11:00 a.m. listening

Just got turned onto Kiff, and wanted the opinion of my esteemed colleagues.

http://www.kiff.com/

you can listen to the an awful lot of the album on the site. I'm enjoying the harmonic choices. And, it seems like he's kinda piano-rockish...

trendcentral had this to say: "At the suggestion of a friend, we popped this album in our computer and immediately became hooked. A mix of rock, pop, funk, soul, paired with a killer voice and some serious skills on the piano, Chris “Kiff” Gallagher is sure to score some fans in the very near future. His diverse musical experience (including African drums, gospel, acid jazz, hip-hop and funk) brings a refreshing complexity to the stagnant singer-songwriter music scene, and it’s clear that his business-minded day job was just a holding pattern for this natural talent. The sound? Think Stevie Wonder, Jamiroquai, Maroon 5, John Mayer. His second album, You Can’t Keep It Down, is generating major buzz on sites such as CD Baby, Garageband, and Clear Channel’s “New” page. The single, “Now”, has yet to leave our heads."

He could be huge, or he could be another Carina Round.

Truly Orfful

I got lots of catchin' up to do, but for now, let me just post this cover of Paranoid Android as an exemplar of the burgeoning musical movement known as "Orff Rock".

Sonnet Vs. Jeff

Sonnet wins!
She kicked my butt.
Have you ever gone into an argument, or meeting, or made a project with a great plan of attack. You were very sure of yourself. You had thought out your strategy, and were a wee bit proud of yourself. You had proven that you are the apple of God's eye. That's what happened to me.
I thought my mix was gonna be better.
How wrong I was.
My mix had too many tropical songs. There was Joao Gilberto and Brasil '66. And some Mexican stuff.
Goes with the terrain, right?
And I thought I was cute to put songs with the words "sun" and "water" on the mix.
With that some novelty tunes like David Brent singing "Spaceman" and, dare I admit it?, the theme song from "One Day At a Time".
And we all love Sam Phillips and Johnny Cash so there was a lot of that on the mix.

How wrong I was.

Sonnet understood that a beach mix should be fun and peppy. She had Arctic Monkeys and The Strokes. "Oh Sherrie" and Rogue Wave. Her only failure was some Chuba Wubba cover.
My only success was White Stripes.

This got me thinking about a trip I made to Galveston when I was twelve. My mom drove me, my sister and my friend Steve Young in our green RX3. With us we had my JVC Jam Box, some D batteries and a few 1982 cassetee tapes. There was Berlin's Pleasure Victim and Iron Maiden. Plus I had The Cars first record on a Maxell casette (which I had recorded off of KLBJ in its entirety, commercial free!). We listened to that stuff on the Galveston beach, probably multiple times. That is beach music!!
Not some clever hodge podge that over-intellectualizes the beach experience (which is one of the most anti-intellectual things I can think of).

The true winner of the trip, however, is a song that never ever came up on our 4 AAA $99 JBL speakers:

MP4: My Doorbell

Some our variations included--

I'm thinking about my french toast, when I'm gonna eat it, when I'm gonna eat it!

I'm thinking about his ass cheeks, how he really burned 'em, how he really burned 'em! (about a German tourist wearing a Speedo)

I'm thinking about my diaper, how I'm really floating, how I'm really floating!
(we wore life preservers to float down ancient Mayan canals....around our butts!)

PS. If you start doing this word salad songwrting, you will have a hard time stopping.

2 Songs Today + 5 = 7

These are a couple of the things I'll be listening to in Mexico.

MP3: La Guacamaya - Los Lobos

MP4: United States Of Whatever - Liam Lynch

A quick one...

MP3: Was I In Your Dreams Last Night?

music map

Lately I've fallen in love with Music Map.

While listening to Jeff's posted MP3 Michigan, I typed "Jools Holland" into music map, and watched as similar bands gently floated from the center.

You really have to see it in motion, preferably while listening to the song, but here's a still shot.

MP3 Week Continues...

Before there was Illinois,

There was Michigan!

MP3: Holland

Happy Valentine's Day

Have you seen In The Mood For Love?

Courtesy Nat King Cole and Wong Kar Wai:

MP3: Quizas, Quizas, Quizas

Musical Prozac

My favorite Bob Marley track...

MP3: Lively Up Yourself

Is this a MP3 blog or not!!

GD-it!
7 MP3s in 7 days.
I promise.

MP3: Sebadoh - Flame

2 Portraits of Lisa

white tank top, big shoes
moving into the eye of
the punk rock circle

white tank top, big shoes
Killer Beez at the Mercado
shuffle to the left

Ode to a Sonnet

as per her requested

When a Sonnet comes drifting to my mind
First is always a Tennessee Highway
Upon the CD player we did find
Dylan -- induced her sleep: our lives...we pay!
Don't protest, saying "I Invented Ranh!"
or "When does the new Kanye record drop?"
or "The Beasties know I'm their biggest fan"
and then "You're the ponce who likes Patty's sop"
Sam Phillips was sold to us for five years
Plus Rufus and Martha Wainwright as well
Julie Taymor was yours too, A Premier.
In both of your plays, great tunes, they do dwell
Director and Director, music fine!
1 , 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
(9)

Ode To Alex

First of all, M. Ward was great. I could say alot but this piece says it so well. If anyone out there is not familiar with M. Ward I urge them to go the Itunes music store right now.

OK, I just practiced what I preach and went and bought his first record.
"You're welcome, M. It's my pleasure to put a dollar in your pocket."

Even though Alex doesn't write, as much as he would like to, he still has a very palpable influence on my offerings and ramblings. I'm guessing that like most of you you get your music, the music on you computer that is, from 4 different sources: My own CD's that I have spent days, if not weeks, converting to MP3 files. (God help me if the Hard Drive ever actually completely crashes)((Speaking of, I should save this post right now)) I also buy alot of stuff from the Apple Itunes Store. I have spent over $1000 dollars there in 2 1/2 years. I especially love reading celebrity playlists. Elijah Wood, people. That's what I'm saying. The third way is MP3 blogs like this one, where you can be totally surprised by some little gem. Something that you would probably never been able to access thru normal channels before 1997. Finally, I get by with a little help from friends.

I have thousands of MP3's on my computer that were given to me by friends. This is such a huge part of my music hunting and gathering that I have whole genres named after my friends. I have a T'Pow, a Michael,a Rozzi, a Steve, and a Blantwettreich.
Blantwettreich is hybrid, a "manimal" if you will, of Alex and his wife.
There are 778 songs in that genre, not counting things that need to be classified in other places like Red Garland and Buddy Holly Demos. That is 48 hours worth of music from Alex (plus wife). He exposed me to Wilco, Bright Eyes, Metric, the Mommyheads, Rilo Kiley, The Old 97's, solo Neil Finn, and Sam Phillips. I vividly remebering hearing Martinis and Bikinis for the first time with Alex, wife Blanton, and M. Arthur 5 years ago:

Baby I can't please you I can't please you
I know you say love when you mean control
You buy the truth and your heart is cold
So you live in shadows
Baby I can't please you

I also heard M. Ward for the first time because of Alex.

Sometimes we steal their music and put into our genres. Arcade Fire is now in Bekkah's genre. Sometimes when a musician has become inextricably linked with Alex that artist is absorbed into Alex's genre. That has happened with Elvis Costello and Tom Waits. I think that happened with Dylan, although I don't really have very many Dylan songs.

Anyway, the last time Alex was here he exposed me to a new treasure. There is a website that is a kind of a search engine for MP3 blogs. It is called Hype Machine. Go there, type in an artist, and then click on read post. It is a very helpful tool in the hunting and gathering of MP3's.

Alex, you've done it again.
Thanks old chap.

Must See Live Music!

We are going with M. Arthur to see M. Ward tommorrow night.

MP3: Big Boat