As has become customary here is the annual Valentine’s Day post featuring some of my favourite love themed songs. Whether you have been in a relationship for a long time or have just found a special someone stick these on for 15 minutes or so today.
Bright Eyes’ ‘The First Day Of Our Life‘
Conor Oberst delivers near enough the perfect love song managing to be heartfelt and honest without sounding contrived. My friend described it as ‘one of those songs that if you’d want in the soundtrack to your life if there was one‘. I couldnt put it better myself.
Band Of Horses – ‘No One’s Gonna Love You‘
Back in the summer Cee Lo Green‘s delivered his imperious take of ‘No One’s Gonna Love You‘ but for Valentine’s Day I feel the original is perhaps more appropriate for this day. Band Of Horses‘ wide-eyed declaration of affection shoots unashamedly for the heart and should warm even the biggest cynic.
Beck – ‘Everybody’s Got To Learn Sometimes‘
Having featured not one but two Michel Gondry helmed videos this weekend it is quite fitting that the final selection is a track taken from the soundtrack of his ‘Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind‘ masterpiece. The truth is I have been planning to use this song for a while; Beck‘s splendid interpretation of The Korgis ‘Everybody’s Got To Learn Sometimes‘ is guaranteed to give you goosebumps.
In what has become a bit of a ritual a group of friends and I catch up every year for Super Bowl Sunday as we habitually fall asleep before the game ends at 4am London time.
This year was no different and as we crammed into a South London flat to watch the Pittsburgh Steelers take on the Green Bay Packers it became clear that this was to become a bizarre tribute to Americana . Cue Sam Adams beers, Tex-Mex and much posturing.
It is my understanding that jobs in marketing are made on the back of these Super Bowl commercials and some of the ones we caught were pretty special. Which is more than can be said for the Black Eyed Peas whose performance was truly shocking.
Growing up in Italy I was frequently subjected to some dodgy techno version of a popular charting track so that it was not uncommon to hear Joan Osborne’s ‘One Of Us’ augmented by a symphony of tuts-tuts.
However, I was astonished to hear BEP rape and pillage ‘(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life’ from the 1987 film Dirty Dancing. What happened to the vaguely social conscious effort of ‘Where Is The Love?’. I’m not even snobbish so give me the smooth pop of ‘Shut Up’. Fuck it, I’d even rather listen to the upbeat exuberance of ‘Let’s Get Retarded’.
I thought the band succeeded in releasing the worst song ever committed to record back with ‘My Humps’ but my god does ‘The Time’ give it a run for its money…
A few months ago we ran a competition giving Cougar Microbes readers a free copy of TuneUp to fix their music collection.
We asked the question: If you could rearrange/fix/change any musical moment that has happened in history what would it be?
This was the outstanding in our books by a guy called Blue:
1. Light Aircrafts
Ban them. They took Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, country star Patsy Cline, John Denver, Otis Redding, Big Bopper, half of Lynrd Skynryd, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Ozzy guitarist Randy Rhoads, and Aaliyah to name but a handful. No wonder the tour bus is such a popular transportation option.
2. Finding God
Once the Big Guy gets under an artist’s skin the work tends to suffer. Al Green went from making the sexiest music known to man to making gospel albums known to nobody. P.Diddy protege Mase quit hip-hop for the ministry, and when he came back his skills didn’t. The less said about Bob Dylan‘s born-again albums the better, and just picture Jehovah’s Witness Prince proselytizing door-to-door in purple pumps. Esther (née Madonna) caused quite the mishegas by hopping onto Kabbalah’s New-Age-Judaism bandwagon. And Cat Stevens loved Islam so much he named himself after it when he converted, then quit the music business in 1979. Silly rock stars — you’re supposed to be the ones being worshipped!
3. “Colonel” Tom Parker
Before Suge Knight, Lou Pearlman or even AllenKlein came the “Colonel” – inventor of ruinously exploitative rock management. Getting his hooks into Elvis in 1955, the Dutch con man artfully steered the King away from making music and towards the likes of Clambake, Kissin’ Cousins, Kid Galahad, and about 30 other Hollywood forgettables he made instead of recording or touring for most of the next decade.
4. Electric Violins
Say no more
5. Nearly Every Hip-Hop Video
We get it. Your ride is pimped, your crib is a castle, you sip “Cristal” and have a queue of semi-naked hoes lining up to get into your jacuzzi. Congratulations to a generation of hip-hop video directors for making decadence seem so boring.
6. Braided Goatees
Just grow those chin whiskers out a foot, part in the middle, and weave pube-like braids. Tragically, the resulting blood loss to the head severely lowers IQ levels, resulting in guttural vocals and misspelled band names.
TuneUp are currently hosting a holiday sale so click here to get a 20% discount on “the perfect holiday gift for music lovers”
With the development of internet – online music education possibilities have increased. Nowadays you can learn how to play guitar using online resources that come incredibly close to that one on one experience.
Guitar Master Class is an online guitar playing community where you can access all the materials you’ll ever need to master guitar. Open to everyone, they offer lessons ranging from absolute beginner to insane level aimed for highly skilled players straight from the best instructors available. With just one click you’ll be able to learn famous songs, scales and different techniques in a multitude of different genres.
Cougar Microbes is offering 3 lucky readers a full access 6 months GMC memberships (usually worth 150$). All you have to do to enter is answer this simple question in the comments section of this post:
Who, in your opinion, is the greatest guitarist ever and why?
There is no right or wrong answer but the most imaginative/personal replies will be rewarded.
Remember that GMC is, above all, truly live music community which offers fun while learning – its a guitarist’s path from “Zero to Hero“. Good luck, time to START ROCKING NOW!
The Veronicas, Australia’s musical answer to the Olsen Twins, have shot a powerful anti-fur ad for PETA.
Having already made a strong stand in the past Jess and Lisa Origliasso are now depicted holding what looks like skinned rabbit with the slogan “Here’s the Rest of Your Fur Coat“.
There is also a video to accompany the campaign where the sisters further discuss their views.
Kopparberg and VICE Magazine have been hard at work this last couple of months trying to spot the new wave of talented bands, stylists, photographers and filmmakers.
This Wednesday will see the finalists come together for the “Kopparberg Klash Final” at The Queen Of Hoxton for what promises to be a great event. This will be a good chance to see the next big thing to come out of London and I’m sure there will be plenty of cider to go around!
This weekend Cougar Microbes attended ‘People Are Strange‘ at Ideas Generation Gallery. The exhibition showcases images of The Doors taken back in their 60′s and 70′s heyday.
What is wonderful is that the infamous shots that have characterised both the band and Jim Morrison‘s public personas sit side by side with rare images that caught the band relaxed and with their guard down.
Watch this candid interview with Henry Diltz who captured some Of the bands most iconic images and witnessed some of the madness. Additionally, if you have a few thousand pounds lying about you ought to check out the exhibition catalogue where many of the photos on display will be sold.
Idea Generation have done a good deed in bringing these photos to London. Hopefully they have reminding people not only of what a fantastic band The Doors were but also how their images helped define what we now consider rock photography.
The exhibition is on until the 5th of September so make sure you catch it.
For most of us Levi‘s is a name synonymous with blue jeans and a cowboy swagger but it seems the denim kings are keen to weave their way into the music community (yet again).
The results are interesting and its great to see where these recognised acts took their inspiration from. Check out their website to get all these ace tracks and check out for the weekly updates.
to feature an array of amazing releases and artists (past, present, old and new) with the goal of promoting them to anyone interested and anyone who stumbles across this site.
If you like any of the tracks, please go buy the albums and help finance the artists producing this great music.
If there are any issues with the tracks featured do not hesitate to contact: "team (AT) Cougar Microbes (DOT) com and we will happily oblige.
As has become customary here is the annual Valentine’s Day post featuring some of my favourite love themed songs. Whether you have been in a relationship for a long time or have just found a special someone stick these on for 15 minutes or so today.
