Jesus Fever by Kurt Vile

Apparently, in addition to being soft rock night, Saturday night is also when I will post lots of my favorite songs. Whatever!
I absolutely ADORE this song, and I've never heard a single other thing by Kurt Vile. Perhaps I belong to the Papa Winfrey school of music: he often loves one song by an artist, while not giving a shit about anything else they've ever done. I have a feeling I'll end up loving this whole album once I get my paws on it, though. On The Sound of Young America, Jesse Thorn said he's a twisted Bruce Springsteen or Tom Petty. Fair enough!

Abducted by Cults

I started listening to All Songs Considered again, and I don't know why I ever stopped. Every episode has been killing it, and I've heard so much great music. For example, this song by a band called Cults. The best feeling is hearing a song that encompasses everything you love about music, and this song does it for me. Basically, I like anything that sounds like a 60's girl group. I think Lexie will like this song, and he's probably already heard it because he's infinitely hipper than I am.

Work Songs I Like

I'm starting a new blog series called "Work Songs I Like." As you probably know, I have to listen to soft rock at work. This is both a curse and a blessing. A curse because this station has a criminally small rotation, plays only the worst new music, and repeats, like, the same five commercials all day. A blessing because...okay, it is not actually a blessing! It's very rare that I actually hear a song I like. Sometimes I just have to take what I can get, and say to myself, "This John Waite song isn't so bad after all." I've grown to love this song, but it's sort of a prison love where I know I'm stuck with it so I have to learn to live with it. This video is super weird. Like, John Waite looks like he should be singing a different kind of music, and also what is with that girl?

Little known fact: Winfreys love Drake. Winfreys don't really have an opinion on Rhianna (at least, this Winfrey doesn't), but ever since I heard the song "What's My Name" on SNL, I haven't been able to get it out of my head. For some reason, it's like impossible to find a decent version of that performance online, but the actual video just came out and guess what? Drake, that's what!

I really like the live SNL version much more because it featured some jangly guitars that reminded me of Shakira's "She Wolf," but this is great because you can see Rhianna's insane outfit. Like, are those thigh-highs worn with denim shorts? I seriously don't understand. Also, every word out of Drake's mouth is ridiculous, like usual. I love him.

Because this blog is a safe space...

..I will admit to something. I LOVE this song.

Fun fact: Whenever Papa Winfrey tries to whistle "Last Christmas," it always somehow morphs into this song. It drives Mama Winfrey bonkers.

Still Halloween themed...

...because it's scary how much I love this! Seriously, this goes on for SO LONG.

I guess we need to see this movie now, because what just happened?

Freedom!

I gave in. I checked out Freedom from the library. I am extremely sensitive to hype; that's why I read Twilight (well, that AND my masochistic nature AND my love of making fun of things AND the fact that it was cheap). I just could not resist Freedom after hearing about it everywhere. Will I actually read it? Probably not. But I will at least open it.
I think Jonathan Franzen is a remarkable author (I'm really going out on a limb here by asserting an unusual opinion, I know), but come on...Freedom is a TERRIBLE title. Titling my stories was the thing I sucked the most at in my workshops. Almost every critique would be like, "Um, your title? Not doing it for me." So I understand, Franzen. I get it. Titles are hard. But couldn't you have come up with something that didn't make me think of two George Michael songs?


On second thought, never mind! Those are great songs. Keep up the good title work.

Dupreenaissance

Robbie Dupree certainly has been in the news lately! Not that he's news to us; we've been jamming to Dupree's hit "Steal Away" for years, thanks to Papa Winfrey's smooth rock vinyl collection. You can see why we were attracted to this cover:

It just screams (or whispers) smooth! As you might remember, Alex has a notorious beef with Dupree over a little music licensing disagreement. Really, though, I think that the Robster was only the pawn in a WMG-orchestrated bad-business scheme.
The man's certainly been productive lately. Not only does he have a new album coming out, but Steal Away is featured on the MacGruber soundtrack, as well as the soundtrack of whatever that new artsy Jim Carrey movie is called. Jimmy Fallon, yacht-rock enthusiast, also took an interest in the greatness that is Steal Away, and Robbie Dupree performed on his show Friday night! It was really wonderful, not only because Jimmy's Michael-McDonald-inspired backing vocals seemed to be making the other backup singers laugh, but because Robbie Dupree was really great! It's such a disappointment to hear a singer once known for their falsetto strain to reach the notes that once came easily (Supertramp is a good example), but Robbie Dupree still sounded great, and he seemed like he was having a lot of fun. Also, duh, The Roots! Here's
the performance on Hulu. I can't stop watching it! Let the Dupreenaissance continue. Obviously I am really proud of that pun.

I wish there was an app to remove Will.I.Am from songs

One of my Favorite Songs

Alex went through a serious Herb Alpert phase in high school (you know how teenage boys are), and I definitely suffered from secondhand Alpert. Except I wouldn't call it suffering. I have a casual like of all things Alpert, but I fell hard for this song. I don't listen to it too much anymore, but there was a time in my life where I listened to it multiple times daily. I think that if my life had a LastFM page, this song would have the highest play count. There's just something about it. It's much more restrained than most Herb Alpert songs, although it still features the bombast and horn sections you'd expect. It's rich in 70's schmaltz while still being sweet. Naturally, it was written by Burt Bacharach. Also, this video is bananas.

Thursday Night Jams

So I love Julie Klasner. Who doesn't? And it turns out her taste in music is nearly identical to mine, aside from all the musicals. Her playlist is absolutely perfect: Carole King, Fleetwood Mac, even The Carrie Nations. The best choices, though, are Carly Simon's "Coming Around Again" (which is one of my favorite Carly songs, and which JK describes perfectly: "You can't not love Simon's amber-honey voice sprawling over those choruses and belting those jaded, bittersweet truisms about what it's like to grow up.") and this Dolly Parton song, which I'd actually never heard before. It's now permanently lodged in my brain.

Jams Aplenty

The first time I heard this Robin Thicke song (on a New Year's Eve show, because I am so cool), I fell in love. It's pretty easy to figure out why...he sounds like Prince.

This video is so clearly ridiculous and not really very sexy at all. Mostly because Robin Thicke looks EXACTLY LIKE HIS DAD!


When I tried to remind Alex of a Robin Thicke song from many years ago, he'd completely forgotten about it. Which is weird, because Alex loves dance songs that sample classical music (I'm really only talking about Night on Disco Mountain). Anyway, here it is.

Clearly he's gone through a few, um, identity changes. Like cutting his glorious mane, for one. Sorry, bro, you just made yourself look even more like your dad.

John Legend

It's been awhile since I've posted a good R&B jam. Yes, I do realize I'm one of the only people that actually still uses the label "R&B," but I don't care. I like it.
We love MSTRKRFT remixes--we all know the magic they worked on Love in This Club, after all. This one, John Legend's Green Light, is really good in the first place (DUH), so remixing this had to be the easiest job in the world. But still, pretty great, right?
Also, I love that he dresses like H.

Another Embarrassing Thing

I've always really loved Jimmy Fallon. There. I said it. My friends and I used to watch SNL in high school (I was just as big of a nerd then) and totally swoon over him. Of course, I loved that he always cracked up in his sketches, even though sketch comedy fans mostly hate him for that. And while celebrity impressions are a slightly hacky, 80s, Dave Coulier type of thing, that doesn't change the fact that his impressions are ridiculously accurate. I made my then-boyfriend take me to see Fever Pitch on opening weekend (!). Even though I don't deliberately stay up to watch his late-night show (because I am an adult now! An adult with responsibilities!), I've enjoyed what I've seen. So I just don't understand why everyone hates him so much.
At some point in our youth, Alex bought me Jimmy Fallon's CD, which was a strange combination of comedy songs and stand-up. I listened to that CD constantly, and we still quote certain lines from it regularly, but what stuck with me the most was the song "Idiot Boyfriend." This is another one of those jams, like "My Boo," that is always, ALWAYS in my head.

Rewatching this for the first time since high school, it BLEW MY MIND that Zooey Deschanel was in it. Crazy.

Workout Jams

So, you guys been workin' out? I have. I've got this great new gym called My Parents' Basement. The plus sides: it's about five minutes from my place, there's no membership fee, and there has literally never been a line the entire time I've been going. The down sides: there are only three machines and they're all shoved into this weird little room with the water heater. I bring this up because NPR has a playlist of workout songs! I guess it's good, and the article itself made me laugh, but it doesn't hold a candle to my own personal workout jams. Obviously (obviously!) the best workout playlist is DJ DONNA SUMMER and ONLY DJ Donna Summer.

Some roly-poly little bat-faced girl

This is kind of embarrassing, but I try to live my life by the Papa Winfrey rule of "You Like What You Like," so here goes. I love the song "You Can Call Me Al" by Paul Simon. It cheers me up like no other.

It's kind of a grey day, so go ahead and treat yourself. I mean, it's worth it for the horn section and the Chevy Chase alone.

Thursday Night Jams

I'd always really liked the title of the Crystals song "He Hit Me (It Felt Like a Kiss)", but I'd never actually heard it. It's written by Carole King (which I know from reading Girls Like Us, which I would like to recommend once more!). Here's a Grizzly Bear cover, which has an entirely different sound (no Phil Spector) but is equally good in its own way.

Three for Thursday

Carrie Brownstein does this thing on her Monitor Mix blog on NPR called Five for Friday. She posts five songs she likes. But it's Thursday, and I can't think of five songs I want to post (I can think of one, and it's called Together in Electric Dreams). So it's Three for Thursday!

More of the Same

We changed the mission of the blog, I guess. Now we just post great songs from 80s movies.

My feelings about this song are summed up succinctly by Youtube user DULABHAILE: "God God! I had forgotten this innocent time in my life." Sure! God God, indeed!

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