The Return of Friday Jams

I was doing some video work this morning and remembered that Pogo is still out there doing shit.

So I went and looked him up and there was this video that he dropped recently:

And then my youtube just autoplayed Pogo.

So I'm having a very Pogo day and it's making me sooooo fuckin' happy.

I think he'd make some of you happy, too.

Don't think I won't tag you at some point if you sleep on this.

And honestly, I have Terribly Odd to thank for my intro to Pogo a bunch of years ago.

A First Friday

As mentioned in yesterday's ramblings, I'm unemployed....was RIF'd back in July.
Here's a cute little throw back in case we wanna reminisce.

There's a funny thing about being in sales.
It's called a 'sales cycle'.
Everything is measured on a quarterly basis and due to this, for some odd reason (*cough* quotas) everyone decides to wait until the last month of every quarter (or every third month, for you yearly calendar folks) to push mega hard, and give discounts, and draw-up endless revisions of contracts & spreadsheets, and have war room concalls, and wait around for signatures in the lobbies of corporate offices, and do everything they frantically can to pull in at the very last minute whatever big elephant deal they might be working on....

And usually all of this is going on within the last 2-3 weeks of that magical beast of a third month.
As if that magical beast of a third month were somehow unexpectedly sneaking up on everyone.

And all the field reps you support are doing all the same cram-it-in things all at the same time.
And your regular 40-50hr work week turns into an 80hr work week for at least 2 weeks in a row.
Every. Third. Month.

And on the last Friday of each quarter....
It's like Christmas with none of the fun stuff.
Because we'd all be staying up late, glued to our laptops til 2 or 3 or 4a.m. babysitting those big elephant deals because they'd just come in that afternoon and they're complex in backend paperwork and everything has to match up just so for processing....
And there'd be emergency fire drill concalls with teams of management at 1a.m. and additional confirmations needed via email or someone forgot to click a checkbox in some system and everyone that's ever been associated with the big elephant deal is asking you if it's booked yet....
"Is there an SO#?"
"Is there an SO#?"
"Is there an SO#?"
"Is there an SO#?"

And in the past 10yrs, this is the first Friday at the End of The Quarter that I don't have to do ANY of that.

Tonight, I'm pouring one out for my corporate homies that kick so much ass.

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PS. If you're reading this and you know who I'm talking about when I say "Sales Associate", hug them, send them flowers, liquor, beer, strippers, buy them a car. They take really good care of you and do their best for you and, at times, get little in return.

Christmas Playlist

 

I made a youtube playlist for Christmasness.

You can watch, listen, and enjoy HERE!!

Florence + the Machine - Ceremonials

If I could be any one else in the whole world, I would want to be Florence.
Even though she doesn't ride rollercoasters.
The music she makes is rollercoasters enough.



There's something magical about the mix of her voice, the drums, the harp, the lyrics....that pulls on you emotionally.  Well, on me anyway.  I can't speak for you turds.
I listened to this first song, "Only If For A Night" and was in tears about half way through.
The song's about her dead grandmother visiting her in a dream and giving her advice.

But it isn't sadness that makes me teary eyed, its an overwhelming amazement & joy that her music (and music in general) can make such an impact on people and evoke such emotion.

I've posted before an excerpt from her website that sums it up perfectly.  Go check that out.

You know how artists who find their niche and particular sound, the music starts to kinda run together a bit and each song sounds a bit similar to the one before it?
Florence doesn't do that.
Yes, you can definitely tell its them, but there's no running together.
I was worried about that with this album...how could they top Lungs?

Well, I'm insanely happy to say, they've done it.

Favorite Horror Movie Theme Songs

In no particular order.  I'll be throwing these on a Halloween mix I've been compiling all month long.
Enjoy!

1. Amityville Horror.
2. The Thing.
3. The Exorcist.
4. The Shining.
5. Poltergeist.
6. Candyman.
7. Rosemary's Baby.
8. Cape Fear.
9. Halloween.
10. The Haunting.
11. House On Haunted Hill.
12. Nightmare On Elm Street.
13. Dracula.  (duh)

Gogol Bordello - Gypsy Punks Underdog World Strike

There's really nothing more I can say.

Two Door Cinema Club - Tourist History

This was the first song I heard/saw:


Catchy right?
I was colored impressed about a month or so ago with Pannacakes when we were at a divey bar in Winter Park and they had this song available on their jukebox.*
The band recently got a lot of buzz at Lollapalooza & apparently put on a pretty damn good show.
Their sound is fun and I'm sure its only a matter of time before we get saturated by them being featured in every commercial.
Haha - the lead ginger has another one of my haircuts.  That's pretty rad.
Anyway, enjoy & Happy 1st September Friday the 2nd!!
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*does it still count as a jukebox if it only takes bills and doesn't have records in it?

Michael Jackson - Bad

I'll give you a minute to stop laughing.

OK, now watch this.

If you don't have 10mins to watch the whole thing, the song starts at the 4:30 mark.

C'mon....there's a NOID in it.

My favorite bit is the dance battle with Spike, the rabbit costume.

One of the big reasons for posting this today was because my mother told me to.

Well, not exactly. It went more like this:

Mom: I need all of Michael Jackson's albums on my ipod.

Me: OK.

Mom: All of it. Its the only thing I can work out with.

Me: OK.

Mom: Really, I get on the treadmill and I close my eyes and listen and I start dancin' and singin' along and I don't care who sees me.

So, this a.m. I burned her a dvd & drew up a card to send it with, complete with instructions on what to do once she gets it.

Figured since I was already in the MJ frame of mind, today would be as good as any to post my favorite song from the Moonwalker VHS.

Awww man, now I have a craving for some Captain EO.

Shamone!

The Knife - Deep Cuts

I like this song.

Pannacakes sent me a live version youtube video for it a year or 2 ago, I think.

I also like this song.

It makes me laugh.

There's no video for it.

Happy Friday, Turds!

You deserve a beer or 3.

Or whatever you feel like rewarding yourself with for making it through another week.

Except Broken Barn. They dropped off on Tuesday. No reward for them.

Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros

I have a lot of favorite songs on this album, too. This was the first song I heard and gets stuck in my head a lot.
My other favorite song is "Home" which is now being used in a commercial or 2. That song brought tears to my eyes the first time I heard it. (shut up, I'm a girl. its allowed when something is that stinkin' sweet.)
I think "Janglin'" is in another commercial, too.

That's what happens, you know.
You love a song so much, you get smothered by it with marketing until you love it a little bit less.
So far, the love for these songs hasn't worn off yet.
They have a new album coming out soon, as well.
Advertising folks will be thrilled.

These are probably my very favorite damn dirty hippies.
If you saw them on Conan or any other shows they performed on, you know there's like 12 folks in the band and they have dreads and beards and wear sheets for pants.

We missed seeing them at The Social last October - it sold out pretty quickly by the time we found out about the show. That venue is pretty small, so I bet after the band got in there, they only had room for like, 3 other people.
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IN OTHER NEWS:
We're either going here or here tonight and then to see this.
So, look forward to reviews & shit over the weekend and then for Movie Monday.

Mumford & Sons - Sigh No More

This one is so hard to pick one favorite off the record. Every single one of their songs is effing great.
Foot percussion+banjo=LOVE
These guys recently did an Unplugged on Palladia and it was really cool to see how into their music they get, all sweaty and red-faced and shit. How those people in the audience remained seated during the show was absolutely beyond me. Watching the banjo player make sweet love while he was playing was definitely a highlight. That boy's got some rhythm. Damn.

Drunk Karen says, "if you're hungover on a Sunday morning, this is the record to listen to to help with recovery."

Enjoy your Friday, turds.
Have 1 or 5 for me!! :)
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ps. for those of you not as webbernets savvy, and I think I've said this before, but just in case....You can right click on a link and open in a new window/tab so you don't have to leave this page. That's how you listen to the song and still read the blog, big dummies.

Ida Maria - Fortress 'Round My Heart

I've been listening to her a lot over the past month.

This song/album was the first one, out in 2008.

There's a new one that just came out last month (internationally) - "Katla".

But my favorite song is from this album. So go look up the other one yourselves.....

-or-

You can wait for me to post about it on a future Friday Jams.

But I know you turds are impatient.

Ida is Norwegian.

She keeps up with her own facebook page.

And she kicks much ass.

OH!! AND...If you watch Louis C.K.'s show, she does the "Louie" song you hear on it's commercials and crap. Its been a while since I've seen an actual episode so I don't remember if its the intro theme, but it very well may be.

HAPPY JULY 1ST!!

Hope you turds have a good 4th weekend.

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ps. Florence +The Machine were amazing last night.

You know what WASN'T amazing???

The fuckin' feedback. Who ever the sound guy was needs to be kicked in the face and/or ear boxed.

-AND- the dumbass obnoxiously drunk chick that decided to sing WAY too loud (think fratboy* at a Dave Matthews Band show) during my favorite song. People were "shhhhh"ing her.

We were able to elbow her out of the way for a bit but that bitch was determined to stay close to us and continued to dance up on us even though we were obviously there to see Florence and not her toodrunkass.

Usually, I'm not one to be a wet blanket on someone's fun, but when it comes to ruining a show for people and just being an asshole....that's kinda where I draw the line.

She wasn't even funny.

Funny makes up for a lot.

And today, I bet she's waking up and not even remembering an awesome performance that she paid good money for.

Big dummy.

I don't even do that.

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*Matt, if you're reading this, I know you hate that term. But I'm not apologizing for using that here.

Florence + the Machine - Lungs

I first saw Florence +the Machine on Palladia a few years back. She had been dressed all in black flowiness and was climbing the stage rafters in high-heeled boots.

Her performance was so uh-mazing, I told Matt to find her music for me.

Unfortunately, there was only one record out....Lungs.

He downloaded it for me, I listened to it a couple of times, but something shiny distracted me and it took about 6 months for me to revisit and fall head over heels in love with the album, listening to it on loop and dancing like a wild woman through the house.

Here's an excerpt from her website that puts into words what, up until reading this, I had been unable to.*

***********

This from here:

“I want my music to sound like throwing yourself out of a tree, or off a tall building, or as if you’re being sucked down into the ocean and you can’t breathe,” says Florence Welch. “It’s something overwhelming and all-encompassing that fills you up, and you’re either going to explode with it, or you’re just going to disappear.”

***********

We've got tickets to go see her & the Machine at Hard Rock next Thursday, but for those of you who aren't able to see her live, NPR released this yesterday & you can watch the show online.

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*In the past, I'd always described it as feeling the music in your soul...or having it pull on your chest. Florence says it much better than I do.

Sleigh Bells - Treats

Mad* props to Pannacakes for passing this one along a while back.

If you want BIG-HUGE-LOUD-assault-your-senses jams to bump to, this is exactly that.

And perfect for Fridays.

Upon listening to any of the songs off this album, you immediately feel like a badass.

The only fault with the record is that if you listen to it on loop (the way I do when my grubby hands snag something new)....The songs start to run together.

Its better to pepper them into a shuffle or playlist.

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*Don't forget to actually CLICK the link, turds.

They Might Be Giants - Flood

Following up Throwback Thursday with a little throwback Friday Jams.

Take THAT, Licia & April!!!

Just recently told Willie to download this album for his daughter, Jemara, cuz she would really dig it.

Definitely an album worth passing on to children. Since they're the future and shit.

TMBG do a lot of kids tunes and learning songs and crap now.

John Linnell also did the song that was in Coraline.

I have a ton of TMBG songs that make me happy.

They're just a happy band.

And with that - hope you had a happy Friday 13th!!

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Show Your Bones

I was going to do a different album today, but while I started to type shit out, "Warrior" popped up in my head.*

And when Karen O speaks, you have no choice but to listen.

If you turds live under a rock and don't know YYYs, you might recognize her voice from the "Where The Wild Things Are" movie soundtrack, but I think at this point their songs have been around in commercials and on RockBand and stuff, so its hard to not be aware of them.

Show Your Bones was the 2nd album from the trio.

All their albums are effing wonderful. I love them all equally. They should have another one coming out pretty soon. The last one came out in 2009. Would be nice to hear something new from them.

Matt, Pannacakes, & I went to see them back in...shit....2003?

At The Social downtown.

Matt drank himself sick (not the barfy kind) on PBRs that night and talked to Karen O.

We looked like this:

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*Chose not to use "Warrior" for the blog cuz you can look it up for yourself. Seriously, if you haven't listened to YYYs before, do yourself a favor. Your earholes will thank you....

The Kills - Blood Pressures

I love music.

Anyone who hates music is a vegetable.

No....even vegetables react to music.

Maybe...a rock.

No, a rock will at least vibrate and is usually followed up by "roll".

Mosquitos. Yeah, I fuckin' hate mosquitos. They're completely useless.

Anyone who hates music is a damnass mosquito.

Yeah, its late and yeah, I've had a couple of drinks....and listening to this right now is makin' me dance in my chair.

So what?

(Just now realizing its kinda loud and Matthew is to bed already.*)

Heh...That's what, I guess.

The Kills rock my socks off.

Seriously...I'm not wearing any socks.

The more I listen to this one, the more I like it.

Although, "The Last Goodbye" and "Wild Charms", I'm not too wild about. They're kinda sleepy.

"Wild Charms" is like White Stripes Meg's "Cold Cold Night" but dude form for The Kills.

Midnight Boom is still my favorite album.

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*Don't be mad, Matthew. If you woke up or were bugged by it, I'll put 2 more mins in the bank. But only if your slumber was ruined.

Foo Fighters - Wasting Light

There have been a shit-ton of great albums droppin' recently.
When starting this weekly menu for posting, it wasn't really with an eye for only focusing on new releases.....but DAMN - when they're this good....how can you NOT say something about it?

And, here.....you can watch/listen to them play the whole album:

Question: How have the Foo Fighters not been asked to do a Superbowl halftime show??*
Instead we get stuck with the LameAssPeas.

These guys fuckin' rock and if you haven't seen their Wembley Stadium show that Palladia runs from time to time, do it - Jimmy Page comes out and plays with them and its UH-mazing.
Chills even.
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*On the topic of them playing a Superbowl show.

Glad I'm not the only one.

1. From this year. #5 on that list.
2. From last year. #1 on that list.
3. Also from last year.
4. And you can join it on Facebook.

Snoop Dogg-Doggumentary

Welcome to the first Friday Jams!!

Here's the damn deal.

I pick an album to rock out on a Friday with & my favorite song from that album will be linked to at the beginning so your earholes will be just as entertained as your eyeballs as you keep reading.

Consider it interactively multitasking.

You're welcome.

When I post one of your favorite albums - post your favorite song from that album/artist in the comments.

Cuz sharin' is karen and in a year we'll all have a badass playlist that we all contributed to.

Shut up, it'll be fun.

Now that all that crap is out of the way....

I can't stop bobbin' my head to this damn album lately.*

Which is perfect because of last summer's addiction to old Snoop & Dre while sitting around the pool or going to the beach.

Now there's more to add to that for this summer.

And this new one flows really nice with the old stuff.*

Plus, there's Willie Nelson AND Bootsy Collins and there is no possible way on this greenish,blueish,brownishEARF that you can keep from smiling when you hear Boosty say in his Bootsy way "baby" or "mama" which usually sounds like it starts with "b".

Its fuckin' Friday, baby.....and happy hours are only hours away, bmama.

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*There is one exception. The Kanye song made me stop bobbin' in my head bobbin' tracks. It was so bad my neck was confused. Also, it does not flow nicely with the old stuff. His sound is too emo to blend with gfunk.

Neither does Wet. So that's 2 exceptions. whatever.

And Willie (Not Nelson) - as far as the RKelly song goes: Yeah, its RKelly & a stupid song but the beat is pretty bangin'.

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ALSO: I dare you to listen to any Snoop Dogg song while looking at this face and fail to understand why his name is Snoop.

BadA$$ 4Life.