The Plural Of Hyena

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Songs With Directions In The Title, Vol. 2: "Down" Songs

Part two in a five-part miniseries, this post features songs with "Down" in the title. If you were disappointed by the lack of familiar artists in part one, you may find that you recognize a larger number of artists in this particular collection. Enjoy! ~ JH

1) Group 1 Crew ~ "Goin' Down"

2) Linkin Park ~ "Burn It Down"

3) Kimbra ~ "Settle Down"

4) Goo Goo Dolls ~ "Long Way Down"

5) Nine Inch Nails ~ "Down In It"

6) Mikky Ekko ~ "Pull Me Down"

7) Audio Adrenaline ~ "Get Down"

8) Dash Berlin ~ "Till The Sky Falls Down"

9) Jack Johnson ~ "Upside Down"

10) Johnny Cash ~ "God's Gonna Cut You Down"

11) Cage The Elephant ~ "Shake Me Down"

12) Alice In Chains ~ "Down In A Hole"

13) Emmy Rossum ~ "Slow Me Down"

14) Amy MacDonald ~ "Slow It Down"

15) Charlie Daniels Band ~ "The Devil Went Down To Georgia"

16) Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers ~ "I Won't Back Down"

17) Miranda Lambert ~ "Bring Me Down"

18) K.C. & The Sunshine Band ~ "Get Down Tonight"

19) David Jordan ~ "Sun Goes Down"

20) George Strait ~ "Write This Down"

Songs With Directions In The Title, Vol. 1: "Up" Songs

Okay, so since I'm obviously obsessed with doing music posts lately, why don't I just start a whole series of them? (This is where you say, "Hey, what a great idea!" Or don't. Whatever.) This is part one of what will be a five-part miniseries. The unifying theme is that each song contains a direction within the title, whether that be up, down, left, right, or all directions. First up – appropriately – songs with "Up" in the title. I've been compiling the songs for these posts for a while now, and I hope you'll enjoy seeing/hearing them. ~ JH

1) Ariana Grande ~ "Put Your Hearts Up"

2) Chris Brown ~ "Don't Wake Me Up"

3) Josh Groban ~ "You Raise Me Up"

4) Yellowcard ~ "Hang You Up"

5) Green Day ~ "Wake Me Up When September Ends"

6) Andy Grammer ~ "Keep Your Head Up"

7) Paula Abdul ~ "Straight Up"

8) J-Min ~ "Stand Up" (NOTE: If you can't make out most of the lyrics here, it's for good reason – it's in Korean. Still, it's a very good song – whatever they're singing about...)

9) Paloma Faith ~ "Picking Up The Pieces"

10) The Afters ~ "Lift Me Up"

11) John Legend & The Roots ft. Common & Melanie Fiona ~ "Wake Up Everybody"

12) Laura Bell Bundy ~ "Giddy On Up"

13) Foster The People ~ "Pumped Up Kicks" (A quick bit of trivia for you: Christian singer Rebecca St. James is married to the bass guitarist in this band)

14) Technotronic ~ "Pump Up The Jam"

15) Kelly Clarkson ~ "I Do Not Hook Up"

16) Ben Howard ~ "Keep Your Head Up"

17) Amelia Lily ~ "Shut Up (And Give Me Whatever You've Got)"

18) James Morrison ft. Jessie J ~ "Up"

19) Eliza Doolittle ~ "Pack Up"

20) Fever Ray ~ "When I Grow Up"

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Songs By Bands With Gerunds In Their Names

For the grammatically challenged, a gerund is a verb that ends in "-ing." Many popular bands have used gerunds in their names, usually in one of two ways. Either the gerund serves as an adjective for the noun that comes after it (i.e., The Rolling Stones), or the gerund is used to describe an ongoing action (i.e., Counting Crows). This small collection of songs includes 10 prominent examples of thusly-named bands. Enjoy! ~ JH

1) Smashing Pumpkins ~ "Rocket"

2) Counting Crows ~ "A Long December"

3) The Flaming Lips ~ "Do You Realize?"

4) The Rolling Stones ~ "Paint It Black"

5) Breaking Benjamin ~ "The Diary Of Jane"

6) Talking Heads ~ "And She Was"

7) Thriving Ivory ~ "Where We Belong"

8) Casting Crowns ~ "Does Anybody Hear Her?"

9) Throwing Muses ~ "Bright Yellow Gun"

10) Stabbing Westward ~ "What Do I Have To Do?"

Songs By Guys Named Ed, Eddie, Eddy, Edwin, & Edgar

Okay, so here's another one of those music posts where I wanted to post a song by a specific singer (in this case, Ed Sheeran, whom I've recently "discovered" and really like), so I created a blog topic specifically to have a reason to post that song. That being said, most of the songs in this collection are really good. One of them is basically a novelty song – you'll quickly figure out which one – but even that one is entertaining. Enjoy! ~ JH

1) Ed Sheeran ~ "Lego House" (Yes, that is the guy who played Ron Weasley in the Harry Potter films, and no, he isn't Ed Sheeran – in the video, he plays an Ed wannabe.)

2) Ed Kowalczyk ~ "Grace" (Fans of early-to-mid-1990s rock may recognize this guy as the lead singer of the band Live – Kowalczyk is now a professing Christian and is proud to reflect his faith in his music.)

3) Eddie Vedder ~ "Longing To Belong" (Only Eddie Vedder, the lead singer of Pearl Jam, could make a ukulele song this unmistakably cool!)

4) Eddie Rabbitt ~ "Driving My Life Away" (Rabbitt is another sad case of a great talent who died way too young – in Eddie's case, cancer was the culprit.)

5) Eddie Money ~ "Think I'm In Love" (Eddie didn't think that his real last name – Mahoney – sounded nearly as cool as "Money." I happen to agree.)

6) Eddie Shin ft. Flowsik ~ "If Only" (Whoa! Where's this guy been hiding? He's amazing!)

7) Eddie Murphy ft. Michael Jackson ~ "Whatzupwitu" (Yes, that Eddie Murphy, and that Michael Jackson!)

8) Eddie Cantor ~ "Makin' Whoopee" (I had no idea this song was that old – Cantor sings it gleefully)

9) Eddy Raven ~ "She's Gonna Win Your Heart" (This takes me back to the good ol' days – the 1980s – when I regularly listened to country music on the radio.)

10) Eddy Grant ~ "Electric Avenue" (Funky tune!)

11) Edwin McCain ~ "I'll Be" (This was THE wedding song of choice for a lot of folks in the late '90s and early 2000s.)

12) Edgar Winter ~ "Frankenstein" (And now for something completely different. This was one of the earliest rock 'n' roll instrumental songs to light up the charts.)

Saturday, July 13, 2013

Creepy Mascots, Vol. 2: Major League Baseball Mascots

This being part two in a series, I don't feel like writing a brand new intro for this entry, so I copied and pasted mine from last time. Color me lazy. If you missed Vol. 1, you can read it here. Enjoy! ~ JH

RECYCLED INTRO:

I've always found sports team mascots a bit creepy. Maybe it's the oversized heads, the fixed facial expressions, the in-your-face-ness that's inherent in their interaction with fans like me who'd rather be left alone. (I don't particularly care for clowns for many of the same reasons.) While I'm not explicitly afraid of mascots – that would be ridiculous! – I'm also not fond of them. So consider this miniseries of posts a "face your fears" – or, rather, "face your aversions" – exercise. Perhaps you'll get a laugh out of these, or perhaps a nightmare. Either way, here they are...