Dave Ball Pick

Like most people I knew of Dave Ball from the band Soft Cell. He was the seemingly quiet boy behind Marc Almond. But he was and is an instrumentalist, producer, engineer, etc. Seems to be pretty much everything behind the voice. Besides Soft Cell, he has solo albums, was half the band of Other People, English Boy On The Lover Ranch, The Grid, M.E.S.H., Nitewreckage and a guest star with several other bands. I picked a few of my favorites. Including a single with Marc Almond (see tomorrow) that he worked on. I like The Ornamental track, one of two they did. But the only one with Dave Ball on all instruments. The band also includes Rose McDowall and members of the Sugarcubes (Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson and trumpet by Einar Örn). Kinda cool. Always liked the Sugarcubes, someday I will have to do a family pick for them. Lots of similarities in the cover over the next couple of days.

Dave Ball Pick

01 Marc Almond - Waifs And Strays (The Grid Mix)

02 Dave Ball - Man In The Man

03 Cabaret Voltaire - Crackdown

04 Psychic TV - Papal Breakdance

05 Dave Ball + Genesis - Muzak For Frogs

06 Soft Cell - ...So

07 Ornamental - No Pain

08 English Boy On The Loveranch - The Man In Your Life

09 Ronnie B - Prisoner of Rio (Remix)

10 M.E.S.H. - Meet Every Situation Head On

11 Psychic TV - Money for E (Remix by Dave Ball)

12 Other People (Dave Ball) - Have a Nice Day

13 The Grid - Swamp Thing (Radio Mix)

14 The Grid - Texas Cowboys

15 Nitewreckage - Solarcoaster

Am I The Only One Who Loves These?

This pick is of songs that I really like and no one else I know even likes them at all. So the question is Am I The Only One Who Loves These? Wide variety and some are even of artists that people like their tracks, but usually not this one. A few of the bands I could have picked several different songs that I like but people seem to hate. Throbbing Gristle comes to mind. Yoko Ono, too. I don't get it with Yoko, either, She's got some killer tracks. Lou Reed has plnety of tracks people love (or hate) but this one seems to always come to the top of the list. And I love it! I have several versions of it. Frank Zappa has some very loved tracks, but not this one (or Porn Wars that I almost put on instead). Anyway, are you joining the haters or the lovers here? Let me know. Thunbs up or down? Which ones do you love? If any. BTW, kinda longer than I usually put up, but some of the songs are really long.

Am I The Only One Who Loves These?

01 Man Jumping - The Perils Of Tourism

02 Shonen Knife - Mosquitoes

03 Reptile - Allah

04 Negativland - Perfect Scrambled Eggs

05 Cliff Martinez - Looks Like A Tablecloth

06 Yoko Ono-IMA - I'm Dying

07 Lou Reed - Metal Machine Music, Part I

08 Frank Zappa - Welcome to the United States

09 Neil Young & Crazy Horse - T-Bone

10 The Jazz Butcher - Do The Bubonic Plague

11 The Residents - Diskomo

12 Throbbing Gristle - Very Friendly

13 Mandre - Solar Flight

14 Cupol - Like This For Ages

15 Rema-Rema - Feedback Song

Two Catchy

This is part two of the Catchy songs picks. That's why I called it Two Catchy. Hahaha. I think I am funny and must think I am clever. Too clever for my own good. Yesterday gove you the background of putting it together. None of that today. But the same thing applies. These are all songs that are so catchy that you will hate them (while you love them). You can't help it. It covers several years worth of these songs, 60's, 70's, 80's etc. Just shows you that these earworms have been around forever and never will go away. I have another volume I am working on, but it's not done yet, so I am taking suggestions.

Two Catchy

01 The Kaiser Chiefs - Ruby

02 Wheatus - Teenage Dirtbag

03 Macklemore & Ryan Lewis featuring Wanz - Thrift Shop

04 Sum 41 - Fat Lip

05 One Direction - Heart Attack

06 Trashmen - Surfin' Bird

07 Men Without Hats - The Safety Dance

08 Kelis - Milkshake

09 Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars - Uptown Funk

10 Rose Royce - Car Wash

11 Lady Gaga - Bad Romance

12 Carly Rae Jepsen - Call Me Maybe

13 Robin Thicke featuring T.I. & Pharrel - Blurred Lines

14 Right Said Fred - I'm Too Sexy

15 Bon Jovi - Livin' On A Prayer

16 Village People - Y.M.C.A.

17 Blur - Song 2

18 Zac Brown Band - Toes

19 Pikotaro - PPAP (Pen Pineapple Apple Pen) (Long Version)

20 The Automatic - Monster

21 Taylor Swift - I Knew You Were Trouble

22 Avril Lavigne - Girlfriend

Too Catchy

Here is a pick of songs that are Too Catchy (or maybe just catchy enough). These are songs that many people consider ear worms. They get in your head and you can't help but sings along and you have trouble getting them out of your head. Think It's A Small World. Sorry, about that. But you understand. Just listen to any of the songs one here and you might be able to get that one out of your head. And notice, all you had to do was think of the song. You didn't even have to hear it, Your brain already heard it. None of the following are that bad, but a few come close.Like I said before: Sorry.

Too Catchy

01 Cher Lloyd - Want U Back

02 Chumbawamba - Tubthumping

03 Hanson - Mmm Bop

04 Gwen Stefani - Hollaback Girl

05 Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up

06 Aqua - Barbie Girl

07 Bloodhound Gang - The Bad Touch

08 Kylie Minogue - Can't Get You Out Of My Head

09 Carly Rae Jepsen - I Really Like You (CLX Radio Edit)

10 Black Eyed Peas - I Gotta Feeling

11 Eiffel 65 - Blue (Da Ba Dee)

12 Ylvis - The Fox (What Does The Fox Say)

13 Baha Men - Who Let The Dogs Out

14 LMFAO - Sexy And I Know It

15 Katy Perry - I Kissed A Girl

16 O-Zone - Dragostea Din Tei (Original Romanian Version)

17 PSY - Gangnam Style

18 Meghan Trainor - All About That Bass

19 Toni Basil - Mickey

20 Pharrell Williams - Happy

21 Taylor Swift - Shake It Off

Power Pick 2

I told you about this band over the last couple of days. This pick covers more Tower Of Power. Notice that they tend to have songs with Soul in the title. They are probably considered a Soul band, but they also were Disco, Funk, Jazz, Pop. With this pick, I cover most of the rest of the albums (I skipped the all covers one and the live ones). It also covers the other songs that I didn't pick from some of the other albums yesterday. Not sure if any of them are hits or not, or whether they are more popular or not. I just got the ones I liked. So hopefully you like them too. Same cover as yesterday and similar to the one two days ago. All with the Oakland skyline hidden in the lettering.

Power Pick 2

17 Tower Of Power - Down To The Nightclub

18 Tower Of Power - Back On The Streets Again

19 Tower Of Power - Yin-Yang Thang

20 Tower Of Power - Souled Out

21 Tower Of Power - Hangin' With My Baby

22 Tower Of Power - I Like Your Style

23 Tower Of Power - Attitude Dance

24 Tower Of Power - Credit

25 Tower Of Power - Drop It In The Slot

26 Tower Of Power - Spank-A-Dang

27 Tower Of Power - You Ought To Be Havin' Fun

28 Tower Of Power - Ebony Jam

29 Tower Of Power - Give Me Your Love

30 Tower Of Power - Look In My Eyes

31 Tower Of Power - Ain't Nothin' Stoppin' Us Now

32 Tower Of Power - Stroke '75

33 Tower Of Power - Sparkling In The Sand

Power Pick 1

This is my Tower Of Power pick. With TOP they have some hits, but mostly just favorites. They have at least five greatest hits albums and some of these picks are on one or the other of them. A couple are on every one of them. A few ballads that you will know. And I hope you know their biggest most well known song: What Is Hip? but I don't know that most people do. This pick covers most of the Tower Of Power years, but not every album. It also has my favorite song by them: Squib Cakes. They came from Oakland and played everywhere in the Bay Area, California, the US and toured the world, but it still seems they were under appreciated and not as known as they should be. Tomorrow is part 2.

Power Pick 1

01 Tower Of Power - You Got To Funkifize

02 Tower Of Power - So Very Hard To Go

03 Tower Of Power - Don't Change Horses (In The Middle Of A Stream)

04 Tower Of Power - What Is Hip

05 Tower Of Power - Soul Vaccination

06 Tower Of Power - Knock Yourself Out

07 Tower Of Power - We Came To Play

08 Tower Of Power - You're Still A Young Man

09 Tower Of Power - So I Got to Groove

10 Tower Of Power - Walkin' Up Hip Street

11 Tower Of Power - Soul With A Capital S

12 Tower Of Power - Squib Cakes

13 Tower Of Power - A Little Knowledge (Is A Dangerous Thing)

14 Tower Of Power - Only So Much Oil In The Ground

15 Tower Of Power - Diggin' On James Brown

16 Tower Of Power - And You Know It

Power Horns

This is the Tower Of Power Horns who guested on a lot of people's albums. I lived in the Bay Area and when you did, the Tower Of Power was around. They had a few very decent hits, but weren't so big that they wouldn't play a community center or a small niteclub. They were always tight and played their asses off. The Horns got more in demand sometimes than the whole of the band. Hence so many cool tracks here. This pick is only the Power Horns. Notice the Oakland skyline in the title on the cover.

Power Horns

01 Phish - Julius

02 The Simpsons - Born Under A Bad Sign

03 Little Feat - Spanish Moon

04 Bonnie Raitt - Tangled And Dark

05 P Diddy featuring Jack Knight - We Gon' Make It

06 Heart - Tell It Like It Is

07 Lee Oskar - Feeling Happy

08 Toto - Animal

09 War - Mamacita

10 The Meters - No More Okey Doke

11 Fishbone - Let The Good Times Roll

12 Huey Lewis And The News - I Want A New Drug

13 Jefferson Starship - Jane

14 Stevie Nicks - Somebody Stand By Me

15 Elton John - The Bitch Is Back

16 Sammy Hagar - Keep On Rockin'

17 Santana - Everybody's Everything

18 Rod Stewart - Big Bayou

19 Linda Ronstadt with Aaron Neville - When Something Is Wrong With My Baby

20 Jon Anderson - Make Me Happy