Let's see here. Gotta post on Socrates need to finish up, one on "Farwell to Descartes", one on religious violence, and a really cool blues vid my friend Skyler turned me on to. Write/post, write/post, write/post?
Hmm...looks like the Muddy Waters cover wins...
Showing posts with label Music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Music. Show all posts
01 September 2010
11 August 2010
27 July 2010
Stagger Lee II
If you didn't vote in the previous poll, which I know you didn't, please do so. I mean come on, I know I don't have that many readers and encourage you guys to skip my posts, but no one? Sure, I'm typically sharing music on here for the egotistical gratification of disseminating lower-class culture to you unsuspecting folks, but this is like a poll and all, with a stated future climax and minimal investment of time and effort on my part, so that probably indicates I'm curious about something and need y'alls participation to satiate that curiosity.
Phase II:
Skip to the 1 minute mark. The next two contain profanity.
A white Stagger Lee? Now that's whitewashing.
If you guys aren't gonna do your civic duty and vote, you'll have to go find Stagger Lee songs on your own. Hmph!
(Hopefully in messing with the HTML, I didn't sever the link between the buttons and their results.).
Phase II:
Skip to the 1 minute mark. The next two contain profanity.
A white Stagger Lee? Now that's whitewashing.
If you guys aren't gonna do your civic duty and vote, you'll have to go find Stagger Lee songs on your own. Hmph!
(Hopefully in messing with the HTML, I didn't sever the link between the buttons and their results.).
19 July 2010
Isaiah 53
Guess I'm in a hip-hop mood? Huh, this came up in one of the blogs I follow. The translation is NLT and produced by GRIP.
The New "Imagine"
A few months ago, Tim Wise wrote a widely circulated article called, "Imagine if the Tea Party Was Black" which challenged America to take a close look at the hypocrisy of the Right Wing. Now, a Pittsburgh rapper is accepting his challenge in true Hip Hop form. Jasiri X has released a video called "What if the Tea Party was Black." The Hip Hop artist says that he got the idea when Paradise,a member of the pro-black rap group X-Clan, forwarded him a copy of Wise's article. "I saw the article and I liked the concept," says the rapper. So Jasiri hit the studio with producer Cynik Lethal while Paradise grabbed his video camera and they went on their mission to defeat the Right Wing propaganda machine.Gotta admit, it's got a better rhythm than the Beatles.
16 July 2010
Stagger Lee
Alright, so what's the best Stagger Lee song? With those that participate, we'll choose from the best finalists.
05 May 2009
Playing for Change
Apparently, you can purchase the cd/dvd package at Starbucks, at least the one I hit up in Houston. If anyone with money wants to tell me about the vid, please do!
29 April 2009
Playing for Change
Some of you might of seen the video that Carl Olson posted "Stand By Me", which then distributed amongst my circles quicker than chlamydia at a drunken orgy.
It's a clip from a film, Playing for Change: Peace Through Music. Still trying to find out if it's been released and part of a cd/dvd package or is going to be. In fact, its wiki entry was deleted for this very reason.
Playing for Change seems to of started out with two guys traveling around the world recording primarily street artist with studio-quality equipment. They seem to have formed sponsored some charity performances with some of the musicians as well and have invested in helping communities with humanitarian projects.
As Mark Johnson explains in one video:
The music is not going to bring about unification, or transcend our differences. I've seen and have participated in fetishizing music personally. Don't get me wrong, music is an important part of our human experience and is extremely powerful and transformative. The philosophy confuses though divisive surface issues for an underlying orientation to one another which is at stake.
We use anything and everything to pit ourselves against one another, including music. And sound-byte documentation of the potential and hope for music isn't a realistic response to this situation. This obviously doesn't mean we should mire ourselves in cynicism either, and that either/or seems to be what many people flip back-and-forth on. This project is doing amazing things, collaborating with organizations helping refugee relief to African arts development. Mark Johnson is producing and orchestrating something beautiful. And their project is a worthwhile project. Let's not get melodramatic though and attach a false sense of hope to it. Inspirational definitely, indeed music can allow us to see what it means to be more fully human and commit to that endeavor. That's doesn't then equate to world peace. I'm willing to bet humanity has probably been making music for longer than governments, the mentioned religious divisions, etc have existed. We need to look the underlying spirit of such sentiments and our problems, especially the nihilistic ones, in the face.
Thus far it seems they've posted 4 other similar music vids online.
They've also included a few live projects and a few missional ones. They're doing some kind of web episodes, but I've found they're easier to download on Vimeo or facebook than the main site.
The music is amazing, fusing different instrumentation and performative styles together. It's unique and highly eclectic. Despite distances around the world, the performers are having the opportunity to come together in the music, which will I'm guessing soon be more explicitly commented on in reference to the mission stance of the organization. The ones produced thus far have been uplifting and urge bonding together, lyrically and musically. As you notice musicians with headphones I believe they're hearing a base line and some other instrument (Roger Ridley?) with which they're rhythmically playing along with, hence the ability to play in unison though they're miles apart and have never met the other musicians or played with them. It started with Roger Ridley (here's him playing "Bring It On Home"), and asking if they could record his version of "Stand By Me".
Since then though, some of the musicians have been touring with each other as previously stated:
A Joni Mitchel cover by them.
PBS coverage
It's a clip from a film, Playing for Change: Peace Through Music. Still trying to find out if it's been released and part of a cd/dvd package or is going to be. In fact, its wiki entry was deleted for this very reason.
Playing for Change seems to of started out with two guys traveling around the world recording primarily street artist with studio-quality equipment. They seem to have formed sponsored some charity performances with some of the musicians as well and have invested in helping communities with humanitarian projects.
As Mark Johnson explains in one video:
Playing for Change was born out of the idea that we have to inspire each other to come together as a human race and that music is the best way to do this...
the belief that we can do a lot more for this world if we work together, than we ever can apart.
The music is not going to bring about unification, or transcend our differences. I've seen and have participated in fetishizing music personally. Don't get me wrong, music is an important part of our human experience and is extremely powerful and transformative. The philosophy confuses though divisive surface issues for an underlying orientation to one another which is at stake.
We use anything and everything to pit ourselves against one another, including music. And sound-byte documentation of the potential and hope for music isn't a realistic response to this situation. This obviously doesn't mean we should mire ourselves in cynicism either, and that either/or seems to be what many people flip back-and-forth on. This project is doing amazing things, collaborating with organizations helping refugee relief to African arts development. Mark Johnson is producing and orchestrating something beautiful. And their project is a worthwhile project. Let's not get melodramatic though and attach a false sense of hope to it. Inspirational definitely, indeed music can allow us to see what it means to be more fully human and commit to that endeavor. That's doesn't then equate to world peace. I'm willing to bet humanity has probably been making music for longer than governments, the mentioned religious divisions, etc have existed. We need to look the underlying spirit of such sentiments and our problems, especially the nihilistic ones, in the face.
Thus far it seems they've posted 4 other similar music vids online.
- "War/No More Trouble"
- "One Love"
- "Don't Worry"
- "Chanda Mama" (Looks like they finished this one after I started the post. Thank you phone interruptions.)
They've also included a few live projects and a few missional ones. They're doing some kind of web episodes, but I've found they're easier to download on Vimeo or facebook than the main site.
The music is amazing, fusing different instrumentation and performative styles together. It's unique and highly eclectic. Despite distances around the world, the performers are having the opportunity to come together in the music, which will I'm guessing soon be more explicitly commented on in reference to the mission stance of the organization. The ones produced thus far have been uplifting and urge bonding together, lyrically and musically. As you notice musicians with headphones I believe they're hearing a base line and some other instrument (Roger Ridley?) with which they're rhythmically playing along with, hence the ability to play in unison though they're miles apart and have never met the other musicians or played with them. It started with Roger Ridley (here's him playing "Bring It On Home"), and asking if they could record his version of "Stand By Me".
Since then though, some of the musicians have been touring with each other as previously stated:
A Joni Mitchel cover by them.
PBS coverage
14 April 2009
Trapeze Swinger
A quick post to add some regularity.
Mal sent me this via pm on facebook:
It is definitely worth listening all the way through, and possibly even reading the lyrics. They're not super-deep, and if the song ever became popular, the catchy of the words and melody are vulnerable enough to easily be parodied for purposes of mocking its fans. Still, it's a beautiful song on many fronts. Curtis while listening to it, started looking at covers and different versions, and stumbled upon this:
We didn't get through it. We stopped when he substituted the word "forget" for "fuck". Curtis' response was emphatic, with comments like "Dick," and "He get's the lamo card," and a slew of others insults.
A basic piece of advice, if you won't say the word fuck, then don't cover a song which does. Especially when the word is being used to make a point. It's not substitutable. The cover musician didn't merely change a song taking artistic, creative license, he bastardized it. "Fuck the man" is the slogan, or "stick it" to them. It was making a point in the song, and the texture of the phrase was intentionally supposed to be contrasted with "eloquent graffiti". Altering it by "Evangelicalizing" it transformed the part into an Evangelical wussified expression which the original phrasing was supposed to be speaking to at one level.
I'm not a fan of copying a song by replicating it both musically and lyrically. That's lazy in my opinion, and if a song is worth covering, it deserves creative contributions which should in some way allow the song to reinvent itself and grow. This isn't relative though, and anything does not simply go. There was a lack of faithfulness to this song, which is characteristic of many Christians' "contributions" to our culture. It reflects poorly not only on what they set their hand to, but also upon themselves. If one can't do something right (not perfect mind you), don't try to do it at all.
P.S. Curtis just said, "I'm just not a fan of substituting lyrics for an euphamisim that isn't more clever or wittier than the original." He says he ripped that off of me, but I don't remember saying anything of the sorts, but it captured what is trying to be said.
Mal sent me this via pm on facebook:
It is definitely worth listening all the way through, and possibly even reading the lyrics. They're not super-deep, and if the song ever became popular, the catchy of the words and melody are vulnerable enough to easily be parodied for purposes of mocking its fans. Still, it's a beautiful song on many fronts. Curtis while listening to it, started looking at covers and different versions, and stumbled upon this:
We didn't get through it. We stopped when he substituted the word "forget" for "fuck". Curtis' response was emphatic, with comments like "Dick," and "He get's the lamo card," and a slew of others insults.
A basic piece of advice, if you won't say the word fuck, then don't cover a song which does. Especially when the word is being used to make a point. It's not substitutable. The cover musician didn't merely change a song taking artistic, creative license, he bastardized it. "Fuck the man" is the slogan, or "stick it" to them. It was making a point in the song, and the texture of the phrase was intentionally supposed to be contrasted with "eloquent graffiti". Altering it by "Evangelicalizing" it transformed the part into an Evangelical wussified expression which the original phrasing was supposed to be speaking to at one level.
I'm not a fan of copying a song by replicating it both musically and lyrically. That's lazy in my opinion, and if a song is worth covering, it deserves creative contributions which should in some way allow the song to reinvent itself and grow. This isn't relative though, and anything does not simply go. There was a lack of faithfulness to this song, which is characteristic of many Christians' "contributions" to our culture. It reflects poorly not only on what they set their hand to, but also upon themselves. If one can't do something right (not perfect mind you), don't try to do it at all.
P.S. Curtis just said, "I'm just not a fan of substituting lyrics for an euphamisim that isn't more clever or wittier than the original." He says he ripped that off of me, but I don't remember saying anything of the sorts, but it captured what is trying to be said.
10 April 2009
11 February 2009
Anti-Folk
Most of any one who has read this blog has heard me rave at some point over the years regarding the music genre known as anti-folk. Welp today I'm gonna BS, as usual about a subject I don't know much about but love to discuss. Most of you are familiar with some of the singles from this genre such as "Loser" and "Satan Gave Me A Taco" by Beck, "Anyone Else But You" by the Moldy Peaches thanks to the movie Juno, and "Samson" and "Oedipus" by Regina Spektor. Some names you might not (or might, what the hell do I know) may be Jeffrey Lewis and the Creeping Brains, Billy Bragg, and Ani Difranco.
The genre is generally a fusion of folk and punk, with other forms such as classical and rock having their influence. The albums themselves have little coherency even within themselves switching between post-punk and folkish/country styles. They are however highly experimental and eccentric and raw. The anti-folk scene though in the Lower East Side of NYC when Lach got the boot from Folk venues cause he was too punkish. Naturally, he started something new, and others joined in that scene. It's the artist who played in this scene that are associated with this form.
The lyrics "tend" to be contained within a voice of a defeat and anguish. Except the overtly punk ones. Some are even playful or whiney or both. Again, the genre tends defy any general characteristics, which is part of the beauty of it. One of my favorite quotes is by Jeffrey Lewis who said in an interview, "I think it’s a cool title (anti-folk). The fact that no one knows what it means, including me, makes it kind of mysterious and more interesting than saying that you’re a singer/songwriter or that you play indie rock." The lyrics content tends to vary greatly amongst artist, while they share a form of anti-pretentiousness and enjoyment through making fun of themselves (and others who take themselves too seriously, like many folk snobs, another dimension of "anti"-folk). Often times the songs are political or satirical or plain social commentary. Some nonsensically fun. Introspective ones have a strong presence as well. Again, oftentimes all within a single album giving them a disjunctive feeling. The textures of the words themselves and the imagery varies greatly, but are never simplistic and highly engaging in my opinion.
Most of the albums are produced via independent record labels, Rough Trade being by far the main one, but not necessarily. Many of these artist have also left the scene and explored other genres, like Beck obviously. As mentioned, it started as getting rejected by the Folk community. I don't know for sure, but... "anti-folk," coincidence? As it's so closely associated to a scene, my guess is that rather than trying to consciously compose music within a genre, it was more groups of like-minded people with similar taste indirectly influencing one another for the similarities in styles. This helps explain the continuities yet differences.
So, how 'bout a little less words and a lot more music?
A live recording from a song off the album The Moldy Peaches
From the album Mellow Gold
From the album Dilate
The genre is generally a fusion of folk and punk, with other forms such as classical and rock having their influence. The albums themselves have little coherency even within themselves switching between post-punk and folkish/country styles. They are however highly experimental and eccentric and raw. The anti-folk scene though in the Lower East Side of NYC when Lach got the boot from Folk venues cause he was too punkish. Naturally, he started something new, and others joined in that scene. It's the artist who played in this scene that are associated with this form.
The lyrics "tend" to be contained within a voice of a defeat and anguish. Except the overtly punk ones. Some are even playful or whiney or both. Again, the genre tends defy any general characteristics, which is part of the beauty of it. One of my favorite quotes is by Jeffrey Lewis who said in an interview, "I think it’s a cool title (anti-folk). The fact that no one knows what it means, including me, makes it kind of mysterious and more interesting than saying that you’re a singer/songwriter or that you play indie rock." The lyrics content tends to vary greatly amongst artist, while they share a form of anti-pretentiousness and enjoyment through making fun of themselves (and others who take themselves too seriously, like many folk snobs, another dimension of "anti"-folk). Often times the songs are political or satirical or plain social commentary. Some nonsensically fun. Introspective ones have a strong presence as well. Again, oftentimes all within a single album giving them a disjunctive feeling. The textures of the words themselves and the imagery varies greatly, but are never simplistic and highly engaging in my opinion.
Most of the albums are produced via independent record labels, Rough Trade being by far the main one, but not necessarily. Many of these artist have also left the scene and explored other genres, like Beck obviously. As mentioned, it started as getting rejected by the Folk community. I don't know for sure, but... "anti-folk," coincidence? As it's so closely associated to a scene, my guess is that rather than trying to consciously compose music within a genre, it was more groups of like-minded people with similar taste indirectly influencing one another for the similarities in styles. This helps explain the continuities yet differences.
So, how 'bout a little less words and a lot more music?
A live recording from a song off the album The Moldy Peaches
From the album Mellow Gold
From the album Dilate
07 February 2009
New folk music...
One of the benefits of living with someone new is the cultural exchange of one of civilization's greatest gifts, music. Living with Curtis is no exception, and two folk bands in particular have caught my attention: Sherree Chamberlain and The Tobasco Donkeys.
The Tobasco Donkeys are a fun cover-band. They only do a bluegrassy, folk style, but their songs can be originally from other genres, especially blues. They all were staff at Philmont. They have some free downloads from their rejects on their site.
Here's an example of a song they might do:
I don't have the dl for Sherree Chamberlain yet. She's a local Oklahoman, went to school with Curt. In comparison to The Tobasco Donkeys, much more melodious music though. Some of the singing reminds me of Norah Jones, some Regina Spector, but it still is better quality music than Norah Jones. Some of her songs have a spiritual theme, so if you do check her out, be wary. Apparently her new stuff is less so, and more folky. Here is her myspace page which has some music to sample on. I'll probably go to two of her shows in March.
The Tobasco Donkeys are a fun cover-band. They only do a bluegrassy, folk style, but their songs can be originally from other genres, especially blues. They all were staff at Philmont. They have some free downloads from their rejects on their site.
Here's an example of a song they might do:
Here’s another song for all you ladies
Well, I’d much rather have a bug in my ear,
Then a porcupine stuck to my face.
Well, I’d much rather have a frog in my throat,
Than a dog makin’ love to my leg.
A girl asked you home to meet momma and daddy
She says she thinks you’re nice. Ya, right!
Well, there’s trouble ahead, you’ll wish you were dead
If you don’t take this friendly advice,
* CHORUS *
Don’t pet the dog
Don’t pet him whatever you do
‘Cause he ain’t been fixed, and he knows some tricks
That’ll sure make a fool out of you. Ya, you!
* CHORUS * second stanza
Don’t pet the dog
He gets you confused with romance
Just leave him alone, or the next thing you know
He’ll be askin’ your ankle to dance.
Well, you say it’s OK, try to push him away
You ask, “What’s his name? Does he sit up and beg?”
Well, you try to stay cool, but you look like a fool
With a dog makin’ love to your leg.
* CHORUS *
* CHORUS * second stanza
Everybody now
Don’t pet the dog.
I don't have the dl for Sherree Chamberlain yet. She's a local Oklahoman, went to school with Curt. In comparison to The Tobasco Donkeys, much more melodious music though. Some of the singing reminds me of Norah Jones, some Regina Spector, but it still is better quality music than Norah Jones. Some of her songs have a spiritual theme, so if you do check her out, be wary. Apparently her new stuff is less so, and more folky. Here is her myspace page which has some music to sample on. I'll probably go to two of her shows in March.
27 December 2008
01 November 2008
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