Thursday, May 5, 2016

Songs About Yesterday, Vol. 1

Today begins a new 6-part series. I know what you're probably thinking. Groan! Not another miniseries! But this one's going to be good, I promise. Turns out, in all the music blogging I've done over the past few years, I've never dedicated a set of songs to the subjects of "Yesterday," "Today," and "Tomorrow." It's high time I did so. There are so many wonderful songs to choose from which contain one or more of these words in their titles, so I had to include a bunch. There's 40 songs for each word, split up into posts of 20 each. We begin with "Yesterday." Enjoy!  ~  JH



1)  The Beatles  ~  “Yesterday”




2)  Leona Lewis  ~  “Yesterday”




3)  30 Seconds To Mars  ~  “From Yesterday”




4)  Foreigner  ~  “That Was Yesterday”




5)  Boyz II Men  ~  “It’s So Hard To Say Goodbye To Yesterday”




6)  Black Country Communion  ~  “Song Of Yesterday”




7)  Chad & Jeremy  ~  “Yesterday’s Gone”




8)  George Jones, Jamey Johnson, & Blackberry Smoke  ~  “Yesterday’s Wine”




9)  Carpenters  ~  “Yesterday Once More”




10)  Jethro Tull  ~  “A New Day Yesterday”




11)  Stevie Wonder  ~  “Yester-Me, Yester-You, Yesterday”




12)  Toni Braxton ft. Trey Songz  ~  “Yesterday”




13)  Spiral Starecase  ~  “More Today Than Yesterday”




14)  Guns N’ Roses  ~  “Yesterdays”




15)  Tony Bennett ft. Buddy Rich  ~  “Yesterdays”




16)  Fink  ~  “Yesterday Was Hard On All Of Us”




17)  My Chemical Romance  ~  “The Kids From Yesterday”




18)  Spooky Tooth  ~  “That Was Only Yesterday”




19)  Lifehouse  ~  “Yesterday’s Son”




20)  Ryan Adams  ~  “Like Yesterday”


Wednesday, May 4, 2016

Songs About Murder & Mayhem

This post is not nearly as violent or scandalous as it would seem. It is, however, exactly what it purports to be: a collection of songs either about "Murder" or "Mayhem," or which include one of those words within their titles. Umm...enjoy?  ~  JH



1)  The Avett Brothers  ~  “Murder In The City”




2)  Halestorm  ~  “Mayhem”




3)  Michael Bolton  ~  “Murder My Heart”




4)  Imelda May  ~  “Mayhem”




5)  AFI  ~  “Miss Murder”




6)  Rick Springfield  ~  “Miss Mayhem”




7)  PJ Harvey  ~  “The Words That Maketh Murder”




8)  Jethro Tull  ~  “Mayhem Maybe”




9)  Jesca Hoop  ~  “Murder Of Birds”




10)  Kansas  ~  “Mysteries And Mayhem”




11)  Coldplay  ~  “Murder”




12)  Billy May and His Orchestra  ~  “Mayhem”




13)  The Police  ~  “Murder By Numbers”




14)  Julissa Veloz  ~  “Mayhem”




15)  Bruce Springsteen  ~  “Murder Incorporated”




16)  Universal Sigh  ~  “Marcus Mayhem”




17)  Better Than Ezra  ~  “One More Murder”




18)  Bettie Serveert  ~  “Mayhem”




19)  Counting Crows  ~  “A Murder Of One”




20)  Pop Will Eat Itself  ~  “Chaos And Mayhem”


Tuesday, May 3, 2016

Songs About Balloons

I was overdue for a music post featuring songs about extremely mundane things. Today, I decided to tackle the tune-friendly subject of Balloons. Turns out there were quite a few good ones to choose from. Enjoy!  ~  JH



1)  Lily Allen  ~  “Air Balloon”  (Quirky, fun, and never boring. I love Lily Allen's music!)




2)  Never Shout Never  ~  “Red Balloon”




3)  Charli XCX  ~  “Red Balloon”




4)  Foals  ~  “Balloons”  (Artsy fartsy stuff up in here...)




5)  The Kills  ~  “Black Balloon”




6)  The National Parks  ~  “Red Balloon”




7)  Rosi Golan  ~  “Lead Balloon”




8)  Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals  ~  “Pink Balloon”




9)  The Civil Wars  ~  “Girl With The Red Balloon”




10)  Jimmy Nevis ft. Kwesta  ~  “Balloon”




11)  Joanna Newsom  ~  “Bridges And Balloons”  (Simply lovely!)




12)  Sick Puppies  ~  “White Balloons”




13)  Nena  ~  “99 Red Balloons”  (Hands down, the quintessential song about balloons.)




14)  Ween  ~  “Blue Balloon”




15)  Katie Melua  ~  “Red Balloons”  (Katie's another one of my favorite singers.)




16)  Midlake  ~  “Balloon Maker”




17)  Ane Brun  ~  “Balloon Ranger”




18)  Boards Of Canada  ~  “Everything You Do Is A Balloon”  (Well, that's certainly an intriguing song title...)




19)  Kristina Cornell  ~  “Little Red Balloon”  (Keep your Kleenexes nearby.)




20)  Goo Goo Dolls  ~  “Black Balloon”  (Probably the 2nd most well-known song about balloons.)




21)  Maja Keuc  ~  “You’re A Tree And I’m A Balloon”  (I'm still trying to make sense of these metaphors...)




22)  The Fifth Dimension  ~  “Up, Up, And Away”  (Hey, I never said the word "Balloon" had to be in the title. But this song might as well be called "My Beautiful Balloon," so there ya go...)




23)   Not Profane ft. Tiffany Alvord  ~  “Our Balloons”




24)  Rick Nelson  ~  “Red Balloon”




25)  Coshiva  ~  “Big Balloon”




BONUS TRACK:  Owl City  ~  “99 Red Balloons / Chicago / Plant Life”  (Yes, the "99 Balloons" song here is the same as the original by Nena [above], but this medley was so beautiful I chose to include both.)


Monday, May 2, 2016

“Unknown” Songs, Vol. 2

Last but not least, here's another set of "Unknown" songs that may or may not be unknown to you – depending on how varied your musical tastes may be. Either way...enjoy!  ~  JH



1)  The Killers  ~  “For Reasons Unknown”




2)  Nellie McKay  ~  “Unknown Reggae”




3)  Jukebox The Ghost  ~  “The Great Unknown”




4)  Mariusz Goli  ~  “Road Into The Unknown”




5)  Siouxsie and the Banshees  ~  “Fear (Of The Unknown)”




6)  Anthem Lights  ~  “The Unknown”




7)  Blackchords  ~  “Into The Unknown”




8)  Carlie and Yosi  ~  “Unknown”




9)  Peter Quirk  ~  “Great Unknown”




10)  U2  ~  “Unknown Caller”




11)  Drab Majesty  ~  “Unknown To The I”




12)  FED  ~  “The Great Unknown”




13)  King’s College Choir  ~  “My Song Is Love Unknown”




14)  Missing Persons  ~  “Destination Unknown”




15)  Greylag  ~  “Arms Unknown”


Friday, April 29, 2016

“Unknown” Songs, Vol. 1

And now back to our regularly scheduled programming. Here's part 3 of 4 in my ongoing-but-almost-done miniseries featuring "Known" and "Unknown" songs. With this post, we enter the realm of the "Unknown." Enjoy!  ~  JH



1)  Ingrid Michaelson  ~  “Wonderful Unknown”




2)  Conor Oberst  ~  “Night At Lake Unknown”




3)  Josephine & The Artizans  ~  “The Unknown”




4)  Modern Day Babylon  ~  “Unknown Guest”




5)  Neil Young  ~  “Unknown Legend”




6)  Amanda Palmer  ~  “On An Unknown Beach”




7)  The Material  ~  “The Great Unknown”




8)  Jacob Banks  ~  “Unknown”




9)  The Doors  ~  “Unknown Soldier”




10)  Pseudo Echo  ~  “Destination Unknown”




11)  Sons Of Bill  ~  “Big Unknown”




12)  Bewilder  ~  “The Unknown”




13)  Hudson Arc  ~  “Depths Unknown”




14)  Ernie Haase & Signature Sound  ~  “No Unknown Soldiers”




15)  Clem Snide  ~  “I Love The Unknown”




16)  Man or Astro-man?  ~  “Principles Unknown”




17)  Madeline Juno  ~  “The Unknown”




18)  Roy Harper  ~  “The Unknown Soldier”




19)  Benjamin Verdoes  ~  “Unknown Fears”




20)  Shaun Bartlett  ~  “Saviour Unknown”