2022 earworm advent calendar - days 13-21

Well, this isn't going as well as one would hope.

To be honest, we've been struck down as a family by illness in the last week, and I've been working desperately to to clear my plate. 

And now that my plate is clear I have hit a wall. Cue one night of insomnia and now I feel like utter crap.

Here are the sporadic notes from the last week of earworms. 

 

Day 13-15?

David Guetta feat Sia - "Titanium" / Pavement - "Harness Your Hopes" / Roy Orbison - "Oh, Pretty Woman"

"Titanium" is a song that Little Ms. D is learning how to play in her guitar lessons. Pleasant enough but a classic "full of sound and fury, signifying nothing"-type song.

I've written about my (initially reluctant) love for Pavement before. And, even though they might be in my top 3 bands of all time, I resisted the lure of this track for ages.

Why?

Because this has become the band's most played song on Spotify. Not because it's particularly good or innovative. But because it fits the algorithm for a particular type of American college guitar pop. So when people are playing something of that ouvre, this is the song that Spotify spits out.

One of my nephews first brought it to my attention as their favourite Pavement songs a couple of years ago. And now Little Ms. D as discovered it through them.

It's a good song. It doesn't rock my world but it's nice to sing along to in the car.

"Oh, Pretty Woman" popped into my head when I was making a sandwich. The filling was Vegan "Chicken".

Make our own version and be plagued by images of Vegan Chicken walking down the street.

 

Day ?

Vampire Weekend - "Holiday"

Another of my daughter's current favourites. From their seldom-played second album, "Contra".

It's a good song.

Are you picking up that our daughter controls the music in the car? One of her current obsessions is the 'Hatful Of Hollow' version of The Smiths' "Still Ill".

One of my all-time favourites, but I wish she wouldn't kill it with repeat plays. 

Yes, we indulge her. But she is awesome.

 

Day ?

Mary Margaret O'Hara - "When You Know Why You're Happy"

 

The only 'proper' album by Mary Margaret O'Hara - 1988s "Miss America" - is one of the best albums ever made. FACT.

Well, it's one of my favourites, anyway.

Mary Margaret is the sister of Catherine O'Hara - y'know, the awesome actress from Beetlejuice, numerous Christopher Guest films, and who played the incredible Moira from Schitt's Creek that you watched during the first lockdown.

This is a frequent earworm but it was perhaps inspired here by the fact that the opening bass line has a slight whiff of Seinfeld, which we've been rewatching recently.

"You move much better than you know, not just some jerky to-and-fro"

 

Day 21 - I know it was because it was this morning!

FULL DISCLOSURE: some of these might have been playing in my insomniac head.

Weezer - "Across The Sea" / The Smiths - "The Headmaster Ritual" / Johnny Cash - "A Thing Called Love"

I'm trying to keep Weezer's icky second album from my daughter. Let's dissect:

1. Oft-referenced obsession with Japanese and half-Japanese female fans (the one in this song is 18)
2. The album is called "Pinkerton" - Pinkerton is the name of the US naval officer who marries 15-year-old Cio-Cio-San in Madama Butterfly. After their marriage he returns to America and Cio-Cio-San waits for his return, having had his child. When Pinkerton eventually comes back with his American wife, it is only because they have decided to raise the child in the US. Pinkerton refuses to see Cio-Cio-San, and she kills herself.

So it make me a little uncomfortable. From Wikipedia:

Pinkerton is named after the character BF Pinkerton from Madama Butterfly, who marries and then abandons a Japanese woman named Butterfly. Calling him an "asshole American sailor similar to a touring rock star", [Weezer songwriter Rivers] Cuomo felt the character was "the perfect symbol for the part of myself that I am trying to come to terms with on this album".

Am I being too hard on it?

"The Headmaster Ritual" is a Smiths song that I haven't managed to play for my daughter. It's obviously a belter.

Oh yes, FYI Little Miss D. is well aware of the fact that Morrissey is now a loser. She's cool with cognitive dissonance.

And absolutely no idea where that Johnny Cash song came from. The mind is a terrible thing to taste, no?

2022 earworm advent calendar - days 2-12

Yeah, I know, I know. This is harder than it looks y'know...

Day 2

ABBA - "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (a man after midnight)"

 

Not my favourite track by the evil Swedish pop geniuses. However, it is the basis of a horribly weak joke that I made up and sent in to the Adam Buxton podcast for inclusion on the annual Adam and Joe Christmas Podcast 2022. Fingers crossed!

Day 3

Hideous mental mash-up of Weezer's "Beverly Hills" and "Teenage Dirtbag" by Wheatus

This is particularly heinous because they're effectively the same song.

Weezer's first "Blue" album was the soundtrack to my final year at University. Played it every morning without fail. Little Ms. D has recently got into it, but I advised her not to go any further into their back catalogue.

A friend made her a playlist of what he considers to be their better post-blue moments. When Little Ms. D heard this she christened it "Disney Rock." 

The apple doesn't fall too far from the tree, does it?

"Teenage Dirtbag" is just pure dreck.

Day 4

Radio silence

 

Day 5

A MEGAMIX of "Christmas Everyday" by Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, "Jimmy James" by Beastie Boys, and "You're the One For Me" by Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers

The first actual Christmas song of the season. This one by Smokey Robinson and friends has been getting played a lot in our house.

The Beastie Boys are always in heavy-rotation - the album this is from, "Check Your Head", is an all-time Top-10er. RIP MCA.

Look I'm not going to band on [too much] about how much I love Jonathan Richman. Again.

The album this is from - "Jonathan Sings" is a really odd song, as it features really professional and well-recorded musicianship. I got this primarily for "Not Yet Three, to soundtrack a mushy video compilation of Little Ms. D at a time when she was not yet three. 

Day 6

The Aislers Set - "Cold Christmas"

A re-entry, from the last time I did this, when it appeared on Day 18.

I still know nothing about this band but it's a belter and livens up any Christmas playlist.

 

Day 7

"Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" by Brenda Lee into "O Paul" by Palace Brothers

 

Two Christmas Country poppets. Brenda Lee has obviously been played in our house but that first Palace Brothers is as unseasonal as they come. No idea where that came from but we LOVED that album when it first came out.

PS nobody mention the Mel (Smith) & Kim (Wilde) version of "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree", ok?

Day 8

"Ain't No Mountain High Enough" - Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell

No words required. Just immaculate.

Day 9

Richard Dawson - "The Hermit"

At 41 minutes long, ordinarily this song alone would count as the best album of the year.

Thankfully the rest of "The Ruby Cord" is also brilliant. 

My wife and daughter refuse to let me play it so here it is for you.

Day 10

Kendrick Lamar - "King Kunta"

From the best album of the 21st Century, "To Pimp A Butterfly". Not my favourite track so I've got no idea why the phrase that I heard upon waking up was "You goat-mouthed mammy f**ker".

Day 11

Deerhoof - "Witchery Glamour Spell"

I hadn't slept that well so - even though I love Deerhoof more than anything - this is further proof that my brain is an arsehole.

Day 12

Radio silence so here is what is officially my current favourite Christmas song.

Connie Francis – "I'm Gonna Be Warm This Winter" 

2022 earworm advent calendar - day 1

For reasons best known to myself (forcing myself to write something, anything), I've decided to do another earworm advent calendar this year. 

The rules

Every morning I'll open up a door in my advent calendar (wake up) and look at the picture (make a note of the song that is playing in my head.) 

This one's fairly obvious.

There've been a number of rock deaths this year but not really of the sort of deaths that send me sobbing to my bed (David's Bowie and Berman, I'm looking at you.)

Case in point: when I heard about Wilko Johnson's death, it was definitely more of a "aww, that's a shame" kind of thing. Sad, obviously, but I'm sure even he'd agree that his last years were nothing short of miraculous. 

After being diagosed with terminal pancreatic cancer in 2012, he went on a farewell tour and released what was assumed to be his final album. Two years later, an operation to remove a 3kg tumour left him cancer-free, buying him an extra ten years. Crazy. 

I don't own any Dr. Feelgood albums but their amphetamine-fuelled take on early tock and R&B was clearly a huge part of what would become Punk. Part of the what was called the British 'pub rock' scene (patronising, much?), theirs was a kind-of back-to-basics reaction to the prog rock excesses of the mid-70s. 

There were many tributes to Wilko after his recent death, but this video shared by Steve Albini on Twitter was my favourite. 

This is down to the fact that Wilko is playing lead and rhythm guitar at the same time. And he's getting such a precise percussive sound playing just with his fingers. 

Also the fact that lead singer Lee Brilleaux is so obviously "chemically stimulated" that he appears to be - to paraphrase Steve Albini's tweet - chewing his teeth to dust.

Happy Christmas, one and all!

the advent calendar of earworms days 18-24

Day 18

The Aislers Set "Cold Christmas"

A new (although it's fairly old) addition to our Christmas playlist (over 19 hours and going strong). A rather tasty bit of American indie pop. I know nothing about this band.

Day 19

Dead air.

Day 20

Tom Waits "Day After Tomorrow" 

I like to either listen to podcasts or music on my phone while I do the washing up. This was the first song to come up on shuffle today and it damn near broke me. 

I love Tom Waits more than I can possibly say and this is one of the most perfect anti-war songs you'll ever hear. 

Taken from his "challenging" junkyard human-beatbox album Real Gone. It's one of my favourites now but I wasn't keen when it first came out. I got it on vinyl a couple of Christmases ago and for some reason it makes more sense - really bluesy and groovy.

Day 21

Here Come the Double Deckers! theme ("Get On Board")

My brain! 

Here Come the Double Deckers! Was a British children's TV series which revolved around the adventures of seven children whose den was an old red double-decker London bus in a scrap yard. Obviously. 

Another bit of music which plagues my brain, despite the fact that the show aired a few years before I was born. It must have been on repeat for a long time because I had a recording of this theme from when I was at college and making mixtapes for friends. 

Day 22

A-ha "Take on Me" and Guided By Voices "Game of Pricks"

Inexplicable mashup. "Take On Me" is obviously a banger - if you need to dance like you're in the 80s, just make sure you hit the 2nd and 4th beats (the snare beat). If you need to make it more 90s, go for the 1s and 3s. However, regardless of the era, NEVER clap on 1 and 3 - the scourge of TV talent show audiences everywhere. 

There are at least two different versions of "Game of Pricks" but this is my favourite. The other is on Alien Lanes, one of the many albums I purchased this summer. 

Day 23

Franco Godi - "Mr Rossi" theme (aka Viva Happiness)

This is a song that gets heavy rotation in my brain. I don't know why but I find myself singing it at random times. It's a great song.

Mr Rossi was on British TV in the mid-to-late 80s (I think). Episodes usually involved Mr Rossi going on a random adventure with his soppy dog Harold.

Day 24

Talking Heads "Once in a Lifetime"

Prompted by me saying "My God!" this morning. This dystopian mid-life crisis was not quite the positive end to this series that I was expecting. And yet, it somehow seems all too fitting for 2020, which can absolutely get in the bin. 

Have a great festive break, stay safe and I'll be back with more void-yodelling in the New Year. 

the advent calendar of earworms days 9-17

Day 9

Cliff & The Young Ones "Living Doll"

Mostly the "I feel sorry for the elephants line".

Day 10

Nick Drake "Poor Boy" into the theme to Top Cat into the theme to Chorlton and the Wheelies

An audio representation of why my brain is a twat. We bought a new hoover recently and the box is in our hallway. Written on it are the words "small ball", which is why I then had that repeating in my head in a budget gospel style a la Nick Drake.

This then reminded me of a microwavable neck wrap we have. The box says "luxury heatable hot wrap" and I recently amused myself no end by singing that to the theme from Top Cat ("Hot wrap! Luxury heatable hot wrap").

For some reason this sent me along various mental side roads, eventually leading me to remember the first time I ever experienced YouTube. I was at work and we immediately used this amazing technological resource to look for old TV theme tunes. Notably this 1970s classic.

Like I said, my brain is a twat.

Day 11

Del Shannon "Runaway" and The Smiths "William, It Was Really Nothing"

Inexplicable mash-up #5012

"Runaway" is one of Little Ms D's favourite songs (I blame my parents). And I've spoken before about my love of The Smiths. 

Morrissey may well be a racist bell-end - but what a song!

Day 12

Dionne Warwick - various songs

Obviously prompted by the fact that the night before we'd watched a compilation of her performances at the BBC. I've never really considered her before but this programme taught me a couple of things.

• One - a lot of her songs are stone-cold classics
• Two - her voice was fantastic

Day 13

Jonathan Richman "I Was Dancing In The Lesbian Bar"

I make no apologies for talking about Jonathan Richman again.

I read recently that the reason why Jojo is so punk rock is because he uses embarrassment as his main weapon - not his own, but the audiences. He basically feels no shame, which is the reason he can do ridiculous performances such as the one below. Is the audience laughing at him? 

Or are they embarrassed by the fact that they will never be as unselfconscious?

It's like something I once read about dance. As anyone who has kids will attest, if any child (from babies and up) hears a song, they just start moving. Then as we grow we're taught not to dance in this natural way. And then as we grow, we need do be taught how to dance all over again.

I haven't used the "cosmic insight (man)" tag for a while!

Day 14

Dean Martin "Let It Snow", Led Zeppelin "Immigrant Song"

An actual, proper Christmas song! And it only took 14 days.

The start of "Immigrant Song" is a fairly regular ear worm around these parts, along with a visual memory of Jack Black singing along with it in "School of Rock".

Day 15

Pavement "Grounded"

A track from my favourite Pavement album, but not a song I've played in ages. Is this the start of Stephen Malkmus trying to transition himself into rock-guitar-god status?

Day 16

Cat Stevens "Can't Keep It In"

The sound of driving around in our first family car to have a tape deck. Cat Stevens was my dad's favourite so I can clearly hear him singing along with Cat's overly-earnest vocal delivery.

Because my dad no longer has a turntable I've now taken ownership of his two albums.

Day 17

Fleetwood Mac "Brown Eyes"

From Tusk, Fleetwood Mac's follow-up to the omnipresent uber-selling Rumours. It was always regarded as a commercial failure, because it "only" sold 4million copies. 

Imagine a record label nowadays being upset by sales of 4million!

I first heard this album during a relapse - I was burning through books so Mrs D went the library and got me the 33 1/3 book about the album. It was just fascinating to read about the bed-hopping bolivia-inhaling madness behind its creation. Especially the creative tensions between the floaty-headscarf-wearing songs of Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie, in comparison to the new-wave leanings of Lindsey Buckingham.

As noted above, my brain is a twat, hence why this morning's ear worm is a Christine McVie song, not one of the cooler songs.

Still, it's a great album - and so is the remake by American alt-rock legends Camper Van Beethoven. So here's a compare and contrast playlist I made of both versions!

the advent calendar of earworms days 1-8

Day 1

Rufus Wainwright "Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk"
Rufus Wainwright is one of the many artists who has been providing free live performances this year, with his Quarantunes / Robe Recitals series in the first lockdown. I hadn't listened to him for a few years but some of those solo home performances really blew me away. 

And it looks as though he's starting them up again. So COVID has done at least one good thing. 

Rufus was responsible for my first ever sit-down gig, at Nottingham's Royal Concert Hall sometime in either 2004 or 2005. 

Day 2

Pavement "Painted Soldiers"
Not wanting to overburden the legacy of an obscure band with Beatles references, but Stephen Malkmus was clearly the creative driver of Pavement - the Lennon AND McCartney, if you will. 

Which means that Spiral Stairs aka Scott Kannberg was the George Harrison. Perennially overlooked, his songs were at first just tuneful, route-one, and throwaway. But gradually he stared to hit a rich seam of classic guitar pop. And this song is an absolute belter. Great video, too. 

Nevertheless, it was chucked onto the soundtrack of an obscure film. 

Once Pavement split up, Spiral Stairs released a solo double album under the name The Preston School of Industry (named after an unused song he wrote for Pavement). The name of this album - "All This Sounds Gas" - is uncannily similar time the name of George Harrison's first post-beatles release, the triple-album "All Things Must Pass". 

Day 3

Silence. I could make up something achingly cool and obscure but no. 

Day 4 

A hellish mash-up of Fleet Foxes "White Winter Hymnal" and "Don't Let Me Down, Gently" by The Wonder Stuff 

I like Fleet Foxes but not this song particularly, which has become an accidental Christmas tune. I've always REALLY hated The Wonder Stuff so I can only assume that my brain was angry at me for the previous day's silence. 

Try to imagine it. Like, really try. It's AWFUL. 

Day 5

David Bowie "Star"
From "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars", of course. One of those songs where you can't quite remember it but then you hear it (in your brain) and you remember how amazing it is. 

It's fairly well accepted that everything has been shit since David Bowie died in 2016, right? 

"Just watch me now"

Day 6

More silence. Or at least I can't remember any earworms. And I respect you too much to make this up. 

Day 7

Kurtis Blow "The Breaks"

Clap your hands, everybody

If you got what it takes

'Cause I'm Kurtis Blow and I want you to know

That these are the breaks

Fairly late-in-the-day entry for a song which crops up regularly when shuffling on my internal iPod. Featuring a great example of that early hip hop sing-song vocal cadence. 

Day 8

De La Soul "Ring Ring Ring (Ha Ha Hey)"
I didn't really get De La Soul's second album, "De La Soul Is Dead" at the time. I LOVED "3 Feet High and Rising" and I guess I just wanted more of the same, not three guys grumpily dismantling their success.

Plus there are WAY TOO MANY skits on it.

But I went away to university with a tape (!) of a skit-less version of the album and over the years it has become the album of theirs which I play the most. Yes, it's dark and grumpy. Maybe we're all a little dark and grumpy, no?

I saw them play live in Nottingham a couple of years ago. It was like a foul-mouthed pantomime, with the audience being split into sides in a singing competition. Brilliant.

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Join me again next time to see if I can follow through with this ridiculous conceit! Will I make it? Tune in to find out!