* Daft Punk/Pharrell Williams/Nile Rodgers/Stevie Wonder, "Get Lucky" (plus snippets!)
The Grammys are always good for some quality Hot! Live! Music! entries, so we might as well start with the one everyone is taking about, from the winningest album of the night. Talk about performance that had it all --- Pharrell and his Arby's hat, the legendary Stevie Wonder, the Daft Punk guys emerging from the future halfway through the song, everyone from Yoko Ono to John Legend throwing all decorum to the wind and just rocking out, etc. I loved the ear-to-ear smiles on everyone in the band, as if even they couldn't believe how awesome this was.
* Steven Tyler, "You Really Got A Hold On Me"
Just a snippet more than a real song, but damn, do I ever suddenly want to hear a full Aerosmith cover of "You Really Got A Hold On Me." Smokey's legit surprise was delightful. Debate question: is Smokey Robinson the best American songwriter of the last 60 years?
* She & Him, "You Really Got A Hold On Me"
Well, hey, since we're talking about the song anyway. There are roughly 6000 great covers of this song all over the internetz since it's such a great tune that it's hard to screw up, but I'm picking the She & Him version. I went to see them live last summer with the girlfriend and Deschanel/Ward put on a helluva show. I went into the concert knowing them basically just as "Zooey Deschanel's band" and left in a buy-all-their-albums frame of mind.
* Bastille, "We Can't Stop"
So basically, this BBC Live Lounge thing is going to single-handedly boost my Hot! Live! Music! series. It's clip after clip of musicians playing their own songs and (more regularly) covering other songs you wouldn't necessarily expect them to cover. It's a good combination for success, sort of a Smilex gas of music. I don't care about Miley and I don't care about Bastille, but in combination? Brilliance! Now Miley can return the favour by covering Bastille's big hit…..uh….do they have a hit?
* Thirty Seconds To Mars, "Stay"
So after years of making fun of my friend Anna for her insistence that 30STM were a great band and Jared Leto was a poor man's, non-Plastic Man version of Jim Carrey, here I am linking to one of their songs on my blog. AND, I'm a little over a month away from Leto winning an Oscar that (even more amazingly) he totally deserves. Sure, "Stay" is another of those great songs that it's hard to screw up, but even still, Leto is single-handedly making me eat some crow. You win this round, Anna.
* Patti Smith, "Stay"
Yeah, I've got to admit, Leto did a really nice version of….oh wait, Patti Smith also covered the song? Ah ha ha, get the fuck back to the kiddies' table Jared, the grownups are here.
* Mika, Happy Ending
Whatever happened to Mika, anyway? This guy dropped a few golden pop songs on the world a few years ago and then just dropped off the face of the earth. I suppose I could easily find out his current projects via a simple web search, but I prefer to believe that he wrote a great song called "Happy Ending" and just dropped the mic as the perfect walkoff to his career.
The Grammys are always good for some quality Hot! Live! Music! entries, so we might as well start with the one everyone is taking about, from the winningest album of the night. Talk about performance that had it all --- Pharrell and his Arby's hat, the legendary Stevie Wonder, the Daft Punk guys emerging from the future halfway through the song, everyone from Yoko Ono to John Legend throwing all decorum to the wind and just rocking out, etc. I loved the ear-to-ear smiles on everyone in the band, as if even they couldn't believe how awesome this was.
* Steven Tyler, "You Really Got A Hold On Me"
Just a snippet more than a real song, but damn, do I ever suddenly want to hear a full Aerosmith cover of "You Really Got A Hold On Me." Smokey's legit surprise was delightful. Debate question: is Smokey Robinson the best American songwriter of the last 60 years?
* She & Him, "You Really Got A Hold On Me"
Well, hey, since we're talking about the song anyway. There are roughly 6000 great covers of this song all over the internetz since it's such a great tune that it's hard to screw up, but I'm picking the She & Him version. I went to see them live last summer with the girlfriend and Deschanel/Ward put on a helluva show. I went into the concert knowing them basically just as "Zooey Deschanel's band" and left in a buy-all-their-albums frame of mind.
* Bastille, "We Can't Stop"
So basically, this BBC Live Lounge thing is going to single-handedly boost my Hot! Live! Music! series. It's clip after clip of musicians playing their own songs and (more regularly) covering other songs you wouldn't necessarily expect them to cover. It's a good combination for success, sort of a Smilex gas of music. I don't care about Miley and I don't care about Bastille, but in combination? Brilliance! Now Miley can return the favour by covering Bastille's big hit…..uh….do they have a hit?
* Thirty Seconds To Mars, "Stay"
So after years of making fun of my friend Anna for her insistence that 30STM were a great band and Jared Leto was a poor man's, non-Plastic Man version of Jim Carrey, here I am linking to one of their songs on my blog. AND, I'm a little over a month away from Leto winning an Oscar that (even more amazingly) he totally deserves. Sure, "Stay" is another of those great songs that it's hard to screw up, but even still, Leto is single-handedly making me eat some crow. You win this round, Anna.
* Patti Smith, "Stay"
Yeah, I've got to admit, Leto did a really nice version of….oh wait, Patti Smith also covered the song? Ah ha ha, get the fuck back to the kiddies' table Jared, the grownups are here.
* Mika, Happy Ending
Whatever happened to Mika, anyway? This guy dropped a few golden pop songs on the world a few years ago and then just dropped off the face of the earth. I suppose I could easily find out his current projects via a simple web search, but I prefer to believe that he wrote a great song called "Happy Ending" and just dropped the mic as the perfect walkoff to his career.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment