“Goodbyes shouldn’t happen over the phone.”
Not much going on right now, as I’ve been pretty busy with work. I will say, however, that the beautiful Ms. Anna threw a pretty cool White Party on her roof for Memorial Day. There are pics scattered across the internet, but that’s not why we’re here. I’ve got something else in mind for today’s blurb: Music post!
-The Lil Wayne/Kanye “Lollipop” remix is so hot it brings tears to my eyes. Oh man, is that a hot track! I’m scared the song’s heading into “Umbrella” territory, as it’s got about 3 remixes right now, but the Kanye one is the real deal.
-Nelly and Fergie, huh? Well, it’s clearly a Nelly track, as it follows his usual lyrical progressions. I’ll say, though, that Fergie certainly holds her own. And in the middle, where they both earn their membership in Bone Thugs & Harmony? Beautiful!
-OK, major points to Usher for making the “Moving Mountains” video a direct continuation of the “Love In This Club” video. I do, however, need some kind of explanation. First off, where the Hell is this club located? It burns down, and he’s in the Alps? How exactly did that club burn down, anyway? Shouldn’t Usher be all broken up by how his cameo friends, like Robin Thicke, Diddy, and Kanye are probably all dead? And if they arent dead, shouldn’t he be pissed they left his ass in the Alps with nothing but a leather jacket? Plus, as much as I love continuity, the 2 songs are too thematically different to work back to back. In the first single, he’s trying to get a girl to do him in the bathroom of a club, but this single is a love ballad about how he’s so lonely? Well, take this hint for next time: don’t ask a chick to do you in a public restroom. Could’ve saved yourself some heartache there, Mr. Raymond! I just hope the next video is Part III of this saga, as I’d really like to know how he gets off that damn mountain…
-A classic that’s begging to be sampled is “Saturday Night” by the Bay City Rollers. You doubt me? Give it a listen. I’ll wait.
– I’d really like to test the limits of the Auto-Tune phenomenon. People act like the technology was just invented, as it’s everywhere. That said, I’d like to issue a challenge. I’d like to record myself reading the book of Genesis, with Auto-Tune, with a Casio keyboard providing the backing track. I’ll have the number song come Labor Day.
-So, the complete version of Donnie Klang’s “Dr. Love” finally leaked. I gotta say, for all that he did for Day26 and Danity Kane, Diddy really dropped the ball on Donnie’s tracks. And the lyrics? On the way to the club-of-the-night, Jeff and I used to freestyle lyrics to the instrumental, and I can say that, on our worst night, we came up with more imaginative lyrics than the end result on that single. Let’s hope the rest of the album, combined with the stuff produced by Seven, will redeem the whole thing.
-Back in the ’80s, nobody made a soundtrack song quite like DeBarge. Sure, their main hit is “Rhythm of the Night” from The Last Dragon, but many forget that they also gave us “Who’s Johnny”, from Short Circuit.
-OK, anyone who knew me in college knows that I sacrificed my freshman year GPA in the pursuit of one goal: to build the ultimate 80s music collection. I was going to put Cool Rock and Red Hot, and every Time-Life infomercial collection to shame. In fact, I went to their websites, downloaded the track listings, and finished the job with Napster. Good, old free Napster. Well, I burned most of those songs on Comp USA CD-Rs – the old school, “blue underside” kind. Turns out, those were probably the shittiest CD-R’s around, next to PNY Technologies. They say CD’s you burn yourself only have about a 10 year shelf-life, and these are proving that theory. So, I’m finding myself having to rebuild a good chunk of that work, this time without Napster. Part of me doesn’t even care anymore, but another part hates the idea of quitting, so I guess I’m going back into the laboratory and resuming that project.
-A Hot 99.5 DJ pointed this out in a commercial bumper, but I hate myself for not realizing it first: Chris Brown’s “Forever” takes on a whole new meaning if you think of it as a response track to Rihanna’s “Please Don’t Stop the Music”. It’s like they’re sending each other love notes through song or some junk.
-Is it just me, or does the whole “Fugees Sitar Sample” NOT fit in Wyclef’s “Fast Car”? It’s like he was so scared we wouldn’t know it was a Wyclef track that he was compelled to include that. Dude, that shit was 12 years ago! If you have to reference something that long ago, you have a serious branding issue on your hands. Dear Wyclef, it’s not like you’re the Quad City DJs or something! You don’t need cheap gimmicks for us to know who you are! In other news, how’s that Fugees reunion coming along?
-“American Boy”, by Estelle – the Brits do it again! There are 2 styles the UK pulls off that the rest of the world dare not try: 1) neo funk disco and 2) pop songs with trumpets. This song is a great example of the former.
-Gavin DeGraw’s got more soul than anyone knows what to do with. At times, he might come off as somewhat of a joke, as his image doesn’t exactly match his sound. Plus, he almost took a hit with the “theme song curse” – typically, when an artist’s song is chosen as the them for a TV show (“I Don’t Wanna Be”, One Tree Hill seasons 1-4), it becomes their one and only (and eventually annoying) hit. Just listen to that song, though; there are parts where he really just souls out. On the stripped disc, there’s a track of him doing Sam Cooke’s “A Change is Gonna Come”. I’ve been trying to track that mp3 down for about 3 years, but I just know, without even hearing it, that the boy did justice to that song.
-Seeing as how summer is now upon us, isn’t it time for DJ Sammy to butcher another 80s classic? OK, maybe “butcher” is too harsh, but anyone can add a beat to a Bryan Adams song. His scam is almost as deplorable as Auto-Tune-Gate. Anyway, my money’s on something from the Richard Marx catalog. “Right Here Waiting” is too easy. If he wants to be edgy, he should go after “Hold On To the Nights”. If he really wants to be experimental, though, I could totally hear a tranced out “Silent Running” by Mike & the Mechanics.
Aww….thanks! 🙂 El Debarge was a one hit wonder for me. Off to go download the latest lollipop remix.