The Fu-Funk

Today we hit an unprecedented 23 degrees above the brrrr, AND I had a day off. So I had to go outside, come on it would’ve been criminal. I went to my uncle’s cabin the boonies of Alberta to celebrate the birth of my 12 year old cousin. I, of course, gave her some CD’s so I can save her from her eventual descent to hideous music that everyone goes through when they are a teenager. My sister said she listened to the Jack Johnson CD and she really liked that, so that’s what she got from her. I gave her the Strokes’ second album and the Juno Soundtrack because they were both 2 for 25 bucks. I hope to save her soon and bring her to the light side, I already successfully saved my cousin Jose, and I hope to be like what my dad was to me. A sage, a wise old music sage.

But this is not what I was going to write to you about. Ok so I did all that and today I went to lunch with the parents (at IKEA which is pretty good for lunch for some reason), then I went to pay Erin for the Radiohead tickets …wait hold on..

…I GOT RADIOHEAD TICKETS!! After all that fretting my best friend came through in the clutch, and now me and my sis and my roommate and my cousins are ALL going to Vancouver to see them. YAY! So excited I can’t even explain….

Ok, so because of that and seeing her and then playing the first street hockey game of the season it became a pretty awesome day. You know what was my soundtrack of the day? Baby Charles. This band is a Fu-Funk band whatever that means. I think it’s just a modern funk band, but I felt like I was in the movie Superbad. Driving down to the Whyte Ave, with the windows down, sun shining in my face, looking and feeling awesome. I had a spring in my step the whole day and I owe it all to this perfect record to play. All this guitar funk, and singing, and happy cool vibes. I didn’t know if I was in Edmonton or some cool place in California. Anyways if you ever have one of those days, please acuire this album and you will also feel as awesome as I did.

If you can’t find her album for some weird reason, then check out Quiet Village’s Silent Movie. It’s not as funky or happy stepping, but it’s a great sampling instrumental record. These british blokes take some old Motown and 70’s records and mash it up to create some more 70’s sounding and Motown records. Very cool, and very cinematic sounding. It’s not something to dance to, or cruise to, but it’s music to relax and preferably smoke some weed with it, or like talk nonsensical stuff with at 4 in the morning.

I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor — Baby Charles

Circus of Horror — Quiet Village

GOAT List: Until The End Of The World — U2

I love U2. Ok let’s change that, I love old U2, new U2 kind of bores me. I don’t get it, especially when I hear that their new album is a “reinvention” and that they are “back” to what they were before. I don’t know what that means. For me U2 starts at the song “New Years Day” and ends with the album “Pop.” In between is some of the greatest popular rock music of that time, of one generation. Rock wise no one touched them, their albums were amazing (Joshua Tree, Rattle and Hum, Achtung Baby, Zooropa, and Pop) and their shows legendary. Even songs they did for movies that blew were amazing (Hold Me, Kiss Me for Batman Forever). Their fucking greatest hits album was amazing. This is where this song comes from, right in the middle of that era. I don’t think this song was ever a single, and some people might dispute it but for me “Until The End of The World” musicifed everything that U2 was about during that age. Achtung Baby is quoted as being about love, and this is what this song is about. Stupid, stupid love. It has a great guitar riff from an in form Edge, amazing lyrics by Bono, and crazy instrumentation by the rest of the band. The many times I listen to this song and I still don’t know what it means, it still has that air of mystery. Is it a crazy girl? Or are we the crazy ones for not seeing her truth about the end of the world? Or does it even matter because it’s about this guy who is obsessed with this girl who only cares about the world, just like Bono sings at the end “I’ve reached out for the one I tried to destroy, but you, you said you’d wait til the end of the world.” This song also serves as a metaphor for the band, the girl being Bono and U2, and the singer is us the fans. “Everyone having a good time, except for you, you were talking about the end of the world,” is that political? Or is it obsession? I feel this way about girls sometimes. Then I feel an awesome Edge guitar solo. It’s a fantastic pop song that sucks you in at every listen, and U2 even knew this because they included it in their Greatest Hits compilation. It’s so good that it’s the only U2 song I need in the GOAT list, because this song IS U2. Well the one that I know and love.

Until The End Of The World — U2

Radiohead Pre-Sale/Workout Muzak

Today I was going to take a small break from the GOAT List to express my excitement over getting Radiohead tickets for the upcoming concert in Vancouver. I’m already going to Vancity to see Jack Johnson with my sis and cousins and the Radiohead thing basically fell into my lap by the ever musically reliable Erin. I already saw Radiohead in the same venue about three or four years ago, I don’t remember the exact date, but I do remember it was absolutely amazing. Radiohead is one of my favorite bands of all time (I’m sure many of you share the same feelings), and you bet your ass that at least two songs will make the GOAT list. So today I was going to write about how excited I am for this summer and August in particular so I can go to these concerts and go see Vancity and the mountains with my fam and Erin. The presale was today at 11am, and I was there credit card in hand ready to go! I reloaded the page and it took a bit, it was 11:02 when i processed the information. That is when I got the fateful information: No tickets available. Two minutes, two fucking minutes it took for the presale to sell out. This has never happened to me, I have done the presale many many times, never have I seen one sell out in two minutes. It might’ve been even earlier, since at 11:02 is when I got the message after entering the info and shit, and that’s when I looked at my clock in horror. So now I’m exasperated, sad, and anxious to try my luck tomorrow with the dreaded general sale. There will be more tickets then, but I’m scared. Two minutes? That shook my core. But mark my words readers, I will be there, oh yes I will be there.

To get the feeling of desperation and anger out of my system I took the bus to the gym to get some rage out on the treadmill. During my workout I started thinking about first how awesome the penguins are, and that they rocked the Senators today. Second, I tried to figure out what was the best type of workout music. Personally I know some songs that help me get energized and help my workout because of it’s repetative nature, fast beats, and long duration. The longer the song the longer my workout will be, because I will be concentrated on that song. The best type of music for working out in my books is electronic music, especially for doing cardio stuff. Weights and general muscle stuff belongs with hip hop. The best cardio songs are generally 130 beats per minute (pretty much the standard for electro/house music) and along repetative beat. Hopefully something that starts slow and builds and builds. Two great examples are Simian Mobile Disco’s “Sleep Deprivation” and Underworld’s “Cups.” “Cups” especially since it’s like 11 minutes long and it starts with a simple violing and ends chaotically. “Sleep Deprivation” is great too because like “Cups” it starts slow and then builds. It is also exactly 5 mins long. So repeat that three times and you have a good steady 15 minute workout. Or just play “Cups” and “Sleep Deprivation” back to back. Actually that whole Underworld album “Beaucoup Fish” is great for working out. Except that slow ass song in the middle, uggh.

When lifting weights and doing general muscle manly stuff (and this applies for girls too, being all sweaty and sexy and stuff), hip hop is the best. Big heavy beats, and bad ass lyrics should be a must. Stay away from the R.Kelly and just general R and B and you’ll be fine. Maybe some old school Wu-Tang, or just Ghostface Killah’s “More Fish” especially the songs “Blue Armor”, “Street Opera” , and “The Champ” are great. You just want to feel like destroying armies when lifting weights. Rap music does that for me. Death From Above does that too, but that’s more for when doing coke.

The Champ — Ghostface Killah

Sleep Deprivation — Simian Mobile Disco

GOAT List: Persiana Americana — Soda Stereo

One of the facets that has shaped the way I listened to music was my dad’s favorite artists. He was always the one who would play these bands at home and it either steered me to or away from it. Early on it was away, but now I see what the fuss was all about. This song recollects all the things that I hated before but now are part of my musical landscape. The 80’s, Spanish music, pop music. Back then I never understood my dad’s fascination with this band, but now, well now I see the light. If this song was made in English, it would be an 80’s staple just like all those one offers. You would hear it in a weird movie and go “Oh yeeeaah, I love this song” but alas, you problaby would’ve never heard it if I hadn’t brought it up. Not unless you lived in South America in 80’s, because there it’s a classic. So is this band, who recently had a very successful reunion tour. Ok, back to the song. Well it’s protypical 80’s, lots of synth, lots of beat, lots of harmonizing, catchy as hell. If it wasn’t in Spanish it would’ve been made by Depeche Mode. The lyrics talk about a guy spying on a girl through blinds, because for some reason 80’s band love to talk about creepy things like that. But it’s the tone and the structure, the singing, the repeatable chorus, the very 80’s everything. It’s not cheesy, but it could be. No, it’s not cheesy, it’s a classic, a forgotten classic. It belongs in this list.

Persiana Americana — Soda Stereo

GOAT List: She’s Electric — Oasis

Ok I admit it, I don’t really like Oasis that much. Sure they write some great songs and they do have a knack for creating some great harmonies. But when I heard that all the Oasis tickets were sold out for the Edmonton show, I shrugged and said “meh.” I don’t hate them but I’m not for them, they are in the middle. You know what bugs me most about them, it’s the lyrics. Simple, and just dumb, they don’t make sense. I think they just took a word and went through a dictonary and found the words that rhymed with it, then made a song. All of this is evident in “She’s Electric” but it somehow….works. Why is this song great? So great that it belongs in the GOAT list? Well it’s a perfect little brit pop song, one of the most perfect ones. It’s so Oasis but the good kind, the non brashful and not I’m trying to be the best writers in the world Oasis. The lyrics are retarded, but the tone of Liam is perfect, even his off key chorus is just cute. Especially when he wants to be electric too, and I don’t know if he’s talking about a girl or the sister of the girl, or the mother of the girl. I don’t know, but it’s cute nonetheless. Very Beatles like, you can even hear Paul McCartney writing this. It’s a stand out track in an album (What’s the Story…)full of stand out tracks, one that escapes most people. But right now, if it was released today would strike gold. Even above Wonderwall and Morning Glory and Rock and Roll Star, it took me a while to decide between the lot, but I always came back to this song. It’s witty, charming, modest, and catchy. Everything ironically that Oasis is not (in my books anyways). Argue amongst yourselves.

She’s Electric — Oasis

GOAT List: Black Hand — Cadence Weapon

I’m getting into rap a lot lately, but unfortunately it didn’t make much of a dent in my GOAT list. I just couldn’t find songs that I completely loved and thought they shaped the way I saw music. Even though I’m definitely getting into it, it just sounded all the same. Well that is, until I went through the C section of my library and saw that I didn’t include Rollie Pemberton aka Cadence fucking Weapon. Not to be a homer or anything, but in my young rap knowledge, the weapon is one of the most original rappers of all time, and Black Hand is his anthem. All the cookie cutter rap stuff is there, but weirdly not. There is a crazy loud synthesizer start, then a single drum beat while he tells you who he is (typical), but then it turns with the weird guitar loop and other miscellaneous sounds. This all goes on while he raps intelligently about god knows what. But it all sounds so smart, like how he tells you how he’s indebted to science, and how he blocks writers daily, and shoot straighter than an atheist archer (?!). What the hell does that mean? I don’t know but it’s delicious. After all of that, it switches to a slow guitar loop in the chorus “Sounds soft like a pillow for real though, black hand like a thrilla” which he repeats three times. It’s hypnotizing, and just insane. High originality points, and something that I have never heard before and probably will never again. For a time it was my ring tone, and it just confused people. I also love how he switches loop speeds and sounds in the third verse (A Cadence Weapon trait), which somehow works. It really is great, and belongs just for the originality and the forward thinking that Rollie brings to a somewhat dead genre now. In other words, it’s a great but unlikely ambassador to the rap genre in my GOAT list.

Black Hand by Cadence Weapon

GOAT List: Tomorrow Comes Today — Gorillaz

This song belongs in the list, and truthfully it hung in there tight. I thought about 5 times to take it out, but every time I listened to it again, I shook my head and said nope. Why does it belong? Well first of all it has the best bassline I have heard outside of The Chemical Brothers’ “Under the Influence.” Problaby the best bass outside of any rap song, and could compete with any one of them. Even though it has a hip hop heavy beat, and that amazing bass it still balances it with a country like harmonica. It’s a like a hip hop western. I don’t know if you all know this, but I’m big into little sounds. It’s the reason why I love electronic music so much. Little weird beeps, chords and instruments make me think long and hard as to why the artist decided to that in that time in the song. Tommorrow Comes Today has a ton of them, like the violins in the second verse, the harmonizing at the end, the far away banging of a guitar, the whistling. Even the bass itself has a weird actual bass guitar vibe to it, even when you think that there is no way that sound came from a bass guitar. Now, for some reason Blur’s Damon Alburn is all over the place in the GOAT list as he should be, but he’s never reached as high creatively than with Gorillaz and especially this song. It’s clear, it’s concise, deep and amazing. It’s not pop, it’s not brit rock, it’s not hip hop, but it’s music, and it’s good. Hell, it’s great.

Tomorrow Comes Today by Gorillaz

The Greatest Songs Of All Time

“I’ll make you a new CD” I said, “just name me the subject, like I did with the Instrumental and International CDs”

“Hmmm” my dad contemplated, “Ok I have one, this is gonna be big. Are you sure about this?”

“Pfft, come on. Me? Come on now”

“Ok, this will take up a lot of your time”

“Name it”

“Greatest Songs Ever”

“What?”

“All-Time”

“How many songs?”

“Whatever you want”

“It’s all up to me then, right. It can be anything?”

“Yep”

“Holy fuck, this will take ages. Well not ages, but it’ll be awesome. Trust me” I was excited just thinking about the project. But it was so open-ended, it was all up to me. No problem though, no problem. I was excited again, I mean damn. What songs will emcompass all the songs that I ever loved of all time? Hard stuff.

So I made the list, it’s complete. I think. I’m sure I’ve left a lot out and I’m going to kick myself. But it’s not going to get as great as it is now. Doing this list and picking the songs I argued with myself a lot. Had to stick up to some songs, and dump some songs because of frivilous reasons sometimes. Bad memories, or just not great. Good but not great. There was no check list for this. The only check list I made for myself was that it had to be 100 songs (nice round number that could fit in an MP3 CD), and that I could not have more than 2 songs from one band/artist. Or else, I would have like 10 Beatles songs, and that’s not fully encompassing really.

I started it with a kind of history looking list, trying to fit many decades of songs, and making sure I have lots of every type of genre I know of. But then I listened to it and realized that some of the songs were timeless by other people’s standards, but not great by mine. So my list stopped being a Greatest Songs of All Time and turned into My Greatest Songs of All Time, which is much more interesting really. It’s debatable, and you will ask, why this song and not this song. Everyone knows the timeless songs of all time, but not many people know the songs that defined me, that make me keep listening to music.

I remember asking my friend for his greatest rap songs of all time and he almost busted a nut. That was exciting for him, and when I mentioned the assignment my dad gave me, me and my sister and her boyfriend (my roommates) had an hour long discussion into which songs are some of the greatest of all time for her. it excited her so much that she’s making a list too. It has become a continous discussion around the house, and has even inspired the acronym GOAT (Greatest Of All Time). Now everytime a song comes on that’s even a little bit good we ask, “Is it GOAT? Is it in the GOAT list?”

So, I’m going to share with you and hopefully bring you some MP3’s of my GOAT list, and I will tell you, song by song, why they belong in the list.

I hope it will excite you too.