Life of Tunes

Heatley: The Pieces Don’t Fit Anymore

Leslie Duff — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 17:42:50 +0000

I know, I know your thinking where the hell has he been. Perhaps that is my overdeveloped ego talking and it is more likely that you didn’t even notice I was missing. Who know that it would be such an adjustment since the last day of school. My daughter finished school last week and what was supposed to be a more relaxed schedule has been blown up in favor of running around like a chicken with my head cut off. So it’s been a week since I posted. It hasn’t helped that I have been so distracted by the Dany Heatley saga of the Ottawa Senators. Mr. Heatley has requested a trade out of Ottawa and been holding the team hostage ever since with his “no trade” clause. The Ottawa Senators are a passion of mine almost as great as music – almost but not quite. Dany Heatley The Bum. Needless to say my place in the universe has felt askew this past week.

I thought it fitting to make today’s post a love song or rather a song about love lost. Dag nabit I loved you Dany Heatley and now “The Pieces Don’t Fit Anymore.” James Morrison sings the perfect song about how the relationship between the Ottawa Senators and its fans has fared. So much effort on our side and it’s just never enough to make Dany Heatley happy. Please know that there is a single tear slowly felling down my cheek as I write this post today.

I’m just a little bitter – really.

In reality hearing this song today made me laugh for a couple of reasons. First there is the most obvious in the lyrics and tone of the song. Don’t get me wrong, I actually really like this song but the kind of whiny vocals seemed appropriate. The other thing that actually made me laugh out loud is that the front cover of Undiscovered, the album that has this track on it has a close up pensive or even melancholy photo of James Morrison’s on it. It actually kind of looks like a sulking Dany Heatley to me. Am I right? Maybe it’s me.

I have included a live version of the track and posted the original studio version of the song for your listening pleasure as well.

Check out this funny advertisement for Dany Heatley as well!

Enjoy today’s Life of Tunes keeper, The Pieces Don’t Fit Anymore while you burn your #15 Heatley jersey, and pass me the Kleenex.

Here’s To Good Friends!

Leslie Duff — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 03:53:01 +0000

Today was a busy day! I commented to a family member this evening that I am not sure I even listened to any music at all today but music has still been on my mind. Tonight I have been thinking about how lucky I am to have great friends in my life and it got me to thinking about great “friends” songs. One of my favorites ever is Joe Cocker’s version of “A Little Help From My Friends”. So hey you friends out there, this goes out to you!

LISTEN HERE

Enjoy!

Artist: Joe Cocker
Album: A Little Help From My Friends (1969)
Track: A Little Help From My Friends
Website: www.cocker.com

Enjoy!

This is not normal: 16 steps to “Plane”

Leslie Duff — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 19:28:48 +0000

Last night I watched a movie that shall remain nameless for the time being so that I don’t spoil it for anyone. In this movie there was a plane crash. I had a song pop into my head for like a millisecond and then “poof” – gone. It was driving me crazy but I could not think of the name or tune of it no matter how hard I tried.
The movie ended with a scene that reminded me of another movie I saw in the 90’s called Fire In The Sky. This is a pretty good movie which had the desired effect as I recall. My friend and I who saw it were both feeling quite “anxious” as I recall on the drive home.
This reminded me of my family’s 1987 GMC Safari that I was driving that night and how much I loved cranking tunes in that van when I was a teen. I clearly remember blasting 13 Engines, a fun Canadian 90’s band in that van. There is no reason for me thinking of this in particular, it was just a flash.
This first vehicle of my youth reminded me of when I bought my own first car, a 1983 Volvo GLT. Man I loved that car. This morphed into a memory of my friend and I driving at night with the moon roof open in the mountains and singing Comfortably Numb by Pink Floyd at the top of our lungs.
Pink Floyd made me think of when I travelled to Toronto in the late 90’s to see them live with a few friends and what an amazing show that was.
Pondering this trip made me recall a good friend of mine at the time and how I haven’t talked to him in many years now. He had a Renault Alliance, burnt orange or reddish or something if I remember correctly. For some reason this car made me think of Credence Clearwater Revival. I am not even sure if he liked CCR but this was my memory nonetheless.
CCR made me think of another movie that I really enjoyed (for the soundtrack and the scenery) called Indian Summer. This made me start to sing “Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah” by Allan Sherman for some reason. I am pretty sure that this track was in the movie but I am not absolutely certain.
“Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah” made me think of camping when I was a kid.
Camping made me think of the brand of trailer that we had when I was growing up. It was a Travelaire I am pretty sure.
Memories of camping with my family in my childhood made me think of all the great trips we did growing up. This was the first thing that I thought of when I woke up this morning and the train of memories continued from there.
A specific memory of my Dad backing down a narrow mountain road while towing our trailer then popped into my head along with the recollection that this took place somewhere on the east coast.
East coast travel made me think of travel there with my own family in recent years.
This brought about a recollection of a trip where the Lenny Kravitz 5 CD was played over and over again. Great CD!
Traveling, music, east coast, family, driving, singing at the top of your lungs, overplaying great CD’s and a realization that music really is the most prominent part of my memory reminds me of a specific holiday I took with my girls. The soundtrack of this journey included Mr. A-Z by Jason Mraz at great length.
Thinking of this CD made my favorite song from it pop immediately into my head. The title of this song is “Plane”. Great song.
Plane by Jason Mraz is also the song I was trying to remember the name of while I was watching that movie last night. I have been stewing on that for over 8 hours and finally I have my answer. Man my brain is messed up! The good news is that 8 hours later I am no longer obsessed and using 80% brain capacity to try and remember the name of the friggin song that was on my mind during that plane crash scene.

Today’s Life of Tunes keeper is Plane by Jason Mraz. As I mentioned this is my favorite track of the Mr. A-Z CD. I have included the video of a pretty good live version that I stumbled upon. Of course as always I have posted the original studio version of the track as well and you can listen to that below.

LISTEN HERE

Artist: Jason Mraz
Album: Mr. A-Z (2005)
Track: Plane
Website: www.jasonmraz.com

Enjoy!

Life of Tunes Playlist – Listen Live

Leslie Duff — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 14:52:18 +0000

I have had a few requests to post the music from Life of Tunes in a player.

Ask and you shall receive! Check out the new Life of Tunes player from Grooveshark in the right frame. I will be adding more songs in the days ahead and will keep it updated with more songs as we go.

Enjoy!

The Unexplainable Audition

Leslie Duff — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 23:18:26 +0000

I realized a long time ago that I am a sucker for a great pop/rock chorus. A real sucker. When I listen to Warm Me Up by The Audition I catch myself laughing a bit, remembering my head-banging days of the 80’s. As soon as they launch into the guitar solo it’s really etched in stone. It just sounds so…predictable or something. That said I catch myself singing along every time. Warm Me Up off of Champion by The Audition in particular has a few of those key elements that I love in many songs. It’s got some good high energy guitar riffs, some catchy harmonizing vocals, and a lot of layers of music culminating in a little bit of a crescendo. Is a little crescendo even possible?? Throw in those humdrum lyrics a somewhat commonplace vocals and a lack of overall variety to the music of the entire CD and you might wonder why I am even blogging about The Audition.

For some reason I love cranking this song in the car. This one song always leads to another and then another and every time I found I have listened to the entire CD and enjoyed it. With every listen I pick out one or two little unique things that I hadn’t noticed before and for some reason I keep coming back for more. Listen to the original studio track here and watch the video below.

LISTEN HERE

Warm Me Up by The Audition is a Life of Tunes keeper of the unexplainable variety.

Enjoy!

Artist: The Audition
Album: Champion (2008)
Track: Warm Me Up
Website: www.myspace.com/theaudition

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FV7thmQN_rk

Caution: Rush Alert

Leslie Duff — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 20:22:40 +0000

There aren’t too many folks who sit on the fence with Rush. Like many hugely successful bands, people either love them or hate them. I have always been on the side that loves them though I have gone through stretches where I have not listened to them much if at all. Today I was moving some books on my shelf to dust (yes I do that occasionally!) and saw one of my yearbooks from high school. In taking a quick leaf through the tapered pants and big hair I saw a note from one of my friends about how obsessed I was with Neil Peart, the drummer of Rush. While I am biased to drummers often I always thought he was the biggest reason for their success. Neil Peart is an anchor behind the two front men, an amazing lyricist and one of the most talented drummers of all time. In order to avoid hate mail from all of the challengers I am going to move on quickly here, but of course that subject can be debated until the end of time, it’s a personal choice.

This friend was referring to a particular day where a bunch of us were gathered around my encyclopedia sized bright yellow Sony Walkman trying to mimic the high hat beat of Red Sector A. Of course I was the ring leader and challenger. It went without saying that I had been listening to this “tape” to the point of exhaustion. It brought back memories of my feeling a little different from others around music and that frustrating feeling of trying to MAKE others love something as much as you do. “They just don’t understand how awesome this is” is along the lines of what I would have been thinking. A few friends were impressed by the seemingly random pattern of beats that I was referring to but they still kind of looked at me like I was the other glove that Michael Jackson never wore.

So I fully expect that many of you will hear this as just another song, others will relate and enjoy. Many of you I am sure will not even listen to Red Sector A because you think Rush is overrated or you can’t stand Geddy Lee’s hair or voice, or glasses or whatever.

I have included the studio track on Grooveshark as well as a live video. As is often the case the video quality isn’t great so to get the real experience I insist you listen to the original track. Don’t forget to follow along with Mr. Peart on the high hat!

LISTEN HERE

The bottom line is that Red Sector A by Rush is a Life of Tunes keeper. C’mon…don’t you get it???

Artist: Rush
Album: Grace Under Pressure (1984)
Track: Red Sector A
Website: www.rush.com

Hey, Hey Rosetta!

Leslie Duff — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 16:48:58 +0000

I first heard Hey Rosetta! about a year ago. I was literally flipping channels probably looking for the hockey game or something and an episode of Flashpoint was just finishing up. This often happens to me when watching a movie or a TV show; I stopped in my tracks and began immediately to seek out what I was hearing. I remember it well because I really struggled with this one for a while. Trying to find out the details on the same night as the episode can often be a challenge. I am not sure how I ended up finding out who it was but in the end I prevailed and figured out I was hearing Psalm by Hey Rosetta! of their 2008 release Into Your Lungs. There is a musical connection to the show Flashpoint as well starring Hugh Dillon. Hugh Dillon was the lead singer of another high energy Canadian band of the past, The Headstones.

LISTEN TO PSALM HERE

This was one of those CD’s that I immediately fell in love with really enjoying the fullness of sound that the music provides. Once I unwrapped the CD I listened to tracks one and two really enjoying but track three “There’s An Arc” forced me to put on the breaks for a while. I ended up playing this track several times before moving on with the rest of the CD. Since then I have fallen in love with every single track on this fave CD of mine. I found a home made video of There’s An Arc online which I just love and I am sharing with you below. The video does a great job of showing the diversity of instruments and apparent talent that Hey Rosetta! brings to the table. The vocals are spot on, unique and unbelievably pure sounding. You got to love a band that brings a full time violin and cello into the mix as well. Do yourself a favor and listen to the original track below and then move on to the video as well.

LISTEN TO THERE’S AN ARC HERE

I was surprised and happy to found out that Hey Rosetta! is a Canadian band from St. Johns Newfoundland. There’s An Arc from Into Your Lungs is a well deserved Life of Tunes keeper. Buy and listen to this entire CD today.

Artist: Hey Rosetta!
Album: Into Your Lungs (2008)
Track: There’s An Arc
Website: www.heyrosetta.com

Guitar Slapping August Rush

Leslie Duff — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 13:09:12 +0000

I felt like a feel good movie last night so I sat down and watched August Rush again. There is this one scene that I actually gives me goose bumps, I am not even sure why. Any way it’s a really cool guitar slapping instrumental which is actually performed by Kaki King but by “August” in the film. The video below is actually the scene from the movie, a pretty good flick if you haven’t seen it. The August Rush Soundtrack is also worth a listen once you have experienced the film.

Enjoy this Life of Tunes keeper!

Artist: Kaki King
Album: August Rush Soundtrack (2007)
Track: Bari Improv
Website: http://augustrushmovie.warnerbros.com

Eye Of The Tiger and Sour Lemons

Leslie Duff — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 00:52:14 +0000

I am still laughing from a musical moment earlier this evening. It was soccer night for my 10 year old and I was just settling in with my Venti lactose free decaf latte with sugar free vanilla from Starbucks. The girls were warming up and getting pumped up for the game when Eye Of The Tiger by Survivor popped into my head. I think I laughed out pretty loud actually and got a few strange looks but I couldn’t help myself. Cue the black and white and hazy video… I was immediately in my hockey gear about 27 or 28 years ago circling the goalie and taking shots in my own warm-up. The arena I used to play in when I lived in Virginia Beach always played Eye Of The Tiger while we were warming up for a game. I recall how awesome that song made me feel as an 11 year old; wearing the jersey of my team and getting ready to do battle with my teammates. These are the really cool nostalgic memories of a time when life was so much less hectic.

While sitting on the sidelines of tonight’s game screaming “GO SOUR LEMONS!” I had a real sense of contentment. The delight of an 11 year old being on top of the world. It feels good to remember those times so fondly. I can only hope that as my daughter wraps up her game with the Sour Lemon Cheer that she is feeling the same. By the way it was a 4-4 tie and a nail biter.

Eye Of The Tiger by Survivor is a Life of Tunes keeper and some good memories.

Artist: Survivior
Album: Eye Of The Tiger (1982)
Track: Eye Of The Tiger
Website: www.survivormusic.com

Kasabian Fire Addiction

Leslie Duff — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 15:58:44 +0000

Happy Monday! For some reason I woke up this AM with a lot of energy. I’m not sure how to be honest. I was away all weekend and came back last night exhausted. Perhaps a good night’s sleep in your own bed is worth three in a strange one. The point is, somehow this morning I am feeling perky. In anticipation of a late morning crash I have elected to try and keep the momentum going with some good new music. Since last week I have been listening to the latest release by Kasabian and I am addicted to the first single “Fire” off of West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum.

It’s one of those songs that gets stuck in your head. I am worried actually that I will be sick of it by the end of the month. For now though I thought I would share it with you and maybe let it go in the process.

This track makes me want to be up and doing something which is exactly what I need on a Monday morning. Kasabian other offerings, their self titled CD “Kasabian” and second release “Empire” are both well worth a listen of you haven’t had the opportunity to peruse these as well.

Fire by Kasabian is a Life of Tunes keeper and my little gift to you today.

Enjoy!

Artist: Kasabian
Album: West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum (2009)
Track: Fire
Website: www.kasabian.co.uk