A few days ago while we were on the cruise, we heard the song, “Rich Girl” by Gwen Stefani, Eve, et al. Now I’ve heard this song before many times – heck I’d even say that I like it. The interesting thing is that this time we were with Nicole’s parents and they instantly commented on how similar it sounded to “If I Were a Rich Man” from Fiddler on the Roof. And I instantly realized that they were right (I’ve listened to bits of Fiddler on the Roof but it was probably, I don’t know, 20 years ago). That gave me a new-found respect for the song and for its authors Gwen Stefani, Eve, Dr. Dre., and several others. It’s amazing to me that they could take a 40+ year old song from a Broadway musical about Russian Jews and make it into an amazingly catchy and popular pop song. Heck, I’d imagine that most of the teenagers listening to this song have no idea of its heritage.

My wife has been playing the latest CD from Death Cab for Cutie quite a lot in the car and I’ve liked it but haven’t been knocked out by it. We saw them on Friday at the Greek Theater in Berkeley (my wife won free tickets on the radio a few weeks ago) and it was surprisingly enjoyable. They are an excellent live band and they sound much more rocked out live than on their album, which perhaps was produced with a bit too much polish. It was also interesting to see that most of the band members can play each others instruments in addition to their own. Most surprising was to see lead singer Ben Gibbard playing the drums – it turns out that he actually plays drums on some of their albums as well.

I guess it just goes to show you that there’s no substitute for live music.

Better Than Ezra was once one of my favorite bands. “Deluxe” and “Friction, Baby” were two of my favorite albums. “How Does Your Garden Grow?” was a huge disappointment for me, although I grew to like it a little bit more over time, at least some of the songs. I confess that I didn’t even buy “Closer”.

Today we were in the car and we heard this incredibly annoying discoey song with an irritating melody and a super high male falsetto voice apparently called “Juicy” and I wondered who performed this awful song. The high falsetto voice initially made me think Gnarles Barkley, but as the song progressed, I knew that wasn’t right. I was shocked to hear the song again this evening and the DJ announced that it was Better Than Ezra. Huh? The same band that did “Good” , “Desperately Wanting”, and “This Time of Year”??? Yep, “Juicy” is the first single off their new album, “Before the Robots“.

Sheesh – what happened to Better Than Ezra? They started out as a rock band and they seem to have a totally different sound now. I’m hoping it’s just a phase. It wouldn’t be the first time a band tried a different sound, crashed and burned, went back to their original sound, and continued to make good records. Remember “I Was Made for Loving You” by Kiss?

Hopefully, this isn’t making me sound like too much of an old timer. Following along with the “Juicy” theme, I wouldn’t be surprised if this post gets me flame-broiled by a bunch of MySpaceans.