Grr, je suis féroce.

The tiniest tyrant has very definite and defined opinions about music, and no matter how many times I tell her that when I was her age I listened to whatever was on the radio and I liked it, she knows that this is full of shit and the powers that be invented ipods for a reason. Because she is absurdly, terrifyingly technologically inclined, she likes to browse youtube and pick out her own playlists, which is inevitably hilarious.

First, the kid stuff (there is very little kid stuff):
Bruno Mars - Don't Give Up (gupname: "song")
Feist - 1,2,3,4 (gupname: "four")
Dan Zanes - Jump Up (gupname: "jumping," which is also her name for Insanity, which she also loves and is ridiculously good at)
The Muppets - Bohemian Rhapsody (gupname: "chicken")

Second, bits from her favorite show:
Keroro Gunso - Pekopon Shinryaku Ondo (gupname: "clap")
Keroro Gunso - Keroro-shoutai Kounin Netsuretsu Kangeiteki Ekaki Uta!! (gupname: "wai")
Keroro Gunso - Katte ni Shinryakusha (gupname: "yeah yeah")

And finally, shit that she found on her own and seriously y'all I have no idea:
Bruno Mars - Runaway Baby (gupname: "other song")
Lady Gaga - Bad Romance (gupname: "lady gaga")
Lady Gaga - Just Dance (gupname: "shoes")
Lady Gaga - Poker Face (gupname: ... ... "poker face")
Cobie Caillat - Brighter than the Sun (gupname: "sun")
Adam Lambert - Never Close Our Eyes (gupname: "eyes")
PSY - Gangnam Style (gupname: "psy")
Hyuna feat PSY - Oppan Ddak Nae Style (gupname: "other psy")
Fatboy Slim - Weapon of Choice (gupname: "christopher walken" seriously I am not kidding)
Train - 50 Ways to Say Goodbye (gupname: "show me")
Gotye - Somebody I Used to Know (gupname: "one")
LMFAO - Sexy and I Know It (gupname: "big")

Her taste is just as crazy as mine.

I am SO PROUD.

I collect covers. I'm a Coverville Citizen, I subscribe to Cover Me, it is A Thing.

My favorites are the fucked-up genre-benders; homage covers are all well and good, but sure fine whatever -- what I WANT, though, is for a musician to throw a great song in a blender and hit frappé.

Here are some of my favorites, all picked out just for you. <3

( Collapse )

Do you have awesome covers to share? GIEF 2 ME. :DDDDD

Soul Edge: Khan Super Session [MU] | [MF]

For me personally, 1996 was a really shitty year except for the fact that it launched the PS1 version one of my very favorite arcade games of all time, Soul Edge. Now, you whippersnappers probably do not know this game, because the PS1 had cooties, but you are familiar with its children, the Soul Calibur series. They are really lovely versus fighting games that took the ground that Mortal Kombat and VirtuaFighter had been forging and made them SO COMPLETELY AWESOME that those other flagship titles started stealing stuff from them, most notably how different weapon styles actually make people move differently instead of just have a different animation model.

( Collapse )

A Collection of Eclectica: [MF]

The only thing I love as much as I love insane covers (which will be a later musicshare, since it appears I haven't actually done that yet) are really, really good mashups. For those of you just tuning in, a mashup is exactly what it sounds like: two or more songs edited by an audiophile (who is often also a professional DJ) with a copy of GarageBand into a single (semi)coherent tune.

This practice is completely fucking amazing.

It is admittedly way more fun when you can recognize all of the individual songs in a particular mashup. It doesn't mean much to me when it's something I don't know because I can't appreciate the skill that went into the editing, but even if you don't recognize all the pices, there's just something about hip-hopping U2, you know?

If you enjoy mashuppery, I highly recommend PartyBen, who consistently produces some of my favorite mixes.

( Collapse )

Duke Ellington and His Orchestra: Such Sweet Thunder [MU]

I have been meaning to share this forever, because it is one of my favorite things in the entire world. I meant for it to be this year's Calmas post, but other things (such as, just for example's sake, MC Gupsalot) conspired against me getting around to actually doing it.

Duke Ellington and his Orchestra: Such Sweet Thunder (Dedicated to the Shakespearean Festival, Stratford, Ontario). I first found this in a used bookstore something line twenty years ago, and it was one of my most prized possessions; a couple years back it was finally released on CD, and my life knew perfect joy. And now, so can yours! <3

( Collapse )

SUCH SWEET THUNDER, recorded at Columbia's 30th Street Station in New York, is dedicated to the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Ontario, and to Duke's many Canadian friends. Its first complete performance took place at the Music for Moderns concert at Town Hall, Sunday evening, April 28, 1957.

kutsuwamushi, because she is who she is, loves terrible music as much as I do, but she loves it because she likes to inflict it on people as punishment.

Sometimes this backfires.

Like, for example, when she tries it on me.

ROCK SUGAR is the most recent backfiring: this is a faux metal pop mashup cover band fronted by Jess Harnell. The name you probably do not know, but trust me when I tell you that you know him, because he is WAKKO MOTHERFUCKING WARNER.

The leadoff track on this album is "Don't Stop the Sandman," which is just as spectacular as you would imagine, multiplied by infinity because it is sung by WAKKO MOTHERFUCKING WARNER.

Usually I like to share entire albums of out-of-print or impossible to obtain flavors, but because I think everyone should run out and purchase this as soon as possible, here is a delicious sampling of my favorites:

Crazy Girl
Voices in the Jungle
Shook Me Like a Prayer
Strait to Rock City

Roman Polanski made a movie in 1967 called The Fearless Vampire Killers. It was a this kind of weird psychedelic satire homage, and the Germans, because they are German, fucking loved it. They decided thirty years later to honor this great film by turning it into a lavish stage musical. I am not fucking kidding. Remember Der Glockner? They take this shit seriously, and they make it DARK.

So when this German production company decided to make a musical out of The Fearless Vampire Killers, they knew they needed someone to do the music who was capable of the kind of music so Darque and Deepe and Tragique that it verged into self-parody. WHO DO WE CALL THAT DOES THIS? I KNOW, JIM STEINMAN.

(If you do not recognize this name, you are dead to me. We can no longer be associated.)

Dance of the Vampires [MF], 72mb

This is the English workshop version, notable particularly for Steinman's narration on Carpe Noctem (he is SO SRS, you guys, SO SRS), and also some of the most phenomenally amazing harmonies ever on Invitation to the Dance.

Tanz der Vampire [MF], 142mb

Playing Count von Krolok in both the English workshop and the original German is Steve Barton, who is an Arkansas native, had a baritone made of absolute liquid sex, and died far too young (47, heart failure). Of especial note in this version is Totale Finsternis, which is Total Eclipse of the Heart as a love song between the vampire and his intended bride. I wish I were making this up, because I would be wealthy beyond my wildest dreams, but I swear to god I am not.

"Colossal drug bender" was the only possible icon for this post.

Oh So Many Times: [MU] 41MB

What is it about "...Baby One More Time" that makes it such a phenomenal track to cover? It's a crappy song. I mean, a really, really crappy song. But it's really catchy, and that's the only lead I have. I have no idea. All I know is that I have collected ten versions, from death metal to electronica to emo cutters to punk and back again, and it is all invariably motherfucking hilarious. And because I love things that are terrible, today I merrily share them with you. <3

One of my greatest weaknesses is Things That Are Terrible. I love things that are terrible, perhaps to an unhealthy degree; it's one of the reasons why I have always loved MST3k so much, because they also love things that are terrible, and then happily share them with everyone else.

In the interests of Zmas (as I believe she also also loves things that are terrible) and also because I waited to post something for my birthday this year, I am happy to provide you with two! yes, two! deliciously terrible, terrible albums.

Footloose: The Musical [SS]

On the one hand, the stage arrangements of terrific 80s pop are kind of fun, at times ("The Girl Gets Around" is actually way better here, for one), but the problem comes in when you get to the original material they wrote to pad out the show to make it long enough for a full-length Broadway production. And when I say they are a problem, what I mean is that the original songs are laughably terrible. They are so laughably terrible that several of them ("I Confess," "Dancing Is not a Crime"), have been cut out of show and professional productions aren't allowed to perform them anymore. It is AMAZING.


Tarzan: The Musical [SS]

There's really very little I can say about how amazingly bad this is. I mean, really. It's Tarzan. On Broadway.

Most of the problem is because it's desperately, terribly miscast; Terk is male (though he does have an awesome solo, "Who Better Than Me"), and Tarzan is so amazingly girly that his duets with Jane have him singing a soprano line. It is impossible to tell them apart. Also of note is "Sure As Sun Turns to Moon," which has some of the most awkwardly contrived lyrics basically ever.


BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!

Your special bonus gift: Heaven and Hell (Being Geri Halliwell) [SS]

This is quite possibly one of the worst songs in my incredibly vast collection of terrible, terrible songs. It is self-absorbed, off-key, entirely too catchy, and will end up in your head basically forever.

It is, in a word, OUTSTANDING.

I hope that Enjoying Terrible Things (I love enjoying things!) makes your holiday season even a little as awesome as mine has been. <3 <3

Der Glöckner Von Notre Dame: [MU] [MF] (sendspace, why you gotta hate? ;_;)

Okay, stop, hear me out. If you skip through all the shitty dialogue (goddamn there was a lot of shitty dialogue), the Disney Hunchback was some of the most beautiful animation that team ever put together, and some of the most amazing music. The way Alan Menken arranged the Dies Irae is just ... omg.

But yeah, okay, the movie sucked. This is because it was a Disney animated feature, for a Disney animated feature audience, so a lot of the punch and power had to be watered down and edited out. So, when they decided to try and move it to the stage, they moved it ... to Germany.

And seriously, it is amazing. There is death and torture and Richter Frollo's baritone is just sex on wheels and the Dies Irae and omg. Jens Janke is no Paul Kandel, but he doesn't try to be, and so he's still terrific. Act I's closer, "Esmeralda," is Meej's favorite in the OST. It's a trio with Quasimodo, Frollo, and Phoebus, and it's absolutely fuckall brilliant. They sing the same words, but they sing them ... differently. "Das feuer ruft nach Esmeralda / Die flammen singen / Von Esmeralda / So wie der klang von Notre Dame."