Laid

Laid is the fifth studio album by British alternative rock band James. It was released on 5 October 1993. It was the first of several collaborations between the group and Brian Eno, who produced all but one of the album's tracks – in Stuart Maconie's authorised biography of the group, Folklore, they admitted that Eno didn't like the song "One of the Three" so they recorded it when he took a day off. The sessions also resulted in the experimental Wah Wah album.

Track listing

All songs written by Tim Booth, Larry Gott and Jim Glennie; except where noted.

remastered 2001 reissue adds:

Personnel

Laid (song)

"Laid" is the title song from Manchester alternative rock band James' 1993 album Laid. Emotionally evocative and featuring the risqué lyrics "This bed is on fire with passionate love, the neighbours complain about the noises above, but she only cums when she's on top", it quickly gained popularity on American college radio and remains the group's best-known song in the USA. Because of the lyrics, in America the music video of the song replaced the infamous line with "she only sings when she's on top" (although Tim Booth clearly lip-syncs the original line, and is accompanied by a subtitle reading "hums"). Today, a number of alternative rock stations, including Boston's RadioBDC, WBOS, Maryland's WRNR-FM, Chicago's WXRT and Philadelphia's WRFF will play "Laid" with the original controversial line.

While the song did chart on the Billboard Hot 100, its initial peak was #61. It made it on to the chart thanks to its cult status as a popular college song, which is what helped it to peak at #3 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart. The song was much more successful in the band's native United Kingdom, where it peaked at number 25, becoming another Top 40 hit for the band before it was released in the United States.

Laid (TV series)

Laid is an Australian television comedy series that first aired on 9 February 2011 on ABC1. The six-part comedy series was written by Marieke Hardy and Kirsty Fisher, and produced by Liz Watts.

Laid was renewed for a second series of six episodes which aired from 2 May to 6 June 2012 but was not renewed for a third season, following an announcement made on 18 December 2012 on the show's official Facebook page.

Overview

Roo McVie is a market researcher who faces an unenviable situation when her former lovers start dying in strange and unexpected circumstances. With EJ, her best friend and flatmate, Roo embarks on a quest to find a pattern and stop the trail of deaths.

Cast

Adaptation

In October 2011, it was reported that U.S. television network NBC bought the rights to adapt an American version of the series.

Home media

The first series of Laid was released on DVD under the title of Laid: The Complete First Season on 7 April 2011.

The second series was released on DVD under the title of Laid: The Complete Second Season on 5 July 2012.

Funk

Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid- to late 1960s when African American musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of soul music, jazz, and rhythm and blues (R&B). Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground. Funk songs are often based on an extended vamp on a single chord, distinguishing them from R&B and soul songs, which are built on complex chord progressions. Funk uses the same extended chords found in bebop jazz, such as minor chords with added sevenths and elevenths, or dominant seventh chords with altered ninths.

Like much African-inspired music, funk typically consists of a complex groove with rhythm instruments such as electric guitar, electric bass, Hammond organ, and drums playing interlocking rhythms. Funk bands sometimes have a horn section of several saxophones, trumpets, and in some cases, a trombone, which plays rhythmic "hits". Funk originated in the mid-1960s, with James Brown's development of a signature groove that emphasized the downbeat—with heavy emphasis on the first beat of every measure, funky bass lines, drum patterns, and syncopated guitar riffs. Other musical groups, including Sly & the Family Stone and Parliament-Funkadelic, soon began to adopt and develop Brown's innovations. While much of the written history of funk focuses on men, there have been notable funk women, including Chaka Khan, Labelle, Brides of Funkenstein, Klymaxx, Mother's Finest, and Betty Davis.

As If (album)

As If is the sixth studio album by American dance-punk group !!!, released on October 16, 2015 on Warp Records.

Singles

Three official singles have been released from As If: "All U Writers", a 5 1/2 minute (5 minutes on the album) long song featuring vocals from Teresa Eggers, released 28 April 2015. "Freedom '15", a groovy leviathan of a disco track, released 30 July 2015, and features vocals from Yolanda Harris Dancy and Taletha Manor. A lyric video for "Freedom '15" was uploaded 20 August 2015. The third single from the album, "Bam City", was released 30 September 2015, with an accompanying music video. "Ooo", a grooving love song, was released with an accompanying music video on November 16, 2015.

Promotional singles

One promotional single has been released from the As If: "Sick Ass Moon", an "R&B-tinted house track", released with "Freedom '15" on 30 July 2015.

Critical Reception

In a positive review for Exclaim!, Daniel Sylvester called the album "one of the most enjoyable, if schizophrenic, dance albums of the year."

Funk (Glee)

"Funk" is the twenty-first episode of the American television series Glee. The episode was written by series creator Ian Brennan and directed by Elodie Keene. It premiered on the Fox network on June 1, 2010 and was watched by 9 million viewers. In "Funk", New Directions is intimidated by rival glee club Vocal Adrenaline. Jesse St. James (Jonathan Groff) defects back to Vocal Adrenaline, and New Directions explores funk music, knowing it is their rival club's weakness. The episode features cover versions of six songs, all of which were released as singles, available for download, and two of which are included on the soundtrack album Glee: The Music, Volume 3 Showstoppers.

The episode received mixed reviews from critics. Lisa Respers France of CNN and Blair Baldwin of Zap2it both received the episode positively. Todd VanDerWerff of The A.V. Club, Entertainment Weekly's Tim Stack and James Poniewozic of Time highlighted continuity issues with the show, while VanDerWerff and Henrik Batallones of BuddyTV deemed "Funk" a set-up episode for the season finale. Bobby Hankinson of the Houston Chronicle gave a more positive review, but still found "Funk" lacking compared to previous episodes, a sentiment shared by Aly Semigran of MTV.