(Summer) Tuesday's Tunes: Daft Punk

There are certain bands I only listen to in certain seasons. For the summer, nothing beats an upbeat pop song, or a high energy tune to rock out to, especially when combined with an afternoon drive.

It took a week or two to grow on me, but I've been playing Daft Punk's Random Access Memories almost daily during the work week. Since I basically just let the album play from start to finish, I figured I'd share the playlist via Spotify:



Just a great upbeat album for the summer. What's on your summer playlist?

Tuesday's Tunes: Closer, by Tegan and Sara

Closer
By: Tegan & Sara

This song is so catchy, been playing this one daily for the past few weeks.

Tuesday's Tunes: Do You Hear the People Sing?

Friends, the following song has been stuck in my head, on and off, for the past two weeks, and I might have been asked by a friend to lead us in this song at a New Year's party...

Tuesday's tunes: Christmas Time is Here (Instrumental)

Christmas Time is Here...and that means the play count goes up on all of my Vince Guaraldi Trio tracks in iTunes :) What, no one else obsseses over their music listening stats?

*crickets*

Tuesday's Tunes: Glory in the Highest

Thanksgiving is typically the time I dust off my Christmas playlist, and upload it for the car ride down to my family in NY. Let's ease into the Christmas music season with Glory in the Highest, from Chris Tomlin's Christmas worship album of the same name. It's a song that really works any time of the year, I hope you enjoy it:

Tuesday's Tunes: Midnight City

Today's selection "Midnight City" by M83 is a little more outside of scope of the music I normally listen to, but nonetheless enjoy. The music video itself is reminiscent of the iconic 80's anime film Akira, and M83's music in general made for some great background music during a recent board game session.

Tuesday's Tunes: All the Poor and Powerless

I'm always excited to find a solid contemporary worship album, especially if it has multiple songs that are appropriate to small or medium sized churches. Take that as a critique on the recent Hillsong and Passion albums, which have great inspirational songs to listen to, performance pieces if you will, but don't translate well to a smaller band setting, or are downright unsingable to the average congregant.

Anyhow, I can't recommend enough All Sons & Daughters album Season One, where today's selections "All the Poor and Powerless" come from:

Tuesday's Tunes: She's Gone

Now, I love me some Hall & Oates, but words fail me in how to set up this video of their hit "She's Gone," so you'll just have to watch it yourselves and we can then debate what is the most ridiculous part of this early music video...

Tuesday's Tunes: All My Days

I came across this song by Alexi Murdoch recently in a Sprint commercial, which lead to a bunch of repeat plays. I hope you enjoy this acoustic offering.


All My Days 
By: Alexi Murdoch

Tuesday's Tunes: High Road

Cover songs are a tricky business: an artist must put their own spin on an already established song, be respectful of the original artist, but not provide a simple karaoke re-hash. So I'm always impressed by Joss Stone's efforts in providing soulful covers of songs often outside of her genre. I wrote about her new album, "Soul Sessions Vol. 2" a few weeks ago, in particular, her cover of Broken Bells' "High Road". First, here's the original version of the song:


Now here's Joss Stone's version:


Music and art is a highly subjective matter, so, how does Joss' version stack up? Tell me what you think in the comments section below!

Tuesday's Tunes: Queen of California

I'll admit to buying John Mayer's "Born and Raised" album  the week it came in...wait for it...COMPACT DISC FORMAT! While my favorite Mayer album is the bluesy "Continuum", I think the folksy sensibilities of his newest album match perfectly with the crisp September air, music that's a little more mellow than the tunes I was rocking with the blistering heatof the summer, but nonetheless compliment my surroundings.

Queen of California
By: John Mayer

Tuesday's Tunes: September

I guess I will go ahead and continue the trend of posting some choice vintage pop tunes. Though I only recently saw this trippy video from the 70's (if you couldn't tell), I've been a long time fan of Earth, Wind and Fire, and specifically, their song "September," a perfect way to usher in the Fall.

September
By Earth, Wind and Fire

Tuesday's Tunes: Summer Breeze

The original version of "Summer Breeze" has always been a guilty pleasure of mine. It's an inoffensive, catchy but not too catchy tune perfect for the waiting room of a dentist's office. It was also featured in an early episode of "How I Met Your Mother," in case it sounds familiar to you and you're a fan of the show.. Lucky for us, Jason Mraz did a nice cover of the song, getting this catchy tune into the ears of a new generation. It's the perfect chill song for closing out the summer season, enjoy!

Summer Breeze
Cover by Jason  Mraz

Tuesday's Tunes: It Is Well With My Soul

It Is Well With My Soul, cover by Chris Rice

Tuesday Tunes: Lights

Man, I've had this Pop/Dance song stuck in my head for over a week:


Lights, by Ellie Goulding

Tuesday's Tunes: Furious

Furious
By: Jeremy Riddle

Nothing can tear us from
The grip of His mighty love
We’ve only glimpsed, His vast affection
Heard whispers of, His heart and passion
It’s pouring out…

His love is deep, His love is wide
And it covers us
His love is fierce, His love is strong
It is furious
His love is sweet, His love is wild
And it's waking hearts to life

The Father loves and sends His son
The Son lays down His life for all
He lavishes His love upon us
He calls us now, His sons and daughters
He’s reaching out…

… and its waking hearts to life
He is waking hearts to life
He is waking hearts to life

Tuesday's Tunes: Private Eyes

Private Eyes
By: Hall & Oates

Now ask me, after you watch/listen to the 80's gem above, tell me what is there NOT to like about this video?

• Creepy, stalker-like lyrics? CHECK!
• White man with jerry curl? Thanks to John Oates, CHECK!
• Neon sports coat with huge shoulder pads? Oh heck yea, CHECK!
• The claps, oh, how I love the claps!

Did I mention I already own Halls & Oates greatest hits album? No surprise there my friends.

Tuesday's Tunes: Trouble Is

Just continuing on my Jars of Clay kick, I've also been playing catch up on their more recent releases and really enjoying the "Good Monsters" and "The Long Fall Back To Earth" albums immensely.  That probably means some of those songs will show up on this blog in the coming weeks. Happy listening!


Trouble Is
By Jars of Clay

Tuesday's Tunes: Disappear

I've recently rediscovered my old Jars of Clay CDs, and one of my favorites is their "Eleventh Hour" album. I remember popping in this disc on a regular basis in my college days. The track below, "Disappear," would kick-off that sonic journey, and the album would always end much earlier than I anticipated...I'm sure there's some kind of life metaphor to be found there.


Disappear
By Jars of Clay

Verse 1
I watch you smile
You steal the show
You take a bow
The curtain falls in front of you
You're magical, on display
I gaze into your eyes and
You turn to look the other way

Chorus
But I'd really love to know
I'd really love to climb
My way into your heart
And see what I could find
I'd walk into your skin
Swim through your veins
See it from your eyes
I'd really love to try...yeah

Verse 2
Standing still, but in my mind
Trying to escape
Looking for a place to hide
Well it's not safe but I'm so near
Invading every place you go
To disappear

Bridge
I'd really love to know
I really want to climb
Into your soul
Walk into your skin
Swim through your veins
See it from your eyes
I'd really love to try
I'd really love to try

Tuesday's Tunes: Prince melts my face off with this solo

The following clip comes from the 2004 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Inductions and features a super-group of musicians (of which I only recognize Tom Petty and Prince) playing "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" as a tribute to George Harrison. While the collaboration is awesome in and of itself, Prince's guitar solo starting at the 3:26 mark is what was jaw-droppingly good. The YouTube comments left on the video would seem to agree:

"I hate when people compare Prince to God. God is just not that cool." (Blasphemous, yes. Hilarious, definitely.)

"I really hope that guitar Prince played is at least 18."

And my favorite, an allusion to a classic Chappelle Show skit:

"Game: Blouses."

Enjoy!