Category Archives: Friday Music Day

Friday Music Day

FMD: Music for Kids

24 Comments

When I was a kid I listened to a whole lot of Radio AAHS. For Citizens not in the know, Radio AAHS was a station aimed at the 5 - 10 year old demographic. I'm not really sure where they gathered all the songs from, but they had a lot that really hit the sweet spot for kids.

As a parent, it strikes me that finding music for kids that isn't outright painful isn't always the easiest thing. Sometimes I'll pull up a kids' Pandora station, but it ends up grating on my nerves before too long. And of course there are plenty of mainstream songs that work for the kids, but you know they don't appreciate them like adults do. Something more on their level can be important (looking back over Radio AAHS playlists, it seems like there was a fair amount of popular music mixed in too. It took some memory jogging, but I do recall that. So I guess the mix of children-specific and children-friendly is nice.).

I'm curious what other parents in the nation do for music for their kids. There's individual groups like the Okee Dokee Brothers (SJU!) and TMBG doing children's music, but I really do regret that there isn't an easy station to tune in for kids. Or maybe there is, and I just don't know about it?

Anyway, for those parents out there, here are a few song recommendations, back from my glory days of listening to kids music. And they've mostly been tested and approved by my kids, so hopefully they hold up for your kids too.

Joe Scruggs, "Bahamas Pajamas"
Rosenshontz, "Hippopotamus Rock"
Lenny Graf, "Water"
"Broccoli & Chocolate"
Jack Pearson, "Googolplex"
Cheech Marin (yes, him), "Red, Blue, and Yellow Too"

Friday Music Day

FMD: Music To Campaign By

6 Comments

I've always been interested in the song selections people use for campaigns (or walk up music for ball players, etc.), and the way some of those "don't use my music" battles play out.

There's a lot of classic rock used, it seems. Lots of yay-rah patriotism too. But I'd like to see song selections expanded, be more tongue in cheek, show some innovative policy proposals. You know, that kind of creative thinking.

So, for example, Rand Paul could campaign to The Clash's "I Fought The Law".
Billy Joel's "Great Wall Of China" seems like it might be apt for Trump.
There are certainly some campaigns focused on helping low-income workers that could just use They Might Be Giant's "Minimum Wage."

So drop your 10 and give us your creative campaign songs.

Friday Music Day

FMD: Music for FZ Neuroses

12 Comments

I didn't see a FMD post, so I am jumping in with this link: a playlist of the 10 songs found to be the most relaxing on earth.

10. "We Can Fly," by Rue du Soleil (Café Del Mar)

9. "Canzonetta Sull'aria," by Mozart

8. "Someone Like You," by Adele

7. "Pure Shores," by All Saints

6. "Please Don't Go," by Barcelona

5. "Strawberry Swing," by Coldplay

4. "Watermark," by Enya

3. "Mellomaniac (Chill Out Mix)," by DJ Shah

2. "Electra," by Airstream

1. "Weightless," by Marconi Union
Spotify playlist

Friday Music Day

FMD: Dylan’s Literature

22 Comments

This got some pretty good play yesterday, but I was very pleased to hear about Bob's Nobel. I'm an admitted fan of his music, but he's one of the few artists who I go out of my way to listen to the lyrics.

Provided you view this as a "musician" receiving the Nobel for Literature, which author do you think would (or does) make a great lyricist? If you're feeling ambitious, offer a sample of their work and maybe a hint to the genre/sound you imagine they'd be set to.

In the key of What Is And What Should Never Be - Led Zeppelin:

They crossed before the sun and vanished one by one
and reappeared again and they were black in the sun
and they rode out of that vanished sea like burnt phantoms
with the legs of the animals kicking up the spume that was not real

and they were lost in the sun and lost in the lake
and they shimmered and slurred together and separated again
and they augmented by planes in lurid avatars...
An Ambuscado by The Blood Meridians

Friday Music Day

FMD: Wake me up when September Ends

35 Comments

Kernel's learning the days of the week with a song set to the Addams Family tune:

There's Sunday and there's Monday
There's Tuesday and there's Wednesday
There's Thursday and there's Friday
And then comes Saturday
Days of the week *snap snap*
Days of the week *snap snap*
Days of the week, days of the week, days of the week *snap snap*

List of songs that use or reference days, dates, months, time, etc. - Go!

Friday Music Day

FMD: A Morning Show “bit” that I actually enjoyed

11 Comments

The 89.3 morning show is generally more 'miss' than 'hit,' but sometimes it works. This morning was one of those: on Fridays, they do a "Song War" where each host selects a song and plays a 15-20 second clip of it. Of note, neither host knows ahead of the clip which song the other is queuing up. The audience chooses which one they'd prefer to hear in its entirety and votes via Twitter. This morning, the selections were a bit out of leftfield for The Current.* :

A: Iron Maiden - Run To The Hills

httpv://youtu.be/86URGgqONvA

-OR-

B: Helmet - Unsung

httpv://youtu.be/jBfygUiS50g

*I was stoked and almost pulled over to send a text to cheaptoy. Decided instead to use it for FMD!

Was going to set up a poll, but having never done so before, didn't know how to do it... so, which would be your choice? A or B?

Drop you choice and list below!

BTW, the listeners selected:

Spoiler SelectShow

Friday Music Day

FMD: Music Consumption

50 Comments

On my way to a conference on Monday, I brought along my iPod and the auxiliary cable. I also have Spotify, Pandora and 3-month trial subscription to Apple Music. I only have about 45 songs actually 'on' my phone and I have not taken the leap to download podcasts. I'm not commuting for long enough to hear 1 full episode per sitting and I usually use the limited time in my car to get caught up on news (NPR, KFAN, ESPN, etc.).

The aux cable is about 5 years old and has seen some hard use - the connection was crap: right (passenger side) speakers only. My Rav4 does not have Bluetooth and my data plan is not really big enough to want to do 3+ hours of streaming anyway. I let my satellite radio subscription lapse in 2009. Terrestrial radio between Clear Lake, St. Cloud and points north didn't grab me so I fell back to the old stand-by: CD's!

I had two, 20-disc CD books (containing nothing released more recently than about 2005) in the small holding space in the rear cargo area, in addition to the 6-disc changer holding at the time:
Monolith of Phobos - Claypool Lennon Delirium,
Currents - Tame Impala,
BLURRYFΛCE - Twenty One Pilots,
Plastic Beach - Gorillaz,
Best of the '00's - mixed CD gift from my sister,
-and-
Things I Forgot - Son Little

Having, through repetition, exhausted a desire to listen to any of those already in the player, I stopped for gas and pulled out the CD books. Do you know what caught my eye?

Spoiler SelectShow

I hadn't listened to either in a very, very long time, but I enjoyed them.
If you had an old book of CD's (or tapes/records/etc.) that hadn't received any new music in a decade or two, what do you think you'd find and select for an extended listen?

Also, drop your list.