All My Rowdy Friends Are Going Home

This is Rockin' Randy. He dances to the Monday Night Football theme. Old Randy used to occupy a proud spot in my bachelor pad kitchen. Then I got married. Now Randy occupies a box in our basement.

For the last 20 years, Monday Night Football has been introduced by Hank Williams Jr's iconic theme song, based on his 1984 hit "All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight." Earlier this week, after Bocephus made a ham fisted comment on Fox News comparing President Obama to Hitler, the Disney owned overlords at ESPN decided to pull his opening in response. After Hank Jr alternatingly apologized and defended his actions, ESPN decided to make the move permanent. Williams responded by claiming it was his decision to pull the song for good after ESPN violated his freedom of speech, which is basically like saying "you can't fire me, I quit!"

How will we know if we're ready for some football now? ESPN made a short sighted, knee jerk move by pulling a song that has been a part of the MNF tradition for two decades. Sure, what Williams said was stupid, but consider the source... he's Hank Williams Jr for pete's sake. He has basically made a career out of saying stupid things. And as Pro Football Talk pointed out, ESPN didn't seem to have an issue a few years back when he choked a waitress. How does revealing yourself as a tea bagger trump battery these days?

Despite the momentary PR black eye, ESPN will lose nothing over this. Ratings will continue to be sky high, at least until the St Louis vs Seattle matchup in week 14 (I'm a Seahawks fan, and I still guarantee you I'll have tuned out by halftime). Bocephus' checking account however will be taking a substantial hit. Those TV broadcast fees ain't chicken scratch.

As the dust is settling down on this whole kerfuffle, I'm left with one nagging thought... why cant Faith Hill make a comment comparing Joe Biden to Mussolini so we could get rid of her godawful Sunday Night football theme too?

The Sound Of Silence

This gave me goosebumps.



If you've been online at all today, you're probably all 9/11'd out. But take four minutes and watch this video of Paul Simon performing "The Sound Of Silence" at the World Trade Center memorial dedication this morning. It's pretty amazing.

Apparently he was scheduled to do "Bridge Over Troubled Water," but made a change at the last minute. It was a pretty inspired choice.

I Touch A Red Button

Considering their shared penchant for dark moods and strange images, it's almost surprising that Interpol and David Lynch have never collaborated before now. For this year's Coachella music festival, the band approached Lynch about providing visuals for one of their songs, and he provided them with the following short film to accompany their song "Lights" (which as I mentioned in my concert review from earlier this year is hands down my favorite song from their new album). The result is just as weird as the original video for the song, but with none of the creepy sexuality.



You can read a post where the band discusses the collaboration here.

Oh Canada

I think I've always had a big of a soft spot for the Great White North. It was the first foreign country I ever visited. Over the years a lot of my favorites bands have been from there. And because I grew up just an hour and a half drive up I-5 from the border, I'm very familiar with their currency. As a kid it seemed cool to have money from another country, until the first time you hit up a vending machine only to find you can't get that candy bar you wanted because one of your quarters turned out to be Canadian.

Over the next week, my wife and I will be taking in two of Canada's finest exports... Rush and NHL hockey. Tonight we're going to see the holy triumvirate of rock, and then we have tickets to the last two Predators home games. I haven't bought a new Rush album in well over a decade, but they're performing Moving Pictures in its entirety, so I'm pretty excited about seeing "The Camera Eye" live for the first time. And the Preds are in the thick of the Western Conference playoff race, so it should be a great atmosphere.

So with our social calendar dominated by all things Canuck, it seemed only appropriate to post the following video, Neil Peart's version of the second Canadian national anthem, the Hockey Night theme.

Christmas with The Killers

The Killers released this song in 2006. I kinda dug it, and it was a charity single, and I love Christmas songs, so I happily threw a buck towards iTunes for the cause.

The other day I was surfing through the on demand videos that our cable company offers, and discovered "Don't Shoot Me Santa." It's a kinda bizarre video, but fun. But since I had no idea that The Killers had released other Christmas songs, it sent me searching. And it turns out they've been releasing them every year for the past half decade. This made me feel especially clueless, since I had still been a regular blogger most of that time. But after listening to their subsequent yuletide offerings I didn't feel so bad. It's like musical fruitcake... you're thankful that they gave you something, but it really isn't very good. And it really reminded me of why I quit caring about the Killers when they released Day & Age.

LaDanian Tomlinson introduces the Electric Glide

A lot of athletes like to moonlight as rappers. Deion Sanders. Shaquile O'Neal. The 1985 Chicago Bears. There is a reason most of them ended up sticking to their day jobs.

Now another athlete has thrown his hat into the hip hop ring. A lot of people think that LaDanian Tomlinson is reaching the end of his NFL career, and if this is the first step of his post-football career, I suggest he take whatever paycut he has to to spend another year with the Chargers. It's hard to decide which is worse... the video, the rhymes, or the music. But if he was trying to be hilarious... mission accomplished.



Ten bucks says the first time a Jets defender tackles LT for a loss on Sunday, they'll do the Electric Glide over his ass.

The Muppets do Bohemian Rhapsody

I hate to post to videos in a row, but oh my God... if you haven't seen this yet, take five minutes out of your day RIGHT NOW and watch it. Absolutely effing brilliant. Even if it just stopped after Animal's bit, it'd be one of the funniest things I've seen all year, but it just keeps getting better after that. You'll never hear Queen the same way again.

Nirvana vs Rick Astley

Ever since I first watched this video two days ago, I haven't been able to get Rick Astley out of my head. It's a fate worse than death. I've got to admit though, this is a pretty awesome mashup. As the friend who sent it to me said, "Kurt Cobain must be rickrolling in his grave."

The State! On DVD! Finally!!!

This post is only marginally about music, but who cares... THE STATE HAS FINALLY BEEN RELEASED ON DVD!!! Hallelujah! I don't think I've ever looked forward to a DVD release as much as this one. I wasn't even this excited about the complete Twin Peaks boxset when it finally came out a couple years back.

You're probably familiar with the members of The State, even if you never saw their original series back in the mid-90s. Half the cast of Reno 911! got their start in The State, and other members have gone on to do Stella, Role Models, Wet Hot American Summer, and even Vin Diesel's The Pacifier (seriously).

This DVD set has been in the works for years, and apparently one of the things that held it up for so long was the music rights. And as you can see below, much of the original music unfortunately had to go. I'll admit that I like the original better, but if giving up Marvin Gaye means I actually get to see all these great sketches again, it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make.

The Kid Is Hot Tonight

After seeing a picture of Sidney Crosby on ESPN.com, I got this song stuck in my head. So I went to youtube to hear it, and I've watched/listened to this three times now.



I need to get a Loverboy greatest hits CD. No really, I'm serious. I saw them play at a boat show when I lived in Las Vegas. It was completely awesome, and not in an ironic kinda way.

Let's face it... you will always love the music you thought was cool when you were ten.

Fall On Me

A few months ago I finally upgraded my cable tv service to digital. Not only did this solve my reception/interference issues on the local channels, but it also finally introduced me to the wonderful world of on demand television. The first thing I did was watch the entire first season of Mad Men over the course of a week, prior to the start of the second season. Then I started finding out what I had been missing by catching up on the awesomeness that is Coupling.

My most recent on demand discovery has been Concert.tv. A few weeks ago I caught a fantastic Sigur Ros performance that was filmed at the Museum of Modern Art last summer. And last week they were showing a 1985 R.E.M. concert that was originally televised on the German television show Rockpalast. The concert was heavy on Fables Of The Reconstruction tracks, but they also played an embryonic version of "Fall On Me." The musical structure, chorus, and bridge of the song were already fully intact, but the lyrics for the verses are completely different than what ended up in the final product. Of course, the clip has been available for quite some time on youtube, so check it out above.

R.E.M. - "Fall On Me (Live)" (mp3)

Apparently 17 years later Stipe still hadn't quite worked out his lyric issues on this song. This version was recorded on November 19, 1992 in Athens, GA at a benefit concert for Greenpeace, and was released on the Crush With Eyeliner single three years later.

Mark Gormley is my hero

This might be the single greatest thing I've ever seen. I know it takes a while to get going, but trust me... it is so worth it. I'd tell you more about it, but it's really beyond words.

Mad props to Carl for turning me on to this piece of cinematic and musical genius.

Crazy

I've mentioned before how youtube might be the single greatest invention ever dreamed up by mankind. This morning I stumbled onto this video and it did nothing to make me revisit that opinion... Willie Nelson, Elvis Costello, and Diana Krall singing "Crazy." So good it gave me goosebumps.

Unless You Hate Baby Jesus...

When Aimee Mann released One More Drifter In The Snow in 2006, she promoted it with a Christmas variety show tour that combined songs, skits and storytelling from her and various special guests. To promote the tour, she did a couple of short videos in which she conspires with Paul F. Tompkins on the best way to ask her various celebrity friends to participate. Part 1 stars John Krasinski, Emily Procter, Patton Oswalt, and a great cameo that I won't ruin by telling you about it beforehand...



Part 2 features Bob Odenkirk and Fred Armisen, and part 3 has bits with Ben Stiller and Will Ferrell. They're all pretty funny, so if you're looking for something to kill a few minutes at work today... you're welcome.

Aimee's 3rd annual Christmas tour kicks off it's east coast swing tonight in Ridgefield, CT, and continues through the 19th. The remaining tour dates and ticket info can be found here.

Aimee Mann - "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" (mp3) from One More Drifter In The Snow

High Hopes

I usually don't like to do reposts of mp3s I've previously had up, but today seems like the perfect day to share this one again...

Frank Sinatra - "High Hopes (Kennedy Campaign Version)" (mp3)

For all you completists out there, Zorch's Inner Sanctum has the flipside of this rare single, along with a bunch of other campaign songs from 50's and 60's.

I haven't been this excited about a presidential election in... well, ever. For the first time in my life, I voted for a candidate that I truly like and believe in, rather than the lesser of two evils. And it felt kind of awesome. It was nice walking into the booth two weeks ago with a sense of enthusiasm, rather than the dread and borderline disgust I usually feel when I hit the vote button. It really felt like a privilege rather than a responsibility.

Regardless of who your candidate is, if you haven't already voted, get out and do it today. And if you need some extra motivation...

Is that Dave Coulier?

By now you've probably already seen the literal version of A-Ha's "Take On Me." If not, go watch it right now. It's hilarious.

That video proved to be so popular that the guys at Dust Films have done a sequel, taking on Tears For Fears' "Head Over Heels." And believe it or not, it's even funnier. If VH1 has any sense at all, they've already offered these guys a deal for their own show. I don't think I could ever get tired of watching these.

Please don't make me like you John Mayer

Before last night, if I was going to make a list of my all time least favorite musicians, John Mayer definitely would have made the top five... probably third, after Kenny G and Barbra Streisand. Sure the guy's song are terrible, and despite being a massive tool, he seems to bag every hottie in Hollywood as if he were checking them off a list. But the biggest reason I can't stand the douchebag dates back his very first column in Esquire, when he responded to a query about The Beatles by saying "I've missed too many episodes to follow the plot." Even after he started showing off his funny bone on Chappelle's Show, and a hilarious 2 Girls 1 Cup parody, my dislike for the guy stood resolute. But after seeing this, I think the walls on my tower of hate are starting to crumble a little bit. (WARNING - Audio NSFW)



And speaking of hating Kenny G...

Richard Thompson - "I Agree With Pat Metheny" (mp3) unreleased, from his website

Free Love On The Freelove Freeway

Because I'm cheap frugal, I only have basic cable, which means I don't get BBC America. So it's only been in the last couple of weeks that I've started watching the UK version of The Office on Netflix. Last week I watched the "Training" episode, where David treats the office to some old songs from his band days. I just about pissed my pants laughing during this scene...



You can also watch the full length, uncut version of "Free Love Freeway" featuring an extra verse here. And if that's not enough, there's a studio version that is absolutely awesome in it's ridiculousness.

David Brent with Noel Gallagher - "Free Love Freeway" (mp3)

We're The Dandy Highwaymen

I would nominate this as possibly the greatest music video ever made. I mean, it has everything... Puffy shirts! Jumping! Two drummers! An obscenely large Walkman! More guns than a 50 Cent video, and more corsettes than a Keira Knightley movie. And really, who doesn't love period films. Seriously, this video is so awesome they did a "making of" documentary of it. That's like "Thriller" good.

Adam and the Ants - "Stand And Deliver" (mp3) from Prince Charming

Woman Fish

I know I've said this before, but Youtube is seriously the greatest thing ever. Here's another example of why... this morning I was reading a U2 biography when I came across this passage by The Edge, talking about the early stages of writing the songs that would become The Joshua Tree:

"There were some very rough versions of what became 'With Or Without You,' 'Red Hill Mining Town'; a song of Bono's called 'Trip Through Your Wires,' and a song called 'Woman Fish' that mercifully never saw the light of day, other than on an Irish TV show that we agreed to do in a moment of dementia. We hadn't shot ourselves in the foot for a while, so with two songs half written we decided it was the perfect time to go to the nation to showcase our 'new direction.' It was dreadful, the worst in a long line of ropey TV appearances. The idea, if there was one, was to try out the new material in front of a live audience. We found out instantly that we had a long way to go. We tried later to bribe the staff of RTE to give us the tapes, but it turned out they had shared our opinion of the
performance, and hadn't thought it worth keeping."

My first thought was "hmmm, I wonder if that might be on Youtube?" Two minutes later, voila...



The Edge is absolutely correct... it's terrible. I mean, they can't even get the count off right. I barely made it through the whole four minutes. The other song they performed on TV Gaga that day, "Trip Through Your Wires," was a lot better. It sounds pretty much like the version we're all familiar with, except the lyrics are completely different, apart from the hook.

And since this post is all about about early versions of U2 songs, here is another song that later turned into something else. I'll let you do the math...

U2 - "Always" (mp3) from the Beautiful Day single