Alice Cooper: Welcome to My Nightmare

I don't love Halloween, but I do love someone who clearly would be into it:

Weird Al - Radio, Radio

This is for one of my clients, who brought up Weird Al Yankovic this morning.

When something goes wrong at a Weird Al show - server crash for the special effects, messed up lighting, whatever - they play a straight-up cover of "Radio Radio" Elvis Costello & the Attractions.

Here is a pretty good one:


You can skip ahead to Radio Radio, if you prefer.

The Reverend Horton Heat - Let Me Teach You How to Eat

One of the best live bands I've ever seen are The Reverend Horton Heat.

This song is from a recent album. It's got a racy video, double-entendre lyrics, and a smoking rockabilly beat.



If you ever get a chance to see them, take it. They really wail live.

Metric - Help I'm Alive

I had this song stuck in my head this morning:



This song reminds me of all the things I enjoy about The Breeders, yet slightly twisted off to the side.

Rob Zombie - Dragula

When White Zombie came along, they were a revelation. They felt like a big change from what came before, with songs like Thunder Kiss 65 and Black Sunshine.

My favorite might actually be a Rob Zombie solo song, "Dragula." Great workout song, save it for your top working set.

The Modern Lovers - Roadrunner

I've mentioned before that a co-worker got me into a lot of music, mostly by introducing me to bands I'd heard of but not heard. But also some bands I'd never heard of nor heard.

One of the was The Modern Lovers. I'd heard a snippet of the Sex Pistols partial cover of Roadrunner, but not the original.

So I got to borrow the original Modern Lovers album. Here is Roadrunner, the first track:



The whole album is good. Two of the band members went on to much larger bands - Jerry Harrison took his keyboard skills to Talking Heads, and David Robinson co-founded The Cars.

Jonathan Richman went on to learn Spanish and sing quirky but amazing songs about vampires and girls and ice cream and dancing, some in English and some in Spanish. Also, he's the singer that has a very prominent role in There's Something About Mary, alongside his drummer Tommy Larkins. I remember watching that with a friend, hearing his voice and saying, "Hey, that's Jonathan Richman. HEY THERE HE IS!" as the camera pans across him at the opening.

I saw those two - Jonathan Richman and Tommy Larkins - at The Court Tavern in New Brunswick, NJ, years back. It was a great show, and it's a very small setting. As soon as the show ended, Jonathan was just standing there directly in front of me. So I stuck out my hand and said, "Great show, Jonathan." He shook my hand and said, "Thanks!"

Great venue, great show. And Jonathan Richman is rock-and-roll to his very soul. If you get a chance, go see him live.

Alice Cooper - School's Out

Probably my favorite Alice Cooper song is "School's Out."

These lines get funnier every time I hear it.

"And we've got no class,
and we've got no principles,
and we've got no innocence,
we can't even think of a word that rhymes!"

It's just perfect.



and why not, here he is on The Muppet Show:



I remember seeing that on TV. Loved the show.