I don't think the Pentagon was really trying to develop a gay bomb. I think it was just a marketing ploy to sell more Erasure and Madonna records. Or maybe you have a diffferent theory? Tonight's lnmc contest is to find the 5 gayest songs ever recorded. Here's one that strikes me as... pretty gay:

Send your list of 5 really gay songs to downwithtyranny@aol.com and win a musical package that transcends sexuality (although... admitedly, if you have any gay friends on your Xmas list...) The prize: a COLOR ME BARBRA dvd (including fabulous bonus poster!) and a rare-- never sold-- promo CD for OUTFEST, the 19th Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Film Festival which has 15 songs by a wide range of artists from Nick Cave, Stevie Nicks, Book of Love and Enya to Ennio Morricone, Depeche Mode and New Order.Congratulations to James for winning the Pearlman/Sony Rock On contest. Thanks for being part of the LNMC Community!

"Soul Kitchen" is supposedly about a soul food restaurant Jim Morrison used to hang out at in Venice (CA); I never bought it. The song came out on the eponymous debut Doors album in 1967. Exactly ten en years later, John Doe, Billy Zoom, Exene Cervenka, and DJ Bonebrake got together in the Doors' old hometown and started a band, X. They recorded this frenetic cover of "Soul Kitchen" for their 1980 debut LP, Los Angeles. And you remember who produced that punk masterpiece, right? Right, Doors keyboard player Ray Manzarek. The next year X released their second album, Wild Gift, another masterpiece. I figured I'd through in "When Our Love Passed Out on the Couch" from that album onto tonight's LNMC Sunday two-fer.

(guest blogged by Howie Klein)

Easy contest tonight. Just weave these two random songs together into a little news story-- could be about anything; use your imagination-- and you could win a 2-CD set of the ESSENTIAL GEORGE JONES. The songs are "Windy" by The Association and "House of the Rising Sun" by The Animals. Send your entry-- not too long-- to downwithtyranny@aol.com

LNMC story of the night: I went to see John Hammond play at the Cafe Au Go Go in Greenwich Village in the middle 60s and he had this amazing guitar player, Jimmy James, who played guitar with his teeth. After the show I went over and asked him to come play at my school and he said he would love to but "these fellas," pointing to some Animals, who he introduced me to, were taking him to London to be in their band. He didn't stay in their band long and he didn't keep that Jimmy James name long either. He started his own band and when he returned to America, he did come and play my school, immediately.

(Nicole: Nonny's last guest post for the LNMC was so popular, I asked her to contribute another)

I have a confession to make: I like drums. I mean, I really like drums. There is something deeply primordial about the pounding rhythm of a drum, which just possibly may be the oldest musical instrument in the world since Homo erectus first did a solo riff with a couple antelope femurs on a rock, a la Stanley Kubric's version of Also Sprach Zarathustra. It may be the only musical instrument to be native to every single country and civilization on earth, and found everywhere from the poshest symphony orchestra to Rastafarian bongos on the beach. I love drums.

But there is one sort of drumming I don't like - the constant beat of the war drums coming from the White House. So tonight's challenge is to post links to any joyous, rhythmic drum or percussion work, from every country around the world, anything that gets your buttocks twitching in your seat, foot stomping, thigh slapping, heart thumping, get up on your feet and embarrass the neighbourhood kids by shaking your bootie, and shouting for joy. Drown out the drums of war.

And to get you started, here are two very different, very jubilant pieces that I hope you like as much as I do. The first is a performance by the amazing Top Secret Swiss Drum Corp at the 2006 Edinburgh tattoo:

And the second is by an artist who is a particular favourite of mine, Australian Tommy Emmanuel, whose virtuosity with just a single guitar is quite simply mindbogglingly awesome:

It's Valentine's Day, that ultimate in created holidays. While I'm not a big fan of fake holidays as a rule, I want to break that tonight to dedicate tonight's LNMC to my husband, who has been extraordinarily supportive and patient with all my added hours helping my friend, John Amato here that could have gone to spending time with him.

So for my best friend, my sweetheart, the love of my life, here are the Beatles: In My Life, which was the song we selected to play at our wedding.

So tonight's challenge shouldn't be too much of a challenge. Set aside the cynicism, the bitterness, the frustration of six years of the Bush administration and simply dedicate a song to the person you love.

Ever watch a movie and go "Meh" but absolutely fell in love with the soundtrack?

I happened to catch the Steve Carell vehicle "Dan in Real Life" last week on cable. When I'm working, I tend to keep the TV on as background noise (occupational hazard of being from a big family and having kids--silence is distracting). Normally, I tune it out, but I found myself completely entranced by Sondre Lerche's music. It was quirky, charming and really deserved a much better movie than the one in which it was featured.

Wish I could recommend the movie, but I do strongly recommend the soundtrack.

Any other movie soundtrack knock you out?

Yglesias has a fairly convincing post arguing for LFO's "Summer Girls" as the worst hit song in history.

In the course of human affairs, people sometimes write bad songs. Indeed, we have no real idea how many bad songs are written and go unheard. But sometimes a really bad song becomes a widespread radio hit. And one dark summer, LFO’s “Summer Girls” was just such a song. A song that I believe to be the worst hit song ever recorded...

Matt's got a point, as these lyrics are appalling:

Fell deep in love,but now we ain't speaking

Michael J Fox was Alex P Keaton

When I met you I said my name was Rich

You look like a girl from Abercrombie and Fitch

After some careful thought, this song does make it high on the list, but does not displace my longstanding titleholder, Sammy Hagar's "I Can't Drive 55".

Why is this:

When I drive that slow, you know it's hard to steer.

And I can't get my car out of second gear.

What used to take two hours now takes all day.

Huh - It took me 16 hours to get to L.A.!

Go on & write me up for 125

Post my face, wanted dead or alive

Take my license n' all that jive

I can't drive 55!

such a worse violation than "I like the girls who wear Abercrombie and Fitch?"

I know I know, it's not as ostensibly tacky as LFO, but Hagar really is angry about the federally mandated 55 mph speed limit that was in effect in the 1980s (and in your humble DJ's opinion should still be), and probably feels like quite the rebellious protest singer taking a stand against such government tyranny.

If you take two equally awful songs, but one is angry and the other is happy, even celebratory, the angry one wins out for the stinker category - but barely.

Where The Wild Things Are doesn't come out until October 16th, but Karen O from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, who did all the film's music, released one of the songs, "All Is Love" today. The song features a decidedly joyful Miss O with an untrained children's choir, and makes this Max even more excited for this movie about another one.

Check out the song at MySpace.

Carrying on Max's Woodstock theme this week with Ten Years After and "I'd Love to Change the World".

Funny how some things never change...

It's a good thing Steven Tyler knows a thing or two about love in an elevator, because he won't be taking the stairs any time soon.

Aerosmith's Steven Tyler suffered head, neck and shoulder injuries in a tumble from the stage at a South Dakota show, a concert spokesman said Thursday, and the audience thought it was part of his hip-shaking act until he didn't get up.

Tyler, 61 (Wow!), fell several feet while entertaining the crowd by dancing around as the sound crew replaced a fuse that blew during the song "Love in an Elevator," said Mike Sanborn, spokesman for the Buffalo Chip Campground, which hosted the Wednesday night concert. An amateur video showed him spinning around before falling off the stage.

Unfortunately, Aerosmith had to cancel the rest of its show and their next five dates in Canada. Let's hope that Tyler gets "Back in the Saddle" right quick.