14 Other Songs As Irresistibly Fun As ‘I Believe In A Thing Called Love’ by The Darkness

February 8, 2012 By 4 Comments
i-believe-in-a-thing-called-love-the-darkness

There were so many great things to come out of Super Bowl XLVI.

Tom Brady lost, making his life now only 99.98% perfect. We got the first supermodel-induced scandal in NFL history. MSF had its great single-day traffic total ever.

But for me, the single greatest outcome of Super Bowl XLVI is that “I Believe In A Thing Called Love” by The Darkness is back in regular rotation on my iTunes and all of my portable music devices. And for that we have Samsung Mobile to thank, because the company featured the song in what our own Keith Mullett called the best commercial of Super Bowl XLVI.

Here is the video for the song itself, which I have always felt is one of the most irresistibly fun songs of all-time:

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Filed Under: Countdowns, Music Tagged With: charles barkley, Larry Bird, Michael Jackson, Music, Rick Astley, sam cooke, videos

Duwende’s ‘The Music of Michael Jackson’ Is A Capella Heaven

January 25, 2012 By 3 Comments
Duwende

Editor’s Note: This post originally appeared at IndieChristmas.com, my other site where I make music recommendations of underground or underexposed artists. Since I’ve posted numerous times about Michael Jackson before here at MSF, I decided to post this here as well.

I love you Lost At E Minor.

I visit at least 2-3 times a week not only to find great new bands like Keston Cobblers’ Club, but also for unique musical experiences like the video below, which features Duwende, a supremely talented a capella group.

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Filed Under: Music Tagged With: a capella, duwende, indie christmas, Michael Jackson, Music

The 19 Best Pearl Jam Songs That Were Never Singles

January 12, 2012 By 31 Comments
pearl_jam_band-208365

Pearl Jam celebrated their 20th anniversary in 2011 by throwing a two-day concert festival at the Alpine Valley Music Theatre that I was grateful enough to attend, a documentary showcasing the history of the band, and releasing a PJ 20 soundtrack, as well as many other “goods”.

Pearl Jam is one of the best live bands today, and if you get a chance to see them, I recommend that you go. They play big venues but without all the flashy light shows, pyrotechnics, and all that other crap. It’s all about the music, and everyone is a friend.

In my short life of 18 years, there hasn’t been one single band that has had more of an impact and has changed my life more than Pearl Jam. But this post isn’t about me, but rather what Pearl Jam has always been about since they’ve started: the music.

Pearl Jam has plenty of good songs, but I didn’t want this to be like every other list, so I decided to pick out what I think are the best PJ songs that were never officially released as singles.

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Filed Under: Music Tagged With: Eddie Vedder, Music, Pearl Jam, playlist

Unique Christmas Gift Idea: The ‘MintyBoost Kit’ Portable USB Charger

December 13, 2011 By Leave a Comment
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In what is becoming something of annual tradition around these parts, it’s that time of year again for me to present you with a most unique Christmas gift idea.

Last year, I told you all about beard hats (and gave them as Christmas gifts myself). This year, I’m all about the MintyBoost Kit portable USB chargers, which are great for iPhones, iPods, iPads, other iThings, as well as any other devices that can be plugged into a USB port.

And yes, just like last year, I stumbled upon this most excellent gift idea while clicking on the beautiful blue links (this one in particular) at Reddit.

So what is the MintyBoost Kit you may now be wondering? It’s a neat little device that a Redditor’s mother made for him as a gift and is now smartly selling. I’ll let the photos do the talking and build the impulse, then I’ll let you know where you can get your very own.

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Filed Under: Random Stuff Tagged With: apple, Christmas, elton john, fun stuff, gift idea, ipad, iphone, ipod, Music, videos

The 12 Best Conor Oberst Songs…So Far

November 12, 2011 By 2 Comments
Conor Oberst

One of the things I love more than watching, reading, and writing about sports is listening to music. Music is great on so many levels, and like everyone else, I have my favorite artists. Conor Oberst falls into that category for many reasons.

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Filed Under: Music Tagged With: At the Bottom of Everything, Bowl of Oranges, Bright Eyes, Conor Oberst, Easy/Lucky?/Free, I Believe in Symmetry, indie, Ladder Song, Lifted, Music, Omaha, Poison Oak, Top songs

My 18 Favorite Guilty Musical Pleasures (And Yours Too)

October 27, 2011 By 13 Comments
You won't have to wait long to see why this picture of Shakira is included here...

Reader, before you move forward in this post, I want you to promise me something: that you will pay heed to my call to action and contribute in the comment section. I’m not asking you much, and I bet it will even be something that you’ll enjoy thinking about and sharing (anonymously if you must).

For the subject of this post is both fun and universal; it is something that we all have but may be hesitant to admit (even though we always feel better after doing so). So if you are going to be entertained by the admissions that I and the MSF are about to make, you damn well better be willing to step up to the plate with at least one of your own.

*****

Now that I’ve spoken my peace in an attempt to galvanize an excited commentariat, let’s get down to brass tacks and reveal some embarrassing but thoroughly entertaining guilty music pleasures.

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Filed Under: Music Tagged With: Music, playlist, shakira

Video: IU’s Victor Oladipo serenades Hoosier Hysteria crowd with impressive performance of Usher’s “U Got It Bad”

October 17, 2011 By Leave a Comment
victor-oladipo-usher

College basketball teams opened practice around the country this past weekend, and nowhere was said opening done with more rhythm and rhyme than in Bloomington, Indiana.

Yes, thanks to sophomore Victor Oladipo, reputations and stereotypes were turned on their heads Saturday evening at the school once known for short shorts and white boys with silky shooting strokes. Not anymore, not after Oladipo serenaded some of the country’s best basketball fans and visiting high school recruits with a rather impressive version of “U Got It Bad” by Usher.

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Filed Under: CBB Tagged With: hoosier hysteria, indiana hoosiers, Music, Victor Oladipo

3 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Be Upset that R.E.M. Broke Up

September 30, 2011 By 1 Comment
R.E.M., as your grandparents knew them

R.E.M. announced last week that they’d be calling it quits. A few thousand awful it’s-the-end-of-the-band-as-we-know-it headlines later, I still feel fine.

I’ve been an R.E.M. fan for at least 20 years. There have been times in my life when they were my favorite band, and I still have several albums worth of R.E.M. material on my iPod. But when I heard that Mike, Michael, and Peter were disbanding, I shrugged and went on with my day. Here’s why:

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Filed Under: Away From the Action, Music Tagged With: bands, Music, musicians, r.e.m.

Top 18 Indie Tracks from 2011 (so far)

July 15, 2011 By 1 Comment
local-natives

Much like Jerod did last week, and Tyler earlier this week, I have put together a playlist of music. My list is my favorite indie songs from the first half of 2011.

Unlike Jerod and Tyler, you will probably recognize a few of these bands or songs. Even though they may not be as obscure and under the radar as the bands and songs posted last week, they are still out of the mainstream (at least they are here in North Dakota).

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Filed Under: Music Tagged With: indie christmas, Music

10 More Indie Songs You Should Be Listening to This Summer

July 11, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Two-gallants-album

If it was up to me, I would lock myself in my room and listen to music all day. There are a few things that give me more enjoyment than listening to my favorite songs, as well as searching for and experiencing new music.

Whether I am just relaxing, writing for Midwest Sports Fans, or just surfing the net, I always have music playing in the background. I truly believe music saves, so anytime I can share some of that with people I do.

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Filed Under: Music Tagged With: Black Dub, Conor Oberst, Ein Astronaut, indie, indie music, Jeff the BrotherHood, Jon Foreman, King Charles, M. Ward, Music, Tres Mts, Two Gallants, Youth Lagoon

18 Spectacular New Off-the-Radar Songs for the Summer

July 5, 2011 By 11 Comments
holy-grail

There are few things in life I enjoy more than proactively seeking out new music far away from the mainstream.

There is so much of it out there, created by so many off-the-radar musicians who are deserving of more recognition than they get, and I am always blown away by how many songs I can add to my regular rotation with just a weekend of patient but thoroughly enjoyable “work”.

Last April I posted a playlist entitled 17 Essential New Songs for Spring and now it is time to share this year’s playlist, officially titled Indie Christmas in July 2011 (name explained below), which features 18 terrific tunes, a nice balance of genres, and more than a few songs with truly spectacular videos.

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Filed Under: Music, Spotlight Tagged With: indie christmas, Music, playlist

The 33 Most Underrated Workout Songs of All-Time

August 26, 2010 By 15 Comments
best-workout-songs-of-all-time

This post is what I was going to work on yesterday morning before I got side-tracked by this topic. All in all, I think that post was a much more important use of my time.

However, this one will be 10X more fun. And for many of you, those who don’t care about the blogger/media relationship or the tired discussion about steroids in baseball, this post will probably be far more entertaining and, hopefully, even useful.

Today, I am going to present to you a list of 33 songs that I think are underappreciated from a workout standpoint. They may not all be great songs, per se, but they serve the purpose of keeping the energy high during a workout.

All of these tracks are no-brainer automatics when I’m creating or editing a workout playlist, and hopefully you’ll find at a least a few of them to your liking.

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Filed Under: Health and Fitness, Music Tagged With: list, Music, rocky, underrated, workout songs

Video: Incredible Jackson 5 / Nirvana Mashup

August 13, 2010 By 1 Comment
young-michael-jackson

If you are a regular reader of this site, you may know that Michael Jackson (inclusive of his time with the Jackson 5) is my favorite musical artist of all time. I’m not even sure there is anyone in second place.

To me, Michael Jackson compared to other musicians is like Jerry Rice compared to other WRs; there is no comparison.

So when I see mashups with MJ songs, I tend to watch them with apprehension, expecting something awful and sacrilegious. That was how I went into viewing the video below earlier this morning.

Let’s just say that my expectations were turned completely upside down.

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Filed Under: Music Tagged With: jackson 5, mashup, Michael Jackson, Music, nirvana

A white guy’s literal interpretation of Tupac’s classic attack track “Hit ‘Em Up”

August 7, 2010 By 5 Comments
tupac-biggie

A couple of weeks ago I ended up on the Wikipedia page for the classic 90s hip hop track “Regulate” by Warren G and Nate Dogg. The synopsis section includes a hilarious literal interpretation of the song’s lyrics. For some reason, I thought it would be a fun, entertaining idea to borrow this idea for a new post series.

I emailed longtime friend of MSF Robert Littal of Black Sports Online and shared with him the following idea: I’ll take rap songs and give a white guy’s literal interpretation of the lyrics and then he takes rock/country songs and gives a black guys’ literal interpretation of the lyrics; then we post the the results for the entertainment of our readers.

He liked the idea so we’re giving it a try.

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Filed Under: Music Tagged With: biggie smalls, hit em up, Music, puff daddy, Robert Littal, tupac shakur

Site Recommendation for Music Lovers: IndieChristmas.com

April 9, 2010 By 1 Comment

You may noticed a little bit less activity around these parts the last 36 hours. There are a few reasons for that.

First, I think we all needed to catch our breath a bit after one of the most exciting (and content intensive) NCAA Tournaments I can remember.

Second, and the real reason I was MIA yesterday, is that I had a Eureka! moment a few nights ago and decided to launch a brand new site.

After the positive response I got for my 17 Essential Songs for Spring post, and after realizing how much fun I had writing it, I thought it might be fun to launch a music site on the side. So I did.

Check it out: IndieChristmas.com

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Filed Under: Admin Comments, Music Tagged With: indiechristmas.com, Music
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