On The Occasion of My 18th or 19th Nervous Breakdown

I promised myself that I wouldn't update this blog until I finished the book (which is slowly nearing completion, thank googely-moogely). This has driven me a bit crazy, as there have been already been several excellent-to-outstanding songs this year, and I have no forum in which to write quick, weightless blurbs about their potential public-singability (my karaoke-wishlist for 2008 so far includes Erykah Badu, No Age and, of course, Jordin Sparks). But I did want to take a quick moment to plug Like A Rolling Stone: The Strange Life of A Tribute Band, a new book by my friend Steve Kurutz. Strange Life is a non-fiction account of the ups and downs of Sticky Fingers, a Rolling Stones tribute band that Steve has been following for years. It's a smartly written and reported book—like a long-form New Yorker piece, but with Ron Wood references. I can't recommend it enough. Steve's site is here, and the book is available for purchase here.

All Together, Just Not Now

For my loyal audience of three: I am knee-deep in the book-writing hoopla, so I won't be able to update this site until next year. Until then, here is an exciting "first look" sneak-peek at my recent karaoke jaunt to Japan:


It's not going to incite Crystal Skull levels of advance buzz, of course, but I will finally get some of that coveted Monchhichi-related traffic.

Karaoke Wishlist: October 2007

1. Shudder To Think, "Red House" STT was one of the first self-consciously "weird" bands I listened to—a high-pitched, inscrutable bunch of art-rockers whose songs were subject to random time changes, and that seemed to accidentally fall into place (considering how far into Steve Miller Band I was when I first heard Shudder, such traits counted as revelatory). Several of the band members recently reunited for a few songs in Manhattan, and "Red House" was the highlight—the way Craig Wedren's voice turns to a plea during the "[she's] someone/I want/bad" bit toward the end is affectingly urgent (the linked clip is from the group's major-label era; I think the original recording of the song is still the best).

2. Aly & AJ, "Like Woah" As danceable as, say, Daft Punk, and almost just as robotic.

3. ABBA, "The Visitors" Having only really been familiar with ABBA's hits—all 137 of them—I've been finding all kinds of great songs on the Complete Studio Recordings box set, including this paranoid, hiding-under-the-desk near-hit. The lyrics are pretty bleak for a disco track ("These walls have witnessed all the anguish of humiliation") and the keyboard line could have been hijacked by Madonna if "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!" hadn't worked out so well.

4. Ben Weasel and His Iron String Quartet, "Summer's Always Gone Too Soon"
The former lead singer of Screeching Weasel—and the man who helped put the phlegm into snot-punk vocals—has a pretty terrific, pretty terribly overlooked new album; almost all of the songs are sing-along-worthy, but "Soon" is the highlight, and the open lyrics remind me of karaoke: "Someone is singing a song far away/as if they want everyone else joining in."

5. Britney Spears, "Gimme More" Spears has been doing her sex-kitten act since 1999, and it hasn't aged too well (maybe that has something to do with the fact that, in cat years, she now has the purr of a 49-year-old). That said, "More" is pretty much all production, and the hook is just short and simple enough to work—though how could it not, considering that they bring it back in every ten seconds or so.

Karaoke Wishlist: September 2007

1) Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, "Flowmotion" Even a scratchy YouTube sound clip can't take away from the sheer bonkers-ness of this song, which sounds like a local-news theme straight out of the Rapture (the biblical event, not the band). I would pay $100 to see someone try to sing along with verses 3, 7 and 14-16.

2) Bruce Springsteen, "Livin' In The Future" Despite its terrible title, Bruce Springsteen's Magic is my favorite Boss record in twenty years or so, mostly because it's so heavy on the power-pop; if it weren't for the sax solo, you'd swear he made it with the Heartbreakers, not the E Street Band. "Future" is a barroom sing-along—complete with a "nah nah nah" outro—and it brings to mind the glory days of you-know-what-song.

3) The Monkees, "What Am I Doing Hangin' Around?" I rediscovered this country-pop beaut while listening to the newly remastered Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones, Ltd.; along with "Porpoise Song," it's possibly my favorite non-hit Monkees track, and further proof of their luck with hired-gun songwriters (the original is by Michael Martin Murphey, but it works much better with a more upbeat tempo and the Jones-Nesmith-Dolenz-Tork harmonies).

4) Junior Senior - Itch U Can't Scratch I know, I know: In music-blog time, this song is like 100 years old or something. But come on—it's still great, and it's not like any of their recent bonus-disc tracks were karaoke-worthy.

5) M.I.A. - "Paper Planes" I like the idea of Joe Strummer—sitting up in heaven, lighting matches off Che Guevara's boot—trying to figure out how the hell he and Wreckx-N-Effect wound up in the same song.

Hear His Call

One last KWC-related post: When I covered the event last year for Wired magazine, one Finnish performer stood out from the very beginning. From my notes at the time...

From finland: Ari Koivunen, long black t-shirt and jeans, long blonde hair; white ballcap. looks like a 14-year-old; has no stage presence—just stands there. Sings scorpions’ “ Still Loving You” crowd goes crazy when he hits the high notes and finnish flags start flying; an older couple slow dances in front of the stage

Ari didn't win that year's KWC competition, but a few months later, he wound up winning the Finnish version of American Idol, where he once again performed the Scorpions tune (he also sang "Piano Man," though I can't find that clip on YouTube):



Koivunen's debut album, Fuel For The Fire, topped the Finnish charts when it was released May 30th, and it's still in the top 10; the hit single, "Hear My Call," is a big power-metal anthem, and proof that karaoke can be a good career move—at least in Finland.

Oops

Some of the Bangkok posts got accidentally published and then un-published, due to my basic misunderstandings of Thai-language Google software. Anyhoo, they're up now.

Bangkok, Day Four (Or Something Like That): Where Is The Love?

The post-KWC festivities went wayyyyyy long last night—all the way into the morning, in fact. The reveling once again took place in the hotel lobby, where we drank and sang and talked until dawn. When the restaurant opened at 6 a.m., our fellow guests didn’t know what hit ‘em; suffice to say that anybody hoping for a nice, relaxed early-morning vacation breakfast was instead treated to the sight of a man singing a cappella near the buffet table.

After a late-morning nap, I headed over to MBK, which is one of several competing overstuffed shopping malls in the city. I’d heard they had karaoke rooms, and was hoping to find “One Night In Bangkok,” which I still haven’t been able to locate here (though one of my newfound friends of Sweden was gracious enough to play a few notes for me on the piano last night). Unfortunately, the MBK song selection was limited, so I wound up belting out the Black Eyed Peas’ “Where Is The Love?”, a song that I barely know and/or like. Oh, Murray Head, why have you forsaken me?!