Cousin Cole

Cousin Cole - 1/2 of Flagrant Fowl. Other half is Pocketknife.

"I was super psyched to see my Bruce Springsteen remix on Todd Terje's mix for Resident Advisor last week. (Todd Terje is one of the top neo-disco dudes right now and a hero of mine.) Now there's a version floating around that was cut out of the Terje mix, and I figured I might as well send out the full unmixed version at a decent quality for home listening and such."

MP3: Bruce Springsteen - I’m On Fire (Cousin Cole’s Bad Desire Mix) (Direct)

Laid back track. Hope you like. Source: Discobelle

Tracy Chapman ft. Eric Clapton - Give Me One Reason (1988)

Simple and Clean

Band: Whitest Boy Alive

Song: Golden Cage

Hand-Drawn Animation: Geoff Mcfetridge

王菲 - 不留

I was listening to this album on my friend's car and it reminded me of home, because my Dad's a huge fan of Faye Wong's (王菲)... Went to her concerts, got her CDs, VCDs, and even youtube-d her... You see dedication when you see a 50+ man try on some new technology... Oh and this is healthy admiration, not some distorted obsession, by the way. Haha, he said he likes her voice and her 'take-it-or-leave-it' attitude.

Anyway, her last album was released in 2003 and last official concert was in 2005. Other than the appearance she made earlier this year for a fundraising effort for the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake, it is still uncertain whether she'll return to the music business. 

Elliott Smith

It's been 5 yrs since the passing of Elliott Smith, a singer whose sorely missed for his delicate lyrics and delivery.

"Waltz #2"

"Chris Garneau - Between the Bars (Elliott Smith cover)"

Source: Kitsune Noir

Lykke Li - Breaking It Up

Shot "in one take live in Stockholm" by Christian Haag.

I Met the Walrus

In 1969, a 14-year-old Beatle fanatic named Jerry Levitan, armed with a reel-to-reel tape deck, snuck into John Lennon’s hotel room in Toronto and convinced John to do an interview. This was in the midst of Lennon’s “bed-in” phase, during which John and Yoko were staying in hotel beds in an effort to promote peace. 38 years later, Jerry has produced a film about it. Using the original interview recording as the soundtrack, director Josh Raskin has woven a visual narrative which tenderly romances Lennon’s every word in a cascading flood of multipronged animation. Raskin marries traditional pen sketches by James Braithwaite with digital illustration by Alex Kurina, resulting in a spell-binding vessel for Lennon’s boundless wit, and timeless message.

Elis Regina - Águas de Março

This performance was broadcasted in 1973, on a MPB Especial series called Ensaio. Check out the rest of the show here. I love the fact that she seemed to have enjoyed herself in the performance.

Similar to its predecessor, MPB (Brazilian popular music) was born out of an attempt to produce a Brazilian "national" music, thus revitalizing traditional styles. The beginning of MPB is often associated with Elis Regina´s interpretation of the mysterious Arrastão, by Vinícius de Moraes and Edu Lobo. The song was almost censored by Brazil's new ruling junta, because it told the story of a fisherman, while hauling in his nets, prayed to St. Barbara for aid. It was a story that hit a little too close to home for the everyday man.

Bob Dylan played another song of hers on his Theme Time Radio Hour, but recalled that by the end of her Arrastão rendition, Regina posed in a crucified position, with tears streaming down her eyes. This emotional song performance won her awards and widespread popularity in Brazil.

The earliest MPB borrowed elements of the bossa nova and often relied on thinly-veiled criticism of social injustice and governmental repression, being based on progressive opposition to the political scene characterized by military dictatorship, concentration of land ownership, and imperialism.

The conjuncture that created the MPB movement ceased to exist after 1969, but the acronym has survived, albeit with a less specific meaning. Transforming from a left-wing musical movement, MPB became the core of Brazil's urban middle-class music, and the term still indicates a certain aesthetic quality in modern Brazilian music.

First heard about Elis Regina on Dylan's radio show, he played a cover called "Aquarela Do Brasil" that she did with Jean Toots' Thielemans. It's a song that's really hard to find, butttt with my skilllzzz I've gotten hold of it! Just click on the link to the song.

You can learn a bit more about her here.

Source: Wiki + Dreamtime

Bon Iver & Lykke Li

Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago


Lykke Li - A Little Bit


Lykke Li feat. Bon Iver - Dance Dance Dance


Lykke Li once mentioned her appreciation for Bon Iver's music and maybe that somehow got them to perform together. YAY!

Source: Stereogum

João Gilberto & Caetano Veloso - O Pato

Well, haven't posted in a long while...but 27club commented on one of the entries and I was like, 'Damn, someone still reads this?!' So I've decided to do a couple more.. Haha I guess I need a little nudging...

Anyways, been learning a bit about history of Brazilian music, specifically the popularization of samba under the rule of Getulio Vargas in the 1930s-40s. He tried to promote nationalism through the use of radio and pop culture. Pretty awesome stuff - music as a political tool...

But I'm more into bossa nova and above is a video of João Gilberto (aka 'Father of Bossa Nova') and Caetano Veloso (an equally well-known musician... whom I know little about). It was a movement that lasted from the 1950s-60s.

Hope all is well.

Black Eyed Dog

"Heath Ledger had directed a relatively unseen video for Nick Drake's "Black Eyed Dog," a song titled after Winston Churchill's term for depression. Ledger created the video for an exhibition paying tribute to Drake's work ([whose life] was cut short by an antidepressant overdose [in 1974, at the age of 26]). In the time since, Heath's self-described "obsession" and unfortunate similarities with the singer-songwriter have been drawn out and explored, as has most every other detail speculative or otherwise of Ledger's life. Bits of the video are now available, bundled into this newscast circulating on YouTube. In it, Ledger directs himself spinning in a field and drowning in a tub."

At first I appreciated how the reporters provided some context for the video, but they just dragged on and on and on. Stop milking it.

Source: Stereogum

Accompanying Viddies

LOVE is a DESERTER


U R A FEVER


CHEAP and CHEERFUL

Some People are Just Born Cooler Than Others

Source: Official Site

Source: The Stylish Underground

Fashion Rocks! 2005 - Prada/The Kills

Source: United Visual Artists

Billie Holiday - Fine & Mellow

Nina Simone - Ain't Got No...I've Got Life

Nina Simone, in Harlem 1969

The 50s-60s seem like a cool time to live in. People were just so involved in the anti-war, civil rights, counterculture movements. Music was reactive and provided meaningful social commentary.

Got hold of the Feb issue of Mojo, was an interview with Joni Mitchell:

There's a strong undercurrent of discontent in Shine [her recently released album]. What are your feelings about the government these days?

I was angry at the handling of New Orleans and how quick the American people were to impeach a man for sex and how slow to move on other things that made everyone in the world want to nuke America. I was also angry at the inability of this generation to know what to do; their inability to move at all, which is an unusual thing for youth.

What do you mean?

In their youth, my generation was ready to change the world, but when the baton was passed to them in the '70s they fell into a mass depression because all the revolutionaries are quick to demolish and slow to fix. When handed the baton to fix it, they didn't know what to do so they kind of degenerated into the greediest generation in the history of America - the hippy, yippie, yuppie transition from the '60s to the '70s to the greedy '80s and Ronald Reagan.

[...]

Machiavelli said, "People don't know what to do with peace. It always degenerates into fashion and fornication," and that's what we have.

EDIT: Nina Simone - Ain't Got No...I've Got Life (megaupload)

Take Away Shows presents Sidi Toure

#83.2 - Sidi Touré - Part 2
Uploaded by lablogotheque

Sidi Toure strolls down the streets of his hometown, Bamako in Mali. As captured by the Take Away Shows series.

Marling

Ridiculous! Laura Marling's only 18. She's been active in the music scene since 2006. Damn it! Damn it!!

Source: nialler9

There are Some Great People Out There

I was looking for Ellen Page interviews on Youtube the other day and saw the trailer to an theatrically unreleased film of hers, An American Crime. It really made me feel sick because it was so disturbing. What made things worse was that the film was based on a crime committed by a twisted lady in Indiana.

Don't watch the trailer. It made me feel depressed for the rest of the day. Because it reminds you that there are such nasty-hearted people out there.

Anyway, got hold of a (digital) copy of "The Concert for Bangladesh" the other day. It was a benefit concert in 1971 organized by George Harrison (1/4 of the Beatles who wrote the memorable track: "My Sweet Lord") and Ravi Shankar (an Idian sitar player) for a country that's still amidst of ethnic and political conflicts.

Musicians who lent their help - Bob Dylan, Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton, Billy Preston...

Makes me feel like I've really missed a great time for music. These people were the "mainstreamers" of their time, look at what kind of mainstream artists we've got now... People seemed to be more concerned about social affairs then and wanted to make a change. Now, efforts seem too polished to be genuine, even though we had the whole Live Earth deal.

Source: Don't Think Twice, It's All Right Do yourself a favor and check the link :)

Something about the Colors

Calvin Harris - The Girls

Hot Chip - Ready for the Dance Floor

David E. Sugar - Chelsea Girls

The indies are doing 'color-explosion' in their music videos. 

The gangstas are doing them in black and white. Talk about 

opposite ends of the spectrum.

With all this hype going about mish-mash of colors, American Apparel is certainly one of the vehicles that's moving this trend along. All this hype about the brand is kinda bugging me 

though... It's great they're doing this 'anti-sweatshop' thing, but

something nags me about them. I'm not sure what... I feel like 

there's this evil monster lurking behind the curtains...Or I've just become a lot more cynical in this past year or so...

Music Trends of 2007

The crew over at XLR8R compiled a list of music trends of 2007. The best list didn't do much for me, a few were true but weren't that funny. The worst list turns out better...

Here are a few:

Mp3 Blogs
It's a love/hate thing. Blogs do promotion for bands, but also for a lot of shitty music that gets the same attention. The blog is run by some 17-year-old kid who doesn't know anything about music and production, kids download the music in a crap quality months before the release, play it in the club (aaaahhh), and throw it away after a week. That really makes me start to think if the new generation appreciates music at all.
Boys Noize

One thing is that your fame pretty much came from the Internet too... So you're either saying your music's shit or you're kinda being obnoxious in saying that you're one of the better ones out of the bunch.

I think most kids do appreciate music. There's such a wealth of music out there that it's hard for bloggers to consistently refer back to older artists on a monthly basis. This blogging thing started out with the intent to share. This 'come fast, go fast" thing is just an unforeseen consequence, in my opinion.

Haha, here's the link to the Oxford American article that I said I would post before.

Every DJ with a laptop and an internet connection having the exact same playlist.
Mike Davis, Burlesque Design

Justice's D.A.N.C.E.?? Hot Chip's Over and Over??
Oh check out the Hood Internet, if you haven't already, they've got this Girl Talk thing going.

Club Rap
I can't think of anything worse than oversexed fashionista 20-somethings charging promoters $2000 just so they can get on stage and lip-synch to their little MySpace hit. I don't want to name any offenders because I might have to interview them next year.
Mosi Reeves, XLR8R writer

Yay High School Musical!!!

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