Silly Sundays - 30 Rock - Muffin Top

Today is my wife's birthday, and in her honor I'm posting her favorite song right now. Since we returned from our honeymoon, we've started watching 30 Rock in earnest, and in the last six weeks we've watched all the available DVDs -- by the end of this season we'll be caught up.

I had to edit this together myself, since the show still hasn't released an official soundtrack, so I took recordings from the two original episodes where the song was featured and slapped them together. It's a tiny bit sloppy at the cuts, but I hope it doesn't interfere with your enjoyment of the song.

In October, I'll be posting the other really really great song from season one, "Werewolf Bar Mitzvah." Until then, download this and put it in all your mixes. Happy birthday, sweetie! I love you.

Jane Krakowski featuring Ghostface Killa - Muffin Top
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Buy the DVD from Amazon -- Buy from Deep Discount

Stagger Lee Saturdays - Dom Flemons

Dom Flemons (official MySpace AMG) is better known as one-third of Carolina Chocolate Drops, who are currently on tour promoting their new album. (Sadly, I don't think I can make the Atlanta show -- what with the wedding and honeymoon I have very few spare pennies around here right now. Too bad; what I've heard of the album is fantastic.)

This is a high-energy take on Stag (and yet another featuring Furry Lewis' "When you lose your money" moral). Dom puts everything he has into this song, and I can just imagine how much fun it must be to see him do this live.

Stag's adventures in hell continue in this version too -- one unusual lyric is that the earthquake we occasionally hear about isn't caused by Stag tormenting Billy down in hell -- it's just Stagger Lee with his John B. Stetson hat.

Dom Flemons - Stackolee
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Buy from the official store

Wedding Wednesdays - Corinne Bailey Rae - Like A Star

Corinne Bailey Rae (official wiki MySpace AMG) is a British torch-jazz-soul singer. She's about to be everywhere at once since she has a new album coming out (with a bonus track which is a Nina Simone cover), two days after our wedding.

This is a nice mellow love song (and possibly the most mainstream thing I will ever, ever post on this blog). I like the lyrics because they're honest about the less romantic side of love ("I don't argue like this / With anyone but you...") but still sweet and hopeful.

Corinne Bailey Rae - Like A Star
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Buy from Amazon -- Buy from Deep Discount

Dan Bryk - Great Adventure

Here's a quick post, my final one for Christmas 2009. (Edited to point out -- hey, be a fan on Facebook!)

Dan Bryk (official MySpace wiki AMG) is an Ontario-born musician, who moved from Canada to Raleigh, NC in 2003 with his partner Erin McGinn (they married in 2008, two years after this song was released). The reason I mention those specifics of his biography should become apparent when you listen to this song.

The Besotted family has a tradition called (I swear) "scooterpooping," which is where you leave the house with a modest amount of money and a full tank of gas, make a random decision to go one of the four cardinal directions, and drive a few hours until you get hungry, make a random decision to eat at a local nonchain restaurant, and continue meandering until everyone agrees to go home, stopping at any place that catches the eye. While this song details a trip with a more specific goal (the best scooterpooping song ever written is Lou Reed's "New Sensations," but that's a different post for a different day), it still has the feel of a classic scooterpoop.

As the fiancee and I prepare to spend our second Christmas together, and the last as an unmarried couple, I can't help but relate to this song. Sure, we're not moving thousands of miles to start our new life together, but it's going to feel like that all the time. The planning and logistics are causing both of us an awful lot of stress, but it'll all be over in 30 days. And every day after that, it will have been worth it. And, as the man says, that will only be the very start of a very long, very wonderful, very great adventure.

Dan Bryk - Great Adventure
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Buy from Bryk himself

Bob Dylan - A Visit From St. Nicholas

Here's what I'd hoped Bob's Christmas album would be like. This is a recording from his XM Radio Show Theme Time Radio Hour, where Bob reads the entirety of "A Visit From St. Nicholas." (via) (If you visit the via link, you should consider downloading at least the two-part Christmas show, if not the entire archive -- Bob's music collection is great, and he's got a fun take on musical commentary too.)

Bob's got a great storytelling voice, like the old cowboy poets. In a parallel universe somewhere, Bob's just an actor who gets small parts in weird movies but makes most of his money recording audio books. I want to live in that universe.

Bob Dylan - A Visit From St. Nicholas
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Multiple Mondays - Holiday Update Edition

Hi, everyone. This is an odd edition of Multiple Mondays. I'm going to update a lot of older MM posts with new versions from new artists.

First, let's start with the suggestions from Boy Howdy. He runs Cover Lay Down, the cover blog I'd most like to run if I weren't so dang lazy. In the comments section here last year, he recommended Amy Kuney's (video) take on "River" and Rosie Thomas' cover of "Christmas Don't Be Late (The Chipmunk Song)." They're both wonderful, magical Christmas tracks -- Rosie Thomas does something unexpected and unlikely: she takes a decades-old novelty song and transforms it into something meaningful and, yes, significant.

Remember "(Ghost) Riders In The Sky?" Sure you do. Well, REM want to play you a version called "(Ghost) Reindeer In The Sky."

Then, we'll hear two more versions of Charles Brown's classic "Merry Christmas Baby." First, Dolemite himself, Rudy Ray Moore growls his way through a bluesy 1971 take on it. Then, Sweden's Krystoffer Ragnstam knocks the song out of the park. If 1971 were a lot weirder, and you lived in a college town, this is the type of blues-pop fusion you could've heard in that alternate universe.

As always, I recommend the zipfile, but you can cherrypick if you insist.

Zipfile

1. Amy Kuney - River 1 2
2. Rosie Thomas - Christmas Don't Be Late 1 2
3. REM - Ghost Reindeer In The Sky 1 2
4. Rudy Ray Moore - Merry Christmas, Baby 1 2
5. Krystoffer Ragnstam - Merry Christmas, Baby 1 2

Bootsy Collins - Boot-Off

This Christmas season, a lot of Santas are concerned about H1N1, but I think it's important that we all focus on the other meaning of the word "infectious."

And Bootsy Collins (official Myspace wiki AMG) has the remedy for my complaints. This is a track from his 2006 holiday album, which features guest spots from Famous Flame Bobby Byrd, Bootsy's brother Catfish, Charlie Daniels, Snoop Dogg, Buckethead, and George Clinton hisself. The kids on this track are Tyreka and Tyesha Grissom, who met Bootsy at church.

This is pure delectable funk, candy for my ears.

Bootsy Collins - Boot-Off (AKA Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer)
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Buy it from Bootsy

Aye, Pirate Week: Nick Ca'e and Lou Reed.

Aye, ahoy, mateys. I been nearly swallowed up by Da'y Jones himself, but emerged t' send you more tunes from the likes o' some swank-bellied pirates like meself. Gar.

Arrr, in 2004, Johnny Depp and Gore 'erbinski, while workin' on the second and third Pirates o' the Caribbean mo'ies, thought it would be nice t' have some contemp'ry albums o' sea shanties t' help set the mood. Thar warn't any.

So they produced some.

Har be two tracks from Rogue's Gallery... (wiki liner notes), with two personal fa'orite artists o' mine (but just look at that tracklistin' -- if ye like She'll Grow Back, surely ye'll appreciate the talent har).

Nick Cave - Pinery Boy
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Lou Reed feat. Antony - Leave Her, Johnny
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Buy from Amazon -- Buy from Deep Discount

Silly Sundays - Rupert Holmes - Beef Lo Mein

Here's a track from the soundtrack to Rupert Holmes' 2006 mystery Swing. You can read more about the novel, and listen to the soundtrack, at Holmes' semiofficial site.

The novel is a murder mystery (and, like his first novel Where The Truth Lies, also serves as a metamystery) set in 1940's Golden Gate International Exposition. I won't summarize the plot here, but it's smart and complex, twisty and turny, and simultaneously hilarious and dead serious. Despite the grim, uncomfortable aspects of the plot, there's plenty of time for fun exploration of the World's Fair and 1940's pop culture.

And so, here is a 40's-style novelty song, proving once again that it's hard to write a song about food that isn't funny. (And, funny as this is, the song also turns out to be tragic in the novel. Just go ahead and click the buy link down there, okay?)

Rupert Holmes - Beef Lo Mein
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Buy the novel from Amazon

Lee Hartsfeld - Christmas Is Coming Again, Ha Haaa!

Here's an oddity nobody else is likely to repost this year. It's blogger Lee Hartsfeld's mistletoe-and-candy-cane tribute to Napoleon XIV (which of course I love!). I first ran across this last year on Lee's excellent archival blog, Music You (Possibly) Won't Hear Anyplace Else.

A lot of the pre-1950 music on my computer came from Lee's site, and it's certainly worth your time to click and explore his site.

Lee Hartsfeld - Christmas Is Coming Again, Ha Haaa!

Stagger Lee Saturdays: Chris Whitley and Jeff Lang

I have lots of versions of "Stagger Lee," and almost every single one is different in some way from almost every other single one. So I'm going to post at least one every week till I run out. This will take several years.

You can read about the history of the song, and the two men immortalized, here. In fact, I'm not even going to say much about the song tradition here, so you might as well click that link. Suffice to say, the earliest known recording is from 1928, and the song had been around at least 20 years before that. It's still changing and mutating and recombining with other versions today (soon we'll hear Sam Jackson's version from Black Snake Moan).

So here's a version taken completely at random from my Stagger Lee collection (which is not to say it's not incredibly good). Chris Whitley died in 2005. His friend and collaborator Jeff Lang released this album the next year.

Chris Whitley and Jeff Lang - Stagger Lee
Buy from Jeff Lang -- Buy from Amazon

Jack Johnson - We're Going To Be Friends

I've heard quite a few White Stripes covers in my day, but this is my current favorite (sorry, The Dynamics -- your time will come once again soon, I'm sure). Jack Johnson really brings out the sweetness in Jack White's adorable lyrics. Makes me wanna see if I can find Danette Fisher online, the girl I used to walk to school with as a young man, and reclaim that early friendship. Of course, I know next to nothing about her as a person now, except that she reads a lot and I'll bet any of you ten bucks she owns a horse.

If I find her, I'll come back and comment on this post.

Jack Johnson - We're Going To Be Friends
Buy from Amazon -- Buy from Deep Discount

Namesake -- Obligatory first post

Steven Rusling is the best friend I have that I've never met in person. He has a band. They are called The Sads, and they are based in Prague. Here's a rocking little number from them.

The Sads - She'll Grow Back