Imagine a song like Klymaxx's "I Miss You", Lillo Thomas' "Wanna Make Love (All Night Long)" or TWENTY ØNE PILØTS' "Heathens" being on your mind for five to ten minutes straight. None of those songs might be your favorites, but it wouldn't be the end of the world either way because they didn't stay on your mind for long. Now imagine the equivalent of hearing the same song stuck in your brain space for nearly nine hours straight. If you tend to be on the depressed side of the game or you're not wrapped too tight, then you might look a little more at that nearby bottle of Bacardi 151 to drown your sorrows and/or even a revolver to put yourself out of your misery. While the No. 1 song in this month's "Get Out of My Brain!" Countdown didn't quite put me in that mindset, I believe you all have a better idea of what I deal with from month to month. With seven brand new culprits and three repeat offenders ranging from residual Christmas music to a few shameless plugs, let's kick off 2017 with some insanity and I don't mean Shaun T...
Once the Thanksgiving turkey sandwiches subsided, I cared about one thing: when would I hear that first Christmas song to make the holiday season official? What I'm about to say is guaranteed to both validate and increase the amount of gray hairs in my goatee: today's generation is missing out when it comes to Christmas music. Not only is most of the new stuff often swaggerless retreads of classics, but you darn near have to wait until Christmas Day to hear the radio play anything seasonal and it seems like only the adult contemporary stations play Christmas music at least most of the day. Although I was more excited to wake up early in the morning to open presents with Big Little Brother Scribbler, one of the greatest joys of Christmas was tuning into WHUR 96.3 FM and hearing Christmas music from sunup to sundown while having some memorable moments with the fam. So in the spirit of the season--and because I haven't done a new edition of this series for two months now--allow me to share five songs I must hear to feel like the Christmas season has arrived decked with boughs of holly, sleigh bells and inappropriate mistletoe placements...
Have you ever had a hankering for food and watching TV or going on social media only intensified your cravings?!?! Because I worked on Labor Day, I missed my last opportunity for a summer cookout--not like I was invited to any cookouts, but still--and had a taste for some BBQ ribs. Of course, what was one of the first pictures I see on Facebook from somebody's cookout? That's right: a delicious looking slab of BBQ ribs sprawled across the grill--and the brother looked like he knew what he was doing. Add insult to injury, I DVR'd both General Hospital and Atlanta, watched them two days later and what did both episodes feature?? What else...ribs. In fact, they didn't even show the ribs on GH; all they had to do was mention ribs and I was ready to head to Port Charles. Sadly, it took me nearly three weeks to satisfy the basic craving and nearly a month to get a super-tasty half rack of baby back ribs. (MORE RANDOMNESS: as I typed that, I thought of Fat Bastard from Austin Powers in Goldmember singing, "I want my baby back, baby back, baby back, baby back, baby back...ribs." You did, too. Admit it.) As long as I don't have to see anybody post pictures of sushi anytime soon, then I'll manage with that craving for another week before I have to buckle down for a Volcano Roll. Now that I've made your mouth water--which is becoming the new theme over D.C. Metro and PBS Kids--let's get to the madness...
At one point, I know y'all probably thought this series should be renamed "The WMATA Chronicles" because of my 31-years-and-counting obsession with D.C. Metro. However, as much children's programming as I've been exposed to over the past two years, maybe I should consider rebranding this "Memoirs of a Pitiful Big Kid". So remember my edition of "RANDOM THOUGHT ALERTS!!!" when my crazy brain connected Ramone aka Mr. "I Do What I Can" from PBS Kids' Peg + Cat to Project Pat's "Out There Part 2" skit from his Mista Don't Play - Everythangs Workin album? Welp, the ignorance has resurfaced once again. One morning when I was getting ready for work, PBS Kids' "Where in the World Is Hooper?" came on in between shows. After Hooper the Hamster gave all of his clues per the usual, asked the kids "can you guess where I am" and then said "you guessed it", you probably can deduce which popular "trap" song of the past two years came to mind..."B---h u guessed it...HWAH...u was right." So it's official: I can't watch PBS Kids without thinking about Project Pat, OG Maco and other ratchet rap songs. I mean, Hooper does moonlight as a fake-me-out DJ if that means anything at all regarding the connection in my mind between him and rap. (BTW, saying the words "fake-me-out" gave me an idea for a future random thought, but I digress.) Let's get on with the rest of this mess...
The beauty of the "Get Out of My Brain! Countdown of the Month" is threefold. On one hand, there are songs that you have absolutely no problem with occupying your brain space. On the other hand, there are others that have no business being there at all and make you question your self-proclaimed impeccable taste in music--particularly whether or not you ever had any in the first place. On a third hand loaned from some stranger on the street for the purpose of making my point, you could start off a month thinking that you're gonna have a few repeats from last month, but the vast treasury of music combined with the randomness that has always been your mind takes over. To the last point, The Manhattans had a really strong chance to be the first repeat spot holders with "Wish That You Were Mine", but that whole first time for everything thing will have to wait at least another month. So enough of the introductory fluff...let's discuss this month's space invaders...
