Underrated

Not many people have heard of Neil Innes. In fact, if you’re from the U.S. the only people who really know about him are Monty Python fans and a few others. Innes is one of the most underrated singer/ songwriters you’ve never heard of. To quote someone who left a comment on one of his videos, “Lennon is lucky Innes didn’t take himself more seriously.”

Innes is great at doing parodies, as well as singing his own “style” of music. He does songs that are “silly” but he also does “serious” ones. His lyrics are poignant, he can play a number of musical instruments, like piano, guitar, and ukelele very well. As a friend of the guys in Monty Python, he makes a few appearances in some of the last episodes of “Flying Circus”, as well as in their movies. If you’ve seen “Monty Python and the Holy Grail”, you will remember him as the squire who gets crushed by both the cow and the wooden rabbit. Poor Neil. :-/ A documentary about him is out, titled “The Seventh Python.”

Anyway, here are a couple of videos of his, I would encourage you to look up the rest of his stuff on YouTube.

“Boring”

“Drama on a Saturday Night”

Embarrasing Pop Music

In the late 90′s, pop music hit a new high. We had Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, N’Sync, the Backstreet Boys, etc. I think most people refer to that type of music now as “teen pop”. Whatever.

When this music was popular, I hated it. I thought it was horrible and annoying and I vowed to never to listen to it. I had friends with Britney CD’s and Backstreet Boys t-shirts yet I stood firm listening to Elvis Presley. However, I’ve had a change of heart… This music is catchy and actually pretty good. Whereas my 12-year-old self wouldn’t have been caught dead with this type of music, I have, at 19 years old, learned to love it. (It hasn’t taken the place of Elvis, nor will it ever.) I have a playlist on my iPod called “Embarrasing Pop Music” and its loaded with Backstreet Boys, N’Sync, Mandy Moore (who is still awesome, by the way), Justin Timberlake, Christina Aguilera, a couple of Britney Spears songs, and an assortment from CD’s I found at my house that are from the 90′s like “Radio Disney” and the “Pokemon Soundtrack”. It’s probably pretty obvious why the playlist is so titled. I don’t know of anyone my age who listens to this stuff anymore…

Britney and Christina have new CD’s out, and I’m sure they’re good, but they’re aren’t that catchy, cheesy “bubble gum pop music” that we have all at least secretly liked at one point in our lives. Sure, JT has his “SexyBack” but I still like “Cry Me a River” better… And N’Sync is better than Backstreet Boys, in my opinion…

What’s your favorite embarrasing pop song or artist?