Wednesday, March 31, 2010

We scratch our eternal itch


Well shiver me timbers, another post about Radiohead. I'm goin back a ways for this, digging through the oldies and b-sides. Coke Babies shows the slightly shoegaze side of the band and was recorded somewhere around 1993.

Meeting in the Aisle is a gorgeous instrumental piece that was on the rarely seen EP Airbag/How Am I Driving? released right before OK Computer.

And just because it FUCKING ROCKS, My Iron Lung from 1995's The Bends.

Happy day.

Monday, March 29, 2010

How much is Eno is too much?

Energy Fools The Magician
Brian Eno

Sunday, March 28, 2010

muted trumpets for me



Michael Giacchino composed the Up soundtrack. What a job he did. Here is the entire thing. The standout for me is Married Life (track 3).

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Major league




HOLY SHIT. This Eno/Manzanera/misc. others album is going to make up for the last three days of posting nothing. It's a guitar heavy, spacey, frantic mess rolled together in one impressive package (made in 1976). Allmusic claims this performance was one of only 3 nights when the group performed together. Everything synched up flawlessly like Doc Ellis pitching a no-hitter on LSD. The album includes a Beatles cover (Tomorrow Never Knows), a Kinks cover (You Really Got Me) and 3 of Eno's own. I bought this record almost blindly, simply wanting to own it because of Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno, and when I got home and turned it on, I was in heaven. The upper most parts of the stratosphere. Here's the link, listen to the whole thing, all ya's. Does a body better than good.

801 Live

Phil Manzanera - Guitar
Brian Eno - Vocals/Synthesizer/Guitar/Tapes
Bill MacCormick - Bass/Vocals
Francis Monkman - Fender Rhodes/Clavinet
Simon Phillips - Drums/Rhythm Box
Lloyd Watson - Slide Guitar/Vocals

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Isaac FTW


You may know this Stax soul tune from Kill Bill. It was featured in the soundtrack and it sounds as current as ever. Before he was Chef on South Park, Isaac Hayes wrote Run Fay Run.

uhhh,




Two Beach Boys songs in a week is too much. I've been incessantly re-listening to Do You Like Worms? and realizing I promote anything that changes pace, inserts a musical cough, or encourages general uneasiness. So, who else can I turn to but Animal Collective. Kids on Holiday. Here we come mister airplane.

If you'll excuse me, I enjoy the weekly television program called LOST. I'm thinking it may turn out to be the greatest literary show of all time. Or the greatest pain in the ass of all time. But it's got me thinking, and far as I can tell, that's more than most shows are capable of. It's got me thinking about Nietzsche and his complete acceptance of religion as a coping mechanism for mortal tragedy, or as John Lennon would put it, "a concept by which we measure our pain." When the veil of religion is lifted, you realize how truth has been obscured. Then you can begin to realize your life as you want it. What you choose is not dictated by what any number of people think is best for you. We have free will! And brain power! Glorious mechanisms! We are the human race, not a rat race. Also, I revel in the thought of dethroning and humanizing "god" (here comes Nietzsche - "A subject for a great poet would be god's boredom after the seventh day of creation"). So then what about those mysteries and unruly questions? They plague us if we dare think about them (again I go to Freidriche who says that "if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss also gazes into you"), so what to do? I DON'T KNOW! That was at once a depressing thought. Now somehow a freeing one. All great thoughts are conceived by the waking.

Monday, March 22, 2010

Thumpity thump thump




I suggest you turn up your headphones or speakers or what-have-you's. Ladies and Gentlemen, this is Glam Rock!


aaaand more for fun...

who doesn't like to Mott the Hoople?

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Oh Wolfie, OH Wolfie, OH WOLFIE





Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Look at him, he's getting a little fed up in that picture, isn't he. "Hurry up, Steve. If I'm still staring straight ahead in five minutes your ass is grass." Mr. Mozart was an Austrian born boy genius who composed and performed his first piece of music in front of European royalty at age 5. What a guy. As we all know, he only got better and better. I like his signature. And as for a hand-written composition, that's pretty damn precise. Compare to Beethoven's frantic mess. Whose is whose?

Here is the first movement of Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (A Little Night Music):

Friday, March 19, 2010

Fruitful worms


The Beach Boys ain't all sunshine and flowers. Though their beautiful harmonies might try to convince you otherwise, they've got some heavy, heady stuff goin' on. This song is not a prime example of that, but it is a rarity with a fantastic video. Be careful, it could lure you into more fun than you realize.

Thursday, March 18, 2010

it's hot out there today




so that makes me think of summer. summer makes me think of the beach. the beach makes me think of reggae. and reggae makes me think of pot. so listen to The Fourth Dimension by Groundation and enjoy a spliff if you are so inclined.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Do a jig

Irishness. Greenness. Guinnessness. 
Celtic Women - Somewhere

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Meep meep.

Iceland

This beautiful song by Olafur Arnalds is accompanied by an even more beautiful video. Please to enjoy.

What's goin' on?



SLACKER! That was me reprimanding myself a la Strickland from Back to the Future. So, how about a song? I've got some catching up to do so if you like what you hear, check back with me later today.

Marvin Gaye :: Trouble Man

Friday, March 12, 2010

Ahhh



Eleventh! by Arovane takes me back to a very beautiful place. It's pictured above and it's called Nyhavn (pronounced Knee-houn). It's a little fishing village in Copenhagen and I was lucky enough to travel there last summer. Arovane is a German musician named Uwe Zahn who knows how to put a soundscape together. This song appears on the ambient album Tides and is sandwiched between cricket noises and crashing waves. Sounds like something out of Pure Moods, but it makes me glisten.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

B-sides



Yeah I've been lagging, so what. You're not reading this anyway. If you are, express your contempt at my laziness. Go on, scoff.

Lozenge of Love - Radiohead





Extra Extra!

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Struggle & strive




Normally I wouldn't be so fond of the old time country sound, but Hank Williams makes a good point in this song: I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive (coincidentally his final single). And it's so damn endearing. And it's a perfect choice as the theme for The Life and Times of Tim on HBO. And would you believe it? Hank didn't make it out alive. He died at 29 in the back seat of a Cadillac with beer cans, morphine, a bottle of whisky and pages of his lyrics.

Monday, March 8, 2010

Der Kommissar's in town



Der Kommissar was written by Falco in 1982. But that glitzy German didn't see After The Fire coming. They do an english cover which you might recognize as "Don't Turn Around" (not to be confused with the 1992 Ace of Base masterpiece). Anyway, it's a golden classic. Long live 1982!


Saturday, March 6, 2010

Friday, March 5, 2010

We've made it to friday again



Nite Jewel - What Did He Say

I'm not gonna give any description because this blog/webpage already did a fine job.

And if you feel so inclined, check out this oddity.

Thursday, March 4, 2010

MCMXXX







Let's all go to hell in a brass car and keep it hot!

Maybe that's more of a roaring 20's phrase, but I love it. Recently I've been revamping my love for jazz from the 1930's. It's damned sassy while still romantic. Music was a huge escape for people bearing the grave onset of The Great Depression. The dirty thirties were a decade in between wars that housed a wayward Steinbeck and an expatriate Miller. The dirty thirties insisted you keep your sanity by going to a bar, having some gin and smoking some hand-rolled cigarettes. So music represents freedom yet again a la jazz, swing and radio.

Happy Feet - Paul Whiteman & His Orchestra

Maybe - The Ink Spots

Oh Ma-Ma - The Andrews Sisters


This song was written in 1931:

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Moon Tunes



This song best exemplifies why Mel Torme is called "The Velvet Fog." Get lost in Blue Moon.

For additional moon songs with Mel, buy this. He just loves to sing about that giant rock.

And remember, when you're blue, so is the moon.

Monday, March 1, 2010

Good Intentions Paving Co.

OK, it's easy. damned ambien walrus walking around the keybord....get outt haerrrr1@

hury before her hold ovrtakes us again: Volare - GIPSY KINGS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNgSeJzLJFc

67 and sunny



Hey guys, hey. Monday rears its ugly head yet again, huh? Well I think this song makes it a tiny bit better. A little bit of shoegaze never hurt anyone. 

A Sunny Day in Glasgow - Close Chorus