KID KOALA PLAYS THE SCALA 22/FEB/13 bit.ly/VIo1XS Feeling sad in winter? The unbearable oppression of steely grey skies getting you down? Need a bit of love and colour in your life? You need a night with KID KOALA at his VINYL VAUDEVILLE show, an absolute explosion of colour, sunshine, sick beats and - most of all - silliness. Puppets, robots, dancing girls, paper airplanes, kazoos, limbo contests... yes yes folks, this show's got it all. If you can't wait until then, Kid Koala himself has swung by Soundcrash Towers to bestow upon us his choice of ten tracks to Banish the Blues... ten to keep you sane until the days start to get longer and the snow starts to melt. Over to Kid K himself to explain his choices: 1) 'I Am Blue' by Grover from 'Grover Sings The Blues' This is Grover from Sesame Street crooning over a little piano ditty. Frank Oz who voiced Grover also voiced Yoda from Star Wars. It's fun to listen to this song thinking that Yoda is hanging out in a bar singing to himself. That'll chase your blues away quick! because no matter how bad it gets, at least you're not 800 years old and still hanging out in bars. 2) 'Chase Your Blues Away' by Funkhouse Express. I know, kind of an obvious one for this list's theme, but I couldn't resist. Play this on your headphones at the grocery store, walk through the aisles and throw everything you see in the cart. Then leave the cart at the door. That'll cheer you up every time. 3) 'Blue Room' by Ella Fitzgerald. This was Corinne and my first dance at our wedding. It's got perfect lyrics for newlyweds. Actually it was a medley of this song into 'Rockit' by Herbie Hancock. The deal was if she was going to make us dance "all sophisticated like" on this jazz number we would have to end up dancing 'the robot' as a finale. True story. 4) 'Blue Monday' by New Order. I grew up listening to New Order. I just bought the 8-bit Emulator II keyboard which I've been told they used to make some of the tracks from that era. It runs on floppy diskettes. The first diskette I booted up had the beat from this tune on it with the double time kick drum. It was crazy. Incidentally, this is also the same sampler Ferris Bueller used in the film Ferris Bueller's Day Off. He loaded it with cough and sneeze samples to help him sound ill over the phone in order to get out of school. I am looking for that disk with the coughs and sneezes on it. If any of you have any leads let me know. 5) 'Blue Sunday' by The Doors. This song was released before 'Blue Monday' 6) 'Eclipse/Blue' by Nosaj Thing feat. Kazu Makino. from the album 'Home' which was just released a couple weeks ago. Go get it! 7) 'Blueberry Hill' by Fats Domino. This is instant smile making music right here. Try to get the 78rpm version for all you gramophone owners out there. Nothing like it. 8) '6 bit Blues' by Kid Koala. I was encouraged to work this song into the Vinyl Vaudeville show by the people at the label as this was one of their favourites off of '12 bit Blues'. Seeing as it's waaaay too slow to dance to this number has been turned into a bit of a puppet opera on stage complete with singing robots, choir girls, sound engineers, and foam synthesizers and microphones. 9) 'She found now' by My Bloody Valentine. This song doesn't have the word 'blue' in the title but the album cover is blue so there you go. Gorgeous tune. 10) '2 bit Blues' by Kid Koala. Now the soundtrack to the infamous kazoo battle at the Vinyl Vaudeville show. Vinyl Vaudeville version 2.0 promises bigger puppets and more silliness. Guaranteed! As I write this list the prop/set/puppet makers are currently building a 80 foot robot dragon. It's gonna be crazy! see you at the show. We will also have turntable trampolines. Also true story. The End. Stay tuned at the end of the playlist for a sneak-peak at the Vinyl Vaudeville show!