Today has not been a good day to be an asthmatic. Along with a high temperature in the triple digits, the air is full of all sorts of evil things that all seem to serve little purpose beyond inspiring me to reach for my inhaler.
On a miserable day like this, it only seems appropriate to make one of my favorite songs of all time the song of the day.
Ever since I first heard it used in a commercial featuring a Sock Monkey taking a road trip to Las Vegas with his friends, the robot and the weird red thing, I have been in love with the song How You Like Me Now? As performed by the British band The Heavy, How You Like Me Now is one of those songs that always makes me smile. The easiest way to get me excited about seeing a film is to include this song in the film’s ad campaign. Perhaps that explains why it’s shown up in trailers for everything from Faster to the Change-Up to the upcoming Ted.
For me, David O. Russell made perfect use of this song in his Oscar-nominated film The Fighter. Who can forget the sight of Christian Bale and Mark Wahlberg strutting through the streets of Lowell while this song played on the soundtrack? It was an iconic scene, featuring an iconic song and I loved it.
Continuing my series on the best of 2011, here are ten of my favorite songs from 2011. Now, I’m not necessarily saying that these were the best songs of 2011. Some of them aren’t. But these are ten songs that, in the future, will define 2011 for me personally. Again, these are my picks and my picks only. So, if you think my taste in music sucks (and, admittedly, quite a few people do), direct your scorn at me and not at anyone else who writes for the Shattered Lens.
By the way, I was recently asked what my criteria for a good song was. Honestly, the main thing I look for in a song is 1) can I dance to it and 2) can I get all into singing it while I’m stuck in traffic or in the shower?
Anyway, at the risk of revealing just how much of a dork I truly am, here are ten of my favorite songs of 2011.
1) What The Water Gave Me (performed by Florence + The Machine)
Musically, 2011 was a good year for me because it’s the year that I first discovered Florence + The Machine.
2) Only In My Double Mind (performed by Centro-Matic)
This is a great song from one of the best bands to come out of North Texas.
3) Man or Muppet (performed by Jason Segal and Walter)
Featuring lyrics from the brilliant Bret McKenzie.This song makes me cry every time.
4) Immigrant Song (performed by Karen O, Trent Reznor, and Atticus Ross)
Say what you will about David Fincher’s rehash of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, it had a good soundtrack. This cover of Immigrant Song made the film’s first trailer bearable. Unfortunately, it wasn’t really featured in subsequent trailers, being replaced by Daniel Craig going, “I want YOU to HELP ME catch a KILLER of WOMEN.”
5) Friday (performed by Rebecca Black)
Yeah, yeah, I know. It’s a terrible song and you know what? That’s why I can’t help but love it. Listen, there are thousands of terrible song released every year but there are none quite as a terrible as Friday. The genius of Friday is that it took everything that we associate with terrible music — nonsensical lyrics, insane autotune, a socially irresponsible message, creepy rappers who show up out of nowhere and for no good reason — and then just smashed it all together into the YouTube video that refused to die. Add to that, a few months ago, me and my BFF Evelyn got like totally drunk and then wandered around the streets of Dallas singing this song at the top of our lungs and I swear, every guy who passed by yelled words of encouragement at us.
(And, by the way, if you’re going to hate someone, hate on Fred Phelps. Leave Rebecca Black alone. Life’s too short.)
6) Hold it Against Me (performed by Britney Spears)
Yeah, yeah, I know. Everyone loves to hate on Britney blah blah blah. This song is fun to sing in the shower and you can dance to it. And, quite frankly, that’s all I need.
7) Beard (performed by Burning Hotels)
This is from another North Texas band.
8) Fucking Perfect (performed by Pink)
An anthem. (Yes, I know this song came out in 2010 but it was important to me in 2011 so I’m listing it here now. So there.)
9) Love Is The Drug (performed by Oscar Isaac and Carla Gugino)
From the Sucker Punch soundtrack comes this sneakily subversive cover.
10) No Light, No Light (performed by Florence + The Machine)
Finally, what better way to end this list than with some more of Florence + The Machine.
Finally, I want to close this list with a song that came out long before 2011 but it’s an important song to me and it was sung by someone who we lost far too early this year.
Coming tomorrow: ten of the best things I saw on television in 2011.
Happy Labor Day! In honor of this holiday, I’d like to take a moment to acknowledge a unique genre of film that truly sparked my love affair with cinema. That genre, as you may have already guessed, was Italian horror.
Today’s song of the day comes from one of the greatest of the Italian horror films, Lucio Fulci’s Zombi 2. While the film’s very true artistry is often overshadowed by its infamous reputation and the score itself is clearly a product of its time (the late 70s), I think that Zombi 2 was a cinematic high point in general and a masterpiece of horror in specific. And a large part of that was due to Fabio Frizzi’s operatic yet foreboding score.
Here then is today’s song of the day, Fabio Frizzi’s Main Theme from Zombi 2.
I never figured out that this little hobby of mine to help pass the time and share my love for writing about films, books, anime, games and other forms of entertainment would last as long as it has. I’ve always thought that when I first began the site that after a couple months I would get tired and bored by it and just let it wither on the vine. But instead of withering it’s actually has grown to include not just myself as a contributor but many others.
I have to say many thanks to some old buddies of mine going as far back as the old FF Gurus stomping ground which turned into the Suikox stomping grounds. I will forever be indebted to necromoonyeti (Shad4K for those who remember him from FFG and Suikox) for not just writing about his love for all things metal, but for the other genres of metal beyond the Metallica, Slayer, Black Sabbath and Megadeth I grew up listening to. Its through his educated and passionate writing about black metal, folk metal and power metal (and many more) that I’ve grown to appreciate the finer points of music.
Sailor Sexy has been a partner-in-crime that I think we may have been twins in a previous life. He’s been the anime and manga dude who may not have been as active but has definitely expanded my own appreciation for Japanese anime and manga. He’s probably helped introduce the artform to many of the site’s readers who have never really experienced anime outside of what’s being shown on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim. Here’s to hoping he celebrates this milestone with beer and more beer with his pals Tugger and PB at his side.
Other contributors have joined the site in just the past 6 months to help add their unique voices to the growing crew. There’s SemtexSkittle who has become the site’s gaming guru and whose love for gaming surpasses even my own. In addition to his helping write articles and reviews for the site he has also helped me become a better Black Ops player even though I’m probably still the one guy in the team who dies most of the time.
Another contributor who has added his own unique writing style is uberthegeek who shares the same love for all things nerdy and geeky as I do. Then there’s Leonard Wilson who brings his own film reviewing style which shows not just his love for film, but also shows him growing as a writer and hopefully he will continue to write as he finds his true writer’s voice. Another film fan who has joined just recently is leonth3duke who I first met over at a film fan union over on Gamespot. He brings a cineaste‘s appreciation for film that I rarely find when talking with my contemporaries and has been a welcome addition to the site.
The site also has one-time contributors in danceonavolcano and zackthewicked1 whose lone contributions are much appreciated as the ones made by the other writers for the site.
Last, but not least, is the one person who has helped me through the growing pains of the site when it was just months old and who accepted my invitation to write for the site without questions asked on her part: Lisa Marie Bowman. She has been so active in keeping the site always with something new to check out and read that she’s become as much a founder of Through the Shattered Lens as myself. Her love for grindhouse and exploitation cinema surpasses my own. Her unique personal take on films she reviews has made her articles some of the most read one’s on the site and I hope that giving her an outlet to write without restrictions has helped her in whatever small way to open up creatively since she first joined me almost 17 months ago. She’s also the reason for bringing in her sister, Dazzling Erin, to add to the coterie of writers which will only continue to help grow the site beyond what I had first envisioned it to be.
Through the Shattered Lens has been and will continue be a place guided by no rules other than for each contributor to write what they want to write about in regards to entertainment of their choosing. I’ve wanted to keep the site as chaotic and as free of restrictive guidelines as possible. While other sites have succeeded in being more focused on a particular theme or having access to the entertainment industry for news and interviews, I’ve always thought that this site has been a success on its own right because of it’s own chaotic nature. Visitors both new and old will always come in with the expectation that something new, weird and unexpected will greet them as they enter for the first time or the umpteenth time.
Thanks for sticking by us as we reached our first 1000th post milestone. Here’s to hoping you stick around and see us through to the next 1000….
I have to admit that watching and reviewing all of those Planet of the Apes films got me into a revolutionary state of mind. Taking that into consideration, here is today’s song of the day — The Revolution Will Not Be Televised by the late Gil Scott Heron.
Okay, two quick confessions. First off, I really wanted to write this post in Spanish because it’s Cinco De Mayo but unfortunately, other than a few phrases I picked up from my mom, I don’t speak Spanish. Secondly, I’ve done some research and I’ve discovered that the band featured here (Santa Esmeralda) is actually a French group. So, despite the fact that Santa Esmeralda’s cover of Don’t Let Me Misunderstood is obviously influenced by Latin music, it’s still not exactly ideal for Cinco De Mayo.
But you know what? When I first heard this song on the soundtrack for Kill Bill Volume One, I immediately fell in love with it and I forced my mom to listen to all 10 minutes of it and she loved it too. And unlike me, my mom grew up speaking Spanish and actually had a very pretty singing voice. She was also very proud of her heritage. So, if this song was good enough for her, it’s good enough for me.
I have to admit, as well, that when I first heard Santa Esmeralda’s version, I assumed that the cover had been recorded specifically for the Kill Bill soundtrack. Well, turns out I was not only wrong, I was way wrong. This cover version was actually recorded way back in 1977.
I also thought, before I started writing this post, that the song was originally performed by the Animals. Wrong again. The song was first written in 1964 by Bennie Benjamin, Gloria Caldwell, and Sol Marcus and it was originally performed by Nina Simone. Then, in 1965, the Animals did their famous cover. The Animals’ version of the song is the one that got stuck in my head when I was dating this guy who worked at Mervyn’s because, oh my God, it was playing all the freaking time in that store!
But the Santa Esmeralda version is my favorite and it is today’s song of the day.
The latest “Song of the Day” was inspired by having witnessed on April 23, 2011 at the Hynes Convention Center during Anime Boston 2011 a performance by the Odaiko New England (ONE). This traditional taiko drum group performed both traditional taiko set numbers and more modern compositions. To say that the experience was quite primal would be an understatement. Since then I’ve searched and listened to many other taiko drum groups and I’ve come to realize that the band Kodo really shows the Japanese art of taiko drumming at its best. I chose their song “O-Daiko” as the latest song of the day.
“O-Daiko” by Kodo is traditional taiko drumming at its finest. It begins quite subtly and gradually builds up to the booming, heart-pumping bass beats that could only come from taiko drummers playing their instruments in perfect tempo. It’s difficult to listen to any taiko music and not have oneself brought back to a simpler time. Taiko drum music has been a mainstay with Shinto shrine rituals, but they’ve also been instrumental in warfare during the warring period of Feudal Japan. The drum beats would be used to signal coded information to allies and friendly forces. They could also be used to demoralize opposing enemy forces.
So, if you ever learn that a taiko drum group is going to be performing in your area I highly recommend that you attend said performance. It’s an experience everyone should have at least once in their life.
The latest AMV of the Day continues my current obsession over a great mahou shoujo (magical girl) by the name of Puella Magi Madoka Magica. This amv is called “Repeat”.
“Repeat” uses the song “Sleep Now” by Hugh Hall and it’s atmospheric sound goes hand in hand with the dark, almost gothic sensibilities, of Puella Magi Madoka Magica. I’m none too familiar with Hugh Hall’s music, but the song that creator Chiikaboom used to highlight the dark nature of this anime series really makes this amv seem like a well-made trailer for the series. In fact, if I didn’t know that this video was an anime music video I would’ve thought it was a professionally done teaser trailer for the anime series.
This amv once again shows just how engaging an anime series Puella Magi Madoka Magica really is. Yes, the animation and character designs are quite cute, but that lighthearted aspect of the show doesn’t last very long. This video shows just how mature, dramatic and tragic this series ends up becoming.
There’s no big story behind why I have selected this particular song for Song of the Day, beyond the fact that I love the Chemical Brothers and this song — The Golden Path — always brings me a certain amount of peace. If nothing else, you must see the Chemical Brothers live at least once before you die.
A few days ago, I used to the song of the day feature to highlight the Crystal Method’s Trip Like I Do. And in that post, I mentioned that Trip Like I Do makes me drive too fast. Well, there’s another song off of the Crystal Method’s Vegas CD that I always make it a point to listen to while driving and that is High Roller. If Trip Like I Do makes me slam down on the accelerator, High Roller makes me slow down and watch the world collapse around me.
(Clicking on the video below will redirect you to YouTube and the acual song. I apologize for that — usually, I hate elitist, communistic bullshit like that but I really like this song.)
Through the Shattered Lens 