Welcome to a complete April Fools’ joke free scene. Fools maybe, but not April Fools at least. What we do have, though, on this fine 1st of April 2012 is some musical randomness aiming to inspire you to revisit music you haven’t listened to in a while or discover new tunes. So here goes nothing.
Talking about rediscovering old tunes. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Puddle of Mudd’s re:(disc)overed is one of the most overlooked releases of 2011. Maybe it’s because they fashioned the title in a way that makes it a pain in the ass to write about it accurately. But it’s certainly a collection of covers worth listening to. Including this marvellous cover of the 1974 Paul Rogers/Bad Company song from the album Straight Shooter. If you happen to see it in a record store/iTunes/Amazon/other online/platform/garage sale, grab it.
Another thing I’m already on record for stating is that the cover of The Sounds’ Dying To Say This To You (2006) is one of the sexiest album covers (whithout trying too hard) out there. At the same time, the cover art of their 2002 debut Living In America (below) is one of the coolest album covers cooperating the old ‘we have to show the faces of the band members‘ thought in an extremely smooth way. After their first two records, the quality of The Sounds cover art did take a bit of a nosedive, though. The blue horsey of Crossing The Rubicon (2009)? Okay but not that great. And Something To Die For (2011)? Well, lets just say that cover is pretty much the Cosby sweater among the album covers. Enough said.
Nope, not Jimmy James, the eccentric billionaire from the mid to late 90s sitcom NewsRadio, who was portrayed by Stephen Root. It’s Jimmy Jammes who mixed the vocals of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (by a little band called The Beatles; you might have heard of them) and Paradise City (by a little band called The Beatles Guns N’ Roses; you might have heard of them). Liverpool pop meets L.A. metal/rock. 1967 meets 1987. 2:02 meets 6:46. The fact that Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is relatively short is what makes this mashup so short (2:17). Shame really. The mix is quite a good one
Oh look, and here we have a cover featuring Matt Damon. Or is it his girlfriend, Ben Affleck? Wait. No. This isn’t taken from Kevin Smith’s hilarious religion based adventure comedy Dogma. And this acoustic version of the album track Diary Of Jane also isn’t on all copies of Phobia (2006). Only a few editions had it as the one or one of several bonus tracks. Which means that a lot of Phobia buyers miss out on an exceptional rendition. As a collector of good music, I hate it when labels do this kind of stuff, not giving every consumer the same experience. At the same time I love it when I am on the side of the people who are not missing out.
Another album title that isn’t all that easy to get right: Down South Produckshuns. Nope, not Productions. Produckshuns. Which begs the question who or what ‘shuns’ are and why they are so much pro duck.
Seriously, though, this is a prime example while the music of Speech is as great as it is (which is a lot), straight from his fourth solo album (2002, same year as Arrested Development’s first full album since the 1994 sophomore Zingalamaduni). Smart lyrics. Super suave jam. Incorporating a banjo and a talk box into a hip hop tune and managing to make both sound very cool. I haven’t Kanye West see do that. This track even has a lyrical throwback to a track off AD’s legendary debut.
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(Listening to while finishing this blog entry: Ain’t It Bout Time by Speech)
