Music Break 3

Time for a break, what a better way to spend it than listening to what’s randomly playing on my Zen Vision: M mp3 player! Here’s what’s playing!

Jump Around by House of Pain…. This song reminds me so much of 1993 that it’s not even funny. It was during the big Beastie Boys redux and everyone seemed to be into this new kind of hip hop/rock thing that went way beyond what Run DMC and Aerosmith did years before. Once again, music from the high school days seem to kinda run a soundtrack to your life and this song popped up right between my Junior and Senior years. Aside from this song I wasn’t really a fan, but it was fun and obnoxious and loud at when ur 17 that’s all you really need. Though I did kinda like what the one guy did later on when he came out w/ his solo rap whatever album. Whitey or something, right? I dunno…

Foolish Beat by Debbie Gibson…… Ah, Ms. Gibson, what I wouldn’t have given up for you when I was 12 years old. Now she’s Deborah and still totally hot and I’m not ashamed of any of it! My friend Richard and I actually split the cost of the cassette of this album (Out of the Blue, for you too young or too ashamed to admit you know) and promptly copied it and he got the copy and I got the original. So I was sharing music way before the internet made it cool and accessible. I wonder if the RIAA knows about this and is going to come to take back my tape collection. Anyhow, in the Tiffany/ Debbie debates I always went w/ Debbie. She wrote all of her own songs you know!! Not bad for a 16 or 17 year old or whatever she was at the time. Anyhow, Debbie, you always have a special pre-pubescent place in my heart, which is beating to some Foolish Beat right now.

Hand In my Pocket by Alanis Morrisette….Okay, so not only is Alanis really God, she rocks. If you don’t get that, go see Dogma, duh! I’m sure everyone and their mother had a copy of Jagged Little Pill, and though my mother actually didn’t, I did. And despite everyone claiming that her album was full of angry woman rants, I found it quite mellow in places. And this one was supposed to be about masturbation, which is why I guess her hand is in her pocket. Though you think she’d find a better time for that than when she’s hailing a taxi cab, but to each their own. If so, this song goes in the same category as She Bop and Dancin With Myself and Turning Japanese, all songs supposedly about that, but apparently, not. Is this the video where she’s naked? If not, I still like that video. I’ve always thought Alanis was hot and having her being even blurry naked was cool. I listened to this album a whole bunch of times before I sold the CD to help pay for rent many moons ago. Did you know that a CD you buy for ten bucks will only give u a return of about fifty cents? And no, not 50 Cent’s new CD, actually two bits. Which personally is about what I think the value of any of 50 Cent’s CD’s to be worth. But I digress.

Morning Train by Sheena Easton…..Before Sheena became Prince’s personal sex slave, she was sweet and innocent and just waiting for her man to come home from a hard day’s work so she can feed him, give him his purple robe, and listen to what it sounds like when dove’s cry together. This was a straight from the back of my subconscious 80’s tune that I don’t mind listening to over and over. It reminds me of simpler days of my youth, for some reason memories of being at the local ballpark, which is funny since I hated playing baseball. But I still hung out down there since everyone else did, and I could buy candy and it was probably playing in the background over and over that year, in 1980. Wait, in 80 I was six, so maybe it was a few years later. Who knows. Oh and apparently Sheena Easton is the only artist seen performing the song in the title sequence of a bond movie, with For Your Eyes Only. Thank you, Wikipedia.

Time’s up, more next time!

Music Break 2 (Or, What’s Playing On My Zen)

Just listening to my Zen Vision: M on my work break, and thought I’d let you know what I’m hearing. Enjoy!

Freedom by George Michael…. This song is great. I was a huge George Michael fan from Faith, obviously, as anyone who was listening to pop music at that time was. He was cool, the music was cool. Gone away were the florescent hot pants and message shirts of the Wham! Days and now it was George being the essence of cool, with a haircut I tried years to emulate. Later, when he came out with Freedom, it was refreshing for him to talk (or sing) about how he had become just a face and that the music was the most important thing. Not something you’re bound to hear from most musicians, especially nowadays. And he underlined the message by not appearing in the video, just having hot, half-naked models lip synch the song. I’ve always liked George, and this song made me respect him, both as a man and as an artist.

Pets by Porno 4 Pyros… This was one of the first cd singles, therefore first cd at all, that I ever bought. It was this and belly’s feed the tree, both of which I think I still have. I know I still have Belly’s at least. Got this song in 94, after I moved out of the parent’s pad and moved in w/ my cousin to start my year of slackerdom w/ him and his wife. Kurt had just offed himself (or so Courtney wants us to believe) and grunge was holding strong, with Alternative Radio really making a big splash. Perry Ferrell was doing the Lollapalooza thing, which was awesome. I remember seeing The Breeders (awesome band), Beastie Boys, Arrested Development….and I can’t remember who else. It was an awesome gig. So anyhow, great song. About how we’re fucked up and probably will do ourselves in the way of the dinosaurs and become some intergalactic bad boy’s little bitch. We’ll make great pets, we’ll make great pets….

Norwegian Wood by P.M. Dawn…. How do I love PM Dawn, let me count the ways….okay, I’m not gonna count the ways, but I have always loved these guys. Their first album was quite popular and had some really great tunes on it, but then interest in the guys kinda waned w/ their subsequent albums, which is a shame. They’re kinda like a spiritual hip hop-ish kinda groovy group. This song is from the Bliss Album, which was their 3rd record I believe, and is actually a remake of a Beatles tune, if you can believe it. That really rocks, because it translates really well into the light hip hop track it became. I have all of PM Dawn’s albums and I suggest everyone should also.

Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough by Michael Jackson….I love old school Michael Jackson. Heck, I really dug what MJ was doing when he put out Dangerous, but by that time he had gotten just so odd that it was overshadowing his music, which is a shame. MJ, by and large, really knows how to make great music, and this song reflects that. I honestly have no idea what album this song is from, but it’s one of those pre-Thriller tunes from the 70’s/80’s that really built up to his firestorm of Thriller. Okay, wikipedia says that it’s from the Off The Wall album, which I thought it was. Not sure what it’s about, but it has a great groove and some classic MJ sounds, w/out going overboard w/ the hee hee’s and woo’s and the over pronunciations of the last syllable he does on his later stuff. You know what I’m talking about. Anyhow, I will never be ashamed to admit that I had not one but TWO MJ posters in my room when I was 10 years old and wore out 3 copies of Thriller on record. Still the king of Pop, just stay away from my kid.

That’s all on this jaunt! Hope you enjoyed the break, now back to work!