A few months back there was a brief moment where popular songs in the opposite key were all the rage. Minor key version of major key songs and major key versions of minor key songs hit YouTube in a wave.
The first one I heard was this major key rendition of R.E.M.’s ‘Losing My Religion.’
Somehow this video — with all of its Basic Instinct goodness — escaped my attention in the several years since it was released.
Rumor had it that the track was addressed to Jay-Z after an alleged affair with Rihanna. All parties involved deny that.
Random Weekends are looking a lot like Elvis Costello Weekends this week.
Today’s track is another of the many bonus tracks Costello has released on the numerous reissues of his back catalog. I will let the man himself describe this version of the Imperial Bedroom track ‘Kid About It,’ as well as the story behind the writing of the song.
It’s funny how some songs drift in and out of our good graces.
When Elvis Costello released 1996’s All This Useless Beauty, I loved every minute of it, including (perhaps especially) its opening track, ‘The Other End (of the Telescope).’
Years later the song started to get on my nerves, particularly due to one lyric toward the end in which Costello sings of putting “a bamboo needle on a shellac of Chopin,” as pretentious a phrase as he’s ever uttered.
Any band that name drops ‘Harper Lee’ in a single has to earn some points right off the bat.
Little Green Cars, an Irish quintet who just released their first full-length album, enjoy the added benefit of comparisons to R.E.M. and Fleetwood Mac, among others.
Folk pop is a favorite genre of mine (and was well before its renaissance courtesy of Mumford and Sons) so Little Green Cars could well be a significant find.
Meet Me In Montauk 