Sunday Songs: Amazing Grace Posted by Rebekah Hakkenberg

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Sunday Songs: Prison Songs by Rebekah Hakkenberg

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Sunday Songs: Eurythmics (I Love To Listen To) by Rebekah Hakkenberg

All of this week's songs are from the 1987 Eurythmics concept album Savage.

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Sunday Songs: Nightmare on My Street by Rebekah Hakkenberg

This is the ultimate Halloween mix.

Follow the link for the tracks listed below, and in the meantime enjoy a couple of old school videos (I tried, but couldn't find a vid for Nightmare On My Street anywhere.)

Found vie the Hairpin, my source for all things awesome, always.

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Sunday Songs: This is the Story of a Hurricane

Sunday Songs: Can Con

Sunday Songs: Ice Cream You Scream We All Scream by Rebekah Hakkenberg

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New Jack Sunday

We watched Mario Van Peeble's 1991 classic New Jack City last night and oh, man... this movie is such a mess, but god damn I love it! Mario Van Peebles sure is pretty, but I'm not totally convinced he knew what he was doing with this film. Now don't get me wrong, it's incredibly entertaining, and about a very important subject: the crack epidemic of the '80s and the drug lords behind it. But. Why is Van Peeble's suddenly holding a baby in that scene on the beach? Why are they on a beach? Why does Ice T suddenly decide to berate Chris Rock's Pookie, the reformed crackhead, after spending months helping him get clean in a bizarre Rocky Balboa-like montage, thus sending him right back to the white rock from which he just broke free? I don't get it. Still, this movie is totally worth it for the soundtrack and fashion and set design alone - Nino Brown's mansion looks like a cross between the U.S.S Enterprise and Dracula's castle. And the Kangol hat that looks like hair! And also, for the scenes when Judd Nelson just hangs out in the background, hoping nobody will notice that his character doesn't actually have anything to do. Ahh, but I digress... the music! I love me some New Jack Swing, the first three video's are from the official soundtrack, the rest are my new jack picks:

Sunday Songs: Get Off Your Aaah and Dance

Well, most of you should have already been dancing your aaah's off last night for Pride, but it doesn't end yet! The parade is this afternoon, so there should still be a lot more dancing to come. If last night left you a little bit worse for the wear, then hopefully these classic boogie and disco tracks will get you back in a dancing mood in no time!


HEATWAVE "BOOGIE NIGHTS"

CHERYL LYNN "GOT TO BE REAL"

DONNA SUMMER "LOVE TO LOVE YOU BABY"

THE JACKSONS "BLAME IT ON THE BOOGIE"

ERUPTION "I CAN'T STAND THE RAIN"

OTTAWAN "D.I.S.C.O"

GLORIA GAYNOR "HONEY BEE"

FOXY "GET OFF"

Sunday Songs: Cars That Go Boom

I still don't know how to drive, but if I did, I'd spend more time blasting these songs from my stereo and less time giving cyclists a hard time. What are your favourite summer jams?

Sunday Songs: The Rapture

I thought it would be wise to post this week's edition of Sunday Songs a day early, you know, just in case...
Hope you're all enjoying the end of the world... Just remember, don't do anything today that you might regret on Judgement Day!

Sunday Songs: Girls and Guitar Fuzz

Sunday Songs: Typhoon

Since embedding is disabled, I'll keep it brief.

1.) Listen to this beautiful song here

2.) Stream the entire album here

3.) Learn more about Typhoon here

Well, what are you waiting for? Get listening!

Sunday Songs: Julianna Barwick, mostly

Julianna Barwick is one of my favourite musicians. And kinda perfect on a rainy Sunday afternoon, dontcha think? I feel like her music is what you would hear in heaven, if heaven was populated by dolphins... or something. I'm also tacking on some Toro y Moi and Braids, just because. Anyways, enjoy your Sunday.

Sunday Songs: Stevie Effing Nicks

This woman is a boss

For the last 6 days, I've had to be up and out of bed at 4:45am in order to work a 13 hour day. This was also the week that Alex and I decided to rent Season 1 of The Wire. Now, you don't just "watch" The Wire, it's not something you can have on in the background while you're making dinner and catching up on your correspondence, no. You have to play constant, vigilant attention in order to keep track of who's who, what's happening, and what the heck they're saying. So yeah, you could say that I haven't had a chance to turn my brain "off" all week, add that to 5 hours of sleep per night, and you might have an idea of how much I was looking forward to going home and crashing last night.

Then, my awesome friend Geoff called me on my break at around 4:30, said he had 2 tickets for Rod Stewart and Stevie Nicks, and he couldn't go. They just happened to be performing just 5 minutes away from where I've been working, and were going on at 7:30, which was exactly when I was done for the week! I may or may not have jumped out of my seat when he said Stevie Nicks. So I convinced my amazing mother (a huge Rod Stewart fan) to drop what she was doing and come with me.

Postponing the end of my week was sooooo worth it, Stevie isn't just the Queen of Rock, she's it's Sorceress. And I'll admit, Rod Stewart is a great performer and showman. His portion of the night was very much a tribute to Motown, with a trio of back-up singers behind him who blew me away. It was a strange, anachronistic combination, but it somehow worked. I'll probably write more about the actual concert when I've caught up on a bit of sleep, but in the meantime I'm just going to play me some Stevie Nicks while I get ready to go to Slut Walk, and reminisce about last night. Enjoy.

Sunday Songs: In the Mood

A friend recently asked his Twitter followers what albums got them feeling hot'n'heavy. That's where the idea for this week's Sunday Songs came from. These are the songs that, ummm, (close your ears, Mom!) do it for me... yeah. I realize they may not have the same effect on everyone, so this list is purely subjective and for entertainment purposes only... enjoy (responsibly).

Get Up- Chk Chk Chk!!!

Rock'n'Roll Fantasy, Pink Mountaintops

Do Me Baby, Prince

Ambulance, TV on the Radio

Emancipation, Moving Units

Feel Like Makin' Love, D'Angelo

I Do What I Want, When I Want, Xiu Xiu

Soon I'll Be Loving You Again, Marvin Gaye

First Breath After A Coma, Explosions in the Sky

Sunday Songs:90s Nostalgia Edition

Full disclosure: The Much Music Dance Mixes of the early 90s were as important to me in my musical development as my very first Kate Bush album, my fan-girl obsession with David Bowie, and the hours I spent in our basement singing aloud (like, really, really loud) to 1)Wild Cherry's Play That Funky Music 2) Debbie Boone's You Light Up My Life, and 3)The Original Canadian Cast recording of The Phantom of The Opera. Yes, I still know every single word to both "Whoomp, There It Is" and to Andrew Lloyd Weber's cheesy 1986 musical.
Anyhoo.
All this reminiscing about the music of my preteen years has led me to this. I'm sorry/You're welcome.

Sunday Songs: Best Original Song Predictions From A Complete Amateur

1."I See The Light" by Alan Menken, for Tangled
I really really love this song. It reminds me of all those gorgeous 90s Disney ballads I grew up with, but sounds fresh and modern, too. It's pretty. Based merely on the fact that it's the only song nominated that I feel like listening to more than once, I think this has a good chance of winning.


2. "We Belong Together" by Randy Newman, for Toy Story 3
Okay, I totally take that back. I could listen to this one over and over, too. It's so upbeat! And catchy! And yeah, Randy Newman's pretty freakin' awesome, too. The critics all seem to think he'll get it this time. And he really deserves a win. I'm kinda split, but still leaning towards "I See The Light".


3. "If I Rise" Dido and A.R Rahman, for 127 Hours
Hmmm, this is a tough one. I like it? But, I don't love it. It's definitely beautiful, the orchestration is lovely, but does it stir anything in me emotionally? I doubt it. It's a fine song, but it just doesn't grab me the way the Menken and Newman songs do.

4. "Coming Home" for Country Strong
Uh, No. I think my ears are bleeding.

What are your predictions? Any ideas on Best Score? I'm stumped. NPR makes an excellent case for How To Train Your Dragon, and I tend to agree that it's the score that should win. But I spent most of my teen years playing "The Downward Spiral" on repeat, so the 14 year old fangirl in me is hoping to see Trent Reznor win for The Social Network tonight. A.R Rahman did a fine job on 127 Hours, and Hans Zimmer's score for Inception made quite the impact on the YouTube crowd, but The King's Speech seems to be the safe pick in every category in which it was nominated. Any thoughts?

Sunday Songs - Sunday Morning Come Down

So technically, I'm not actually hungover anymore, that was for Saturday. But today, I have the dreaded hangover hangover, where the rolling nausea is replaced with ravenous hunger, and I still haven't regained my strength enough to go foraging for food. And so I stay under the covers and play Johnny Cash, waiting for my imaginary saviour to bring me breakfast in bed.

Sunday Songs - RIP Gladys Horton 1945-2011

Gladys Horton was the original lead singer and co-founder of The Marvelettes, the pioneering girl group who gave Motown it's first #1 Billboard pop hit in 1961 with the single "Please Mr. Postman." The Marvelettes were instrumental in putting Motown on the map, paving the way for all-female vocal groups like The Supremes, The Ronettes, and Martha and the Vandellas. Horton passed away earlier this week at the age of 65 (not 66, as some sources have reported) from complications due to a stroke she suffered last year. In honour of this marvellous Marvelette, this week's sunday song's is dedicated to Gladys Horton and her sassy, upbeat vocals.