bac0n's Five Star Songs

[Sven]

Blueprint -
Ministry +-
Singh +-
The Legends +
Sufjan -

[Raiders]

Well, I will agree that Sufjan is pretty awesome. Occasionally his overly orchestrated music gets annoying, but on songs like "John Wayne Gacy" and "The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades is Out to Get Us" his intimate lyrics and smooth orchestration are simply flawless.

[bac0n]

The Coffee Song crooned by Frank Sinatra

This song gets five stars for the fact that it's a song about coffee, and another fifty five stars for the fact that it's Frank Sinatra singing, and another five hundred and fifty five stars for the fact that it's Frank Sinatra singing about coffee, making this a 605 star song. Regrettably, software limits present a maximum number of stars I can give a song as a measly five, ergo, this song makes the five star song list.

Give The Chairman A Cup!

[Kurosawa Fan]

Man, am I the only one who finds "John Wayne Gacy, Jr." totally insufferable? I'm stunned that people like that song. Just stunned.

[Raiders]

Man, am I the only one who finds "John Wayne Gacy, Jr." totally insufferable? I'm stunned that people like that song. Just stunned.

Probably not. It'd be a lot cooler if you were.

[EyesWideOpen]

that Blueprint track was great, nice recommendation i'd never heard of him.

[bac0n]

that Blueprint track was great, nice recommendation i'd never heard of him.

Glad ya liked it! I'm a big fan. His album 1988 is one of my favorite hip-hop albums of the last few years.

[bac0n]

Cold Beverage by G Love & Special Sauce

With equal parts hip-hop, blues, stupid and sloppy, Cold Beverage is a great song to hear at a loud volume on a hot summer day, with a cold beverage in hand of course, because I guarantee you, if you aren't thirsty when the song starts, you sure will be by the time the song ends. Glove & Special Sausage sure pack a lotta charm into this sidewalk rant of theirs, what with his high pitched voice that sounds like a 7th grader and subject matter that delivers like a what-I-did-last-summer position paper those poor schoolkids are supposed to write their first week at school. The awesome guitar & drum work don't hurt neither.

Stick it in the Fridge

[bac0n]

Come Out And Play "re-imagined" by The Moog Cookbook

I love the Moog Cookbook, cuz it's my revenge against the overplayed to death alterna-StoneTemplePumpkinJam songs that were inescapable in the early to mid 90s. One of the most overplayed of those songs was The Offspring's Come Out And Play, you know that one song that goes "you gotta keep them separated" followed by a lotta yelling and shit. Well, on their album, The Moog Cookbook space alien guys took a cliche'd song, replaced all the guitars with Moog synths and Roland drum machines, and turned the whole affair into a space battle, replete with a laser battle and 2001 Space Odyssey references. Just try and listen to it without cracking up. I dares ya.

Offblast!

[bac0n]

Come to Me by Koop

Koop, in case you don't know, is an electronic acid Jazz outfit based out of Sweden, who assemble these breezy jazz tunes almost entirely out of reconstituted samples they've peeled from old jazz records, often times embellishing their creations with some stand-up bass and the smoky vocals of the ludicrously gorgeous Yuki Nagano. Come to Me, the first (I guess) single off their latest album, Koop Islands, is about as catchy as they come, with Nagano waxing ever so coy, in stark contrast to the angelic sounds of a choral choir floating just behind her. Meanwhile, a swing beat staccatos in the background, sprinkled with Jack Benny style brass stabs. It all comes together in a wonderfully catchy tune to play on a warm weekend evening.

Music Video

[bac0n]

Dead Passengers by Sondre Lerche

It's amazing how such a short guy (that picture is actual size) can pack so much awesome. I saw him a few years back play at a record shop. Just him and a guitar. And he brought the house down. The kid's got talent, that's for sure. The first song of his I heard is this one, and it's a very friendly piece, nice and simple, eclectic, organic, with just a hint of Scandi-pop sweetness. Has a sorta rainy day in Paris feel to it. I think my favorite part is the refrain, when the girl's voices come in with the sorta doo-doo-doo accompaniment you would expect in a lounge song (which, unfortunately, the piece of shit link below cuts a mere two seconds short of).

Listen to a clip from the CD...

...But It's A Whole Different Kinda Awesome Live.

[bac0n]

Devil's Paintbrush Road by The Wailin' Jennys

This song is a perfect example where less is more. On the CD, they have a full bluegrass backup - fiddles, washtub basin, drumkit, the usual stuff - which turns this song into more or less a squaredance. Strip it down to just The Jennys playing a bodhrán, harmonica and a mandolin, and suddenly the song becomes this desperate, bleak, morally foreboding tale of a life gone wrong.

See What I Mean

[bac0n]

Djobi, Djoba by The Gipsy Kings

What's better than an acoustic guitar? A whole helluva lotta acoustic guitars! What's better than a whole helluva lotta acoustic guitars? A whole helluva lotta acoustic guitars with some guy with balls the size of coconuts singing on top with as much gusto as the entire island of Sicily could muster! And then, when the machinegun-fast clapping begins, it's just too amazing for me to handle. An interesting piece of trivia about this band - some of them are left handed. Since they grew up poor and could only afford one or two guitars, and since they didn't wanna have to restring the guitars every time a left handed person wanted to play, the left handed members of the band learned to play holding their guitars upside down.

Live

[bac0n]

Don't Bring Me Down by The Electric Light Orchestra

There are two types of people in this world: people who love ELO, and terrorists. And that is to say, if you hate this song, you hate freedom. There. I said it. There was a time in the early to mid 80s where ELO was firing on all cylinders, decorating the airwaves with awesome song after awesome song. Hell, Jeff Lynne & Co were so awesome that they could take an otherwise pedestrian song such as Dave Edmunds' Slippin' Away, add their trademark ELO Sound, and turn it into total awesomeness. What is it about the ELO Sound that I like? It's the chorusing - the effect that makes it sound like Jeff Lynn made 12 clones of himself, gave them each a mic, and had them sing the exact same thing at the exact same time, and they did the same thing to the drums, then boosted the hi-range so that it almost sounds like the toms are made of sheet metal. These guys were light years ahead of the other guys. Electric Light Years, to be exact.

Music Video

[bac0n]

Don't Play With The Gun by dibidim

It's not often that I come across some electronica that sounds so familiar, yet unlike anything I've ever heard before, but that's what happened when I discovered these guys, dibidim, who sorta pay homage to the synth pioneers of the 70s and 80s with a decidedly old school sound, but fusing that with utterly modern production techniques, and laying on top vocals that recall Steve Mason of The Beta Band. Don't Play With The Gun is my favorite of theirs, cuz it's really two great songs for the price of one. It starts low key and playful, warning of the folly of playing with guns as one would a child. It does this for a full two verses, then completely switches gears, opening up into a wondrous analog joyrode.

Listen to it on their Myspace page.

[bac0n]

Down To This rambled by Soul Coughing

Tho not a smash success elsewhere, Soul Coughing was HUGE in Minneapolis. They would do three shows or more whenever their tour rolled through town, and each show sold out almost instantly. I tried several times to see them, but was denied in every attempt. Soul Coughing songs never cease to crack me up. Mike Doughty has such random and often patently absurd lyrics that it seldom fails to be chuckle-inducing, and most of the time makes you wonder where the hell he comes up with this stuff, and what drugs he's on (and can I have some). Couple that with the purposefully cheap-sounding drums with the skins pulled so tight that they stick out like a sore thumb, segmenting the mayhem like a tapeworm. Throw in random samples of weirdness and you have a song that I suspect is just a big practical joke played on whoever comes across it. I can honestly see the band laughing amongst themselves, saying "hahaha, wait'll they try to make sense of this one!"

Come Down To This

[bac0n]

Driftwood by Travis

Oh, if I were to have a voice like Fran Healy's... I'd never stop singing. Seriously. I wouldn't talk. Ever. I wouldn't even be typing this. I'd be singing into a mic, recording to MP3, posting on a website, and the only thing you'd see here would be a link to that file. And hell, I'd sing the URL into some voice recognition software and that'd be how I would post the URL. I'd always sing, never communicate in any other way. With a voice like Fran Healy's, any other form of communication seems to be a blathering waste of a precious, precious gift.

Listen to this song and you'll soon know why.

[bac0n]

Drive That Fast by Kitchens of Distinction

If someone were to twist my arm behind my back and force me to pick a song, one song, that I like above all other songs, I'd be hard pressed to pick any other song than this one. I just like it that incredibly much, from Dan Goodwin's driving drums, speeding at near out-of-control speeds, to Patrick Fitzgerald's brilliant vocals, at once urgent and hesitant, to my favorite, Julian Swales' brilliant, ethereal guitar work, which provides the unforgettable hook that forms the foundation of this song. I don't care what you shoegaze aficionados say: Julian Swales was without peer among shoegaze guitarists, able to perform mesmerizing solos and lay down lush soundscapes with equal aplomb. And he does both in this song, and he does it well. If I could play guitar like any one person, it would be Julian Swales.

Drive That Fast video

[D_Davis]

Drive That Fast by Kitchens of Distinction

Julian Swales was without peer among shoegaze guitarists...

A great song, and a great video, although I disagree with the above statement. His style is too derivative of Robin Guthrie's to be "without peer," but he is still really good.

[Derek]

[CENTER]Drive That Fast by Kitchens of Distinction

It was less than 10 seconds into this song before I decided I had to have the album this song is on. Great pick and this'll finally get me to check out KoD.

[D_Davis]

It was less than 10 seconds into this song before I decided I had to have the album this song is on. Great pick and this'll finally get me to check out KoD.

I'm surprised you've never checked these dudes out before. They made some amazing songs, however I've never really loved an entire album.

[bac0n]

A great song, and a great video, although I disagree with the above statement. His style is too derivative of Robin Guthrie's to be "without peer," but he is still really good.

Heh, I thought that statement would furrow some eyebrows.

Okay, I'll grant you that Robin Guthrie is pretty awesome too (he'll be making an appearance later on in this list), but personally, I like Swales' stuff better. It's just that particular combination of ingredients that I like so much.

[bac0n]

It was less than 10 seconds into this song before I decided I had to have the album this song is on. Great pick and this'll finally get me to check out KoD.

Woot, glad you liked it! This album (Strange Free World) is dynamite - several whopping great songs on it. As far as albums as a whole go, their last album Cowboys & Aliens is probably my fave, as Swales' guitar takes on a slightly sharper, more biting sound and as a whole production values are a touch better and more varied. Too bad these guys had to break up.

[bac0n]

DVNO by Justice

This is one of those songs that wouldn't strike me as much were it not for the audio trickery and effects that are peppered throughout the song. Pretty straightforward theme, simplistic beat, lyrical content that has been done a thousand times before. Yawn, right? But don't fall asleep just yet, cuz this song manages to hold interest with some seriously awesome production techniques that are done, not to be self-indulgent such as is the case with two many electronic acts these days, but to create something really fresh and cool-sounding. The vocals are lent a sort of behind-your-ears sound by means of incorporating - I'm guessing here - a lot of the new surround sound support with many software DAWs (Digital Audio Workstations like Protools, Cubase, Reason et al), resulting in a sound that bounces all over the place, cutting from extreme left in to the complete other end of the stereo spectrum, sometimes mid-syllable. I get dizzy listening to it sometimes. Add to that a cool electro-funk technique that incorporates jagged, oddly cut sampling, and shitloads of compression to give the drums one hell of a punch, and you have a song that rises above. Yeah, I'm a geek, but this song is a virtual playground for my ears.

And you totally gotta check out the video too. I'm serious. This video is totally awesome.

[D_Davis]

Justice is awesome. They're like Daft Punk when Daft Punk was awesome - a long, long time ago!