Tag Archives: Music

2014 In Review: 14 of Lisa Marie’s Favorite Songs of 2014

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Continuing our look back at 2014, below you’ll find 14 of my favorite songs of the past year.  Now, you should understand that I’m not necessarily saying that these are the best 14 songs of the year.  Instead, they’re just some of my personal favorites.  These are the songs that either made me want to dance or that I inevitably found myself singing off-key while I was in the shower.  These are the songs that got stuck in my head and which I found myself singing whenever I was stuck in traffic.

These are 14 of my favorite songs of 2014.

(By the way, click on the links in this sentence if you want to see my favorite songs of 2013, 2012, and 2011.)

14) Everything is Awesome — Tegan and Sara featuring The Lonely Island

13) Mess Is Mine — Vance Joy

12) Summer Nights — Kaskade featuring The Brocks

11) Chandelier — Sia

10) Take Ü There — Jack Ü (featuring Kiesza)

9) Blank Space — Taylor Swift

8) Runaway (U & I) — Galantis

7) Blue Sky Action — Above & Beyond featuring Alex Vargas

6) Fancy — Iggy Azalea featuring Charli XCX

5) Stolen Dance — Milky Chance

4) Get Low — Dillon Francis & DJ Snake

3) Don’t Leave — Seven Lions (featuring Ellie Goulding)

2) Shake It Off — Taylor Swift

1) Long Way Down — Robert DeLong

And finally, here’s my pick for the worst song and video of last year.  In the past, I’ve defended some of the notoriously awful songs that have been produced and promoted by Patrice Wilson, just on the basis that they were, at the very least, memorably weird.  Friday remains one of my favorite singing-in-the-shower songs and it’s fun to sing when you’re trying to annoy people on Monday.  Chinese Food is — well, Chinese Food sucked but I do love Chinese food so I could at least relate to the song.  But then, in 2014, came both the song Sush Up and the video featuring 11 year-old Alison Gold playing a sexualized criminal who gets electrocuted in the electric chair.  And, of course, Patrice shows up to rap.  And seriously — BLEH!

While I’m not going to share the video for Sush Up because it’s really creepy and icky, I will share another video that’ll make my point about Patrice Wilson.

Tomorrow, my look back at 2014 will continue with 20 good things that I saw on television in 2014!

Previous entries in TSL’s Look Back At 2014

  1. Things I Dug In 2014 Off The Top Of My Head
  2. 2014 in Review: The Best of Lifetime and SyFy
  3. 2014 in Review: Lisa’s Pick For the 16 Worst Films of 2014

 

Here Are The 79 Songs That Could Win An Oscar!

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Okay, this new is really late but, as always, better late than never!

Last Friday, the Academy announced that 79 songs had been judged to be eligible to be nominated for Best Original Song!

Now, if you know anything about me, you know that I love long lists and playing “what if.”  Quite a few Oscar commentators have said that Patty Smith is so obviously going to win the Oscar for her song from Noah that it’s pointless to even speculate about anyone else.  Well, that may indeed be the case but hey, it’s still fun to look at all of these possibilities and wonder “What if…”  Speculation is never pointless, as long as it’s fun.

“It’s On Again” from “The Amazing Spider-Man 2″
“Opportunity” from “Annie”
“Lost Stars” from “Begin Again”
“Grateful” from “Beyond the Lights”
“Big Eyes” from “Big Eyes”
“Immortals” from “Big Hero 6″
“The Apology Song” from “The Book of Life”
“I Love You Too Much” from “The Book of Life”
“The Boxtrolls Song” from “The Boxtrolls”
“Quattro Sabatino” from “The Boxtrolls”
“Ryan’s Song” from “Boyhood”
“Split The Difference” from “Boyhood”
“No Fate Awaits Me” from “The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Them”
“Brave Souls” from “Dolphin Tale 2″
“You Got Me” from “Dolphin Tale 2″
“All Our Endless Love” from “Endless Love”
“Let Me In” from “The Fault in Our Stars”
“Not About Angels” from “The Fault in Our Stars”
“Until The End” from “Garnet’s Gold”
“It Just Takes A Moment” from “Girl on a Bicycle”
“Last Stop Paris” from “Girl on a Bicycle”
“Ordinary Human” from “The Giver”
“I’m Not Gonna Miss You” from “Glen Campbell…I’ll Be Me”
“Find A Way” from “The Good Lie”
“Color The World” from “The Hero of Color City”
“The Last Goodbye” from “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies”
“Chariots” from “The Hornet’s Nest”
“Follow Me” from “The Hornet’s Nest”
“Something To Shoot For” from “Hot Guys with Guns”


“For The Dancing And The Dreaming” from “How to Train Your Dragon 2″
“Afreen” from “The Hundred-Foot Journey”
“Yellow Flicker Beat” from “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1″
“Heart Like Yours” from “If I Stay”
“I Never Wanted To Go” from “If I Stay”
“Mind” from “If I Stay”
“Everything Is Awesome” from “The Lego Movie”
“Call Me When You Find Yourself” from “Life Inside Out”
“Coming Back To You” from “Life of an Actress The Musical”
“The Life Of An Actress” from “Life of an Actress The Musical”
“Sister Rust” from “Lucy”


“You Fooled Me” from “Merchants of Doubt”
“Million Dollar Dream” from “Million Dollar Arm”
“Spreading The Word/Makhna” from “Million Dollar Arm”
“We Could Be Kings” from “Million Dollar Arm”
“A Million Ways To Die” from “A Million Ways to Die in the West”
“Way Back When” from “Mr. Peabody & Sherman”
“America For Me” from “A Most Violent Year”
“I’ll Get You What You Want (Cockatoo In Malibu)” from “Muppets Most Wanted”
“Something So Right” from “Muppets Most Wanted”
“We’re Doing A Sequel” from “Muppets Most Wanted”
“Mercy Is” from “Noah”
“Seeds” from “Occupy the Farm”
“Grant My Freedom” from “The One I Wrote for You”
“The One I Wrote For You” from “The One I Wrote for You”


“Hal” from “Only Lovers Left Alive”
“Shine” from “Paddington”
“Still I Fly” from “Planes: Fire & Rescue”
“Batucada Familia” from “Rio 2″
“Beautiful Creatures” from “Rio 2″
“Poisonous Love” from “Rio 2″
“What Is Love” from “Rio 2″
“Over Your Shoulder” from “Rudderless”
“Sing Along” from “Rudderless”
“Stay With You” from “Rudderless”
“Everyone Hides” from “St. Vincent”
“Why Why Why” from “St. Vincent”
“Glory” from “Selma”
“The Morning” from “A Small Section of the World”
“Special” from “Special”
“Gimme Some” from “#Stuck”
“The Only Thing” from “Third Person”
“Battle Cry” from “Transformers: Age of Extinction”
“Miracles” from “Unbroken”


“Summer Nights” from “Under the Electric Sky”
“We Will Not Go” from “Virunga”
“Heavenly Father” from “Wish I Was Here”
“So Now What” from “Wish I Was Here”
“Long Braid” from “Work Weather Wife”
“Moon” from “Work Weather Wife”

Begin_Again_film_poster_2014

Back to School #25: Rock: It’s Your Decision (dir by John Taylor)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Rock It's Your Decision

MUSIC!  Kids love it, parents hate it!  Or something like that.  I don’t know what that means.  I’m just trying to figure out a good way to introduce the obscure 1982 film, Rock: It’s Your Decision!

Rock: It’s Your Decision is an hour-long film about a teenager named Jeff (played by Ty Taylor, who I assume is the son of the film’s director, John Taylor).  Jeff and his mom have been fighting about the music that he listens to.  She thinks that it’s way too secular and therefore, a bad influence.  She turns to her church’s youth minister and asks him to talk to Jeff.  The very earnest (and kinda creepy, to be honest) minister challenges Jeff to spend two weeks only listening to Christian music and actually researching what the lyrics of his favorite songs are actually saying and what other people his age get out of those lyrics.  Jeff agrees and then, at the end of the movie, gives a ten minute sermon to his youth group in which he reveals what he has discovered.

What’s interesting is that, up until he delivers his sermon, Jeff comes across like not that bad of a guy.  Sure, he takes himself too seriously and he’s kinda boring and I know that, when I was in high school, he was exactly the type of nonentity that I would dread having to sit next to.  But other than that, he seems almost reasonable.  Stupid but reasonable.

But then he gives his sermon and — OH.  MY.  GOD.  It’s as if stepping up to the pulpit unleashes Jeff’s inner douchebag.  Suddenly, he’s pacing around the stage and talking about how musicians are all homosexual drug addicts.  He talks about how, when he listened to secular music, he would actually get possessed.  Even worse, when he talks about listening to that terrible music, Jeff acts it out for us.  He turns on an imaginary stereo.  He talks about how much he used to love hearing a good “get down beat.”  He starts physically dancing to the music in his head.  Scornfully, he reminds us that modern songs have titles like, “One of These Nights” and “Let There Be Rock.”  He points out that even so-called “safe” singers still sing about sex.  His audience, of course, sits there in rapt attention.  The youth minister watches from the back of the room and you can tell that he’s mentally high-fiving himself.  Jeff goes on and on until finally, he shatters a vinyl record on a church pew.  (Amazingly evil demons do not immediately fly out of the remains of the record….)

What makes all of this especially amusing is that the songs and musicians that Jeff so vehemently condemns are basically the same songs and bands that my parents used to listen to back before I was even born.  (And they continued to listen to them even after I was born, regardless of how many times I begged my mom not to sing along to the oldies station while driving me to school.)  The next time I find myself arguing with my Dad, I’ll know that it’s AC/DC’s fault.  (Or maybe I’ll just blame Captain and Tenille because, according to Jeff, they’re all equally bad…)

According to Mike “McBeardo” McPadden in the book Heavy Metal Movies, this film was specifically made for showing in churches and Christian schools.  As such, it’s a very low-budget film that mainly features amateur actors.  Instead of using idealized sets or costumes, it was actually filmed in someone’s house and at a real mall and in a real church and everyone pretty much wore their own clothes and, as a result, the film does have some anthropological value.  Having watched Rock: It’s Your Decision, I at least now kinda know what some people were like in 1982.

Anyway, for those of you who just want to jump to the good part, you can watch Jeff’s “sermon” below.

And, for all of my fellow history nerds who want to get the full 1982 experience, you can watch the entire film below.

 

Song of the Day: Spirit in the Sky (performed by Norman Greenbaum)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

To be honest,  there is really only one reason why Spirit In The Sky is today’s song of the day and that’s that it happens to be so very stuck in my head!  I’ve seen the trailer for Guardians of the Galaxy a few dozen times and I now not only hear Spirit in the Sky when I close my eyes but I also end up picturing a surly raccoon walking down a hallway with a tree-like creature that repeatedly says, “I am Groot.”

And that’s not a bad thing at all!

Believe it or not, before I sat down to write this post, I actually did some research on the origin of the song.  And, of course, by research I mean that I looked the song up on Wikipedia and read the first half of the article.  Spirit in the Sky was written, recorded, and first released in 1969.  Norman Greenbaum mostly wrote it as a challenge to himself, to see if he, despite knowing nothing about gospel music, could write a gospel song.  As for the song’s distinctive “beep beep” fills, they were the result of a last minute improvisation by guitarist Russell Dashiell.  The end result, of course, was the world’s first psychedelic gospel song.

Finally, before Greenbaum recorded Spirit in The Sky, he apparently had a hit song called The Eggplant That Ate Chicago.

And who knows?  Maybe that song will be featured in the trailer for the sequel to Guardians of the Galaxy!

But for now, here is Norman Greenbaum’s Spirit in the Sky…

Song of the Day: Everything is AWESOME!!!

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Earlier today, one of my favorite films of the first half of 2014, The Lego Movie, was released on Blu-ray.  With that in mind, how could I not pick this song for song of the day?

Why do I love Everything is Awesome?

Not only is it insanely catchy but its probably one of the most sarcastic songs ever written.  How could I not love it?

Song of the Day: Crawl (performed by the Virgin Wolves)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

The Virgin Wolves is one of the best bands to come out of the Denton, Texas music scene and, as someone who spent some of the best years of her life in Denton, I’m happy to see them get some recognition.  This is the video for one of their best songs, “Crawl.”  The video was filmed in Denton, as should be obvious to any former student at the University of North Texas who has ever dealt with the pressure of finals by going out at midnight and getting high in a stranger’s living room.

What can I say?

The Virgin Wolves bring back a lot of memories.

RIP Dave Brockie, 1963-2014

Posted on by necromoonyeti

One of the greatest minds in music passed away yesterday at the tragically early age of 50. You’ve probably never heard of David Brockie, but I bet you have at least seen a few images or video clips of him on stage as Oderus Urungus, the well-endowed Scumdogian leader of GWAR. Beyond masterminding the band’s famous in-your-face stage antics, Brockie managed to infuse America’s most politically incorrect band with some incredibly clever lyrics and a sardonic whit that seemed to criticize the real atrocities in this world even while pretending to glorify them.

Here is a look at the more human side of the late, great David Brockie. You will always be my favorite live musician, and you’ve taken us beyond hell! I hope you can rest more peacefully now.

Song of the Day: Chernobyl (performed by Blanck Mass)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Have you seen Ben Wheatley’s A Field In England yet?

If you haven’t, you really should.  It’s just now getting an extremely limited theatrical release here in the States, though it’s also available via video-on-demand as well.  I saw it earlier tonight at the Alamo Drafthouse (which is the greatest theater in the U.S., by the way) and I’m still working out my feelings towards it.  It appears to be a film about a criminal, an alchemist, and a group of military deserters who, during the mid-17th Century, find themselves in an English field searching for a treasure that may or may not exist, while some of them have visions that may or may not be real.

Regardless of whether you think A Field In England is brilliant or just pretentious (and I think a good argument could be made for either conclusion), everyone can agree that one of the more memorable scenes in the film is the “tent scene”.  You can watch the scene below, though it definitely loses something when taken out of context from the rest of the film.

The song playing as that unfortunate man walks out of that tent is Blanck Mass’s Chernobyl.  And it’s also today’s song of the day!