Components of "I'm the Man" by Anthrax

"I'm the Man" is one of my current audio obsessions. It is often blamed for creating rap-metal, but whereas most of those bands seem to take themselves too seriously, Anthrax was rather silly.

The track consists of:

--Random samples, including Sam Kinison's trademark scream and the word "not"
--A metal version of "Hava Nagila"
--Ridiculous lyrics which are basically about themselves and the song itself
--Someone always getting the last word of the verse wrong
--Someone saying "watch the beat," followed by the chorus, which is faster than the rest of the song
--Said chorus features someone saying "I'm so bad I should be in detention" in a silly high-pitched voice
--Which, in turn, is followed by a sample of some people (the band?) shouting "SHUT! UP!"
--Whoever is running the sampler seems to be quite taken with the thing, because he keeps pressing the same button over and over, resulting in "SHUTSHUTSHUT! UP!"

Unfortunately, due to it being owned by Universal Music, I cannot post it here. Find it yourself.

OH AND. This is one of three songs I know that use the exact phrase "smell my anal vapors." The original is "Golden Showers" by shock-rock band the Mentors, and the third is Frank Zappa's "Porn Wars," which includes samples of the PMRC record labeling hearings (which of course included Zappa's testimony). Someone read the offending lyrics there, which must have been a surreal moment (especially in the context of Zappa's collage).

Composer you are!

The other day, I was on The Napster* looking for Let's Active's "Every Word Means No." All I found was a cover by Smash Mouth (from the second "Friends" soundtrack, apparently). I reluctantly played it. To my surprise, it didn't make me want to strangle someone, which their version of "Why Can't We Be Friends?" certainly did. They did a pretty good version of "Can't Get Enough of You Baby" by the Four Seasons (via ? and the Mysterians). Actually, they were a pretty fun band overall, but "All Star" was the very definition of overkill. That song is more worn out than "Hey Ya" will ever be, and that's saying something. Though whenever I think about "All Star," I get the image of my father dressed up in a PA Dutch (or PA German, more accurately) outfit.

Let's Active was a band fronted by Mitch Easter, who is probably better known for producing all of R.E.M.'s early stuff (Reckoning was his last). They were part of the arbitrary genre of "jangle-pop" along with the dB's, the Feelies, and Guadalcanal Diary (more about them later). "Every Word Means No" is probably their best-known song, and certainly one of the catchiest tunes ever. The band also gets a prize for being one of the few bands named after Engrish, at least of which I am aware (and this was in the early '80s, before it was all collected on one website).

(*I use the term "The Napster" to indicate the current, corporate form of Napster, which Penn State students receive for [mostly] free.)

i was just listening to a 24-hour long rendition of beethoven's ninth symphony. that was long! for my first addition to the world of mp3 blogging, i'm gonna post something fairly atypical, for me: an instrumental. the oranges band are a nice little rock combo with spoon connections, and they had an album back in 2003 called all around that i liked more than whatever spoon album was out at the time. this is the final track, a long instrumental that manages to be droney and surfy at the same time. the first minute and a half is simply a keyboard riff that always reminds me of "auld lang syne." then, as a nice, "nagging" guitar riff and drums slowly fade in, the song finally blossoms into something that was probably in the soundtrack to a lost pete and pete episode. it's a trifle, sure, but it's so dang pleasant.


the oranges band - the trees on my street

What's a minx? It's two minks.

It seems like people need to be cattle prodded into getting anything done. So while the idea and the name of this blog are Dan's, I have taken it upon myself to set the thing up and write the first post, dammit.

As it is 5:30a, I will not put too much thought into this. I will go into iTunes, click "shuffle," click "play," and write about the first five songs that come up.

Gorillaz, "New Genious (Brother)"
Aren't the Tom Tom Club supposed to be "members" of this "band?"

::looks it up::

Well, Tina Weymouth is, anyway. This would explain why "Genious" is spelled the same way as "Genious of Love." Wait.

::looks it up::

Okay, I definitely saw someone spell "Genious of Love" like that. Please tell me I'm not going crazy.

Anyway, yeah, the song belongs on Ultra Chill 3002 or whatever.

The Flaming Lips, "Sunship Balloons"
I have no concept of any of the songs on the "Ego Tripping" EP existing as a separate entity. I just know there's "Assassination of the Sun," then a bunch of other sunshine crap, remixes (grr), and another Christmas song at the end. It's a good EP, though, at least to the best of my memory, which is shot.

I wonder what the next Lips album sounds like.

Beastie Boys, "Flute Loop"
It is indeed a flute loop with the Beastie Boys. There's not really much else involved. Must be why they didn't bother to give it a better name. The Beasties themselves have doomed this one to the part of Hell reserved for filler. Pity, it's a nice loop.

Steve Winwood, "Back in the High Life"
I was three or four when this song came out, so I first knew Steve Winwood from this harmless crap. Thankfully, a two-disc (two-tape, actually) compilation by Island taught me about Traffic and the Spencer Davis Group (among many, many others... Island is one of those "seal of quality" labels).

I seriously think I remember this being used in a beer commercial (High Life, get it) a year or two after the song came out.

Pearl Jam, "Bugs"
I've never actually listened to Vitalogy in full. This track makes me think I should. It consists of accordion, maracas, and Vedder ranting about bugs, the various places they can be found, and what he can do with them. It's ridiculous on every level, and I bet no one expected this. To wit:

Bugs in my pockets
bugs in my shoes
bugs in the way
I feel
about you.

Dan, you'd better get in here soon...