Monthly Archives: February 2025

#1236: Bonde do Rolê – Solta o Frango

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Back in 2007, Ugly Betty was showing regularly on British television, on this channel called E4. I think its acquisition was a big thing for that place ’cause it was one of the first times that a programme’s episodes would be coming out simultaneously in the US and the UK. But anyways, ‘Solta o Frango’ was used in some adverts promoting Ugly Betty. I thought one of them would be up on YouTube or something to prove my point, but alas there doesn’t seem to be. I didn’t know what the song was at the time. But then the video for it showed up on MTV2 one day. Now I had a band and song name to link to the music. I remember one time my cousin was talking to my sister on the phone, mentioning that she liked the music that played in those adverts too and wanted to know what it was. When I told her the info she wanted to know, she was really surprised for some reason. But I guess I was 11 or 12, and kids at that age usually would have no idea about anything in general.

‘Solta o Frango’ is sung in Portuguese because Bonde do Rolê are from Brazil, you see. The young me witnessing the video for the first time was like, “Oh, so they’re a bit like CSS.” They’re not like CSS, though. The only thing similar about the two groups is that they both hail from the same country. I can try and sing along to the track. Usually I do. But I know I’m getting the pronunciation all wrong, except for those ‘Rolê’ calls during the chorus. From what I’ve gathered by translating the lyrics online, the track is meant to be a kind of theme song and a number telling the listener how cool it is to be in the band, that they’re a band who accept fans from all walks of life – there may be a mention of trans people in there – and the raucous chorus is a celebration and a call to everyone to let loose by ‘releasing the chickens’. The song is the second one on their debut With Lasers album, and until writing this post, I didn’t know that it was also produced by Diplo.

FIFA 08 came out in the autumn of 2007. I would have been about a month in to my second year of secondary school. Year 8. Whatever the equivalent of that is in the US. The local Woolworth’s store was down the road and my aim was to get that new FIFA game. I did, eventually. As always the soundtrack didn’t disappoint. And lo and behold, ‘Solta o Frango’ was on there. I didn’t realise it until way later, but it had been censored on the game. Some of the lyrics and been altered and spliced around a bit. If the translated English lyrics I see are correct, then the Portuguese words for ‘sluts’, ‘lesbians’ and ‘transvestites’ were probably taken out. Though you may have to tell me, I’ll link the clean version below. Lots of weekends were spent playing that game. Those were good times. Coincidentally, CSS were on the soundtrack too. Lot of love for Brazil from EA Sports on that edition.

#1235: Kings of Leon – Soft

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Here comes another song from Kings of Leon’s Aha Shake Heartbreak. I think I’ve told the story of how the album entered my life in posts before. Just click on that “aha shake heartbreak” or “kings of leon” tag at the bottom, and they’ll redirect you. The most recent Kings track I’ve posted about was ‘Slow Night, So Long’, also from the same album, and the tale of my experience with ‘Soft’ is almost exactly the same. It’s been a track on the “all songs” phone playlist for so long now, I can’t pinpoint the exact moment where it clicked and I thought it would be a song I’d be listening to for years. It would be a disservice to try and make some fairytale situation up. It’s just always been there, and that’s good enough for me.

‘Soft’ is the seventh track on Aha Shake… and mainly written to shut up critics who wouldn’t stop talking about the things the band got up to when they were out and about, on tour or whatever. Being the young rock ‘n’ roll band they were back in ’04, they do the rock ‘n’ roll things that hang out with models and party. The media loved that sort of stuff. Still do now. Caleb Followill had had enough of the coverage, so he wrote about an experience of one of those occasions where he was hanging out with a supermodel, but got too drunk that he couldn’t perform. He was soft. The whole track’s quite self-explanatory. Whether or not that led to critics talking less about the band, I’m not sure. But he wanted to write songs that were about the things people go through that are embarrassing or not taken seriously. And erectile dysfunction is definitely one of those subjects.

I once saw someone describe this track as Kings of Leon’s “most Strokes-ish song”. Or “Strokes-like”. One of those. And I kind of get that. The bright guitar lick that starts it off combined with the the rhythm guitar that joins in soon after does remind me of something that Nick Valensi and Albert Hammond Jr. would do. Though the reggaeton-like groove that plays underneath is definitely sets it apart. During the verses, Caleb Followill sings a line, Matthew Followill plays a guitar lick in response, and the choruses see the band rock out a little more, with Matthew Followill playing a climbing/falling guitar riff before falling into the reggaeton feel again. A big nod should also go to Jared Followill on the bass guitar, whose lines during the verses are probably the most hummable parts of the whole song. But I guess the big highlight of the track is the ending section where the band kinda go into double time, into party mode, with Caleb repeating the song’s last line and at an instance almost to the point where his voice completely breaks. All very nice. So here’s an Aha Shake era live performance of the track to round things off.

#1234: Blur – So You

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In 2012, Blur released a massive boxset to celebrate their 21st anniversary as a band. In it, you would get (almost) all of their albums remastered. With each album came a bonus disc compiling B-sides and other additional material from the respective eras. ‘So You’ can be found on the “Special Edition” of 13, explaining why you see that album’s cover in the video up top. Originally it was released as a B-side to ‘No Distance Left to Run’ when that song was released as the album’s final single in November 1999. But I didn’t know of its existence until summer 2013 when I went through Blur’s discography on a whim. Heard it then, it’s been on the iPhone ever since.

What we’ve got going on here is a Blur track with a groove. Alternating between C minor and B major chords for the majority of the song, Graham Coxon lays an ascending/descending riff over the top, Dave Rowntree puts down a drum take that feels a little late on the beat with fills that sound like boxes falling down the stairs. All very tastefully done. The lyrics on show go into a category that Damon Albarn started to explore in this particular era of Blur. And that was to come up with lyrics that they don’t seem to mean anything and are more or less words made to match the feel of the music rather than tell a story or detail any personal feelings. A bit of a predecessor to what was to come with Gorillaz, I guess you could say. There are two verses of these “abstract” lyrics, followed by a melodica solo that echoes as each note plays, and the hypnotizing groove continues on until the energy fizzles out and we’re left with studio chatter to close the track out.

If you ever wanted to see Blur working on a song in the studio, you’re in luck. The making of ‘So You’ was captured in an edition of British arts TV series The South Bank Show in which the band were the main focus. The whole episode is worth watching if you’re a fan. But luckily someone on YouTube clipped out the parts showing the band rehearsing and recording ‘So You’, so I’ll just go ahead and embed that at the bottom there. So interesting to see the song’s transformation. What starts off as a discussion of chord progressions and initial showing of ideas swiftly goes on to be this fully formed thing where all the band members are locked in together. It probably happened over a longer period than the six minutes the video lasts for. But it’s still cool to witness.

#1233: The Who – So Sad About Us

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Another track from The Who’s A Quick One. ‘So Sad About Us’ is a number that I don’t think I paid much attention to when I first heard that album way back in the early 2010s. Other cuts like ‘Boris the Spider’ and ‘See My Way’ were much more to my liking. The latter’s considered to be one of the weaker songs on there, but I’ve always dug it. But at that time, ‘So Sad About Us’ had its own Wikipedia page, so I gathered it must be quite important in some way. According to it, the song’s one of the Who’s most covered songs, with people like The Breeders and The Jam having their own takes on it. It wasn’t until I saw a live performance of the track the Who did (below) maybe only a few years ago that I thought I should maybe give the album version another listen.

Before The Who started getting into making albums with concepts in mind, the music becoming sort of artsy and extravagant as a result, their first two records showcased Pete Townshend’s abilities to write “simple” catchy 3-minute power pop wonders. You think of ‘My Generation’, ‘Substitute’, ‘The Kids Are Alright’. Things of that nature. ‘So Sad…’ falls into that category. It’s a strong performance by the four respective band members, and is more of their straighter numbers by Who standards. The rhythm section is usually the highlight in many a Who song, but I’d say ‘So Sad…’ relies more on the clanging guitar chords and the vocals/harmonies carried out by Roger Daltrey and John Entwistle.

It’s a break-up song, a topic that you rarely ever find in The Who’s catalogue, from the point of view of a narrator who’s upset by the whole situation. No malice is felt toward the other person. There’s no sense of bitterness. Just an honest account of acceptance that time has run out and the relationship is over. The track is two verses, a bridge and a repeat of the first verse surrounded by a memorable refrain of la-la-la’s, but to spice things up a little there’s a key change that occurs nearing the end. Just a general fan of how the song’s executed, to be honest, there’s not much else I can say. Although it’s one of their most covered tracks, I still feel like it’s underappreciated in the grand scheme of things. I’m sure there are a lot of people who don’t know about the song’s existence. But it does, and it’s great.

#1232: The BPA ft. Olly Hite – So It Goes

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It’s been a while since Norman Cook, mostly known to you and me as Fatboy Slim, released an album. The producer’s fourth LP Palookaville was released back in 2004, and that’s still his most recent one to this day. Under the Fatboy Slim name that is. What I don’t think a lot of people know is that in 2008, he and good friend Simon Thorton got together, recruited a number of artists and musicians and made an album with ’em entitled I Think We’re Gonna Need a Bigger Boat, under the moniker of ‘The Brighton Port Authority’. The BPA for short. But to make the whole affair a little more interesting, the story was invented that the album was actually a compilation of recordings made in the ’70s that had been long-lost until they were found in a box next to a warehouse that was in development. Quite funny when you realise most of the guests on there probably weren’t born until a decade after.

…Bigger Boat is bookended by two covers. As it begins with Iggy Pop singing The Monochrome Set’s ‘He’s Frank’, it goes on to end with ‘So It Goes’, a take on the Nick Lowe original, sung by Olly Hite. While that Lowe original contains more of a rollicking, swinging ’70s power pop feel, the ‘So It Goes’ by the BPA and Olly Hite goes for the warm and intimate approach, similar to that you’d find in an NPR Tiny Desk concert or something. Hite sings alongside a tastefully played Rhodes piano that mirrors the chord progression of Lowe’s guitar in the original. The idea that it’s being performed live is reinforced by the cheering, handclaps and adlibbing by various people in the background, who then go on to applaud Hite as he sings the final words and steps away from the microphone. Other Norman Cook/Simon Thornton production tricks occur throughout, but not so much that they get in the way of the bittersweet end-of-the-night, time-to-go-home mood the track gives out.

According to Lowe, the song isn’t about anything much and is just a bunch of interesting words strung together, though was influenced by Thin Lizzy’s ‘The Boys Are Back in Town’. Though if you want to try and get something out of it, the three verses respectively describe scenes at a music show, a political meeting in the Twin Towers, and I think the embrace between a couple of some kind. With the chorus stating “And so it goes, but where it’s going no one knows”, maybe the whole track’s a comment on how these things happen in life, life goes on until you die, and what happens after death is anyone’s guess. Whereas the original fades out on the lyric, here Hite turns the words from “no one knows” to “I don’t know”, switching the perspective around to leave the album on a sweet, personal note. It looks more and more unlikely that Norman Cook will make another album again. But if this were to “his” last song… for the time being, I wouldn’t be too mad at it.