Pop Culture Blog: Music, Movie and Humor

Leveraging low-hanging synergies outside the vertical fruit box since 1999.

Wednesday Wadio: The Gorillaz ‘DARE’.


in Wednesday Wadio

“‘DARE’ is a staple song used by several car audio enthusiasts to test their sound system’s performance, as it contains both human voice, plenty of treble and a very strong bassline.” – Wiki

Granted, I am WAY behind the bell curve on writing about this song – but I love it, I love the 2 legendary bands whose former members are involved with it and we just mentioned ‘Dare’ as part of the gym mix post from yesterday. I built a Happy Mondays related site recently, and in the process read a few articles surrounding how the song came to be. It’s interesting stuff. I’ll elaborate.

Damon Albarn, formerly of Blur and the current mastermind behind the Gorillaz, had always wanted to work with Shaun Ryder. The only problem is, Shaun Ryder has been a drug-addled mess for the last 20 years, and getting him involved in a project is tantamount to slamming your dink in a door. Don’t get me wrong – I love the man’s work. The Mondays and Black Grape are two of my favorite audio guilty pleasures. But he likes the hallucinogens and has been in some trouble as of late.

“Shaun Ryder… threatens another Lazarus style comeback with his best contribution to a record for well over a decade. It’s his Manc whine that steals the show and makes Dare and so enthralling, he might have his debts paid off in ten years if he keeps this sort of performance up.” – Beat Surrender

The song is hella fawnky, with great spooky sound effects, a catchy chorus and an interesting vocal alternation between Ryder’s marble mouth, Albarn’s falsetto and the Gorillaz only female member, Noodles. The video features Ryder’s disembodied cyborg headed singing away just as soon as the Gorillaz release him from his closet.

Ian Brown, a proper media shit-disturber who also incidentally happened to be the lead singer of The Stone Roses, recently claimed that the song was originally supposed to be called ‘There’ – But Ryder had a little trouble enunciatingg that very tricky word. Brown smirks, “They were going to call it, ‘It’s There’ but Shaun couldn’t say ‘there’, so they called it Dare. I know the guy who was the recording engineer on it and he was like, ‘One, two, three, four…’ and it took Shaun five hours to come in.” DARE to keep Shaun off Drugs.

The video is equal parts disturbing and brilliant, and the song is just brilliant. Watch the full clip here, or listen to the song by clicking Radio Pye in the left hand column.

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The Distant Call Of The Hamster Wheel.


in

When I started my current job in 2003, I was pleased to learn that I’d have access to the office building’s gym. And access it I did. In fact, I accessed the frig out of it – I got down to about 210 pounds at one point, and was looking pretty twatting svelt if I do say so myself. I like going to the gym. Once it’s in your routine, it’s easy to make time for and you even miss it when time does not allow. But it is so, so easy to fall out of step. And oh how the svelt have fallen.

With a little effort, my body gains and drops weight like Barbapapa in a trailer park meth lab. A lot of my friends have started back after long hiatuses – even DVS has been going daily – so I think it’s high time I joined the let’s-get-physical-fray. I went down to City Sports at lunch, got me some socks, a cool Under Armor water bottle, a pair of lacrosse shorts and tonight will be spent creating an audio steriod mix. During my last gym phase, I had a crappy 20 song 128MB MP3 player. I had to choose my workout tunes very carefully, lest I go crazy listening to the same songs for a week on end. Now I have a 60GB iPod, so I’m going to compile the biggest, rockingest gym mix derived from all iron pumping playlists of the past.

With no further adue, I will now share my top ten favorite gym mix songs of all time. There’s not a lot of rhyme or reason here, and it has nothing to do with BPM. These are simply songs that get me fired-up for whatever reason. I’m not going to write them all up, as I do actually need to actually get to the gym this evening.

  1. Where the Rose is Sown – Big Country
  2. Humbolt County Massacre – Frank Black
  3. There Goes the Fear – The Doves
  4. 100 Miles and Running – N.W.A.
  5. Acquiesce – Oasis
  6. You Think I Ain’t Worth a Dollar But I Feel Like a Millionaire – Queens of the Stone Age
  7. Springtime in Vienna – The Tragically Hip
  8. House of Pain – Van Halen
  9. The Queen is Dead – The Smiths
  10. Irish Pride – House of Pain

A lot of houses, and a lot of pain, I just noticed. But then, isn’t that what a gym is? Regardless, if you wish to know more about any of these songs or artists, Google them or simply trust your friend. Your big, fired-up, sweaty, dry-heaving, dead-on-an-elliptical Canadian friend.

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George Clooney Is Not Cary Grant.


in Movies

The George Clooney kudos crescendo is caving my head in. 10 years ago he was a regular on Roseanne, lest we forget. Jake Gyllenhal had to play tongue-hockey with another stinky man repeatedly for his nomination, and what did he get? Sure, Clooney had his fingernails pulled out with pliers, but I actually really enjoyed that scene. Most folks probably cringed watching the torture, but I stood up on a chair and cheered: “That’s for Return of the Killer Tomatoes, ya bastard.” And quite possibly for this.

“Actually, it would probably be easier if I just said ‘Anyone who wasn’t in Crash please stand up’.” – Jon Stewart

I wanted Munich to win, because it actually deserved to, but had no pipe dreams about that happening. I cashed in my chips and went downstairs to watch Life on Mars long before the Oscars had ended. I fully expected to see Brokeback on the front page of CNN this morning, so imagine my surprise. Crash is an OK movie, but I think the Academy really lost the PC plot this year. If you’re on the fence about that last statement, you need only be reminded of Stewart’s most prolific joke of the evening:

“Once again, for those of you who are keeping score: Martin Scorcese, zero Oscars. Three-Six-Mafia, one.”

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Alright, So I Might Have Lied.


in

Yes, it’s another Squidoo-related post. Some fellow lensmasters and I are starting our own related site called SquidooItYourself. I launched it today, and want to get it spidered… So here we are.

I honestly believe that Squidoo is going to be enormous, in case you haven’t noticed. This site will be an objective 3rd party source of external news and tips, and it’s the first of its kind. If you think I’m crazy, you might not get a ride on my cigarrette boat in 2 years. So just watch it, buddy.

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