This Track Is Fire!

"What's this, Michael is posting yet another old song to his music blog?" Yes, I am.  I actually owned this album on CD, purchased during a work trip to Vero Beach, Florida. I was there to help move IT equipment from one office that was closing to another nearby office, arriving on a Thursday, working all day Friday and Saturday, but had nothing but down time that Sunday. I stopped by the office to give it a triple check, then went to see Knocked Up and kill some time at Best Buy, where I bought the aforementioned CD. I listened to it in my rental car over the next two days and then left the CD in the player when I dropped my car off at the airport. When I noticed that the vinyl went on sale this past week I scooped it up and listening to it late this morning I was disappointed in myself for forgetting how great "Violent Pornography" is, though you have to remember to place your tongue firmly in cheek (just like with early Misfits tracks). So yeah, this song is...

Yesterday, May 26, was the fourth anniversary of the passing of Andrew Fletcher, co-founder of Depeche Mode. I think it is pretty clear the effect that Depeche Mode has had on me and my life , so in remembrance of Fletch's passing, I played Violator  in its entirety, because though he was a part of all of their albums (except for Memento Mori  for obvious reasons), it is well-documented that the lead track from Violator , "World In My Eyes," was his favorite Depeche Mode song. We miss you, Fletch! (I mean, how can you not love that opening synth line?) Happy Wednesday!

As far as I can remember we had cable. We weren't necessarily rich, but my dad worked at GM as a supervisor from the 70s-90s, and my pops loved TV. I am not sure when we go cable exactly, but I do remember that HBO wouldn't come on until sometime in the evening, show a few movies, and then go off the air. Eventually they started showing movies 24/7, so me being not unlike my father I also enjoyed TV. Being a kid in the 80s with HBO mean that I watched just about anything that came on, including obscure movies like Electric Dreams . Is it a great movie? Not particularly, but I was a kid with no real taste yet, so watching what I later learned to be a "modern" take on Cyrando de Bergerac featuring a computer that was linked in ways that are commonplace now (hello, smart speakers and smart homes!) wooing a young woman for an awkward nerd was just another movie that I watched several times (or more likely had on while I was playing with Legos or action figures). I don...

Sometimes you climb into your car and tell your music app to play music that you like while you're driving and it plays some song that makes you go, "that was fucking good, who was that?" In this case it was Zimbabwean-Australian singer-songwriter and hip-hop artist Tkay Maidza singing and rapping through "Must Be" and before you know it you've gone back, repeated the song four times in a row. I've already shared with my daughter, and my friends Adam and Pete because in just a couple of hours I have become obessed. Enjoy!

I love brutal songs.  Songs that if I share them people wonder if I am sad or depressed. The answer is almost always, "no," I just love miserable music, as so well-quoted in High Fidelity . This song tricks you a bit as it comes across as a ballad via duo, but in reality it's a song about two people unable to make a relationship work. I got a bad heart, got a mean streak A good way of leaving you weak Got time to kill But time don't equal love It just reminds you of The water (the water) We can't get above It's tragic and I love it. Maybe this isn't the best song to post on a Monday when my partner is traveling to another country for work, but I assure you there's no subtext, I just really love this song. Maybe you will too. Enjoy!

You know, if I really want to get people reading this music blog of mine I think the smartest thing for me to do is highlight a track that will be 51 years old in just eight days. Surely that's the way to get optimize my SEO, right? Yes, I am being highly sarcastic, but that fits with today's selection, a song written by Eric Stewart in response to his wife telling him that he did not tell her often enough that he loved her . While I eschew soft rock for the most part, I cannot deny that this song is very catchy, but more than that, I think it's one of the most sarcastic songs that I have ever heard (or perhaps it's ironic) and that just tickles me to no end. Regardless, I love it, and that's what this blog is about: tracks that are fire, no matter when they came out. Happy Friday and enjoy!

If you're looking for what's coming next from breakbeat techno, look no further than The Netherland's Ambu Bambu. One minute she sounds like the next evolution of The Crystal Method ("Laugh It Off"), but chiller, and the next she sounds like she just discovered a bonus track from Leftfield on the aforementioned "Emotion Control," which could be mixed seemlessly with  this . And while her techno DNA is clear, she sounds fresh, not derivative. I dig it. What else can I say, other than this track is fire! Emotion Control by Ambu Bambu

I love trip-hop, whether it's Massive Attack, Sneaker Pimps, Portishead, and whoever, its music that I find chill and sometimes haunting, but in a good way.  Sometimes when I listen to a new track from an old trip-hop favorite I lament the fact that the genre seems to have died out, but then I realize that just because I don't realize there are still plenty of trip-hop acts out there doesn't mean that they don't exist. And then I came across this article . You'd think that I would pick one of those acts, and I will, in a future post after I've listened for a bit and found a track that sets me alight, but my first reaction was, "these new bands are really good, but whatever happened to Hooverphonic?" The next thing I knew I was listening to them again, as I do every so many months/years. My friend Bruce shared this album with me close to 30 years ago now, but that doesn't mean that "Cinderella" isn't as fire now as it was then. Happy M...

A song so good that while in my 20s I put it on two mix tapes that I gave to the same person. Remember mix tapes? Le sigh... I try to keep this blog very current (and least with my current listening; sometimes, like now, I post old songs) and very stream of consciousness. While watching the second season finale of  Daredevil: Born Again  the other day I noticed that they ended with a Radiohead song and thought to myself, "I haven't listened to Radiohead in a while." This morning I decided to correct that and immediately "Karma Police" brought back happy feelings as well as some memories. As I referenced last week , music can be comforting, like a big, warm blanket, and again, on this Friday like last, I wanted something familiar and pleasing. Happy Friday and enjoy!

Big surprise here, that I love a song that goes boop-boop-beep, but today my anxiety is higher than usual and I needed something that makes me happy. "Clearest Blue" makes me happy. It's a good synthpop tune as it is, but man, when it starts to ramp up to that explosion around the 2:11 mark, everything is right with the world. Do something that makes you happy today, the week is half over!

I highlighted another track by Starfounder months ago and had actually queued up a different track from the same album that has been sitting in my drafts for months now, but I purchased this track last week during Bandcamp Friday and it's just the amount of beating, electronic discordance that I so love. Damn, it's good! I get vibes of 808 State "Cubik" from this, which makes me very happy. Happy Monday! Ground Zero by Starfounder

As I launch into the weekend I am looking for calm and serenity to counter the anxiety that I have been feeling the last couple (several?) weeks. While I would not call myself a fan of The Shins, I do love this particular song and can hardly believe that it's 25 years old, almost half my age. It blows my mind that 1976 is as equistant from when this came out as today. Getting old is mindblowing. Sometimes when the world is crazy you want to slip into something familiar, and today this track is a like a big warm blanket for me. Have a great weekend! Oh, Inverted World (20th Anniversary Remaster) by The Shins