“Lil’ Star,” a 2007 single off the album “Kelis Was Here,” is a little slice of Disco-Pop heaven. She even gets Cee-Lo to add his golden pipes to the chorus. This is by no means a new track, but it finally dawned on me just how good the mixes are so I have to post. This joint is a throwback to the early days of the 12″ record, when mixes extended the best bits and vamped the vocal hooks. Prior to the 1970s, the decade when DJ culture really entrenched itself in NYC haunts such as The Loft and The Gallery, the 12″ record, was unheard of. Discos actually influenced the technology and DJs, in hopes of pleasing their audiences, became producers. The 45/7″ was just too small to accommodate. Now the technology is in a big black nebula again, with amateur edits pushing DJs to innovate on the fly and challenging those nostalgic heads who don’t keep up with the rapid evolution of their dance floors. I love this shit.
Sometimes videos suck. Of course I say this as I post a link to a video below, but stick with me on this one. I remember when I discovered XTC. They were an 80’s New Wave band that didn’t really break big in the US until later in the 80’s with their song ‘Dear God.’ The biggest problem they had was that the lead singer, Andy Partridge, developed horrible stage fright and couldn’t play in front of audiences. This tends to put a damper on a band’s career, but they were the darlings of college radio for a while.
Anyway, I remember very specifically listening to the album ‘English Settlement’ on my walkman a lot (yep, good old cassette) and loved all the songs. Now, I was at college at the time, and remember this really cool November day when it was raining- so the world had that misty, gray, wet, cold feel- almost foggy. I was walking across campus, headphones in listening ‘ball and chain.’
The music, for some reason, matched my mood and the weather (while an up-tempo song, it all fell together for some reason). As I walked across the quad, on my way to class, it was just this ‘moment’ that you have that you know things have reached some concurrence.
So this is why videos suck. You see, I had developed my own ‘video’ for the song- how I felt, what I saw, and it all worked for me.
Then I discovered the video below on youtube. What a piece of crap. It has just about every single 80’s bad-video cliche you could possible imagine. This is what happens when a director tries to make a ‘literal’ video that follows the lyrics- what crap, crap, crap.
You have to watch this- the guys in the video are not the band. I love the English Judge and the Suits singing ’save us from the ball and chain.’ It’s hysterical.
Anyway, videos ruin your own images of a song, but sometimes they are so funny, they have to be watched…..
His looks can be deceiving, This picture explains it all
This is just the back room, Its more crowded in the front.
Our bouncer for the night. (Reminds you of wolverine, No?)
Thank you to everyone who came to the party, We’re looking forward to seeing everyone again on our next event!
The songs by Tom Erickson of Dear Ether are weirdly cool in the best of ways. His lyrics are complex and smart - with a twist, while still sounding quirky and pop. Like much of this country’s great DIY talent right now, he is located in the green city / artist haven of Portland, OR.
You can have a listen at the Dear Ether MySpace page to hear more and show the love.
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Tickets go on sale this weekend for Van Morrison’s two shows at the Hollywood Bowl in early November, and while a show by an aging star of the ’60s isn’t usually news around here, when the artist in question is doing the “play your critically acclaimed album front to back” and that album happens Astral Weeks (my favorite of all time) and the performance features Jay Berliner and Richard Davis from the studio band, I’m going to be a little excited.
It’s not a terribly bold position to claim Astral Weeks as a “favorite” album-it’s generally featured on most “all-time best” lists-but I honestly love the album more than anything else I’ve heard on a full-length level. The songs are so beautiful and weird that I go back to listening to the disc over and over again. Of course, I’m allowing that I may be disappointed, but the novelty alone of seeing Berliner (a jazz guitarist who played with Charles Mingus and others who was roped into the sessions) and Davis (a bassist who played on Eric Dolphy’s Out To Lunch, most notably) with Morrison’s band is enough lure for me.
While YouTube is stingy on clips from the album itself, Morrison has been playing tracks from the album live this year, including this take on “Cyprus Avenue”.
Music Legend Van Morrison to Close Out Hollywood Bowl 2008 Season with “Astral Weeks Live” in November [Marketwatch]
Sights were seen, things were done, parasites were brought home and hosted for a while. Misha’s grinding away on his half of our latest secret project, while I have a couple of solo shows coming up. Summer continues apace.
We realized this morning that roughly half of our incoming email is now guitar tab requests, so we’ve vowed to start putting better ones online soon. Like, real detailed, down and dirty, “Someday all this will be yours, son, so here’s how you milk a cow” style tutorials that will leave your metacarpals humming and the rest of you ready to take over in case Misha or I somehow simultaneously break all of our hands. Please let us know if you have strong feelings about which songs we should do first, as it’ll potentially take us a while to get through the whole catalog.
Cheers,
Dave
No Comments »My faves are real simple this week, actually its just fave. I’ve been digging one thing over the last few days…
Thats right, Butter Rum Lifesavers. Man these things are amazing, like Lays potato chips amazing. Once you start, forget about it, you’re not gonna put them down. It won’t be long and I’ll be splurging for this.
This is not a drinking game for your to play with your friends to get drunk but a flash game. Control this drunk character to make sure he is walking straight and not let him fall on the street to spend the night there.
Movement is just your mouse moving left or right.
Play Drinking Game
Once upon a time, there was a little prince who dreamed. In his dream appeared to him the most beautiful music he or any other man had ever heard. At once he knew he had heard what he had been searching for his whole life: the perfect song. Scrabbling around for a candle, he hurried to write down this composition lest he forget it but alas, no sooner than he had remembered where he had left his quill did he forget score and was unable to write. Nevertheless, the beauty of the music still played in his head and, though every time he tried to record the melody it escaped him, he could not forget the hold it had taken on him in his dream.
Immediately, he left his chambers at the top of the Ivories Tower and requested to see his father, the King of Jazzland, so he could tell him of his dream. But when he did meet the King and told him what he knew the King only laughed and said, “Son. You want me to believe that you dreamed that which we have been searching for as long as we have lived in this land but you cannot tell me what it was, or sing to me its tune? It was a dream and a dream is of no use to me. Please do not waste my time any further.”
“It… there… there was a woman,” stuttered the prince, “a singer.”
“Ho, ho, ho!” replied the King, “You cannot even tell me who was there in this dream. Now, I am very busy and you have piano lessons early tomorrow. Please return to your chambers.”
Despondent, the prince returned to his bedroom, sad that noone in the Kingdom of Jazzland would ever be able to share with him this perfect song. Eventually, the prince went back to sleep and once again the woman appeared and sang her most perfect song. At once, the prince awoke but this time he did not look for his quill to transcribe the music but sat on the end of his bed and held the moment in his mind. Then, smiling, the prince slept.
I saw this email and thought of you…
I was sitting in the waiting room for my first ppointment with a new dentist. I noticed his dentistry diploma, which bore his full name.
Suddenly, i remembered a tall, handsome, dark-haired boy with the same name had been in my high school class some 40-odd years ago.
Could he be the same guy that i had a secret crush on, way back then? Upon seeing him, however, i quickly discarded any such thought.
This balding, gray-haired man with the deeply lined face was way too old to have been my classmate.
After he examined my teeth, i asked him if he had attended Morgan Park High school.
“Yes. Yes, I did. I’m a Mustang,” he gleamed with pride.
“When did you graduate?” I asked.
He answered, “In 1959. Why do you ask?”
“You were in my class!”, I exclaimed.
He looked at me closely, and then, that ugly, old, bald, wrinkled, fat ass, gray-haired, decrepit son-of-a-bitch asked, “What did you teach?”
