I haven’t done one of these music blog posts in quite a while, but as I was watching everyone Tweet about Geekend, I felt compelled and inspired to wipe the dust off the ole blog and actually do some blogging!

These are some of my favorite songs at the moment. Take a listen and let me know what you like. My hope is that you’ll find something you haven’t heard before. It’s all about discovering new music. So enjoy. :)

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Anya Marina – Satellite Heart

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I’ve always liked Anya Marina, so when I discovered that she was a part of the “New Moon” soundtrack, I became very giddy..and then a little sad that she and other beloved Indie darlings had sold out to the hormonally crazed teenage wasteland that is the Twilight saga. Don’t get me wrong, I love the books just as much as the next 30′something mother, but I’m officially over the hype. I get it…Rob Pattinson is hot and merely looking at his hair impregnates girls. I get it…Kristin Stewart hates all of you and thinks you’re all stupid and she couldn’t act her way out of a wet paper sack…but she’s gonna take your money anyway. I get it…anyone over 16 who likes the books or the movie are considered losers by the snotty teenage girls who spend Mommy and Daddy’s money on Edward Cullen panties and go around begging him to bite them on the neck…then accuse us older ladies of being weirdos. Gotcha. I’m…over…the…hype! Just let me enjoy the books, don’t ruin the movies, and keep all those angry little teenage girls away from me, okay?

So yeah, back to Anya. I love the raw emotion she puts into her songs. Her voice is so amazing and unique. And despite the fact that she has this little Twilight stain against her, I still adore her because of songs like this.

Fefe Dobson – I Want You

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You know, I’ve never been a fan of Fefe Dobson. It’s not that I didn’t like her music, I just sort of looked over it and could never really get into it. But when I heard this song in a commercial for the movie “Whip It”, I was like, “Ohhh…must have precious”. Now I’m the biggest Fefe Dobson fan. Girl can rock! I’m such a Johnny-Come-Lately at times.

I should add that the “Whip It” soundtrack is going to go down as one of my favorite movie soundtracks of all time. There’s a lot of really great music, so if you get a chance, check it out. Also, I took one of those Facebook quizzes and my Roller Derby name is: BRAWLY VENDETTA. How badass is that?

Franz Ferdinand – Bite Hard

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Those of you who listened to Episode 103 of Sound Check with CK will recognize this as the song that started out the Dizzy Girl episode. I’ve always been a big FF fan and the song was sort of perfect for the episode. It rocks my socks. Oh and if you haven’t listened to Episode 103, then you really need to. I picked some really great songs, if I do say so myself. *grins* And while you’re over there, check out all of the past shows. If you’re a fan of good music and you’re not listening to it, then you’re really missing out. Sound Check is the best music podcast on the net…period. I tell no lies. ;)

Holly Conlan – You Are Goodbye

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I’ve been singing this song for weeks now, so it only made sense to include it.

The Brooke – Under the Milky Way

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There’s been a lot of covers of this song over the years, and while none of them come close to the original by The Church, I will say that this is probably my favorite of the covers. The Brooke is a fairly new discovery for me, but I have to say, I’m loving her covers, especially “Stray Cat Strut” and “Landslide”.

Sia – Under the Milky Way

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Heard this a couple months back in a commercial for Lincoln MKT and got really excited. I love Sia, I love this song, and oddly enough, I love car commercials that feature Indie goodness. It’s the small things in life, ya know? :)

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I think it’s only fair that I throw The Church into this post, seeing as two covers of “Under the Milky Way” are included. Here’s the video for the original, full of bad 80′s music video effects, Aqua Net, and cheesy hipster sunglasses. God, I miss the 80′s.

About a month ago, my long time blog buddy CK asked me to put together a playlist of 10 songs for his music podcast Sound Check. If you follow me at all over on Twitter, you’ll know that I’m a huge supporter of the show. So of course, I said “yes”.

If you love good music, then you really need to check out the show. CK does a lot of classic rock, music from the 80′s and 90′s, and he throws in some new stuff from time to time. There’s a lot of listener involvement in the show and requests make up a good portion of the show, and CK encourages everyone to take part. In short, it’s really the best music podcast around and I encourage you all to take a listen.

So back to the playlist…

I started adding all of these songs that I wanted others to hear. Seeing as my episode – Episode 103 – was going to be in October, I thought, “Okay, I’m going to find 10 of my favorite spooky songs” to add a theme to the episode.

That list lasted about five minutes.

So I scrapped that last and decided that I was going to put together a list of my all-time favorites. So I started adding songs and the list got to 10…then 20…then 30…then 32 songs! Um…yeah, this was going to be a problem. You see, I can’t just pick ONE favorite song, I’m just not capable of doing it. And yes, I have a core group of favorites, but there were other songs that I wanted to share. And some of the songs I wanted to share had already been played in previous episodes, and seeing as I didn’t want to repeat myself, I had to take them out. Hmm…that’s a problem.

This list last lasted about five days.

That’s when I decided that I was going to add some of my favorite songs, some of my favorite artists, and some songs that I love that Sound Check listeners may not have heard before. Twenty or thirty revisions later, I finalized a list and sent them in and here we are…Episode 103 of Sound Check, the very first installment of the Check List series. Huzzah!

The songs below the cut are all of the songs that you’re going to hear in the episode. I’ve given an explanation of why I picked each song. You’ll also find a list of songs that didn’t make the cut that I REALLY wanted in the episode, but had to cut them for one reason or another. There were a lot of my all-time favorite songs that I didn’t add. I started out with these songs, but I have to say, the entire process was organic and it really took a life of it’s own. I plan on doing a blog post here in the next few with my list of all-time favorite songs, so if you’re interested to know the ones I cherish more than anything else, you can keep checking back. A few songs from this list are included in this episode, but like I said, I either didn’t add them because they had appeared in a previous Sound Check episode or I took them out because I didn’t want to disrupt the “flow” of the show.

So I hope you all enjoy the episode. I’d love your feedback on the music and the show in general. You can leave one here or over at the Sound Check homepage. And thanks again to CK for inviting me to do this. It was a blast!

Click the cut below to see more about the songs I picked…and didn’t pick.

(more…)

Instead I threw together some music that I’m currently listening to. Have a great weekend!

Ah, the Summer of 09. Which one word will define it? What one event will it be remembered for?

Will it be the crazy town hall meetings and the pompous attitudes of our ELECTED officials and the MSM towards those voicing their 1st Amendment rights? Maybe. I did learn that WWII vets and little Aunt Betty with her walking stick and fresh baked apple pie were dangerous thugs. They were also un-American brown shirts and the REAL enemies of the state. Thanks Nancy Pelosi…you dick. I also learned that dissent is only patriotic when Liberals do it, that it was only acceptable between years 2000-2008 for people to carry swastikas and paint Hitler mustaches on pictures of our President, and that when you run out of talking points you throw around the words “racist” and you just bite off the fingers of those you don’t agree with. Sweet. God bless America.

Just a note: it’s NEVER acceptable to carry around swastikas and compare the President to Hitler. Also, it’s not racism when people disagree with the President. Stop throwing that old battered card around please. K? Thnx.

Maybe it’ll be the celebrity deaths, like Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, Billy Mays, Sen. Ted Kennedy and DJ AM? I know I’m forgetting someone, but to tell you the truth, I can’t remember everyone that died this summer. Besides, according to the blogs and media, no-one else mattered except for the King of Pop. Poor Farrah. I’ll probably miss you the most.

Maybe it was just the humid, almost unbearable summer heat and crazy summer storms that drove most of us in South Georgia inside.

Oh wait, that was the invasion of Queen Miley on Tybee Island. She’s not my favorite celebrity, but I do have to give her this: she genuinely loved Tybee and Savannah and I never heard a bad word about her or a member of her crew getting into trouble or being divas. She just sort of hung out, ate our good Southern food, and brought throngs of screaming teenage girls and one crazy ass psycho stalker with her. She’s welcome back any time.

As for me, I’ll remember the Summer of ’09 as one of the best summers of my adult life. We spent time at the pool, we ate watermelon and played in the mud. We chose to stay away from the crowds and camp out near the Savannah Wildlife Refuge to watch the 4th of July fireworks.

My son befriended a llama and was licked by a pony.

I met a really cool Australian who was riding across America on horseback trying to revive the days of John Wayne and the Wild West.

We adopted a kitty that we named “Monkey”. I took my very first dolphin tour – something I’ve been wanting to do for years. We hung out in cemeteries and the Savannah Wildlife Refuge, giving our cameras good exercise and trying NOT to get eaten by alligators.

We lit sparklers and danced around the yard like a bunch of crazy people…and we loved every single second of it, despite being broke as a joke and with not a pot to piss in. It was all about family.

(Click on the thumbnails for a larger version)

But now it’s almost Labor Day and the end of summer is officially upon us. As much fun as we had, I can’t say that I’ll miss it too much. I enjoy the Fall weather and I’m ready for cooler temps. Also, my favorite holidays are this time of the year. So I’ll be seein’ ya, summer. It was fun. Until next year…

These are the songs, in no particular order, that got me through the sticky Summer of ’09. Just click on the little blue arrow next to the song and enjoy.

P.S. What was your favorite memory of the summer?

I’ve always been a fan of CMT’s “Crossroads”,which for those of you who have never seen the series, brings together a country act and an iconic rock singer or band. In the past, amazing artists have been paired together such as Wynonna Judd and Heart, Elton John and Ryan Adams, Lindsay Buckingham and Little Big Town, Melissa Etheridge and Dolly Parton, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, and Steve Earle and Rosanne Cash, just to name a favorite few. The newest “CMT Crossroads” features Georgia boy Jason Aldean and one of my all-time favorite singers, Bryan Adams.

Now, I’m not what you would call a typical country fan, preferring older country stars like George Strait and Johnny Cash to Tim McGraw, and Americana and Folksy artists like Kathleen Edwards, Neko Case, and Gillian Welch to the Faith Hills and Martina McBrides of the genre. I admit it, I’m a bit of a snob when it comes to music. I know what I like and what I don’t. And if I don’t, I tend to thumb my nose up at artists who sell out to the pop crowd and abandon their hardcore fans for a little fame and money. I’m looking at you Faith. I think you should just keep it real and be honest about your music, whatever genre it may be. If you have to bleach your hair and start doing Cover Girl commercials to sell a few albums which aren’t very good to begin with, well then you should take a break and re-evaluate where you want to be. But that’s another post altogether, so I’ll try to get back to the point.

In all the country “fluff”, I’ve found that I really enjoy Jason Aldean. He’s got a little more rock in his country, which appeals to me, and he actually sings songs with substance and real life. He’s got a distinct voice that sets him apart from the other country guys out there. So when I found out that he was doing “Crossroads” with Bryan Adams, I jumped up and down with pure joy. I listened to Jason sing “Heaven” with tears in my eyes, thinking of the first time I heard Bryan Adams sing it, and remembering how young I was at the time. I Tweeted about it, which led to a Twitter conversation with Jimmie. We started sharing favorite Bryan Adams songs, which led to Rolling Stones, which led to me thinking about my love for music and the artists I admire, which led to this post. I swear to you, I was only going to blog about the episode and then hit “Publish”, but before I knew it, I had written all of this.

I guess if I’m going to make this a proper post about my love for music, I should probably start from the very beginning. My Mom likes to tell me the story of how she would put headphones on her belly when she was pregnant with me and how I loved music as a baby. I grew up listening to a lot of different kinds of music and I have to give credit to my family for shaping most of musical tastes. From my Dad, I grew up with a deep appreciation for artists like Patsy Cline, Fats Domino, Elvis, and George Strait. From my older brothers and sisters, I was introduced to the Eagles, Rolling Stones, Tom Petty, Bread, Led Zeppelin, and Fleetwood Mac. And growing up in West Virginia, I was surrounded by a lot of bluegrass and gospel, so I knew who Bill Monroe, the Stanley Brothers, the Whites, and the Carters were.

Every year that I got older, I developed my own tastes which included everything from Ella Fitzgerald to David Bowie and Depeche Mode to Dean Martin. I wasn’t born with a musical bone in my body, much to my ever present disappointment, but I’ve always appreciated it. Not just appreciated, but absorbed and breathed in. I just couldn’t get enough of it. I spent hours reading liner notes on the back of albums and from tapes, which has led to a sort of a photographic memory when it comes to music. I’ve always been able to ramble off random music facts, such as dates and artist history and crazy little things like “so and so” sang backup on this song or “this song was released in this year and it peaked at this position on the charts”. Even today, I’ll literally spend hours on Wikipedia reading up on musical history. My husband has always picked on me about this weird catalog of musical history and facts in my brain. If I could find a way to make a million bucks off of it, believe me, I would. It’s pretty useless information unless they ever revive “Rock and Roll Jeopardy”.

I can remember with perfect clarity where I was and what I was doing when certain songs come on the radio. For instance, I remember the first time I heard “Sweet Dreams” by Patsy Cline. I was five years old and I was pretending to be asleep in my room as I listened to my Dad put the record on in the living room. My Dad was a bad alcoholic and we never knew when he was going to bust into our rooms in a fray, so we didn’t sleep well at night. So I was lying in bed, awake and alert and listening to Patsy, and feeling the emotion in every syllable she sang. I spent a good hour sobbing like a baby in my bed feeling like I had just had my heart broken for the first time. After that, I became completely obsessed with Patsy, her music, and her tragic death. I can’t remember what I had for breakfast yesterday, but I can remember crying to Patsy Cline for the first time.

The first record I ever owned was “The Best of Bread”, a hand-me-down from my sister. The first tape I ever owned was “Touch” by the Eurythmics, another hand-me-down from my sister. The first tape I ever bought with my own money was the Eagles’ “Their Greatest Hits (1971–1975)”. I was 10 years old. The first CDs I ever bought with my own money were Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumours” and the Eagles’ “Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975)”, which replaced the tape which I wore completely out. I was 14 years old. The first mp3 I ever downloaded was Bonnie Raitt’s “Love Me Like a Man”. Again, I couldn’t tell you what I did an hour ago, but here I am rambling off my musical firsts.

My dream job has always been to own my radio station so I could play the songs that I love. I remember being nine and ten years old and having handwritten playlists for every day and I would make mix tapes of music and play them according to my playlist, complete with “Classic Rock Blocks” and requests, which usually came in the form of my Jem and Rainbow Brite dolls.

When I turned 14, I knew for sure that I wanted to go into radio. I started my first job at J104 and KICKS in Bluefield when I was 17 and when I moved to Savannah in 1996, I worked at 98.7 The River and 94.1 WCHY. I enjoyed working at The River more than I did WCHY, only because I got to play the music that I grew up, like Tom Petty and Fleetwood Mac. I left radio in 2001 after the birth of my son and never went back because of the use of automated music and cross-country announcers, which made local DJs pretty much obsolete. My dream is to still own my own radio station, or radio stations, and if I ever win the damn lottery or have some mysterious rich uncle kick the bucket and leave me a ton of money, I’ll get back in.

So the entire point of this very long blog post is basically about my lifelong love affair with music and how the smallest thing, like seeing a video of Jason Aldean and Bryan Adams sing “Heaven” brings back a flood of memories of all the artists I’ve grown up with. And it’s artists like Bryan Adams who have been there through every step of my life, teaching me about first love, soothing my soul after breakups, and teaching me a little about life. And it’s a testament to how extraordinary they are as musicians that we’re still talking about them today and remembering the first time we heard them.

On that note, I’ll end this blog post. Any of you who actually read this thing in it’s entirety need to be commended for sticking it out. As a reward, I give you this…the video that created this blog post and the 15 minutes you’ll never get back. :)

Click here if you have problems viewing it.

And the original…

Guess who’s covering the Savannah Music Festival’s Neko Case concert tonight for SPOTTED at the Trustees Theater? Me! Me! Me! I’m so very excited about this. Neko’s been on my famous “list of people to see in concert before I die” for years now and I never thought I’d actually have the chance to mark her off my list. So when the opportunity came up a couple weeks back, I jumped at it. See Neko Case for free? Um…yeah!

I’ve blogged about Neko in the past, but if you’re still living under a rock somewhere in BFE and don’t know who she is, well…then I just feel bad for you. No really, I do. Have you not been paying attention to me at all? I throw really juicy bones your way and I expect you to take your time and chew on them a bit…get to the meat inside. Kudos to those of you who have been paying attention or took the time to check out Neko from any one of my previous music posts. I applaud your good taste.

Still in the dark about Neko? Here’s what you need to know.

She has a head full of flaming locks, the haunting voice of an angel, and the vocabulary of a sailor. In short, she is all that is awesome and good about music and totally my kind of broad. You won’t catch her music on any of the local radio stations, which shows you right there why they lack in the taste department and why I don’t listen to any of them. But make no mistake, Neko’s the real deal, despite the lack of local airplay or airplay in general. Those who know and appreciate good music, and not this Miley Cyrus pop crap that we’re being force fed every single blessed day, will appreciate Neko’s haunting lyrics and almost ethereal lilting voice.

You know, I’m just going to go ahead and say it now, even though it hasn’t happened yet. This concert’s gonna kick so much ass! Stoketh I am.

I suggest poking your head out from under that damn rock and checking out the following links:

http://www.nekocase.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neko_Case
http://www.myspace.com/nekocase

I’ve thrown together a salad, I’ve got two smoked chickens and a slew of redneck neighbors with enough fireworks to keep me entertained for hours. In short, I’m so ready for the New Year!

I made some resolutions last year and I broke most of them. I did try though, so that counts for something, right? My goal was to lose 100 pounds. I lost 50. I gained 40 back. Damnit. I tried to stop cussing…yeah…that lasted like two seconds. I wanted a better job…I got it…then had to give it up because my boss was crazy. So you see, I really do try to do better, but it just doesn’t work out the way I want it to.

This year, I’m going to recycle all of last year’s resolutions and make a new one to just stick to them. I’m going to do better this year, I promise. It’s going to happen. Right? Right. Absolutely. Not going to give in. *deep sigh*

I’d like to say “thanks” to all of you who continue to read my blog, even when I go weeks without updating it. Some of you have been here for years and you don’t know how truly blessed I feel that you keep coming back. I hope you’ll continue to stay.

Some of you are new readers and I’m just as grateful for you. I hope that you’ll go back and read my older posts and stay for future ones. Maybe you’ll find something you agree with me about…maybe you won’t.

In any case, I’m thankful for the feedback you all leave, and while it may take me a while to respond, it doesn’t go unread and it’s certainly appreciated. So thanks for making Dizzy Girl what it is. :)

Here’s hoping that 2009 brings you and I both prosperity, fine health, and good fortune. Let’s look to brighter days and better tomorrows and endless opportunities.

Cheers.

2008…you sucked a big fat one. Good riddance.

To ring in the New Year, here’s some music. You know the drill. Listen…enjoy…download…purchase…wash…rinse…repeat.

- DO NOT STREAM!
- Right Click/Save Target As.
- Files will stay up for 24 hours and then they’re gone forever. Please delete these from your computer. Don’t want the “Music Nazis” after you do ya?
- If you like the music, purchase the CDs! Keep the music flowing people.
- A bloody “thank you” would be nice.

Right. Learn it. Know it. Live it.

Diana Krall – What Are You Doing New Years Eve

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U2 – New Years Day

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Chris Bathgate – Auld Lang Syne

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Jo Stafford – Auld Lang Syne

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