Music to Your Ears
I'm the Slime
Thirteen TV-related tracks
Plenty of music is worthy of a television-themed playlist, but this mix of sometimes sad, bitter or freaky songs is mostly relegated to the realms of punk, proto-punk and post-punk. The Web doesn’t yield some of the MP3s I wanted to include ("I'm the Slime" by Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, or The Victims' original "Television Addict"). I also purposefully excluded songs that would have worked nicely ("I Hate the TV" by Violent Femmes) and included a few songs with no mention of television ("Look Back in Anger" by Television Personalities), but the TV theme is obeyed overall. I like that most of these songs regard television with some degree of hostility: It's nice being reminded to be skeptical of the establishment ... while enjoying some really sick guitar parts.
1) "TV Casualty" • The Misfits • Static Age
2) "TV Set" • The Cramps • Bad Music for Bad People
3) "Look Back In Anger" • Television Personalities • And Don't the Kids Just Love It
4) "T.V. Eye" • The Stooges • Fun House
5) "Television Addict" • Hoodoo Gurus • Crank
6) "TV Party" • Black Flag • Damaged
7) "Kill Your Television" • Ned's Atomic Dustbin • God Fodder
8) "5-45" • Gang Of Four • Entertainment!
9) "Coffee & TV" • Blur • 13
10) "TV Movie" • Pulp • This Is Hardcore
11) "Nature Boy" • Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds • Abattoir Blues
12) "Dancing Choose" • TV On The Radio • Dear Science
13) "See No Evil" • Television • Marquee Moon
Hear this mix or make your own at alibi.com/earwig.
- Verlaine [ Thu Jan 29 2009 7:52 AM ]
I still love music themes!
Check out The Damned - Idiot Box, but I think it is more about Television rather than the TV.
- What, no "Video Killed the Radio Star?" [ Thu Jan 29 2009 11:23 AM ]
Daft Punk stole all their moves from The Buggles.
- local band Ultimatum has one too: "Gutterbox" [ Thu Jan 29 2009 12:17 PM ]
Ooh, and they play at the 'pad this Friday. Metalheads: be there!
- Shit! [ Thu Jan 29 2009 5:32 PM ]
The Damned would have been perfect...I think I even checked to see if they happened to have a TV song. I can't even find that one now. Hurh.
- And "Video Killed The Radio Star"? [ Thu Jan 29 2009 5:34 PM ]
I was already being obvious with "TV Party." Plus that song sort of gets on my nerves.
- I agree... [ Fri Jan 30 2009 6:15 AM ]
never cared much for that song - and then there was the The Presidents of the United States of America.
- I'm with Jerry [ Fri Jan 30 2009 10:14 AM ]
That's pretty good - a lot better than I gave it credit for at the time.
- my lordy [ Fri Jan 30 2009 10:43 AM ]
1979 - I didn't realize it was that old, I guess it was more edgy than I thought. Well and then there was the The Presidents of the United States of America (deja vu).
- The Buggles [ Fri Jan 30 2009 10:59 AM ]
"Video Killed the Radio Star" was the first video played when MTV first went on the air on August 1, 1981. It's really not a bad song and I'd rather listen/watch that then all the Real World, Road Rules, Pimp My Ride, and Tia Teguila shows that have replaced the music in Music TV.
- MTV [ Fri Jan 30 2009 11:04 AM ]
When the do show videos now, they only show a cycle about seven of them before repeating and they only show the first 30 seconds of each before moving on to the next.
- which is fine with me [ Fri Jan 30 2009 11:05 AM ]
because if Nickelback can't make their point in 30 seconds, they're not going to make it in four minutes.
- I like the slight return of the theme at 2:30 [ Fri Jan 30 2009 11:54 AM ]
with the Supertramp piano bit. So cheesy, but perfect.
I'd also like to point out that it had a house beat before house was even invented.
Incidentally, the rest of the album is pretty bad.
- VH1 Classic [ Fri Jan 30 2009 5:06 PM ]
They show videos sometimes. If that fails, Time Life does some really good infomercials.
- Bowzer [ Sat Jan 31 2009 7:22 PM ]
That Bowzer is too cool. A lot of people forget that Sha Na Na played at Woodstock.
- Bow-Wow-Wow [ Mon Feb 2 2009 10:35 AM ]
That Bowzer is too cool. A lot of people forget that Sha Na Na played at Woodstock.
LOL...last night I fell asleep on the couch w/ the TV playing, and when I woke up Bowzer (the real life, present day Bowzer) was on the tube hawking an old school CD collection. Seen that boy lately? I could say so much...but it would be lacking.
The voice hasn't changed a whit, however. Nor the hair.
