snowblink: sweet seducing sighs.

Snowblink - Human Nature (Daytrotter Session)
Snowblink - Thriller (Daytrotter Session)

I would begin this post by saying, “Michael Jackson has been covered and remixed to death”, but that would probably be in bad taste. Truthfully, the number of postmortem “tributes” to the King of Pop had my stomach doing somersaults. Though I didn’t doubt the sincerity of some of them, there were several that came off as obvious attempts to capitalize on the singer’s tragically premature exit.

But this isn’t the case with Snowblink. Their reinterpretations of Jackson’s songs (via Daytrotter) emerge months after one could find the iconic star’s face plastered across every newspaper in the nation. On one hand, this is a good thing. It allows the listener to focus on the group’s carefully crafted compositions, rather than dwell upon their mourning or resentment for the inescapable media coverage. On the other hand–a hand which is ironically cloaked in a white sequin glove–it’s very probable that less people are going to hear these magnificent takes on Thriller. The injustice is enough to make you want to “Scream”. Or at least blog about how people should listen to these covers.

i’m from barcelona: 27 songs.

Tina Gardestrand (of I'm From Barcelona) - Baby Let's Go
Rikard Ljung (of I'm From Barcelona) - Nothin' Like The Mornin'
Jakob Jonsson (of I'm From Barcelona) - Matilda

There are a few occasions when my lateness can work to my advantage. A mere mention of I’m From Barcelona in one of last week‘s posts prompted me to check in on their website, and I was rewarded by twenty-seven solo songs from each member of the group. As of January 27, these jams were released on a day-by-day staggering basis, spanning over a course of twenty-seven days. Considering that I have the attention span of a goldfish, there’s no way I would have remembered to keep checking their website for new songs.

Thankfully, I didn’t have to! Since I was so late in picking up on this exciting project, the entirety of their 27 Songs album (along with a few remixes) was available for download in its entirety. And did I mention that it’s completely free? If there’s one thing I learned from my coupon-clipping momma, it’s that you should never turn down free things. Especially when they’re this awesome.

27 Songs is particularly interesting when you consider how many unique sounds have come together to form the cohesive unit known as I’m From Barcelona. It’s a constant reminder that the band has twenty-seven members. A fact that I forget nearly every time I listen to them. Because I am a goldfish.

gym class heroes: ain’t no shame… in cookies

Gym Class Heroes f/ The-Dream - Cookie Jar

Today’s post is brought to you by Johnathan Kochis of Concerning This. It is the second in a series of guilty pleasures, as submitted by other writers. The first entry can be read here.

If it wasn’t for the chubby R&B singer with the search-engine optimized name, I probably would have never been a fan of this Gym Class Heroes song “Cookie Jar”. With a Tricky Stewart beat backed by an electric guitar, and “cookie” being used as a metaphor for females and their pussies (I mean it rhymes with cookie, come on), it can seem pretty cheesy. But despite the ill-advised biting of Raekwon‘s “Ice Cream”, it somehow works. You have The-Dream who can make a hit single out of a hook, kinda like a rhythm and blues MacGuyver, and Travis McCoy who can…uh…toss around half-assed lines about how eating cookies is kinda like being unfaithful and/or promiscuous.

But listening to this song makes me ask some important questions:

1. Why do I not feel guilty about enjoying this song?: I was asked to write about a guilty pleasure song. Something that I might have even deleted from my last.fm page. But that’s not the case with “Cookie Jar”. And even if I knew how to delete the presence of “Cookie Jar” from my last.fm charts, I wouldn’t. What’s there to be ashamed about? I like females, cookies, The-Dream, and synthesizers. This song has all of those elements. But there has to be something more, a better reason as to why I like this song so much. And I found it: I was drunk the first time I listened to it.

I was a passenger in a car in Florida, alcohol coursing through my veins and this song came on the radio and told those cheap speakers “You Better Work”, minus RuPaul. I thought to myself in that intoxicated moment, “this song would be great to hear in the club, or when you were drunk” (I’m a deep thinker when I have some liquor in me). So I think that is why I enjoy this song so much. I am biased towards it. It played while I was having a good ole time and when I hear it, it takes me back to that moment.

2. When Mr. McCoy raps about leaving crumbs in the bed, what exactly does he mean?: Are crumbs code for condoms? Are they those sexual stains that you have to scrub out of clothing? I have a feeling that we’ll never really know.

3. What kind of cookies are “caucasians”?: And also, what kind of females are “Thin Mints”?

4. Is this song about Katy Perry?: Did Travis cheat on her for some trans fat having groupies?

5. Was LL Cool J’s classic “Pink Cookies” the inspiration for this song?: See here.

6. I heard no mention of contraception or proper dental hygiene habits in this song: Are the Gym Class Heroes responsible for our health?

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