Friday, August 1, 2008

The end of July

So, it again has been a while, but this time I was on vacation. Either because I was too lazy to write songs down or just simply too busy having a good time, I didn't have a ton of songs in my head this past ten days. But a lot of them sucked, so it wasn't necessarily happy all the time in California.

June 23:
5:00 pm: New Edition - Candy Girl

I don't even know why this song even exists. It's the most blatant rip-off of ABC by the Jackson Five, which is almost as irritating to listen to. The songs are so similar that when I heard ABC on the radio a few days ago, I had to reconsider whether I actually had Candy Girl stuck in my head. Was it a different song, or just lyrics changed in ABC? Apparently, these two options are not mutually exclusive, according to the "lets save money on songwriting" music industry. New Edition should call themselves "Same Old Shit."

June 24:
2:00 pm: Tally Hall - Just Apathy

I listened to Tally Hall on a 6 hour car ride, and this is the song that happened to get stuck in my head. This actually confuses me a little bit. Now, I'm not confused that Tally Hall was stuck in my head, just that it was this song. This is one of my least favorite songs off their only album (though they had the courtesy to release it twice, and even the first time, they had already released most of the material), but it happened to be the one that inhabited my brain while at lunch that day. I have two theories. One: the song was very catchy. I don't entirely believe this, though. Good Day and Banana Man were their two singles, and I assume the band would release their catchiest songs as their singles. However, Just Apathy does represent the poppier side of their wonky sound. Two: I don't listen to the song as often. This is a little more believable. I often skip Just Apathy, along with Be Born and Two Wuv, when I feel like listening only to songs I really like. So, given that the song was fresher, I wasn't as familiar with the song, listened more intently, and then was rewarded by having it in my brain later that day. Well, I guess it's a combination of those two factors, plus the fact that it was one of the last songs I listened to before the car ride was over. Either way, it's a good song, and I don't mind it in my head. Even if it wasn't, almost anything is better than Candy Girl.

3:00 pm: Spock's Beard - Planet's Hum
(this song is not on youtube)
Since most of you haven't heard this, I'll save you the trouble of reading commentary about it and simply tell you that I listened to this song by itself while Ari (my girlfriend) was waiting in line for the restroom, and then it was in my head for the next 15-20 minutes. But seriously, Spock's Beard is awesome.

July 26:
3:00 pm: Avril Lavigne - Girlfriend
Embedding is disabled, but I don't want to subject you to the horror that is Avril Lavigne if I don't have to. The video is even worse than the song--Lavigne cuts in on a happy relationship because she thinks she's cooler than this guy's nerdy girlfriend. What they don't tell you is that this girlfriend can write her own songs, make lyrics that rhyme, and control her post-menstrual symptoms. Anyway, this got in my head through an insidious spiral. I heard "You Got Me Rocking" by the Stones on the radio, which has a line "Hey hey you..." that repeats. Then I remembered the whole seemingly ridiculous plagiarism deal with that song. But then I looked it all up and it actually has some merit...

Man, don't you love the music industry?

July 30:
9:00 am: Pokemon Card Parody of Milkshake

So, a friend left this on my facebook wall on July 24th: "In the interest of achieving web fame through your blog... Ahem. "My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard..." Obviously, I will not name names, because then he wins. But after a week of sitting and cooking in my head, Milkshake emerged in my head in parodic form. (Actually, I have heard that version more...sad, huh?)

1:00 pm: Boston - Don't Look Back

Ahh, good song again. Boston is amazing. And Tom Scholz (the lead guitarist) is my new hero. Here's why:
1. He was the lead guitarist for an amazing band.
2. He's a brain (He graduated from MIT with a masters in mechanical engineering).
3. He's done a lot of nonprofit work
4. When Barry Goudreau (the other Boston guitarist), a fan of Mike Huckabee, let Huckabee use "More than a Feeling" as a campaign song, Scholz got pissed and had it pulled.
5. He invented a portable headphone guitar amp, the Rockman
Must I say more? Oh yeah, he's Obama supporter too.

So that's it for July. Hopefully I'll update this more often in August.

Monday, July 21, 2008

July 14 - July 21

Wow, it's been a little while. As you can see, I've started to embed videos for many of the songs. When I get a little time, I'll also add some streamable songs.

July 14:
4:45 pm: The Police - Every Little Thing She Does is Magic
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5W2Vr6HU7s
Again, there is no embedding, which is annoying. I have no idea why this song got stuck in my head. Maybe because I watched through literally every episode of the Office in existence in about a week, and Scrantonicity just happened to play it. But anyway, I'm watching this video right now, and it is really, really lame. The video switches from clips of them playing, to clips of Sting playing with Africans (these scenes look like they're right out of The Gods Must Be Crazy, I mean the dude from that movie looks kinda like Sting), to clips of the Police dancing around a mixer. The funniest part is at 3:12--they're TRADING HATS. What the fuck. Good song, though. Oh, and do you remember that one band, Ra, that covered it? That was the only song they did that anyone cared about.

July 15:
10:35 am: The Beatles - Lady Madonna

Another great song. My brain is on a roll. Though this one is definitely my fault. It's another song that I've been pondering covering with the band, given that it heavily features both a piano and a saxophone. Man, I keep wanting to hear this song again. By the way, I love the line "Sunday morning creeping like a nun." Awesome. Oh and doesn't "Eleanor Rigby" look like "Eleanor Rugby"? I wonder what that would be like. But I digress.

11:35 am: Human League - Don't You Want Me

People in the 80's look really funny.

12:10 pm: Michael Jackson - Thriller
It hits again. I miss the old black Michael Jackson. The one who didn't rape children. I think Robot Chicken may actually be right, here.


July 16:
11:00 am: Social Distortion: Story of my Life
Alright, this is probably one of the worst songs ever written, and the only reason I've heard it is Guitar Hero 3. Because it sucks so much, I'm not embedding a video, and if I add a streamable track feature to the blog, I will not include it. If you feel like listening to it, search for it yourself. Along with generally sucking, this is also one of the worst songs anyone could pick for Guitar Hero, and I have no idea why they included it. First of all, there's nothing interesting in the song, guitar-wise. Obviously, this does not make it a bad song. Also, it's horribly repetitive, which again does not necessarily make it terrible (though there is a pretty decent correlation), and is a very common thing with punk songs. However, there is one MAJOR problem. Punk songs are normally really short, between 2 and 3 minutes. "Story of my Life" is over 5 minutes of the same riffs, same chords, same singing. So in Guitar Hero, you just have to sit through it, get your 5 stars and douse your ears in alcohol. So, as you can easily see, getting it stuck in my head was truly fucking wonderful. Oh, and wikipedia says: "The song never reached any of the major charts, but is considered one of the band's most well known and loved songs by fans." I can see why, and I can see why old people hate teenagers.

July 18:
12:20 am: Reefer Madness - The Brownie Song

This is something you just have to watch. It's even better in the stage production.

July 19:
12:15 pm: Doubletop - Wasted
Check it out at www.myspace.com/doubletop
I know this sounds like a plug for a friend's band, which I suppose it is, but I promise this song got stuck in my head, fair and square. This Tucson based band plays a unique style of alternative rock that really pushes the genre. "Wasted" is probably their most accessible song, at least of the ones off their debut (and only) album, so I suppose it makes sense that that was the one stuck in my head. I bid you all to check them out.

July 20:
12:30 am: Rush - Tom Sawyer

I was driving back from my improv show with my girlfriend, Ari, and this song randomly came into my head when we were eating In and Out Burger fries. The very scalar part where Geddy sings "And what you say about his company / Is what you say about society" came into my head, and it took me like 3 of 4 minutes to figure out what it was from. As soon as it did, the rest of the song came along with it. Good song, but I'm actually surprised a song like this got popular, given it's strange rhythm and melodies. I guess Rush just owns. Anyway, this is hilarious, Rush actually used a South Park clip to intro the song in concert: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrejJHPnVfk

12:50 pm: The Muppets - Mahna Mahna

The progression of life:
0-8: Love the Muppets
9-15: Hate the Muppets
16-death: Love the Muppets
The ages may vary, but the general pattern is the same.

12:55 pm: Mary Poppins - Let's Go Fly a Kite
Whatever. I haven't seen that movie in ages, but it came into my head nonetheless.

July 21:
4:05 pm: The Beatles - Hard Day's Night

I love the Beatles, but for some reason this song was never one of my favorites. It's still good, don't get me wrong, but it seems rather dated. I prefer later Beatles.

Monday, July 14, 2008

Late July 13-July 14 Morning

I already posted the songs stuck in my head yesterday, but I had a flurry of them before I went to bed. So here they are...

July 13 (cont):
5:00 pm: Hot Chocolate - You Sexy Thing

This is one of those songs I've heard a bijillion times but had no idea what the song was called or who it was by. This one is on so many TV commericals, there is no way anyone hasn't heard it, or at least a clip from it. You know, I don't understand why they use the same song so often. It doesn't help anyone remember their product, since the song is so damn overused. They should do what Apple did, and find something obscure and catchy. Now not only do a lot of people know "New Soul" by Yael Naim, but they directly associate it with Apple Computers. I associate "You Sexy Thing" with being overplayed.

July 14:
12:50 am: Jimmy Eat World - The Middle

Another song I didn't know what it was called until I googled as much of the incomprehensibly-sung chorus as I could. I hear it every time I perform with my improv troupe--the group is great, but before every show, the director plays a bunch of terrible music. Songs include "Livin' La Vida Loca" and "Summer Girls" (I think that's the name of the product placement Abercrombie and Fitch song). "The Middle" is also a terrible song, where the chorus is the same chords as the verse, and the song acts as basically an aural parasite because it is so damn catchy. It's plaguing my morning as well.

Sunday, July 13, 2008

July 12-13

July 12:
Today was a great day, music-wise. The only songs stuck in my head were ideas that I had been working on the past few days. I've noticed that when I write songs, not all of them stick in my head, so I try to only hold on to the ones that do. It's obviously not the greatest idea for a filter--while it definitely proves that the song is somewhat catchy (at least to me), "Elmo's Song" did end up polluting my aural canals for a little while. So I can't count on it to weed out all the bad stuff. But I put the stuff that doesn't under "filler material" in my mental musical fining cabinet.

July 13:
5:00 pm: Some song I don't know
I seriously have no idea what this song was. I listened to classic rock on an hour and a half car ride from Tucson back to Phoenix, so this may have been one of those songs. But my mind picks up music before lyrics, and I only got the music (which I have now forgotten). So I have no way of knowing if this is a song at all. I often create music in my head when I'm bored, so this may just have been that.

10:00 pm: The B52's - Love Shack

This song rivals Thriller in overall catchiness, and in just being a good song. I don't know anyone who doesn't like Love Shack (except one of my little brother's friends, who probably just hasn't realized its true greatness yet).

10:05 pm: Blind Melon - No Rain

I went to Tucson again, and it didn't happen there, but it hit me tonight. Seriously, "Love Shack" and "No Rain" have been bouncing back and forth in my head for the past 15 minutes. I may have been immune if I hadn't had a conversation in the car with my friend Amy about various music. Apparently it was stuck in her head yesterday instead of mine. Weird. Oh well, at least it's a good song. Too bad Blind Melon's vocalist Shannon Hoon (awesome name by the way) had to croak. I just wikipedia-ed them, and apparently they've reformed with a new frontman in 2006. And they released a greatest hits album, even though they only had one hit, and only two real albums.

Saturday, July 12, 2008

July 4-July 11

July 4:
12:30 pm: Michael Jackson - Thriller
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-nSCb9MnPM&feature=related
(wont let me embed :( )

This is one song I really don't mind if it gets stuck in my head, and it's been in there often. Ever since I decided to go show my girlfriend the video of the Filipino prisoners dancing to it (and later we watched ridiculous videos of little kids dancing and singing, one of which also happened to be to Thriller), it hasn't left my head for very long. It's a pretty awesome song, and I'm planning on learning to cover it with my band (www.myspace.com/thepedestriansaz if you care) as soon as everyone gets back to ASU this fall. It's awesome.

4:50 pm: The Beatles - I Want You
I was about to eat dinner and this little ditty got in my head. Maybe I really wanted the dinner. Maybe I'm looking too deep into my subconscious.


July 5:
4:00 pm:
David Hasselhoff - Hooked on a Feeling
In the aforementioned youtube spree, we ended up watching the video of David Hasselhoff with his terrible green screen escapades. And now it has come back to haunt me. Wonderful.

4:05 pm: Weird Al - I Love Rocky Road
And this is the song that came out when I started to sing another one to get it out of my head. Why the parody and not the Joan Jett rock anthem? Probably because I listened to too much Weird Al as a kid.

7:40 pm: Umbrella - Rihanna
This song is so fucking catchy. It's not bad, but fuck, it never goes away!

9:50 pm: Barbie Girl
Don't even ask. I haven't heard this song in at least a year, but apparently junior high dances have scarred me for life.

July 6:
6:00 pm: Weird Al - The Saga Begins
Somehow, the "we took a bongo from the scene" lyric came into my head. I spent about 5 minutes wondering if that was from anything else besides that song, while replaying that line along with the "we went to Theed to see the queen" about a million times in my head. As I'm googling it now, I'm getting only web sites with lyrics, so it is still a mystery.

6:10 pm: Michael Jackson - Thriller
It's back.

July 8:
1:25 am: Reefer Madness (Theme)
I saw Nearly Naked Theater's production of Reefer Madness on Wednesday. It was incredible, and now the theme is in my head.

July 10:
1:40 am: The Fairly Odd Parent Theme Song
I haven't watched this show in a while, and I'm about to go to bed. Weird.

12:15 pm: Camptown Races
All I can say is "wow." I didn't think songs that only exist in books made to help annoy their parents on long car rides (and the opening to Camp Lazlo) would find their way into to my brain. I guess my subconscious is pissed at me.

July 11:
12:35 am: Sesame Street: Elmo's Song

It only gets worse. I saw this on a tape entitled "The Best of Elmo" around a year and a half ago when babysitting a little kid. In the clip, Elmo plays Big Bird and Snuffy a song he's written on the piano. The song is simply a display of Elmo's narcissism--the lyrics simply tell the listener that it is his song and that he wrote both the lyrics and music. Next, in a display of overt plagiarism, Big Bird sings the same song, but changes the lyrics to make it his song, not Elmo's. Finally, Snuffy, in a display of overt plagiarism and even more overt unoriginality, does the same. This lame ditty, I suppose, is geared to teach aspiring young musicians the basics of the recording industry. And it's in my head. Hooh-rah.

That's it for this past week. I'm heading up to Tucson this weekend--the last time I did, Blind Melon's only hit "No Rain" was running in my head all day. I'm hoping I'll be a little luckier this time.

This blog

So, as the title suggests, I'm writing a blog of all the songs that get caught in my head. I'll put the date, time, and usually a little commentary about the context of it all. These are not the songs I'm listening to. Maybe I've heard the song recently, maybe I haven't. Maybe I like the song, maybe I don't. But nonetheless, it's in my head. So here goes.