Category Archives: electronic

Snow Way: falling

It  keeps keeping on! It’s never going to stop!

Educational songs for the kiddies! Guriezo sings “Snow is Falling Down” in broken English so we can learn how not to say it!

“Snow is Falling Down” gets sung by many elementary schools. Not sure where it comes from. It’s not Plank Road. But it will teach them to bang on those tambourines in any way they want to.

Vincent Micciche puts the cliches to work with “Snow is Falling.” Light elevator rock tells us about love, peace, children, Christmas, and… oh i guess other happy tidings too.

Piedmont Songbag chants out the problems we’ll have, and the precautions we’ll need with “Roger, It’s Snowing.” I’d take them seriously, i’d.

Darker My Love play “Snow is Falling” with a funky rock joy. The harbinger of Christmas seems like a glad master coming to oppress us in the nicest way possible. Be merry, i mean why not?

Shakin’ Stevens’s big Christmas hit was ‘Merry Christmas Everyone,’ but it gets shared as “Snow is Falling.” ’80s UK rock from the Welsh big dog (check out that sax). (Yeah, the VEVO is super creepy.)

Buster Inc unapologetically goes full throated with “Snow is Falling, Amen!” Christ under a star and you under a blanket of white, it just goes together, friends. To the rafters!

Creepy gospel soft country from Jim Ed Brown & Helen Cornelius in the dull shape of “Fall Softly Snow.” Angels, mangers, Mary–all crammed in there.

They said rain, but Trout Fishing in America gets us back on family values Christmas track with “Snow is Falling.” (And some fatherly jazz support wrapping the presents.) Thanks TFA!

Discordant hammering yodeling nostalgia from Timothy Seth Avett as Darling (?!) with “Snow is Falling.” Prog rock mixed media. Or, as we say around here, you don’t hear that everyday.

Silhouette goes big hair band with “When Snow’s Falling Down.” The prog electronica rock is overwhelming and it loses its way 2.5 minutes in. But this is a concert piece. Sit still and wait for the Big Finish. Boy, is it.

Parodies’ Paradise: 2013 “Fancy”

Our favorite Australian rapper’s debut studio album dropped this hit as the fourth single from it… Iggy Azalea described this as electro-hop song… cowritten and performed with featuring British singer Charli XCX… leaked under the title “Leave It” in December… reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100… both Azalea’s and XCX’s first number-one on that chart… held the spot for seven consecutive weeks… also topped the charts in Canada and New Zealand… reached the top ten in several countries such as Australia and the United Kingdom… named Billboard’s Song of the Summer… the most-streamed song on Spotify and most-watched music video on Vevo for the year… won the Top Rap Song category at the 2015 Billboard Music Awards… nominated for Record of the Year and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance at the 57th Grammy Awards… one of the best-selling singles worldwide, with combined sales and track-equivalent streams of 9.1 million units according to IFPI.

K J Julian classes up his “‘Fancy’ Christmas Parody” from the Chapel Student Ministry Talent Show. It’s about who’s more Christmas. Got me beat. I mean present-grubbing, Santa name-dropping, Nativity twerking….

Parodies’ Paradise: 2012 “Royals”

The hit from New Zealand singer Lorde from her debut extended play album was later included on her debut studio album… her debut single… made it atop the record charts of many countries including Canada, Ireland, New Zealand and the United Kingdom… in the US, the single spent nine weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 (making Lorde the first New Zealand solo act to top the Hot 100, as well as the youngest artist to achieve a number-one single since 1987… as of November 2014, the single has sold 10 million copies worldwide… listed as one of the best songs of 2013 by publications including Rolling Stone, Time and Spin… won numerous awards, including the Grammy Award for Song of the Year, Best Pop Solo Performance and the APRA Silver Scroll Award… regarded to be an anthem for the “Millennial” generation.

Aubrey Howell gets holy harmony with her cuzzes for “Christmas in the Air.” It’s like a real song with someone else’s music.

Aizey Pinede also belts his heart out with his “‘Royals’ A Lorde Christmas Cover.” He thinks he’s an elf!

The Kalatharas address “Elves” as a mixed bag–i think they’re being a bit racist.

Cassie Becker posts a pretty clever “‘Royals’ Christmas Parody” about an exhaustive Xmas list. Santa, you’ve been served.

Baily Crooms also amps up the talent part of her “‘Royals’ Parody of a Parody” (?) about seasonal shallowness.

BP Productions has a time out of their “White Christmas” musical production to slap together this parody about performing their show. Whining, but they’ve worked hard to earn the right.

Lindsey Cardinale & Heather Lannan play it like Garfunkle and Oates with their poorly recorded “Spoiled.” Hee, hee, hee.

Lori Mae Hernandez introduces an ‘impersonator’ to share her “‘Royals’ Christmas Version.” Spoiler: she gets Vans.

Nicola d’Alessandro (& friend) belabor not being Santa in their “Lorde ‘Royals’ Unofficial Christmas Edition” from the front room.

Oral B lays Asiansploitation on us with his “Rudolph.” Not your usual reindeer game.

Mod Carousel’s “Rudolph” blows that out of the snowbank. tighter outfits! Chipmunk voices!

Yves Nicollier delivers “The Reindeer Song 2,” which i guess i should list after the others.

assetmarie23 packs her “Christmas Parody of ‘Royals’” with holiday spirit tinged with God’s word. Holy message.

Erin Oechsel, however, rebels against too much early joy in “Carols.” Angry!

Nubile Cassidy Quinn plays “Santa” for the fun it.

Parodies’ Paradise: 2011 “Sexy and I Know It”

LMFAO’s second studio album, Sorry for Party Rocking provided their third single… went to number one on the Billboard Hot 100… remained there for two weeks… second number one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States, making them the first duo to have two successive number-one singles since Outkast… also reached number one in Australia, Canada and New Zealand… charted within the top ten in nearly every country in which it charted.

Key of Awesome don’t downplay the allure of Kris Kringle when they get him to admit “Santa and I Know It.”

Parodies’ Paradise: 2011 “Party Rock Anthem”

Hip house sensation LMFAO’s big hit featured British singer Lauren Bennett and American music producer GoonRock… first single from their second album… went to number one in Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, New Zealand, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States… also reached the top five in Finland, Italy, Norway, Poland and Sweden… and of course the best-selling single of all time in Australia… worldwide, it was the third best-selling digital single of 2011 with sales of 9.7 million copies… and the third best-selling digital song in US history… over 1.4 billion views on the Youtube.

Serious Youtuber Brian Havig goes the distance with his “Jingle Bell Rock Anthem.” Santa Claus is in the house tonight! And he’s here to show you, despite the cool reception at times, electronic hip hop will make any party a good time.

Parodies’ Paradise: 2011 “Moves Like Jagger”

This entry by American band Maroon 5 featuring recording artist Christina Aguilera was the fourth and final single from the group’s third studio album… was well received by music critics… went to top the charts in over 18 countries… in the United States it became the band’s second (and Aguilera’s fifth) number-one single… is among the best-selling singles of all time… (also made Aguilera the second female artist to score a number-one hit in the 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s which in turn made her the fourth female to score number-one singles in three different decades)(if you’re counting)… was the ninth-best-selling digital single of 2011 with sales of 7 million copies… ranks as one of the eight best-selling digital singles of all time with sales of over 15 million copies.

So the easy choice is “Moves Like Santa” as evinced by Marcie, Brian Fitzy, gobluekillred, Kieran Ayres, and Unbroken Dial. Snark out.

Parodies’ Paradise: 2008 “Poker Face”

Lady Gaga’s hit from her debut studio album was a tribute to her rock and roll boyfriends… attained worldwide success, topping the charts in twenty countries including the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and many European countries… best-selling single of 2009 worldwide, with over 9.5 million in sales… one of the best-selling singles of all time, having sold over 14 million copies…  nominated for both Song of the Year and Record of the Year at the 52nd Grammy Awards, and won the Award for Best Dance Recording.

[digressive moment: others love to sample Gaga’s hits for their funny montages, including The Landline and JerbyVids–that’s the funny one.]

The Something Awful site collects songs every year and 2009 saw a middlingly wretched parody called “Jingle Bells.” Catchy.

pschomomtv1 gives us a Seat as ex tell-all with “Poker Claus.” No, really.

Parodies’ Paradise: 1980 “Whip It”

Devo’s biggest hit peaked at No. 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart… #8 on US Billboard Hot Dance Club Play… #13 on US Cash Box… #17 on US Record World… No. 11 on the Canadian Singles chart… the key selling point of the DEV-O Live EP, which album reached number one in Australia’s singles charts… ranked number 62 on VH1’s 100 Greatest Songs of the ’80s… number 15 on the same channel’s 100 Greatest One Hit Wonders of the ’80s.

Duncan and Brian laugh it up with “Wrap It.” You know what’s coming, but can’t look away.

CHRISTMAS OVERVIEW (it’s today!)

By my calendar it’s the twenty-fifth of December. Time to reflect on what we’ve learned over the last year.

Some Xmas songs are wonderful.

Some Xmas songs are terrible.

But i don’t give much thought to the trouble of making the videos. Here are some of my favorite music videos over the last year…

Zissou Society don’t have much of a song with “Oh Shit, It’s Christmas,” but watch their collection of holiday commercials set to their salty celebration:

[edit: whoops, musta got a letter from Mickey Dees to pull that video. But in retrospect, i like the song. Just imagine 1970s TV going on…

]

Jeffrey Cannon uses borrowed cartoon and reinvigorates the old “Frumpy the Christmas Frog” so that kids of all generations may wonder WTF?

Here Come the Mummies like some dress up, but for “Secret Santa” they have gone beyond the pale for an homage to the old ‘Rudolph’ TV special, but this time with a stag party. That dentist elf’s got some moves! (Better video than song, sorry.)

Bret McKenzie goes electronica for “Electronic Santa” a dance video full of dance. I can dig it.

I keep listening to Big B and K David recite their “Christmas List, Yo.” But I’ve come to realize their video is active and energetic and teaches me cool new dance moves (‘swipe the credit card!’).

Keeping it funny… something called Verbatim Lyrics (this is old, old VHS stuff) used to play with MTV  videos and replace vapid lyrics with descriptions of what the people in the mini-movies are doing. Here is George Michael’s “Last Christmas” sendup. Uh–Burn!

To balance the amusing with the angering, Poly Styrene plays pop on the punk sentiments of Christmas being the downfall of civilization with “Black Christmas.” Damn if it don’t make me want to dance to doomsday.

Do we have time for a quick science class power point? We do? Jay Livingston and Ray Evans make chemistry Christmassy with “Silver Balls.” Take notes.

While in the humor department, let’s pretend a song wallpapered with memes is a video. ‘Cuz i like “Play That Christmas Music White Boy.” I need to hear it one more time.

For a top ten finale, gotta get even dirtier (what we call a BLUE ALERT for you meddlin’ parent-types) with Jimmy Colorado and the Bronco Band (Bath Boys Comedy actually). These boys have parodied the classic country music video with their heart-warming “Christmas Shit.” I laugh every time (now you know that).

 

 

Toymakers Local 1224: grievances-4

A simple message, a profound statement: “I am Santa’s Helper” is Sufjan Stevens electronica. In a brief time, he posits the dichotomy of the elf, a lovable ally/an overlooked tool. Maybe i’ve had too much college, but this speaks to me.