November 26, 2008

Happy Day-Before-Thanksgiving

Celebrate the near-holiday with an Onion crossword by me that has nearly nothing to do with Thanksgiving whatsoever. (Several clues mention food, which I guess sort of counts.) You'll need Across Lite to open it if you don't have it already.

Posted by Francis at 03:16 PM | Comments (1)

November 21, 2008

I got your next Capitol Steps song title right here

"O Rahm, O Rahm Emanuel". You know it's true.

Posted by Francis at 09:18 AM | Comments (1)

Papersnow

Sorry I vanished for a while there. At least I'm late enough that now it's Friday again. This time around I would like to direct your attentions to a song from the ill-advised 1996 attempt to reunite Talking Heads without David Byrne, calling the band "The Heads". The one album released by the Heads, "No Talking Just Head", featured vocals by many completely credible indie vocalists, including Debbie Harry, Richard Hell, Johnette Napolitano (of Concrete Blonde), and Gordon Gano (of Violent Femmes), contributing their own lyrics and melodies on top of music written by Jerry Harrison, Tina Weymouth, and Chris Frantz. Unfortunately, these singers all brought their D game when it came to their contributions, possibly because the music they were given to work with wasn't all that great. The only successful song that came out of the whole project was the one co-written and sung by XTC's Andy Partridge; his twisty and clashy melody line works wonders on the slow funk backing track. The section (30 seconds in) that goes "Ankle deep we heroes amble, ankle deep we'll wade, ankle deep through someone else's ticker tape parade" is simultaneously dissonant and catchy, and makes it sound like we've moved into a completely new bridge section even though nothing changes in the music. Good stuff.

The Heads with Andy Partridge, "Papersnow" (click through for download link)

Posted by Francis at 09:04 AM | Comments (15)

November 04, 2008

Yes We Can Can

Clearly I would make a terrible dictator. I haven't told you what to do for days. But here's a song to listen to while you vote tomorrow (sidenote -- holy shit I cannot fucking wait to vote): the Pointer Sisters' "Yes We Can Can" (written by the legendary Allen Toussaint). Let's make this land a better land than the one in which we live.

Posted by Francis at 01:26 AM | Comments (3)