The Baby Bowl?

I remember my days in college at Illinois State University with many different feelings about the experience there. Ups and downs were plenty and yeah, in hindsight I would have done a ~lot~ of things differently. But overall I can't really complain as my time at the institution as I learned quite a bit and it helped me morph into the person I am today (good or bad!)

One thing I learned while I was there was that dance music can be pretty damn awesome. I was introduced to quite a bit of it and I still listen to it occasionally today. Encapsulating this huge genre is impossible to do in a brief manner; there are so many different styles and nuances to it… even putting up tracks is difficult to do as often it's a genre where the album and the DJ mix of many songs put together is much more important than one individual song. But, in the future I'll try to put up individual tunes that I happen to enjoy a hella lot.

For example, the song "Kernkraft 400", by Zombie Nation. No, the song isn't called "Zombie Nation", by Kernkraft 400. It's a song I first heard during my ISU days and it was well known amongst my peers, something unusual for a dance tune. It's still well-known even today. Imagine my horror then when I heard it used for a commercial, and not just for anything, but something horrifying called "Baby Madness". It looked to be an exact copy of the Puppy Bowl, an Animal Planet program designed for total morons; hey, watching THREE HOURS of puppies playing on a fake football field doing various puppy things (including crapping and pissing, presumably) is sure proof of the dumbing down of our society and a sign that if a TV station decided to program a few hours of someone jangling a set of car keys, it'd probably get great ratings; hey, car keys are shiny and bright and they make a lot of noise when you jangle them… someone online made a real similar comment concerning that idea and movies and more and more I'm starting to believe he was right.

The Puppy Bowl is horrifying enough but a ripoff of it involving babies just boggles my mind, and at least I'm not the only one who feels that way.

Oh yeah, the song… here it is so that you can "get down" at home when your favorite team hits the winning home run or whatever. It's the original album version, so there's an opening section that builds up to the main part of the song, and on the copy I had burned to disc way back in 2001, there unfortunately was a skip in the opening section; I found an exact copy of the song I had but this one has no skip in it; I figured all you guys deserve an MP3 with no errors in it whatsoever.

Zombie Nation-"Kernkraft 400" (5.09 MB, 128 Kbits/second)

http://www.bestsharing.com/files/tIWqT3O253000/Zombie%20Nation-Kernkraft%20400.mp3.html

I'll be back in a few days (at the latest) with another dance song to post.

Sad Kermit

Ok, so this was totally not what I was planning on doing for this update, but I found something that totally blew my mind. It was on a messageboard. It was to a YouTube video of something called "Sad Kermit" singing his version of the Johnny Cash version of "Hurt". Watch the video and be totally shocked; first off, the Kermit puppet this guy made was really well done. The voice also sounds exactly like Kermit. As for what you see in the video… oh man. It's part "Meet The Feebles" (one of the greatest movies of all time, and made by THE Peter Jackson) and part "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas". I don't want to spoil all of the surprises, but among other things, Kermit *cooks and then shoots heroin* and *masturbates*. No, I'm not kidding. Watch the video for yourself. It's so wrong and yet oh so right at the same time.

Then, I saw that he had an official websites, www.sadkermit.com, where he had the video available for free download, along with the MP3 for the song, AND some other MP3's of sad tunes. If you thought "Hurt" was bizarre, Kermit sings another Nine Inch Nails song, an Elliott Smith tune, a "new" version of the classic Kermit song "Rainbow Connection", and even a Radiohead ditty. That's right, it's "Creep", the only Radiohead song that I don't hate. As it's the only other Sad Kermit song that I'm familiar with, that's why I picked it out especially for this particular blog.

Sad Kermit Music Video of "Hurt"

http://www.sadkermit.com/Sad%20Kermit%20-%20Hurt.wmv

Sad Kermit-"Creep"

http://www.sadkermit.com/audio/Sad%20Kermit%20-%20Creep.mp3

When I see that more songs are added to that page, I'll try to remember to make mention of it on here.

Like I said the last time, I'll do my next update within the next few days.

Don't Turn Around

If you have seen and heard the new Fidelity commercials that plug their Freedom Funds and was wondering what the 80's synthesizer song was playing in the background, it was the original version of "Der Kommissar", done by none other than Falco. Yes, the same "Rock Me Amadeus" dude. He did have more than one hit record in most places across the world. Most of you probably assumed that "Der Kommissar" was an original work by After The Fire. That's what I thought too until relatively recently. The After The Fire version is pretty cool (especially the full near 6 minute version) but the original Falco version is pretty good too; the video to the song is pure kitsch. The point is, I'm always willing to help people with questions such as "Which song is this" to a certain commercial.

Falco-"Der Kommissar" (3.50 MB, 128 Kbits/second)

http://www.bestsharing.com/files/iEydr251111/Falco%20-%20Der%20Kommissar.mp3.html

I'll be back in a few days.

Eminem Ain't Nothing But A Bitch

I know this is being posted at such an odd hour but I can't sleep tonight and I remembered I had this typed up on Word but didn't post it on here until now.

The topic of Insane Clown Posse and Juggalos is always one rife with controversy and polarizing opinions. Me, I've known some ICP fans and they were nice people, but many others came off as being real assholes, to be blunt. As for the music... I'm not real familiar with most of it, but I like some of the songs for their comic value a la how I like 2 Live Crew songs, although I usually prefer the Crew.

ICP has had beefs with some well-known people, the most famous of which is their feud with Eminem. Em was someone whose singles I really liked... until the "Encore" album; I know, many people share this view but he REALLY went downhill after the 8 Mile soundtrack. Speculating what happened would be interesting, but it'd take too long and that's not really the point of this entry.

I first heard about their beef with the "Slim Anus" song, which I was amused by. While searching online one night for more beef songs between the two I found a tune that didn't have a name attached to it but much later I found out was called "Nuttin But A Bitch Thang", off the "Forgotten Freshness Volume 3" album. The lyrics are derivitive, yeah, but it is still an extremely vicious attack on Eminem and Dr. Dre, where you hear those two having anal sex, and then many other colorful comments concerning their sexuality, and also referenced their history.

What also amused me was what was sampled on the record. They completely stole the riff from the awesome funk song "Dusic", by Brick. To me that was a big part of what made ICP's savage diss so memorable.

Insane Clown Posse-"Nuttin But A Bitch Thang" (6.22 MB,192 Kbits/second)

http://www.bestsharing.com/files/GKiFQm249891/Insane%20Clown%20Posse-Nuttin%20But%20A%20Bitch%20Thang.MP3.html

Brick-"Dusic" (6.58 MB, 160 Kbits/second)

http://www.bestsharing.com/files/J6jL4249885/Brick%20-%20Dusic.mp3.html

I'll be back later in the week with a song that has become more well known nowadays due to its usage in an insurance commercial.

I'm Colorblind and Others Rap in Black and White

Ahhh yes, Cee-Lo, the guy that blew up like gangbusters last year with the release of the Gnarles Barkley album and the song that you could not get away from last summer, "Crazy". Before that he was known, but not so much so, for his collaborations with other rappers and his time in Goodie Mob. Hell, he may have been best known for his daughter being on the famed My Super Sweet 16! I guess it's a good thing he became so popular then…

This past summer, when I spent a lot more time than I do now scouring the 'net for websites that are, well, like this, in that they offer up songs for downloading rather than via a service like Morpheus, I stumbled across a Cee-Lo track that wasn't well known, and probably still isn't that well known. It was a collaboration with the singer Jack Splash of Plant Life, a singer and band that I know hardly anything about. They, known as The Heart Attack, haven't had any songs released except for a CD sampler; that sampler contained the song that I will be featuring here today, known as "Gangsta Boogie", the tune that I downloaded the day I found out about it from this page.

Remember way back almost two months ago when I did an entry on the song "Them Changes" and stated that a song I know sampled the horns from the Buddy Miles version of the tune? Well, it was this song that did the sampling. I don't know what other songs were sampled for "Gangsta Boogie", but if you liked Gnarles Barkley you'll probably like this too, as while the song has an odd sound to it, it's not a &bad& sound and as usual, Cee-Lo does a nice job of rapping, such as using the line I have up for the title of this entry.

The Heart Attack-"Gangsta Boogie" (5.72 MB, 192Kbits/second)

http://www.bestsharing.com/files/imIXho248382/The%20Heart%20Attack-Gangsta%20Boogie.MP3.html

I'll be back on Monday with me talking about a rap group many of you probably would have never thought I'd bring up on here.

Another "Tribute" Post

I was not planning on doing an entry on Luther Ingram, a guy that even a musical nerd like me doesn't know a whole lot about, but yesterday I read that on Monday he passed away at the age of 69. I do know that his most famous song was his version of "If Loving You Is Wrong (I Don't Want To Be Right)", a song that I uploaded onto here for this entry; while it's a song that made it to the top 5 on the charts, it's just not something you hear on the radio so you may be unfamiliar with it, which is a shame, as it without doubt has a "70's soul sound" to it and Luther does a great job of singing about cheating on his wife, his anguish over the sin he's committing, but his desire to continue the affair. It's a shame he passed away but at least he was able to have some success in the music industry and probably because of his version of the tune, the song title is a phrase you sometimes hear even today in a joking fashion.

Luther Ingram-"If Loving You Is Wrong (I Don't Want To Be Right") (3.17 MB, 128Kbits/second)

http://www.bestsharing.com/files/f4sRH247649/Luther%20Ingram%20-%20If%20Loving%20You%20Is%20Wrong%20%20%201970s.mp3.html

My next entry will be Saturday, and it'll actually be a modern song released just last year.

There Was Something About You

The nice thing about these music blogs is that soon after a famed musician passes away people can write their thoughts and post some songs from the deceased person's career. In the time I've been doing this I haven't had the need to do one of those tribute posts. But, the time arose, and I was on vacation so I couldn't do it until now.

As many of you probably know, last week Brad Delp, lead singer of the famed rock band Boston, still constantly heard on the classic rock stations, was found dead. A few days later, word got out that he committed suicide, and the matter which he did so, carbon monoxide poisoning, wasn't so strange. It's not uncommon to people to turn their car on in the garage and sit in the vehicle, but the way he did it had to be a first in the history of humankind. He lit two charcoal grills in his bathroom and that's how he received the carbon monoxide. My God, how do you come up with that kind of idea? But, I don't mean to sound flippant about his death. It's always disappointing when you hear that someone developed the feeling of they would be better off leaving mortality and going into the afterlife rather than dealing with their life.

To pay tribute to him I'll post two songs where he was the lead singer. The first is from Boston's debut album from 1976. While most people are familiar with "Foreplay/Long Time" or "More Than A Feeling" from said album, I actually like "Something About You" the most. The opening is fucking awesome, there's no better way to put it. It certainly sets you in the mood for the rest of the song, which is as catchy as you can get and also does a nice job of displaying Delp's vocals.

The second tune is actually from an album that is not by Boston, but rather, "Boston-lite", as many people referred to it as. It was a 1980 album by Boston guitarist Barry Goudreau, and in essence everyone else in the band besides their grand poobah, Tom Scholz; it was done as they didn't want to wait forever for him to finish work on their next album. At least it took Tom less time than it's taken Axl Rose. I think the Cubs will win the World Series before Chinese Democracy is released to the public! I listened to a few songs off the album and while it without doubt has the Boston sound, it's missing that extra something to make it special, which probably proves the importance of Scholz to the mix. But, I decided to post the song "Mean Woman Blues" just for the novelty of a "Boston sound" being sprinkled with some blues, although it won't exactly make you forget Howlin' Wolf or Muddy Waters here. Still, if you like Boston, then you might as well give it a try just to see what you think of it.

Boston-"Something About You" (5.23 MB, 192Kbits/second)

http://www.bestsharing.com/files/zDLQmvX245769/Boston%20-%20Something%20About%20You.MP3.html

Barry Goudreau-"Mean Woman Blues" (3.64 MB, 128Kbits/second)

http://www.bestsharing.com/files/ea1uJV245762/BARRY%20GOUDREAU%20AND%20BRAD%20DELP%20-%20MEAN%20WOMAN%20BLUES.MP3.html

I'll be back on either Thursday or Friday with my next tune.