I’ve karaoked just once in my life. True story. I was a little inebriated (read: a lot) and decided to “sing” Tone-Loc’s Funky Cold Medina. At a cowboy bar. In Lubbock, Texas. Called Adolph’s. Also a true story.

What does this have to do with a Wild Thing remix by Peaches? Nothing, really. It was just a roundabout way of introducing Tone-Loc’s name into a post. I actually interviewed him in 1999 for a story I wrote for The Arizona Republic. (I don’t have a link; I don’t think the Internet existed in 1999.) He talked about, among other things, being a father, his career and his voice-over work, including for a cartoon called C-Bear and Jamal.

“I’ll always be involved in that as long as my voice sounds raspy,” he said. ”I’m the type of guy that’ll take anything that comes my way as long as it’s a nice offer and it’s good. I’m a pretty laid-back kind of guy. I’m pretty happy in life. I have a great family.”

And there you have it.

Check out Peaches’ awesome take on Wild Thing, an oldie but a goodie. I definitely love the added verses … a little female perspective this time around.

• Tone-Loc | Wild Thing (Peaches remix)

Everyone’s favorite former Soul Coughing singer, Mike Doughty, is releasing Golden Delicious, the follow-up to 2005’s Haughty Melodic, on Feb. 19, again on ATO Records.

Because I haven’t heard the album, I’ll leave to an e-mail blast Doughty sent to fans describing the new record:

“Our guiding principle was something we called ‘dude theory,’ which meant that it should sound like a bunch of visualize-able dudes; a band, in other words. It was a way of keeping the music spacious.”

Fair enough. Two of the new songs are streaming at Doughty’s MySpace: 27 Jennifers and I Just Want The Girl In The Blue Dress To Keep On Dancing. If you’re a Doughty fan, you’ll recognize 27 Jennifers, which originally appeared on a 2003 collection called Rockity Roll, albeit less polished and more acoustic than this new version.

Golden Delicious track list:

1. Fort Hood
2. I Just Want The Girl In The Blue Dress To Keep On Dancing
3. Put It Down
4. More Bacon Than The Pan Can Handle
5. 27 Jennifers
6. I Wrote A Song About Your Car
7. I Got The Drop On You
8. Wednesday (Contra La Puerta)
9. Like A Luminous Girl
10. Nectarine (Part One)
11. Navigating By The Stars At Night

• Mike Doughty | 27 Jennifers (from Rockity Roll)

Haughty Melodic and Skittish/Rockity Roll are available at eMusic.

ALSO: Circa 45 lives! It’d only been, like, three months since the last update. But here’s a new one, with an mp3 of Low’s Breaker (Dub Plate).

If you haven’t checked out WOXY’s blog the Futurist, you are missing out.

The station is posting recaps of its Lounge Act sessions (with individual mp3s) and Lounge Act flashbacks (like this Long Winters session).

The latest band to swing by was the Broken West, whose I Can’t Go On, I’ll Go On (released in January) should not be forgotten for best-of 2007 lists.

The band played two new tracks for its Lounge Act session (full download here), and WOXY was kind enough to separate them out into individual mp3s (high bitrate, too!).

• The Broken West | Embassy Row (on WOXY)
• The Broken West | Perfect Games (on WOXY)

Related:
The Broken West: Live at SXSW (with mp3s)

ALSO: Congrats to Paolo, whose name was randomly picked by my wife for the Emma Pollock 7-inch giveaway.

I missed the Ponys when they came through Phoenix earlier this year, so I’m happy to see them return on Nov. 12 at One Place (via Stateside Presents). Chin Up Chin Up, another Chicago band, opens.

The Ponys’ Turn the Lights Out (Matador) remains a hidden gem of 2007. Rhapsody has a four-song session with the band.

• The Ponys | Poser Psychotic
• The Ponys | Double Vision

I really should pay better attention to Tuesday release lists because albums like Jonah Matranga’s And just slip right by me. Dumb, dumb.

I’ve yet to listen to the full album, but the lead single, So Long, is available via Limekiln Records and Jonah’s MySpace page (and below).

If there’s anything I’ve learned listening to Matranga, especially his post-Far solo work, it’s that he unapologetically wears his heart on his sleeve, a trait that even an armchair cynic like myself can appreciate. (Witness his I Used to Love H.E.R. entry.)

Besides that, he’s unbelievably accessible to his fans and has been using a sliding-scale pricing system – pick your price – on his Web site for years. Clever. I think some fairly big band from England recently adopted that idea.

On the off chance Jonah is reading this (and, hey, he’s commented here before), what can I do to help get Far’s Water & Solutions out on vinyl??

• Jonah Matranga | So Long

Buy/download And at Jonah’s Web site for $7.99; the package includes liner notes, lyrics and guitar chords.

ALSO: The NBA season is under way (please, John Paxson, don’t gut the Bulls for Kobe Bryant), and that got me thinking of one of my favorite dunks of all time.

1994 playoffs. Scottie Pippen. Patrick Ewing. Facial. Then trash talk with Spike Lee for good measure.

Of course, Ewing was on the receiving end of something similar a few years prior to that.

At about the midpoint of his “holy crap”-inducing set at Saturday’s SoCo Music Experience, Girl Talk (aka Gregg Gillis) grabbed the microphone to chat with all of his new favorite fans.

“What’s up, Arizona? Man, I haven’t been in Arizona since two years ago at Modified.” Pause. Cheers. “None of you motherfuckers were there! Put down your hands!” Ooooooh, snap. Delivery: 10. Timing: 10. Relevance: 10. The Hurley hat-wearing dudes never knew what hit ’em.

In any event, Girl Talk’s set was by far the highlight of the event. It’s absolutely mind-boggling that he went on at 7:30 instead of closing the night down. No offense to headliner Cold War Kids, who were great. But Girl Talk blew just about everyone’s minds, mixing literally hundreds of songs.

Other highlights:

Entrance: Free for all!

Friend, on Cold War Kids bassist Matt Maust and his twitchy on-stage antics: “That bassist is on meth.”

Another friend, on Cold War Kids drummer Matt Aveiro, whose body — or at least his shoulders — I’ve previously compared to a coat hanger: “Why don’t they feed their drummer?”

Girl Talk eating a huge bag of Cool Ranch Doritos in VIP area after his set.

Member of Architecture in Helsinki (or, according to lame-brain host of event, Architecture FROM Helsinki) wearing J Dilla Donuts T-shirt.

Me asking Girl Talk if he’d write an I Used to Love H.E.R. contribution. Girl Talk saying he would. Stay tuned.

Cold War Kids playing Hospital Beds. That song never gets old.

Complimentary booze in VIP area.

Complimentary shrimp in VIP area. We eat so many shrimp.

In-N-Out Burger afterward at 12:30 a.m.