The Muppets "Sequestered In Memphis"

I had time off last week which, on the whole, was okay, but was full of doctors appointments, sick family members, a flat tire, a downed tree, power outages and other side tracks.

But through all those hassles, I kept thinking about this video, and smiling.

A radio/records person on my Facebook feed posted this and suggested that everyone play this song on 3/1.

3/1?  What happens on 3/1?

It took me a while to put it together, but, aha!  The government's "Sequestration" cuts take effect on 3/1.

So, in the face of crippling budget wacks, please enjoy these Muppets singing a Hold Steady tune.


See the video on Youtube.

Ben Folds Five "Do It Anyway"

Late Sunday morning, we were sitting in friend's backyard when someone mentioned Bloody Marys, and suddenly, we were at the Quahog Republic.

The Quahog Republic makes a killer Bloody Mary, but the coup de grace is that instead of giving you a swizzle stick, they put a giant piece of vodka-soaked bacon in your glass.  Man, do I love bacon.

I was marveling at the salt-n-peppery deliciousness of my drink, when one of my friends suggested that you could make the drink even more indulgent by making it chocolate-covered bacon, which is something she'd recently run across.

I stammered out something about how that would just be too much, too too much.  I don't think my mind could compute that level of excess.

That's kind of how I felt when I stumbled upon this video today.

I was an enormous fan of Ben Folds Five, back in the 90s.  And word of their recent reformation, with a full album and tour, just seemed to good to be true.

I am also an enormous fan of all things Muppets (as evidenced by the many many posts about them on this blog), including the beloved, but rarely-spotted-these-days Fraggles.

Just the first few seconds of the video had me stammering "Ben . . . Fraggles . . . Folds . . . video . . . gaaaahhh . . . "

So for those of you practicing for the SATs:

"Chocolate Covering" is to "Bacon," as "Ben Folds Five reunion" is to "Fraggle Rock returning."

Make sure you watch all the way to the end of the music video for a fun extra, and check out the "making of" on the video below that.




See the video on Youtube.


See the making of, on Youtube.

Robin Frog (Jerry Nelson) "Halfway Down The Stairs"

One of the interesting tidbits appearing in the obituaries to Muppeteer Jerry Nelson, was that he had a surprising left field hit in the UK, when a song from the first season of "The Muppet Show" was released there.

Nelson's character Robin The Frog sings this little ditty, which is actually an AA Milne poem set to music.

And if (and only if) you really feel like bawling your eyes out, follow this link and check out the video of Nelson, singing at Jim Henson's memorial.


Hear the song on Youtube.

Kimbra "Settle Down"

By the time my daughter was one year old, she was walking, and she could say about a dozen words.

By the time she was 18 months, she could say 50-plus words.  Which was hilarious, because she was so small our pediatricians were concerned that she wasn't even ON the growth chart---she was in the "zero" percentile.  She was the size of a 10 month old, but she was completely conversational.

This being the only child I've ever had, that level of development was the standard-bearer.

So when my son was 18 months and he really wasn't saying any words, we decided to get him tested (plug for Early Intervention here!  They do free testing, and they were super!).  We knew his comprehension was great---he understood what you said.  And his communication skills were solid---he could point and grunt his way to whatever he wanted.  But she showed absolutely no interest in even trying to say a word.

Long story short, the testing suggested that he really didn't have anything wrong, or need any special help.  He'd talk when he felt like it.

Flash-forward to his 2nd birthday, this month.  As predicted, he got the notion that trying to say words yielded some positive results.  Let it be known that among his first two-dozen words were "Treat," "Pop" (as in, Lollipop), "Cheese" and "Done!"

More important than just knowing how to ask for delicious foodstuffs and how to communicate "Enough with the food, already!", he is trying to say words.

"Feet" might still come out "Beat" and "Gramma" is still only "Gaa," but he's excited when he makes a new sound.

I think that's why there are certain songs he responds to.  If the tune has a vocal hook that he can latch onto, he's sold.

After my wife went nuts for the Gotye song, she went searching for some solo Kimbra songs.  "Settle Down" became one of her favorites.  And it quickly became one of his.

He doesn't quite have the proper rhythm of the "boom, ba-boom, ba, boom, ba-boom, ba," but he tries.

"Boom, boom, ah!  Boom, boom-ah!"

Funny enough, I wonder if, years from now, he'll put the Kimbra song in the same place in his mind, as another song with a catchy vocal hook.

You'll see him trying to do it.

"Mlllmm, Mllmm.  Mlllmm, Mllmm."

And I know that it's time to bring The Muppets up on Youtube, because nothing says "I understand exactly what you are trying to say, loud and clear," like a round of "Mahna, Mahna" and "Boom, Ba-boom, Ba"!


Hear the song on Youtube.


Hear the song on Youtube.

Andrew Bird "The Whistling Caruso"

It was my wife's birthday this weekend, and how psyched was I that her brother gave her "The Muppets" on DVD?

Answer: Very psyched.

I'm definitely a life-long fan of Sesame Street/The Muppets, and am also a big fan of actor Jason Segel, who stars in the film, and co-wrote it too. And many of the songs were written by Bret McKenzie of the band Flight Of The Conchords. AND the film is filled with don't-blink-or-you'll-miss-em cameos---there's Mickey Rooney! Was that Feist? Look at the drummer, it's Dave Grohl!

But the craziest little tidbit comes at the end of the film.

(SPOILER ALERT)

Young, nervous Muppet, Walter, finally gets the nerve up to perform on the Muppet Theater stage, and his performance is . . . whistling.

Which I thought was odd.

But then the song builds and the whistling becomes so amazing I said to myself, "I wonder if they're creating the whistling with some kind of synthesized instrument. Because the only person I know who could pull off a performance like that is Andrew Bird."

Guess what? I scanned the credits (mostly to see if Animal would appear, yelling "Go Home!"). It WAS Andrew Bird.

Yeah, yeah, you say. Big deal. Whistling. Anyone can whistle.

Take a look at your socks. Because in 60 seconds, you're going to have to search elsewhere for them, as they will have been knocked off.

Listen here:


Walter, performing "The Whistling Caruso"

And I'd be remiss if I didn't point you to Bret McKenzie's Oscar winning tune "Man Or Muppet"

Hear it on Youtube.

Lots of great songs on this soundtrack . . .

OK Go "The Muppet Show Theme"

Well, you've probably already seen this, unless you don't have internet access at work (or they block Youtube).

Since it's the weekend and you might have more time to check it out, I figured I'd post it. Make sure you watch to the end!

On a side note I noticed that here (and also in the trailer for the new Muppet Movie) they have brought back Crazy Harry the mad bomber Muppet, who had largely disappeared in the Post 9/11 World, where bearded fanatics blowing things up just isn't quite so funny anymore.


See the video on Youtube.

Blur "Coffee & TV"

Here's another Weekend Post:

Continuing yesterday's Muppet thing . . . this 90s video from Blur features an anthropomorphic milk carton, designed by Jim Henson's Creature Shop.

(And check out the tease/parody Muppet movie trailers below)


See the video on Youtube.


See the trailer on Youtube.


And another teaser trailer on Youtube.

Weekend posts are a chance to revisit songs that have happy memories, not of anything in particular, other than just hearing the tunes.

Many of these songs were tracks that I played during my 90s stint as an Alternative/Modern Rock radio show. They're tunes that I hardly hear these days, but are wonderful to revisit.

Click on the "Weekend Posts" label below, to see other posts like this.

Supergrass "Pumping On Your Stereo"

Here's another Weekend Post:

I've had Muppets on the brain this week in anticipation of the new Muppet movie due out in the fall.

I was reminded of a couple of awesome 90s music videos that featured the work of Jim Henson's Creature Shop," including this super-fun one from Supergrass.


See the video on Youtube.


See the Muppet trailer on Youtube.

Weekend posts are a chance to revisit songs that have happy memories, not of anything in particular, other than just hearing the tunes.

Many of these songs were tracks that I played during my 90s stint as an Alternative/Modern Rock radio show. They're tunes that I hardly hear these days, but are wonderful to revisit.

Click on the "Weekend Posts" label below, to see other posts like this.

Hanson "Mmm Bop"

I spent 6 years in radio---my first 6 years in radio---at a station that played Top 40.

And yes, a lot of what hits the Top 40 is inane drivel. Pap. Garbage.

Silly Pop songs that don't have the gravitas of a Fluffernutter sandwich.

But not "Mmm Bop."

Sure, when I first heard this song, I was ready to dismiss it. The chorus is ridiculously catchy, yet requires no knowledge of a spoken language. I saw that it was performed by young boys so precocious they practically qualified as Muppets. And the Request Line phone calls from hyperventilating teenage girls . . . Oy!

But then I heard an interview with one of the Muppets who explained that an "Mmm Bop" was a split-second. That in the larger picture, our time on Earth is nothing but a blip, and then it's gone. Gone in an Mmm Bop.

That's right, Ladies and Gentlemen, "Mmm Bop" is about death.

"Mmm Bop" is about the temporal nature of our corporal being. It asks the existential question of "Who will still care?" when you look up one day and you have become old and irrelevant.

So next time you hear this song and you start to mock it as a sugary trifle, know that the song, and the universe, are paying your disdain no mind, as you will be gone and forgotten in an Mmm Bop.

Hanson, introduced by Kelsey Grammer. How 1998!

Ernie “Rubber Duckie”

One of the most famous film lessons of Less Is More, came by accident. Failure even.

You perhaps know the story about how Steven Spielberg had a menacing mechanical shark made for the movie Jaws, but the robotic shark didn’t work too well.

Spielberg just wasn’t going to get these awesome action shots of the metal beast in action. But principle photography was already underway, so he had to shoot around the lack of a shark.

In the finished product, NOT being able to fully see the shark for most of the movie, is actually what made the movie so tense.

But it was all by success by subtraction.

Joe Moss, head writer in the early days of Sesame Street, had written a bath-time ditty for Ernie the Muppet to sing. It was the composer’s job to instruct the studio musicians on the instrumentation.

The story goes, that Moss came to the studio with a box of 100 Rubber Ducks, to create a giant squeaky chorus of Duckies behind Ernie. However, he was informed by the studio engineer that each Duck was considered a single instrument, and as such, he’d have to pay the Union rate for 100 musicians, to get his Duck chorus.

And here, Moss must have embraced Less, as More.

Please enjoy the charm of a single duck squeaking, on the classic (and #16 Billboard hit!), Rubber Duckie.