Archive for the ‘Music’ Category
Early Morning Open Thread: Mardi Gras
Welcome Shrove Tuesday, last chance for all pious Christians to indulge in rich foods and other base pleasures before bidding Carne vale—farewell to the flesh. Christian or not, enjoy your favorite high-fat, high-calorie baked sweets (is it a coincidence that Girl Scout cookies are in season?), but keep in mind the sad fate of King [...]
February 21, 2012
· 
Anne Laurie · 
35 Comments
Posted in: Music, Open Thread
Sunday Morning Open Thread
According to Google Translate, the song is called “Tight-fisted Girl”. I can only hope the lyrics aren’t hideously inappropriate/embarrassing, or at least that no one among the Balloon Juice commentariat will tell us if they are. On a completely unrelated topic, the NYTimes’ doggedly pragmatic Nicholas Kristoff finds the answer to a question that has [...]
February 12, 2012
· Anne Laurie · 29 Comments
Posted in: Music, Open Thread, Religion
Song of the week
Hi everybody, thanks to DougJ for hooking me up with posting privileges. Here is your song of the week. Feel free to criticize, celebrate, suggest your alternative song of the week, or treat as an open thread. Elvis Presley, “Blue Moon” (1954) It’s about time the King made an appearance around here. Recorded in 1954 [...]
February 10, 2012
· JPK · 41 Comments
Posted in: Music
Song of the week
I meant this as an antidote to the Madonna halftime show. From JPK as always, but WordPress eated it at the time. Boss Hog, “Ski Bunny” (1995) This is my favorite song of all the Jon Spencer projects that I know, from the second, self-titled Boss Hog album. In typical Spencer fashion it lopes along [...]
February 5, 2012
· DougJarvus Green-Ellis · 58 Comments
Posted in: Music
Here Is Another Dirty Little Secret
Apparently it is self disclosure weekend at Balloon Juice, and I have another secret I feel the need to share. Yes, I love the dead and feat, yes I am a child of the Rolling Stones and Zeppelin, I adore the Talking heads, and the first albums I bought were Yes and the Who, but [...]
February 5, 2012
· John Cole · 99 Comments
Posted in: Music
Don Cornelius RIP
I remember watching “Soul Train” when I was a little kid. I didn’t know anything about race or anything like that, but I noticed that everyone on the show was having a good time in a way that other people on tv weren’t. In my fourth-through-sixth multi-age class, there was exactly one African-American (he was [...]
February 1, 2012
· DougJarvus Green-Ellis · 53 Comments
Posted in: Music
Open Thread – You must make a friend of horror
I give you due warning – the sight of cute Russian boys in their undies is not adequate compensation for the boyband/Christmas acoustic horror that will overwhelm you if you press that play button. I suspect Poe’s law may also apply to bad europop. Sometimes the youtubes take me to scary places.
January 28, 2012
· Sarah Proud and Tall · 45 Comments
Posted in: Music, Open Thread
Song of the week
From JPK at Can’t Explain (that song came out in 1998, I feel old). Sarah McLachlan, “Angel” (1998) I know Balloon Juice is rife with animal lovers but I’m not really trying to pander here—not really. In fact, I’m a little tired of that long BC SPCA End Animal Cruelty ad that uses this song [...]
January 27, 2012
· DougJarvus Green-Ellis · 90 Comments
Posted in: Music, Readership Capture
Early Morning Open Thread: Happy Australia Day!
Of course our Antipodean readers are well into their various celebrations by now, so: Cheers! Other than the next installment of the pig-wrestling travelling freakshow otherwise known as the GOP primary debates, what’s on the agenda today?
January 26, 2012
· Anne Laurie · 58 Comments
Posted in: Music, Open Thread
Etta James RIP
Etta James died earlier today. (h/t commenter lamh) This is played from a skippy record, but it is my favorite Etta James song. (I’d go with “I’d Rather Go Blind” but I like Koko Taylor’s version even better.) Update. Also too (why are soul covers of country songs always the very best songs?).
January 20, 2012
· DougJarvus Green-Ellis · 29 Comments
Posted in: Music
Song of the week
From JPK at Can’t Explain: Jimi Hendrix Experience, “Rainy Day, Dream Away” (1968) I wanted to talk about how directly this traces back to Jimi Hendrix’s origins in the Pacific Northwest and the various indoors activities that get us through the long rainy winters. Hendrix grew up in Seattle, leaving for military service when he [...]
January 20, 2012
· DougJarvus Green-Ellis · 43 Comments
Posted in: Music, Readership Capture
Song of the week
From JPk at Can’t Explain: James Brown, “Get Up (I Feel Like Being Like a) Sex Machine” (1970) Sometimes you just have to go with the classic tried and true and perhaps no one and nothing is more so than James Brown doing this song蓉nless it’s James Brown doing any of dozens of his masterpieces [...]
January 13, 2012
· DougJarvus Green-Ellis · 39 Comments
Posted in: Music, Readership Capture
Song of the week
From JPK…. Percy Mayfield, “The River’s Invitation” (1952) Percy Mayfield was a rhythm ‘n’ blues performer and songwriter whose best-known song is probably “Hit the Road Jack,” the Ray Charles hit from the early ‘60s. Mayfield was known as the “Poet of the Blues” performing in Texas and ultimately moving to Los Angeles in the [...]
January 9, 2012
· DougJarvus Green-Ellis · 5 Comments
Posted in: Music, Readership Capture
Saturday Night Fever Dreams
I kept thinking about this as a soundtrack to tonight’s debate. Top Pop World Go Boom! Who’s having more fun than the Granite State GOP Luzers?
January 7, 2012
· Anne Laurie · 19 Comments
Posted in: Music, Open Thread
Things You Think About <7 Hours Out From Gum Surgery*
Like, what would actually be the theme song that captures the geist of the Romney campaign. He’s tried stuff like “Eye of the Tiger”—which is exactly the kind of cliché you’d expect a never-hip cyborg to seize upon. It instantly dates/ages anyone whose neural circuits flare even momentarily, and it has all the motivational draw [...]
January 6, 2012
· Tom Levenson · 76 Comments
Posted in: Music, Open Thread, Romney of the Uncanny Valley
