Category Archives: Music

Saturday video break: Random acts of culture

Posted on December 11, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

The Hallelujah Chorus, performed in the Philadelphia Mall: I’m nearly as impressed by the mall’s architecture as I am by the performance itself. I feel compelled to note, however, that the HC is technically an Easter song, not a Christmas … Continue reading →

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Friday random ten: Christmas favorites

Posted on December 10, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

I’m going to take a brief break from the Top 500 Songs lists to dip into Christmas music, since it’s that time of year. I was inspired by this Statesman story in which a number of their features writers contributed … Continue reading →

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Friday random ten: The top 500, part 4

Posted on December 3, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

Continuing on with the songs in my collection from the Rolling Stone Top 500 list. 1. I Heard It Through The Grapevine – Marvin Gaye (#80) 2. You Really Got Me – Van Halen (#82, orig. The Kinks) 3. Every … Continue reading →

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Friday random ten: The Top 500, part 3

Posted on November 26, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

Continuing on with the songs in my collection from the Rolling Stone Top 500 list. 1. Long Tall Sally – The Beatles (#56, orig. Little Richard) 2. A Whiter Shade of Pale – Annie Lennox (#57, orig. Procol Harem) 3. … Continue reading →

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Special Thursday video break: It’s not the name of the restaurant, it’s the name of the song

Posted on November 25, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

You can get anything you want at you-know-where: I did this last year and figured I’d do it again this year. Happy Thanksgiving!

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Friday random ten: The Top 500, part 2

Posted on November 19, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

The next ten of my songs from the Rolling Stone Top 500 list: 1. Sympathy For The Devil – Blood, Sweat, and Tears (#32, orig. Rolling Stones) 2. River Deep, Mountain High – Ike & Tina Turner (#33) 3. You’ve … Continue reading →

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Saturday video break: If there were a Top 500 list for videos…

Posted on November 13, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

…then this one would have to be in it, for its excellent use of Dick Van Patten among other things: Having seen Weird Al perform live a couple of times, I can tell you that the cheerleaders and the singing-with-a-mouth-full-of-water … Continue reading →

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Friday random ten: The top 500, part 1

Posted on November 12, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

So I was surfing around the other day and I came across this Rolling Stone article from 2008 that listed their opinion of the Top 500 rock songs of all time. Which made me wonder how many of those songs … Continue reading →

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Saturday video break: The 90s started out a lot like the 80s

Posted on November 6, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

Last night, Tiffany and I went to “Feast with the Beasts”, the Houston Zoo’s annual fundraiser. The special musical guest was the Spin Doctors, her favorite band from back in the day. That would be circa 1990, when the music … Continue reading →

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Friday random ten: It’s not the end of the world, but you can see it from here

Posted on November 5, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

No matter what you think, what happened Tuesday wasn’t the end of the world. But if you still feel that way, here are ten songs to take to the end of the world with you: 1. Party At Ground Zero … Continue reading →

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Friday random ten: Dia de los Muertos

Posted on October 29, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

Dia de los Muertos is what we celebrate after Halloween around here. In honor of that, here are ten songs about death. 1. And When I Die – Blood, Sweat & Tears 2. The Car Hank Died In – Austin … Continue reading →

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Friday random ten: The World Serious

Posted on October 22, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

The World Series begins next week, so here are ten World songs to commemorate it: 1. All Around The World Or The Myth Of Fingerprints – Paul Simon 2. Another World – Joe Jackson 3. Credit In The Straight World … Continue reading →

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KTRU deal signed

Posted on October 16, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

Just in time for Rice’s homecoming weekend. [Wednesday] afternoon, Friends of KTRU announced they had been informed that Rice and UH have signed an agreement to transfer the station’s ownership, and have retained the law firm of Paul Hastings in … Continue reading →

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Friday random ten: Gone too soon

Posted on October 15, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

This month marked the 40th anniversary of Janis Joplin’s death, as well as what would have been John Lennon’s 70th birthday. Both were taken from us far too soon. Here are ten songs by some other people who left this … Continue reading →

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RIP, Mark Stevens

Posted on October 12, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

Mark Stevens, one half of the Stevens and Pruett radio team, has passed away. Stevens spent 40 years in radio but enjoyed his greatest success in partnership with Pruett, first as Hudson and Harrigan at KILT (610 AM) beginning in … Continue reading →

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Saturday video break: Happy birthday, John Lennon

Posted on October 9, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

He would have been 70 today. Feel old now? We all do shine on indeed.

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Friday random ten: Playoffs

Posted on October 8, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

October! Cooler weather! Baseball playoffs! Songs that have the word “play” or “off” in them! Gratuitous exclamation points! 1. Evil Woman Don’t Play Your Games With Me – Crow 2. Foul Play – Robert Cray 3. A Passion Play Edit … Continue reading →

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Saturday video break: How my college experience could have been improved

Posted on October 2, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

On the one hand, it’s probably a good thing that I attended college in the (dark, prehistoric) days before cable TV and the Internets. With fewer shiny objects to distract me, it was easier for me to get most of … Continue reading →

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Friday random ten: Fall back

Posted on October 1, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

We’ve finally had our first taste of fall weather this week, which around here means high temperatures under 90. In honor of that, some fall songs (and one autumn song). 1. Autumn In New York – Harry Connick 2. Another … Continue reading →

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Saturday video break: They live inside of my head

Posted on September 25, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

The MOB performed an arrangement of Cheap Trick’s “Dream Police” during last week’s show. Not too surprisingly, none of the current students in the sax section had ever heard of the song before, though they did like it. So I … Continue reading →

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Friday random ten: One hit wonders

Posted on September 24, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

We recently added the Phineas and Ferb soundtrack to our collection of kid-friendly music. It included the extended version of “Gitchi Gitchi Goo”, the boys’ One Hit Wonder song. With that in mind, this week’s list is a sample of … Continue reading →

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Friday random ten: Hope, faith, and belief

Posted on September 17, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

The Houston Texans defeated the Indianapolis Colts in their season opener this past Sunday. That was only their second win in 17 attempts against Payton Manning and company, and it’s got the local fans thinking that maybe, just maybe, This … Continue reading →

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Friday random ten: Cover me

Posted on September 10, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

In last week’s Houston Chronicle, in their Thursday Entertainment section, there was an article about the author’s ten favorite cover songs. I was going to link to that as the basis of my Friday Random Ten, but for some bizarre … Continue reading →

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Friday random ten: That’s just crazy

Posted on September 3, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

So I was sitting with my laptop trying to be inspired for this week’s Friday list, and it occurred to me that the girls had been driving us a little crazy all weekend. And thus was I inspired. 1. Crazy … Continue reading →

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What about the classical music?

Posted on August 31, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

This Chron story adds a dimension to the KTRU debate that I haven’t seen discussed before. Classical music fans in the city’s southern and western suburbs may not be able to hear the station intended to serve their interests. “It’s … Continue reading →

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Saturday video break: RIP, SRV

Posted on August 28, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

Twenty years ago yesterday, August 27, 1990, the world lost Stevie Ray Vaughan in a helicopter crash. Here’s a double shot of Stevie to commemorate him and mourn his loss today. And of course, the greatest public service announcement of … Continue reading →

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Friday random ten: Talk the talk

Posted on August 27, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

If you follow this blog for things other than random music, you know that I do a lot of candidate and officeholder interviews around election time. In honor of all that talking, here’s ten songs about talking: 1. Ain’t Talkin’ … Continue reading →

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The KTRU rally

Posted on August 22, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

The Houston Press, which has largely owned this story, reports from today’s rally to save KTRU. Early this afternoon, protesters met at Valhalla, Rice’s on-campus pub, to make signs and t-shirts for the protest before marching as a group to … Continue reading →

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KTRU rally

Posted on August 21, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

For those who are into that sort of thing. Join us in a peaceful, non-violent protest to Save KTRU this Sunday, 2:00 pm at Rice University, in the Academic quad in front of the statue of William Marsh Rice. The … Continue reading →

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Friday random ten: Grade one

Posted on August 20, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

Olivia starts first grade on Monday. I wanted to find ten songs with the word “First” in them to honor the occasion, but I didn’t have even half that. So, next best thing, ten songs with the word “One”, for … Continue reading →

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Reactions to the KTRU sale

Posted on August 18, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

Unsurprisingly, the Rice community is not happy. “We are totally opposed to the sale,” said Joey Yang, a junior at Rice and program director of the station, which relies upon student and community volunteers for its eclectic music programming. “This … Continue reading →

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UH buys KTRU

Posted on August 17, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

I’ve never been a regular listener of KTRU, but as a Rice partisan and someone who thinks radio in general is too bland, this is a bit of a shock. The University of Houston is planning to buy the radio … Continue reading →

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Saturday video break: Playing with the speed of time

Posted on August 14, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

I love OK Go videos. From the description: “The fastest we go is 172,800x, compressing 24 hours of real time into a blazing 1/2 second. The slowest is 1/32x speed, stretching a mere 1/2 second of real time into a … Continue reading →

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Friday random ten: 25 and up

Posted on August 13, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

For the third and final entry in my numeric theme list, here are ten more songs with numbers in the title, starting with the number 25: 1. When I’m 25 or 64 – Jonathan Coulton 2. Section 29 – The … Continue reading →

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