Snow in May, you ask? That’s how we roll here in Colorado. And since I have finished all the required homework for this week, I saw an opportunity to keep my promise to not go another 3 months without posting. 🙂
First, Happy Mother’s Day to my awesome Mom and all the other moms out there, even the pet moms (cuz we love our “babies” too)!
Second, I just wanted to share some of the music I’m currently really digging (and one song that makes me cringe, for balance. Or something like that).
The first is the current The Black Keys single “Fever”. I can’t wait for the album to come out on Tuesday! I have previewed the album via the First Play streaming on iTunes and it is excellent (you can stream too, through tomorrow, I believe. Check Turn Blue out) (or, you know, hunt it down on the internet. But please do your best to feed the musicians!).
Turn Blue takes them in a different direction from the more rock-oriented El Camino, a welcome correction toward a fuzzed-out 70’s melange of awesomeness.
Here is the audio-only version of the video (don’t stare at it too long), chosen because the official video is a bit distracting:
Next up is Arctic Monkey‘s “Do I Wanna Know?”. I never thought I would get into the Arctic Monkeys – even seeing them live didn’t sell me on them. However, that tour was with The Black Keys and they did some learnin’ on that tour. The new album, AM, is much more my speed and shows the influence of those crazy cats from Ohio. It was described in one review (forgive me, I don’t recall where) as the album you listen to when you wake up wondering what the hell happened the night before. That pretty much sums up the vibe and I recommend checking out the whole album.
(Side note: Can we agree that only Brits can get away with using “settee” in their lyrics?)
Last up in the “can’t get enough category” is an oldie but goody. The IT Guys in my office sit across the hall from me and their eclectic music listening brought up this old standard and it has left me in the mood for several days now. Does it get sweeter than Ella & Louis?
For the kids: If you have no idea what just happened, please check out Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, and, for good measure, Billie Holliday. This music will live forever.
And now for a quick, cautionary tale of how not to do a cover: Five Finger Death Punch‘s inexplicably terrible cover of the amazing The Animal’s version of the “House of the Rising Sun”. Not only does Ivan Moody’s vocals fail to capture the debauched despair of the lyrics, they added a barely listenable intro to the video (thankfully not part of the radio edit). Why on earth would you change “New Orleans” to “Sin City”?! They are not interchangeable places. Vegas, for all its charms, does not hold a candle to the languid, old world, antebellum, voodoo-tinged, blues and jazz heartache and sin atmosphere of The Big Easy. I will leave you to judge for yourselves:
The Animals Version
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKdN5aSC4HE
Five Finger Death Punch Version
My final note: This was actually a surprisingly poor cover, considering how they nailed Bad Company‘s “Bad Company“ a few years ago – adding a bit more badass to a song that needed it to live up to what the lyrics portrayed. C’est la vie.
Three more weeks of school left until summer break. This summer you, my 4 devoted readers, will not be left behind! 🙂