05 July 2021 – Take It or Leave It by Great Good Fine Ok

July 5, 2021 kevinisabastardgreat good fine ok, kevinisabastard, kevinisabastard.com, take or leave itLeave a comment

“Take It or Leave It” is the second song in the last while where the singer is concerned about the idea that someone might “Do me like that”. I think what I like most about this track is there’s a real blue eyed soul sound to the vocals. Maybe a little less of an ego than most blue eyed soul singers, it’s definitely less ostentatious, while staying soulful. The harmonies are quite soft which works well with the 80s style synths. There’s a surprising urgency to the song if you listen to it with decent speakers that comes from a really busy bassline and some very punchy beats. “Take It or Leave It” feels like moving quickly through pastel coloured clouds in a state of pure contentment. It’s probably this.

You can listen to “Take It or Leave It” by Great Good Fine Ok here.

04 July 2021 – Coco

July 4, 2021 kevinisabastardcoco, kevinisabastard, kevinisabastard.comLeave a comment

My original plan was to write the next part of my look at Jack Nicholson, but I want to rewatch “The Shining” first and that became complicated because I think it would be interesting to look at “The Shining” and “Dr. Sleep” as well. I spent too long thinking about that idea and not enough time actually watching either film so that hasn’t progressed any further. In the meantime, I watched “Coco”.

“Coco” is a spectacular film. It was my first time watching it and I’m really not sure why. Over the last few years, I haven’t seen a couple of Pixar films. I think it’s to do with cinema times. I generally go to see films at night and I don’t think they schedule as many animated films for that late. Shóna has started working full time now so maybe now that we have our weekends back we’ll be a bit more flexible about when we go to the cinema.

“Coco” looks fantastic. The colours are brilliant and the backgrounds in every scene are wonderfully detailed. At the time, I didn’t feel like the music was great, but now I think that’s probably unfair. Not every animated film can have a soundtrack like “Moana”. I think I just had higher expectations for a film where music was a part of the storyline. I think that’s my only complaint and I think that’s not so much a complaint as a separation between something being really good and something being perfect.

The storyline itself is great fun and I really liked Miguel as the main character. There’s a real goofiness to the humour which I enjoyed. I think there’s some suggestion that the shoe making family is based on an actual family and Pixar haven’t admitted that. It’s important to give credit for ideas, but the family are one of the best details to the film. Their workshop and home has a kind of a compound feel which works really well with the idea that they’re trying to keep music out. There’s a real siege mentality to it. I think the idea of presenting the Day of the Dead to kids is a nice idea. I think it’s a nice relationship with death, focused on celebration and memory. Kids’ films have so many lessons about all kinds of shit that they shape the way people develop so dealing with death is as valuable a lesson as any.

So that was “Coco”. Good times for sure. My mission for this week is to get back to my Jack Nicholson piece and keep up with my songs of the day.

02 July 2021 – Rocket Girl by Lemaitre featuring Betty Who

July 2, 2021 kevinisabastardbetty who, kevinisabastard, kevinisabastard.com, Lemaitre, rocket girlLeave a comment

You can listen to “Rocket Girl” by Lemaitre featuring Betty Who here.

I haven’t written a song of the day since Tuesday. I went for a walk with a friend who had some fantastic news on Wednesday and I just forgot until I was going to bed and by that time I was tired. Then last night I just had a terrible headache. So I’ve been distracted by feeling great and feeling terrible. I felt bad on Wednesday night about not writing anything. This has been a cool project so far and I’ve had a pretty good streak going of writing every week day. I didn’t feel anything on Thursday because my head was absolutely banging.

For the most part, this week I’ve been listening to the songs that came from the “Ojai” song radio that I mentioned the other day. I think the best thing I heard was “Rocket Girl” by Lemaitre featuring Betty Who. I think I like it so much because it reminds me of a bunch of other songs. It reminds me of the abrupt distorted sound of Childish Gambino’s “Heartbeat”. There’s something else there that I can’t place that it reminds me of. I’d love to hear what anyone else thinks it reminds them of. It might help me figure it out. I think reminding me of other songs is a good thing in this case because it’s all stuff I like.

I’ve always liked Betty Who’s voice. I like that she sings pop songs but still sounds kinda Australian. The lyrics are quite neat. There’s pop culture references without going overboard or reaching too hard for them. It’s a cool funky song. I’d imagine there’s plenty of anime montages put to it and it’s hard to blame anyone because it’s pretty kick ass.

29 June 2021 – Dance Moves by Franc Moody

June 29, 2021 kevinisabastarddance moves, franc moody, kevinisabastard, kevinisabastard.comLeave a comment

Franc Moody seem like they’d be a fun band to be in. I’ve seen them a couple of times and they’ve got a great energy. Everyone involved looks like they’re having a great time. They’re another band that I’ve avoided picking a song from for this list for a long time because I just don’t know what song to pick. Their playlist on Spotify, “The Complete Franc Moody”, claims to be “All the joints so far” and it’s incredibly consistent. I am picking “Dance Moves” as my first of what I have no doubt will be many, because I think it’s the most on brand for me. I love to see everyone’s dance moves at all times and I am working on my own dance moves all day everyday.

The bass is fantastic. The singing is soulful. The guitars are clangy. What I like most about “Dance Moves” is the build up and then drop into the chorus. From a dancing perspective, particularly in the long gone days of dance floors, this creates a massive burst of energy. And I know it’s a simple idea, but I like that it’s a song about dancing that really is fun to dance to. They talk about the influence of Jamiroquai and I think you can hear it in the outro in particular where all the instruments have built up to this crescendo and the keyboards in the background give it a real epicness.

Good song. Good lads. Good vibes.

You can listen to “Dance Moves” by Franc Moody here.

28 June 2021 – Ojai by Young & Sick

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“Ojai” was in my head when I woke up this morning. Specifically the lyrics from the second verse:

“Four more minutes ’till the sunrise, but I’m not ready
Damn you, time
Four more minutes ’till the headache, but I’m not ready
Damn you, wine”

I don’t mind when songs get stuck in my head. I think the problem arises when I’m around other people. Singing the same few lines on repeat is understandably irritating so I try to stop and then it gets annoying when I can’t. So it’s one of the nice things about working from home to have a nice song stuck in my head and getting to ride it out. I managed to listen to it for a bit before letting Spotify run into the song radio which was also very enjoyable, some familiar classics.

I like the piano and vocals intro. It’s very dramatic. Then a subtle beat is added before we drop into the song properly. I like that the lyrics are often repeated with slight variations. There’s a disco influence in the chorus in the turn arounds and link pieces. There’s a lot going on in the song but it works well. It was a fun tune to wake up with.

You can listen to “Ojai” by Young & Sick here. Wait around until the end of the song for a nice little piano outro.

25 June 2021 – Don’t Upset The Rhythm by The Noisettes

June 25, 2021June 25, 2021 kevinisabastarddon't upset the rhythm, kevinisabastard, kevinisabastard.com, the NoisettesLeave a comment

Shóna told me that my song of the day should be “Don’t Upset The Rhythm” by The Noisettes. I like the idea because the plan behind these blog posts was that they should just be songs that I like and keep things personal. I love that people would be able to recommend songs that they know I like because they know me.

Shóna said that it had to be my song of the day because it made her think that if I heard it it would make me happy and I’d sing along and make her listen to it in the car. And that’s true. Shingai Shoniwa has a great voice. There’s loads of nice little details to the track. The bass riff is solid. The guitar has a real 00s chugging sound and I’m pretty sure somebody is absolutely laying into a triangle.

Great song choice from Shóna. Definitely a perfect song of the day.

You can listen to “Don’t Upset The Rhythm” by The Noisettes here.

24 June 2021 – Low Rider by War

June 25, 2021June 25, 2021 kevinisabastardkevinisabastard, kevinisabastard.com, low rider, warLeave a comment

I’ve always had a soft spot for “Low Rider” by War, but it’s been boosted this week because I watched the official video on Youtube. I think “Low Rider” is probably one of those songs that people like, but don’t really give the credit it deserves. It’s an underrated banger and the singer wears a good cowboy hat in the video. I’m envious of anyone who suits wearing a cowboy hat.

There’s a huge amount going on in terms of percussion. I’ve watched some covers and one guy with a goatee sweat band combo had to use three separate tracks to cover it – a drum kit track, a timbale track and a track exclusively of cowbell. It’s a cool reminder of how much went into 70s funk classics like this. There’s also the bass riff which is pretty iconic. My favourite part is the outro. I love the sound of the singer’s voice for the “Take a little trip” part and then it fades out with the saxophone.

You can listen to “Low Rider” by War here.

23 June 2021 – Move Your Feet by Junior Senior

June 23, 2021 kevinisabastardjunior senior, kevinisabastard, kevinisabastard.com, move your feetLeave a comment

Generally when I do a song of the day I’ll do a bit of reading about the song and the artist before I post anything so I can stand behind whatever I write. Usually if I like a song I’ll get curious about it eventually so generally I won’t learn anything too shocking or anything to put me off a song. However, because Spotify doesn’t have internal filters to keep out problematic rappers, indie racists or sexual deviants, sometimes things get suggested to me and I’ll take them as they are. So my original song for tonight failed my background check and that really bummed me out.

So I tried to think of a song that I love that is 100% happy with no controversy. “Move Your Feet” is a world class tune, possibly one of the greatest of all time, so it works perfectly and cheered me up. It’s just about dancing. There’s a great Nile Rogers style guitar riff. The combination of voices is perfect. The chorus has a real Miami Sound Machine vibe. It’s one of my go to road trip songs with Shóna. We both always sing along and know all the lyrics, which are entirely nonsense and repeated a lot so knowing the lyrics probably isn’t anything brag about…

One of my favourite things about Junior Senior is that they are probably a one hit wonder if you had any kind of metric for measuring the success of their biggest hit against the rest of their songs, but they actually have two other great songs that were very much on my radar. “Rhythm Bandits” was in FIFA 2004 and “Shake Your Coconuts” was in Worms 3D. I think that they have a very solid legacy for anyone approximately my age who liked cartoon music videos, video games or songs about having a wiggle.

You can listen to “Move Your Feet” by Junior Senior here.

22 June 2021 – Hollywood by RAC feat. Penguin Prison

June 22, 2021 kevinisabastardhollywood, kevinisabastard, kevinisabastard.com, penguin prison, racLeave a comment

I think “Hollywood” was the first time I heard Penguin Prison. I had been aware of RAC for a while, he pumped out remixes around the same time when I was starting to discover music online. I thought for a long time that my life would be complete if I could write a song that got a remix by RAC.

“Hollywood” has a gentle sound. I think RAC takes a traditional band approach to electronic music but also an electronic music approach to writing with “band” instruments and I like that about this track in particular. The elements of the song are all very modular and repeatable and easy to layer on top of each other. The guitar playing in particular is very concise so it’s hard to tell if it’s played as one straight piece or as a copied segment. There’s very little ego to that style of playing. It’s all about the sum of the parts and the final product.

Penguin Prison is one of my favourite singers. He has the ability to shift up a gear in his singing effortlessly. I love that the music is quite innocent and happy and the lyrics are real bitter. “Hollywood” was a great showcase of what he can do and it lead me to being a big Penguin Prison fan. I’ve been hesitant in picking a Penguin Prison song because he is one of my absolute favourites, but this is a fitting first entry into this list as it was my introduction.

You can listen to “Hollywood” by RAC feat Penguin Prison here.

21 June 2021 – Don’t Do Me Like That by Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers

June 21, 2021 kevinisabastarddon't do me like that, kevinisabastard, kevinisabastard.com, Tom petty & the heartbreakersLeave a comment

My first real job sent me out to work for a company near Merrion Square, down past the passport office. It was a nice place to work. There were ducks in the canal. Love Lane was across the road and because the registry office was nearby, newlywed couples would pose for pictures under the street sign of an otherwise grim alleyway. While I worked there, I was in the Spar on Mount Street and I heard “Don’t Do Me Like That” by Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers for the first time. It was on the radio and I missed the artist and song title so I didn’t know who it was, but I spent weeks going around singing some approximation of the chorus until I sang it in front of someone who recognized it and told me the name.

I think sometimes a great song doesn’t have to be incredibly original, but just a really good example of its style. “Don’t Do Me Like That” is a great late 70s American rock song for dads. It’s got good guitars. There’s pianos and an organ in there. The chorus is basically 5 words with a few baby babys thrown in for good measure. There’s a decent air guitar solo. It’s nice and safe. It makes me happy and always reminds me of starting work.

You can listen to ” Don’t Do Me Like That” by Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers here.