I go through phases with internet radio and I am back in one now. It has been going on for a few months and was instigated by me finally integrating a PC into my home stereo system. All of my music is served off of drives and pumped through my Rotel-based system and streaming radio was the next logical step.
Reciva is a portal, or directory, which "...contains 9050 stations (and 21242 on-demand streams) in 266 locations and 60 genres."
In other words, it is a guide to streaming radio spanning the globe.
I came across it in an article in
The Atlantic Monthly called
Radio Free Everywhere (which itself is a tribute to streaming radio).
So with music available from around the globe at our fingertips...from your local college station to broadcasts from Africa and beyond...any suggestions? The more freeform or eccentric the better.
Lemme know. Thanks.
OK, so I had to read this book for work but I am glad I did. I have dug AC/DC for 25 years or more at this point. This book is fairly uncritical in terms of how it deals with the band members and the music, but what it lacks in objectivity is made up for in the access the authors had to the band and the many people around it over the years. Reading about Bon Scott alone makes you realize that the guy could never have been anything other than a rock god!
488 pages of AC/DC is probably more than the casual fan needs but if you want to appreciate where they fit in along the rock and roll continuum (think Chuck Berry, Rolling Stones, AC/DC and you're on the right track) its worth picking up and spending some time with...
I have avoided posting about the Led Zeppelin reunion since the hubbub began. There has been so much written, what could I add?
I read a piece by Sasha Frere-Jones today in the New Yorker that has promtped me to comment.
I had to turn down two different offers of tickets to the reunion show in London. If you have been reading my blog for a while you know that earlier this fall I had a family emergency which kept me offline for pretty much the entire month of October. The fallout from that lingers and I could not with clear conscience justify the trip, though I did play it out in my head several different ways...As Frere-Jones said in the aforementioned piece, "My affection for Led Zeppelin is limitless and somewhat irrational".
So I missed it. I spent the afternoon of the show (I am in Brooklyn), watching the setlist get updated in real time, getting texts from friends at the show, and by the next morning watched some amazing YouTube clips. Then I moved on.
As much as I would like to see them, I can't shake a few things: at their peak they were remarkably inconsistent (have you listened to the boots? Yikes...); Page...if he's clean and committed he's unstoppable, if he's not, well I saw The Firm and all I can say is, "double yikes"; The Cream shows at Madison Square Garden...A lot of fun but NOT Cream - and that was with the original members.
I know this Zep show was different, what I saw myself and what people whose opinions I trust tell me is plenty for me to believe, but still....Plant's recent comment, quoted in the New Yorker piece about reuniting for "one last great show" gave the whole thing a sense of purpose and import that a full-blown reunion tour would diminish.
Frere-Jones article summed it up for me:
"...Led Zeppelin is a cover band now, covering its own material. Without John Bonham, the band can only sound like Led Zeppelin; it can’t be Led Zeppelin. The band should turn down the money and let its record stand. The failed gigs of the nineteen-eighties and nineties have been supplanted by a triumph, and the band should be pleased to have done Ertegun proud with such a spirited performance. I look forward to any chance I get to see Plant, Page, or Jones play live. But let the songs remain."
But if they
do tour, see you there.
In addition to blowing my voice out singing Wheel in the Sky on karaoke, the other highlight of my office holiday party this year was what my secret santa got me: a bootleg disc of the DJ Shadow/Cut Chemist mixtape
Brainfreeze and the official DVD release from their subsequent tour,
Product Placement.
Why is this so good? Let us consult Wikipedia:
"Brainfreeze was a 1999 live mix album by DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist (formerly a member of Jurassic 5). The two tracks of the album are uninterrupted recordings from a live performance where they sampled hit funk, soul, rock and jazz singles from 45 rpm vinyl records. This type of recording was pioneered by the duo Double Dee and Steinski through their "Lessons" (the difference being that the "Lessons" cuts were meticulously edited together from snippets of audio tape, rather than performed live using turntables)."
Click here for the whole entry, it is pretty interesting and includes listings of the records they used in the mixes...
There are two tracks on the bootleg (you can buy this as an import from Amazon but why? It's obviously not legal...):
Brainfreeze, parts
one and
two
I found a new online radio show podcast to love...from people associated with an absolutely amazing magazine,
Wax Poetics...
"A fantastic voyage through sound! The Record Rundown is a weekly showcase of rare and not so rare grooves, hosted by the musical anthropologists at Wax Poetics Magazine (http://waxpoetics.com/). Although the Record Rundown emphasizes hip-hop, jazz, and soul anything is fair game—so long as it’s funky. Sponsored by the fine people at Manhattan Portage (http://www.manhattanportage.com/) and hosted by Kris Rios, Oskar Mann and Jon Kirby, the Record Rundown strives to celebrate Hip-Hop’s history and bolster its future."
Dig it
here. Highly recommended...
"Some called him Bob Marley's shadow. Others said that he was Malcolm X with a band. Peter Tosh was one of reggae's most astonishing figures, a rebel with not only a cause but enough blazing anger to set the world on fire twice over. More importantly, he was intelligent, outspoken, and never hesitatant to put his money where his mouth was; Tosh's nickname of "Stepping Razor" was well earned. While Bob Marley's image was softened and commoditized for his subsequent rock star status, Tosh remained a true outlaw, on record and in real life. "I'm living in a world of ignorance," Tosh told an interviewer, "where everything that is righteous is condemned. When I come on stage, it's not to entertain and just smile, because my songs are not smiling songs. My songs are a revolution. And when you do these things, you become a threat to society..."" - from the promotional web site for the Tosh DVD, Stepping Razor: Red X
Stop That Train - Peter Tosh - from
Mama Africa
"You need music, I don't know why. It's probably one of those Joe Campbell questions, why we need ritual. We need magic, and bliss, and power, myth, and celebration and religion in our lives, and music is a good way to encapsulate a lot of it." - Jerry Garcia
Stop That Train - Jerry Garcia Band - from
Jerry Garcia Band
Northeast is snowed in...midwest is digging out...here in Brooklyn its just raining and raining and raining....
Seemed like as good a day as any to post this collection.
Rolling Stones...Ray Charles...Chi-Lites...James Brown...The Supremes...Van Morrison...The Secret Machines...Joe Cocker.
Download
Burning Dervish Vol 16: Stoned
Man, some people hate this record! Dig
the Amazon reviews. Ha.
Me? I kinda like it, but I am easily amused. I like Tuatara, I like chill out DJ music, so with this you get two great tastes that taste great together.
Mmmmmm....chocolate in my peanut butter....
The Hangover from
Cinemathique
and
The Hangover, remixed by Mr. Reliable, from
The Loading Program
Fun little piece in this week's
New Yorker, worth reading if only for:
"“The music that defines a period, the music that evokes memories, is not the music you loved,” Sewell said. “It’s the music that you treated as background. It’s the music I neglected—the semi-light, detested and ignored music—that brings me back in a flash. Everything else you take with you. If I hear ‘Tainted Love,’ by Soft Cell, it’s a quite good track, really, but it absolutely—bang, I’m back there.” Fourteen again.
Sewell went on, “To me, Pink Floyd has the very strong whiff of bong smoke still. I actually was listening to ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ a few years back, and almost had a panic attack, a sort of flashback to being stoned, because it was so reminiscent of being in certain rooms on beanbags.” Sixteen."
Perfect, right?
It seems like these guys are everywhere. It's taken me a while to cotton to them and I am still not sure...I don't like this record beginning to end (maybe that's asking too much) but there are a few real oddball tracks that I really dig.
Like Sufjan Stevens, Tunng's music feels very cinematic to me...A lot of these songs sound so evocative. Of what, I am not sure, but it definitely has an effect.
Tales from Black and
Kinky Vans
from
This Is...Tunng: Mother's Daughter and Other Songs
Miles' "
second great quintet"....with Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter & Tony Williams.
The tracks on this record were captured a week apart (Oct 31 and Nov 7, 1967 in Sweden and Germany) and were unreleased, I am pretty sure, until the last year or two...
The track list covers the transition from the Miles standards like 'Round Midnight and Walkin' through material from
E.S.P. and
Miles Smiles. This band is so distinct sounding...Herbie's playing, especially, is really a thrill.
Dig two versions:
Footprints - Konserthuset, Stockholm, Sweden 31 Oct 1967
and
Footprints - Stadhalle, Karlsruhe, Germany, 7 Nov 1967
from
Winter in Europe 1967
I received an email from
this artist asking me to
check out her music on MOG.
Stylistically, Cindy's music is not something you might expect to stumble across on this blog. Thematically though, it fits, if only because the songs are honest and heartfelt.
Have a listen on her
website,
MySpace page or
MOG.
I'm gonna be busy the next couple of days and won't be able to get any meaningful posting done...have a laugh while I am otherwise occupied...
