Dangerous, Dirty, and Unfun

Since Boston is an effing ghost town this weekend and I’m quite literally all by myself over here, you all should join me in listening to a little Yellowcard.

Regular readers of Dangerous, Dirty, and Unfun know that Brand New is probably my favorite band. I love them to death, but at the same time, can you imagine Jesse Lacey dropping the brooding, self-serious routine long enough to appear on Yo Gabba Gabba? Watch a little Taking Back Sunday.

These guys are from the capital of punk rock: sunny Bayonne, New Jersey. Listen to the Scandals.

You all can thank the Official Washington Correspondent of Dangerous, Dirty, and Unfun for putting me in mind of this one.

I mean, John Denver and the Man in Black, singing “Rocky Top”? I love it!

If you know what I’m talking about, you know what I’m talking about.

So as you’re probably aware, John Lennon was killed 30 years ago today. Jillions of pixels have been dedicated to remembrances and reflections and whatnot, so if you’re looking for that sort of thing, it’ll be easy to find elsewhere on the tubes.

Being a student of history and a lover of music, I figured this would be as apt an occasion as any to post my favorite Beatles song by John Lennon. I was a little surprised to find, though, that pretty much all of my favorites were written by someone else. “Hello, Goodbye,” “Eight Days a Week,” “Rocky Raccoon,” “Here Comes the Sun,” “Golden Slumbers,” none of them have Lennon as a primary songwriter. (Obviously, there’s plenty of debate over whose contributions were greatest on almost any given Beatles song. I’m going by cursory glances here.) Of course, Lennon wrote some good songs, so it wasn’t a total crisis. It came down to a near-tie between this and “In My Life.”

Anyway, listen to a little “A Day in the Life.”

Well, cover is a strong word, considering this is the guy that actually wrote the song, but here’s Bruce Springsteen, with parts of the E Street Band and the Roots (?), performing “Because the Night” . . .

. . . which was actually made famous by the badass Patti Smith way back in 1978.

h/t

I was a little late to the party with the whole indie music thing, precious readers, but I’ve been learning a lot the last few years. For instance, I know that you’d be better off pissing on Jeff Buckley’s ashes than saying that Neutral Milk Hotel frontman Jeff Mangum has a crummy voice. Hoo boy! The reactions I’ve gotten from folks in the know when I’ve verbalized what I thought was, you know, an empirically observable fact have been fierce! I mean, no one would bat an eye if you said Hendrix sings “All Along the Watchtower” better than Dylan does. So what’s the big deal, if I say that Matt Pond PA’s cover of “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea” sounds prettier than the original? Jeff Mangum has a crummy voice!

However, comma, the dude can write. I’m talking poetry. Lyrical miracles. So the songs have to be contended with! And yeah yeah yeah, I get it, the voice is a part of it, it goes along with the lyrics, I get it. But sometimes, I like to hear beautiful words in a beautiful way. So, in that spirit, here’s a pretty girl singing a prettier song, “Two-Headed Boy Part 2.”

I like country music, but I don’t KNOW country music, and that doesn’t bother me. Which is refreshing and liberating, in its way. Isn’t that great, though: coming across something and earnestly loving it on its own terms, without any anxiety about whether it’s lame and people will think you’re a lame for liking it, or whether it’s really cool and people will think you’re a poseur for liking it?

Anyway, I don’t know if Eric Church is super lame or super awesome, but this song is burning a hole in my iPod. And I’m learning it on the ukulele. So, listen to a little “Carolina.”

So my buddy Miles over at Now Is Not the Rhyme has crossed over to the dark side of lazy bloggerdom, debuting his own version of Zelda Warriors. He’s calling it, well, Zelda Warriors. It’s an homage! Also, let this serve as official permission for MIles to tell the wisdom teeth story. It’s a fun one.

All this said, I don’t think I’ve ever explained where I got the whole “Zelda warrior” thing from. It’s from the lyrics of this song, “Maybe in an Alternate Dimension” by Ozma. It’s a sweet little tuneski. Enjoy.