April 16, 2009

There have been plenty of songs written about nearly every member of the Animal Kingdom, but have you ever noticed that monkeys get an inordinate amount of love? Some of the greatest songs in the history of rock involve primates. Often it’s symbolic as it is in Aerosmith’s Monkey on My Back, which is a song Steven Tyler and Joe Perry wrote about drug addiction.

This week’s B List takes a look at the ten best songs involving monkeys…

10. Theme From The Monkees – The Monkees

The four leads in an NBC sitcom entitled The Monkees were introduced to the world in 1966 through a theme song written by Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart. Mickey Dolenz was the only one of the four Monkees to actually perform on the track.

9. Proudest Monkey – Dave Matthews Band

Proudest Monkey came out of an impromptu jam the band played as a soundcheck for a gig at Williams College in 1993. The song went through many changes before it was recorded for 1996’s Crash. After being shelved for a number of years, Proudest Monkey has gotten plenty of love from Dave and the band in 2006 and 2008.

8. Monkey Wrench – Foo Fighters

Dave Grohl and the Foo Fighters avoided the sophomore slump in a big way with the release of The Colour and The Shape in 1997. Among the gems on the classic album is the anthemic My Hero, Dave Letterman’s favorite song – Everlong and this quick and catchy rocker that still gets tons of airplay on rock radio 12 years later.

READ ON for the seven best songs regarding monkeys…

Among people who have seen the movie Watchmen, the live-action adaptation of the 12 issue comic book series, there exists a love/hate debate about the quality of the film. Some appreciate the visual experience and believe the film held true to the comic strip, while others cannot overcome the loose narrative and underdeveloped characters. However, one thing that virtually all movie-goers seem to agree on with consistency (besides the size of Dr. Manhattan’s giant blue dong) is that the soundtrack sucks.

Interestingly, the individual tracks that comprise said soundtrack are almost universally likeable, including the likes of Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Leonard Cohen and even Nena with her classic ’80s anthem, 99 Luftballoons. Yet, what baffles viewers is the plain awful placement of otherwise good music in horrendously cliché and at times even jarring scenes. The usage of The Times They Are A Changin’ for the time passes montage has been done to death, but even worse was the placement of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah during a steamy sex scene. I kid you not, this scene drew universal out-loud laughter from a good portion of the theater and achieved bar raising status for painfully awkward movie moments.

While I personally thought the movie was a large dud, I would almost recommend seeing it just to take in the bizarre experience of critically assessing this soundtrack. I mean, it blew my mind with its awfulness on one hand, but on the other here I am talking about it, so it begs the question, “Maybe they did it on purpose for effect?”

Who knows? More importantly, continuing with the theme of song placement with movie scenes, it’s always fun to pick out some favorite tunes and mentally create movie segments that would fit the music and vice versa. So, in the interest of showing up the lousy music supervisor on Watchmen, here are a number of scenes from the mental movie theater complete with their perfect musical complements. READ ON to find out the perfect song for a number of plot lines including The Inspirational Training Montage…

Most years, we only get one Wilco show a year in New York City and the band has just announced a string of East Coast dates including our Big Apple

Of all the MP3 bootleg blogs out there, one stands out from the rest – The Ultimate Bootleg Experience. T.U.B.E. offers both quality (downloads feature high bitrates and are tagged)