Earshot Boombox

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Tuesday, April 30, 2013

The Heavy feat 50 Cent - How You Like Me Now (NFL Draft Remix)

Along with being an all out, spend my last dime, music lover, I am also an avid fan of sports. I don't play any, but I love to watch them. So much so that I tuned into the NFL draft to see who my favorite team, the Detroit Lions, was going to pick.

Now, this year's draft was unusual. The #1 pick was a guy previously unknown even to the most die hard of college football followers because he came from Central Michigan University, a school not really thought of as a sports school. Heck, the school is not really thought of at all unless you go there. I grew up in Michigan and that school never crossed my mind unless one of my friends said they were going to go there.

There were quite a few other things that happened in this draft that made the first round really weird. The first three picks were all offensive tackles. Now that's not really unheard of, but it is rare. However, there was only one quarterback picked and no running backs were picked. I even saw back to back players with heart conditions get picked!

However, what I thought was the strangest part of all in this NFL draft, was the opening musical number. They featured a remix of The Heavy's “How You Like Me Now” that featured a verse by 50 Cent. First and foremost, I was shocked because I liked 50 Cent in this song, when I'm usually not a “Fiddy” fan.



Another thing that I couldn't stop thinking about was how incredibly long the legs on this song are. This song was released in 2009. Since then it has been featured in movies (The Fighter, Horrible Bosses), TV shows (Entourage, Community, White Collar), video games ( MLB 10 The Show, Borderlands 2), numerous commercials, and the list goes on and on it seems. It was even heard playing in the background at the McCormick Place Convention Center when it was announced that the projections showed that President Obama won Ohio. This song seems like it is never going to go away.

For as much time as “How You Like Me Know” gets, you would think you would know a little bit more about the band, The Heavy.

Name another song from them. I dare you.

If you could name another song from them, you are a rarity. Most people don't even know who sings the song.

The Heavy hail from Bath, England. They released their first album, Great Vengeance And Furious Fire, in 2007. In 2008 they were mentioned in Rolling Stone magazine's May “Hot List”, and played SXSW. Then, in 2009 they released, The House That Dirt Built, which featured “How You Like Me Know”. Last year, 2012, they released a third album, The Glorious Dead. Most of us missed all of this but “How You Like Me Now”.

However, I must say this song was made to win. They masterfully recreate the sounds to sample Dyke And The Blazers “Let A Woman Be A Woman, Let A Man Be A Man”.




The opening line to the song is a head nod to one of the deepest grooves James Brown ever performed, “There Was A Time”.


And the chorus gives it up for old school 80s Hip-Hop artists Kool Moe Dee.


Now that is some serious cross marketing. You can tell that The Heavy really and truly love music. Now, will they be able to get out from under the shadow of the monster they created with, “How You Like Me Now” or will they be thought of years from now as one hit wonders?

I personally will continue to check for their music in hopes that there will be something else worth remembering them by.

Roger

Thursday, April 25, 2013

Gospel For The Guilty

A friend of mine hit me up and asked me for a mix for his internet radio show. With the name of the show being Gospel For The Guilty, how could I say no?

So DJ Stagger Lee asked me for a Hip-Hop mix. Which threw me for a loop. I looked at my mixes and while yeah I play some hip-hop in my mixes, I had no mix that was more hip-hop than anything else. I was ashamed of myself. So I pulled this one together and I have to admit, it was fun! You'll be hearing more Hip-Hop from me in the near future.

You can hear Stagger Lee's "Gospel For The Guilty" radio show every Thursday night at 8pm on Silent Storm Radio. silentstormradio.com/

Big thanks to DJ Stagger Lee for working this mix into his show. And you should give it a listen. He plays some really cool stuff.

Gospel For The Guilty (Hip-Hop Mix)
Pharcyde - Passing Me By
Black Moon - I Got Cha Opin (Remix)
Camp Lo - Killin Em Softly
dumhi - Alive
Pharoahe Monch - The Light
Nas - One Mic
De La Soul - Itzsoweezee (TenDJiz De La Soulviet Remix)
A Tribe Called Quest - Glamour And Glitz
The Roots - Act Too (Love Of My Life) (Brown Sugar Remix)
Gang Starr - Mass Appeal
Lootpack - Whenimondamic
Kool Keith - What's Up Now feat H-Bomb and Marc Live
Collective Efforts - Civilized Dreams
Jurassic 5 - Jayou
Black Moon - Who Got Da Props

Thursday, April 18, 2013

The Art Of Finding Keeping And Losing Love

I tried to tackle this mix once before and I wasn't happy with it but I posted it anyway. Soundcloud took it down. Not because it was as bad as I thought it was but they said it violated some rule of theirs.

So that was a sure sign to me that I needed to go back and rework it.

I'm glad I did. I'm very happy with this one. I guess you can call it "Future Soul" even though there are some classics you may recognize. A couple of them reworked in the mix and edit.

Plenty of new artists that I admire.

I hope you enjoy. Would love to hear your thoughts.




The Art Of Finding Keeping And Losing Love
Hectic Zeniths - Save Me
Jose James - Touch
Kinny - Big Fat Liar
Bilal - West Side Girl
The Foreign Exchange feat YahZarah - If She Breaks Your Heart
Eric Lau feat Rahel - Everytime
Maxwell - Luxury: Cococure
Soundspecies, Ahu - Can We Call It Love
Michael Kiwanuka - Tell Me A Tale
Stevie Wonder - Golden Lady (Scrimshire Re-edit)
Mayer Hawthorne - Maybe So Maybe No
Princess Freesia - Never Gonna Give You Up
Brenda Russell - In The Thick Of It
PPP feat Sa-Ra - Deep Inside (Wajeed Remix)
I, Ced - Wildest Dreams
Steve Spacek - The Hills (Original Mix)
Van Hunt - Her December
Sade - Never As Good As The First Time
Michael Jackson - Can't Help It (Tangoterje Remix)

Monday, April 15, 2013

Kids Just Want To Have Fun

I've gotten to a point in my life where a lot of my friends have kids.

There's only a short period of time where kids listen to your music and think it's interesting. Before you know it, they have you listening to the terrible pop music that's on the radio.

So before it get's to that point. I made this mix. It's full of fun kids songs that your kids will find fun and you will think are cool.

Maybe if you play them cool music, they'll grow up to be kids who like cool music instead of the pop on the radio. I mean, it happened to us, right?

I grew up with a lot of the songs in this mix. School House Rock was a Saturday morning favorite and I jammed out and sung along while learning all types of stuff (and I have to thank my homie Niraj for helping my track down the original versions of the School House Rock songs I used). I recently had a conversation on Twitter with comedian Leighann Lord after hearing one of her podcasts, about how rare it must be to be a fan of Blossom Dearie and hip-hop. I am one of these rarities because of School House Rock.

Sesame Street was so influential on me my mom said she never taught me my ABCs. She said she walked in on me one day singing along to them on Sesame Street. I never missed an episode of The Muppet Show with all their great musical guests!

And Disney...we all have a favorite Disney song and can sing along to more than we'd like to admit!

There's also some cool new stuff out there. I originally got the idea to do a kids mixtape when Maylee Todd released her new album and it had a version of Sesame Street's Pinball Number Song (which was originally performed by Herbie Hancock and The Pointer Sisters). Medeski, Martin, and Wood put out a kids album recently and They Might Be Giants always have fun songs that you and the kids will both have fun listening to.

So I hope you and your little ones have as much fun listening to this as I had making it. May it bring you all many fun moments filled with singing, dancing, and silliness!

Enjoy!

(Thanks to all who made suggestions for inclusions in this mix)

Kids Just Want To Have Fun
Bob Dorough & Friends - School House Rock
Maylee Todd - Pinball Number Count
Medeski, Martin, and Wood - Let's Go Everywhere
Jack Shelton & Terry Morel - Conjunction Juntion
They Might Be Giants - Particle Man
Louis Prima - I Wan'na Be Like You (The Monkey Song)
Dr. Doofenshmirtz - There's A Platypus Controlling Me
Samuel E. Wright - Under The Sea
Dr. Teeth And The Electric Mayhem - Can You Picture That
Baloo - The Bear Necessities
Medeski, Martin, And Wood - Pirates Don't Take Baths
Robin Williams - Prince Ali
Mike Phirman - Chicken Monkey Duck
Dr. John - Curious George Theme Song
Louis Jordan & His Tympany Five - The Green Grass Grows All Around
Feist - 1,2,3,4 (Sesame Street Version)
They Might Be Giants - Istanbul
The Fraggles - Fraggle Rock Theme
The Muppets - The Muppet Show Theme
Jack Sheldon - I'm Just A Bill
Blossom Dearie - Unpack Your Adjectives
Wee Hairy Beasties - Wee Hairy Beasties
Yo Gabba Gabba - I Like To Dance


Monday, April 8, 2013

Randy Bachman Learns The Secret Of "Hard Day's Night" Opening Chord

From www.cbc.ca
The opening chord of The Beatles' "Hard Day's Night" has mystified guitar players for decades!

How did George Harrison do that?!

There has been so much speculation that small books have been written on the subject. Just search Google for "Hard Day's Night opening chord" and all types of theories come back.

Well, I ran across a post on Openculture.com where Randy Bachman, legendary guitarist for The Guess Who and Bachman-Turner Overdrive finally puts the debate to rest.

On his CBC radio show, Randy's Vinyl Tap, Bachman tells a story of how he visited Abbey Road Studio and was able to see Pro-Tools analyze each track from the original recording of the song and thus he had the secret of the opening chord!

Want to know what it is? Here's the clip from the show.

Enjoy.
Roger


Sunday, April 7, 2013

Marvin Gaye & Diana Ross "My Mistake (Was To Love You)"

From Last.fm
Ever have a song get under your skin so bad that you can't stop playing it, singing it, and hearing it in your head? That's what happened to me today as I was working on my next mix. I wanted to work in Marvin Gaye and Diana Ross's "My Mistake (Was To Love You)" and it's such an infectious song that I couldn't wait for the mix to be finished to share it with you.

The song was released in 1974 on the duet album Diana & Marvin. It was written by Gloria Jones and Pam Sawyer, also known for writing Gladys Knight's hit "If I Were Your Woman".

Enjoy.

Roger

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Breaking Free Of The Mold

In my last mix I talked about how playing what was expected of me nearly drove me to quit DJing. Fun though those songs may be, to play them every time I DJ and never play anything new was really hard on me.

I've since learned to play what I want. Well I play what I want within reason. There is still a lot of stuff I wouldn't dare play here in Macon that I love. But I get it out through my mixes. Like this one. It's full of great music but I would never be able to play this set in Macon and see people having a good time. But I must say when I DJed this past weekend I worked the Jill Scott and Michael Jackson remixes from this mix into my set and to my surprise people seemed to enjoy them. Maybe we're getting there in Macon. I won't hold my breath though.

As for this mix, it's full of Soulful House tunes that I've run across recently. Speaking of soulful. After the set I played this weekend I was talking to a couple of my favorite musical artists when some guys walked by and one of them stopped to talk for a bit. One told me he had been listening to my mixes here on Soundcloud and was shocked at the vast variety of stuff I play. Trying to put it in words he said, "You're different. You're just...soulful." It was a great compliment. I've been called way worse.

Back to this mix. Mario Biondi's "This Is What You Are" last heard from me in The Adventures Of Johnny Swank makes an appearance but with a rework from Opolopo. Opolopo is also behind the fantastic remix of Michael Jackson's "Rock With You". The true stand out on this mix is Josh Milan's "Thinking About Your Body" with Louie Vega on the remix. Lots of other goodies in this bag as well. Would love to hear what you think.

Enjoy

Breaking Free Of The Mold
The Foreign Exchange - So What If It Is
Moodymann - Run Away
Jill Scott - Golden (Kaytranada's Life Extended Living Edition)
Sade - Stronger Than Pride (Karizma's K2 Mix)
Mario Biondi & The High Five Quartet - This Is What You Are (Opolopo Remix)
Aloe Blacc - Dance For Life
QB - Yes No Maybe (QB's Hotstrumental)
The Layabouts - As Long As You Believe (BB Boogie Remix)
Audiowhores - Chains
Michael Jackson - Rock With You (Opolopo House Bounce)
Nativeroots, Zano - Taking Over The World (Original Mix)
Rick Wilhite - Drum Pattern And Memories (Moodymann Mix)
Black Coffee feat Soulstar - Rock My World (Julian Gomes Remix)
Josh Milan - Thinking About Your Body (Louie Vega Roots NYC Mix)
Funkineven & Fatima - Phoneline
Dee Dee Bridgewater - Children Go Round (Demissenw) (King Britt FiveSixMix)
Jose James - Spirits Above
Heidi Vogel - Black Narcissus (Emanative Remix)