"Greatest Hits"

Here's a perfect pop song by the English band Mystery Jets. It's "Greatest Hits" -- a breakup song about splitting up a record collection. And yes, Mark E. Smith of the Fall is name-checked. It's only July, but this song is bound to make my best of the year list. Pay special attention to the little homages they do after some of the albums -- like The Village Green Preservation Society, Country Life (with the tribute to "The Thrill of it All" and Band on the Run (with the  tribute to "Jet".)  Enjoy!

By the way, a few years back, Mystery Jets released a catchy singalong called "Two Doors Down" and the video is a pure time machine back to 1983, both musically (sax solo?!?) and visually.

Vacation!

As I head off to a week at the Jersey Shore, I leave you with a fairly obscure Simple Minds track from 1980 -- "I Travel". Like most early Simple Minds, it sounds nothing like you'd think it would. It's dancy, edgy, political and arty.

By the way, Simple Minds released their first five albums -- all the ones before New Gold Dream -- as a special box set called Simple Minds x5. It's a great reminder of a band that totally changed its sound in an effort to become commercially viable. But there's some pretty cool stuff going on in the early Simple Minds catalog, and for $20 it's probably worth picking up.

Enjoy the week!

Video Vault

Here's something to get you in the mood for summer's scorching hot weather -- "I Want More" by Can. The tune sounds as good as it did back in 1976 and the video will make you seek out the nearest beach break.

By the way, Can are enjoying a revival of sorts with the release of their three-disc Lost Tapes collection of unreleased material from 1968 to 1977. Should be a good one.

Song In My Head

"Red Hill Mining Town" by U2.

For some reason, I started humming this song at the grocery store late last night. It always reminds me of high school -- the whole Joshua Tree album does -- and coming to realize I wasn't a kid anymore and that the wide world had risks and rewards I hadn't considered up to that point. Enough about that. Musically, I don't know if I should love or hate The Edge's obvious fret squeals -- I can't think of another song where they're as over-pronounced as they are here -- but the more I think about them, the less I like them. The Edge famously once said that he always tried to come up with new guitar sounds and never use the same sound twice. I'll let you judge whether it works in this case.

Video Vault - 1977

In the year of Star Wars, a great Southern rock classic was released by a group specifically because for this song.  Ram Jam was born to play "Black Betty."  Black Betty is an old early 20th century African-American work song, most likely about a musket.  What Ram Jam does with it, is turn it into  a mystery with gongs, double guitar leads, and a scorching solo.  You can hear Ram Jam rip off Dickie Betts, Lynryd Skynyrd, even Edgar Winter in this version.

What is most striking is the video.  This looks like it was filmed in my neighborhood, by some guys on a Saturday afternoon who parked their bikes in the yard, took out their equipment and decided to lip sync a video.  The lead singer looks like he is wearing a Star Trek Next Generation shirt, while we have a guy in the band (far left) who's only job is to dance around.  Is he the original hype man?

Also look for the random things like the girl dancing with the cup of coffee, or the kid going into the house while filming.  Priceless - ram-a-lam!

Another Dead Music Legend

Well, not exactly. Eduard Khil, the Russian singer whose "Trololo" song became a YouTube sensation, died after complications from a stroke. He was apparently a big enough deal in Russia that Vladamir Putin expressed his condolences.

And while you won't find Khil's CDs at your local music store alongside those of other recently deceased musicians -- Donna Summer, Doc Watson, Levon Helm, Whitney Houston and Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys -- his passing is worth one more trololo. Enjoy it.

Songs of Summer - the rebuttal

My problems with "Songs of Summer" is that many are cliche, and not very good.  After reading your post, I thought of songs that make me think most of summer.  Most of them blow. My list would have included Mungo Jerry's "In the Summertime," and Seals and Crofts "Summer Breeze," but here are four decent picks and one AWFUL one.

"School's Out" - Alice Cooper

I'm a teacher, so this song, every June is the sweetest tune.  One line specifically makes this song.

Well we got no class
And we got no principles
And we got no innocence
We can't even think of a word that rhymes

That last line always cracked me up.

"Magic" - the Cars

This song brings me back to my junior high days.  Such innocence and fun.  Plus, Rick Ocasek walks on water with that awful mullet wig he wears. 

"Doin' Time" - Sublime

The song has that slow lingering feel that you get on a humid, middle of the summer day.  The main chorus is lifted from Gershwin's "Porgy & Bess."  Plus, how can you go wrong when they sample a line from the Beastie Boys "Slow & Low"?

"Summertime Blues" - Blue Cheer

The 1st heavy metal song!  Love the deep bass line.  This version, the Eddie Cocharan one, the Who's, or even Springsteen's version all do the song justice.  The best song about frustration when all your friends are having fun in the summer & you're stuck at a lame job working that night.  I lived it.

...and the worst - "Summertime Girls" LFO

"I like girls who wear Abercrombie and Fitch..."  Ugh the dumbest song to ever make money.  I had a kid on the soccer team I was coaching try to justify this as a good song.  I should have cut him right then and there.

"Boys of Summer" is not my favorite, but it has a good end of summer feel.  I always liked the line about the deadhead sticker on the Cadillac."  Billboard came up with their own list. Predictably, it is loaded with songs from the 60's.