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Not a whole lot on the blogging front today. In lieu of an interesting post, simply enjoy some Philip Glass.
Goodnight everyone.
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Well, to be honest, nothing. My turntable is currently out of commission and the effort involved in recouping it is greater than the pleasure I’d get out of actually recouping it.
However, in lieu of working turntable, I’ve become a huge fan of Rdio.com, which allows you to stream entire albums. A free trial lets you stream for a week, and after that you can sign up for a monthly paid service, or re-trial under a different email address.
Currently in the queue is Queen’s 1975 A Night at the Opera, which, though famous for the timeless “Bohemian Rhapsody”, has be absolutely stunning to listen to for the past few days or so. Got some time? Give a listen.
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Queen – ‘39
My fourth year of attending Coachella has now come and gone, and I must admit that one of the best parts of attending music festivals is discovering new music you might otherwise never have heard. For me, my musical horizons were expanded to begin to include some great new artists!
To write about each of the bands I saw would be incredibly time consuming, so rather than that, I’ll let you just listen!
[NOTE: I’ve become a huge fan of the music site Rdio, which allows users to stream entire albums. You can sign up for a week’s free trial. Or more.]
Friday, April 15th:
Saturday, April 16th:
Sunday, April 17th:
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As much as I am fan of both classic rock and indie rock, I am also a sucker for choral music. One of the best parts of dedicating an entire Pandora station to modern sacred choral music is that once in a great while a composer I’ve never heard of will come up and blow my mind.
Such was the cast this weekend when I discovered Russian composer Grechaninov, who appears to be unknown mostly due to the fact that he lived contemporaneously (thank you, 11th grade English teacher, Mrs. Charlton, for adverbs like that!) and in the shadow of the more well-known Rachmaninov.
Seriously. Find an empty room. Russian choral CD. Glass of favorite scotch. Sit. Listen to this music! For, as Natalie Portman says, “it’ll change your life”.
Yesterday I stepped into the 21st century and ditched my ancient Palm Centro dumbphone in favor of HTC’s brand new Evo Shift 4G, not so much for the particular hardware that the phone offers, but for the operating system it sports, Google’s Android.
To celebrate, I’m showcasing several different versions of the Radiohead classic “Paranoid Android” in honor of the new technology. My goals here are two-fold: first, to showcase some great musicians my readers have not perhaps heard of yet, and second, to convince you to throw out your iPhone and buy one with Android.
Today, John Lennon would be celebrating his 70th birthday. Turn on the radio today, and you’re likely to hear the strains of Imagine, Come Together, and A Day in the Life. After all, Lennon penned some of the greatest works of art in the past two millennia, but unlike Beethoven, whose works will be forever relegated to interpretations of a written score, Lennon lived in a time where technology has allowed us to not only enjoy the songs, but just as much the man who sang them.
Yet despite so much deserved honor thrown his way, much of his body of work remains buried in the deep tracks of old vinyl without much radio or popular airplay. So in honor of one of the greatest musicians of all time, I give you my personal, and thoroughly biased list of John’s greatest under-represented, under-recognized, and under-played songs from his Beatles years, album by album. What criteria did I use? Basically is it (a) a great song, and (b) have I never heard it on the radio?
I know there will be dissenters here. What are your top underrated Lennon songs? What did I miss?
From Please Please Me, “There’s a Place”.
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From With The Beatles, “It Won’t Be Long”.
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From A Hard Day’s Night, “Anytime At All”.
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From Beatles For Sale, “I Don’t Want to Spoil the Party”. (Youtube)
From Help!, “You’re Gonna Lose That Girl”.
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From Rubber Soul, “Girl”.
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From Revolver, “Tomorrow Never Knows”.
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From Sgt. Pepper’s, “Good Morning Good Morning”.
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From Magical Mystery Tour, “Baby You’re a Rich Man”.
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From The Beatles, “I’m So Tired”.
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From Yellow Submarine, “Hey Bulldog”.
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From Abbey Road, “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)”.
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From Let It Be, “Dig a Pony”.
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From Past Masters, “Don’t Let Me Down”.
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From Anthology, “Leave My Kitten Alone”.
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Happy Birthday, John.
Of Montreal – Hydra Fancies
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Wait for it, wait for it, yes the solo at 2:17 will blow your mind, so be sure and turn up those speakers. Wow. Amazing.
Although I’ve never been much of an Of Montreal fan, this new album produced by none other than my main man Jon Brion (who most recently also produced Brad Mehldau’s beautiful piano jazz album, Highway Rider) is absolutely wonderful. It seems like anything this guy lays his hands on turns out excellent, which is a reminder that the final sound of an album is as much a function of the producer as it is the original artist. Music making is very much a team effort, and even when there are superstars, good collaboration is needed to ensure the excellence of the final work of art.
In the same way that music is a collaborative effort, great teaching is as well, with as much of success happening because of conversations happening between us as we all work to serve kids.
….you like how I randomly tied that all in there at the end? Yeah, you did…
Simon and Garfunkel – The Only Living Boy in New York (ripped from, yep, vinyl)
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Never has the old adage proved so true as when I became the proud owner of a turntable being discarded by a friend who was in the process of moving to a new apartment and didn’t have either the space for this or the desire to use it as a preferred method of music listening.
Needless to say, it’s nice to be able to walk into Amoeba and purchase some great used vinyl for about $1 per record, many of which actually sound amazing (particularly those which have been kept in good care).
Now I’m not quite ready to jump on the bandwagon just yet, but there is a growing movement away from digital mp3s (and to a certain extent, even CDs) and back to the original analog recordings. Very interesting stuff (here, here, and here).
Theme (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) – Jon Brion
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On certain Fridays, the US population will flock into theatres to see a movie for the sole reason that it stars a certain actor, say Johnny Depp, regardless of its potentially high or low quality.
On other Fridays, a slightly smaller though still significant group will flock to a film for the sole reason that it was directed by a certain individual, again, someone like Wes Anderson, even when he puts out absolute flops.
However, this Friday I anticipate going to see a released film that looks absolutely awful (at least from its previews), that being The Other Guys, an action comedy starring Mark Wahlberg and Will Ferrell. This is typically not the type of film that I’d ever have much of an interest in seeing, yet I will go, solely because one of my very favorite musician’s, Jon Brion, scored film.
I’ve often found that more times than not, a film’s score can either ruin an otherwise great film, or enhance a merely mediocre one. And while Brion probably will never again reach another cinematic high as grand as an Eternal Sunshine for the Spotless Mind, or a Punch-Drunk Love, I’m hoping he’s still got some great film music inside of him, at least enough to redeem an otherwise cheesy-looking, hollywood-folks-have-to-feed-their-families-too film. We’ll just have to wait and see hear.
Children of Bodom – Oops, I Did It Again
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Southern California summer is a time for golfing (as is spring, fall, and parts of winter). My third time out on a course this year proved a slight improvement, as I found myself being able to definitively hit many decent shots. The trick is, to be able to string those shots all together on the same hole. However, much like my boys in orange and blue who can somehow manage 7 hits without scoring a run, my great shots seem to always be mitigated by 4-putts, pulls left, and drives that travel just past the ladies tees. Luckily, I lost no golf balls and took no mulligans so I’ll at least chalk it up as a moral victory.
Summer is also the time for ridiculously amazing cover songs, the one here being discovered barely a few hours after golf, thus ending the day on a much needed positive note.
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