Friday, February 13, 2009

Weekend Music Game: The Funky Friday Version

Since today is Funky Friday here in Central PA (and I hope to see you all at the Abbey Bar in Harrisburg tonight from 5 pm 'til whenever...) I thought we could have a Funky Friday music game. Now I realize that may not have any funk loaded into your music player, but there's a lot of music out there that is very danceable, regardless of whether or not it is "funky." 

So put your music player on random/shuffle and give us the first five or ten songs you have that might be, even remotely, danceable.  And this time you can skip until you find good ones. So let us know which tunes make up your personal funky dance party...

Here's my list:

1. The Alpha Band - You Angel You - T-Bone Burnett and the boys with their semi-funky, rockabilly version of the Dylan tune.  I could definitely move to this one...

2. Umbrellas - Again and Again - definitely a funky beat with a touch of 80s techno/new wave flavor. Begins with the lyrics, "So where's the piano, and the big bass drum? And the clashing of cymbals?" Didn't even know I had this song on my MP3 player.

3. Further Seems Forever - The Bradley - I guess you could dance to this, kind of a shuffle and mosh tune. Yeah, close your eyes and bob your head a little. This is Chris Carrabba era FSF.

4. The Police - Driven to Tears - Another danceable tune, but this time maybe we do the Pogo.

5. The Clash - Guns of Brixton - The Clash always had an element of funk in their earlier music. This is a slow, smokin', reggae groove. It would be fun to dance to this one in a room full of people.

6. Over the Rhine - Daddy Untwisted - From my favorite OTR album, Eve. This is just about the only OTR album that actually rocks out and funks out. A quite funky choice!

7. 16 Horsepower - Hang My Teeth on Your Door - Well, this switches it up a bit...maybe a clog dance? A reel? Definitely something 19th century.

8. Van Morrison - Domino - Yeah, there's a touch of funk here. Definitely a danceable tune. I think a lot of Van's stuff would be good for groovin'.

9. The Clash - Hitsville U.K. - More Clash! This one from Sandinista. Ellen Foley joins the band on this tune in a bit of an homage to Motown. A nice choice for this list.

10. Duraluxe - Please Be Cool - Some laid back indie rock for some laid back indie rock club dancing. Works for me!

Your turn!

12 comments:

Andi said...

I don't even know that Over the Rhine Album . . . Yikes. . . .

And what a good list! Thanks.

Ken said...

That OTR album is the one that introduced me to the band. But most OTR fans, and I think the band itself, kinda disown it...because it is so different from most of their stuff. But I love it! Much more electric and rockin'

Mandy Fleisher said...

1. Flashlight - Parliament Funkadelic and George Clinton (amazingly, this was the 3rd song iTunes pulled up when I set it to random). Good song, and maybe the only "funk" I own.

2. And She Was - the Talking Heads. I have been to many a girls' night impromptu dance party where this song came into play :)

3. Can't Stand Me Now - the Libertines. Not funky by any stretch of the imagination, but it has a good beat.

4. Don't Stop - the Stone Roses. This song is a backwards version to their song Waterfall, but it's dance-able... if you're very, very creative!

5. Gold Digger - Kanye West. I love this song because it's a sample of a sample - going the whole way back to Gospel/hymns. And very dance-able.

6. You Can Call Me Al - Paul Simon. This song immediately made me think of the term "white man's overbite" ala When Harry Met Sally. This more of a wedding reception dancing/late night drunk at the bar dancing song, but it works.

7. Take Me Out - Franz Ferdinand. I can, have, and will always dance to this song! One of my favorite records in history.

8. Motownphilly - Boyz II Men. Always a classic.

9. 99 Red Balloons (in German) - Nena. 80s dance favorite, as far as I can recall...

10. Whole Lotta Shakin Goin' On - Jerry Lee Lewis. Dancing to this song may involve "the twist" and other older dances, but it works, and there's nothing quite like Jerry Lee's piano.

This game has taught me quite a lot about my music collection... most of it is not "dance-able," but the stuff that makes the grade makes me proud. Nice job Ken!

Anonymous said...

I think I have a total of 10 songs that are danceable on my whole iPod, but we will see. I'll keep a running count as to how many songs I have to skip to get to the "dance-y" ones.

1. Blink 182 - "Fallen Interlude" (Song 4 of 1148 on the shuffled iPod song listing)
Wow, only had to skip 3 songs. This is definitely the most danceable so far, as it is a groove loop created by Travis Barker, the drummer. His drumming certainly is groovy, if nothing else.

2. Radiohead - "Bodysnatchers" (Song 9 of 1148)
I can see people dancing to this song in a very frenetic way, shaking their hands and heads furiously while doing some kind of little super-speed jogging in place dance with their feet.

3. Coldplay - "Life In Technicolor" (Song 10 of 1148)
This song has a joyful feel to it that I can definitely feel a danceable groove happening, with alternating knee-lifting and clapping of hands.

4. Jimmy Eat World - "The Authority Song" (Song 11 of 1148)
Wow! 3 songs in a row, classifiable as dancin' material. Frankly, I am surprised. Maybe since I don't really dance, I don't take into account how many songs I actually listen to that are technically danceable grooves. It's funny that this song should come up, too, as most Jimmy Eat World is a little more driving and not necessarily grooving. But this song specifically feels grooving, as well as "talks" about it.

5. Daniel French - "Call The Police" (Song 14 0f 1148)
Of course Daniel French is grooving material. I mean, I played the drums on this track, for Pete's sake. And where I don't groove too much with my feet on the dance floor, I certainly play the drums that way.

6. Flight Of The Conchords - "Foux du Fafa" (Song 16 of 1148)
This is certainly a coffeeshop hip-rotating small movements kind of groove. Plus if random French words don't make you want to dance, I guess they would make you want to smoke cigarettes and drink wine.

7. Sadaharu - "This Is Less A Protest Of What Is, Than A Celebration Of What's To Come" (Song 23 of 1148)
If you took dance music and mixed it with angry political punk rock, I guess Sadaharu is what you'd get. This is a tambourine shaker and butt mover for sure.

8. The Sounds - "24 Hours" (Song 36 of 1148)
Well, it took a bit of skipping to get there, but here we are. Of course The Sounds are dance music! I forgot I even had them on here. Their music is sexy and grooving in an 80s way.

9. Refused - "Liberation Frequency" (Song 41 of 1148)
Here's some more angry political heavy punk rock grooving. When this song kicks into the chorus, we're talking flailing about, smashing flower pots over your head, kicking your own ass kind of dancing.

10. Muse - "City Of Delusion" (Song 50 out of 1148)
If any band has a rock 'n' roll groove it's the best rock band of this current decade. Muse rocks and grooves so well, you want to scream and dance at the same time.

Well, it only took 50 songs to get 10 dancin' numbers. Not too bad.

Anonymous said...

1. The Morning After Girls - Chasing Us Under... from what will soon be known as the band's "pre-E.J." days.

2. 50 Cent - Don't Push Me. I love how arrogant this guy is.

3. 16 Horsepower - Neck On The New Blade. If 16 HP counts for Ken, it counts for me.

4. 16 Horsepower - Red Neck Reel. Two 16 HP songs shuffled in a row.

5. Pearl Jam - In My Tree. This isn't really dancable, but the rhythm section is what this song's all about.

6. Muse - Time Is Running Out. This is for Jeremy & Amanda.

7. Pearl Jam - Dirty Frank. Funkay!

8. Salt-N-Pepa - Whatta Man. Oh yeah.

9. Chris Connor - Flying Home. Sorry, but Chris kicks Ella, Etta, and Billie to the curb.

10. The Roots - P**** Galore. Umm, good beat?

Anonymous said...

The dance in Jeremy's song #2 sounds like what you get when you fastforward through the Peanuts Christmas special.

Anonymous said...

1. "Looking Down the Barrel of a Gun" Beastie Boys, it's the Beasties, do I have to explain?
2. "Hely Meli" Hamid el-Shaeri another from my Arabic Groove cd. The whole disk is danceable.
3. "Dancing Barefoot" covered by U2 Danceable? duh.
4. "Lights Out" Santogold not the most danceable on the record, but I can do the "80s whitegirl" to this.
5. "Everything's Gone Green" New Order 80s dancing legends
6. "I Know" Blur
7. "Absolute Beginners" The Jam the closest I have to anything Funky
8. "The Fear" Lily Allen glad I just added this one, perfect for a dance list
9. "State of the Nation" New Order yes New Order comprise most of my dance music here since I haven't uploaded ABBA Gold yet
10. "Foto Viva" Mo' Horizons kind of a slow groove trance dance

Unknown said...

This has taken a while. Apparently I have very little danceable music. Maybe it's because I don't dance. Ever.
1. Nighttiming Coconut Records: You could probably get down to this. It kind of has a little bit of a disco beat. I really love this album.
2. When Did Your Heart Go Missing Rooney: This is probably one of the most danceable songs in my library.
3. Time To Confess Gov't Mule: This song has a little bit of a swing too it. You could totally hippie dance to it. It's kind of a sexy song if you've never seen Warren Hayes in person. Ugh.
4. About Mr. Brown OAR: We were just discussing this band yesterday actually, and I feel like I could write about 10 pages on their career. They have become a crappy adult contemporary band, but there was a place and a time where they were the perfect college band. The music was happy and upbeat and simple and made being young fun. I know that I kind of danced to this at frat parties freshman year.
5. So So Cold Hot Hot Heat: Have a song name and a band name ever matched up better? I'd say you could definitely hipster dance to this song.
6. Pink Squares I Was a Cub Scout: I think you could dance to the more electronic parts of this song and then stand around awkwardly during the more guitar-heavy parts.
7. Cobrastyle Teddybears: Yeah, this is a dance song so you could probably dance to it. This song was also in FIFA '06.
8. Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt We Are Scientists: More hipster dancing. If I were single, drunk and in a club somewhere I'd probably look for a girl when this came on.
9. No Sunlight Death Cab For Cutie: There aren't that many Death Cab songs you can dance to. This one you might be able to though.
10. My Party Kings of Leon: Definitely.

Anonymous said...

I had a hard time with this at first, but then I switched over to the play list I use when I'm running and it was like striking gold. I could've listed all 67 songs on it. But here are my favorites.

1. Just Like Heaven - Gatsbys American Dream. This song makes me want to dress in florescent colors and dance like a maniac.

2. Dreams in the Hollow - Jesca Hoop. I think this would've been a perfect song to do a modern routine to back when I was a dancer.

3. A-Punk - Vampire Weekend. So poppy and fun.

4. The Best Thing - Relient K. Mainly because it was the last song I danced to at my wedding.

5. Number One Spot - Ludacris. Who doesn't love a song that you can shake your booty to?

6. I Just Wanna Love You - Jay-Z. Just another fun one. My friends and I listened to it so much we know all the words... and made up our own motions (dorks).

7. California - Hawk Nelson. It's so infectious. Makes me wanna jump around.

8. I Want You Back - Jackson 5. C'mon. Seriously. How can you not dance to that?

9. 500 Miles - The Proclaimers. Kris and I had to sing this in front of a bunch of people and I literally couldn't help but dance. He was morbidly embarrassed.

10. Come Baby Come - K7. If you ever pass me in my car and I'm dancing like a crazy person, it's because I'm listening to this song.

jamiebentley said...

1. Clocks by Coldplay. Love the drum beat in this song. Makes me tap my foot to the rhythm.

2. PDA by Interpol. I can groove to pretty my EVERY Interpol song.

3. Let Go by FrouFrou. I think the title alone tells you what you need to do when you hear this song.

4. Back In Your Head by Tegan and Sarah. Not super danceable, but if I can listen to it at the gym that's good enough for me.

5. Obstacle 1 by Interpol. Yep. Dancing to this one. LOVE the baseline in this song like something crazy.

6. Rock Your Body by Justin Timberlake. Love it. Always makes me move. I remember when Jeremy had this song as his ringtone. We were on the way to Richmond listening to this song, when his phone started ringing at pretty much the same part of the song. Awesome.

7. Rockin' The Suburbs by Ben Folds. The title has "rockin'" in it, so yo can't really go wrong. Gotta dance a little, at least.

8. Like Eating Glass by Bloc Party. It's great when this song comes on in the car, though I really need to watch my speed...

9. The Shape of Punk To Come by Refused. This certainly takes me back to those college days.

10. Killed By An Angel by Sunny Day Real Estate. Not really a fast dancing song, but it's so so freaking rocking in the chorus. And Jeremy and I have made up our own words because we couldn't figure out what they hey he was saying. Ask us to sing it to you sometime...


Disappointed no Muse or Junior Senior popped for this.

Jeff McCloud said...

1. Within Without, Over the Rhine -- the first that comes up that is remotely danceable. I came to Over the Rhine later in their career, so this is different than what I'm used to hearing, but different is good. And danceable.

2.The Sloaganeer: Paradise, Me'Shell Ndegeocello. This is from one of the Paste Music samplers in my collection. Very good danceable tune. I can hear this in a club remix.

3. Where the Streets Have No Name, U2 -- This the version from "U2 Go Home," live from Slane Castle. I have always loved this song, and I will dance to it anytime, even though it's not a "dance" song. But this version literally always brings me to tears, and I'm not sure why. I think it's in part because I listened to it constantly after my father-in-law died in '07. Few songs move me the way this one does.

4. Mysterious Ways, U2. This is also from "U2 Go Home," but it wouldn't matter what version or album the song is or comes from. It is perhaps the funkiest of all in U2's catalog.

5. Moondance, Van Morrison. Not a funky song, but the jazziness makes me want to grab my wife and whisk her across the dance floor.

Jeff McCloud said...

Just a comment on my list: I liked putting it together, but I have to complain about the randomeness of shuffling. I know my iPod is heavy with Cockburn, but I do have a variety of music, so why all of the Cockburn when I'm trying to find some danceable tunes. I'd have been here all day waiting for Adam Again, for instance, to come up in the shuffle.