Corin Tucker, once the siren of Sleater-Kinney, has a new band, the Corin Tucker Band, a new album, “1000 Years,” and, most importantly, a new hat. (Click here for Ken Tucker’s review): Meanwhile, ex-bandmate Carrie Brownstein has a new TV show with SNL’s Fred Armisen.
One of the legacies of World War II, with its enlistment of young men from across the United States for military service in Europe and the Pacific, was the integration of Southern rural culture – both black and white – into mainstream American life. The South, which had been largely isolated from the rest of …
Critic’s Roundtable, Part 4 (This conversation has four parts.) Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3 – Part 4 Behold! http://www.villagevoice.com/pazznjop Look carefully and you’ll see a ballot from yours truly. Almost nobody else voted for my picks, but I expected nothing less. A few observations: those rascally Posies finished at 190, beating out, …
When you answer “Beatles” to the question, “Beatles or Stones?” it shows that you don’t understand the question being asked, and if you don’t get it in 2011, you never will. – East Portland Blog Critic’s Roundtable, Part 3 (This conversation has four parts.) Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3 – Part 4 …
Critic’s Roundtable, Part 2 (This conversation has four parts.) Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3 – Part 4 Tom is, as usual, generous, judicious and fair in his evaluation, and that’s why he always would have made a better rock critic than some of us of stronger, more strident opinions. But there are …
“Weren’t Young Fresh Fellows more important in the grand scheme of things than Nirvana? And wasn’t Popllama more significant than SubPop? – East Portland Blog Critic’s Roundtable, Part 1 (This conversation has four parts.) Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3 – Part 4 Through the 1980s a couple of different strains ran through …
This is for everyone who first heard of Jackie Wilson via Van Morrison’s “Jackie Wilson Said” but never got to hear the real Jackie Wilson. Here he is on The Ed Sullivan Show, January 21, 1962.
Mike Nesmith’s highest charting song, post-Monkees, was a surprisingly tender country ballad from 1970:
Thanks to Randy Rendfeld for this: The NPR interview with Colin Meloy of Portland band, the Decemberists, and their new album, The King is Dead (available as of 1/18/2011) may be heard here at the NPR website. And here’s Calamity Song, a nifty homage to Reckoning-era REM on the new album:
“What I find striking about this song is that it wasn’t written as a performance piece. Towser was famously challenged by his producer/manager Kit Lambert to fill up a blank 10 minutes of vinyl on their in-progress LP. He responded with this mini opera. I have vexed and divided feelings about the operas — mini, …
This lady should have won…
An excellent Dengue Fever montage of sound check and live performance:
With Tragic Magic – Reflections On Power Pop Michael Chabon has once more proven himself to be my genius doppelganger, saying everything (and more) on a subject dear to me in a voice that is everything (and more) I’d hope mine to be. Being in the world with him at the same time removes any …
Not Van Morrison, but def. in the spirit of Van the Man… Thanks to BoingBoing:
Upon hearing of East Portland Blog’s celebration of 2011 as “The Year of Van Morrison,” Tim Midgett registered his discontent with Van by sending me this link to a WFMU blog entry about Van’s curious 1967 recording sessions undertaken for Bang Records. http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2005/09/van_morrisons_c.html The entry is a few years old, and at one time it …
Obvious thoughts RE: “Year of Van Morrison” contrivance: 1. In high school everyone seemed to think that Morrison’s last name was “Van Morrison,” just like an older relative of Van Halen. 2. Mr. Morrison is very short, but this physical limitation did not prevent him from taking an adult-sized helping from the Communal Cocaine Pile …
Portland, OR January 2, 2011 – Ending months of negotiation and unbridled industry speculation, EastPortlandBlog.com announced today its decision to declare 2011 to be the “Year of Van Morrison” in East Portland, on the internet, and across the world. “We are delighted that our year-long celebration of Van Morrison, the man, his music and his …
This is a “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” moment for pop music, if that makes sense to anyone. The performances are dignified, reverential, lovely really, but it’s the deftly chosen response shots from celebrities, each of whom lit up their own artistic or cultural supermoment in the years since the songs were released which project …
This is beautiful. I couldn’t agree with John Roderick more. And there are two unspoken, ignored elephant in the room, reasons that year-end, best albums top ten lists are passe: 1. Downloads are eclipsing hard copy sales and the popular perception of the album as an indivisible artistic unit is therefore evaporating. Why djinn up …
In the greater Portland area there are 160 music venues, give or take a few, that will feature live music on any given night, many featuring music everyday of the week. It really is a music lover’s paradise. Reggae, punk, indie, alt, rock, you name it, Portland has got it. Having lived in or around …
. “The Trick is to Keep Breathing” is magical. The perfect combination of trip hop and alternative rock. Shirley Manson’s voice is wispy and vulnerable, complementing the song’s simple message, “the trick is to keep breathing”. Released in 1999, it’s production was ahead of it’s time. Not to mention the ambient feel is quite thought-inducing …
I’ve reallly come to love this Gospel-tinged hip hop:
Of all the great choral works of Christmas, the many compositions of “O Magnum Mysterium” including those by Poulenc and Victoria stand apart in their power and beauty. But Morten Lauridsen’s more recent composition of “O Magnum Mysterium” has an inner emotional strength and beauty that I’ve seldom experienced in sacred music. This is a …
Over the decades and centuries of Western culture no other holiday music has proliferated or endured like Christmas music. From old English carols to the present favourites, Christmas music can make up a considerable portion of your average collection, which is such the case with my own. When we’re all tired of hearing the same …
Neko Case has created a lot of compelling music in the last decade, both as an alt-country chanteuse and as a New Pornographer. However, my sentimental favorite is 2000’s Furnace Room Lullaby, the album that propelled her out of the Pacific Northwest and into international stardom. Furnace Room Lullaby firmly established a sort of trademarked …
In the very best and driest sarcastic sendups, you don’t see the seam where acceptable everyday life ends and comic overstatement begins. This vid is exactly that sort of commentary– clever, profoundish and a wee-bit sadness inducing. (Thanks to Stephen Rabow for this.)
Meet SirAllAboutMusic. He works at Subway and lives with Mom. He’s been doing these vids for years. It’s not The Onion. It’s not SNL.
As with every album since Monster, it’s as bland as an accountant’s tie collection, but it still has Michael Stipe’s voice on it, and that’s a good thing. Isn’t it?
Kayne West’s sampling of King Crimson’s 21st Century Schizoid Man on his most recent album not withstanding, it’s generally not too hip nowadays to pay homage to the icons of early 70’s progressive rock. This brief clip is of one of my adolescent musical heroes, Keith Emerson, working out some piano parts from Emerson Lake …