Monday, August 12, 2013

Songs By Los Angeles-Born Artists

Okay, so I heard this Beck song on the radio the other week, and I wanted to post the music video of it, but couldn't figure out how to incorporate it into a music post. (I'd already included a song by Beck in my "Mononymous Male Singers" post a few weeks back.) So I looked him up on Wikipedia and found out he was born in Los Angeles, and quickly decided that there was my angle. I would do a post of songs by artists born in the city of Los Angeles. It's a lame idea, I'll admit, but it did the trick. So here you have it, a song by Beck and 14 other people who were born in Los Angeles.  Enjoy!  ~  JH



1)  Beck  ~  "Where It's At"  (He's got two turntables and a microphone...)



2)  Belinda Carlisle  ~  "Heaven Is A Place On Earth"  (Actually, it isn't...but that doesn't mean the song's not good)



3)  Natalie Cole  ~  "This Will Be (An Everlasting Love)"  (I like her dad [Nat "King" Cole] a lot – I didn't know Natalie came out with this song)

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4)  David Crosby  ~  "Delta"  (Who needs Stills, Nash, or Young?)

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5)  Zooey Deschanel  ~  "Don't Look Back"  (Technically, the song is by She & Him, but the "She" is Zooey)



6)  Leif Garrett  ~  "When I Think Of You"  (Apparently, this fella was quite the heartthrob in his day...whatever)



7)  Josh Groban  ~  "You Are Loved (Don't Give Up)"  (Is there any song this guy can't sing well?)



8)  Etta James  ~  "Something's Got A Hold On Me"  (She was a sassy somebody in her youth...and in her old age, actually)

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9)  Katharine McPhee  ~  "Say Goodbye"  (It's so hard to say goodbye, though...)



10)  Liza Minnelli  ~  "New York, New York"  (A native Angeleno singing a song about New York...makes perfect sense)



11)  Keb' Mo' ft. Bonnie Raitt & Jackson Browne  ~  "Just Like You"  (One of the most important songs I've heard in quite a while)



12)  Randy Newman  ~  "You've Got A Friend In Me"  (Anyone who's ever seen Toy Story once – or a thousand times – will recognize Newman's distinctive singing voice...and this song, too)



13)  Elliott Yamin  ~  "Wait For You"  (Good song – I'd sort of forgotten about this one, but I like it)



14)  Gwyneth Paltrow  ~  "Country Strong"  (Country strong, but Los Angeles-bred)



15)  Emily Osment  ~  "You Are The Only One"  (Pretty generic teen-pop-crap by the sister of that creepy kid from The Sixth Sense movie)

Thursday, August 8, 2013

"First" & "Last" Songs

More "Opposites" songs to distract you from this dreary Thursday. Some really good songs here. Take a listen.  ~  JH



1)  Barry White  ~  "You Are The First, The Last, My Everything"



2)  David Guetta ft. Taped Rai  ~  "Just One Last Time"



3)  Kylie  Minogue  ~  "Love At First Sight"



4)  Creed  ~  "One Last Breath"



5)  Roberta Flack  ~  "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face"



6)  Michael Bublé  ~  "Save The Last Dance For Me"



7)  Lifehouse  ~  "First Time"



8)  Vanessa Williams  ~  "Save The Best For Last"



9)  Sade  ~  "Never As Good As The First Time"



10)  Electric Light Orchestra  ~  "Last Train To London"



11)  SOKO  ~  "First Love Never Die"



12)  Keane  ~  "This Is The Last Time"



13)  Fiona Apple  ~  "The First Taste"



14)  Céline Dion  ~  "The Last To Know"



15)  Foreigner  ~  "Feels Like The First Time"



16)  Etta James  ~  "At Last"



17)  Surface  ~  "The First Time"



18)  Steel Magnolia  ~  "Last Night Again"



19)  The Kelly Family  ~  "The First Time"



20)  Jeff Buckley  ~  "Last Goodbye"

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

A Song For Each Month Of The Year

Not much preamble necessary here. It is exactly what it sounds like it is. Please enjoy!  ~  JH


1)  Same Old Story  ~  "The Norm In January"



2)  Josh Groban  ~  "February Song"



3)  Jane Monheit  ~  "Rivers Of March"  (Monheit's my personal favorite among all the jazz singers I've ever heard)



4)  Rufus Wainwright  ~  "April Fools"



5)  Blue Rodeo  ~  "5 Days In May"



6)  Lucy Schwartz  ~  "June"  (One of the best singers in pop music today that nobody other than me has ever heard of...wow, that sounded kinda hipster...sorry!)


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7)  Amy MacDonald  ~  "4th Of July"



8)  Abandon All Ships  ~  "August"



9)  Earth, Wind, & Fire  ~  "September"  (How have I blogged this long and never put an EW&F song in the mix?)



10)  Jet Tangerine  ~  "Something About October"



11)  Miranda Lee Richards  ~  "Early November"



12)  Taylor Swift  ~  "Back To December"


Songs By "Fake" Bands

I should probably clarify the title of this post. The bands represented here are actual bands – they do exist (or they did at some point). The "fakeness" of the bands lies in their names. Each band in this collection either has the word "Fake" or one of its synonyms in its name. It's a dumb idea, I know. But when I actually thought of the concept, it seemed to make a bit more sense than it does now. At least there are only 13 songs to slog through, if that's any consolation. And several of the songs are pretty good, even the ones by bands you've never heard of. Enjoy?  ~  JH



1)  Fake Shark Real Zombies  ~  "Paint It Gold"



2)  Fake Problems  ~  "The Dream Team"



3)  Fake Blood  ~  "I Think I Like It"



4)  False Positive  ~  "After All"



5)  Great Imitation  ~  "Bittersweetheartattacks"



6)  Counterfeit i  ~  "Sahel"



7)  Counterfeit Molly  ~  "The Dark"



8)  Make Believe Me  ~  "Home"



9)  Big Phony  ~  "I Love Lucy"



10)  The Pretenders  ~  "I'll Stand By You"



11)  Pseudo Echo  ~  "Funky Town"



12)  Sam The Sham & The Pharaohs  ~  "Woolly Bully"



13)  The Charlatans  ~  "The Only One I Know"


Tuesday, August 6, 2013

"Before" & "After" Songs

Now back to our regularly scheduled "Opposites" music posts. I don't know whether you're tired of these yet or not, but I've got a few more in my back pocket waiting to post, so you may as well get used to seeing a few more of them. Or ignoring a few more, whichever you prefer. That being said, there're some good songs here. Enjoy!  ~  JH




1)  Papa Roach  ~  "Before I Die"



2)  Cyndi Lauper  ~  "Time After Time"



3)  Carrie Underwood  ~  "Before He Cheats"



4)  He Is We  ~  "Happily Ever After"



5)  Josh Wilson  ~  "Before The Morning"



6)  David Crowder  ~  "After All (Holy)"



7)  The Script  ~  "Before The Worst"



8)  Ten  ~  "After The Love Has Gone"



9)  Eric Clapton  ~  "Before You Accuse Me"



10)  KJ-52  ~  "Life After Death"  (Christian rap's answer to Eminem... a pretty good alternative, actually)



11)  Randy Travis  ~  "Before You Kill Us All"  (Literally, one of the cheesiest music videos I've ever seen!)



12)  blink-182  ~  "After Midnight"



13)  Agatha  ~  "Before The Winter Comes"



14)  Foo Fighters  ~  "Walking After You"



15)  Dido  ~  "The Day Before The Day"



16)  Daughtry  ~  "Life After You"



17)  Jeremy Camp  ~  "Speaking Louder Than Before"



18)  Rodney Crowell  ~  "After All This Time"



19)  Crosby, Stills, & Nash  ~  "Just A Song Before I Go"  (This song's been lingering in my head ever since I prepped this post a couple of weeks ago – I'm passing it on to you now)


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20)  Nelson  ~  "After The Rain"