Sunday, April 16, 2006
George Jones - "Her Name Is" (mp3)
This might not even be in my top ten favorite George Jones songs, but I like the lyrical conceit. George describes the one he loves, but the actual details are filled in by musical phrases, like "her name is (ding-da-ding), her eyes are (ding-da-ding)," until he finally reveals that he can't say who she really is because she's a married woman, and her husband "will kill the man who messes with his wife." The song could really go either way as either sad and profound or kind of a silly novelty, not unlike PCD's "Beep," but what tips it in the latter direction for me is that the instrument that completes his sentences isn't a tasteful country guitar twang but a boingy electric clavinet, which I guess was kind of a new thing in 1976.

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4:48 PM

In My Stereo

Thursday, February 16, 2006
Remy Ma - There's Something About Remy
Dem Franchize Boyz - On Top Of Our Game
Youngbloodz - Ev'rybody Know Me
Morningwood - Morningwood
Apollo Sunshine - Katonah
Willie Nelson - 16 Biggest Hits
DJ Heathen a.k.a. Young Trav/Choppa a.k.a. Young City - This Ain't A Game Vol. 1
Architects Recording Studio presents Street Radio 2
Comp/DNA - Independence Day: Bang-A-Rang Mixtape, Vol. 3
K.W. Griff (AKA) "K-Dubb" - The Professor

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3:31 PM

Friday, July 22, 2005
top ten:

1. Dinosaur Jr. - "The Lung"
2. Three 6 Mafia f/ 8Ball & MJG and Young Buck - "Stay Fly"
3. Little Feat - "Long Distance Love"
4. Grand Buffet - "Pink Deadly"
5. Luther Vandross - "Never Too Much"
6. Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz f/ Bohagon - "Get Crunk"
7. Blaq Starr - "Get My Gun"
8. Natasha Bedingfield - "These Words"
9. Montgomery Gentry - "My Town"
10. The Cars - "Bye Bye Love"

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11:14 AM

Monday, June 27, 2005
top ten:

1. Billy Idol - "Dancing With Myself"
2. Imajin - "Bounce, Rock, Skate, Roll"
3. Lil Wayne - "So Much More" freestyle
4. King Tut - "Big Girl Theme"
5. System Of A Down - "Sad Statue"
6. 2Pac - "Against All Odds"
7. Bossman - "Off Da Record"
8. Rascal Flatts - "These Days"
9. DJ Paul - "Still Gettin' My Dick Sucked"
10. Master P f/ Lil Romeo - "I Need Dubs"

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7:13 PM

Thursday, June 02, 2005
top ten:

1. The Replacements - "Fuck School"
2. Tony Yayo f/ G-Unit - "I Know You Don't Love Me"
3. Boyz N Da Hood - "Dem Boyz"
4. Lil Mo - "Dem Boyz"
5. Mullyman - "Problems"
6. Nigga Say What - "Hornz Joint"
7. Devo - "Snowball"
8. Ebony Eyez - "Act Like A Bitch"
9. Ted Leo - "Walking To Do"
10. George Jones - "Her Name Is"

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3:02 PM

Monday, May 02, 2005
in my stereo:

Amerie - Touch
The Minutemen - Post-Mersh, Vol. 1
Rod Lee - Operation: Not Done Yet
George Jones - The Essential George Jones: The Spirit of Country
Bruce Springsteen - The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle
112 - Pleasure & Pain
Ogun - Real On Purpose
Apollo Sunshine - The Paradiso, Boston MA 1/29/05
Stone Temple Pilots - Tiny Music... Songs From The Vatican Gift Shop
Two Dollar Guitar - Train Songs

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11:20 AM

Narrowcast Loves CMT

Monday, April 04, 2005
Hot Apple Pie - "Hillbillies"
This seems predistined to be a hit right out of the box like "Redneck Woman", although I'm not sure how much I like it yet. You know what I mean, though? It's like those "you know you ghetto" songs that are big every couple years, except now it's white people learning to reclaim terms of self-loathing with a prideful anthem. Or maybe I'm giving this song too much credit, it's a bit sillier and more nonsensical than "Redneck Woman", but you know what I mean. I honestly didn't realize until seeing the video for the 3rd or 4th time that it's a shot-for-shot remake/homage/parody/whatever of "Drop It Like It's Hot". I mean, it just looked like a black & white performance video until I realized all the details are the same. Except they didn't do the part at the end where Snoop pulls up his pant leg and shows you his sock. And as far as I'm concerned that's the most important part.

SheDaisy - "Don't Worry 'Bout A Thing"
This has to be the first time a band has sung about finding its own CDs in the bargain bin. I respect that kind of self-awareness.

Cowboy Troy - "I Play Chicken With The Train"
I'm actually kind of impressed with his flow on this, it's nothing special but way better than that blocky slow 'old school' type rapping he does on that Big & Rich song. That white kid named Chance that was on Muzik Mafia TV is still way better though. CT's definitely wise to do a single with B&R on the hook and go straight for the country audience instead of even trying to go for the hip hop audience. I mean, country is definitely more open-minded to that kind of crossover these days, who would've predicted a year ago that Nelly would be in heavy rotation on CMT?

Jo Dee Messina - "My Give A Damn's Busted"
There's something about post-Shania country with sassy spoken bits over the music that's like nails on a chalkboard to me, and it feels both like she takes a decent song concept and goes nowhere with it, and like it could've been phrased better (although I'm not sure how; 'I'm all out of damns to give' maybe?). And those pants in the video, ugh. There is one lyric I love, though ("You can crawl back home, say you were wrong/stand out in the yard and cry all night long/go ahead and water the lawn").

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2:04 PM

Narrowcast Loves CMT

Thursday, February 10, 2005
Trace Adkins - "Songs About Me"
Trace gets seated on a flight next to a bespectacled intellectual type, who notices and inquires about the fact that his carry-on is a guitar case. After Trace explains that he's a country singer, the short-haired yuppie type scoffs at our ponytailed hero that he doesn't care for "that twang and trains and hillbilly thing". In the chorus, Trace offers the defense that he sings "songs about me, and who I am, songs about lovin' and livin' and goodhearted women and family and" -- wait for it -- "God". I like the livin'/women rhyme, but I kinda wish he had kept it on a more narcissistic angle: "naw, I don't sing about all those other hillbillies, just me!" Trace offers the young urban professional tickets to the show, and by the end of the 2nd verse, the formerly country-hating hipster is in the front row and concedes "man, you were right, it was like you were singing those songs about ME!" The first time I saw the video I was thrown off by Trace's lead guitarist's passing resemblence to the stranger on the plane, and after realizing that wasn't the case, I wished they'd gone all the way with the fantasy and taken it in that direction: the ex-C&W-hater is so thoroughly convinced that he jumps onstage and joins the band for a scorching solo! But no.

Sawyer Brown with Robert Randolph - "Mission Temple Fireworks Stand"
I can't quite decide whether this is as bold and colorful as it wants to be, or if it's just the video that accomplishes this effectively. Nor am I sure whether this is the sort of thing that could reach across borders and grab the ears of the kind of people who usually turn a blind eye to pop country but lost their shit for Big & Rich (or ride planes with Trace Adkins), or if they'd ignore it or sniff it out as trying too hard right off the bat.

Josh Gracin - "Nothin' To Lose"
The follow up to my 4th favorite country single of 2004 finds Gracin in fast talking mode, racing through syllables and inanely rhyming "Miller time" with "breaker breaker one nine". Twista he is not.

Martina McBride - "God's Will"
There should be a special circle of hell reserved for lyricists who would both employ shameless wordplay in such a way that a song with this title is about a pious young boy named Will, and make it this overwrought and dramatic. It's also kind of hilarious how the bookend lyric that she wrings a ton of emotion out of at the end is "I met God's Will on a Halloween night, he was dressed as a bag of leaves". The "I've been searchin', wonderin', thinkin'" part is a big juicy hook, but it deserves a better, less treacly song to be a part of.

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9:05 PM