Father Figure

Man that song is amazing!  RIP George Michael.  Limp Bizkit should remake it, just to get that career back on track.  But then again, I love song covers.  Which this blog is going to be about!

What, did you think this blog was going to be about being a parent?  As you can tell if you're an avid reader (which I know you are) I haven't written a blog in weeks.  Why?  The kid is super time consuming!  It's tough, because when she's asleep, you want to sleep, but then you end up doing something else.  Then when you want to sleep, you gotta take care of the kid.  Adult stuff.  So the blog has sadly been thrown to the side, until now.  But I will put a few random thoughts on parenthood right now:

- kids love to cry for no reason, it's not just food and poop
- if you are watching a show, they will cry at a really good part
- when they smile at you, your heart freaking melts
- random strangers will come up to you and the baby, and do baby talk
- oh, and our stroller is a celebrity, bigger celeb then the kid.  It's a stroller that folds up in to a car seat, people lose their minds, and randoms won't stop talking to us about it

So if you know me personally (and if you don't, you should, I'm great) you know I love music.  I also really, really, really love rock covers of pop songs.  Above I referenced one of the most well known covers of a song, Faith.

It's good....but it goes off the rails at the end.  I don't even like it to be honest with you.  If you're going on a cover from Limp Bizkit's collection, unpopular opinion I know, but I love Behind Blue Eyes...sorry, not sorry The Who fans (overrated band btw...sorry, not sorry).

Since we're on the rap/rock trail, let's get to the next cover that is phenomenal...Word Up! by Korn.

Incredible, isn't it?  Rap songs in to rock is really hard, and they did it.  The only one that did it better was a band named Framing Hanley, who covered Lollipop by Lil Wayne.

Another little known rock band that was amazing was Local H, who had a song called Bound For the Floor (trust me, you've heard it), but they have an insanely good cover of Toxic by Britney...

On the other spectrum of that, there is a remake of Cry Me a River, which was my favorite cover of all time, until the lead singer of the band did something so horrendous, I don't want to mention it in this blog.  Feel free to pull it up, but I just can't listen to it anymore.  So my favorite cover now falls to a different Britney song.

Britney would be proud!



Wow, remember that version of Britney Spears!?  Around the same time I discovered the song above, Johnny Cash had released his classic cover of a Nine Inch Nail song, Hurt:

Nirvana also had an amazing cover of well, of the David Bowie classic, The Man Who Sold the World:

Nirvana drummer, also known as the coolest guy in music Dave Grohl has a great cover of Tiny Dancer, go ahead and take a listen, if not just for the chorus.

Finally, if you are a visitor here, you know of my love of Hall and Oates, picture found here: Hall and Oates and Jeff

Well here is a cover of my favorite song by them, I Can't Go For That (No Can Do).

Which this link brings up two questions:

1) Why aren't kazoos in more songs!?
2) There need to be more song titles that use a parenthesis.  If my band (Gotch Gracy) actually had any songs, we'd have a parenthesis in about half of them.

So these are just a few of the best covers of all time.  I know I missed a couple (Killing Me Softly by the Fugees, Metallica's version of Turn the Page, any cover of Rebecca Black's "Friday")... so the following song is one that SHOULD be covered, like immediately.  But first, a side story.

My cousin Brad and I (who are starting a podcast, stay tuned), had a debate over which song should have a cover.  I always pushed for Smooth Criminal by Michael Jackson, which in my head I assumed I always told him.  Fast forward a few years, the lovely band Alien Ant Farm came out with a cover!  Overjoyed at me being awesome and thinking it'd be a great rock cover, I told Brad.  Brad... let's just say he doesn't believe I ever said such a thing.  Brad is a jerk, this will be covered on a future podcast, guaranteed.

To move along to his song that would make a great "rock" cover, Lisa Loeb with "Stay"....he is correct, if he in fact came up with that idea on his own....

Well that's it for this week, thanks for reading like usual.  I have no clue what the next blog will be about, definitely not Trump or politics...unless it's the "long awaited" who is the next person who should run for president.  Until next time!

Jeff Kleeman

Aaron and Jeff's Musical Adventure

Nothing beats musical conversations.  NOTHING.  Best artist or song by artist is a nice debate among my friends and I.  Well this week, Aaron and I debated, 10 (eventually becoming 11) artists best songs and our favorite by them.  Just to see if we agreed on anything, surprisingly we did, especially on...well, you'll find out.  Let's do this!

Jeff: Alright Pew, let's get started.  I'm gonna start with Jigga Man, Jay Z!  My favorite song by him, "Dirt Off Your Shoulder" (a close second being "Renegade" with Eminem), and his biggest, a lot of debates there, but when I saw him live two years ago, he closed with "Young Forever" which was shocking, because it should be "Hard Knock Life".  

Your thoughts?

Aaron: No big argument on Dirt Off Your Shoulder. That song is amazing...and my favorite. 

The lyrics were amazing, and I totally got street cred for knowing it. 

Street cred

As for his best? I think 99 Problems. It was ironically loved by white people who had none of those problems. A close second, IMO, would be New York State of Mind.

Jeff: You are pretty street.  Next on the list, Eminem!  I'm gonna go with Drug Ballad as my favorite, even though I don't really like Drugs.  Biggest song as we all know is FACK.  

It was just a huge anthem for 2000 and....wait.  Oh yeah.  Lose Yourself.  Biggest song he had, no question.  He owned 2002.  On an unrelated related note, super fan Kyle Kelly loves Kill You.  But not as much as he should love Patiently Waiting.

Aaron: Why wouldn't he love "Kill You"? It's great. For the record, picking my favorite Eminem song is like picking my favorite Jonas brother...difficult AF. 

His best is obviously lose yourself, and it's likely my favorite, but for funs sake, I'll pick a different one. There are literally 20 songs I could pick and I would feel good about every single one. My pick now, though, is Til I Collapse.

 There is an army cadence... there's a list...what's not to love?

Jeff: From that response, if someone had "No Love" I would be "Cleaning Out My Closet" and saying "Goodbye to Hollywood".  Puns.  I'm also gangster.

Also gangster...

Speaking of living puns, what happened to Kanye West?  He used to be the bomb.  Still is musically, but since he got Kardashianed, he sucks the big one.  Favorite Kanye song...Power.  A close second is Flashing Lights.  His biggest, probs Gold Digger?  

Which again, what the hell happened to him? 



Aaron: Well duh. Any song that holla's "we want Kleeman" is bound for success. I can't argue with Gold Digger, but I must say it's incredibly difficult to sing along to the song in public. We all know why. My favorite is All Falls Down. That's probably an odd choice, but it still makes random CD mixes to this date...great song.

Jeff: Nice choice, now in the best transition ever, we go from Kanye to THE BEATLES!  The best band of all time.  Biggest band of all time.  Best hair of all time.  



Favorite song I Am the Walrus, because I like lyrics that don't make sense.  Biggest song they have, gotta be All You Need Is Love right?  RIGHT!?

Aaron: Talk about a plot twist! Although, this makes sense, because I think Kanye discovered that Paul guy that's in the Beatles. 



This is harder than picking Eminem's best song. They are all great. So, I think I might need some Help!...see what I did there? All You Need Is Love is a great song, but I think Help trumps that one for sure. My favorite, though, is Yesterday. It's so calming...

Pew: OK, Jeff. Let me pick the artist this time. If you can give a plot twist, so can I. Let's talk about...Katy Perry. 



Katy Perry is like Nicholas Cage. I don't like her music, but I somehow like most of her songs. 



The problem with her is that her songs get overplayed and overhyped. There is one, though, that stands out. I Kissed a Girl is both my favorite and her best song. Any man that disagrees is a damn liar!

Jeff: I Kissed a Girl and I liked it!  I agree. That's my favorite song by her. One of a small few I like. Her biggest is that crappy California Gurls crap that fully neutered Snoop Dogg. 



Yuck town. Speaking of castrated, Madonna! Um I oddly really like Beautiful Stranger from Austin Powers. 

Biggest?  Strike a pose. Vogue. Vogue. 

Aaron: Let your body move to the music. It's hard to argue with that as her best, and you actually remember the 80's, I'll take your word on it. My favorite is Ray of Light.  It was a song that sounded awesome in my car. The bass was surprisingly good in that. While we're in the topic of pop icons, what do you think about Beyonce? 



My favorite is Sweet Dreams, but her best has to be while she was still with Michelle and Kelly. Say My Name, Jeff!

Jeff:  Pew (I said his name)!  Agreed on Sweet Dreams. Such a beautiful nightmare. Either way I...  I better stop there. Her biggest I believe is Crazy in Love. Although Becky with the good hair tried to ruin it. 



What we got left?  Taylor Swift?  



I knew you were trouble when you walked in bro. Best song. Biggest. Shake it Off?  I'm sure you'll hate, hate, hate that choice. 

Aaron: Taylor Swift, eh? I actually think I Knew You Were Trouble is her best, but my favorite is Never Grow Up. I pick this for two reasons. 1) it's not overplayed 2) my daughter. 



I challenge any father to listen to this song while with their daughter and tell me they don't like it. You just wait, Jeff...

Jeff: Haha but what if I have a son?!  Oh man. Parenting. Well if it's a Senorita I'll keep her away from our next contestant JT!  Favorite. What Goes Around...Comes Back Around. 

And his biggest. Cry Me a River. Man. All these songs about cheating, what's his deal?!



Aaron: What Goes Around is definitely my personal favorite. I remember how excited Rob Huckins was when we first heard that song. 



The transition is just amazing! His best has to be Bye Bye Bye...it may be cheating, but NSYNC WAS Justin Timberlake. Let's do one more! In honor of Cry Me a River, we'll do Britney, bitch. She peaked too soon with Baby One More Time. (Confession: I own that CD) My favorite, though, is definitely Toxic. The music video for that song made men out of a lot of teenage boys. So much glitter...



Jeff: Oh man. That video is ingrained in my head forever. I'll have to go with 3 which is another underrated hot vid. 



Biggest is Baby One More Time. And I have nothing punny to say because Britney would attack me with an umbrella. 



Aaron: Umbrella? Really? Are you trying to make me think about Rihianna? That's not good for my marriage. 



Umbrella is the best Rihanna song and by far my favorite and obviously her best. From the minute I heard the song, she had my heart and we'll never be worlds apart.

Jeff: Well we sure fell on that at the end didn't we?  We end in complete agreement.  Umbrella wins.  Which is more than I can say on our football teams.



Thanks for reading everybody!  I'm sure a lot of you disagree...or maybe agree.  If so, let us know.  

Til next time.

Kleeman/Pew or Pew/Kleeman