Little Boots - New in Town

Little Boots Official Site

Meet the adorable Victoria Hesketh. This doe-eyed little thing is crafting some fun electro-pop that just kind of NEEDS to be used in prepping for a night out.
Featured in the film Jennifer's Body and Joss Whedon's Dollhouse television series, Little Boots is popping up all over the place!
My favorite thing about this pixie-sized performer? She plays the friggin' Stylophone AND the Tenori-on! Seriously? She's even been filmed for a documentary about the Stylophone.
Enough about all of this nerd music stuff. Enjoy 'Little Boots' singin' her first big pop single from the UK, 'New in Town'!


Enjoy, check out the rest of her stuff on the official site (where you can get a TON of free samples of her work) and let her know that you heard about her from Tijuana Taxi!
Take care!

Parry Grip - Num Num Num Song

I'm going out on a limb to include this with the Christmas songs I'll be posting throughout the month. How does this count as a Christmas song, you ask (or don't ask because it's really not something you may even care enough about to ask in the first place)? Here comes the monkey from my butt to deliver a reason.
During the Christmas season, you make appearances at a lot of parties, right? These parties all have food, right? When you eat good food it makes you say 'num num num', right?
I could be totally wrong here of course. But whether I'm right, you're wrong, I'm wrong or you're wrong? Here's a little song you can get everyone to sing around the next gathering of inner fat children that inhabit all of us during most of the year.
Note: Holiday season is NOT the time to hide your inner fat-kid.
Enjoy the song.

Christmas Polka - Chuck Picklesimer

Alright. One more before I hit the sack and the sun comes up (it's currently 4am and I can't sleep). For all of you drinkers that need something to dance to when the inebriation sets in at the party of your choice. I suggest you play this to help make being drunk more fun than it actually is.

OGNIB'S REPORT--"A fun Christmas song"

I've had WAY too much Mountain Dew Voltage tonight. Apparently little people seem to be the subject of my Christmas novelty searches tonight. Instead of little people like Scruffy the Elf, I'm heading out of this world to introduce you to Ognib the alien as he reports back to his people about Christmas on Earth. Don't ask. I can't answer your question.
Oh...and the owner of the channel disabled embedding? Really? You DON'T want people to spread your song? Wow.
Ognib's Report - A fun Christmas Song

Corey Doak - Scruffy the Elf

Sure we hear how about how magical all the Christmas brouhaha goin' on at Santa's shop is. But just like most of OUR jobs? I'm sure there's a darker side to the whimsical world appearance we all know and love when it comes to the Jolly Fat Man's toy shop.
Not more than a second after that thought crossed my mind, my fingers hit the keyboard and WHAM! Scruffy the Elf answered all my questions about the elves we DON'T hear about.

GottaBeAndrew - It's Christmas

December's here and nothing says it's Christmas time more than GottaBeAndrew's song reminding us of just that. Upon hearing this song, I came to the realization that it will forever be my OFFICIAL Christmas theme song from his day forward. I just don't know what to say but listen. Somehow this little guy's song works its way into your heart and you'll want to do some 'fake walking' through town while singin' what I predict will become a Chritmas classic!
Ladies and gentlemen, GottaBeAndrew. Thank me later.
Help Andrew by purchasing his song for .99 at: GottaBeAndrew.bandcamp.com

Future Thanksgiving Standards

Because of a self-induced, mashed potato coma, I never posted any possible future Thanksgiving Day songs that you and your loved-ones might want to glance lovingly at one another and sing. The following song is NOT one of those songs.
For all you guys out there who've been expelled from the kitchen or who've tossed yourselves in front of the television for the duration with some of your other man-friends? Here's YOUR song:

Bigedude33 - The Thankful Thanksgiving Song (Boobies and Beer, not Adam Sandler's)


Being as how the backbone of his blog is the celebration of novelty music in the vein of Dr. Demento, THIS song is EXACTLY the kind of stuff you'd expect to find here....and here it is:

Totally Jeremy - Turkey Murder


While this isn't the best T-Day song by any means, those same guys locked out of the kitchen and getting nostalgic about the 'good old days' will find this whole video easy on the eyes. And the song's kinda cute too.
Whatever Hollywood - Thanksgiving Song


MC Hammer Parody - Can't Stuff This


While we're 'dishing out' the parodies (yes, it was totally intentional), here's another serving.

Thanksgiving Song - Eat On



Adam Sandler - Thanksgiving Song
While it's not the original video(because of copyright), here's a random vid with the audio.


To end this year's Thanksgiving song list, I'd like to present you with a catchy little song from Bison Films that's one of the few Thanksgiving songs that's NOT called 'Thanksgiving Song'. Instead it's called 'Gobble Gobble' and it goes like this:

Spencer the Gardener - Gobble Gobble


That wraps up our Thanksgiving posts for this year! If there's a Thanksgiving classic that you and YOUR family can't wait to gather 'round, lock arms, hold hands and sing like some kinda bad '80s sitcom feel-good end-song just before the credits? PLEASE send me a link and we'll make sure that everyone gets the opportunity to add yet another 'dish' (yeah...did it again) to the constantly expanding palette of Thanksgiving Day future-classics!
Happy Belated Thanksgiving Day everyone and take care,
Tijuana Taxi

JC Van Luyn - Turkey Town (Original Thanksgiving Song 2009)

Over the last couple of weeks I've been posting unique or relatively obscure Christmas songs to a friend of mine on his Facebook page. This friend has THOUSANDS of Christmas songs and even takes an entire week off during Thanksgiving in order to decorate his home while jamming to his favorite winter tunes.
That got me thinking about Thanksgiving and why there aren't any 'turkey day' standards that we all gather 'round the mashed potatoes to rejoice in song.
After some clickety-clacking (this is a euphimism I use for typing because of the sound fast typists' fingers make on the keyboard) on YouTube, I discovered a small, wicker cornucopia of Thanksgiving songs that will either make you smile a little or make you wish I'd never even bothered.
Here's the first for tonight as the midnight hour approaches and the unofficial 'Fat Kid Day' prepares to assault us with my favorite thing to eat...FOOD! LOTS of it!

Check out his channel here: JC Van Luyn's YouTube Channel

Jack Savoretti - Dr. Frankenstein

Official Site: Jack Savoretti

I'd never heard of Jack Savoretti before. After typing various classic old-school monsters like the wolfman, the mummy and dracula into Songza with no really interesting discoveries, I gave Frankenstein a shot. If it wasn't for Frankenstein, I would never have had the opportunity to listen to Jack Savoretti and that, my friends, would've been a damn shame. Savoretti's voice is just hard to resist. Sounding like someone who's just beginning to develop a world-weary wisdom that we'll all live vicariously through, Savoretti will take you to places both personal and magical. After listening to just a couple of songs, I'm truly enjoying the man's work. He's one of those performers that you'll almost immediately want to listen to for those days when you've got a lot on your mind and you just kind of want to mentally set sail to clear space for your thoughts on life during a lazy afternoon on a beautiful day.
I know it's a week late, but I just HAD to slip in a nod to my favorite holiday before it became too late.
Just thought it was funny that I discovered something so beautiful because of a monster.
Happy belated Halloween everyone!

Those Transatlantics - In Your Neighborhood

Official Site: Those Transatlantics
Those Transatlantics are just some fun, catchy, well-written pop candy. Love'em! Formed in Michigan around 2003, the TT are a little band that I wish more people would find out about. Those Transatlantics simply seems to be one of those bands that's going to have its little clandestine following but will continually fly under the rader of the general public.
Enjoy the great video awesome hook of "In Your Neighborhood".

Haysi Fantayzee - Shiny Shiny

Official Fan Site: Haysi Recollections
Just thought I'd turn on the nostalgia machine tonight. As I'm digitizing my vinyl collection, I'd almost forgotten that I owned this! Way back in 1981 Jeremy Healy and Kate Garner along with Paul Caplin created the 'undergroundish' group Haysi Fantayzee. While the group did really well overseas, even breaking into radio rotation, they just never quite caught the mainstream over here in the states for some reason. The only place you could find them was on Mtv's 120 minutes late on Sunday night and that didn't last for longer either. It's rare that I get nostalgic about a band, but Haysi just sort of fit that unique mold that causes them to never quite break out beyond a few ears. Whether singing about the apocalypse or John Wayne's racism, the band's lyrics were probably the thing that kept them a little inaccessible to the mainstream audiences here in the states.
If you're interested in what ever happened to these 'interesting' looking performers, check the links below to see what they're currently up to.
Ladies and gentlemen? Haysi Fantayzee!

Kate Garner
Jeremy Healy

Polyphonic Spree - Running Away

Official Site: Polyphonic Spree
Because I felt bad for posting such a heavy-handed, kinda moody post last time concerning one brilliant Amanda Palmer, five minutes later I decide to post this song by the Polyphonic Spree. Consisting currently of 23 members, this Dallas band performs what they like to call "choral symphonic rock". "Running Away" is the kind of song you put on either like a silly kid goin' to some big event like prom for the first time or when you're older to just forget all the things that begin to weigh you down in this world. It's one of my favorite songs of what I like to call "friends having a good time together montage". You'll see what I mean when you hit play and imagine photos from the past collaging in your head. I've also used this song to show, again in montage, the remodeling of our first home. Somehow the song just kinda fits change when we share that change with friends and loved ones. The video for the song is also a montage. During a ten-day period that the band was on the road, over 70,000 still shots were taken to create what you're about to watch.
Hopefully you'll enjoy this palette-cleansing song and accept my apologies once more for the previous posts' tone.
Let me know if the song inspires YOU to make a slideshow or montage of your own! That'd be kinda cool to see!
Take care,
Tijuana Taxi

Amanda Palmer - Oasis

Official Site: Amanda Palmer
This girl, brought to my attention because only because I follow her current beau, Neil Gaiman (yes, THAT Neil Gaiman) on Twitter, has just completely floored me! I LOVE intelligent, strong women with a sturdy opinion and a ferocious sense of who they are, but also have this enchanting, unique charisma that draws you to them sort of like when you see a rainbow off in the distance. Never before have I been so taken in with lyrics, skill at the piano and personality than I have with Palmer. This whole thing may sound biased. Take a listen to the words the girl speaks. You'll know what I mean. There's a brutal honesty that most of us hide from those around us. It's an honesty that, if we could all articulate instead of being so scared to reveal, would make all our lives better for it. While this blog covers mostly pop-type bands, once in a while an artist comes along that you just HAVE to share with others. Amanda Palmer is one such artist.
Below you'll find the addictively 'poppy' Oasis. The second video dwells on a much more serious subject. Just listen to the words and each one of you will find something different and very personal in those lyrics. The third video I highly suggest you watch. It's Amanda Palmer, in a bar, with a ukelele performing an impromptu version of Radiohead's Creep. If, for some reason, you doubt my rambling about her charisma? Just imagine yourself doing this! Would YOU have that special something enough to quiet an entire bar of rowdy drunks? Would YOU be able to make a moment like this happen? We all know we're creeps in one way or another and that we're just tryin' to fit in somewhere...anywhere. Palmer is just letting you know that it's okay because there are others just as lost as you.
Next post? Maybe in the next five minutes? Something MUCH less heavy. Don't be angry with me, please. I just felt that everyone should get a chance to hear this amazing performer in all her modes!
Enjoy and take care,
Tijuana Taxi
Enjoy the beautiful, stunning and way-too charismatic Amanda Palmer.

A personal moment of remembrance and other peoples' hopes for you.

I posted the Invisible Cities link just a moment ago and said it the melancholy feeling I was experiencing. Why the melancholy? Today I came home from work to find a large, flat package on the kitchen counter addressed to me. Upon opening it, I just stood there in disbelief and a wave of sadness brought tears to my face.
Several months ago I was informed that a teacher I'd had in high school, Mr. Allison, had passed from a heart attack. I was saddened by the loss of someone who believed in all of his students no matter how idiotic they could be at times. In 1987, I'd drawn a really bad caricature of Ronald Reagan for some class project. Mr. Allison really enjoyed the drawing and asked if he could hang it on the wall of the trailer that was our classroom. I had no idea that that picture would hang there for the next twenty-two years.
It was that drawing that I was now holding in my hands. They'd started going through his trailer to clean things out and found the drawing. My mother, who works at the school, was given the picture by co-workers who thought I'd like to have it back.
I never knew just how important that simple, badly-drawn image would be two decades later.
This is for you Mr. Allison.
Toad the Wet Sprocket - Nothing Is Alone

The Invisible Cities - Watertown

Tonight I'm feelin' kinda melancholy. Listening to The Invisible Cities' song, Watertown just seems right tonight. If you'd like to hear more of them, you can actually download their entire album for free. Visit them at their official site: The Invisible Cities for more information and the free download. Make sure to leave a comment letting them know that you found about them from Tijuana Taxi and this blog. I'd appreciate it! Enjoy!

Monsters Are Waiting - The Last Goodbye

Since 2005, Monsters are Waiting have been putting out some really dreamy indie-pop that just makes me wanna open the windows all over the house on a cloudy autumn day to hear lead singer Annalee Fery's voice mix with the rain and distant thunder. Andrew Clark's (guitar/bass) riffs remind me of much older bands like New Order, Flesh for Lulu and Echo and the Bunnymen. Trust me, once you start listening to the little band from Echo Valley, California...you won't stop. Here's one of my favorites, The Last Goodbye from their first full-length album, Fascination. Please visit their official website and purchase their stuff. Make sure you let them know you found out about them from this blog and Tijuana Taxi! As always enjoy and care,
Tijuana Taxi

Dent May & His Magnificent Ukelele!

Our first selection. Meet Dent May and his Magnificent Ukelele! If "Oh, Paris" doesn't win you over, you're a cold, cold person. One of my favorite songs to just put on anytime. Enjoy!
Dent May Sites:


Dent May MySpace
Dent May Blogger

Welcome and clean your wax out!

At the early of eight years old, my ears accidentally stumbled across the song Poisoning Pigeons in the Park by Tom Lehrer. Upon continued listening, I realized that the song was part of a four-hour radio program called Dr. Demento. Every Sunday night on the Los Angeles-based rock station KMET, Dr. Demento spun novelty songs that I'd never heard of. While most people were content listening to the radio, Dr. Demento's show made me realize that there were people all over the world who were making fun, kitschy songs just for the sheer enjoyment of it. Even more important than knowing people were creating novelty songs, was knowing that so much more music existed outside of my radio dial than I'd ever imagined. Ever since Dr. Demento, my tastes in music have been spread over quite an eclectic palette.
On top of my taste for random music is that fact that I'm a sound junkie. Sounds of thunder, samples of interesting percussion instruments, old sci-fi films with buzzes and blips and old-school monster movies fill my audio library. Since everything's gone digital, I've pared my collection down drastically. Regardless, I just can't seem to ever stop listening to everything from personal diaries on cassette recordings to novelty songs about giant cockroaches.
Since I'm eliminating a lot of my physical inventory of sound effects and music, I thought what better way to share my love of odd sounds, interesting music and other strange audio than by posting it blog-style. Being someone who LOVES to share most everything I own with people, I feel that this might be really enjoyable to post about.
To sum up this rambling mess, I'd just like to say "hello", hope you find some things you enjoy, please leave comments, enjoy and most of all? Take care.
Tijuana Taxi