This is the Max Raabe take on the old Britney Spears classic, Oops I Did it Again. According to the Wik, “Max Raabe (December 12, 1962 in Lünen, North Rhine-Westphalia) is a German singer and band leader of the Palast Orchester. He and his orchestra specialize in recreating the sound of German dance and film …
Boston! Come on. You can do better than this. This looks like socialist aerobics crossed with the worst high school half time show of all time. And why “Don’t Stop Believin”? Why not “More Than a Feeling” (Boston) or “Tonight She Comes” (The Cars), both from local bands? The next great flashmob will dance to …
It’s been getting colder at night, which really gets my Celtic blood pumping. With the sunlight fading and the ale growing darker, my senses are filled with the drifting sounds of pipe music and the lights that dance in the bonfire’s flames. It’s just this time of year that gets me thinking about fusion music …
Bjork could be rolling in ungodly piles of money just jiggling to formula bubblegum pop; her hotness is impossible to ignore and her vocal range is supernatural. But instead of settling, the empress of Iceland dares to be an rock’n’roll auteur, a colleague of Byrne not Beyonce. A cappella album? She’s done it. Jazz? Here …
Midday Veil released their first studio album recently, “Eyes All Around.” The first video, “Asymptote II” is lovely, joyous, innocent and drug-fueled. Expect great things from this young Seattle combo: . . Here is the press release. Read and learn, Philistines: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Translinguistic Other Recordings p.o. box 23326 Seattle WA 98102 MIDDAY VEIL …
Things are tough all over. Even legendary recordist Steve Albini, the famed audio technician behind classic releases from Nirvana, Liz Phair, Bush, Bedhead, Built to Spill, Bottomless Pit, Cheap Trick and dozens of others is having trouble paying the mortgage on Electrical Audio, his impeccably designed analog studio. Tim Midgett, guitarist, bassist and songwriter for …
This from John Moe via Facebook: “Norwegian Recycling is the mashup king. Survivor, Gnarls Barkley, Britney, so much here. Survivor? Survivor.” .
For name alone, I’ve always wanted to love Gogol Bordello. Rumored to be best heard live, they’ve got a big time video out now, “Immigraniada (We Comin’ Rougher).” I’ll leave it to you to decide if there’s a phenomenom aborning here, a Ukrainian Pogues, or just Yakov Smirnoff with a backing band. If Imigraniada strikes …
Not a bad clip at all. I wish that I had something enlightening to say but I don’t. I’ve got nothing against blues/rock encounters except that in my experience, rock always wins out. Not surprising when you consider the economics. The intermingling of the blues with rock is such a complex theme, with so many …
When “With or Without You,” 1987, was released in advance of The Joshua Tree, several years after this lesser known, 1985, Wide Awake in America, gem, longtime U2 fans derided “With or Without You” as a mere reworking of this, supposedly superior, song. Because The Joshua Tree and “With or Without You” went on to …
This is the story that keeps on giving. If we concentrate on KP and Elmo long enough, we won’t have to think about upcoming elections, insane religious wars, the second great depression, Brett Favre… A children’s themed Katy Perry video, recorded with Elmo, was struck from scheduled Sesame Street airing recently because it showed too …
. Seeing this clip, i’m more worried about the shitty music being thrown at kids before they can understand it. [Look and click below to see what Sesame Street was jammin out to in the 70s.] Do we really want to live in a world populated with musicians reared on Katy Perry’s music? Also, when …
The recent Katy Perry vs. the latte-drinking, Volvo-driving, PBS liberals at Sesame Street brouhaha does nothing if not remind us that the quality of musical guests in Oscar Von Grouchland, the Street of SezMe, has gone way down in the last 35 years. This version of Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition” sounds like a live take right …
Or at least she didn’t read, the dress code, for entertaining children in the home of the brave. Katy Perry’s video, below, was removed from Sesame Street because it shows too much creamy white cleavage. Full story is here. . . . . . . .
Although this clip looks as if it had been filmed at a Chicago Blues club, it actually took place at the Newport Folk Festival in 1966. The folklorist Alan Lomax had set up a faux juke joint where he could film blues players in a “realistic” club setting. Performers included Skip James, Bukka White, and …
An old time camp meeting hymn: .
This is the best 34 seconds of gospel music on network television ever. The harmonies tend to suggest Appalachian shape note singing, as they should, if the show was to be accurate in relation to its’ mountain setting. Griffith, a fine musician and singer in his own right, is joined by the Dillards, a sterling …
. I just had the thought, now that I’ve had some time to digest Ian Hunter’s release from last year, that Ian Hunter is probably my favorite for best rocker of the 21st Century. Who’d’ve thunk it? All three of his releases this decade have been way above average and OK, if I want to …
I heard this song for the first time when i was a 15 year old freshman in high school- it’s still one of my favorite songs in the world! – Chona Kasinger .
Stiff Little Fingers was a great band — probably the second-best Irish punk band from the classic punk era, behind only the Undertones. SLF was a bit like Northern Ireland’s answer to the Clash, only less eclectic and more uncompromising. Below is one of their better-known songs, “Suspect Device. Their other popular song in the …
I’ll admit to having that strange passive fascination with the Lady of Ga. Her music is interesting, she has the chops of both Ferrante and Teichner, the flamboyance of Captain Fastastic, and the craziness of any pop diva on the planet. That said, I don’t own her music and don’t actively seek her out. But …
I have a soft spot in my heart for John Lee Hooker, though I never saw him play. I liked him best when he was young(er). Early Hooker is scarce, and even though we’ve mined the AFB vein enough– he was great here in ’65 performing Hobo Blues. Despite an ocean of booze, he lived …
Here’s a gem of an understated “Mojo” from 1963. Any videos of Sonny Boy Williamson II are scarce indeed, since he died in the summer of 1965. That’s the American Folk Blues Tour again, with Otis Spann, Matt Murphy, Willie Dixon, and Bill Stepney (very rare to see him) on the drums. Locale? Britain or …
Ed. Note – This is just in from Ron Swanson. As it is extremely rare to hear from Ron during football season via any communicational modality, we can assume the subject here is of extreme importance and the quality of the recording, insurmountably good, since Ron chose to put down the remote and educate us …
Hound Dog has a bit of a history. First recorded by Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton in 1952, it became a huge hit for Elvis Presley three years later. Presley has often been criticized for stealing Thornton’s thunder, but his version was based on another cover of the original, by Freddie Bell and the Bellboys, …
What has become the most overplayed anthem in the history of team sports, Queen’s “We Are The Champions” (from 1977’s News of The World) is arguably the British quartet’s best-selling and most widely known single – and I’m including “Bohemian Rhapsody” in my calculations. Shot in jaw-droppingly clear high-def during the era shortly after Freddie …
This hymn-like anthem is about selfless, freely given love that asks nothing in return. The singer wants to dry your tears, watch your back, comfort you when you’re down, and sail behind you and keep you safe. Can you think of any other song that packaged so much beauty and emotion into a few lines …
“Summertime in England” is from Van’s Common One album, his least popular and most misunderstood work. The song is typically 15 minutes in length, an incredible blend of jazz and gospel, suffering and bliss, and is best enjoyed live. Saxophonist Pee Wee Ellis has free reign in this 1980 Montreux Jazz Festival appearance. Love it! …
We have a new contender in the Most Bizarre Rock-Star Death sweepstakes: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/sep/06/elo-cellist-by-killed-hay-bale A former member of the rock group Electric Light Orchestra has been killed by a giant hay bale that crashed into his van while he was driving. Cellist Mike Edwards died instantly when the 300kg bale landed on the front of the …
Here’s Groupie, the Delaney and Bonnie original version (Just listen, don’t look at the sucky Jim Morrison tribute video accompanying it on Youtube) of what became the Carpenters’ megahit, Superstar. I love this song. I tried to sing the Carpenters version at karaoke but need to practice the fast part. Luther Vandross does a great …