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Thursday, August 26, 2010
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Monday, July 26, 2010
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Wednesday, July 21, 2010
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Wednesday, July 14, 2010
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Tuesday, July 6, 2010
music
Musical Alphabet: F
I’m not sure if this is cheating. Because I’m not sure whether it makes any sense that “Ben Folds” gets filed under “F” and “Ben Folds Five” gets filed under “B”. Or maybe it doesn’t. This is a Flaming Lips song that Ben Folds re-worked for a compilation album called “Lounge-a-palooza”. I really enjoy it, even if the album version is a little lifeless.
The underlying Flaming Lips work was from a few years before my brother called me and said “the new Flaming Lips is out, and you’ve got to get it right now and lay down on the floor with headphones on and listen to it.” And that was a couple of years before my brother called me and happened to mention that the new Flaming Lips album was out and, eh, it kind of sounds like the last one. Then my brother stopped calling me. About the Flaming Lips, anyway.
And I guess “Flaming Lips” starts with “F”, from which fact I hope this post may borrow a sense of legitimacy.
For reference, here’s the original Flaming Lips version.
My Feist phase lasted about a year and is long since over, but this is still an awesome video.
All a Father Could Want
(Updated; see below.)
Yesterday we were riding in the car and listening to the Winstons’ “Amen Brother”. When we reached the amen break (the five seconds of solo drums that are perhaps the most-sampled waveform of all time), you said “that has the Powerpuff song in it!” Your comment came from out of nowhere, but, indeed, the Powerpuff Girls theme song relies heavily on the amen break.
This kid better watch out:
UPDATE: In case you aren’t familiar with the Powerpuff Girls, here’s the show’s intro (featuring the amen break, sped up to tempo):
Musical Alphabet: E (Enon and the Bunnymen feat. Cesária Ellington Edition)
So “E” is the first section of my library not dominated by a few big players, which means that I had to spend a few minutes digging a little deeper. I ended up not being able to decide, so here are songs that represent the four pillars of a 30-something yuppie’s music collection. The tracks themselves are from from Echo and the Bunnymen, Duke Ellington, Enon and Cesária Évora. Enjoy some or all of them!
Pillar: Nostalgia Pop
“Don’t call them oldies.”
Pillar: Erudition
“Don’t worry — I like it, so it’s not pretentious.”
Pillar: Indie Pop
“Yeah, you know, I’m down and stuff. With the scene.”
Pillar: Multiculturalism
“You don’t have to actually travel to sound like a world citizen.”
Musical Alphabet: D (Best Album Ever Edition)
I hadn’t planned to do another musical alphabet post so soon, but I was just taking a preliminary run through the “D” artists in my iTunes. I was thinking about how hard it is to just pick two or three tracks from among so many greats— Dylan, Miles, Nick Drake, De la Soul, the Dead Kennedys (umph), Dead Meadow, Claude Debussy, Depeche Mode, the Dirty Projectors, DJ Shadow…
Then I ran across the only track I could possibly post, and I figured I may as well go ahead.
If you tried to figure out which album in my collection is the very best album ever by focusing on objective criteria like number of track listens, number of whole album listens, length of time the album has been in rotation and the amount of that time it has been in heavy rotation, then Blowout Comb, by the Digable Planets, is easily in the top five. Where their debut album was cute and clever, Blowout Comb tones down the precious and trades in the bebop samples for some gritty funk and NYC nativism. Dre’s Chronic was less than two years old when Blowout Comb was released; Warren G’s Regulate… was still news. But the Planets and producers put together a sound that seemed to come from some time much later in hip hop history, when the pitfalls of G-funk had been identified and getting it right was easy. A few years ago it still seemed fresh, and even today it’s a little hard to tell from cues in the music when the album was produced.
I had never seen this Digable Planets video before tonight, and I like it. I got a pretty good laugh at Mecca rolling her eyes as she reaches one of the weakest rhymes in the track (near the end, just before the Jazzy Joyce cameo). For your viewing pleasure, the Digable Planets’ “9th Wonder (Blackitolism)” (viewing in High Quality recommended):
Musical Alphabet: C (Fads, Family and Fundamentals Edition)
1. I got all into Los Campesinos! for about 45 minutes last year. I still think they’re pretty OK, but I try not to think critically about it because I’m pretty sure the attraction wouldn’t stand close scrutiny.
2. Carrie Nations (of Athens, Georgia, recent years, not to be confused with any other band by the same name) is my brother’s old band, and I really wish they’d made more albums before splitting up.
3. I’m doing a pretty good job making it through “C” without leaning on the Cure. Don’t think that means we’re going to be able to steer clear of Morrissey or the Smiths. Sg, you already like Johnny Cash (you’re particularly fond of his rendition of “I’m Just an Old Lump of Coal”), and we’re going to build on that.
Musical Alphabet: B (1993 Edition)
The albums containing these songs were released in July and August of 1993, while I was enjoying my last pre-college summer. Also that summer:
- A magnitude 7.8 earthquake off Hokkaidō, Japan launched a devastating tsunami that killed 202 on the small island of Okushiri, Hokkaido;
- UN inspection teams left Iraq (on the same day the Bjork album was released), then Iraq agreed to UNSCOM demands and the inspection teams returned;
- White House deputy counsel Vince Foster was murdered in Virginia by Hillary Clinton and a gang of satanic pixies who forced Rush Limbaugh to watch the whole thing, thus turning him evil;
- A federal judge sentenced LAPD officers Stacey Koon and Laurence Powell to 30 months in prison for beating the crap out of Rodney King;
- NASA brings glory to the United States by losing radio contact with the Mars Observer orbiter 3 days before the spacecraft is scheduled to enter orbit around Mars; and
- (On the same day the Breeders album came out) Russia completed removing its troops from Lithuania.
the Breeders — “Cannonball”
Björk — “Human Behavior”
“There is definitely, definitely, definitely no logic.”
Musical Alphabet: A
Sg,
The idea here is to post 26 entries, one for each letter of the alphabet, in alphabetical order, containing songs by artists whose names begin with that letter. Its an idea I ran across here, and it seems like good clean fun.
I’m not going to knock myself out selecting the very best, or most favored, songs for any letter, but it’s kind of cool that for “A” I get to post this song, which always makes me think of you.
The Arcade Fire — “Wake Up”
“Children don’t grow up;
our bodies get bigger but our hearts get torn up.”
Bonus: here’s a song that you’ve been requesting for months, and to which you like to try to sing along. I don’t think anyone has told you yet (I haven’t) that it’s dorky to fumble along with a song, only catching up with the actual lyrics on the last, and maybe first, words of a line. That’s mostly what you end up doing, as most of the song is long strings of syllabic singing. (No video because it is some fan-assembled cartoon that has nothing to do with the song.)
Au Revoir Simone — “Stars”