The ’59 Sound – Gaslight Anthem

Love Is Noise – The Verve, William Blake paraphrased over a Tomorrow Never Knows backdrop. so awesome.

Human – The Killers , released today and even an average Killers track is still pretty freaking good

Play Your Part (Pt. 1) – Girl Talk, great mashup, this dude is a genius

Bruises – Chairlift , low-fi Postal Service duet material

Time to Pretend – MGMT, “I’m feeling rough, I’m feeling raw, I’m in the prime of my life.”

Kelsey – Metro Station

Walcott – Vampire Weekend

Make Your Own Kind of Music – Mama Cass

Famous Blue Raincoat – Leonard Cohen

Fidelity – Regina Spektor, saw her open a concert in 2005, didn’t appreciate it at the time…

Pretty in Pink – Purplespace

“Talk” by Coldplay, a remake of “Computer Love” by Kraftwerk. This is my favorite of the new remakes, and Partyben’s mashup of the two songs is just plain brilliant.

“SOS” by Rihanna, a remake of “Tainted Love” by Soft Cell. I think Soft Cell’s version was actually a remake of an even earlier version, though I don’t know who offhand. Now, as long as Rihanna doesn’t decide to continue taking riffs off of Soft Cell, she’ll be fine. I think Soft Cell’s use of chainsaws and naked dwarves in the video for their followup single “Sex Dwarf” was the quickest torpedoing of a career the early 80s had seen- and you gotta remember this was the age of Nena and A Flock of Seagulls.

“Cupid’s Chokehold” by Gym Class Heroes, a remake of “Breakfast in America” by Supertramp. I gotta admit that I prefer the original for Roger Hodgson’s vocals, though Gym Class Heroes didn’t do a bad job and the video is hilarious.

“Maneater” by Nelly Furtado, heavily inspired by “Maneater” by Hall and Oates. I first heard this at a dance at Nerd Camp a year and a half ago, and it blew my mind how many of the RAs(i.e. camp counselors) didn’t realize it was a sort of sequel to the Hall and Oates song; the same song from the other perspective. Sheesh, I know that I would’ve been booked for a trip to the Carousel by now, but those pups just don’t know where things come from. I mean, I asked people who did “I Want Candy” and pretty much everybody answered Aaron Carter. I know Bow Wow Wow’s version was also a cover, but ouch. It’s weird being a GenXer in the land of Millennials.

“One Word” by Kelly Osbourne, ripped off of “Fade to Grey” by Visage. I posted about this awhile back- the songwriter blatantly ripped off one of the iconic New Wave songs, right down to the girl speaking in French between verses. Fortunately, since then, the threat of a lawsuit has gotten Midge Ure and Billy Currie their just royalties. If taken on its on merits, One Word would’ve been a pretty good song with a pretty good Jean-Luc Godard homage video, but as it stands, it just doesn’t compare well to the original.

These are the ones I can think of- I’m not counting straight remakes like Youth Group’s cover of “Forever Young” by Alphaville. Got any others?

http://www.hurratorpedo.org/
Hurra Torpedo is the world’s leading kitchen appliance rock group. Since 1993 they have played for full houses all over their native Norway with their eclectic mixture of cover tunes and original material. Now, thanks to the wonders of the internet, their heartbreaking version of Bonnie Tyler’s Total Eclipse of the Heart is known all over the world .

Ok, so I’m minding my own business on Friday and reading this AP article about Greg Oden.

I love how they throw in off the cuff quotes now and then and this one, where Oden is discussing his history of music course, caught my eye:

“The crazy thing is, I go to movies a lot. And now that I’ve had that class, it’s like every movie has an old song. I’m sitting there watching a movie and I’m like, ‘THAT’S the Andrews Sisters from 1951!”‘

Most people, including me, read this and laugh. Not a toothy mouth gaping Simpsonsesque laugh, but a nice chuckle nonetheless as we find it mildly amusing that an amazing baller would really care about 56 year old pop songs by girl bands (and the Andrew Sisters were the Spice Girls of the 30s and 40s, believe me).

Well, I laughed, but yearned for more knowledge, just what song and movie was he describing? And I know you’re curious too, so I’ll tell you what I’ve come up with.

A search search on imdb, yields:
Here are the soundtracks containing andrew sisters

1. Drei D (1988)
Bing Crosby and The Andrew Sisters

2. Life and Times of Hank Greenberg, The (1998)
Performed by the Andrew Sisters

3. Repo Man (1984)
The Andrew Sisters

4. Zacharia Farted (1998)
Performed by The Andrew Sisters

1. Hmmmmm. Was he watching Drei D, a German, part black and white, film directed by Sönke Wortmann that only gets 6.5 out of 10 stars? prolly not.

2. How about the The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg, a documentary on the first great Jewish hitter? Definite possibility, although, documentaries aren’t really what I think of when people say “movies.”

3. Directed by Mike Rohl, Zacharia Farted is described as a road movie and its tagline is

“In search of a name, a ghost, and adventure (locksmith). They found themselves.”

I’ll let that speak for itself (blogga).

It was written by an actor who plays the lead, Colin Cunningham. I think the most interesting thing about this guy is the weird morph thing he does with all his headshots on his website. Very bizarre. He looks really familiar, in that “Hey, I’m an actor and I always wear a goatee or Van Dyck, so sue me.” sort of way.

So, to sum up, I think the most interesting about Zacharia Farted is the past tense verb in its name. (I find that farting makes me giggle.)

Wait, wait! This just in: Zacharia Farted won the Audience Favourite award at the Victoria Independent Film & Video Festival in 1999. Can’t argue with that.

4. How about Repo Man, probably Emilio Estevez’s finest moment? I like to imagine Oden also yelling out “Hey this is Suicidal Tendencies from 1983!” as Institutionalized(youtube) is played. Or “This is the Burning Sensations covering Jonathan Richman’s “Pablo Picasso!” (youtube)
This has got to be it. Don’t you think?

Just imagine if needed a real Repo Man, I can think of another OSU star, he can turn to .

Well, if you’re at the Final Four and you get the chance, can you ask Greg for me which movie it was?

Thanks.

Then, when you want to download the NBC Nightly News (not sure why you would do that), search Youtube easily and save the vids locally, or play any video file on your computer, you can use the version 0.9 Democrazy Player.

Just imagine if there was a site where you could search for books and any text document…

May you live in interesting times.

Florian Schneider from Kraftwerk on the bass. Klaus Schulze from Tangerine Dream at the keyboards. And, to top it off, Marian Gold from Alphaville on lead vocals. Does it get any cheesier than this? Nothing like watching synthpop gods from one’s youth in their middle age.

Now all we need is a mashup of Kraftwerk’s “Computer World” album with Alphaville’s “Forever Young” album.

“Intervention” – Arcade Fire
Can’t wait til this is officially released. Here’s a youtube clip with the audio.

“Dashboard” – Modest Mouse
I’m so out of the loop as I just found the other day that Johnny Marr joined them. Not often that 43 year old alternative gods join en fuego indie bands.

“Sleepwalk” – Santo & Johnny
Top 10 Instrumental.

“One of These Mornings” – Moby
The version off the Miami Vice Soundtrack, not the one off Moby’s album 18. 46 seconds longer and a better arrangement. The vocals are just as repetitive, but the tempo and key are way better in the Miami Vice version.

“Silent Places” – Baby Dayliner
I really wasn’t sure what to think about this dude for the longest time, but now I know that this song is actually pretty kick ass. I can’t find the lyrics on the ‘net, I’ll have to fix that. (Adrian Grenier “Vincent Chase” of Entourage is in that video, fyi.)

“The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” – Gil Scott-Heron (youtube link)
“There will be no pictures of pigs shooting down brothers on the instant replay.”

“You Get What You Give” – New Radicals (youtube video)
” Fake computer crashes dining
Cloning while they’re multiplying”

“Feeling Good” – Nina Simone
I love the horns and strings in this song. The only thing that’s better is Nina’s voice. That last fadeout Feelin Gooooooooooooooooooood… So awesome…
(no clue what this video is about, but here it is.)

“Somewhere Across Forever” – stellastarr
“Blue eyes, blue hair, not going to leave here without you
Blew my chances, chances, chances…”

“Goodbye Horses” – Q Lazzarus
Such an awesome song. Too bad it’s sorta ruined by the Buffalo Bill treatment.

“Just Like Heaven” (acoustic) – The Cure
A great song, totally stripped down. Anybody know when it was recorded? Sounds like it was the same sessions as the original, but I”m not sure.

Extra bonus song for Valentine’s Day: Not the best quality, but a great song nonetheless, Valentine by The Replacements sung by Paul Westerberg.

Surprises:
Roxy Music at 41th overall for artists really surprised me as I only really knew them from Love is the Drug and More than This. I guess they more critical acclaim than I had realized. Kraftwerk, who I love, at 59th surprises me as well.

Highest ranked Album, Song and Artist I’ve never consciously experienced:

Can’t say I’ve really listened to: Album #32 . Massive Attack’s Blue Lines

Song, I hate to say it, but it would probably be:
#67 Elvis Presley “That’s All Right (Mama).” (I see now it was the first single he ever released, which is probably a big reason it’s on there.)

For artists, it would have to be: #85 Primal Scream
Can’t say I’ve ever heard a tune by them.

And maybe you’re wondering how the lists have been compiles?

This is really not simple to explain. Please do not despair if you do not fully understand…

I have written a program which computes the lists. The basic idea is that I match all records against each other in pairs. In a match, each critics list is weighted depending on
* the number of lists I have from different parts of world (USA, UK or the rest of the world)
** when the list was presented (newer lists are weighted more heavily)
*** how many matches the list is a part of (a list which only embraces a few years is not part of many matches and is therefore weighted heavily in the matches where it is included).

Here’s one from Fuzzbox. Check out the scary Barbarella dominatrix outfits and the marionette homage to the Thunderbirds.