Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Earworms of the Week (Mar 2)


My current one, and it has been so for at least a month or two, is Sam Cooke's "Trouble Blues" - I guess because it fits my life at the moment.
- RockingMitch

Sometimes you listen to a song, and right away think: "How would this one sound like if X were covering it?" Two people came to mind with this - Julianne Regan (from Zalamanda's favorite band, All About Eve) and Iggy. Of course, it will never happen. But... Josh Reichmann somehow makes me miss that Iggy's cover even more. It is from Paper Bag Records' compilation "The Seven Year Itch", also includes a fine rendition of Dylan's "I Want You" by Rock Plaza Central).
- lambretinha

Most people will probably hate this but I can't stop singing it because my son likes it and we dance around the room to it pulling silly faces and laughing. It's driving me nuts!
- Ali

Rich but moody, sort of Sort of indie-folk goes gypsy. Black Pairie is an SXSW side project for Decemberists Chris Funk (dobro), Nate Query (bass) and Jenny Conlee (accordion). SXSW opens in 2 weeks and has become the musical event of the year (sorry Glastonbury), with hundreds of emerging musical acts from around the globe showcased on over 80 stages in downtown Austin, Texas.
- Tin

Veda Hille, catchy name but someone that it took me a while to catch up with, despite hearing good things from disparate but trusted sources over a number of years. This is the opening track on 'This Riot Life' from a couple of years back. It's a confection of insistent hooks, cascades and crescendos, so packed with ideas and lyrical snippets that its 3 minutes 50 seconds could have been a four song EP.
- Tatanka Yotanka

This one has recurred over the last decade, and is guaranteed to kick out any unwanted or invasive earworms. I love the way she verbalises one of the most famous guitar intros of all time, then takes the tune and runs with it. In the past, critics said that Jimi wasn't a great songwriter because his songs couldn't be covered. History has proved them very wrong.
- webcore

41 comments:

Chris said...

tin: the Sam Cooke track cuts off after two minutes...

tincanman said...

Thanks!
Fixed (I hope)

ShariVari said...

Despite only being able to say about three things in Romanian, i have somehow managed to absorb all the words of the original Dragostea Din Tei by osmosis and can sing along quite easily. Their album was very good, incidentally - Despre Tine, in particular.

tincanman said...

Must be time for a submission from you soon ShariVari. Send to rr@tincanland.com when ready.

TatankaYotanka said...

Tin; impressed how you edited my comment to make me appear illtiterate.

goneforeign said...

What is Ill titerate, is it a condition of having sore breasts? Try rubbing them with margarine.

bishbosh said...

Hang on in there, Mitch. There is of course nothing any of us can say or do to ease the pain, but if anything can help - however marginally/temporarily - it might be music. Beautiful track.

Another nice selection, people (though must admit I couldn't get very far into the O-Zone, Ali!). Think my fave may be the Veda Hille. Didn't think I'd like it at all when it started but it did wormed its way in.

Incidentally, can anyone point me in the direction of some instructions as to how to make one of these here lists? (If there's an easily accessible instruction page somewhere, that is.) Was thinking of attempting a post... Do I have to 'Box tunes first? And then what? The 'learn more about the player' window directs me to a page of html text that might as well be Swahili for all the sense it makes to me. (No disrespect intended to Swahili, etc.)

bishbosh said...

"Did wormed"? My grammar is done gettin' worse, innit. Seems I too am nigh on illtiterate.

ejaydee said...

Dragostea Din Tei holds a certain charm for me in Romanian, this French spoof about a celebrity ex-gigolo called Massimo took all that charm out of it. Sam Cooke is always a winner, especially anything from the album Nightbeat, like bish said, we can't ease the pain, but thank Mrs Cooke for Sam. I loved Veda Hille too.

steenbeck said...

BishBosh - it's not hard to do, but it's complicated to explain.

1. Upload your files to dropbox. They have to be in your public folder in order to share the link, and you can upload them right into it if it's open when you hit "upload." [or you can copy the file to your public folder, if it's an RR folder or something]

2. It helps to have 2 windows open...dropbox on one side, The 'Spill on the other. On the spill hit the blue New Post button (you have to be signed in) A big empty box should open up.

3. Back in dropbox, in your public folder...when you hover your mouse over a track, a blue arrow shows up on the right, click on that and you'll get a little drop down menu. Click on "copy public link."
copy the link that shows up.

4. back at the 'Spill....paste that link in the empty box. As far as I know you have to do them one at a time, but I'd love to be told that's not true.

5. When all the links are copied you can close dropbox. Then you have to put some html before and after each link.

I don't think it will let me do it here, but it's
TITLE OF THE SONG AS YOU WOULD LIKE IT TO APPEAR


6. hit orange publish post button

okay, let's see if this works

steenbeck said...

Well, I didn't think it would work!

The html can be found here, in step A (you can ignore everything else on the page.

Everything between the first " " is your link from ddrop box, and then where it says First Link, etc, you type in the name of the song.

Hope this helps. THis is all on a Mac, by the way...

tincanman said...

Steen, do mine work properly? Does it play next track or do you have to click on each one?

steenbeck said...

I should add that I'm notoriously bad at giving directions, I always leave out one big step, so if anybody else would like to amend this or state it more understandably, please do.

steenbeck said...

It does work, TIn, did you use a different method? I love that Black Prairie song. Who is singing?

tincanman said...

Glad you like Prairie Black steen cause I posted it with you in mind.

Black Prairie is Chris Funk, Jenny Conlee, and Nate Query of The Decemberists and Portland musicians Annalisa Tornfelt and Jon Neufeld.

Black Prairie is set to release their album Feast of the Hunters’ Moon later this spring, but until then hungry fans can find the tracks “Red Rocking Chair” and “Back Alley” on the band’s myspace.

The experimental bluegrass/folk ensemble will be making their debut at Noise Pop in San Francisco on February 27th, and will also be making an appearance at the SXSW Festival in Austin, Texas on March 19th.

steenbeck said...

DOBRO!

tincanman said...

As for song links, I start as you say but I haven't used that yahoo player thing at all.

1. Put song in Public dropbox folder
2. Right click to get and copy public link
3. In Spill NEW POST box, type name of song, highlight name of song with cursor, click on LINK symbol on menu bar at top of box. When a small box pops up, paste in the public link you got from dropbox folder. Enter
4. repeat process for each song

bishbosh said...

Steen: Thank you, thank you, thank you! Just hovering over tracks in the latest RR dropbox folder to test it out though, I don't see a blue arrow. Is this cos I am on a Mac perhaps? And do any Mac users know how I find the 'public link'? Sorry... I know this is something I should be able to figure out for myself!

The dropbox elves will be pleased to hear that I have at least now worked out how to convert an m4a to an mp3, which will save someone else (tin?) the effort each week!

steenbeck said...

Holy smoke, Tin! This might mean an end to all that tedious copying and pasting. Try what he said, Bishbosh.

ANd I'm on a mac, so I must be explaining it wrong. Are you in your public folder?

tincanman said...

You need to be connected to dropbox for the link to appear bishbosh. But i'll leave you in steen's capable hands as she is on a Mac and i'm not.

steenbeck said...

It does work!!

Okay, so do what Tincanman said, not what I said.

FOrgot to mention that I love the Sam Cooke, and I liked the Bat for Lashes cover, too.

bishbosh said...

Do I maybe need to do it via the dropbox website (rather than the little folder thing that on my machine opens from an icon at the top of my screen*)? On the website, I do see a blue arrow, but that just has options like "Previous versions", "Download file", "Move..." If I click into the file there, it takes me to a page and plays the track - maybe that page address is the link I need. This is so not going to be worth it for anyone else, given the sort of dross I'm likely to inflict on the 'Spill...

*I'm so technical, me...

ejaydee said...

Wait Steenbeck, we still need some poor saps to do the yahoo player thing. As one of the few who have figured it out you must do your doodie.

By the way, I'm on a mac too and I've never had a blue arrow? Are on fancy Snow Leopard? Bish try right-clicking over the song in your Public folder, some options should come up, the "copy public link" option is hidden in the "Dropbox" option.

bishbosh said...

Got it! Woohoo! Thanks, steen, tin, ejd! Some Bollywood heading Spillwards later on. You lucky lucky people...

steenbeck said...

BIshbosh - you're so close! It sounds like you're not in the PUBLIC FOLDER. When you get that dropdown folder, use the COPY option to put it in your public folder. In the public folder the Copy Public Link option should be in the menu.

I'm not a Fancy snow leopard!! I wonder why it's looking different for you. I'm just on safari.

ANd I'll make sure the yahoo player shows up as long as I can figure out how.

steenbeck said...

Yeah!

tincanman said...

take note bish, on all things technical eJay is the go-to guy for Mac users

ejaydee said...

It works via the dropbox website too Bish.

tincanman said...

er, that sounded dismissive steen. Sorry, I didn't mean it as a slight.

ejaydee said...

Well I wasn't on Safari, but in Finder... oooooooooh, I see.

ejaydee said...

I can't embed this, but I urge you all to watch this eyeworm of the day:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8CtWUY7nvg

From Nilpferd's favourite band.

tincanman said...

just checking something

nilpferd said...

I'd like to watch my favourite band, but neither Ejay's nor Tinny's links are available for me so I'm still in the dark... must be really something though..

ToffeeBoy said...

@ tin - who do I have to sleep with to get one of these ear wormy things????

tincanman said...

Just send one in Toffee. Well, that and promise NEVER to sleep with me

ejaydee said...

Do they allow anything on German Youtube? Shame, it was a perfect representation of the absurdity of the Rolling Stones, and Mick Jagger in particular, in my opinion.

Exodus said...

Great list as ever. Love the Josh Reichmann and the Veda Hille - both totally new to me so ta very much.

TatankaYotanka said...

This is a great little concept and thread, cheers TCM. I'm particularly enjoying Angelique Kidjo and kicking myself for having missed her when I was up at Celtic Connections in January. Glad that Veda is hitting the spot with a few folk, another gift from Canada of course :)

Veda Hille

sonofwebcore said...

Well I'm not going to single one track out cos they were all great! Played them whilst reading the paper and there was never a 'let's skip this one moment'. Thanks folks.

ToffeeBoy said...

@ tin - I did send one in. Perhaps you didn't get it?

tincanman said...

Haven't seen anything TB. Send again and I'll get around to it after Procrastination Week.