Month: March 2024

Unsure why the Remix get’s the umlaut and not the band name, but it’s not my bailiwick. There’s your ten-dollar word of the day. Maybe two of ’em if you count umlaut.

“We’re only young and naive still, we require certain skills, the mood it changes like the wind, hard to control when it begins, the bittersweet between my teeth, trying to find the in-betweens, fall back in love eventually, yeah yeah yeah yeah, can’t help myself but count the flaws, claw my way out through these walls, one temporary escape, feel it start to permeate, we lie beanthe the stars at night, our hands gripping each other tight, you keep my secrets hope to die, promises, swear them to the sky”

A remix of a song isn’t some crazy invention, but there’s something about this version that I felt really did justice to the original song, and explored some other parts of it. I am beginning to think I’m a sucker for synth pop. Born in ’81, so I guess it was ordained!

Enjoy this one today, and maybe start that book you’ve been meaning to read. Be good, do good.

This song is such a great bro song. Right? Bros don’t tell other bros how they feel about them enough, which is bullshit. Too many of us (myself formerly included) just pack all that emotion shit down into our deepest of insides. It’s poison. I absolutely love that this song promotes telling people you love how you feel about them.

“Your parents weren’t around, but we had the internet (wow), spent our money on CDs, weed and cigarettes, Paul’s in the garage under that Nissan, and you and me write songs, on a guitar with three strings on it, ooh, never thought I’d ever let go, there’s pieces of me only you know, and you know I love you, that ain’t going nowhere“

So, in that spirit of not letting go, this one goes out to the number one fan of this blog and my brother/teacher/comrade-in-arms/partner-in-crime/bartender of the Midnight Cafe, Michael Hollis. We may not have gone through the same shit as the guys in this song have, but we have our own way better version. Thanks for setting that bar so high.

So use this post as a reminder to reach out to someone you love and tell them you love them. Check in on your friends! Might be just the thing they need today. Could be the one thing they’ve been hoping for. Extend that hand.

Be good, do good.

It’s Weezy baby! Can’t get enough of it. His lyrics are incredible. First we had Mr. Carter, now we have Dr. Carter!

All you need is a bass guitar and a drum set (and some horns!) and you have a fantastic song for Wayne to rap over. This song sees him drop this track in an attempt to save other rappers who are struggling in the game, and even save the game itself. This song samples David Axelrod’s “Holy Thursday” from 1968 and it is a fantastic track.

My particular favorite is the second verse where he talks about respect in the game.

“Respect is in the the heart, so that’s where I’mma start, and a lot of heart patients don’t make it, no hey kids, plural, I graduated, ’cause you could live through anything if Magic made it, and that was called recycling, or rereciting, something ’cause you just like it, some say its biting, but I say it’s enlightening, besides Dr. Kanye West is one of the brightest, and Dr. Swizz can stitch your track up the tightest, and Dr. Jeezy can fix your back up the nicest, arthritis in my hand from writing, but I’m a doctor they don’t understand my writing, so I stop writing, now I’m lightning, and you ain’t Vince Young so don’t clash with the Titans, fast and exciting, my passion is frightening, now let me put some more Vocab in your I.V., Here take this Vicodin, like it and love it, and confidence has no budget so pay me no mind, I don’t walk it like I talk it cause I’m running, I don’t do it cause I don it and I’m in the emergency un-it, I’ve done it, I’ve lost another one”

The part where he talks about re-using a Kanye lyric is perfection.

Enjoy the song in it’s brilliance! Be good, do good!

This song does a good job of taking me back to middle-school/high-school in the 90s.  I hate to say it’s a vibe because I feel like I use that phrase too much, but I think it’s too accurate a word to describe this song.  That constant and beautifully simple guitar strumming.  It takes us on a journey.

“Names carved in the pavement, on the corner of the block where we all came from, when we were water bottle boozing in your basement, older sisters always hate it when we blame them, closet full of sweaters, from the 90s when our folks were still together, yeah, love is blinded by the pressure of forever, we made a bloodoath said we swore we’d do it better”

I find the idea of this song, the planning of the kind of adult you’re going to be in the future, pretty fascinating despite the fact that I don’t know that I ever really did it.  I’m still in the mode of planning the kind of adult I want to be.  It’s ever-evolving honestly.  A lifelong learning experience, right?

How many of us can say that we’ve “woken up feeling older?”  Even though I feel like that everyday, here’s a reminder about it being a mindset.  You control the weather in your immediate vicinity, and you can be as young, lively, and vivacious as you want. 

Enjoy this great song.  Do something today that makes you feel young again!  Tap into that inner child you used to be!

Be good, do good.  Love you.

Lauren Mayberry and the rest of the Chvrches crew are an absolute delight to the ears.

Lauren has such an angelic voice IMO and that synths and sounds that the band produces are a treat. If you ever get a chance to see them live, jump on it, because they are mesmerizing.

I love the tone the beat sets. We’re moving from the get-go.

“Sometimes I just drive, ’til the night turns off my mind, I’m passing cars and crowded bars, never know until I go too far, confusing faith and fear, paint a smile from ear to ear, ’cause if I blink, I start to think, I feel nothing, I feel everything, I try my best to turn down the noise, and I tell myself that boys will be boys, it’s getting harder to breathe so, baby, put me to sleep, ’til it gets better”

Next time you can’t turn off your mind, like Lauren mentions, go take a drive. Toss this song on, and maybe just Chvrches in general, and just be with yourself for a while.

I wish you everything. Be good, do good.

There is something magical about pairing Hozier with what seems like an entire orchestra.

God of War is a video game series that spans back to 2005. Tiny little summary below.

(From Wikipedia: Based on ancient mythologies, the series’ plot follows Kratos, a Spartan warrior who becomes the God of War and comes into conflict with various mythological pantheons. The earlier games in the series are based on Greek mythology and see Kratos follow a path of vengeance against the Olympian gods; the later games in the series are based on Norse mythology and see Kratos go on a path of redemption while also introducing his son Atreus as a secondary protagonist.)

Simply incredible songwriting on display in this song, and it honestly mirrors the quality of the game as well in the time I’ve spent with it. Hozier in his lane with a moving performance throughout. The music is awe-inspiring IMO.

“To all things housed in her silence, nature offers a violence, the bear that keeps to his own line, the wolf that seeks always his own kind, the world that hardens as the harsher winter holds, the parent forced to eat its young before it grows, every bird, gone unheard, starving where the ground has froze, the winter sun rise, red on white, like blood upon the snow, like blood upon the snow”

When those strings come in during that above part…my gosh. Not my favorite part but close. That honor belongs to this set of lyrics.

“It’s not my arms that will fail me, but this world takes more strength than it gave me, the trees deny themselves nothing that makes them grow, no rain fall, no sunshine, no blood upon the snow”

Put that in human being terms and it’s incredibly fantastic and deep advice on dealing with the good times but also with adversity, right? Everything that happens us, even that which forces us to bow and teeter on breaking, we are more because of it.

So that’s my advice to you today. Set an intention to deny nothing that makes you grow. This world can be cruel like Mother Nature. Remember Kintsugi.

Be good, do good. Love you.

Impossible. It simply is an impossibility. Never happen. I don’t care who you are. Where you come from. How old you are.

This song makes you move. Anyone can move to this song. My mom can dance to this song and she only knows the “Mom Dance”.

“My skeletons hand-me-down, my bones have been lost and found, I’m hearing a sacred sound, calling out my name, I’m covered in fingerprints, kisses of melanin, blessing my skin with the evidence, that I am made of you“

It’s also an incredible explosion of power and positivity. When we switch up the beat at 2:35? Perfection. She doesn’t just have a drop-your-jaw-voice either; she’s also funny.

This is such an ode to your ancestry, right? Being grateful for your own DNA, and trusting that you’re on the right path because of those who guided you for so long and forged who you are today.

Today I am grateful for your skeleton existing. Have a fantastic day. Do something that pays homage to yourself for making it this far.

Be good, do good.