• Friday Five

    The Friday Five: January 27, 2012

    Friday Five

    Friday Five : ‘frī-(,)dā,-dē ‘fīv : On the sixth day of every week, I hit the shuffle button on my iTunes, then share the first five tracks and thought for each track. Sometimes there is a playlist involved, occasionally we’ll have a guest, but most of the time it’s just me. The rest is up to you, our friends and readers! Fire up your media player of choice and share the first five random track of your shuffle in the comments.

    The Five:

    “A-Punk” by Vampire Weekend (from Vampire Weekend, 2007)

    Opps! Somebody forgot to hit shuffle before hitting play! I imagine that this is the first song in many folks library —sorted by track, that is. So let’s add that to the sharing today: if you sort your library by song name, what is the first track?

    “Right on Time” by The Brothers Johnson (from Right on Time, 1977)

    Hot damn, if I don’t love me some Brothers Johnson. Funkier than Dave LIfton’s gym socks, the one-two combo of Louis’ monster bass lines, and George’s fluid guitar work absolutely kills.

    “Running With the Night” by Lionel Richie (from The Definitive Collection, 2003)

    I can’t listen to this without the video:

    “Cold as Ice” by Foreigner (from The Very Best…and Beyond, 1992)

    Matt Wardlaw has ruined Foreigner for me.

    “Out 4000” by Rappin’ 4-Tay (from Don’t Fight the Feelin’, 1994)

    I rarely rate tunes with one star. This is a one-star tune.

    What’s on your shuffle today?

  • Rock

    Cheap Trick perform “Dream Police” on Conan

    I’ve never been the biggest of Cheap Trick fans, but I’ve always had an appreciation. My oldest brother cranked the Budokan album when I was a wee lad. And it was from him that I inherited the Dream Police record. “Way of the World”, “Gonna Raise Hell”, and of course the title track… at 9, 10, 11 years old, I was eating these songs up!

    I’m sure you have a similar album – one where you’re not necessarily a fervent follower of the band, but there’s one seminal album that made a huge mark on you way back when? Count Foreigner 4 among those for me too (and every other preteen and teen in 1981)…

    So it was a trip back in the time machine when Cheap Trick dropped by Conan last week. There’s Rick Nielsen (he’ll be buried in that hat, don’t you think?), Tom Petersson on bass, and the ageless Robin Zander on vox. The one missing link in the performance – drummer Bun E. Carlos! I asked the question on Twitter, and someone mentioned that he may have some back problems holding him down. So Bun – get well bro!

    Cheap Trick brought along a string section for the “Dream Police”, and they kick some ass during the mid-song breakdown. Good times!

  • Nudges

    A Nudge in the Right Direction

    I swear I was only going 60!!

    Editor’s Note: Ah Sunday, it’s time to relax and you know what that means a glass of wine, your favorite easy chair and of course a few nudges in the right direction.

    • The All Points West Music & Arts Festival is taking place this weekend at New Jersey’s Liberty State Park. Jay-Z took up the Friday night headliner slot vacated by the Beastie Boys and paid tribute by opening with the classic “No Sleep Till Brooklyn”. (link)
    • ChordStrike has what could be the oddest “cover” that you’ll ever experience with an unlikely take on M.I.A.‘s “Paper Planes”. (link)
    • It looks as if Foreigner has gone the Journey route with a Wal-Mart exclusive triple-disc new + greatest hits package and Matt over at Addicted To Vinyl has the details. (link)
    • Jeff Vrabel introduces us to the ‘redonkulous’ trailer for Guy Ritchie‘s Sherlock Holmes and proved that even hundred old characters have fanboys. (link)
    • Popdose chart master Jason Hare drops a Chart Attack from 1992 featuring En Vogue, Boyz II Men, Jon Secada and quite possibly one of the worst tunes ever. (link)