Brit/Australian songwriter/actor/comedian Tim Minchin, ladies and germs. As Jack Nicholson famously said of Bob Dylan -- this guy's a riot.
I am embarrassed to admit it, but I was unaware of Minchin until I chanced across the above by acccident over at YouTube the other day. In any case, it's one of the most brilliantly funny things I've encountered in far too long, and there's lots more where that came from. Word to the wise.
P.S.: As you'll notice, the subtitles are almost -- unconsciously, if that is the apt word -- funnier than the actual lyrics.
P.P.S.: Minchin gets extra points from me for the Victor Borge reference near the end. 😎
From 1987, and the evocatively titled In the Heart of the Heart Country, please enjoy Madison, Wisconsin-based folk rockers Fire Town and their sublimely jangly "Carry the Torch."
As is so often the case these days, the song popped into my head unbidden over the weekend. The backstory is that the indie album that it's from crossed my desk at Stereo Review with no advance warning, and it will surprise nobody to learn that the main reason I gave it a spin immediately was due to the Vox guitar posed so enticingly on the right hand side of the album cover.
As for Fire Town, they got signed soon after to Atlantic, who re-released the album; alas, it still refused to sell despite my raving about it in the pages of SR. Two of the band members, however, went on to form Garbage with Shirley Manson, and the rest, as they say, is history.
That said, the whole album is great; I think I have a complete download of it somewhere, so if the above piques your curiosity, gimme a holler and I'll send you a zip file.
And with that bit of vaguely onanistic tooting of my own horn (as it were) out of the way, we proceed directly and inexorably to the subject of today's business. To wit:
...and the best/most apppopriate closing track to a great post-Elvis rock/pop/soul/folk/country album is...???
Discuss.
Attentive readers will recall that two weeks ago we did the (as it were) flip side of this, i.e. best opening track, and as previously, there are no arbitrary rules for this one either. Hey -- if you want to pick something as silly as Abbey Road's "Her Majesty..." go for it. We won't sit anywhere near you, of course, but still -- knock yourself out!!!
In any case, my nominee -- which I suspect some of you will have seen coming down Queens Boulevard -- is this truly astounding piece of gorgeosity.
Ah, "Moonlight Mile." I should add that it's particularly noteworthy for a couple of reasons, starting with the fact that the album it's from opens with "Brown Sugar," which is surely a Top 5 contender for best lead-off song ever. I should also add that it's the only great Stones track on which Keith Richards does not play guitar (yup, it's all Mick Taylor), and that the orchestral arrangement, which to my ears channels Ralph Vaughan-Williams magnificently, is as beautiful as it is unexpected. Damn, that Paul Buckmaster really was a freaking genius.
Plus Jagger's vocal is non pareil. I mean, the melisma is truly melismatic, if you catch my drift. 😎
I mean, is this real? Or is it some bizarre, psychotic manufactured-by-management unholy schtup between/commercial mashup of The Beatles and One Direction?
Perhaps you can make the call after checking out these kids' official website OVER HERE.
In all seriousness, I chanced across the above by accident the other day and for the life of me I can't decide what I think about it. Help me out here, folks!!! 😎
In my defense, commercially she's closer to a cult figure than a household word like Taylor Swift, but still.
Anyway, I just love everything about this, including the lyrics and the wonderful backing band. Plus, let's just say that whatever "it" is, CMAT (pronounced See-Matt, in case you were wondering) has it in impressive quantities.
Bottom line: this has given me more hope for slowing/reversing the artistic decline of 21st century popular music than (almost) anything I've heard since Amy Winehouse joined that stupid 27 Club.
Well, I think we all know the answer to THAT. 😎
In any event, in honor of Independence Day weekend please enjoy Bill Pullman, the greatest president of the United States who was never president of the United States...
...no, wait, in the era of President Inepstein that's not even a particularly good joke.
Sorry.
What I meant to say was please enjoy The Hollies and their killer live cover of Bruce Springsteen's "4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)." A song which is something of an annual tradition around these here parts.
And obviously because nothing says "an American holiday" like a bunch of whey-faced Limeys singing in three part harmony. 😎😎
In the meantime -- have a great weekend, everybody! And stay as cool as possible!!!
So last weekend we were at a very cool record store in Worcester, MA...
...and what did our wondering eyes behold but the following. (In case you're visually impaired, they're rubber duckies for the bathtub and you can click on the images to enlarge).
Anyway, they tototally cracked me up. Particularly Aviary Grande. 😎
They're the work of a company aptly called Celebriducks; they cost approximately 20 bucks each, and they are now my official go-to gag gifts for every occasion.
You can order them over at Amazon, and you can see more of them at the official company page OVER HERE.
And no, the above has nothing to do with the theme of tomorrow's Weekend Essay Question. 😎 😎
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