Return to Spanxzilla

Citizens, it's been forever since I've been our little kingdom. It feels like aeons since I've been gone. There has been so much happening in other places and times. Oddly enough, I haven't listened to Spanxzilla in a minute. Cracks me up. Here's the last half hour of my life.

The World is New, Save Ferris ---> Crazy, Gnarls Barkly ---> Putting on the Ritz, Rufus Wainwright ---> Speak to Me/Breathe, Pink Floyd ---> The Rockafeller Skank, Fat Boy Slim ---> and finally Heaven, Los Lonely Boys

Looks like it's on a "strong male vocalist" tangent. Whichever, the range is pretty fantastic. The only thing I could wish that could top it would be if Richard Cheese came on

Spanxzilla: Female mood swings

One thing I love about this mini-project that I've created for myself is that I get to hear the most random songs bump up against one another. It makes me really happy. I always get so bored listening to the radio play the same 12 songs every other hour. We're in the age of media! It litters the information superhighway. The only thing that keeps people from it is licensing laws. People who have stock in things always want to argue about who owns what. Commercial talent is mostly summed up in dollars and cents. Which is a shame but as to be so, understandably. Business is business even if it's selling art.

That's exactly how this transition felt. It started with M.I.A.'s, "Hussel" which, from what I can tell, is about a guy who is out there trying to make a profit. Then went to a song that I hear a lot, "Punjabi Girl" (DJ A.P.S.) a kind of Bollywood musical remix ending with Ingrid Michaelson's "Keep Breathing" which is as it sounds: a meditation to remind you that you'll make it through if you can just stay alive.

Listening to other songs that came after (Kate Nash, Regina Spektor) I suppose that it was following the female singer genome.

Spanxzilla: Annie. Slutting on broken glass.

I started writing this post on 11/9/09 to comment on how Annie Lennox, "Walking on Broken Glass" gets mixed in with anything. But I stopped myself from saying anything because I could only vaguely think of a couple weird connections. So I have been waiting Elphians until I had a solid case. Today is that day.

- Ms. Lennox will understandably play between Aqua, "Barbie Girl" and ATC, "Like a Drum"

- But she will also jump in between kids songs "Hakuna Matata", Tim Rice and The Sounds of Sesame Street "Elmo Would you Drive My Car?"

- And to top it off today, she came up first in the queue which is great. Even if that song is kind of Pandora-slutty it's nice to listen to. But she was used to lead into a grinding, squealing guitar run starting with "Ratamahatta" Sepultura and ending with Rob Zombie's "Thunder Kiss '65" (which has become my all time favorite squealing, guitar song because of the solo that he does at the end of the live track).

To some up, I have nothing against Annie Lennox. I'd just like to hear more of her music. And I think it's strange that broken glass has a list of genomes with such a high level of versatility. I wonder how many other songs exist like this.

Addition:

- she has also showed up between indie artists (feminine men singing with guitars) Damien Jurado, "Inevitable" and Iron and Wine's "Sodom, South Georgia".

I've got to know. What does that song have that makes it so matchable and are there other songs like it?

Wilf: Charlie Bit Me - Remix

This is great! I did the standard youTube thing and went on looking for a particular thing and then ended up 5 videos later at this one. Sometimes the trip down the rabbit holes pay off. You can search for the original if you want to see it but I think you get the drift.

Spanxzilla: Throwing up clef signs.

This was super amusing to me when I was at work and on a long rap groove.
It ended after an hour or so with Coolio's, Gangsta's Paradise and then switched quickly to Partita for Keyboard No. 5 in G Major by Johann Sebastian Bach. My feeling is that Pandora was probably following the genome of heavy orchestration combined with obvious attention to recording quality.

Spanxzilla: Black and white unite?

Having some many genomes in Spanxzilla makes it a little schizophrenic. Like it's talking to itself and then responding. Like this morning "Swervin" by The Coup (a song about how the african american community is being kept down by the government and most of them have no choice but to sell drugs and go to jail) which was responded to by Jimmy Eat World's, "Middle" (which is an upbeat and pop-y reminder to middle class tweens not to give up because everything just takes some time to come to fruition).

Update: As I was writing this entry, Spanxzilla responded to JEWs, "Middle" with Nappy Roots' "No Static" (detailing how he actually has no problems because he has a gun and "too much of anything can make you an addict").

Spanxzilla:

I couldn't even come up with a title this transition was so strange.

Atmosphere, Yesterday - which is a very slick rap about how he missed his dad because he was to angry too see who he really was before he died --> Weird Al's, Phony Calls which is a parody of TLC, Chasing Waterfalls about prank calling.

Spanxzilla: Ads

I listen to Pandora over 40 hours a month. I'm not sure how many but it's enough that they've sicked the ads on me hardcore. Mostly I just ignore them like I do any ad but I think they have them responding to the genome's as well.

Between Britney Spear's Womanizer and N'Sync's It's Gonna Be Me they plunked in an ad for something called, The Two of Us, which is a site about how to make relationships work. I cracked up. I think the guys on the project are trying to tell you something, Justin and Britney.

Spankxilla: Fuck you, Jesus.

Lol! This is great. It just went from Norman Greenbaum, Spirit in the Sky which is super cheerful and upbeat about having a friend in Jesus and how when we die he'll take us to Heaven --> Ill Nino, Te Amo, I Hate You which is grinding guitars and a guy growling "Fuck you!" as the chorus.

I don't think I've ever heard a better transistion.

Update:

Exception for after an hour of screaming guitars ending with Limp Bizkit's, Break Stuff ("give me a chainsaw, I just might skin your ass raw) --> Jim Brickman (all piano, sounds like, two words. John Tesh), If You Believe

I'm sure there's a pattern here, I just have to find it.

Spanxzilla: Kill the drag queen as a child.

So here may be possibly weirdest transition in the history of the "Chronicles of the Music Genome Project" (as this section of the blog will now be called) going from

Country Death Song (which is a slow drag song about how a man goes insane and decides to push his kid into a well) Violent Femmes --> Wig in a Box from the Hedwig soundtrack.

I don't know if you know this, Elphians, but I love Hedwig and want to play her sooo bad.

Spanxzilla: Getting left

I just noticed another genome, I think. Or it's a coincidence but my feeling is this is something that the guys at Pandora would notice

Sara Bareilles -> Love Song -> The Killers -> Mr. Brightsides -> Violent Femmes -> Please don't go.

I normally give descriptions of the songs that I'm listing but I'm pretty sure that you've heard all those songs.

Spanxzilla: Rappin'

Nothing really new to update.

I love Slick Rick!

And this found in an old medical magazine:

Spanxzilla: Testing the Music Genome Project.

For those of you who don't listen to Pandora, you're missing out. It's a free-ish online radio station that you can set preferences on. It's all run out of Flash, and selects songs based off the songs that you vote. Each song has probably 50 things listed about each so that they create a sort of music zone. So I created Spanxzilla to test the very edges of the Project and how strangely music can be attached to each other.

The opening one is a real winner going from mellow, jazzy "I'm Beginning to See the Light" (Danny Willams) ----> "5:59" (Hototogisu) which is something like guitars feeding back in an ominous sound wave.

Here a list of all the genes in the project.