9 February 2024 - The Dead Milkmen - Punk Rock Girl

I used to love The Dead Milkmen.  I was introduced to them when a kid I met at summer camp wore his Big Lizard In My Backyard shirt.  I was intrigued. So I checked them out.  The jokey pop/punk fusion was fun and different and kept me interested.

Fast forward a couple of years, and they release this as the lead single from their 4th album, Beelzebubba. MTV starts playing the song in heavy rotation during the day, and people love it.  Turns out, it was a song the band had written many years earlier and were heasitant to record as The Dead Milkmen (they had a side project called Ornamental Wigwam that they used for it).  

 

By far, this song was their biggest hit - their only song to hit any Billboard chart (#11 on the Modern Rock chart) - and remained a staple of their live sets, especially after they reunited (they broke up for ten years and reunited soon after the tragic death of bassist Dave Blood).

Listen closely to the song, and you will hear references to Philadelphia locations, like the iconic punk rock store Zipperhead.  

Famously, the song mentions Mojo Nixon, who was their Enigma Records labelmate and fellow jokester.  In 2015, he made a suprise appearance on stage during this song right after them mention him.  

8 Febraury 2024 - Lisa - LALISA

The debut solo single by your favorite member of BLACKPINK was released in 2021.

Don't deny it.  Everyone loves Lisa.  One of two members of the group who spoke fluent English from the beginning (Australian citizen Rosé being the other), she became something of a spokesperson for the band and for non-Korean brands.  She was the first non-Korean (she's Thai) to be taken on by famed label YG Entertainment. 

Born Pranpriya Manobal, she did legally change her name to Lalisa Manobal on the advice of a fortune teller. So, in this, her debut single - a worldwide hit - she's literally singing her own name over and over.  

A K-Pop live performance is about the performance, and not the singing.  That's not a criticism.  It's a fact and an entertaining one at that. I literally picked one of those at random, because Lisa's performance and dancing are absolutely flawless every single time.  

7 February 2024 (Special Edition) - Mojo Nixon and Skid Roper - Elvis Is Everywhere

I'm not OK with two of these in two days.  

I'm really not OK with this one. I grew up listening to Mojo.  It all started with an EP I bought in the mid-1980s... before the rest of the world got to hear him on MTV and he was singing about how MTV should be covered in ejaculate.

"Stuffin' Martha's Muffin".  It was real.

The name known at birth as Neill Kirby McMillan Jr. has passed away.  He died doing what he loved - performing - on the Outlaw Country Cruise, an annual music cruise he played and hosted.  He played a show LAST NIGHT (after playing one the afternoon before) and was partying until the wee hours.

Day 4, let's keep this ship rockin'! pic.twitter.com/zDWtCcqi6B

— Outlaw Cruise (@OutlawCruise) February 7, 2024

He is literally playing guitar in the lower right photo in this tweet, last night.

Mojo was obsessed with gonads and making dirty songs about tying his pecker to his leg.... and his sideburns.... and pop culture in general.  This song skewered the widely-held belief that Elvis Presley was still alive, and using that as an explanation for everything that happened. 

Bermuda Triangle?  Elvis needs boats.

With his longtime collaborator, Skid Roper, here is Mojo performing his best known song.

This song actually brought the fringe duo some fame, with them even able to play this song on late night network television.

We miss you, Mojo.  SUPER sorry to see you gone.  

7 February 2024 - Dropkick Murphys - I'm Shipping Up To Boston

It was tough for me to decide where to put this blog-wise.  The lyrics of the song were written by Woody Guthrie - but the music is completely Dropkick Murphys.  They wrote it.  Ken Casey of the band found a fragment of these lyrics while looking through some Woody Guthrie archives.... and built a whole song around it.

It's likely Woody didn't release this as a single.  He wrote a lot of stuff he didn't release.  What is clear that the Dropkick Murphys turned this not only into a huge hit song - but a de facto anthem for all Boston sports teams.

The band, formed in 1996 in Quincy, Massachusetts, still exists, and they are presently touring.   They're coming to a town near us, and I think we're going to try to go.  At any rate, here they are in 2022 (missing Al Barr, so Ken Casey had to do all the vocals himself), performing the song for an eager crowd.  

6 February 2024 (Special Edition) - Toby Keith - I Wanna Talk About Me

I did not know Toby Keith was sick, so when I found out he had passed away from stomach cancer, I was shocked.

Toby was known for his goofy and funny songs that also spoke plainly - "Red Solo Cup" was his best known.  This 2001 single was his 7th country #1 and it falls in the plain speaking category.  It was also nominated for several CMA and ACM awards - mostly for this fantastic video.  

And yes, he performed it live. Here he is at the American Music Awards, where he was also nominated.

6 February 2024 - Big Boss Vette - Pretty Girls Walk

During the Grammys on Sunday, we saw a commercial with this song.  I immediately clocked it as Megan Thee Stallion, so I had to look it up.

It wasn't Megan Thee Stallion.  

It was Big Boss Vette, who finally broke through with this boastful song.  I mentioned it's been in a commercial (the commerical's subject escapes me as I write this), and it's also been used in South Park.  Is it a hit song?  Not a charting one (it's probably too dirty for airplay) but people know who Big Boss Vette is now.

Seriously, the song is super funky and it's now going to be on repeat in this house.   Sorry, guys. 

By the way, when she keeps mentioning diamonds, she's talking about herself.  Her real name is Diamond Alexxis Smith. 

An official remix of this song, featuring some ad libs by Coi Leray, also exists. And it's fun.

5 February 2024 - Sam Smith & Kim Petras - Unholy

I can imagine the people losing their minds right now.

A non-binary artist and a transgender artist singing about unholy things.  

Well, this song won a couple of Grammys last year, making Kim Petras the first transgender woman to win a Grammy.  Yeah, people lost their minds.  

This song, which was a huge hit (and #11 on the 2023 year-end Billboard chart), is excellent and fun and somewhat delightful, and I'm glad it won awards. 

These two did a lot of versions of this song live, but my favorite is this one that they did with a full orchestra.  The Middle Eastern elements of the song really shine through here.