The Essentials of 2005

For some reason, it seems like a good idea to let ya have a sneak peak into what I have been listening to this year. My musical tastes center on some alternative, rockabilly, children/comedy or anything that is just annoying to those who enjoy most pop-alternative stuff or whatever garbage they are playing on the radio. So I enjoy clever or annoying remixes and covers of songs that are popular with the kids. Turn a song on it's head and I'll likely love it. Anyhoo, here is the list of what I have been listening to for most of 2005 and into 2006. So here's the Top 25 in practically no particular order. And you could download some of them on your own.

1. Boulevard of Broken Songs - Party Ben
This song is what we in the biz call a mash-up. A (hopefully) skilled dj will edit a few songs together into one killer remix. With this song, imagine that one song is a deck of cards. The brilliant dj Party Ben took 20 cards from Greenday's Boulevard of Broken Dreams, 16 cards from Oasis's Wonderwall, 10 cards from Travis's Writing to Reach You and another 6 from Aerosmith's Dream On and shuffled them seamlessly.

2. All the Way to Reno - REM
Ah, Reno. This song is my happy affirmation song, kind of what Smashmouth's All-Star was before radio and the movies played it to death.

3. Mad World (SNES version) - cover by some guy named Gxp
For a while I had Gary Jules' cover of Mad World (originaly by Tears for Fears) on my top 25 list, until I found this version. I stumbled across a site that was hosting covers of rock songs that had been made with a program for the SuperNintendo. So here this is. Don't ask.

4. A Higher Place - Tom Petty
Tom Petty is always in the musical hopper, and this tasty nugget from his "Wildflower" album makes me pull out the dreaded air-guitar everytime.

5. Cheer Down - Traveling Wilburys
An unreleased Wilbury's song from a Czech bootleg.

6. Burro - Beck
The best part of this song? It is an alternate version of Beck's song Jackass, only it is done in a mariache style. And in Spanish. How cool is that?

7. Welcome to the Jungle - Big Daddy
Big Daddy claimed to have been captured on a USO tour in Laos in 1959. When they got back, all the music they knew how to play was in the classic style of the 1950's. So naturally, when they covered Guns N' Roses' Welcome to the Jungle, it came out with the style and instrumentation of the Tokens' The Lion Sleeps Tonight. Wimoweh.

8. Original Sin - INXS
Dream on, white boy!

9. Calling All Girls - Queen
Freddy Mercury delivers some great vocals on this song from their "Hot Space" album.

10. Hit That - The Offspring
Not much to say here, but I like the crunch of the guitar in this song. I think these 'pseudo hard rockers' do pretty well.

11. The Superman Song - Slugworks
Ok, this is one that I made myself. While I made the mistake of listening to commercial radio, I noticed one day that there about a billion songs on the radio about that supernatural being that we can call upon for help in dire straits. I refer, of course, to Superman. So, I dug around in the archives, bought a bunch of tunes off of itunes and made a song from parts of 30 different songs. It sounds like a mess, but it turned out to be pretty cool.

12. If You Wanna Be Happy For The Rest Of Your Life - Jimmy Soul
You have got to love the audacity of this song. "Get an ugly woman to marry you". Wow!

13. Tears of a Clown - Smokey Robinson
What can I say except this reminds me of an old girlfriend.

14. Lisa's Wedding - Alf Clausen and Danny Elfman
A beautiful baroque arrangement. If you know what this song is, then no more commentary is needed.

15. Everything I've Got in My Pocket - Minnie Driver
I saw Minnie perform this song on Letterman and it blew my socks off. She is one pretty lady.

16. Love is All Around - The Troggs
A psychadellic love song from the 60's.

17. Be Near Me - ABC
It's funny. This is one of my favorite songs, but the song Smokey Sings by the same band is on my all-time hate list. How does that work? And somehow, this song reminds me of Close Encounters.

18. Try Not To Breathe - REM
While trying to document life's rich pageant, I reveal that I am up for new adventures in hi-fi. At least until I run out of time; when, according to the fables of the reconstruction, a great reckoning occurs when that green monster murmurs from around the sun. But that's beside the point. I like the stoicism in this song. And it is in my vocal range.

19. Theme from the Rockford Files - Mike Post
A great TV theme song from the 70's without any of that pesky disco. The harmonica work on this one is amazing.

20. (Beware of) The Blob - The 5 Blobs (including Burt Bacharach)
This classic from the late 50's is my favorite movie theme. It has everything in there from the late 50's that made rock cool, from the stuttering saxaphone to the 'finger-popping' made famous in the Lollipop song.

21. Mah Na Mah Na - Piero Umiliani
You all know the famous cover. This is the 1969 Swedish original that started it all. This version has a touch of Lounge that isn't picked up in the Muppet version.

22. Europa and Io - Finngerhutt
This spacey (not Kevin Spacey) trance/instrumental was written and performed by my good pal Justin McBride. This is also a great song to slow-dance with the ladies to. I kindsa likes it.

23. The Black Hole - John Barry
A great fully-orchestrated movie theme that is also just unsettling.

24. Binary Sunset - The Evil Genius Orchestra
This stirring theme from Star Wars is given a Lounge flavor. So soothing.

25. From the Earth to the Moon - Michael Kamen
Some years ago, Tom Hanks put together a mini-series about the Apollo space program. The theme song treats the listener with the triumph and grandeur of a flight through the reaches of space.

Bad Pun of the Post:

A friend of mine asked me if I knew the name of that famous Hunchback. I responded, "Does Quasimodo ring a bell?"