Thursday, April 30, 2009
Lucy Langlas - Your Campaign
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Tornado Warnings
Exciting, but no electricity means no sharing tonight. The winds are making their own music, and the electric box sending off sparks in the dry back yard does not make me want to sit around enjoying music tonight anyway. I'm going to enjoy the sound of the winds swaying trees back and forth - tops of the branches touching the ground on two sides of the trees. Anyway, I'm off to make sure the sparks that hit ground don't actually catch anywhere.
UPDATE: We made it through the night. Not much sleep, but plenty of natural music keeping my ears tuned closely to my surroundings! One peach tree actually snapped in half. A lot of tomato blossoms flew off into the tornado nether lands, and a few heavier tomatoes are laying on the ground begging me to make some green fried tomatoes for breakfast tomorrow. A tornado touched down at a ranch a few miles up the road, but besides the peach tree and a few tomato blossoms, we survived the thrill.
UPDATE: We made it through the night. Not much sleep, but plenty of natural music keeping my ears tuned closely to my surroundings! One peach tree actually snapped in half. A lot of tomato blossoms flew off into the tornado nether lands, and a few heavier tomatoes are laying on the ground begging me to make some green fried tomatoes for breakfast tomorrow. A tornado touched down at a ranch a few miles up the road, but besides the peach tree and a few tomato blossoms, we survived the thrill.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Jill Sobule - Where Is Bobby Gentry
Monday, April 27, 2009
Bertie Blackman via Twitter
Elvis Costello - Complicated Shadows
Elvis Costello
CD Baby DIY Musician Podcast - Matt Malley - Life as a Counting Crow
A similar podcast came out with John Oates of Hall & Oates, but I couldn’t find the album at the time. I should have shouted out that podcast, too.
CDBaby DIY Musician Podcast #57
Matt Malley
An oldie but goodie. . .
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Bell Orchestre - Dark Lights
The video I found on YouTube has nature sounds placed on top of the music – so you won’t have a true experience of Bell Orchestra, but the scenes are a good representation of a Sunday in Spring. Bell Orchestre
Music for this video: Bell Orchestre - Dark Lights
Live: Water/Light/Shifts -
Stripes:
Bell Orchestre - Stripes
Saturday, April 25, 2009
The Silent Years - Taking Drugs At The Amusement Park
I was sent one song, and replied to Angelica (their publicist) okay, I like it, but are they putting me on? The song was Madame Shocking, and the rhythms were strange enough, complete with a string quartet, and then what sounded to me like a circus complete with lion jumping through flaming hoops. The vocalist convinced me he believed what he was singing about. “Focus on the future, all eyes on the future.” So, I told the publicist I needed to hear more because this was so far out it coulda been a put-on. Frank Zappa meets Brian Wilson and never the twain shall meet sorta deal. So I got the whole CD, and yes, these folks are serious about being far-out and blurry. Shoutout for Forest Fire, “I’m just trying to act my age.” Lord, I hope not. “All my friends are busy now with things that they don’t care about.” Tell me about it. I’ll stick to listening every day and searching for the lost chord. I can admit whole-heartedly to enjoying the journey I’ve chosen, and will not allow the questioners to force me to question myself. I think Shakespeare said it. To thine own self be true. The Silent Years definitely have a sound that utilizes that philosophy. They make joyful, wonderfully complex music, and don’t make huge efforts to water it down for an ‘average’ music consumer. Seems to me they’d like people to listen, but if people won’t, they will be content silently releasing albums for their fans through the years. The Silent Years
Seven Saturday Smiles
Boy Least Likely To - Saddle Up
Latvian Radio - Seven Layers of Self-Defense b/w Leaning On A Reason
Girl with the Gun - In the Sunshine b/w Multicolor Paper Loops & Duck Motif
Marty Finkel - The Good Life
Nina Fletcher - Courage
The Loves - I My She Love You b/w Xs And Os & The Good Times & Honey
Hank Williams Jr. – Red, White, & Pink-Slip Blues
Latvian Radio - Seven Layers of Self-Defense b/w Leaning On A Reason
Girl with the Gun - In the Sunshine b/w Multicolor Paper Loops & Duck Motif
Marty Finkel - The Good Life
Nina Fletcher - Courage
The Loves - I My She Love You b/w Xs And Os & The Good Times & Honey
Hank Williams Jr. – Red, White, & Pink-Slip Blues
Friday, April 24, 2009
Heull Howser - Huell Tripping
I've been partying all day at work, and after work, and only listening to Bob Dylan & M Ward, and a great James Brown CD from 1990 collecting all his blues cuts in one place. So, for the first time in sevral years I won't talk about a new record. Un;ess this guy qualifies. I really do not know if this is an artist or a joker. Of course, we could ask the same question about Dylan or anyone else. I'm sharing this because it was my daughter's Birthday present to me, and it made me laugh. As far as I know it's only available as visual art, and after you watch it you'll know why. Enjoy!
PS: Thanks Parker!
EDIT: Turns out Huell has a real world of fun. Just saw him at the Mexican Border via You Tube. Plus: Heull Howser Website!
PS: Thanks Parker!
EDIT: Turns out Huell has a real world of fun. Just saw him at the Mexican Border via You Tube. Plus: Heull Howser Website!
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Bob Dylan - My Wife`s Home Town
“I just want to say that hell’s my wife’s hometown. There are reasons for that, and reasons for this, I can’t think of any just now, but I know they exist.” Of course, you need the delivery to actually taste the humor, but it’s there. “She got stuff more potent than a Texan curse.” Another hilarious tune is Shake Shake Mama. Perhaps in the more traditional ironic humor, but still funny is It’s All Good. I guess I can say that about the CD too. It’s been teased for several weeks now, and it lives up to its pre-release publicity. Gotta admit I didn’t expect it to be this much fun, but I’m glad it is. Bob Dylan
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Band Of Skulls – Light Of The Morning
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Ensemble Sarband – Jesus Of Nazareth
Live:
Extra flavorings:
Monday, April 20, 2009
Enter The Haggis – Cameos
One of the shout-out tunes, DNA, takes me through the same thinking about things scenario. With a slower dance beat. This one makes me consider the actions I see around me. Are the folks I deal with working from learned behaviours, or DNA? In all seriousness, it’s probably a combination with different percentages for different personalities and DNA mixtures. It’s easy to say “boys will be boys”, but that presupposes anger and violence will continue on forever and ever. It’s not what I desire, nor do most people I know desire these activities. But solutions are slippery visions. Which makes it easier to accept it’s in our DNA. The cool thing about the song is it doesn’t answer these questions. In fact, I’m not even sure they’re asking any questions. They just pop out of the narrative into the ether between the speaker and my ear.
The other shout-out is a pop-tune, Sea Of Crutches. An evocative title which invites another short essay, but I’ll let you fill in your own meandering because I believe that’s what the songwriter intended. “I’m not sleeping but I don’t know what I’m searching for.” One thing I’m sure the writer intended is some great harmonies, and that comes out with seeming effortlessness. Plus, I love the psychedelic break. I guess I need to mention a short song, because I can’t get it out of my head - (I’m Gonna) Bury My Demons. Enter The Haggis
Enter The Haggis on Eartaste
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Vince Bell - One Man's Music
Vince Bell on Eartaste
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Sabbath Salutations
Graham Coxon - Feel Alright
Darien – Whole Lotta Love
Lacuna Coil – Survive b/w Unhained & Spellbound
Gentleman Reg - How We Exit
Mouthful Of Bees - Del Boca Vista b/w Round Dance & Snow Blanket
Laura Cheadle - Off Balance b/w Something Today
Harvestman - Eibhli Ghail Chiuin Ni Chearbhail
The Music Lovers – Bobby Gentry b/w A Girl From Space
Green Day - Know Your Enemy b/w Lights Out
Coconut Records - Microphone
Bobby Gentry w/ Tiny Tim
Tiny Tim predicts Global Warming 1965 (note that the kids grew up to be the scientists who discovered ‘global warming’ in the 1990’s). Ah-ha-ha-ha!:
Darien – Whole Lotta Love
Lacuna Coil – Survive b/w Unhained & Spellbound
Gentleman Reg - How We Exit
Mouthful Of Bees - Del Boca Vista b/w Round Dance & Snow Blanket
Laura Cheadle - Off Balance b/w Something Today
Harvestman - Eibhli Ghail Chiuin Ni Chearbhail
The Music Lovers – Bobby Gentry b/w A Girl From Space
Green Day - Know Your Enemy b/w Lights Out
Coconut Records - Microphone
Bobby Gentry w/ Tiny Tim
Tiny Tim predicts Global Warming 1965 (note that the kids grew up to be the scientists who discovered ‘global warming’ in the 1990’s). Ah-ha-ha-ha!:
Friday, April 17, 2009
Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears - Sugarfoot
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Karli Fairbanks - Some Other Plan
Shoutouts for Needle And Thread (“the love you found, you were worried it would make a sound”), and Last Night's Songs (“I could tell you were alone drowning in the sounds of your dreaming”). I believe you’ll smile with me as the final verse leading to the chorus says “sing with me tonight” because Karli’s melodies make it easy to want to do just that. Karli Fairbanks
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Commander Cody - Roll Yer Own
Back to the party, we have a narrator that has had one too many parties, and really doesn’t care in his story It's Gonna Be One Of Those Nights. “My kid is in detention, and she’ll never get out. Well, my dog still loves me, but even he has his doubts.” He’s not complaining, simply admitting his shortcomings as a renter, husband, parent, and pet owner & loving life anyway. No one’s perfect, so why even try? Party on, because the rock and roll continues with They Kicked Me Out Of The Band! Life can’t get any worse, and is seldom as much fun.
Commander Cody
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Hedley - Never Too Late
Amoeba In-Store Videos
Rameen from Amoeba contacted me to say thanks for embedding the Conor Oberst video last night. At the same time he invited me to check out the videos they've dne in the past, as well as the future. You're in for a treat! There are close to 200 videos featuring everyone from Flipper to Richard Thompson. Plan to spend a few years enjoying the intimate, high-quality movies. Amoeba In-Store Videos.
3 assorted from about 200:
Black Lips:
Vampire Weekend:
TV On The Radio:
3 assorted from about 200:
Black Lips:
Vampire Weekend:
TV On The Radio:
Monday, April 13, 2009
Conor Oberst - Outer South (CD)
I’ve thought a lot about how he pulls this off. Usually a guy doesn’t tell me a story, I tune him out. Conor has an uncanny ability to dig up stories from within myself, some of which I forgot about or never knew existed. How does he manage to do this? Conviction. Each note comes out of his mouth with complete and total conviction that the song is important and he has found a fantastic back-up band to support his convictions.
The first cut rocks Slowly (Oh So Slowly) – “the veil between the world and the faceless bride” – right off the bat we are reminded we are listening to a poet. “Dementia, you better treat me good. The human race is in its second childhood.” Another line lets me know that I’m not the only one who uses music as an escape from reality, “Sometimes I need a place to go. Classical music plays from my radio. I sit real still, let my shadow grow.”
An acoustic guitar strums To All The Lights In The Windows until the band gets me up on my feet dancing circles to biblical allusions. “That’s the thing about charisma – it makes everyone believe.” Big Black Nothing keeps the rock & roll beat while the poet is singing about “fooling everyone” and asking “will you still be my friend if I told you it’s all just pretend?” There is some cool call & response going on with the band in this song, which makes for a lot of fun, especially when they begin the clap-along joyful noise. “I’m real scared, but so prepared for the worst.”
Air Mattress was weird on the last tour, and is just as weird here – but in fun way. Like a quick just for fun break in the proceedings, a lightning fast dance to “twist the night away.” An 80’s flavored pop punk song about sharing – I picked up on that!
Cabbage Town is a beautiful tribute to Steve Nieve’s work with Elvis Costello. Ten Women Between You And Me is a self-confessed acoustic-flavored fantasy tune, “I’m biding my time like a cellar of wine.” The fun has a sorta bittersweet flavor when the poet looks for “one witness to mourn for our love,” and admits that the fantasy is a “tragedy”. Difference Is Time reminds me of “Lay Lady Lay” because Conor’s voice takes on a completely different timbre to tell this tale, “I want to be done with everything I know.” He includes an epitaph for his headstone, “Life is hard, even if you cheat.” This performance may be the classic one that gets played from this album 40 years from now.
I talked about Nikorette last year, and still feel the same time warp when listening to this performance. “There’s nothing more sad than a lynching mob full of rational men who believe in God.” The song also includes a bit of reality that turns out to be prophecy for the capitalist created crisis that has affected the economy of the poor and middle class while the rich stuff their pockets. “My neighbor dreams big ‘cause his house is small, says all he needs now is some capital. It’s a pirate world, it’s a free-for-all.
They take your bright ideas and they make them dull. . . It’s all just a fix.”
Bloodlines is a summer radio-ready pop masterpiece, “How could you refuse to believe it’s a wonderful life? Two sheets to the wind all over again”. Spoiled is a perfect follow-up summer radio song, the music happy & joyful over lyrics proclaiming “you get everything you want and you still feel down.” Total pop irony, I love it. Dance the depression away. Complete with party noises. This late summer song will play well, even after school has started and the kids are all writing their “what I did” essay. Worldwide is the radio song for autumn, “there’s a place you go when the weather’s cold, leave it all behind.” How I long for the days when there were radio stations that played songs like these. Dream on. Roosevelt Room is the ‘underground’ FM radio cut, complete with some far-out guitar solos bouncing off the organists salutations.
It’s hard to tell how serious the band wants us to take Snake Hill. Remember the guy who sang “Don’t Bogart” on the Easy Rider soundtrack. The voices sound like they’re pretending a southern accent, but the words have a serious intent. Leave it to someone smarter than I to figure out why the band chose this method to present this story of a young man seeking to visit the huge world outside his family surroundings. “I discovered that a girl was what my mother tried to hide from me. She can make you feel alive, she can make you want to die.”
Last year Conor made my personal list, as well as many other lists of top CDs for 2008. I have a real sneaky suspicion that this new CD is going to stay close enough to my CD player to reach the top CD list for 2009. A big thanks to Conor Oberst & the Mystic Valley Band for making this week start off with a blast and having me look forward to many hot summer days listening to this fine album.
Check out Conor’s website this week for a stream of Slowly (Oh So Slowly), the opening cut; and a free download of Nikorette. Also, keep your eye open for a downloadable documentary film, One Of A Kind, from the website soon – it is being offered at no cost, with the understanding that if you receive personal benefit from it that you’ll donate some cash toward charity. Conor Oberst
Nikorette Live:
A year ago - Souled Out:
A beautifully filmed live show from last year from Amoeba.com:
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Bertie Blackman - Sky Is Falling
The shoutouts are many: Thump (“if only the night were forever, I’d fight for you”); Heart (“This road feels rough under my shoes”); White Owl (“he has so many faces inside”); Birds Of Prey (“you picked the wrong girl off the streets and my nails are sharp. . .I live in my own darkness”); Come To Bed (“what’s it to you that we’re worlds apart?”); Shout Out (“it’s like a fear I feel tonight”); Town Of Sorrow (“dirt roads covered with daisies so in love with each other”); and Baby Teeth (“I’m always on the run to never feel anything else in the dark”). Each song has its own musical flavorings, and each of these flavors fits the story the poet wishes to convey perfectly. Purchase current single on Amazon (Heart).
Free download of Heart from ITunes
Bertie Blackman on MySpace – watch for CD release date.
Visions from previous albums:
Live:
A freak that can never fit in:
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Vince Bell – One Man’s Music (autobiography)
Vince’s prose is filled with irony and self-deprecating humor, in the best sense. “I’ve grown up in music, worked to distraction in music, married unsuccessfully in music, and I’ve been at it for several wifetimes.” Nope, that’s not a typo, that’s Vince at his best. Occasionally he’ll remind us that he’s a poet, “every kind of human perturbation was partially obscured by a verdant, elephant-eared undergrowth”, but his poetic phrases do not distract from the story, they add some color and flavor.
When Vince speaks of “we”, he is most often talking about himself and his guitar. His guitar meditations make for a peek into a love-affair that we seldom ever get, but is obvious when you see so many guitar-pickers hanging that shapely lover around their neck. “The guitar you played and owned was a symbol of your vision. . .You could rest assured, if you couldn’t be recognized in a carping musical crowd for your tuneful genius, your guitar surely could.” Vince is open and honest about life on the road, and feels no need to shelter himself or his heroes from the diggity eyes of the self-righteous. “Coffee and marijuana: drug maintenance and the first two things you needed to start a rock ‘n’ roll band, even ahead of a new set of strings.” Reminds me of a bass I had that went 6 years without a new set of strings. Loved that filed-down fretboard Fender bass. Dunno what happened to it – gave it to a young musician 20 years ago, who has gone on to become a father himself in the intervening years.
Many of the things you’re forced to do as a musician are pure insanity, like a 3 piece playing in front of 8 people convincing them that they are having the time of their life. I’ve been here: “I got tired of playing in between songs on the jukebox in the same hick towns.” Vince was keen and smart enough to get here: “My first few lessons about the ragtag of showbiz taught me that if you couldn’t fool yourself first, that I an idea didn’t light you up like Times Square, you couldn’t fool anyone else into believing they were in Times Square.” I’ve played with many musicians, and many were legends in their own mind, but a few went beyond that to become legends in the collective mind. They had the magnetism, and charisma, largely because they had total and complete belief in their ability to do nothing else in this word besides play music, no matter who they hurt along the way, or how lonely they were before and after the show.
I’m not sharing any of Vince’s wonderful stories here – you’ll enjoy them as you read the book. Just a few more lines so you can be assured you’ll have fun while turning the pages. I loved this insight Vince had after forming several musical groups: “I was turning into a writer, a different person than the teen idols I had tried to emulate with my group. It would ultimately take a few more dips into the pond of my imagination, a place I never spent much time in the shallow end of. But I was becoming liberated from delusions of my youth. . .If I was going to survive my budding authorship in the rough-and-tumble music world, if I was going to make the difference I aspired to with my work, it would be because I kept playing those solo gigs. Just me and those six strings.” Vince Bell
The book as a stage event:
It was 32 years ago today, Vince Bell taught his guitar to play:
Friday, April 10, 2009
Mojo Morgan - Tonight
In the meantime, enjoy these
earlier releases:
Thursday, April 09, 2009
Adam Hill - High Road
Wednesday, April 08, 2009
Yellow Dog Records - It's All Connected Sampler, Vol. 3
I think this sampler arrived simply because I became a follower on twitter; but there are other ways to get it: Yellow Dog Records
Tuesday, April 07, 2009
Death By Sexy - Wake Me Up
2 years ago:
Monday, April 06, 2009
Bob Dylan - I Feel A Change Comin' On
Sunday, April 05, 2009
Branford Marsalis Quartet - The Jitney Man
It was 50 years ago today:
Autumn:Downpour:Machinery - Eye Of The Funeral
Saturday, April 04, 2009
Saturday Songfest
The Asteroids Galaxy Tour - Hero b/w Sunshine Coolin’
Clarence Bucaro – Back In The World
Maria Taylor - Cartoons and Forever
Encore – So Gone
The Alrights - Getting Ready For Love
Ramblin'Jack Elliott – The Soul Of A Man b/w Falling Down Blues
William Elliott Whitmore - Old Devils b/w Hell Or High Water & Hard Times
Super Furry Animals – Inconvenience b/w Mountain & Where Do You Wanna Go
Dear Reader – Out Out Out b/w The Same, Dearheart & Way Of The World
The Greencards – Chico Calling b/w Three Four Time
Rubik - Wasteland
Great Lake Swimmers - Pulling On A Line
Rubik - Wasteland
Maria Taylor - Cartoons and Forever Plans
It was 48 years ago today:
Clarence Bucaro – Back In The World
Maria Taylor - Cartoons and Forever
Encore – So Gone
The Alrights - Getting Ready For Love
Ramblin'Jack Elliott – The Soul Of A Man b/w Falling Down Blues
William Elliott Whitmore - Old Devils b/w Hell Or High Water & Hard Times
Super Furry Animals – Inconvenience b/w Mountain & Where Do You Wanna Go
Dear Reader – Out Out Out b/w The Same, Dearheart & Way Of The World
The Greencards – Chico Calling b/w Three Four Time
Rubik - Wasteland
Great Lake Swimmers - Pulling On A Line
Rubik - Wasteland
Maria Taylor - Cartoons and Forever Plans
It was 48 years ago today:
Friday, April 03, 2009
Tim Easton – Burgundy Red
Thursday, April 02, 2009
Pierce Pettis – Nothing But The Wind
Wednesday, April 01, 2009
Brother Joscephus and the Love Revival Revolution Orchestra - A Child Shall Lead
A Child Shall Lead starts off this humpday with a church of delight hollerin’ joy in the spirit love this life dance party! “Can I get an Amen?” The Voices of Reason supply the "Amen" in full. The party continues with Bon Tempe Roulez, which announces “got the jones in my bones”, along with an aural menu that keeps these ears happily drinking in the horn section while the singer preaches about chicken wings, jambalaya and shoo-fly pie. Scrumptious. More Than I Need brings Motown spices to New Orleans, “I want to shout it from the top of the mountain. . .I got soul satisfaction!” The slow dance is a total knockout that Brother is able to suck emotions out into the open entitled I Won't Be That Man (“even your dog don’t want to be around you, but he ain’t got no choice”). The jumping party attitude returns with a whistle and some fine horn interplay on Midnight Moon (“I’m listening to the stereo and feelin’ Neil Young, they ain’t come up with an emotion that man hasn’t sung”). The videos will let you see the versatile talents of this exciting party animal. Brother Joscephus and the Love Revival Revolution Orchestra
A Child Shall Lead
I Won't Be That Man
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