On My Ipod Right Now.

ALANIS MORISSETTE"jagged little pill" (1995)

Me being partial to female singers puts this artist in my top 10 of all time. I have everything she had done. Good and bad. This, her breakout recording, was her best. Seems she wrote almost every song when she was pissed off. She seemed to be pissed off a lot back then and it was the "edge" she put in her singing that also put this CD in my top 10.

Check out "Hand in my pocket".

This song was recorded in one take. Almost unheard of in these days. Great lyrics. This was early in her career when I liked her best. She didn't wear makeup and never tried quest for rock stardom. She did change a bit later.

Check out "Everything"

Note the cyclists in the video. She has several videos that shows group rides. If I every find out that she rides I will have to sharpen my stalking skills! (not really, there still pretty good yet)

I will leave you with one more from this CD and a story. A video that she wrote and directed and is one I would call near genius. The song is my fav from this recording. Again, lyrics are unbelievable!

Check out " Ironic" Her best work in my book.

Here's the story: I saw her in concert in 1999. After the show we were walking outside the theater and a limo rolls up to the corner and has to wait for a bunch of us to cross. A rear window rolls down and Alanis looks at me, just a few feet away, and gave me a wave, and sped off. True story.

DLD

On My Ipod Right Now

Nightmare Before Christmas Soundtrack (2006)

This 1993 movie is one of my top 10 all time. I was pumped when this soundtrack came out. A two disk recording with one being the original songs from the flick, all written by Danny Elfman. The second is a compilation of most of the same songs covered by various artists including Fall Out Boy, Marilyn Manson, Fiona Apple and others.

If you liked the movie this soundtrack is a must.

Each of the guest artist's did a awesome job on putting their own spin on Elfman's tunes. Fiona Apple's rendition of "sallys song" is spectacular.

On My Ipod Right Now

DEVO"greatest hits" (1990)

Where to begin. These guys were way ahead of their time. Born in 1973 in Akron, Ohio. The group was the brainchild of brothers Gerald and Bob Casale and Mark and Bob Mothersbaugh. There first big break came from playing multiple gigs at Kent University and several members of the band witnessed the 1970 shootings there.

But what really gave them there in was the fact that they videotaped and filmed every gig they did. They put together a short film called "The Complete Truth about De-evolution". The film was seen by the likes of David Bowie and Neal Young, getting them in the door at Warner Bros.

The bills got paid due to the mainsteam song "Whip it", which was played to death on all the top 40 radio stations. However, they had many great songs that were just ignored cuz they were just too weird. I think their best stuff came later. Here are two that I really like.

Beautiful World

Time out for Fun

One can see that it was hard for the mainstream music exec's to take them seriously. They never did make music for the masses and I think they were better off. It was more of a cult following for sure.

All founding members are still working on other projects but they still get together now and then to do a show or two. And I think that's cool. The most successful "post Devo" were the Mothersbaugh brothers. With Mark in the lead they now write and record music for TV shows and movies. They have done all the tunes heard on PeeWee's Playhouse and the very popular Nickelodeon Rugrats cartoon. When I watched "Rugrats" with my kids I thought I heard a little Devo riff snuck in by the brothers here and there.

Good stuff.

On My Ipod Right Now.

WALL OF VOODOO"call of the west" (1982)

Another new wave band from the early 80's. Formed in the L.A. area in the late 70's. The front man of this band, Stan Ridgway, started out writing movie soundtracks and sound effects. They had several recordings but no one really noticed them. "call of the wild" was by far their most popular recording due to the song" Mexican radio" getting airplay. MTV also helped out too.

New wave was short lived, about 2 or 3 years, with all the hair bands waiting in the wings. But we did get a couple of good bands and songs out of it. And this one was one of them...

Mexican Radio here.

Sadly two of the founding members have passed away due to health issues and the band has long since disbanded. Stan Ridgway still tours a bit but no other remaining member is with him.

On My Ipod Right Now....

In the past I have been posting my fav recordings on a sidebar. I am now going to post once a week instead of the sidebar. Reasons are that I always seem to have more to say and run out of room, and some people have emailed comments on the group since the sidebar has no format for commenting. And I will tag the post "on Ipod" so all entry's will be archived. And it gives me another post per week. So here's the first in the new format:

QUEENSRYCHE"empire"(1990)

This is one of my top 10 ever. Always labeled a metal band, but a artsy fartsy metal band. There is some classic tunes on this recording that have stood the test of time. Every time I hear "silent lucidity" on the radio I stop and listen to every word and note. The band is still working but never duplicated the popularity of this recording with almost every song rated 5 star. I did not listen to this recording from about 95' till almost 2005. I picked it up and it blew me away a second time then. If you never have, or if its been awhile.....

Check it out....

SILENT LUCIDITY

EMPIRE