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Joyous Find… Auto-Tune The News (And The Gregory Brothers)

Posted on June 21, 2009 by sgottahurt

Someone check the definition for "brothers" please...

It’s been a short while since I’ve stumbled across something on the TripleDoubleU that’s compable of consuming massive amounts of my time. Congrats to The Gregory Brothers for doing just that.

(SIDENOTE: The group includes a sister, just like how it is with the Warner Brothers – Yakko, Wakko, and Dot, yet I suspect they are not really related, just like how it is with The Ramones. But Kings of Leon are all brothers, which I didn’t initially believe, so who knows? Sarah’s the sister-in-law, married to Evan, oldest brother of Andrew and Michael. Boom! Reasearch!)

Together, they have encompassed a great portion of my weekend by being fantastic on so many levels.

First off – they are talented as all get up. Not just a little get up, or a medium amount of get up – all of it.

Second off – they’re funny as heck. Okay, “heck” might not be as funny as the word “poop,” but I’m not putting that word in any sentence about them. Erm…

Okay, so many levels that include only two, but they’re huge levels, right?

I found out about them through Warming Glow (thanks!) after a post showing this video:

Incredible, right? It skewers auto-tuning, the news in general, and the current state of politics, and still manages to be a good song. Not a classic song per se, but beyond textured for a comedy bit.

After watching the first four auto-tuned news reports on their YouTube channel Schmoyoho amongst other earlier outings, I dove into their Facebook and MySpace pages and was surprised to find they were serious musicians (I really like Butter On My Roll, but who am I kidding… it’s all great.). That elevated their level of a shout out on this page from general to specific. That doesn’t just happen for everyone.

Too bad the 25% of the band that’s “babe” is already spoken for. I love women that can sing. Sarah, if you ever get bored with Evan and are looking for a blogger that tries to be funny on a daily basis, comment on my site and I’ll respond! Srsly, I will comment right back on this blog! (Pourquoi est il que les amours m’échappe?)

Songs Burned In Our Brains From Grade School (A Musical Musings/My Boss Paul’s Top Five List Joint)

Posted on June 16, 2009 by sgottahurt

Ah, the good ol’ days. That’s what people say when they reflect upon their youth.

For my boss (and old friend) Paul and I, the good ol’ days in our Catholic grade school happened way before they were our good ol’ days, as evidenced by our textbooks. Most notably: our music class textbooks.

I know, I know… at least we had a music class. Nowadays, all of the arts are disappearing from our schools (for shame!), but that’s not what this post is about.

The fact of the matter was that we had crappy old text books and a music teacher that could barely play the one instrument she claimed to be able to play (the flute). Sure, it was unfortunate that she replaced the single greatest music teacher ever. (He played “Name That Tune” on the piano – and they were always theme songs!) The following list represents the worst of the songs we were taught… four oldies, one newie, and zero goodies.

Top 5 Songs Burned In Our Brains From Grade School

5. Little Boxes – Malvina Reynolds
Paul doesn’t really remember this one, hence it being placed at the bottom spot. I couldn’t forget it, and Weeds wouldn’t let me… until season 4 at least.

4. Du, du liegst mir im Herzen – German folk song
Paul refused to sing this song hence to him being xenophobic; but then again he refused to sing any of the songs. For me – it’s my 99 Luftballons.

3. Shortnin’ Bread – James Whitcome Riley
Paul despised (no, loathed!) this song. I didn’t remember it at first, but then it all came crashing back to me like a repressed memory.

2. God Bless the USA – Lee Greenwood
The only current-ish song on the list was also an exercise in irritation. We had to sing this at a recital, and as everyone knows – recitals blow. What’s worse is that we had to hold up signs that read Detroit when we sang that line. Because we lived in Detroit, oh say can you see.

1. Fender Bender – ?
This song presented a unique situation for us. For virtually nowhere on the TripleDoubleU, could we find ant reference to this song. The only proof that it ever existed arrived via a MySpace Forum. It the thread, a reference is made to the lyrics:

Fender bender, yeah yeah yeah!

The poster recalled the misspoken lyric:

Finger banger, yeah yeah yeah!

Which ceremoniously lead to the diddy being banned (band?) from music class. Thanks, Mack Danger, for the memory backup!

I wish we would have thought of "finger banger"...

Musical Musings… I Don’t Wanna But I Gotta: A New Literal Video

Posted on June 4, 2009 by sgottahurt

I was just discussing with my boss Paul that there needs to be a new literal video. Universe asked… message received… dascottjr delivered.

I loved the previous creations by Dusto McNeato. Check out his works here and here. Although I feel the vocals are a bit better in his takes, you have to admit that Bonnie Tyler’s Total Eclipse of the Heart is ripe for the pickin’, and pick away they do.

Awful Battle… Music Plus Still Pics? YouTube The Man, Er, Woman, Er, Egg Now, Dog!

Posted on May 26, 2009 by sgottahurt

I spend a lot of time on the TripleDoubleU. Well, a lot probably is an understatement of the amount of minutes I’ve allotted to pure waste. All I know, is it could be worse. Like, I could have burned the entire Memorial Day weekend away in front of my laptop, and that, um, didn’t happen.

My cousin, Steve, on the other hand, is what I would call a web dabbler. He dives into the stream of the information superhighway every now and again, and he phishes out some strange finds. Such as these two videos below.

Both feature interesting music choices and eclectic slide shows.

Both took a lot of time to make… but hopefully not an entire Memorial Day weekend.

(BONUS BOTH: May both get stuck in your head!)

Awful Battle, GO!

(Click here for Egg Movie 2… and oh wait, yes! There is more Linda Gray lovefesting here. My personal fave? You can never go wrong with Cascada and staring in the credits.)

Musical Musings… Maybe It’s Regina Spektor (Sing It Like The Maybelline Jingle)

Posted on May 25, 2009 by sgottahurt

To start off… I know, I know, the last two posts have been kind of lady-centric (which literally meant something way different back in the Old West… say it slowly), so why stop now on this Memorial Day. In addition to the current state of this blog, my last Musical Musings was about songs sounding the same that may or may not have sounded the same. Don’t hold that one against my credibility. Heck, don’t even believe that I have any credibility. But this time – I think I’m onto something.

Listen to the background music in this Maybelline commercial featuring Adriana Lima (hey guys, at least it’s featuring a Victoria’s Secret model… and a golf ball for some reason):

Now take a listen to Regina Spektor’s On the Radio:

(For the record I was at that Lollapalooza concert performance. I think you can see me in the crowd at the end. I’m the guy in a striped shirt, clapping. My face was a little blurry that day, so I kind of blend in.)

Now I dare you to go back and listen to the Maybelline commercial and see how they ripped her song off. (Maybe I should have put them on this page in the opposite order… oh well, deal with it.)

The song is definitely not the original, and amazingly, it’s coincidentally similar. Kind of like these posters:

OneSheet (Page 1)

sweet_home_alabama

Okay, it’s even closer than these two posters… but still.

(My Boss) Paul’s Top Five List… Punk Covers Of 80’s Songs

Posted on May 14, 2009 by sgottahurt

99 Red Bowling Shirts

Aaah, the 80’s. They’re definitely Generation X (and sometimes Y)’s version of our parents and their nostalgic-laden 60’s. And since my boss, Paul, and I are huge fans of living in the past, Paul thought he’d double-dip in the ethers of remember-when, and present this list:

Top 5 Punk Covers of 80’s Songs

5. Smooth Criminal – Alien Ant Farm
“I was never a big Michael Jackson fan, especially his late 80’s work, but this version makes this song listenable.”

4. Boys of Summer – The Ataris
“While Don Henley’s original has some 80’s nostalgia to it, this is by far a better version.”

3. Come On Eileen – Save Ferris
“Awesome remake by this ska band wit the lead vocal hottie. I can actually understand Dexy’s Midnight Runners’ lyrics with this version.” [Ed. – When I saw saw them in concert, “vocal hottie” Monique Powell had this joke to say:]

What’s worse than Grease on Olivia Newton-John? Come on Eileen!

2. Take On Me – Reel Big Fish
“One of the best ska bands from the 90’s doing the #1 80’s Hit from A-Ha. Also, it was featured in the South Park creators’ movie, Baseketball.” [For those stuck more in the 80’s than us, those creators would be none other than Trey Parker and Matt Stone, natch. – Ed.]

1. 99 Red Balloons – Goldfinger
“One of my favorite punk bands doing one the the better songs from the 80’s by Nena.”

Musical Musings… Why Do I Find Myself Defending Flo Rida?

Posted on May 5, 2009 by sgottahurt

When rapper Flo Rida originally burst on the scene (his song Low was featured in the award-winning-worthy Step Up 2 The Streets), I wasn’t a fan. I thought the song was essentially shilling a catalog of products: Apple Bottoms jeans, Uggs (boots with fur), Reeboks (with straps), and um, baggy sweatpants…

But somewhere along the line, I got hooked. The same happened with his follow up (In the Ayer) and Right Round, which borrows quite liberally from the classic 80’s tune, You Spin Me Round (Like a Record) by Dead or Alive.

Now know this – I usually can’t stand it when most songs lift old songs for new ones. (Rihanna’s borrowing of Soft Cell’s Tainted Love back-beat to create the entirely different SOS was a major exception. And I don’t count the Numa Numa song lifted for TI and Rihanna’s Live Your Life.) And Right Round barely passed that opinion, but imagine my surprise when I heard Eiffel 65’s Blue in a new song:

Initially, I thought, “Oh geez, not this now!” But when I figured out it out was Flo Rida, all was forgiven. Why is that?

Musical Musings… When Memes Take Steroids

Posted on April 5, 2009 by sgottahurt

Internet memes are a phenomenon in so much that they spread faster than a wildfire, faster than a rumor in high school, and faster than any milk product through my lactose intolerant friend, Jay.

Now when you take something we’ve all seen and taken for granted and add music… Internet Meme 2.0.

YouTube user/musician ParryGripp has done just that. I’ve featured one of his videos once before (that got taken down because the original video poster is a d-bag). It was Hamster On a Piano that was eating popcorn. It was hilarious, I thought, but these are of the same, if not higher, caliber. Enjoy!