Music Friday: "Birdhouse in Your Soul"

I heard this song this week when listening to the 1st Wave radio station on SiriusXM. 

I've always enjoyed the goofy brilliance of They Might Be Giants. 

Music Friday: "You Get What You Give"

I've always liked this song. 

It was on the radio this week when I was driving around and doing some errands. 

It's a music video set in a mall. Remember malls? 

Music Friday: "Funny Vibe"

I woke up this morning and had my coffee while watching a video on YouTube. 

I thought about what song to feature today, and for whatever reason "Funny Vibe" came to mind. 

Here you go. 

Living Colour is such a great band. 

Music Friday: "Desperate People"

Yesterday I listened to Time's Up and Vivid from Living Colour. 

Here's "Desperate People" from the latter album. 

Music Friday: "I Am One"

One of the bands of the 90s alternative rock scene that I listened to a lot was the Smashing Pumpkins. 

For me, their first album Gish is my favorite. They gained quite a bit of success with later albums, but I was in on this band from the start. 

I remember listening to that album for the first time, and I was instantly hooked to the guitar-focused rock that flew in the face of the years of hair-metal I had to endure on MTV and the radio. 

And here's the leadoff song from that album. 

Music Friday: "Man on the Moon"

The holidays have got me all discombobulated, so I'm doing this post a day late. 

I'm getting close to finishing the fine biography of R.E.M. written by Peter Ames Carlin: The Name of This Band is R.E.M.  

I'm pretty sure I've said this before, but I think it's hard to find a set of three songs to end an album like you find on Automatic for the People. 

The album ends with this trio:

• Man on the Moon
• Nightswimming
• Find the River

Here's the most popular song of the triad. 

Music Friday: "God Shuffled His Feet"

I think one of the underrated albums of the 90s is God Shuffled His Feet by Crash Test Dummies. 

Here's the opening track of the album. 

Music Friday: "Whip-Smart"

I've been revisiting some albums and artists I enjoyed long ago. 

One of those musical artists is the brilliant and fetching Liz Phair. 

Music Friday: "Fell on Black Days"

This song fits my general mood these days. I haven't been posting much, but I plan to get better. I'm kind of in a blogging mini-slump because of a number of factors. 

Regardless, here's a song from one of my favorite bands. 

Music Friday: "Shamrocks and Shenanigans"

I should have featured this song around St. Patrick's Day. But let's have the tune round the last day of month.

Music Friday: "The Impression That I Get"

A Music Friday hitting on St. Patrick's Day, eh? 

Here's a song I hear every so often on SiriusXM's Lithium channel. It's from the 90s and is Irish-y I guess. 

I was thinking of featuring a song by The Pogues, but I didn't know which one to feature. I had a friend in college who loved The Pogues. 

Music Friday: "Criminal"

Fiona Apple is one of those artists who broke ground in the 90s. I always liked her songs, but I never got any of her albums back then. 

I mean, I was listening to Tori Amos and Liz Phair back then, so why the hell didn't I support Apple. I don't know. 

Anyway, I'm rediscovering her early stuff after I bought The Idler Wheel... a decade ago. 

Here's one of her more famous tunes. 

Music Friday: "Picking Up the Signal"

The last couple of days at work I've been listening to the Son Volt discography in release order. 

Here's a great song from Straightaways, the band's/Farrar's second album. 

Music Friday: "Pass the Mic"

I listened to Check Your Head early this week, and this tune has been rattling through my head all week. 

Now it's gonna rattle through yours. 

Music Friday: "Program" & "Wall"

While doing work this morning, I listened to a couple of albums the Living Colour, specifically Shade from 2017 and Stain from 1993. 

Below are couple of great songs that probably don't get enough attention for music lovers. 

Please come out with a new album soon, fellas. 

Random Notes from a Crank

I was naughty this past week and didn't provide a Music Friday post. Bad blogger...

Jennier Rubin has a good op-ed piece in The Washington Post that should be read to figure out what extreme right-wingers and FauxNews is up to: "The GOP Is No Longer a Party. It's a Movement to Impose White Christian Nationalism." 

Here's a significant ¶ to read: "In a real sense, the MAGA response is an effort to conserve power and to counteract the sense of a shared fate with Americans who historically have been marginalized. The right now defines itself not with policies but with its angry tone, its malicious labeling and insults (e.g., "groomer," "woke"), and its targeting of LGBTQ youths and dehumanization of immigrants. Right-wingers' attempt to cast their opponents as sick, dangerous and -- above all -- not "real Americans" is as critical to securing power as voter suppression."

Who the hell is using the term "groomer." That's sick. 

The rhetorical dark arts that the right wing uses reminds of one of the better books I've in the past couple of years: America for Americans: A History of Xenophobia in the United States by Erika Lee. 

Check Your Head by the Beastie Boys turned 30 this year. I would argue that it is the group's best album. 

NPR has a feature on the album: "Why Beastie Boys' Check Your Head Album Still Matters 30 Years Later." 

Music Friday: "Testify"

I'm late, so this is a belated Music Friday post. 

I had thought of doing "Hurt" by NIN, but I featured that recently. 

Thinking of the 90s, an album that I haven't listened to as much from Rage Against the Machine is The Battle of Los Angeles. 

Here's the opening track on that album. 

Music Friday: "Girlfriend"

I've always liked this song and Matthew Sweet's sound on the few tunes that came out via alternative rock radio back in the early 90s. 

Here's the title song of his album that came out 30 years ago today. 

Kick out the jams. 

Remember when Dennis Miller had a show before he relegated himself into irrelevance? 

And I've provided the goofy part-animated Cowboy Bebopesque video. 

Music Friday: "Slide"

All week I've had this song rambling through my head. 

I'm not a huge fan of the Goo Goo Dolls. I don't dislike them, but I don't have any of their albums. This is just a song that I like from them with its uptempo guitar riff and driving rhythm section. 

It's catchy. It's a pleasant ear worm. 

Music Friday: "Mr. Know-It-All"

Through a conversation on FB I was reminded of the brilliance of Primus. 

So, therefore, I give to you "Mr. Know-It-All."