A straightforward garage rock song about a guy who escaped from an Australian prison in 1861.
2. "Gorilla" by Little Simz
British hiphop with a 1990's vibe.
3. "Denim & Diamonds" by Nikki Lane
The video is like watching Meg White cover Sheryl Crowe.
4. "Black Skinned Blue-Eyed Boy" by The Equals
A very funky protest song.
5. "Love is the Way" by Thee Sacred Souls
Old school soul that sounds like it should be on Daptone. This one has been played quite a lot over the past few months so it might be in your zShazams too.
6. "Oh Yeah, Oh No" by Add N to (X)
I don't know how to describe this. Maybe Neutral Milk Hotel doing electronica?
7. "Two Ways" by Weeping Icon
Sounds like something from A Place to Bury Strangers.
I haven't been carrying my weight around here lately so I'm posting the easiest schtick in my bag of tricks: zshazams. You too can find stuff like this on WFMU, WFUV, and WBGO. Here are a few recent gems.
"Viva Prado" by Stan Kenton
I played the trumpet in middle school and I was predictably bad at it. I love the sound of trumpets played well, especially high notes. They take on this weird smeary quality like magic markers or when you rub on a balloon. You'll see what I mean around 2:45.
"Controversy" by Prince
I saw Prince live once only because I blundered into free tickets. He was amazing and at the time I thought about familiarizing myself with more of his catalog. About 6 weeks later zson was born and I forgot about all that. Maybe I will do so now--Controversy is some funky shit.
"Jackie Down the Line" by Fontaines D.C.
This sounds like a Bloc Party song. I dig it.
"Cain's Heresy" by The Lounge Society
This sounds like a Bloc Party song until the switch at 2:40 when it becomes a psychedelic noodling guitar jam.
"Shombalor" by Sheriff & The Ravels
This is proto King Khan & the BBQ Show. A quintessential Fool's Paradise song, except Toddophonic Todd played it.
"Hard Rock Potato" by The Cool Greenhouse
These guys are heavily influenced by Greasetruck and the Almighty Yojo, except the eschew heavy vocal distortion.
"Our Love Will Still Be There" by Big Blood
This sounds like a Troggs song because it's a cover. I think it sounds like a Madonna song too, maybe "Ray of Light" which always reminds me of Mike Buddy because TR and I were at a Yankee game once and when he came to the mound they played "Ray of Light" and I said "Mike Buddy is like a ray of light" and TR laughed and so did I. We were wildly overserved, it was a double-header and the first game went 18 innings or something stupid like that so we guzzled Coors Light from those flimsy wax-paper tallboy cups for 27 innings so that was a funny thing to say under those circumstances.
To help us move on from dogs, dogshit, and dogs eating dogshit, I will throw up (pun!) my latest Shazams.
First up is "Walking at a Downtown Pace" by Parquet Courts. I'm getting hit with it by WFMU, WFUV, and Spotify so you've probably heard it by now too. It's a complete earworm.
How have I never heard "Cold Turkey" by John Lennon before?
rootsy will recognize Billy Stewart's "Sitting in the Park" as the inspiration for Slick Rick's "Sitting in my Car."
I know Whit loves the Beach Boys so he's very familiar with "San Miguel." Sounds like something from the Sir Douglas Quintet.
G:TB needs more disco and Loleatta Holloway has it with "Hit and Run." It's precisely what you think it's about.
Rex Doane knows that zkids named their dog Ivy because on Saturday he played "My Girl Ivy" by Jimmy Witherspoon.
I don't know much about The Rezillos but I assume TR is involved. "Flying Saucer Attack" sounds like something Greasetruck would create, minus all the fuzz and distortion.
This is Tom T. Hall's song about the time he almost starved to death in Roanoke, VA. That's exactly how "Ode to a Half Pound of Ground Round" starts. I assume rootsy is involved.
I wrote about my Shazams in January. Here are a few more gems I've Shazammed since then.
Public Enemy did a "Fight the Power 2020" remix? With Nas and Black Thought? How did I miss this? "Fear of a Black Planet" still slaps in its entirety, and "Fight the Power" does so in particular.
Go vote!
"In Orbit" by Joy Lovejoy is just fun classic soul.
I feel like I should already know "Big White Cloud" by John Cale. rootsy is shaking his head that I had to Shazam this.
I also feel like I should know "Revolution" by Heartless Bastards. Whitney is shaking his head too.
Bill Landford And The Landfordaires don't look like I expected them to. "Run On For A Long Time" has a very O Brother Where Art Thou vibe.
If they ever remade High Fidelity, "Light Yearly" by the Allah-Las would work its way onto the soundtrack.
I suspect rob is already familiar with Nikki Lane's "Jackpot."
rob should know about "Cat Squirrel" too.
I suspect Juan Carlos is already familiar with "Friendship (Is A Small Boat In A Storm)" by Chicano Batman.
"The Grunt" by Eddie Kirk makes me want to dive into Fortune Records' entire catalog.
I was stunned to hear "Nightmares" by Dana Dane at 8:43 am on a Tuesday. Word up doc, I'm the ultimate!
I encourage you to post your Shazams too. Music! Postcount!
Two of my friends, a husband and wife team that zwoman and I refer to as The Elegances, were early iPhone adopters. I didn’t understand the hoopla at first. Jenny Elegance showed me the great camera and how good photos looked on the big screen. It was cool but I wasn’t blown away. Then she showed me the map feature with GPS directions. I was really impressed—-I have no sense of direction and this is the type of thing I could really use. Then Danny Elegance came over the top with Shazam. My mind was blown. I said something like “Yo, this thing just sniffs the beats out the air and gives you the song?!? I want that beat sniffer!” FOGTB JP quickly replied “The beat sniffer, that’s my dog!” This is funny because his dog Hank liked to sniff the crotch of our friend Julie Beats. I guess you had to be there.
All this is to say that Shazam is great and it was the motivating force behind my first iPhone purchase. Over a decade later, Dave apparently just learned about Shazam and started blogging about it. Better late than never.
I still love Shazam. Here are some of my recent finds:
“It Was Wrong to Love You” by The Jay Vons (of course they’re on Daptone, here's the song live)
“Talk That Talk” by The Du Droppers (nothing like the Rihanna song)
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