These last two weeks have been a musical composition full of empowerment, Christian Slater and Patricia Arqvette (I only write in ancient Roman now), mistaken identity and fvcked vp covntry artists. Here's that, and more:
Tracks:
"Girls Your Age" by Transviolet
It's complicated-coming into your own. Especially for girls. The world wants you to fit a role- be smart OR be sexy OR be modest- they want you to fit into some tidy, little, one-size-fits-all box. The truth is, you are human, and you aren't meant to be just one thing. You can be innocent, sexy, elegant, dirty, beautiful and flawed all in the same instance, and you don't have to let anyone flat you out into some one dimensional caricature of yourself. F*** that. You are multidimensional, and you are capable of being everything at once.
-Transviolet
"Cool Jealousy" by The White Panda
I walked around town yesterday posing the question "what have you done this week" to a number of different people. Answers included: a temp worker telling me he got fired, a teacher who spent the week on the beach, a prostitute...nevermind about that one and a convenience store worker who spent the week marking up produce in their store by an average of eleven percent. What has mashup artist the White Panda spent the week doing? Releasing a track a day. A TRACK A DAY! Their final installment of the frenetic week that was is "Cool Jealousy." It's a mashup of Alesso and Chromeo. At the White Panda party, Alesso brings the raw energy while Chromeo takes care of the funky fresh vocals.
"True Romance" by Work Drugs
Clarence meets a call girl named Alabama. The two have sex and fall in love. They get married. In order to keep Alabama all for himself, Clarence visits Alabama's pimp, takes him out and steals his drugs. This sets off a whirlwind of events that are too hard to explain in a concise manner. Basically, what you need to know, is that Clarence and Alabama survive it all, they have a child named Elvis and they spend their final days together on the beaches of Cancun.
Elvis grows up, changes his name to Tom, and starts a band called Work Drugs. He writes a song called "True Romance" which may, or may not, detail his parent's quest for love.
"True Romance" is from the band's upcoming release Louisa. Tour dates for support of that album are here.
"New Villain" by Amy Bezunartea
There are a number of people that I've met through the years that don't have time for superheroes. A typical interaction involves someone asking them for a favorite, and them responding that they know nothing about superheroes. This conversation isn't a big deal, I mean the only superhero I dig is Christopher Nolan's Batman, until school sponsors a superhero day and you've got to decide, as a team, what you will be dressing up as. Oftentimes these anti-superhero people will suggest that their superpower is something that exists in reality like they teach or that they are a mom to eighteen unique kids and that the villains they face usually aren't the violent type. The villains they square off against are complacency, fear, depression, addiction, stress and being poor.
Amy Bezunartea's latest track, "New Villain," is an empowerment anthem for the people who don't dig superheroes. The song's villain doesn't play by the rules. This new type of villain is the one that tells people to wake up and refuse to play along with the powers that be, the powers that are trying to keep them complacent, broke, scared, addicted, depressed and stressed out. This new villain, is me. It's you. It's teachers and police officers and civil servants and firefighters and therapists and anyone else willing to make the status quo, the status no.
"London Can Take It" by Chris Watkins/Drunk Poets
In my latest kid's book, I write about a dictator who rounds up all the drunk poets and ships them off to Alaska. The dictator figures that this is the end of them and turns his attention elsewhere. But these poets join forces and craft a song that heals the world and drives the dictator from his post. The song is a simple one, full of spoken word verses and a solitary sing songy line for the chorus, but it's enough to capture hearts and create upstarts. I'm not going to say that the song in the children's book was inspired by "London Can Take It" by Chris Watkins/Drunk Poets...but it was.
Remix:
"This Summer's Gonna Hurt" by Maroon 5 (Esh Remix)
I already told Esh this, now I'm telling you. Esh is the first person who made it possible for me to listen to a Maroon 5 song in its entirety. The 2004 version of me sent me an email (via hotmail) and wanted all of you to know that he was only finishing that other song for research purposes.
Videos:
"I Got Problems" by Birdcloud
When I get an email that says "(Insert band name) is completely f***ed up," I feel compelled to listen (don't try to use that against me trip house musicians, I am aware of your tricks). All I can say about Birdcloud is yes, yes they are. Everything from their bio to their lyrics had me scratching my head and saying wteff. Seriously, Google Birdcloud and read some of what's out there. Anyway, Birdcloud have a country punk type vibe. One of those it's so terrible, that I really really like it, deals. This video captures the essence of it (I know, it's like three years old). You want to see this fabulous, fabulous trainwreck in action, go here for tour dates.
"West Coast" by Fidlar
Fidlar's "West Coast." Because who hasn't played soccer/baseball with an empty keg and some random burning object?
On a side note, Fidlar's collecting fan photos and images for a fan video version of "West Coast." Just post it to tumblr, twitter or instagram with the tag #FIDLARTOO by 7/31. The band will put the images they choose together and have another version of this video ready to roll by 8/7.
"Gone" by JR JR
Gone is the Dale Earnhardt version. Now it's just JR JR. The reasoning behind this switch? The deep pockets of George Bush. He wanted in on the action.
The actual reason for the change is a much sadder case of mistaken identity. You can read the statement here.
"Leave a Trace" by Chvrches
"Leave a Trace" is the new lyric video from Chvrches, best known as the band that brought the whole v as a u ancient Roman phenomenon to music. There isn't much to the video, pixelatting flowers and cursive words, but I like the song.
Get All of 2015's Click Tracks (when available) in One Spotify Playlist:
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