Harajuku Cafe

I first posted this a few weeks ago when I was rebuilding my blog. Then I got hacked by some random script in my server files and it kept deleting my SQL files.  Bye bye content, four times in three days.  It seems all back now, so once again here is my inaugural post of Sunday Songs for Melissa.

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Melissa Gypsy Murphy's example inspired me to do the Sunday Song post. Her committment to writing made me realize that while I have some talent as a mechanic when it comes to words, I am incapable of producing anything myself without the required hours on a keyboard.

This whole blog of mine is for myself with the exception of the Sunday post.  That's for Melissa.

BOTTOM OF THE BIG STORE!

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I like Beck but not a big fan in that I don't know his music so well.  Many times I have heard a cool song playing as BGM and when I ask people what it is they reply with "Beck". The album The Information is the only album that I really know, the only album that I have played over and over and ad nauseum over again. The first cut Elevator Music is what did it for me on this album. The opening bars are compelling and kept me listening to the entire album. Like I said, this is the only album that I have listened to extensively and it's because of the first track.

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Follow up:

The song Short Skirt/ Long Jacket is known for being the theme song for the TV show Chuck. Like Elevator Music, the beat compels me. I listen to the opening bars and all I can think of is "That's so totally hot." My first introduction to Cake was their song Stickshifts and Safetybelts since the radio show The Splendid Table used it as an intro to their segment Road Food but it wasn't until I started watching Chuck that I decided to find some.

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Aswad's version of the iconic song by Toots & the Maytals 54-46 (That's My Number) always draws a round of derision in addition to the snotty 25 year-old kid with the soul patch who says "The original is better." He only knows the original is better because his friendly uncle always played the cassette when he was babysat. I love covers and I really like this interpretation, no matter how many bar patrons sneer when I put this version on.  The ones that don't sneer think it is a great song (which then engenders a round of more snotty 25 year-old kids telling them how good the original is), and I think that is the power of this tune. I once saw Yellowman at the Peppermint Beach Club in Virginia Beach--the original club, the one that burned down, not the existing club--and Yellowman cranked this out for forty-five minutes.  This song was almost all of his second set. That's hot.

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If you want to see a list, you can always click Sunday Songs.