17 August 2020 - blackbear - hot girl bummer

We've been pulling out a lot of old music lately, so I wanted to dedicate this week to song of the past twelve months.  

This song, from late 2019, is the first hit by blackbear, aka Matthew Tyler Musto, a man who has made most of his money writing songs for other people.  He has been a recording artist for several years as well, and this was his first hit after seven years of releasing albums.

And it's a doozy.  From the repeated chorus with the chiming bell and guitar going in time with the melody, to the significant bass drops and creative use of Autotune, the song is infinitely memorable.

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That was the 2nd video, and it was clearly big budget.  blackbear had made a low budget one, too.

Now, normally, at this point, I'd be pulling out a live version of the song - and I can do that if you really want (let me know in the comments), but I wanted to do something a little different here.

This is a video from the YouTube page of dancer/model/modern celebrity Dytto - who has 3.63 million subscribers.   This fan video/dance performance is a homage to everything pop culture from Mean Girls, to Kim Possible, to The Purge to Riverdale.  I enjoyed it - possibly more than the official videos - and I hope you do as well.  

10 August 2020 - An "Into the Unknown" Special

I am fairly certain this post isn't starting the way you thought it would, but stay with me.  We will get to Adele Dazim before you know it.

It is a fairly recent tradition of Disney to record their recognizable songs from their feature films in the native languages where their movies are released.  "Let It Go", from Frozen, for example, was recorded in several languages.  

3 Aug 2020 - The Notorious B.I.G. ft. Pam Long - Hypnotize

I've got to be honest - I was always Team West Coast.  I never really understood why I had to choose a side, but I was a fan of the artists coming out of California more than New York, when it came to hip hop in the early to mid 1990's.  

Biggie's flow on this song is just impeccable, and I cannot deny it's a great tune.  I sometimes wonder what would have happened if he and Tupac would have collaborated, and it is incredibly tragic that both voices were snuffed out so young.  

31 July 2020 - First Aid Kit - Emmylou

The "Emmylou" in this song is famed county artist Emmylou Harris, who was a tremendous influence on First Aid Kit.  After you listen to the song, you are going to see how obvious that statement is.

So, I know what you are thinking - does Emmylou Harris know about this song?

She does.  She's a fan.

30 July 2020 - The Jesus And Mary Chain ft. Hope Sandoval - Sometimes Always

This 1994 collaboration between Hope Sandoval, best known as the vocalist for Mazzy Star outside this song, and The Jesus and Mary Chain ended up being their biggest US hit - and only song to hit the Billboard Hot 100 - and HER 2nd biggest one - after "Fade Into You".

The song is a little less... dark than other Jesus and Mary Chain fare, which is probably how it was so darned accessible to so many.  

28 July 2020 - Tori Amos - Crucify

I cannot believe that we are almost a decade and more than 800 posts into this blog before we get to Tori Amos.   It's a surprise, because she was an early figure in the 1990's surge of women who were singer-songwriters and finally getting major label contracts.

This song - a minor hit in 1992 that sparked an EP with some pretty epic B-sides - is my favorite of hers.  From her debut album - we aren't counting Y Kant Tori Read here - the song is powerful and full-on from the first note.  A very piano-driven song, it was wholly written by Amos herself. 



That EP did not contain the Little Earthquake album version of the song, though.   It contained this very mild remix of the song, which includes some additional lyrics that I think add to the power of the song.



In stark contrast, this is a live version of the song from the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1991, before the song was released - and it's not at all remixed - and is STILL powerful.  True talent - a woman and her piano - is on full display.



By the way, Tori Amos still performs.  Here she is from 2014 performing a similarly pure version of the song.... and it is still as brilliant as the first time.

17 July 2020 - The Bangles - In Your Room

It always comes back to The Bangles for me.

From the first song of theirs I heard (their cover of "Going Down To Liverpool") and throughout their career, I have always thought they were four excellent musicians who just happened to be female performing great music.

This was the first single off their third album Everything and it was the band's fourth top 5 hit.  Written by Susanna Hoffs, the primary vocalist for The Bangles, it is one of my personal favorites by the band.



For our live selection today, I wanted to choose a really recent performance, for two reasons.  First of all, the band hasn't lost a beat.  At all. 

The second is that bassist.  The classic Bangles lineup included Michael Steele on bass, but she was NOT the original bassist.  The original bassist was a woman named Annette Zilinskas, who left the band in 1983, just before their breakthrough All Over The Place album was released. 

35 years later, in 2018, Annette Zilinskas returned to the band.  And I just think that's awesome.