While PJ is on vacation, he's tossing out some improvised songs.
On the surface, this scene from "Elf" might just seem silly or stupid.
But it is no easy feat as a performer that Will Ferrell manages to make his improvised song both totally hilarious and gut-wrenchingly painful.
Think I'm kidding? Try it sometime. You don't even have to sing. Just write a sentence that makes people burst out laughing, while filling them with empathetic sadness. I wouldn't even know where to begin.
That's genius.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Jason Segel "Call Me"
While PJ is on vacation, he's tossing out some improvised songs.
Sort of unfortunately, one of the great improvised songs that I would put on this week's list, is a song I'd already written about.
The good news is that The Swell Season lead me to this. I would say that it isn't necessarily fully improvised, but I'd guess that this song wasn't written too long before this video was shot either.
And that's all I'll say, as the song otherwise certainly speaks for itself.
Sort of unfortunately, one of the great improvised songs that I would put on this week's list, is a song I'd already written about.
The good news is that The Swell Season lead me to this. I would say that it isn't necessarily fully improvised, but I'd guess that this song wasn't written too long before this video was shot either.
And that's all I'll say, as the song otherwise certainly speaks for itself.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Ingrid Michaelson "Lost Song"
While PJ is on vacation, he's tossing out some improvised songs.
If you have the dual talent of being spontaneously funny, and musically talented, it can lead to some great live, improvised moments, like this one from Ingrid Michaelson, who between songs, tries to explain when the hell had been happening on "Lost."
If you have the dual talent of being spontaneously funny, and musically talented, it can lead to some great live, improvised moments, like this one from Ingrid Michaelson, who between songs, tries to explain when the hell had been happening on "Lost."
Monday, March 7, 2011
The Replacements "Lovelines"
So I'm writing this post at the end of February, my vacation just hours away, and I don't have my blog covered during my time away.
What to do. Think, man, think.
And the word "improvise" comes to mind.
You don't have a solution? Improvise.
And that simple thought reminds me that I wanted to do a series of posts on songs with improvised lyrics.
So that's what I'll do! Here we go . . .
What a joy, after years of listening to this song, to discover this newspaper article, explaining the origin of "Lovelines."
From The Replacements sloppy masterpiece "Hootenanny," the song "Lovelines" is the band in a simple rock groove, with singer Paul Westerberg reading lines from the personals as his lyrics.
Hilarious!
What to do. Think, man, think.
And the word "improvise" comes to mind.
You don't have a solution? Improvise.
And that simple thought reminds me that I wanted to do a series of posts on songs with improvised lyrics.
So that's what I'll do! Here we go . . .
What a joy, after years of listening to this song, to discover this newspaper article, explaining the origin of "Lovelines."
Hilarious!
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Buckner & Garcia "Pac Man Fever"
Yesterday's post led me to this one. Good Gravy, the 80s were silly.
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Men Without Hats "Safety Dance"
So you're headed to Austin, Texas for South By Southwest, to check out the Next Big Thing? The cutting edge band of the future? The best 2011 has to offer?
Don't miss Men Without Hats!!!
Don't miss Men Without Hats!!!
Friday, March 4, 2011
Los Lonely Boys "Fly Away"
Jesse Barnett of Right Arm Resource is our guest blogger this week. He spends his days on the phone with radio stations across the country, advocating for records he believes in. While PJ is on vacation, Jesse talks to you about 5 new songs he thinks radio, and you, will love.
“The time has come when we must leave you, sorry we are but we must go.”
Bet you didn’t see a quote from the Casper theme song coming, did you? I’m like that.
Next week you’ll have PJ back, flaunting his encyclopedic knowledge in front of you like an SNL-era Dennis Miller emceeing the Newport Folk Festival. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading my posts for the last few days as much I did writing them. At the very least, I hope I turned you on to some great new music.
For my last entry of the week, I’m picking a band I’ve had a lot of experience with. Back in 2003, my former assistant was the promotion guy at a little record label named Or Music. At a conference for non-commercial radio programmers in Louisville, KY, the label held an early morning showcase for a couple of their artists. It’s not common to have early morning artist showcases at conferences, you can imagine, because the coffee hasn’t quite kicked in yet.
When Los Lonely Boys took the stage in a too-small room, their harmonies, guitar antics and unique brand of “Texican Rock And Roll” was all anyone needed to get their hearts racing for the rest of the week. It’s rare to have a conference performance that everyone collectively points to as ‘the moment,’ but this was indeed one of them.
That performance was the beginning of a long successful road for brothers Henry, Jojo and Ringo Garza (yes, a drummer whose real name is Ringo. You can’t make this stuff up sometimes.) The single “Heaven” from that self-titled debut album rose to the top of the airplay charts and the disc went multi-platinum.
The band followed up with two more original studio albums, Sacred in 2006 and Forgiven in 2008, as well as an ep of covers from 1969 and an acoustic live disc.
Now on their own label, the band is back with Rockpango, their first original studio album in three years. A Spanglish word coined by the band, Rockpango translates more or less to “rock party,” and that’s exactly what the 11-track collection is. The first single, “Fly Away,” is everything you love about Los Lonely Boys, especially those crazy-tight harmonies that can only come from spending an entire lifetime (or three) singing together.
Relix has the exclusive first listen for the single. Check it out here:
Relix - Audio - Artist Exclusives - World Premiere: Los Lonely Boys "Fly Away"
Read a little more about Jesse in this previous post, and visit his site at Right Arm Resource.
“The time has come when we must leave you, sorry we are but we must go.”
Bet you didn’t see a quote from the Casper theme song coming, did you? I’m like that.
Next week you’ll have PJ back, flaunting his encyclopedic knowledge in front of you like an SNL-era Dennis Miller emceeing the Newport Folk Festival. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading my posts for the last few days as much I did writing them. At the very least, I hope I turned you on to some great new music.
For my last entry of the week, I’m picking a band I’ve had a lot of experience with. Back in 2003, my former assistant was the promotion guy at a little record label named Or Music. At a conference for non-commercial radio programmers in Louisville, KY, the label held an early morning showcase for a couple of their artists. It’s not common to have early morning artist showcases at conferences, you can imagine, because the coffee hasn’t quite kicked in yet.
When Los Lonely Boys took the stage in a too-small room, their harmonies, guitar antics and unique brand of “Texican Rock And Roll” was all anyone needed to get their hearts racing for the rest of the week. It’s rare to have a conference performance that everyone collectively points to as ‘the moment,’ but this was indeed one of them.
That performance was the beginning of a long successful road for brothers Henry, Jojo and Ringo Garza (yes, a drummer whose real name is Ringo. You can’t make this stuff up sometimes.) The single “Heaven” from that self-titled debut album rose to the top of the airplay charts and the disc went multi-platinum.
The band followed up with two more original studio albums, Sacred in 2006 and Forgiven in 2008, as well as an ep of covers from 1969 and an acoustic live disc.
Now on their own label, the band is back with Rockpango, their first original studio album in three years. A Spanglish word coined by the band, Rockpango translates more or less to “rock party,” and that’s exactly what the 11-track collection is. The first single, “Fly Away,” is everything you love about Los Lonely Boys, especially those crazy-tight harmonies that can only come from spending an entire lifetime (or three) singing together.
Relix has the exclusive first listen for the single. Check it out here:
Relix - Audio - Artist Exclusives - World Premiere: Los Lonely Boys "Fly Away"
Read a little more about Jesse in this previous post, and visit his site at Right Arm Resource.
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Sahara Smith "Are You Lonely?"
Jesse Barnett of Right Arm Resource is our guest blogger this week. He spends his days on the phone with radio stations across the country, advocating for records he believes in. While PJ is on vacation, Jesse talks to you about 5 new songs he thinks radio, and you, will love.
Penultimate [pi-nuhl-tuh-mit] adj: next to the last.
As in, this is the ‘penultimate’ blog post I get to write for PJ.
You’re sad. I know. Let’s not focus on that. Let’s just enjoy the little time we have left together.
I’ll start today’s post with a little primer. T Bone Burnett is one of the most celebrated people in the music business . An artist, a songwriter, a producer… just the first few things that come to mind. He has shepherded many of the most acclaimed projects of the last ten years including the soundtracks to O Brother Where Art Thou, Crazy Heart and Walk The Line. His production work on Robert Plant and Alison Krauss’ Raising Sand earned him Grammy statues for Album Of The Year and Record Of The Year in 2009.
So when T Bone Burnett calls Sahara Smith “the best new artist I have heard in many years,” folks should pay attention.
Sahara Smith grew up outside of Austin and started performing when she was just 12 years old. She garnered national attention at the age of 15, coming in second place in a contest for young songwriters for A Prairie Home Companion.
Burnett called in some of his key session players to work on Smith’s Myth Of The Heart and the result is a gorgeous collection of songs that invoke a steamy Texas night. The first single, “The Real Thing” had her cooing in your ear “why don’t we drive all night and wake up in Laredo?”
Um. Ok. Has anyone seen my keys?
Her new single, “Are You Lonely,” is at radio now and it’s another showcase of her fantastic songwriting:
And tonight I'm gonna go downtown
There's a bar on San Jacinto where all the lonely people go to get useless.
And if it's true what they say about you must be true what they say about me too.
God it's getting hard to know what the truth is.
If you forget me in the morning that's alright cause I'll forget you too.
Combine that with her sultry voice asking you if you’re lonely. Well, you get the idea.
Check out the video below to hear the song while Sahara winds her way around downtown Austin:
Read a little more about Jesse in this previous post, and visit his site at Right Arm Resource.
Penultimate [pi-nuhl-tuh-mit] adj: next to the last.
As in, this is the ‘penultimate’ blog post I get to write for PJ.
You’re sad. I know. Let’s not focus on that. Let’s just enjoy the little time we have left together.
I’ll start today’s post with a little primer. T Bone Burnett is one of the most celebrated people in the music business . An artist, a songwriter, a producer… just the first few things that come to mind. He has shepherded many of the most acclaimed projects of the last ten years including the soundtracks to O Brother Where Art Thou, Crazy Heart and Walk The Line. His production work on Robert Plant and Alison Krauss’ Raising Sand earned him Grammy statues for Album Of The Year and Record Of The Year in 2009.
So when T Bone Burnett calls Sahara Smith “the best new artist I have heard in many years,” folks should pay attention.
Sahara Smith grew up outside of Austin and started performing when she was just 12 years old. She garnered national attention at the age of 15, coming in second place in a contest for young songwriters for A Prairie Home Companion.
Burnett called in some of his key session players to work on Smith’s Myth Of The Heart and the result is a gorgeous collection of songs that invoke a steamy Texas night. The first single, “The Real Thing” had her cooing in your ear “why don’t we drive all night and wake up in Laredo?”
Um. Ok. Has anyone seen my keys?
Her new single, “Are You Lonely,” is at radio now and it’s another showcase of her fantastic songwriting:
And tonight I'm gonna go downtown
There's a bar on San Jacinto where all the lonely people go to get useless.
And if it's true what they say about you must be true what they say about me too.
God it's getting hard to know what the truth is.
If you forget me in the morning that's alright cause I'll forget you too.
Combine that with her sultry voice asking you if you’re lonely. Well, you get the idea.
Check out the video below to hear the song while Sahara winds her way around downtown Austin:
Read a little more about Jesse in this previous post, and visit his site at Right Arm Resource.
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Ivan & Alyosha "Fathers Be Kind"
Jesse Barnett of Right Arm Resource is our guest blogger this week. He spends his days on the phone with radio stations across the country, advocating for records he believes in. While PJ is on vacation, Jesse talks to you about 5 new songs he thinks radio, and you, will love.
We’re halfway to the finish line.
PJ’s coming home in a couple days and I can only hope he doesn’t regret his decision to let me sit in the captain’s chair.
The bad thing about vacations for radio programmers is, when you get back, the stack of the music on your desk is ridiculously high. Sometimes, without someone prodding you to listen to a particular project, it gets lost in the shuffle.
I can’t complain about this too much because I’m guilty of doing this myself. A manager I knew reached out to me at the beginning of the year about an ep for a band he was working with out of Seattle. And the download link sat in my inbox, ready to check out.
And sat there.
Then one morning I got an email from a regular client, whose impeccable taste and opinion is questioned by no one, telling me, basically “Hey idiot – would you listen to this guy’s band already? You’ll love it.”
Sometimes that’s all it takes.
It only took one listen.
The members of Ivan & Alyosha have been playing together since 2007. (Spoiler alert: no one in the band is named Ivan or Alyosha. They’re characters from Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov. You know, the book you lied about reading to the girl in the cute librarian glasses.) It wasn’t until the 2010 South By Southwest festival that they started to gain notoriety. NPR’s All Songs Considered picked them as part of their conference preview and one of their songs was later featured as NPR’s Song Of The Day.
Their ep called Fathers Be Kind was released last month and features five songs that celebrate the trend of glorious indie rock harmonizing. For a refresher, refer to the performances of Mumford & Sons and The Avett Bros that dropped jaws on the Grammys this year (and for a non-nationally-televised band, read up on personal favorite Good Old War).
The title track, “Fathers Be Kind,” is a plea to parents to do right by their offspring. “Fathers be kind to your children, you know it matters what you tell them, you gotta feel for them, you gotta steal for them.”
I’m a father of a ten-year-old son and a seven-going-on-seventeen-year-old daughter. Let’s just say it didn’t take much to suck me in to this one. Let’s see if it does the same for you.
Read a little more about Jesse in this previous post, and visit his site at Right Arm Resource.
We’re halfway to the finish line.
PJ’s coming home in a couple days and I can only hope he doesn’t regret his decision to let me sit in the captain’s chair.
The bad thing about vacations for radio programmers is, when you get back, the stack of the music on your desk is ridiculously high. Sometimes, without someone prodding you to listen to a particular project, it gets lost in the shuffle.
I can’t complain about this too much because I’m guilty of doing this myself. A manager I knew reached out to me at the beginning of the year about an ep for a band he was working with out of Seattle. And the download link sat in my inbox, ready to check out.
And sat there.
Then one morning I got an email from a regular client, whose impeccable taste and opinion is questioned by no one, telling me, basically “Hey idiot – would you listen to this guy’s band already? You’ll love it.”
Sometimes that’s all it takes.
It only took one listen.
The members of Ivan & Alyosha have been playing together since 2007. (Spoiler alert: no one in the band is named Ivan or Alyosha. They’re characters from Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov. You know, the book you lied about reading to the girl in the cute librarian glasses.) It wasn’t until the 2010 South By Southwest festival that they started to gain notoriety. NPR’s All Songs Considered picked them as part of their conference preview and one of their songs was later featured as NPR’s Song Of The Day.
Their ep called Fathers Be Kind was released last month and features five songs that celebrate the trend of glorious indie rock harmonizing. For a refresher, refer to the performances of Mumford & Sons and The Avett Bros that dropped jaws on the Grammys this year (and for a non-nationally-televised band, read up on personal favorite Good Old War).
The title track, “Fathers Be Kind,” is a plea to parents to do right by their offspring. “Fathers be kind to your children, you know it matters what you tell them, you gotta feel for them, you gotta steal for them.”
I’m a father of a ten-year-old son and a seven-going-on-seventeen-year-old daughter. Let’s just say it didn’t take much to suck me in to this one. Let’s see if it does the same for you.
Read a little more about Jesse in this previous post, and visit his site at Right Arm Resource.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Edie Brickell "Pill"
Jesse Barnett of Right Arm Resource is our guest blogger this week. He spends his days on the phone with radio stations across the country, advocating for records he believes in. While PJ is on vacation, Jesse talks to you about 5 new songs he thinks radio, and you, will love.
And we’re back.
Day two of PJ’s vacation, and the valiant effort to make our case for some worthy music continues. Thanks for being in this with me for the long haul. You’re a giver. Don’t ever let anyone tell you differently.
Think back to the late 80’s. Pop radio is dominated by such timeless classics as Bobby Brown’s “My Perogative” and Poison’s “Every Rose Has It’s Thorn.”
Oh shush, you know you turned ‘em up. Just accept it and move on.
But then, in between the heavy beats and the raise-your-Zippo anthems, there came a simple song of personal acceptance, where philosophy was the talk on a cereal box and religion was the smile on a dog. Edie Brickell & New Bohemians’ “What I Am.”
And you were the one to correct all of your minions… “Nooo… not THE New Bohemians, just New Bohemians.” Like Smokey Bear, not Smokey The Bear. It’s true. Look it up.
“What I Am” went top 10 and the album Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars went double platinum. Although the success of the song was never matched by the band again, Edie Brickell’s comforting and conversational vocal style was now ingrained in our heads forever.
For much of the next 20-some-odd years, Ms. Edie Brickell spent much of her time as Mrs. Paul Simon, focused on raising kids and having a great family life. She released solo work, another project with New Bohemians, and a project known as Heavy Circles with her stepson Harper Simon.
Fast forward to 2011. The kids are grown and Edie’s on a tear. Songs that have been in the works since her last solo album in 2003 are now seeing the light of the day on her new self-titled album that came out right after the new year. Not content to put out just one project, two weeks later saw the release of The Gaddabouts, a collaboration with Steve Gadd, Pino Palladino and Andy Fairweather Low.
The press has been kind to both projects, and Edie is starting to get some face time again. She appeared on Jimmy Fallon and opened for Iron & Wine at Radio City Music Hall in January, and is slated to play at Jazzfest this year.
The first single from her solo album is called “Pill,” a sardonic take on our need to find a quick fix to cure our daily woes. Edie’s warm vocals, timely lyrics and pointed chorus (“They got a pill for that”) make for another classic. The new animated video does a nice job of illustrating the point as well. Enjoy.
Read a little more about Jesse in this previous post, and visit his site at Right Arm Resource.
And we’re back.
Day two of PJ’s vacation, and the valiant effort to make our case for some worthy music continues. Thanks for being in this with me for the long haul. You’re a giver. Don’t ever let anyone tell you differently.
Think back to the late 80’s. Pop radio is dominated by such timeless classics as Bobby Brown’s “My Perogative” and Poison’s “Every Rose Has It’s Thorn.”
Oh shush, you know you turned ‘em up. Just accept it and move on.
But then, in between the heavy beats and the raise-your-Zippo anthems, there came a simple song of personal acceptance, where philosophy was the talk on a cereal box and religion was the smile on a dog. Edie Brickell & New Bohemians’ “What I Am.”
And you were the one to correct all of your minions… “Nooo… not THE New Bohemians, just New Bohemians.” Like Smokey Bear, not Smokey The Bear. It’s true. Look it up.
“What I Am” went top 10 and the album Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars went double platinum. Although the success of the song was never matched by the band again, Edie Brickell’s comforting and conversational vocal style was now ingrained in our heads forever.
For much of the next 20-some-odd years, Ms. Edie Brickell spent much of her time as Mrs. Paul Simon, focused on raising kids and having a great family life. She released solo work, another project with New Bohemians, and a project known as Heavy Circles with her stepson Harper Simon.
Fast forward to 2011. The kids are grown and Edie’s on a tear. Songs that have been in the works since her last solo album in 2003 are now seeing the light of the day on her new self-titled album that came out right after the new year. Not content to put out just one project, two weeks later saw the release of The Gaddabouts, a collaboration with Steve Gadd, Pino Palladino and Andy Fairweather Low.
The press has been kind to both projects, and Edie is starting to get some face time again. She appeared on Jimmy Fallon and opened for Iron & Wine at Radio City Music Hall in January, and is slated to play at Jazzfest this year.
The first single from her solo album is called “Pill,” a sardonic take on our need to find a quick fix to cure our daily woes. Edie’s warm vocals, timely lyrics and pointed chorus (“They got a pill for that”) make for another classic. The new animated video does a nice job of illustrating the point as well. Enjoy.
Read a little more about Jesse in this previous post, and visit his site at Right Arm Resource.
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