Author Archives: admin

Guilty? I think not!

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So this week is all about the supposed “guilty pleasures” for us here at the blog. I have to say that I instead take pride in my choices. Now, I had planned on another track for this week, so as a good gesture, I will also be posting that other track, also. So hey, you guys should keep reading.

First off for the guilty pleasures is a name that’s become somewhat synonymous with the Vegas culture. At least in my years there, he was. This singer originally couldn’t get signed because he “sounded too black.” I wish I was kidding about that part. And to add to the weirdness? It’s the song that Carlton Banks would dance to on the ’90’s sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. After writing that last sentence, I am starting to re-think whether or not I should feel guilty about this one. Just watch the video to understand.

So yeah. Tom Jones. I am not into everything he releases. This tune is hard not to like, though. So the track “It’s Not Unusual” was also Jones’ first hit here in the states. And launched millions of panties being thrown on stage to him. Even now. Lucky bastard.

Click to Play Tom Jones – It’s Not Unusual

Next one is one I again just can’t be ashamed of. Hell, the Stanton Warriors did a remix of this that I posted a while back. Their remix of “Good Vibrations” is just ridiculous. The original, however, is where it’s at. Using the theramin on this cut was an advance in electronic music that many don’t really realize. It was the first track to hit the charts that used an electronic instrument (not an electric guitar, mind you) as a featured part of the song. It’s still a great track.

Click to Play The Beach Boys – Good Vibrations

This last track is one I wanted to post,and still will. It’s a really cool re-rub of Bon Iver’s “Skinny Love” that I am all over. The first post I wrote for this blog actually feautured the original of this one, so it’s been a favorite for a while of mine. A kid from South Africa that goes by the name Das Kapital is responsible for this one, so props are due!

Click to Play Bon Iver – Skinny Love (Das Kapital re-rub)

not guilty (by reason of insanity?)

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I woke up with Neil Diamond’s “I Am…I Said” in my head the other day. Before I move on, let’s all listen to that together so we’re in the same place.

Click to play Neil Diamond – I Am…I Said

Neil can be kitschy but I have to admit I’m a fan, and waking up with this random song in my head (and singing it for the rest of the day) made me think about other “guilty pleasures” in my music selection. These are the ones that for some reason I’d be a little hesitant to list in my favorites. Or I’d worry about my hipster cred, no matter how many PBRs I drank to make up for it, if I did. Then today I ran across this quote:

Honesty is the first chapter of the book of wisdom. -Thomas Jefferson

I want to write that book, Mr. Jefferson. It’s time I brought some of my musical skeletons out of the closet. So here we go…

Neil Diamond: You’ve already heard my confession on this one. Yeah, I know we’ve all sung “Sweet Caroline” at karaoke and made the occasional joking reference, but I really think this guy is a great songwriter. Come on, he wrote “Girl, You’ll Be A Woman Soon,” which was badass enough to be covered by Urge Overkill and featured in Pulp Fiction.

Click to play Neil Diamond – Girl You’ll Be A Woman Soon

He is the “Solitary Man.” And, though it started as a joke, because of his contribution to the movie E.T. I ended up with a lamp and string of lights that are pretty special to me now. They look more or less like these. And yes, I do sing “Turn On Your Heartlight” every time I see them.

Bread: These guys may be more familiar to you than you know. They had quite a few big hits in the 70s, playing the kind of rock that makes Celene Dion seem aggressive. Their songs, particularly “Baby I’m A Want You,” “Make It With You,” and “Guitar Man” have been covered by all kinds of artists. It’s sappy, melodramatic silliness, but I can’t help loving it. Here’s “Diary,” one of the saddest songs ever written.

Click to play Bread – Diary

On the flip side you’ve got “If,” which I stand behind as one of the sweetest love songs ever.

Click to play Bread – If

George Michael

George Michael: If I weren’t American, I might feel less reserved about this one. Europe seems to have always known the guy’s talent and been able to reconcile his ability as a deep soul-influenced singer with his penchant for putting out poppy dance hits. On this side of the pond, or at least in the more rock-centric circles I run in, there seems to be more of a stigma. I finally had to look at myself, hiding in dark corners with my walkman and my copy of Listen Without Prejudice and say, “this is wrong. Be proud, for what the man doth he doth so well. Let him make great pop music!”

Click to play George Michael – Freedom 90

Pay attention to the lyrics there. It’s actually an emotionally autobiographical story of a young man getting caught up in the industry and struggling to find his own identity as he matures musically. And damn it’s catchy.
He’s also written some great ballads.

Click to play George Michael – One More Try

Faith and Listen Without Prejudice are both pretty brilliant albums that should be part of your collection. I find his most recent material more hit-or-miss but the guy is still super talented.

There are so many more but I’ll stop here. Maybe I’ll revisit the theme later. I invite you to begin writing your own book of wisdom. Shout your guilty pleasures from the rooftops, or even post them in the comments. Go buy the catalog of that one artist you’ve been running from all these years. Liberate yourself, for music should make us all more free.
Speaking of music making us free (there’s a stretch of a segue, but I didn’t want to characterize classical music as a guilty pleasure) I want to take a moment to recognize Henryk Gorecki, who passed away a few weeks ago. As a modern avant-garde composer he wasn’t for everyone, but his “Third Symphony, Symphony Of Sorrowful Songs” seems to be something most of us can agree on. Dedicated to the memory of Holocaust Victims, it is a stunning piece of work that stands as one of the most moving compositions ever written. It’s too long to post here but do yourself a favor: track down a copy and take some time out to listen to it all. It’s just…uh…wow.


Smiling but We’re Close To Tears

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I heard this song every once in awhile on the radio. And I just assumed it was Rob Thomas. I know the hipsters hate Rob Thomas. I hate what our idea of Rob Thomas is, but I actually kind of like him. I probably wouldn’t buy tickets to his concert, but when I make jokes about him being untalented, it’s just jokes. He is one of the front-runners of a genre for which I have a strange taste in my mouth. Train. Jason Mraz. I just can’t point out what it is. And it’s not that I’m being a music snob or hipster. Today’s soft rock just rubs me wrong.
So back to the point… This song. “Breakeven.”

Her best days will be some of my worst
She finally met a man that’s gonna put her first
While I’m wide awake she’s no trouble sleepin’
‘Cause when a heart breaks, no it don’t break even

It STILL sounds like Rob Thomas. I only realized it was by a band called The Script because I saw it on the music I.D. in my car stereo. And I barely cared to look further into who this band was.

Meanwhile, all of the United Kingdom has been losing their collective minds over this band. Selling out shows. Selling out entire tours. Getting their albums long before we get them in the States. Well. Kind of like what some people had been doing over here for M-raz and Train for quite awhile, isn’t it.

But recently I saw the video for the single off their second album. It made me think. A lot. So I BOUGHT THE SINGLE. And I bought the self-titled debut album too. I’m listening to the album now. If I have to say the name Jason Mraz again I might throttle myself, but I’m just saying… /cough

And it’s not like they physically resemble any other three-piece from the States. Or pose like them.  Not at all.

OK, I have fully delineated my disclaimer. I’m not into this kind of music. You GET it.

But there are so many reasons that compel me to share their new single with you. Science & Faith won’t be released in the States until January, but they just released “For the First Time” and shot the video starring Bono’s daughter. (They are having such a ridiculous British lovefest over this band, I am telling you.)

Here’s the thing.

Changes take place in our lives… Things happen to us. We happen to things. And we resist. Or the people around us resist. We start fighting. We hurt the ones we love. Over the loss of a job. A frightening health discovery. Any difficult process. Resistance. Weakened defenses. Stress. We fall prey to it. We will cause tension, friction, conflict.

She’s all laid up in bed with a broken heart
While I’m drinkin’ Jack all alone in my local bar
And we don’t know how we got into this mad situation
Only doin’ things outta frustration

“If you’re going through hell, keep going.” –Winston Churchill

“If I had a formula for bypassing trouble, I would not pass it round. Trouble creates a capacity to handle it. I don’t embrace trouble; that’s as bad as treating it as an enemy. But I do say meet it as a friend, for you’ll see a lot of it and had better be on speaking terms with it. ” — Oliver Wendell Holmes

I just want to send this track out to all of you – I know in some way you’re being affected by, whatever it is – the economy, your parent’s health, your health, other adversity.

Click to Play The Script – For the First Time

I can’t wait to meet you all over again when we get through this. It’s going to be beautiful. And then we’ll go through it again.

Bomb dancing skillz

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There are a few moments in life you’re thankful for witnessing. Even fewer that you witness and catch on video. I got one of those, and oh god, it’s epic. I really don’t know how to describe this. Check it out.


Anyhow, this was at a birthday house party the other night, as my buddy Gray showed off his skills dancing to Outkast’s “Bombs Over Baghdad”. Re-watching it later, I was nearly in tears from laughing so hard. Considering it’s Thanksgiving tomorrow, I have to say I’m thankful for catching this brilliance on video. Oh, and here’s your music. Since I guess that’s why you came here, right?

Click to Play Outkast – Bombs Over Baghdad

Click to Play Outkast – Bombs Over Baghdad (Rage Against The Machine Remix)

the Lotus position

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Remember the game Guess Who? Let’s break it out for a minute.

Does your person write impressively complex dance music?

Does your person blend said music with unique samples and live classical and jazz musicians?

Does your person love laser sounds?

Was your person the great-nephew of John and Alice Coltrane?

Did your person write a good portion of the interludes I hear on Adult Swim?

Yes, yes, yes, yes, and yes? Hmm…

Is your person Flying Lotus?

Ha, I win again!

Flying Lotus, or FlyLo for short, is the kind of artist who I find it very hard to write about. He defies genres at pretty much every step. I’ve seen him labeled as Intelligent Dance Music (IDM) but I don’t think anyone really takes that label seriously, particularly the artists who tend to receive it. I want to say FlyLo is making jazz music for our time, blending electronics with an improvisational approach and playing with the rules of music as we know them. Somehow that still doesn’t cover what I hear on his albums.

Pattern+Grid World is an EP that FlyLo dropped about a month ago. Compared to recent previous releases this album comes off a little more electronic, trance-y, and sparse, though sparse in this case still means a whole lot going on. Here’s track 2, “Kill Your Co-Workers:”

Click to play Flying Lotus – Kill Your Co-Workers

It’s a nice, mellow EP, and a good introduction to Flying Lotus if you’re not familiar. If you like what you hear, head back in time and grab some of FlyLo’s full-length albums. I highly recommend 2008’s Los Angeles to start. Oh, you want to hear a track or two from that record? Let me oblige you.

Click to play Flying Lotus – Beginners Falafel

Click to play Flying Lotus – Auntie’s Lock/Infinitum (Featuring Laura Darlingon)

And here’s a nice collaboration from full-length Cosmogramma, which was just released last spring.

Click to play Flying Lotus – And The World Laughs With You (Featuring Thom Yorke)

Now go forth, my children, and multiply (your music collections).

  

My water comes straight from the tap

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You forgot, didn’t you? You totally forgot how much you LOVED Matt & Kim. You got them confused with She & Him, and remembered that you only like listening in those melancholy moments. NO! Matt & Kim is nothing like that! Last year’s Grand was just one beautiful explosion after the other. Matt Johnson and Kim Schifino are two totally insane dance punk masters who might be the best representation of the term “dynamic duo” ever envisioned.

Earlier this month they released Sidewalks and I have restored my joyful commitment to shake it. Shake ehhhttttttt. I’m ready to travel for a show again. I’m in full-on stalker oh-my-God-I-could-be-your-friend mode. But I couldn’t be their friend. I am nowhere near as cool or as brave. I will just stay here and stay safe, with my silly four-strands-of-pink-hair punk posery.

But oh my God, seriously. PleaseIneedtoseethemlive.

I slept through this tour that just ended.

Do you know why?

I was so mad that all my cries about THEM being the SOLE reason I wanted to go to Lollapalooza where unheeded.

What. That’s the way I remember it.

And those bottles are just for show.

Click to Play Matt & Kim – Cameras

I’ll leave you with this. It is unmitigated evidence that Kim Schifino could be my best friend.

I have always said if Beyonce came up to me and said “Kim (yes, in this daydream Beyonce knows me) I want you to come be one of my back up dancers,” I would have to tell Matt I am leaving the band. Well, we all know this isn’t going to happen, so to satisfy myself I dance at our shows. I decided I had to step it up though and bring out not just a booty dance, but a booty dance on top of the crowd.

I have done it twice now. The first time was in San Francisco. See the video below.

Buy all the Matt and Kim you can get your hands on and that is an order!

Pogo stick

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Every so often, you run into something that amazes you with it’s purported simplicity. Only later do you find out how difficult the endeavor really was. That’s the case for Australian DJ and producer Pogo, whose real name in Nick Bertke. By now, unless you live under a rock, you’ve heard some of what this kid has done. When I say kid? I come close to being correct. He was only 18 or 19 when “Alice” was released, and is still a youthful 22 years of age. So we fully expect to hear a lot more from this guy.

Now, while his music is certainly one that catches your ear, it’s the videos he makes that are the true treat. By simply taking clips from the movie he also samples for the audio portion, he creates a very vivid connection of music to imagery. His first video for “Alice” was an almost instant sensation. Take a peek at it and you’ll know why.

Now, he was commissioned to work for Disney for a year. In part to make an agreement that his past work that sampled the Disney works would be taken down. Now that year’s up, and thanks to a friend of mine overseas, I found out about his latest track that samples some Disney goodness. The track is “Wishery” and the movie? Well, none other than Snow White. Take a listen, and the video is included, also.

Click to Play Pogo – Wishery

On top of the sample heavy works, he does create his own tracks. One that I happen to like is his track “SplurgenShitter”. Odd name aside, this is a winner of a track. The piano riffs throughout are happy, light, and don’t overrun the rest of the wonder of this downtempo track. This time, he made a video of his own, so that is below, also.

Click to Play Pogo – SplurgenShitter

So go buy stuff. Now.

Playing games that young people should

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Wildlife.

From Toronto.

Their album is called Strike Hard, Young Diamond.

And it carries you away.

Wildlife.

That is the name of the band.

Spirited Canadian mountain children.

Awesome.

Click Play.

Click to Play Wildlife – When I Get Home

I’m at a loss for words with this album. I feel like I am along for the ride while a bunch of energetic besties grab their banjos and flannels and head for the hills to jam. Each track just keeps up the driving pace and delivering on the intensity. By the time they get to Track 9, “Move To The City”, I am positive they are playing in the lively field of my imagination as they repeat the anthem that they’d never move to the city because “…it doesn’t sound like us!“

This album is driving me a bit crazy with wistful thoughts of vitality and spontaneity… What would I do, where would I go, if I was making this kind of music?

Where would you be? Who would you be with?

Order their album Here. Support independent music. Moreso than ever, support GOOD independent music.

No Protection

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There are some days I like to kick back and listen to a certain song over and over and over again. This is one of those songs. Massive Attack used the vocal talents of Everything But The Girl‘s Tracey Thorn for their second album, and the title track of Protection became something of a sensation. The music video was something of a wonder, also, as Michel Gondry took on the role of turning the song into a video masterpiece of its own.

Click to Play Massive Attack – Protection

That being said, you would think that it would be tough to outdo the original. In most cases, I would agree with every one of you. One of the two remixes I’ve been digging non-stop for fifteen years, now. I had to place an order for the Massive Attack VS Mad Professor CD, and seeing as how Arkansas wasn’t really noted for their diversity in music, I was considered something of an oddity for having this disc. A guy I met while at college in Arkansas actually placed the order for me, and he was one of the few that really fed into my passion for music while I was in school there. The Mad Professor mix of “Protection” is nothing short of breathtaking in every way, shape, and form. This has been played to death, and is one of the rare songs I can listen to and just never tire of.

Click to Play Massive Attack – Radiation Ruling the Nation (Protection)

The other remix is by ambient and electronic legend Brian Eno. I discovered this remix only recently, but there is a real harkening to his Music for Airports days in this remix. It’s astounding in its own right, and I strongly suggest taking a listen.

Click to Play Massive Attack – Protection (The Eno Mix)

Regardless of what version you prefer, you won’t get an argument from me about which one is tops, as I consider all three to be mind-blowing. Enjoy these!

Elvis has returned to the building

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How do you keep writing fresh, relevant music after 30+ years in the business? I’m not quite sure, but Elvis Costello has it down.

Since 1978’s My Aim Is True Elvis (wasn’t there another guy with that name once?) has been releasing edgy, intelligently irreverent music. I have a feeling he would have been relegated completely to the underground if he didn’t write such catchy tunes. Instead, he has managed to sneak the occasional mainstream hit in over the years while he’s busy cranking out great pop-rock albums, delving into jazz music (most notably in collaborations with his wife Diana Krall), and even working up a chamber opera. Sadly that last one never quite came to fruition.

Costello’s new album, National Ransom, is a solid release. It’s got plenty of the familiar pop-meets-punk-meets-new wave vibe Elvis does so well, with some genre benders thrown in along the way. Here’s the opening track, which I would say rocks.

Click to play Elvis Costello – National Ransom

The man’s ballads always get me, as well. He’s quite the crooner.

Click to play Elvis Costello – You Hung The Moon

And above all, you’ve got a love a guy who joins Spinal Tap onstage for a classic hit:

Give it a listen. There’s a lot to like, even if you’re not a die-hard Elvis Costello fan.