Song of the Day for August 23rd, 2010: "Paper Airplane (ft Jenn Grant)" by Buck 65

And the song is...Paper Airplane (ft Jenn Grant), by Canadian hip-hop artist and MC Buck 65. Buck 65 consists of Richard Terfry (and in this case, accompanied by the vocals of Jenn Grant), who comes out of Mt. Uniacke, in Nova Scotia. He is also a radio host on CBC Radio, and he has gone by other aliases/stage-names in the past, such as Johnny Rockwell, Stinkin' Rich, Haslam, and Uncle Climax, and much like Sascha Baron Cohen these are all differen't personas which he puts on and off. Buck 65 has been around as an active musician since 1993, and Paper Airplane is a new release coming off of his 20 Odd Years, Vol. 2 - Distance EP, which was released in Canada on July 6, 2010.

Brief Movie Review for "The Darwin Awards" (2006)

** 2/5 Stars

"I found this movie a little bit hard to follow for some reason, it didn't seem quite together, but maybe that was part of the point of the movie? Anyways, its based on the actual "Darwin Awards," and I CBF to explain them here so look them up yourself. Is about a brilliant blood-phobic detective who loses his job due to the fact that he passes out when he sees blood, thus homicide detective is probably not the best position. So he gets a new job working for insurance claim companies by helping to prove that large filed claims are not legitimate. Winona Ryder helps a bit, but not really due to her acting abilities. I wouldn't watch this one again, but its worth one viewing."

Song of the Day for August 22nd, 2010: "6's and 7's" by Smilin

And the song is....Smilin by Australian indie band 6's and 7's. The 6's and 7's are an Perth, WA indie-band, lead by singer/songwriter Josh Fontaine. Now there just plain out isn't that much info on this band, with the exception of their myspace page, so if you want more info you'll need to search for them. The video below is a live version of this song as that is all that was available on youtube.com, so if you want to hear the clear studio version of the song you can go to their myspace page and listen to it here.

NetworkedBlogs

Blog:

A Vlog for the Halcyon Days

Topics:

Music, Movies, Media

Follow my blog

#62 of VJ Samsonite's Top 100 80's Dance Hits Countdown!: Wake Me Up Before You Go Go (1984), by Wham!

We are back again, to the 80's of course, and #62 of the countdown is none other than the stellar 80's pop-hit Wake Me Up Before You Go Go by English new-wave-pop duo Wham! Wham! was originally formed in 1981 by George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley, and according to wikipedia there was a conflict of band-names in the beginning, and so they were originally known as Wham! UK, but was later just changed back to Wham! as they were madly more successful than the other band of the same name in the USA. Wham! sold over 25 million certified albums worldwide between the years of 1982-1986, and the duo split and went their separate ways in 1986 as well (at which time George Michael began his solo career). Wikipedia states that George Michael was the composer, singer, producer, and occasional instrumentalist of the duo, whilst Ridgeley was more the businessman. An interesting wikipedia direct quote about the duo is as follows:

"Still teenagers, they promoted themselves as hedonistic youngsters, proud to live a carefree life without work or commitment. This was reflected in their earliest singles which, part-parody, part-social comment, briefly earned Wham! a reputation as a dance protest group."

"Wake Me Up Before You Go Go" was appeared as the first track off of their October 1984 release album titled "Make It Big," which would become their first #1 UK Chart hit. Once again, according to their wikipedia page, the song was inspired by a note written by Andrew Ridgeley to his parents that read "Wake Me Up Before You Go" but with the word "up" accidentally written twice, so Ridgeley then wrote "go" twice, one of those divine accidents that leads to the creation of an all time classic 80's pop-song. This song was obviously quite well known, and very fitting for it's very title as being "definitively 80's" and it regained popularity amongst a much younger generation (many who seem to have the false idea that the song was new in 2001) with its appearance in the 2001 Ben Stiller comedy film "Zoolander." On to the next!

Follow this blog

Brief Movie Review for "American Splendor" (2003)

 3/5 Stars ***

Interesting story about comic writer Harvey Pekar, and apparently its not that rare of a name. Paul Giamatti does a great job with this persona, as he always does. Story takes place in the industrial and depressing landscape of Cleveland, Ohio and is about a very depressing life of a surprisingly successful Harvey Pekar. Its hard to say how I feel about this one, it is like a serious version of "Napolean Dynamite," and not near as funny because it is based on real people. Just make sure you pop some of your prozac before you really sit down with this one...not really, but a good flick all the same. 

Song of the Day for August 21st, 2010: "Stop and Stare" by Fenech-Soler

And the song is....Stop and Stare by British electronic band Fenech-Soler. Fenech-Soler come at us out of Kings Cliffe, UK and consists of members Ross Duffy, Ben Duffy, Daniel Soler and Andrew Lindsay. They formed as a band back in 2006 and have released 3 singles to date. Stop and Stare is one of those singles, which reached #102 on the UK charts. The band members have a few side projects as well, and they are currently on tour in the UK.

Song of the Day for August 19th, 2010: "Alps" by Last Dinosaurs

And the song is Alps, by Aussie alternative-rock band Last Dinosaurs. I have posted some previous songs by Last Dinosaurs, who come at us out of Brisbane, Australia in sunny Queensland. This band has a delightful distant (almost ambient) and upbeat sound to it that is a bit nostalgic or something, hard to explain really...but very very good all the same. In case you forgot from the last post the band members are Sean Caskey (vox/guitar) Lach Caskey (guitar) Danjuro Koyama (drums) and Sam Gethin-Jones (bass). The song Alps comes off of their Back from the Dead EP, which was released in February of 2010, and which I very highly recommend as it contains 5 excellent tracks! Once Again you are going to have to go TO THEIR MYSPACE PAGE HERE TO LISTEN TO THE SONG.

Back From The Dead

#63 of VJ Samsonite's Top 100 80's Dance Hits Countdown!: "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" by Michael Jackson

We are not worthy, we are not worthy...all hail the late-great King of Pop once again, I told you he would be making a few appearances on this countdown, naturally, and so #63 is.....Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough by the King of Pop himself, Michael Jackson. I definitely would have mentioned this before, but I must continue with the discussion on what is to be done about this empty throne??? Who will be the next?? Madonna is no doubt still the Queen of Pop, although I know that Lady Gaga fancies herself to be next in line, yet, she will have to produce a minimum of 4 or 5 more top 20 full studio length albums before she can even be considered I would say. Both MJ and Madonna were so insanely prolific that it will be hard for anyone to fill their royal shoes. I suppose that sports are like that too, the new masters just keep raising the bar higher and higher, but someone will come along eventually, no doubt about that. Back to the song, it comes off of MJ's 1982 release album "Thriller." Now, many of you may already know that Thriller still remains the best-selling album worldwide of all time, having sold around 110 million copies worldwide. In the United States Thriller is tied at #1 best-selling album of all time with the Eagles' Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975) but that is just in the USA, globally (which really is what matters most) Thriller is still #1 bar-none. Stay tuned for more...

Song of the Day for August 18th, 2010: "Need Me (Every Night)" by Ho'okoa

And the song is Need Me (Every Night), by Hawaiian island music band Ho'okoa. Ho'okoa comes at us out of Hilo, HI (on the Big Island of Hawaii) consists of band members Na`ea Kaopua, John Tuli, Preston Paulos, Hoku Aki, Rick Star, Jeremy Tekurio and Paul Battad. The band members met in high school and have been performing together for the past 5 years. They are currently working on their second album and will be releasing a new single soon, for more info on that or the band check out their myspace page here.

Song of the Day for August 17th, 2010: "Acid Reign" by Violens

And the song is....Acid Reign, by American alternative-rock  band Violens. Violens is another band from NYC, they formed back in 2007 and include members Iddo Arad (synths, vocals), Ben Brantley (bass), Jorge Elbrecht (lead vocals, guitar), and Kris King (drums). Acid Reign comes off of their upcoming release album titled Amoral, and if you like this song enough, it is available as a free mp3 download at their myspace page found here.

Brief Movie Review for "Secret of the Grain" (2007)

4/5 Stars ****

A great french-language movie! This movie portrays family interactions very well, and in a very realistic light, so beware, it may remind you of your own family. Its about an Arab family living in France where a recently laid-off senior dock worker decides to buy an abandoned fishing boat and turn it into a seafood cous-cous restaurant, is a bit nerve-wracking though, especially at the end.

Song of the Day for August 16th, 2010: "State of Mind (ft. Juanita Tippins)" by Skryptcha

And the song is....State of Mind (ft. Juanita Tippins),  by Australian MC/hip hop artist Skryptcha. Now, thus far on this vlog I have been tempted to only post one song per artist and move on to a new one for each daily post (with a few exceptions), but from now on I am just going to post any song I find to be worthy of posting. So, that said this song, like the previous Skryptcha post I've made comes off of his 2009 release EP titled Left to Write. Also, note that Skryptcha has a new full length studio album out (just released on July 23rd, 2010) titled The Numbers, so make sure to check that out as well.

#64 of VJ Samsonite's Top 100 80's Dance Hits Countdown: "Chains of Love" (1988) by Erasure

And #64 is....Chains of Love, by English synth-pop duo Erasure. Erasure consists of songwriter and keyboardist Vince Clarke and vocalist Andy Bell, and formed originally back in 1985. Vince Clarke was one of the founding members of another well-known synth-band from the 80's by the name of Depeche Mode, and he was the writer of their first three singles, including their breakthrough top ten hit Just Can't Get Enough. Clarke left Depeche Mode in 1981 and started up with another successful group called Yazoo (aka Yaz in the USA), after two hit albums with Yazoo Clarke produced a top four hit in the UK called Never Never. He then went on to form Erasure with Andy Bell, which went on to produce 34 Top 40 Hits in the UK between the years of 1985-2007, and they have sold somewhere around 25 million albums in that time. Clarke and Bell have been labeled as "the definitive synthpop superstars," according to their wikipedia page. Chains of Love was the 4th track on their May 1988 release album The Innocents. Chains of Love was Erasure's 6th consecutive Top 20 Hit on the UK Singles Chart, and it became their first mainstream breakthrough on the USA Billboard Hot 100 Charts at #12, and to this day remains their highest charting pop hit in the United States. Check out their wikipedia page for more info, and break those chains!