Holiday tunes: Wilson Phillips & Windham Hill

Hi. Kim peeking in here for a quick minute for an end-of-year review of sorts – featuring (some of) my favorite album releases of the year. 2013 was a great year for music, so this is by no means a complete list. There were SO MANY new releases by favorite artists, and new releases that…

but my heart’s of gold… I had to run away high… so I wouldn’t come home low… What do you think when someone asks you, “who do you think you are?” Because that’s the little ditty that always pops into my head. I just love this question. Who am I? Musically, speaking, I mean. Because…

Man, was I “out there” when I picked the last Fiver or what?  Talk about all over the spectrum!  Ah, well – say what you will about the carnival ride of genres – you can’t say it was boring…

Happy Friday, and welcome to the recently resurrected Fiver, wherein we post five tracks – totally blind – for your aural digestion, and impatiently await your unfettered reactions to them in the comments below.  Per the norm, we shall return again on Sunday with the Scoop – the “big reveal” that illuminates all.

You technically can call me Nancy but I’d prefer CC. Honestly, you can call me whatever you want just don’t call me late to dinner, bitches. It’s still me, CC. If you’ve forgotten who I am (which I doubt) there’s a bio page or something around here. Figure it out. (Obviously, I’m not the pleasant…

Monty Python reference notwithstanding, allow me a moment of most grave sincerity to say that I have SO MISSED you people! Ri here…the one who dropped the ball, went into a cave and left this poor site to die a slow, miserable death. What has it been…two years ago, now? I’m pretty sure we missed…

So, did everyone have a great Mother’s Day? I sure did, and hope that the rest of you lovely music-loving mamas out there did, as well! I had a day of doing nothing but watching what I wanted on tv, window shopping online, and, later that evening, seeing Dark Shadows with my oldest son and…

We hit the road to Nashville at 4:30 p.m. last Wednesday (after work and school) on the way to see Big Time Rush at Bridgestone Arena. My daughter, Riley, could barely contain her excitement: She bounced and sang the whole two-hour drive. And the night was unbelievable. Amazing. Every adjective that means incredible.

Happy New Year, folks!   “Whatever Happened To….” Wednesday took a bit of a breather over the holidays, but I am determined to keep up a little bit better in the coming year!

While most of you are busy de-Christmas-ing your homes (My tree is staying up till at least mid-January, since I love the lights!), getting organized, and thinking about what you’ll do in the coming year – or at least where you’ll go/what you’ll wear to ring in 2012 tomorrow night – I am taking a…

Dude. I was so excited to hear about the new Metallica / Lou Reed collaboration (Lulu)! But then, I heard the new Metallica / Lou Reed collaboration and I was much less excited. Thankfully, I was able to wash my ears out with Beyond Magnetic.

I love Christmas music, always have. Every year I try to wait until at least Thanksgiving, but every year, I fail and end up adding my “Cool Christmas” playlist to my iPhone before the turkey is even thawed. One of my favorite songs, “Please Come Home for Christmas,” comes in as many versions as there…

Take a journey with me. Back in time, to when autotune was something unheard of; to when popular music was wrought by big bands and bigger voices; to when the cool chicks wore kitten heels and sprayed hair and the mad men wore suits and fedoras. Everyone drank martinis (shaken, not stirred) and gimlets (vodka,…

Welcome to the Sunday Scoop, wherein we share with you the whos and whats of the most recent Friday Fiver!  Loved the comments on these – the more frequently we do this, the more I begin to predict what our “regulars” will and won’t like, and I’ll admit to sometimes even throwing one in just…

Hello, there! You may have noticed that “Whatever happened to….” Wednesday took a little vacation. That was not intended, but between my retail job kicking off our busiest season on Black Friday, and me personally battling a RAGING sinus infection (one that is *still* with me, and appears to still kick my ass every now…

Hello, all! Kim here again. Thanks so much for all the wonderful comments on last week’s “Whatever happened to….” featuring The Prodigy! I’m back this week with another singer from the 90s. Let’s see if you remember her… Meredith Brooks is undoubtedly best known for her hit single “Bitch,” from 1997. That track much sums…

Hello there, folks! Kim here, with a new and hopefully successful addition to the site, “Whatever happened to?” Wednesdays. The premise is exactly like it sounds: every Wednesday, I, or another Music Mama, will revisit a favorite band or artist from the distant or even recent past that we haven’t heard from in a while…

Psssst – Ri here.  Let’s welcome Kathryn from Coastal Chick as our newest Music Mama!  If you’ve hung around here for any time at all, you know she’s a regular who fits right in with the rest of us nutters.  The fact that she loves music AND writing is a definite plus, and we’re damn…

Imagine this…you turn on the radio, your iPhone, or click onto your favorite music app on your iPad and are greeted with a Japanese American rapper singing, “I’m in my own little world little boys little girls, get down pretty baby, that’s how we get down.” Couple this infectious chorus with a groovalicious 60′s beat…

Yay for Friday and music and all of that mess. And yay+ for the Friday Fiver. What can I say? I’m impatient. So I’m springing this a day early!

A long, long time ago In 1990, in a galaxy far, far away on the back roads of rural southeastern Wisconsin, The Ultimate Mix tape was born. I wrote about Side #1 of this tape last fall, and promised to return to discuss Side #2, but well, what can I say? Time slipped away from…

Who could ever forget the iconic lyrics to the Kenny Loggins classic, Footloose? “I been workin’ so hard, Keep punching my card, Eight hours, for what? Oh, tell me what I got.” Now, imagine those words sung by country music artist, Blake Shelton. Sounds interesting, huh? It gets better. Next, imagine a young Taylor Swift-esque…

More fun than just a barrel of monkeys would definitely be 100 Monkeys! 100 Monkeys is a five piece alterna-funk band out of Los Angeles in which musicians Jackson Rathbone, Ben Graupner, Ben Johnson, Lawrence “Uncle Larry” Abrams, and Jerad Anderson all take on vocal and instrumental duties on different songs in what they’ve dubbed…

So, you played along with the Fiver.  (If not, go back one post and do it now!)  Here are the details…any of them change your mind enough to give one another listen?   Track 1:  Shine On You – The Duke and The King Simone Felice of The Felice Brothers is part of this “soul-folk-glam…

Howdy, y’all.  Ri here.  I found I was getting a lil’ nostalgic for doing the Fivers myself, so I “volunteered” to take on today’s.  Of course, right after volunteering, I promptly forgot all about it…until just now. (What?  It’s not like you didn’t KNOW that Mari is the much more organized, punctual and professional one….

Coldplay. The (sometimes) polarizing English alternative band is offering a preview of their new music. Their new album, Mylo Xyloto will be released in late October, but is available for pre-order now. The band has also released a preview track (Paradise) that you can listen to on their  website (and right here; see below).

Anyone who knows me knows that I just don’t do pop music. Well, that’s sort of a lie. I actually do like a lot of songs that end up on the hot-hits-type stations, but the majority of them are by rock bands and musicians. But when the opportunity to view a tour diary webisode by…

1970 is known for the “Chicago Seven,” the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the birth of Earth Day, Apollo 13, the Kent State shootings, the Women’s Strike for Equality, the Isle of Wight Festival, the birth of the Ford Pinto and the deaths of Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix. It was a tumultuous time, to say the…

I was a late bloomer when it came to being a Foo Fighters fan. Their style is pretty far away from what I usually listen to (pop, house, electronica, techno…). It wasn’t that I didn’t like their music; it’s just that I didn’t actively follow it. That changed eventually: I have three Foo Fighters fans…

Well, it’s here…the long awaited new song from Noel Gallagher. (You remember him, right?  The brother from the now defunct British band Oasis that wasn’t Liam?) Y’see, the Gallagher boys had a falling out, with smashed guitars and everything, which effectively put the kibosh on the band continuing together. So, Liam went off with some…

I woke up this morning to the news that Amy Winehouse had been found dead in her London home.  Although I haven’t seen any official reports as to the cause of death, as a long time fan of Winehouse (and someone who has picked her for the dead pool game the past two years), I…

Do you know why? Because Wanda Jackson says so. And she’s got Jack White to back her up.

The much talked about release of the remake of ’80s classic Footloose hits theaters Oct. 14. Kenny Wormald and Julianne Hough play the lead roles.

Love ‘em or hate ‘em: here’s the details.

Or as I like to refer to it, fa-fa-fa-fa-fa-fa-fa-fa-fa-FIVER! (can you name that paraphrased tune?) Ladies & gentlemen, your Friday Fiver.

Eminem.  Love him or hate him – he’s always making you think. The album, Recovery, was released about a year ago and in my opinion, one of his best albums in his career.  The songs on the album are raw, in your face and brutally honest….just the way I like them.  The latest Eminem video…

Mmkay, I’ve already discussed that I am an avid watcher of The Voice, the show that features awesome singers vying to win a record deal (and the first half of the finale airs tonight!), but what I haven’t really discussed is that the judges/coaches on the show are awesome and accomplished artists in their own…

Pre-release CD Review:  2Cellos Confession:  I have a strong, natural affinity for stringed instruments played with bows by attractive men. Oh, sure – I love guitars, banjos, ukuleles and the occasional upright bass…but give me a passionate Seth Lakeman or Johnny Flynn performance on the violin and I’m total mush. Well, move over Seth and…

You played along with the Fiver, listened to the songs, gave your comments & hopefully found some new tunes that will make you happy. Or not. Ladies & gentlemen, your Scoop.

If you remember wayyyy back to when Music Savvy Mom (Ri) actually wrote on her own blog, *snerk*, then you may remember her wildly popular “Friday Fivers” and their counterparts, the “Sunday Scoop”.  This was a regular feature wherein five blind tracks were posted on Friday – no set up, no commentary.  Readers were invited…

It ain’t what it used to be. And specifically, I’m speaking of the newer breed of music television. You see, when MTV & VH1 left music and video for scripted & unscripted series, there left a void for music television. And thus was born “reality” music television. Wherein video really did kill the radio star….

Several months ago I read that INXS was going to release a new record/album/CD (what is it that we call it these days??) called “Original Sin”, named after their big hit from 1984. The song has a driving beat, a catchy chorus, a slightly-controversial (for its time) topic, and of course, the magic of the…

(…with all apologies to the late Mr. Cobain for the shameless lyric ripoff in the title.  But, seriously – when one thinks of their own failures, foibles and fumbles with the intention of actually TALKING about them, one arrives at a state of discouraged detachment that can best be described as “Nirvanesque”.) Okay, so now…

30 Seconds to Mars – January 28, 2011 – Atlanta, GA – Tabernacle Guests: Middle Class Rut (Click for larger)

When I first started reading Late, Late at Night by singer-actor Rick Springfield I wasn’t impressed. It wasn’t the content; it was his writing style, sort of a stream of consciousness, that threw me off. However, once I settled in, I enjoyed the conversational tone. It was like we were having a chat on the…

I know we’re now barreling toward 2011 at warp speed – and it may even be AFTER 2011 before this gets published, but I’ve been working on it since the first part of December.  And every year when December rolls around, nostalgia for my favorite December in the history of all my Decembers gets the…

His face is unforgettable. His lyrics, timeless tales as true today as they were when he wrote them. His voice, mesmerizing. His legacy, far from over. Today marks the 30th anniversary of John Lennon’s death. He’s been gone almost my entire life yet his music has impacted my life greatly. Can you imagine, if he…

The holiday season is here, and I recently had the opportunity to listen to two new Christmas albums. Read on for my take on Christmas in Harmony by Wilson Phillips, and Winter’s Songs: A Windham Hill Christmas.

The calendar tells us that it is not yet December and therefore logically not yet time for the enjoyment of the Christmas themed music.  Retailers, however…apparently immune to convention and  the chronological compendium of tradition…routinely eschew this forbearance in favor of an early and excessive plunge right into Holiday Muzak Hell.  The soul-less bastards. So,…

Craig Taubman is one of the biggest names in contemporary Jewish music, and he’s got a newly released album that I want to tell you about. That’s not where I want to start, though. I’m going to start…at the beginning! This being “The Music Mamas” and all, I just figured it would be important to…