I’ll be teaching the workshops below and going to see John Friend in Seattle so February is alllll bidness.  This will be the first, last and only BHHF for February; lots of oldies and goodies; check it, wreck it…

“Never Can Say Goodbye”, Jackson 5

“No”, De La Soul f. Elizabeth “Yummy” Bingham, one of my favourite singers

“Heard Em Say”, Kanye West f. Adam Levine

“Bust A Move”, Young MC [I had this on cassingle]

“Listen”, Talib Kweli

“Funky Cold Medina”, Tone Loc

“Good Life”, Pete Rock & CL Smooth

“Virgo”, Doug E Fresh, NaS and Ludacris

“Paris, Tokyo”, Lupe Fiasco

“Give Love A Chance”, People Under The Stairs

“She Said”, Pharcyde

“All I Need”, Al Green

“Me Myself and I”, Beyonce

“He Think I Don’t Know”, Mary J. Blige

“Lady”, D’Angelo

“Wild and Peaceful”, Kool and the Gang

“On The Couch”, Prince

Keep on till the early morn, even if your left nostril and sinus are plugged and you consist almost entirely of homeopathic zinc tablets. Yeah, I’ve caught whatever weird cold has been circulating but I simply couldn’t bear to give up the centrepiece of my teaching week. This one is a bit schizoid, inspired in part by some requests, some love songs, and also by a big brainstorming session that I had with M’s family where we talked about songs that crossed the supposedly impenetrable Rap v. Rock barrier. Enjoy!

INTRO to “Brothers Gonna Work It Out”, Chemical Brothers

If there's anything made of more pure win than this video, I haven't seen it

“The Lesson”, The Roots

“Release Yo’ Delf [Prodigy Mix]“, Method Man

“Walk This Way“, Run DMC & Aerosmith

“Sabotage”, Beastie Boys

“B-Boy Stance”, k-os

“Jurass Finish First”, Jurassic 5

“Everything Is Everything”, Lauryn Hill

“All Falls Down”, Kanye West

“Freedom”, Jurassic 5

“All That You Are”, The Foreign Exchange

“Geto Heaven Part Two”, Common

“Respiration”, Black Star

“Sunshine”, Handsome Boy Modeling School feat. just about every indieish Manhattan musician in the early aughts

“The Healer”, Erykah Badu

“Stay With You”, John Legend

“All I Wanna Do”, Jamie Lidell

Republicans vs. Democrats, Mac vs. PC, Trek vs. Wars, Big Rock Friday vs. Big Hip Hop Friday: shall we ever find peace? I was greeted with a subversively unyogic arena-rock chant at my last class: ROCK! ROCK! ROCK!/HIP HOP! HIP HOP! HIP HOP! [which, to be clear, doesn't really scan]. Don’t hate the MP3 playa, hate the game: in this case, the game that’s got us thinking these styles of music as are Radically Different as radio stations† and video channels would have us believe. Sure, they’re different, doy, but they’ve both been developing to extraordinary depths over the last coupla decades [Lupe Fiasco OMG!] and as my friend Mr. Goodtimes used to say, when you reject an entire genre of music it’s like cutting off one of your fingers. He was talking specifically about musicians, so if you happen not to play anything let’s say it’s like cutting off one of your ears. And you only have two: One for Big Rock Friday, and one for Big Hip Hop Friday. Heeeere we go…

This one ended up a) kinda jazzy and b) a lot of love songs and [Heh.] body related songs. Not intentional, just kinda happened. To address the vicious rumours that I have created BHHF to refer to Teh Buttocks more often, it’s TOTALLY TRUE: Take the tops of the thighs back. Take the inner groins back and apart. Balance this opening with the tailbone rooting down. The beatings will continue until morale improves

“Call My Name”, Prince

“Ready or Not”, Fugees

“Flute Loop”, Beastie Boys

“Around The Way Girl”, LL Cool J [I loved this song when I was a tween. I had a Vuarnet bath towel and the Rosie-Perez-esque black Lycra-blend sundress with the sunflowers all over it and the flip-top Dwayne Wayne sunglasses, o rly]

Shout out to high school French class

“Just A Friend”, Biz Markie

“Ms Fat Booty”, Mos Def

“Happy Valentine’s Day”, André 3000

“Superstar”, Lupe Fiasco

“Compromise”, Shad [Coming to Vancouver on Feb. 21!!!1!!oneone!!]

“They Say”, Common feat. John Legend

“Happiness”, Dead Prez

“Namaste”, Beastie Boys

“Letter from Yokosuka”, Nujabes

“Alright”, D’Angelo

“Take Your Time”, Al Green feat. Corinne Bailey Rae

“How Long Has This Been Going On”, Brad Mehldau

†I realize the plural of anecdote is not data, and any representative of Vancouver’s rock radio stations is welcome to set me straight on this point, but M reports having never heard either Bad Brains or Living Colour on CFOX or Rock 101, at least not since this whole telecommunications-buyout juggernaut. Contrast that with an abundance of Beastie Boys or Average White Band [who don't even play rock IMHO]. <sings> One of these things is not like the other, one of these things just isn’t the same…sigh.

Don’t call it a comeback. DO call it Power Yoga at 4 pm tomorrow…

Hey, I didn't say it, Mama did.

Common, “Intro [Finding Forever]”

Lyrics Born, “Callin’ Out”

Talib Kweli, “We Know”

Atmosphere, “Yesterday”

LL Cool J, “Mama Said Knock You Out”

Big Boi, “The Way You Move”

Common feat. will.i.am, “I Want You”

Pete Rock & CL Smooth, “T.R.O.Y. [They Reminisce Over You]”

Little Brother, “So Fabulous”

People Under the Stairs, “Montego Bay”

Al Green, “Just For Me”

Nujabes, “Reflection Eternal”

Mikah Nine, “Come Up Off Of My Love”

Remy Shand, “Everlasting”

Lauryn Hill, “Nothing Even Matters”

Jamie Lidell, “Rope of Sand”

Stevie Wonder, “If It’s Magic”

Can I kick it? Yes, I can.

Well, well, well…Happy New Year, blogosphere-dwellers! I threatened to change up our Big Fridays and the following was our Kickoff Playlist.

It’s sometimes hard to shift when you’re grooving on something and I do love and will miss Big Rocks [they will return, I promise]. But it’s good to remember that it was a change that started that whole thing, and so change [even though it's weird at first] is the only constant. Ya dig? Especially in a New Year. I am notoriously TERRIBLE at change. When my parents would drive me to camp I’d moan and whine all the way there, and then when they came to pick me up I’d weep piteously for a day and a half. And in spite of almost two decades between now and then, really I am as accustomed to my little routines as Evelyn is to hers. So I was nervous about unveiling this one.

Luckily I saw so many beautiful hip openers and challenging postures executed very well this afternoon; some smiling faces, some impromptu rhymes and R&B licks, and most importantly: rump shaking.

A Tribe Called Quest, “Bonita Applebum”

Dead Prez [No, really], “Hip-Hop”

Beastie Boys, “So What’cha Want” [A shout out to all my Raw Canvas NYE partiers]

Blackalicious, “The Craft”

Beastie Boys, “Body Movin’”

De La Soul, “Big Brother Beat”

Common, “The Light”

Common, “Funky For You”

Digable Planets, “Graffiti”

De La Soul, “Trying People”

The Foreign Exchange, “Happiness”

Curtis Mayfield, “Eddie You Should Know Better”

Eligh, “Riding Water Over Time”

D’Angelo, “Alright”

Aaliyah, “It’s Whatever”

André 3000 feat. Norah Jones, “Baby Take Off Your Cool”

Guitar solo!!11!

Yes, it’s true: this Friday December 19 @ 4 will be the last Big Rock Friday of this year, and potentially the last rock-only Friday for a while as I try out other genres and concepts. If you have any requests, let me know in comments; or if I know you in meatspace, shout them out loud.

This one was inspired by some of the many “You know what you should play? The Troggs/Boston/Dokken/Warrant &c. &c.” comments I’ve gotten after class.

Queen, “Forever”

Jimi, “May This Be Love”

Stones, “Gimme Shelter” [That moment where her voice breaks a little bit and you can hear somebody in the band whoop in the background: that's a great moment]

Guns’n'Roses, “Sweet Child Of Mine”

It's only Big Rock Friday, but he likes it.

KISS, “Shout It Out Loud”

Deep Purple, “Smoke On The Water” ["Sloooow motion Wallllter, THE FIRE ENGINE GUY"]

Big Wreck, “That Song”

Beatles, “Come Together”

Journey, “Send Her My Love”

Temple of the Dog, “Say Hello To Heaven”

Jimi, “Born Under A Bad Sign”

Beatles, “Across the Universe”

Beatles, “Sun King”

Hall & Oates, “Sara Smile”

Queen, “Who Wants to Live Forever”

Will we ever run out of ROCK? NEVAR!!!!1!1oneone!!

I’m leading up to a “Best of BRF ‘08” before New Years’, and then we’ll move into some other genres in ‘09.

Led Zeppelin, “Stairway To Heaven” [I LOL'd]

KISS, “Rock’n'Roll All Night”

Harsh, dude

Ozzy Osbourne, “Crazy Train”

Def Leppard, “Pour Some Sugar On Me”

White Stripes, “Seven Nation Army”

Heart, “Barracuda”

Def Leppard, “Love Bites”

Rolling Stones, “Ruby Tuesday”

Extreme, “More Than Words”

Procol Harum, “White Shade of Pale” [Live]

Supertramp, “Crime of the Century”

Rolling Stones, “Wild Horses”

Beatles, “Good Night”

Doop-de-doop, having a burrito, gettin’ ready for Big Rock Friday…

I think this one is my favourite so far. I’m bringing it back because I like it so much.

Hendrix, “And The Gods Made Love”

Not necessarily stoned, but, uh...beautiful

Hendrix, “Have You Ever Been [To Electric Ladyland]”

Hendrix, “Are You Experienced?”

Kiss, “God Gave Rock’n'Roll To You II”

BTO, “Takin’ Care Of Business” [CanCon]

Bon Jovi, “Wanted Dead Or Alive” [Yes, you're reading that right]

Van Halen, “Little Dreamer”

Beatles, “I’ve Got A Feeling”

Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble, “Little Wing”

Beck, “Ramshackle” [Kinda random but it seemed to work]

Sabbath, “Planet Caravan”

Floyd, “Us and Them”

Beatles, “Across the Universe”

Beatles, “Julia”

What I remember the most clearly from this Big Rock Friday was how intensely SWEATY the afternoon became.  Listen to these tunes and go deep….

Apache at the Cake Shop (h/t NewmRadio)

Floyd, “Shine On You Crazy Diamond”

Zeppelin, “Black Dog”

Sabbath, “Iron Man” [abs!]

Zeppelin, “Kashmir”

Journey, “Don’t Stop Believing” [!!!!]

ZZ Top, “Cheap Sunglasses”

Creedence, “As Long as I Can See The Light”

Zeppelin, “No Quarter”

ZZ Top, “Made Into A Movie” [This is a GREAT song btw.]

Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble, “Little Wing”

Sabbath, “Planet Caravan”

Floyd, “Wish You Were Here”