Today’s Terrific Tune is by an almost imaginary “virtual” band, Gorillaz (learn more, it’s pretty interesting). Oh, it’s real music, but it’s not exactly the animated people that you see in the video playing it. It’s the brainchild of Blur‘s Damon Albarn. Gorillaz is a side project that created a hugely popular and unlikely hit with “Feel Good, Inc.” I’ve heard it a lot of times but I still like it every time. And the video has some cool animation and the “real” Gorillaz. Check it out below!

Side note – this weeks tune is embeded here from Imeem not YouTube, and might have a short commercial at the beginning. You Tube wouldn’t let me embed it here. Bah.

Feel Good Inc – Gorillaz

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If it’s Tuesday, this tune must be terrific. Today we feature an eerily beautiful song with an anti-war theme. It’s Kate Bush ‘s video for “Army Dreamers” off her great Never For Ever album. That album is possibly my favorite by her, though I like most of her music quite a bit. More than just pop, folk, or rock, she brings an arty sensibility and originality to her music that sets it apart from the mainstream. She does what she wants without regard for the trends of the day. She is a musical artist and this is an interesting and intruiging video and song. Check it out:

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Twenty six terrific tunes so far, not bad! All great too. Well, good at least. So today we go a ways back, to right around the breakup of the Talking Heads. Two of the Heads formed a new group called Tom Tom Club (learn more) to focus on light, fun music and this song is an example of that. It was actually a minor hit, but became a LOT more famous when Mariah Carey ripped it off stole it sampled it for her huge hit Fantasy. That song sucks but this one doesn’t! The video is kind of cute too. It’s for “Genius Of Love“. Remember, light, fun music. Check it out.

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Today’s Terrific Tune for Tuesday is a nice, mellow, acoustic number from Conor Oberst with one of his bands, recording as Bright Eyes. It’s called “The First Day Of My Life“. The video is a charmingly simple series of people. I find it heartwarming and the song is a great guitar-folk song too. He won a special recognition award for this video at the 17th GLAAD Media Awards. Click any of those links to learn more. Then check out the video below:

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For today’s terrific tune we delve into the modern rock area with a synth-poppy tune from The Faint called “I Disappear”. It’s got kind of an eighties sound with a prominent synth bass line and jerky feel (aka “a good beat”). There are semi-deadpan vocals and it’s a clever and visually interesting video. And there’s a dark feel to it, though it’s still colorful and catchy. Check it out and let me know what you think.

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Hello again, faithful readers. Today’s Terrific Tune is from industrial rockers Nine Inch Nails (learn more). The song is “Down In It (Shred)”, the official video is below. The original song “Down In It” is from their Pretty Hate Machine album, which is a must-own and is their best album IMNSHO. The video here is for the “shred” remix, which is not too far off the original but extended and with minor differences. But hey, why quibble? It’s still a great song! Turn it up and hang on…

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Now here’s a terrific tune. It was written by Elvis Costello and he plays some bad-ass guitar here. But the vocal is by moody singer-wongwriter Fiona Apple. She’s covering Elvis’ “I Want You”, a menacing ballad not about love so much as stalking and desire. Her amazing voice makes it even more menacing. Oh she’s wonderful, but man you wouldn’t want to piss her off! Play this one full-screen and fairly loud.

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It’s Tuesday again and we are serving up another Terrific Tune. This week it’s from the early 90s. The video is for “Ghost Of A Texas Ladies Man” by Concrete Blonde (learn more). This band released a bunch of really good albums and a couple that were only so-so. Buy their album Recollection for a greatest hits package and then buy Bloodletting, Walking In London, Mexican Moon, and Still In Hollywood and then go from there.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, this video is a strange blend of the old west (saloons, trains, etc) and some modern rock with a twang. View it full-screen, and don’t just check out Johnette Napolitano, the singer (learn more). And how cool is this for a song subject anyway? It’s a hella clever concept and cool lyrics too. Watch it…

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Are these classic rock lyrics, or what?

I look just like Buddy Holly
And you’re Mary Tyler Moore
I don’t care what they say about us anyway
I don’t care about that

Yep, today’s terrific tune is “Buddy Holly” by nerd-rockers Weezer (learn more). It’s a totally catchy pop song. The video (below) was a big hit in the 90s and it’s well worth seeing again. It’s a parody of homage to the nostalgic sit-com Happy Days, the show about the 50s and how simple and cool things were back then. At Arnold’s Diner, everyone is squeeky clean and wholesome (except for “The Fonz”, who, of course, always got the girl). So Weezer hams it up and looks as nerdy and geeky as the rest of the cast. It’s a nice mash-up (before there were mash-ups everywhere) of a music video with images from a TV show. Check it out and try not to sing along!

Oh, and here’s an interesting side note about this video. It became so popular that it was included on the Microsoft Windows 95 CD-ROM when the operating system was first released. How’s that for famous?

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Today’s Terrific Tune features a classic artist who has been making music for over 40 years. Most of that music is really good, some of it great. OK, maybe not everything. But lots of it. Anyway, here is Neil Young performing at the Bob Dylan 30th Anniversary Celebration (more info). He’s doing a cover of Bob’s “All Along The Watchtower”, made famous in the excellent Jimi Hendrix version. Neil rocks out, moving to his own inner beat as only he can do, and makes some wonderful noise come out of his guitar. Very cool…

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The Terrific Tune for today is an alternate version of a classic early 80s (late 70s?) track by one of my favorites, The Pretenders. The song is Back On The Chain Gang and it was a great single back in the day. That was the rock (pop?) version. But here, Chrissie Hynde and the boys do an excellent acoustic version. It looks to be from the Isle Of View tour in the 90s. The Pretenders are a really good band and are still working and putting out new music. They deserve to be much bigger than they are, IMNSHO…

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Greetings once again faithful readers. Today’s terrific tune is one you may not have heard but should have. It’s Stan Ridgway’s “The Big Heat”, from his first solo album. He was formerly the singer and main songwriter for Wall Of Voodoo, a great but weird band from the bay area known mostly for their unlikely hit “Mexican Radio”. Anyway, Stan has released a lot of interesting music since then on his own. If you want to explore it, The Big Heat album is a great place to start. There’s also a version of the CD with some bonus tracks if you love a bargain. His music is atmospheric, an aural landscape inspired by the moody film noirs of the 40s and 50s, but with a modern new-wave sensibility thrown in too. Check out the video and then buy some of his music, he could probably use the money!

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This week’s Terrific Tune is “I’m Wrong About Everything” by John Wesley Harding. He’s a very talented singer-songwriter who sometimes does “gangsta-folk” (as he calls his folk music) and also sometimes does clever and catchy pop. This song was on the soundtrack for the film High Fidelity and also ended up on one of Wes’ albums. It’s kind of a mellowish pop song with some clever self-depreciating lyrics. I’ll likely use more of his music as time goes by because there’s plenty of variety in his stuff. And it’s always intelligent and well-written. Anyway, I’ve got everything by him and we’ll start with this. Check it out!

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Today’s terrific tune is a pretty cool video too. It’s one of my favorite bands Death Cab For Cutie and it is their official video for “Grapevine Fires”. It looks cool, sounds good, is moving, and thankfully it’s much different from most of the crappy videos you see on the music channels (when they even show videos, that is). If you don’t know Death Cab For Cutie, then, NO they are not a metal, headbanger, or heavy screamer band. Not at all! They have accessible and interesting music with very clever and literate lyrics. Sometimes they rock a bit more but it’s never overpowering. You NEED their platinum-selling, grammy-nominated album “Plans” for sure and their latest effort Narrow Stairs is pretty good too. That’s where the song in this video comes from. I like Plans better and would suggest it as a good DCFC starting point. Besides those latest two albums, there are a bunch of others and EPs too, but the earlier albums are a bit less polished. Still, there’s plenty of good material throughout their impressive catalog.

Check out the video:

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Today’s terrific tune is a live version of Beck doing his hit “Where It’s At” from his must-own album Odelay. He’s a strange guy but he’s just weird enough and just different enough that he is usually pretty interesting. This performance is from an MTV Live special way back somewhere around 2005, but I could be a little bit off on that timeframe. Anyway, he’s cool, and the song is cool, so check it out.

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