Took a quick look at a Pink Floyd Fan’s Guide to Cambridge in a bookshop today, and there were some amusingly tenuous links.
Good grief, Winamp for Android is awesome. MixZing was certainly clever, but was getting increasingly buggy and frustrating. Winamp runs smooth as anything and has a wonderful interface, yet it’s still in beta! Only thing I miss is being able to swipe on the lockscreen to skip tracks, but that’s a minor quibble. Haven’t yet got the wireless sync to work, but if it does then this moves into killer app territory.
So I installed Winamp on the laptop to try and use wireless sync. Had it scan my library, then popped on the “Top Rated” playlist. Eerily it started playing my favourite songs – from about 2 years ago when I last used Winamp – on a different computer! It must save rating/playcount information in the files I guess. Kind of nice, I haven’t listened to some of these songs in a long time and it’s evoking some serious nostalgia.
Amusingly in my library this is just titled “That Music From the Dancing Car Advert”:
It got me thinking, a lot of music listening history is stored on last.fm. It would be nice to be able to say “take me back to 200X” and cue up a playlist of stuff I was listening to then. Maybe pull up some timely photos from Facebook/Flickr to add to the experience, and some old BBC news headlines. Automatically lower the screen resolution to a suitable level – ok, maybe not that.
Ah, my sad neglected blog. See the post title for the reason. Anyway here’s a fun little cover by Skindred – the best Welsh raga metal group around.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1cL5J9bW2U
Cover songs again. First up, I mentioned Tetrastar’s “Soulja Boy” in a previous post. Well everyone should go to their website and download the free album Songs We Didn’t Write. If Dragonforce, Jonathan Coulton, Modest Mouse, Sparks, and System of a Down cover versions weren’t enough to tempt you, there’s an almost sacrilegious yet strangely brilliant cover of Hallelujah as well. Plus the mindblowing “4 Chord Song”.
Next, the most 80s thing ever (and probably NSFW):
Amanda Lear – Wild Thing
Last, a cover version found in a really odd way. I was listening to the Dandy Warhols 2003 album Welcome to the Monkey House for the first time in ages. At least I was until partway through the opening title track when I noticed the lyrics:
When Michael Jackson dies
We’re covering Blackbird
And won’t it be absurd then
When no one knows what song they just heard
Unless someone on the radio tells them first
So on a whim I googled “dandy warhols blackbird”, and it turns out they kept their promise. And it’s pretty good too:
The Dandy Warhols – Blackbird
I hate the song in the title of this post. Hate it with a passion. I honestly think it might be the worst song I’ve ever heard, representing all that is terrible about modern music, and made worse by its bizarre popularity and almost omnipresence during 2007.
Well, that goes for the original anyway.
But replace the horrendous steel drums with a beautifully fashioned electronic backing (including almost 8-bit sounds), get a sweet young woman singing the bizarre lyrics, and dress up a dog for the video, and you get this. I couldn’t believe anyone could make this song listenable, let alone loveable, but they have.
And then just the other day I found this. It’s proof of Devo’s sheer awesomeness that they can make Soulja Boy sound good. I honestly can’t stop listening to it.
This speaks for itself.
Ok, I’ve backed myself into a corner – today’s song has no lyrics to use as a title. But the above words are closely associated with it these days, because this is the theme music of Sir Digby Chicken Caesar!
Charles Williams and his orchestra – Devil’s Gallop
Originally composed for the BBC Radio serial Dick Barton, this brilliant tune has since been used all over the place including Monty Python, kids TV show ZZZap!, and of course That Mitchell and Webb Look.
And as if it wasn’t awesome enough already, here it is being played by the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain.
Not good enough for you? Well here’s one of the greatest pieces of video game music ever, “Monty on the Run”, composed by the godlike Rob Hubbard. Listen, and you’ll hear that Devil’s Gallop was a huge inspiration. And marvel at the fact that this tune was all done to be played on the ancient Commodore 64.
Rob Hubbard – Monty on the Run Theme
Regularly cited as the best computer game music ever, this has rightfully been covered many times. This version is great, just look at his fingers flying about that keyboard!
Mike Gravel is an interesting guy. A former US Senator, he entered the 2008 Presidential campaign, first attempting to secure the Democratic nomination and later switching to the Libertarian party. From what I’ve read and seen he seems really smart with a great platform, but he never stood a chance. Partly because his proposals were too radical, but also because his campaign just didn’t have the funding that’s so vital in American politics. Playing on this he launched it with a charming poster made by his granddaughter (“Vote for Grandpa Mike”). He also made a few popular YouTube videos, one of which was this version of The Beatles’ “Helter Skelter”
The guy behind the music and video is rx2008, who was also responsible for the brilliant cutups of other politicians singing along to popular songs, including Bush doing Sunday Bloody Sunday. Plus he’s written some great songs of his own: did somebody out sugar in my tea? is one of my favourite tunes ever.
Space were a wonderfully eccentric band, according to Wikipedia they were once described as “Black Grape gone flamenco and sung by a man who can’t decide between cartoon Mexican, Ray Davies and Cypress Hill”. Despite this they were fairly successful, having a few big hits in the 90s, but sadly they seem to be largely forgotten these days. This cover definitely deserves to be remembered.
Space – We Gotta Get Out Of This Place
I just found @mr_hopkinson on Twitter, which reminded me of his excellent singing computer. Here it is, performing “Fool’s Gold”, by The Stone Roses.
Mr Hopkinson’s Computer – Fool’s Gold
There’s more at http://www.computersings.com/
A couple of great covers by modern rock groups today. First “Word Up!”, one of the funkiest songs around. The original came out in 1986, but still sounds incredibly fresh today. Korn gave it their own touch on their Greatest Hits: Volume 1.
Korn – Word Up!
Next is Placebo’s great cover of “Daddy Cool” by Boney M. This is from the special edition of Sleeping With Ghosts, which came with a whole bonus disc of Placebo cover versions.
Placebo – Daddy Cool