Tag Archive for: h2omp3

h2o mp3: Afraid of Water – Uranium Lake

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Have you ever witnessed the sheer terror that envelopes a person as they anxiously declare, “I’M AFRAID OF WATER!” Of course you have, and that’s why “afraid of water” is such a visceral allegorical phrase to express unreasonable, overwhelming fear. This track cleverly employs the phrase to express an aversion people and social situations.

This alt-pop group from Northwich/Manchester, UK has that jangly Brit sound that I love and it’s ready to roll on on my weekend playlist!

Play the track

[audio:http://thirstyinsuburbia.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/uranium-lake-03-afraid-of-water.mp3]

Download Afraid of Water – Uranium Lake

WOW, and thanks! This band generously offers a free download of this and other tracks via their MySpace Music page. So, sample more of their work and don’t forget to say thanks!

Lyrics (My transcription, so no guarantees!)

Don’t push me , No, cos I’m not ready

I’ll spend money if I want to, and I’ll sit home if I want to

Sit this one out, Sit this one out, Sit this one out, Sit this one out

until the next one

When the next one comes, I’ll see friends if I want to

that’s if I have friends anymore, they’re not so shallow

all so shallow, all so shallow, all so shallow, all so shallow

So I’ll talk to myself, it’s only way I, the only way to be sure

those whose conversations, don’t push me, no

cos I’m not ready, ? ? ?

don’t push me, no, i really don’t think you ought to, don’t push

I’m afraid of water, I’m afraid of water, I’m afraid of water

I’m afraid of the water

h2o mp3: A Pipe Dream and a Promise – Finale

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Such drama these past weeks for Las Vegas water watchers!* But what’s a good drama without a driving soundtrack?

It will surely be soon that we see the straight-to-DVD epic Mulroy’s List. Or better yet…the new reality series on Bravo, Launch my (Pipe)Line! Either way, we propose backing it with this 2009 track by Detroit rapper Finale, A Pipe Dream and a Promise.

Lyrics

My mother, my grandma, my grandfather
My brother, my sister, my girl
landlord, the bands and my compadres,
I promised the world the world that.
You only come up short (?) ere’time

My chase ain’t over, no,
I can’t take over, no,
I owe ya
Though I know it in my soul I’m not the only one I should owe,
You matter.
Rapper, that’s the ‘proach you go killin’ one on one for.

Play the track

[audio:http://thirstyinsuburbia.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/finale-a_pipe_dream_and_a_promise.mp3]

Download A Pipe Dream and a Promise – Finale
Low-fi 64kbps file for sampling.
Like it? Support the people who make music.on Buy this track at Amazon.com.

*For the best-of-the-best reading on the unfolding drama surrounding Las Vegas water, see: Emily Green at Chance of Rain, Waterwired, Aquafornia, and Circle of Blue.

h2o mp3: Water – Pit Er Pat

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Water and electronica fans, today is your lucky day! Thanks to @canadianwater on Twitter (led by Water Canada editor and Renaissance woman Kerry Freek) for pointing us to this terrific track.

Pit Er Pat is an L.A.-based duo (Butchy Fuego and Fay Davis-Jeffers) who use  vocals, guitar, synthesizer, drums, MPC, melodica, conga, cuica, and heaven knows what else to produce their arty-modern sound.

This track, premiered on Stereogum, was part of an song collection they wrote specifically for a European tour that has morphed into the about-to-be-released album The Flexible Entertainer.

Lyrics (My own transcription, so no guarantees!)

Drip drip drip, drop drop,
Drip drip drip, drop drop,
Tic a tic a tock you ask alot
Tic a tic a tock go ask a God
Tic a tic a tock ask a clock
tic toc it’ll make your body stop

I’ll tell you what it is to me
You show me what it is to be greedy
Do we have to wait and see
Or will you give up what’s free?

Drip drip drip, drop drop
Drip drip drip, drop drop
Tic a tic a tock you ask alot
Tic a tic a tock go ask a clock
tic toc it’ll make your body stop

I can see you dressed up for (?)
But me I’m not goin’ go easy?
I’ve seen your snake in the grass
clock says you’re not going to last

Play the track

[audio:http://thirstyinsuburbia.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/pit-er-pat-water.mp3]

Download Water – Pit Er Pat
Low-fi 64kbps file for sampling.
Like it? Support the people who make music. Buy The Flexible Entertainer here (Released 1/26/10)

h2o mp3: Suzy Snowflake – Rosemary Clooney

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A retro musical tribute to water’s most festive form! Rosemary Clooney’s 1951 version of Suzy Snowflake is an enduring and popular holiday tune. Break into your own acapella rendition of this song if you need to shake someone out of a crabby mood…works every time!

Lyrics

Here comes Suzy Snowflake
Dressed in a snow white gown
Tap, tap, tappin’ at your window pane
To tell you she’s in town

Here comes Suzy Snowflake
Soon you will hear her say
Come out everyone and play with me
I haven’t long to stay

If you want to make a snowman
I’ll help you make one – one, two, three
If you wanna take a sleigh ride (whee!)
The ride’s on me.

Here comes Suzy Snowflake
Look at her tumblin’ down
Bringing joy to every girl and boy
Suzy’s come to town

Play the track

 

Download Suzy Snowflake – Rosemary Clooney
Like it? Support the people who make music – buy this album or track at amazon.com.

Bonus animated Suzy! If you’re from the Chicago, Illinois area you might also be familiar with a 1953 cartoon-short based upon the song. Made with super-cool-at-the-time stop-motion animation, the film became a treasured annual Christmas tradition for countless children who grew up in the Chicagoland area.

 

h2o mp3: Drop of Water – School of Fish

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This Boston-based college-rock band School of Fish made a splash with their first 1991 effort but were less successful with their second 1993 album Human Cannonball, from which Drop of Water comes. The band disbanded in 1994. Even sadder–frontman Josh Clayton-Felt then released a solo album in 1996 before succumbing to testicular cancer in 2000 at the age of 32.

Lyrics:

It’s too quiet in my head
I’m not dead, I’m alright
And nothing makes much sense
It was immense to sleep tonight

There’s a rope hanging from the sky
I don’t know why I hold on
The place I used to know
It’s all gone

Hold my breath til I don’t need it
It’s only true if I believe it
To disappear at any minute
In a drop of water
In a drop of water
In a drop of water
In a drop of water

Play the track

[audio:http://thirstyinsuburbia.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/09-drop-of-water.mp3]

Download Drop of Water – School of Fish
Like it? Support the people who make music – buy this album or track at amazon.com

h2o mp3: I Washed my Hands in Muddy Water – Elvis Presley

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When Elvis recorded the 1971 album Elvis Country (I’m 10,000 Years Old), he was successfully resurrecting his music career after being mired in a endless rut of Hollywood B-movies. In fact, that year Presley was named ‘One of the Ten Outstanding Young Men of the Nation’ by The Jaycees and the City of Memphis named part of Highway 51 South “Elvis Presley Boulevard”. A star was reborn!

Lyrics

I was born in Macon Georgia
Met my dad in the Macon jail
Daddy said “Son, if you keep your hands clean
You won’t hear them bloodhounds on your trail”

But I fell in with bad companions
Killed a man up in Tennessee
Sheriff caught me way up in Nashville
They locked me up and they threw away the key

I washed my hands in muddy water
I washed my hands but they didn’t come clean
I tried to do like my daddy told me
But I must have washed my hands in a muddy stream

I asked the jailer when my times up
He said “Son, we won’t forget
But if you try to keep your hands clean
We may make a good man of you yet

Play the track

[audio:http://thirstyinsuburbia.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/elvis-presley-11-i-washed-my-hands-in-muddy-water.mp3]

Download I Washed my Hands in Muddy Water – Elvis Presley
Low-fi 64kbps file for sampling.
Like it? Support the people who make music. Buy this track at amazon.com

h2o mp3: We Still Drink the Same Water – Teitur

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Teitur is 34-year-old singer-songwriter Teitur Lassen, who the NY Daily News described as “The Norse Whisperer.” He was born in the Faroe Islands, a lightly populated groups of islands between Iceland, Scotland and Norway. It is a place, he says, that is “an idyllic place for kids to grow up, because people can always see the water from wherever they are.”

We Still Drink the Same Water is from the 2008 release The Singer. The album has been called quiet, beautiful, harsh and contemplative, very natural and somehow Nordic sounding. It’s also been called melancholy, self-indulgent and unstructured, so you decide! This is a painful track about coping with the loss of a relationship.

Lyrics
I might take a holiday,
I need to get out of my own way and put an end to all of this running away.
I’m thinking that we might as well quench our thirst and get up where we fell.
Since we float in the same well we still drink the same water

It’s still the same, nothing has changed.
We still drink the same water.

Play the track

[audio:http://thirstyinsuburbia.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/teitur-westilldrinkhesamewater.mp3]

Download We Still Drink the Same Water – Teitur
Low-fi 64kbps file for sampling.
Like it? Support the people who make music. Buy this track at iTunes or Amazon.com.


h2o mp3: Pouring Water On A Drowning Man – Otis Clay

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Otis Clay is 67 years old and still serving up the soul, performing his brand of R&B and gospel all over the world. Mississippi-born but now a long-time Chicago resident, Clay is a well-known community leader on the city’s West Side, giving tons of time and talent to efforts that help create economic opportunity with initatives that help people give back to the community where they live and work.

This track is from 1970 from the album Atlantic Unearthed: Soul Brothers.

Lyrics:
You push me when I’m falling
And you kick me when I’m down
I guess I missed my calling
Cause I sit up in a cloud

How much more
How much more could I stand
When you’re pouring water
On a drowning man

Play the track

[audio:http://thirstyinsuburbia.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/10-pouring-water-on-a-drowning-man.mp3]

Download Pouring Water on a Drowning Man – Otis Clay (3.1 MB)
Like it? Support the people who make music! Visit www.otisclay.net or buy this track at iTunes or Amazon.

h2o mp3: I Love the Rain the Most (When it Stops) – Joe Purdy

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We’ve had a wet few days here in my ‘burb, but now it’s clear…an ideal time to share American folk artist Joe Purdy’s song I Love the Rain Most (When it Stops). If the 2004 song sounds vaguely familiar, maybe you’re a Grey’s Anatomy fan; the song was featured on an episode of that ABC series.

Lyrics

Well, I love the rain the most when it stops
We can see the big white houses, yeah, and the docks
And we can jump in the river, don’t know if the water or sky is clearer
But I know that I love the rain the most when it stops
Yeah, when it stops

No more grey today, we gonna celebrate
You know Miss Sunshine, she starts to paint a perfect picture of this river parade
And I know that I love the rain the most when it stops
Yeah, when it stops

Well, the dark waves, they start singing together
I can’t believe this change in the weather
I start to hum a child’s rhyme
And all these boats, they start rocking in time
And I love the rain the most when it stops
Yes, we love the rain the most when it stops
Yeah when it stops

Play the track

[audio:http://thirstyinsuburbia.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/16-i-love-the-rain-the-most.mp3]

Download I Love the Rain Most (When it Stops) – Joe Purdy
Low-fi 64 kbps mp3 file for sampling
Like it? Support the people who make music. Buy this track at iTunes or Amazon.com.

h2o mp3: Rain Dance – The Very Best (with M.I.A.)

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Some great drought-busting tribal-pop!

“The Very Best” is East African (Malawi) singer Esau Mwamwaya and producer duo Radioclit (Johan Hugo and DJ Tron/DJ Shark Attack). The track Rain Dance, featuring hit-making heavyweight M.I.A., is from their brand-new album The Heart of Africa.

A great collaboration, too, since M.I.A. (from Sri Lanka) is noted for tribal-ethnic beats and dance-driving repetition.

Much of Mwamwaya’s vocals in Rain Dance are in Chichewa, the language of Malawi. Love that rain-stick intro!

From The Very Best’s MySpace page,

Esau Mwamwaya was born in Mzuzu in Malawi, East Africa. He grew up in the capital, Lilongwe, where he played drums in various bands such as Masaka Band. He was a good friend of the legendary Evison Matafale and they played together for several years before he was killed in Malawi police custody in 2003.

In 1999 Esau Mwamwaya moved to London, England ran a second-hand furniture shop in Clapton, East London until setpember 2008 when he returned to Malawi.

Esau’s shop was on the same street as Radioclit’s old studio, and after the Radioclit boy’s bought a bike from Esau they invited him to one of their house warming parties They made friends and started working on music together. Three years later and the project has gotten it’s name The Very Best.

Play the track
[audio:http://thirstyinsuburbia.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/very-best-rain-dance-w_-mia.mp3]

Download Rain Dance – The Very Best feat. M.I.A. (6MB)
Like it? Support the people who make music! Buy the album Warm Heart of Africa at iTunes or Amazon.com.