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  • The Infatueighties Countdown: #90: “Our House”

    The cover of Madness's "Our House" 45.

    “Our…house…is a veryveryvery fine house!” Don’t you love that song?!!

    PSYCH!! I’m not talking about the crappy TV show with Wilford “Diabeetus” Brimley, Chad Allen and Shannen Doherty (pre-Brenda) either.

    Today’s entry comes from the ska/pop giants from the U.K. called Madness. Admittedly, until very recently (like in the past year recently), I didn’t know much about these fellas except for their association with the two-tone moment (I guess that explains the checkerboard design of a lot of their records…wait, that was The Specials. My bad.) and the fact that their lead singer is named Suggs. Yes, Suggs. Granted, that’s not his real name, but still. Seriously. Who names themselves “Suggs”? What exactly is a “suggs”?

    Anyhow, a year and a copy of Madness’s “Ultimate Collection” later, I’m fond of more than one song by this band and if you’re an Eighties’ music fan, you should probably be too. At the very least, you should be madly in love(like me) with this song, which is absolutely fantastic. From the peppy horns (and tasteful strings) to Suggs’ baritone croak to the awesome opening 45 seconds or so before the vocals kick in (easily one of the decade’s ten best song intros), this is good shit, mister. It’s also a bit atypical of much of Madness’s previous work, with a more pronounced pop/rock sensibility.

    And the chorus! Simple and catchy, folks. You’ve gotta love it! Enjoy!

  • New Music: Fall Out Boy’s “I Don’t Care”

    Yet another dirty little secret that might cause you to question my musical taste: I love Fall Out Boy. I think what snared me first was their videos-these guys obviously don’t take themselves too seriously. Pete Wentz is a very likable character, and Patrick Stump can legitimately carry a tune. They’ve sort of transcended the whole “emo” tag and are a damn fine pop/rock group. Can you hum any Panic! at the Disco tunes? Probably not, but you can sing the fuck out of just about every FOB song.

    They’re releasing a new album called “Folie a Deux” in November, and the rumor is that it’s going to be a “political” album.This scares me. A lot. However, the album’s first single, “I Don’t Care”, is so good that it almost allays my fears about the rest of the album. They threw in everything but the kitchen sink here: stabbing synths, a bone-crunching guitar riff (that sounds like some other song that’s right on the tip of my tongue and will frustrate me to no end until I figure out what song it is), and you’ve gotta love any song with the gang-style chanted choruses. Talk about anthemic.

    Check the song out and let us know what you think, while you ponder whether the two guys in Fall Out Boy who aren’t Pete Wentz or Patrick Stump care about the fact that no one knows or cares who the hell they are.

  • That Guy Who Listens To Psychotic Death XXX? He’s Really a Teddy Bear!

    Some random metalhead kids. Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/jurek_durczak/.

    This morning, I came across a very interesting article on Yahoo. A survey conducted by those lovable, yet crazy Brits has revealed that musical taste can be an indicator of someone’s personality. While the purpose of the survey alone caused me to make the people’s eyebrow like The Rock Dwayne Johnson, I decided to read on, and I gotta admit, it was an interesting read. Here are a few factoids, according to the researchers.

    Our first “uh, doy” moment comes when it’s said that people who listen to rock and rap tend to be more rebellious, while folks who listen to opera are wealthy and well-educated. They probably should have also thrown “gay” in there, but hey…wasn’t my survey (Just in case anyone is offended by that statement, let me just say that for the record, I and three other members of the MHW staff happen to be gay. So suck it).

    Jazz and classical fans are creative with more self-esteem. Well, hey, creative types tend to do lots of drugs, right? Do me a favor. Listen to “Bitches’ Brew”. Then listen to “Bitches’ Brew” after smoking half a pound of weed. I guarantee you’ll enjoy it better after smoking the pot. You’ll probably also want to sit down with a sketch pad and draw out the colors you see in front of you while you are in the process of listening. See? Hallucinations are fun!!

    Indie lovers lack self-esteem and are not very gentle. Considering most indie-exclusive listeners are douchebags who look down their glasses at anyone who listens to and appreciates pop music unironically, I guess that makes sense. We can also flip this and apply it to those annoying backpacker “all commercial hip-hop sucks” types. It certainly makes me feel better about being hassled by those types. You may love Atmosphere, but you also have the self-esteem of a kid who has been picked on his whole life for being a GEEK!! HA!!

    Metal listeners, contrary to public opinion, are gentle and creative. The creative part I knew all the way back in high school, considering the metalheads were usually the most artistic folks in class. It takes talent to be able to draw some of those band logos, man! It’s only recently, now that I’ve started working around metal bands and labels, that I realize how friendly, nice, and generally soft spoken those tattooed, angry-looking people are. Seriously. Guess all that screaming gets the aggression out!!

    You can read the entire article here and you can actually participate in the study yourself (it’s ongoing!!) here. I wonder what they’ll have to say about a 32 year old black guy who listens to New Kids on the Block.