Listening | Noticing | Getting Down
August 31, 2010 1 Comment
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August 30, 2010 Leave a comment
“Holy Ka-pow, Uncle Funk! This song has a Chinese Gu Zheng star, Bei Bei, throwing her mad plucking skills into the mix with American musician/producer, Shawn Lee. The Gu Zheng, as you know, is in the zither family,” says [person].
You’re right on all counts, [person].
[Person] continues, “These cats create a wild blend of Chinese-restaurant-music served up on a combo platter with 100% American groovejuice sprinkled on top.”
Indeed. Enjoy.
August 29, 2010 Leave a comment
Marc Ribot shreds the gee-tar on this one. “Feelgood” is not usually a John Zorn adjective, but it is here.
Get ready to nod your head with vigor, whilst you enjoy.
August 28, 2010 Leave a comment
It’s a simple request, really.
Charles Mingus (on vocals and piano) from Oh Yeah in 1962, with Rahsaan Roland Kirk on sax.
Sing it like you mean it, Charlie.
Enjoy.
August 27, 2010 Leave a comment
The Budos Band are an instrumental (9-12)-piece (?) on the Brooklyn-based Daptone label.
This song is as funky as anything you’re likely to hear between two Sundays.
Enjoy.
August 26, 2010 Leave a comment
Key Kool raps in Japanese on this one, with DJ Nu-Mark on the steel wheels.
Like so much in life, you don’t have to understand it to enjoy it…
August 25, 2010 Leave a comment
If you’re like me, sometimes you wake up and think “Golly, I want to listen to some Icelandic music… Because life isn’t insane enough.”
Well, I am here to serve it up for you. Mugison is like the Justin Bieber of Iceland. Except way hairier, and less mature and probably not as popular. And when you listen to his music, you will sometimes feel like his therapist.
This one, “To The Bone,” from 2008’s Mugiboogie, gives you a palatable taste of Mugison’s freakish range of Icelandic sounds. His music ranges from outright screaming to heart-wrenching ballads. “To The Bone” even has autotune done well…
Enjoy.
August 24, 2010 Leave a comment
Thanks to Benito in Amherst, who tuned me on to some great African music I hadn’t heard. This one is from Nigerian, Peter King, from a compilation entitled Nigeria 70 Vol. 1.
According to Wikipedia, Peter King is “perhaps better known in Europe and America than in Nigeria” for his jazzy afrobeat sound. So I guess this is sort of white man’s African music.
Another of King’s tunes, “Afro Funk,” will flow forth from the second video below if you click it.
Just sit back, all you honkeys out there, and enjoy.
August 23, 2010 Leave a comment
Ray LaMontagne is a singer/songwriter from Nebraska whose story is as intriguing as his raspy voice.
According to Wikipedia, his musician father abandoned his family while Ray was young, and he avoided music most of his life for this reason.
He left home young and worked 65 hours a week in a shoe factory (I’m not making it up, still from Wikipedia), and one morning when awakened for his first shift by a Stephen Stills song, “Treetop Flyer,” he decided to become a singer/songwriter. He started touring in 1999.
I love stories about lives changing for the better in a single moment.
Thank-you, radio, for playing that song right then, and laying it just right in Ray LaMontagne’s ear holes. Thank-you, Ray, for hearing whatever it was you heard.
“Three More Days” is probably Ray’s most upbeat, rocking tune. Most of his songs are pensive, soulful, and unhurried. He seems to long for a simpler time, and sometimes his voice can take you there.
Enjoy this live version from BBC.
August 22, 2010 Leave a comment
This is a rocking remix of the 1996 Beck classic, “Where It’s At.”
I found out Beck is a scientologist a few years ago, and it’s tainted my experience of his music ever since. Scientologists are as ridiculous as creationists and tiny dogs wearing clothes.
Before I found out about Beck’s relationship with The Church, I strongly admired his absurd style and sideways funk… as you can appreciate in the video below. Beck’s a great entertainer, so I try to forgive him his irrationality while still appreciating it. I have to remember that some of the best people the world has ever known have been completely irrational. It takes all kinds, right?
So, for a few moments, drive out thoughts of shady, cult-like organizations, and enjoy.
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