes funk music and who hooks up with a hot looking babe like Eliza (and damn, she looked great in the film)… you'd think it'd be an instant success with me, but it was a failure instead.

Anyway, a song on the soundtrack was a remake of Let It Whip, done by SR-71, a "pop punk" band. It was a nice cover that wasn't terrible or something that'd anger the original song writers due to how horribly it was done (yep I'm referring to my last entry; who knows, maybe from up above John Lennon himself grimaced when he heard Avril's version of Imagine!) Like I said, it's pretty good.

The Dazz Band-Let It Whip (6.54 MB, 192Kbits/second)

http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/12/28/1667157/The%20Dazz%20Band-Let%20It%20Whip.MP3

SR-71-Let It Whip (5.34 MB, 192Kbits/second)

http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/12/28/1667157/Let%20It%20Whip%20-%20SR-71.MP3

I'll be back Friday night with a new upload.

To Finally Come Through On Something I Wrote Last Year

In a blog entry last year (which would take far too long to try and find, to be honest) I mentioned before posting a song a tangent where I found out that there would be an album known as Instant Karma: Campaign to Save Darfur, from Amnesty International, where big music acts come together to cover John Lennon songs. The reason why I brought it up was that some of the artists were rather, ahem, not well suited to cover Lennon tunes... i.e., acts I hate! For example, the Black Eyed Peas and Avril Lavigne. At the time, I said that as soon as I could find the crappy songs online that I'd post one of them on here. Well, I only just got around to doing this last night.

The tune I'll spotlight here is Avril Lavigne's cover of-sigh-Imagine. I sigh as despite what some people may say-Christ, YouTube commenters make IMDb posters Nobel prize winners in comparison!-Imagine is a beautiful piece of work where a legendary songwriter and singer talks about wanting a better world to live in. So, what better artist to sing about these heady concepts than a poser "punk" than Ms. Lavigne? Criminy! While it's lucky for her that just today the lawsuit that was filed against her by The Rubinoos was dropped-something I did not know until after I started typing this, making this more relevant than I had planned-she just flat out sucks. She's phony, likes THE SPICE GIRLS, and most importantly to me, is an f'ing awful singer.

So, it's no surprise that her take on Imagine is terrible, although the fact that the opening of the song doesn't even sound like Lennon's original makes it all the worse, and thus it turned out to be a tuneless affair that's boring and also soulless. I imagine that Jack Johnson, an artist who I don't really care for, at least did a better job with his take on the same song, featured on the other disc on the album. I mean, it'd be hard to be any worse! But, I have heard U2's version of the title song on the album and it's pretty good, so if you are so interested and care about Lennon and/or the Darfur tragedy, than you may want to pick it up, despite the presence of at least one atrocious cover.

Avril Lavigne-Imagine (4.43 MB, 192Kbits per second)

http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/12/28/1667157/10%20Avril%20Lavigne%20-%20Imagine.mp3

I'll be back Sunday night with my next song.

One Last Song Until Things Return To Status Quo

This time I'll keep it super short and sweet. I'll just spotlight one tune, although the version I put up almost a year ago was the single version of the song (as featured on an album I have) but a few months later I found the full album version of the tune, which really only has a slightly longer opening and a longer ending that has a proper ending rather than fading out.

Yep, I'm talking about the original version of Once Bitten Twice Shy, from Ian Hunter. Whether you think this or the remake is better, you should at least have the opportunity to judge for yourself.

Ian Hunter-Once Bitten Twice Shy (6.5 MB, 192Kbits/second)


http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/12/28/1667157/Ian%20Hunter%20-%20Once%20Bitten%20Twice%20Shy.MP3

On Wednesday night I'll finally return to the status quo and I'll find a new song to upload for y'all.

The Best of 2007 Part 2

My schedule was thrown completely out of whack today, which is why this is up a little later than I wanted it to be up. My bad, yo!

Anyway, here are the three songs I want to spotlight.

The first song was posted in early October. It is Dokken's In My Dreams, for you metal fans.

Dokken-In My Dreams (5.97 MB, 192 Kbits/second)

http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/12/28/1667157/Dokken_-_In_My_Dreams.mp3

The second song is AC/DC's Baby Please Don't Go, a cover of an old blues song. It's from real early in their career and doesn't exactly sound like a typical song from the Australian boys (even in their Bon Scott days) but it rules so you'd better download it.

AC/DC-Baby Please Don't Go (4.44 MB, 128 Kbits/second)

http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/12/28/1667157/ACDC-Baby%20Please%20Don%27t%20Go.mp3

The third song is from mid August, after a great weekend where I met up with someone I knew from my days in my former hometown in Illinois, and went out both nights and started to get to know some of the many lovely ladies at Mako's also. The night before Mako's was with the friend, and at one establishment I heard for the first time the Sir Mix-A-Lot ditty Jump On It; yes, he did other good songs besides Baby Got Back. The fact that it sampled the Sugarhill Gang's Apache is a good chance of success right there, but the song is pretty awesome, I say.

Sir Mix-A-Lot-Jump On It (4.6 MB, 128 Kbits/second)

http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/12/28/1667157/sir_mix-a-lot_-_jump_on_it.mp3

I'll be back Sunday afternoon, and this time I'll be more punctual. It'll be the last of me picking out songs from last year to re-upload. After that I'll go back to spotlighting new tunes, at least new to this blog.

Happy 2008, Everyone

Unfortunately I was not able to post earlier due to the Internet at my house being down for 6 (!) hours. Considering that, I'll do what I wanted to do earlier tonight on Wednesday, and wish you all a Happy New Year.