Posts tagged music
the faux bohemian
Rock ‘n’ roll is to 21st-century America what the Wild West was to 20th-century America: a closed frontier, ripe for mass mythology….Exciting new music still thrives in the subgenres, but modern musicians draw increasing amounts of inspiration from tradition, not originality. The sexagenarian Rolling Stones do serial victory laps around the world, just as an aging Buffalo Bill toured America and Europe in the 1880s and 90s, performing rope and horse tricks alongside Annie Oakley and Sitting Bull.
Closed Frontier: Is rock over? (Vice, via Metafilter)
Woaaaaaah. I’m seeing this.
Yeah, I think ‘Port Of Morrow’ kind of sums up what I’ve been thinking about lately. It’s about having children and also understanding our own mortality, and maybe even having children heightens your awareness of how short life is and how quickly… you see the children growing up and it just becomes all the more bittersweet, those moments. I remember my youth, you know? You’re reminded of your own youth when you have kids, but you look in the mirror and you’re not a child. Your youth is gone, pretty much, or mine is. But at the same time it increases your appreciation for the beautiful things in life. That tinge of sadness that beauty has is kind of new to me, I guess. I think in my twenties there was more contrast between the dark and the light, and now you sort of mourn for every good moment that happens. That probably sounds depressing, but if you know what I’m talking about its not a depressing thing. It’s just realistic, you know? Part of life as you get older, I guess.
“I Feel Like This Is My Best Work”: James Mercer Of The Shins Interviewed
Listen on Rdio. (via fourstorylimit)
Gotta get this album.
(via fourstorylimit)
“It sounds like Arcade Fire,” my colleague wrote.
This makes beautiful sense. Springsteen has publicly embraced the Montreal-based band as the heir apparent to his own E Street Band. Arcade Fire is a classic rock band whose members grew up in the 1980s; they understand that synth-pop can rouse a crowd, too. The Arcade Fire sound resolves the contradictions that kept Boss fans and New Wavers apart in the 1980s.
—Ann Powers, via ‘We Take Care Of Our Own’: Springsteen New Wave Of Social Protest
Yeaaaaaaaah! The new single sounds pretty sweet!
‘Why?’: Remembering Nina Simone’s Tribute To The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
Three days after the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968, performer Nina Simone and her band played at the Westbury Music Festival on Long Island, N.Y. They performed “Why? (The King of Love is Dead),” a song they had just learned, written by their bass player Gene Taylor in reaction to King’s death.
How is it I never heard this song until today? I think every American History course covering the 1960s should include it as required reading.
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
30 Plays
Sufjan Stevens
Lumberjack Christmas/No One Can Save You From Christmasses Past
I haven’t been on Tumblr much recently, as a result of the unfortunately-not-so-unique combination of work, grad school, and hours upon hours of driving. I’ll be dealing with that same combination until around Christmas but rest assured that I’ll at least have a good soundtrack. I think this is my Christmas song of the year.
Lyrics:
One, two, three, four!
Oh no, the rugged sew
The great back yard, and the cold North Pole
I resent that Santa went and left us in the Alamo
Would you like to stay a while and dance with me?
(Would you like to stay a while and dance with me?)
Would you like to wrap the gifts and have a drink?
(Would you like to wrap the gifts and have a drink?)
The only one condition, I’ve got the premonition
That Christmas is a vision, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho
If drinking makes it easy (so have one here)
The music’s kind of cheesy (and share our cheer)
The specials on the TV (the specials on the TV screen)
Ho, ho, ho, ho, ho
The dreams go, and stay below
Cattle call, and the old dark sew
I respect that Santa left, to save his kids from the winter cold
Would you like to stay a while and dance with me?
(Would you like to stay a while and dance with me?)
Mistletoe, and chestnuts roasting on the street
(Mistletoe and chestnuts roasting)
The only one condition, I’ve got the premonition
That Christmas is a vision, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho
If drinking makes it easy (so have one here)
The music’s kind of cheesy (and share our cheer)
The specials on the TV (the specials on the TV screen)
No one save you from Christmases past
You’ll have to love him, or leave him at last
No one can save you from Christmases past
You’ll have to love him, or leave him at last
No one can save you from Christmases past
You’ll have to love him, or leave him at last
No one can save you from Christmases past
You’ll have to love him, or leave him at last
No one can save you from Christmases …
Santa Claus can save you. I love Santa Claus. He saved Christmas from the Martians. He gave them good gifts. Santa Claus saved us from the Martians. He gave them lots of kisses, and presents. I love Santa Claus. Fun things to eat. Hi. Candy canes, marshmallows, popcorn balls. I love you Santa Claus.
I would play the hell out of this NES game.
Is it fall? Am I studying?
Well then, it must be Vince Guaraldi time.
I was seriously rocking out to this earlier. Seriously.
So you know when you desperately try to open up Soundhound to catch the snippet of a song played as a bridge between NPR stories and you miss it like four times?
When you finally do figure out what song they’re playing, it’s usually pretty great.
Words can’t describe how exciting it is to find a great new song from one of your favorite artists that you totally overlooked when you took his debut album out from the library in 7th grade just to rip Me And Julio Down By The Schoolyard.
Words can’t describe that.
Okay Ben - I finally had a chance to listen to the new Jens track. And I totally understand why you don’t like it. But I’m sure that you understand why I do.
I was tapping my foot and doing my white-man-groovin’ as soon as it started, but the real fun was puzzling out all of the influences that show up in the song. My first thought was that it was less Graceland/Vampire Weekend-style Afro-co-opt and more Talking Heads-type Afro-percussion (made me think equally of Nothing But Flowers and I Zimbra). And then I was thinking it was a lot like Joe Strummer’s later work, especially Bhindi Bhagee in that lyrical breakdown in the middle of the song. But then again, it also reminded me of The Kinks’ Come Dancing. And it also sounds a lot like some of the songs on When I Said I Wanted to Be Your Dog.
So all in all, I like it because it sounds like everything I was listening to in high school, combined into one song. I’m going to pre-order the EP.
Jam of the week
I’m culling through the music on my iphone in preparation for the Greece trip and I keep having those “FUCK YEAH THIS SONG!” moments.
Rock along with me.
Sax is back?
I’m listening to the new Bon Iver album (streaming on NPR HELL YEAH) - it’s really great, especially the diverse instrumentation. The more I’m thinking about it, I realize that I like his use of sax. And then I slap myself because I realize again that I’ve been watching new music like a hawk for sax ever since I read this Slate article about its GREAT COMEBACK (the herald angels of which are Clarence Clemons and Lady Gaga, natch).
I think that I’ve been hearing it everywhere now, of course, just like in 2007 when every new song I heard sounded like a Springsteen cover after reading an article (Slate again!) about the “indie-rock cult of Bruce Springsteen” reflected in new releases from Arcade Fire and The Killers (not to mention The Traveling Wilburys).
Is this just confirmation bias, or do musicians really all get together at the beginning of the year and decide what they’re all going to do in their next album to give Slate something to write about?
I’m excited about this SoundCloud thing because I couldn’t figure out a good way to share my most important musical breakthrough of the day yesterday. I finally figured out how to characterize this song, which popped up on my Pandora station:
“Southern Cross” is prog-folk.
Okay, so that wasn’t as exciting as the buildup, but it is a good song.
