For a brief spell I did something called "Funky Friday."  It was just what it sounds like - I would post some free-your-mind-and-your-ass-will-follow funky song on a Friday.  I stole the idea from Pat, and I had totally forgotten I ever did that until I was reminded of it by one of William's posts from last week.

So, I am unearthing the concept for this week by posting - another Liquid Tension Experiment tune?  Some gratuitous prog/jam band on Funky Friday? WTF???

For the love of Pete, Tony Levin is in this band.  It's like at some point Petrucci told him "OK, Tony, we'll let you get your groove on for a couple of minutes, but then it's back to the endless guitar wankery."  So Tony grabs the trusty Chapman Stick and lets loose this little bit of funkitude.

And hey, it turns out that Portnoy's a fine funk drummer.  Who knew?



Hear "Chris and Kevin's Excellent Adventure" on YouTube.

Watch studio footage of the recording.

Watch a live performance.

Today marks my 900th article posted here, but my attempts at finding a 900-related song to post were fruitless.  I guess there's some old folk song called "900 Miles", which has been performed about eleventy billion times.

I ended up taking one last crack at getting a song idea from YouTube's front page.  Great, there's the new Tron Legacy trailer AGAIN.  Trailer, schmailer.  We know that the trailer is gonna make that movie look like the greatest thing since non-sliced bread.  That's its job.

Besides, as a nerdy male in his 40s, it's not like I need any motivation to see a new Tron movie.  I hold an immense fondness for the original 1982 film.  So, here is a snippet from the Wendy Carlos score (I'm always hesitant to call music from a film a "soundtrack", which I believe to be technically misleading), called "The Light Sailer."

I should slot that DVD again.  Hey, Flynn has an Oscar now!  Good for him.

Hear "The Light Sailer" on YouTube.

Once again I take my cue from YouTube.  I go there and see, right there on the main page, in bold blue letters, "HOT GIRL BEACH BUNNY!"

Hmm, what beach-related song should I post?  Somehow, in my warped thought processes, the first song to come to mind was "Bleach Boys."

I think it may actually be time to have me committed.

Hear "Bleach Boys" (and the rest of DM's terrific Beelzebubba) on MySpace Music.

Had no idea what to post today.  I go to YouTube and there's a featured video - "Rise Above Plastics."

Huh?

Whatever.  But it made me think of this Black Flag song.

Hear "Rise Above" on YouTube.

Perhaps you're one of those people who appreciates or even likes (horrors!) Dream Theater's instrumental prowess, but just can't get past the wailing, banshee vocals?  Then Liquid Tension Experiment may be worth checking out.

LTE is essentially a prog-rock Frankenstein's monster that formed when DT's Mike Portnoy (drums) and John Petrucci (guitar) joined up with keyboard wizard Jordan Rudess (who has since become Dream Theater's full time ivory-tickler) and veteran session bassist Tony Levin, who has played with, oh I don't know, everybody?  What followed in 1998 was a 74-minute self-titled album full of some serious instrumental ass-kicking, with no hair-bandy singing contained within.

Really, I hear tracks like "Paradigm Shift" and simply cannot fathom why so many automatically label prog-rock as "boring."  Oh well.  I guess I'm just weird like that.  Different strokes, yada yada...

Watch a fanvid for "Paradigm Shift" on YouTube.

Watch Portnoy perform part of the song in a studio.

If I post a song from Leonard Nimoy, then I am required to put up a song by William Shatner.

It's in Bill's contract.

Hear "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" on YouTube.

Been Netflixing the remastered Season 2 of the original Star Trek, so I have that franchise on the brain.

As such, I am posting this ridiculous Leonard Nimoy tune, because I always have goofy novelty schlock on the brain.

Watch the video for "Ballad of Bilbo Baggins" on YouTube.

Bleh.  I can't think of a song to post.

Go watch this interpretation of the spaceship scene from Close Encounters instead.  It's much more amusing than any music-related bloviating I'd do anyway.