There were two songs that I’ve been hearing for several months now on the local college indie/alternative station that I always seem to either miss or forget the title and artist of, but I’ve been loath to start threads on message boards asking what they’re called because it seems so inane and pointless.
But I just now got an idea that there would be more meat to the discussion if I left it open-ended for anyone who needs help identifying songs, so go ahead and post whatever is stumping you here if you got any!
First, mine:
#1 - It’s a song that’s not much but a slow beat and electronic pulse with a voice talking over it. The lyrics describe the progression of popular music throughout the decades with the common statement of “I was there. I was there when…” so on and so on. A line that stands out for me is: “I was there when you sold your guitars for turntables. I was there when you sold your turntables back for guitars.”
#2 - This one is harder for me to describe. It consists of basically a background of strings repeating a classical-sounding tune (I wish I knew my musical notes so I could describe it exactly!), with a voice that sounds somewhat like Ben Gibbard from Death Cab for Cutie - but I’m not sure if that’s who it is - singing something about when life is over we’ll see the credits roll and point out the names of all the people we have ever known. Or something like that…
For whatever reason the lyrics to that are very hard to come by… but here’s the best verification I can give that it is LCD Soundsystem you’re referring to:
There are a couple of tracks that I’ve wanted to find for years;
1 I heard it around 1996 so it may be a bit obscure - slow, ambient track with a voice-over by an evangelical preacher (Billy Graham?) talking about the usual bible-related stuff. It was very mellow. (It’s not “Sex On The Streets” by Pizzaman (aka Norman Cook/Fatboy Slim) which also had a preacher’s words set to music - much slower than that one.
2 Denis Leary’s Cocaine routine (“I’d like to do a drug that makes my penis small, makes my nose bleed, makes my heart explode, and sucks all my money out of the bank”) set to a hard-house/techno track. Heard this around 1999.
I have one, but my description is so vague, I never planned to start a thread about it. Since this thread exists (thank you Capt), here goes:
The group singing the song sound a bit like 311, not so much ska-y, but there’s not really one prominent vocalist. The lyrics I can pick out, are similar to this, but I wouldn’t swear, since I’m probably mishearing them. For the chorus, it seems to go:
Under the sun, we found the stones
Under the stones, we found the stars
(H)and? over our water
heh for the last part, I swear it sounds like “water”, and I know it says “over”. The part that sounds so 311-ish to me, is the body of the song. It’s all sung at a fairly fast pace (not as fast as punk), and pretty much in a monotone.
Would this have been something from David Byrne/Brian Eno’s My Life in the Bush of Ghosts? I’m thinking specifically of “The Jezebel Spirit,” but most of the songs could fit your criteria.
Sorry TellMeI’mNotCrazy, that’s not it. I know the under the stones/sun part and finding stars part is right, just maybe not in that order. I’ve tried endless combinations of searching, and haven’t come up with anything close on the results. I figure my best bet, is that someone has heard the song and will recognize my mangling.
There is one that has bugged me ever since I saw the movie Velvet Goldmine. The snippet that they played in the movie was slow electronic music with a (male) English voice saying things like “naughty, naughty” in a bored monotone. Sorry I can’t remember more. It sounded experimental, maybe like glam-era Brian Eno. Anyone know?
Sorry Lisa it’s not that one, but I see what you mean about “Help Me Somebody” - it’s got the preacher’s voice-over but I think the one I’m looking for was released around 1996 (I should have made that clearer :o ).
It could be classified as “chill-out” music, possibly slightly “trip-hop”? It was quite hypnotic, very similar to sounds that The Orb used to do, if anyone’s familiar with them?
Thanks for the suggestion though Lisa - I’m intrigued by that Byrne/Eno album and it’s now on my shopping list!
#1 was a video, on M2, some time between 1997 and 1999. A plus-size black woman in a kitchen sings about her husband having an affair. The chorus names several women she hopes it could be, but anyone but…her husband’s male best friend. I think the friend’s name is Bill, but I could be wrong.
#2 an mp3 I um, found lying in the street, is misidentified as being “Again” by Jeremiah Freed, who is a local band you’ve probably never ever heard of despite their having been signed to a major label a while ago. While the song does sound vaguely like them, it’s not on the album if it’s theirs, so I’m inclined to think it’s not (although it does have a “live” sound too it so it’s vaguely possible it’s a non-album track. But of the same name as one of their biggest singles?) The lyrics to the chorus
" As I fall my arms strech out-
for you
Starting to feel like it’s
All my fault
Again"
I really, really want to know who this is, because I’d buy the cd just for a cleaned up version of this one song. My fear, however, is that it’s another local band, so no one will know it
It was used on FOX a lot a few seasons ago in their commercials, so I only know the part I’ve heard. And it doesn’t have any lyrics, makin’ it that much higher.
I remember it best from some of the commercials for “The Lone Gunmen”, the very short-lived X-files spinoff, although I don’t know if it was actually in the show or not.
It’s a kinda deep bass beat with a guitar, and to embarress myself even further, I will attempt to type out my attempt to hum what I remember of it.
“Bada bada, bada bada, bada bada, bada bada
Bada bada, bada bada, bada bada, bada bada
Bada bada, bada bada, bada bada, bada bada
doom de-dum da doo-da-doo.”
I heard this around '86 or '87. and while the tape I heard it on was mostly rap it was someone’s own, so it may have just been something they threw on from a movie. But it sounded like the intro to a song.
Someone is saying “Get the gun!” and someone else was saying “Gimme five dollars”. In the background, I’m pretty sure a bit of “Pomp & Circumstance” was playing.
