You are currently browsing the archive for the Music category.
Most people, yours truly included, think Bob Dylan is one of the great songwriters of the 20th century. People are far more split on Dylan the performer. When you get someone with the incomparable voice of Nina Simone to sing a Dylan song, odds are most folks will appreciate it. So here you go. Here’s Ms. Simone performing “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues”
via BoingBoing
Canada is very big right now. Despite the fact that their Winter Olympics lacked snow, and their women’s curling team choked in the gold medal game, they got a ton of positive international exposure. My guess is that British Columbia will have a bunch of new folks coming to visit in the next few months, and hopefully they’ll take the opportunity to check out the local music. One of the bands they should really see is Vancouver-based quintet Said the Whale.
Read the rest of this entry »
Zooey Deschanel and I have a pretty one-sided relationship: I worship her from afar, she doesn’t know I exist. I’m ok with that though. I have a feeling meeting her would ruin it. In real life she’s probably not the manic pixie dream girl she plays in most of her movies. And I’m probably not that interesting to a big shot musician and actor. So it’s probably best that we keep our relationship at a comfortable distance. She can keep going on not having any idea I’m out here, and I’ll keep admiring her work a little too much.
On that note, she and M. Ward are getting ready to release their second album as She & Him. Volume 2 comes out March 23rd, and from what they’ve released so far it seems to pick up where the last one left off. The video for “In the Sun” shows the pair back in high school. Loner M. punches away at his phone and practices guitar, while popular Zooey dances with her friends and perfects the dying art of hula hoop. That’s right. Zooey. Deschanel. Hula. Hoop. Enjoy:
Via Pitchfork
Christoph Waltz is awesome. He was completely deserving of his Best Supporting Actor Oscar for portraying Hans Landa in Inglourious Basterds. Eduard Khil is awesome too. His wordless singing has been all the rage on the internets lately, and still makes me laugh after about 25 viewings. So it stands to reason that Christoph Waltz + Eduard Khil = TOO MUCH AWESOME. Waltz did a bit for Jimmy Kimmel Live where he pays homage to the Russian singer:
How does Kimmel get folks to do these videos? He is truly one of comedy’s greatest heroes. Thank you Jimmy. Thank you.
Y’all probably know by now how much I like covers played on unusual instruments. Typically it’s ukuleles or banjos, but this week it’s a cello. And it’s played expertly by Ben Solle. He’s joined by a somewhat creepy quartet of dancers. Just try to ignore them and focus on Ben playing Fiona Apple’s “Extraordinary Machine”:
via Launtromatinee
If you’re a 14 year old girl (or just someone who watches ANY tv) you know that vampires are VERY hot these days. Between Twilight to True Blood it seems like all women are looking for in a man is a brooding countenance, pale complexion, and fangs. Whenever something gets this popular it’s inevitable that people will start making fun of it. And I say “Rock On”. In this case literally.
Suck seems to have a pretty conventional story, up to a point. A struggling band is taking their last shot at stardom, hitting the road playing dives for uninterested drunks. They need something to catch people’s attention and get them listening, saving them from having to get real jobs. That’s all pretty standard. The twist is that they all become vampires, and by doing so, get famous. Along the way the meet Iggy Pop and Alice Cooper. Honestly, this thing could be a train wreck of epic proportions. Or it could be a classic “so bad it’s good” cult favorite. Check out the trailer:
Suck played at the Toronto International Film Festival, but it doesn’t seem to have a wide release date set. For more information check out the movie’s official site.
Funk. I can’t think of another musical genre where the name so accurately and succinctly describes what it is. You can try to use other words to describe it, but none of them really fit. When it’s done right the only word that truly encapsulates the music is “funky”. If you don’t know what that means, just listen to The Bamboos and you’ll get it.
Read the rest of this entry »
Whether you like their music or not, you have to admit that they make some of the most interesting music videos you’ll see. They’re most famous for their treadmill dancing to “Here it Goes Again”, but they don’t stop there. For their latest album, Of the Blue Color of the Sky, they’ve already had a cool techno acid trip for “WTF?” and performed “This Too Shall Pass” with the Notre Dame marching band. Now they’ve managed to top them all.
This is going to sound like hyperbole, but it’s honestly true: this is the best music video I’ve seen in the last 10 years. It’s not even close. The band enlisted some help from Synn Labs to build a giant Rube Goldberg Machine, timed to the music, to be in the official video for “This Too Shall Pass”. It’s a staggering work of ingenious engineering, and it was filmed in one continuous take. I can’t even begin to imagine the amount of planning, testing, and failing that went into this.
If this wasn’t such a great cover I wouldn’t be posting it here. Why’s that? Because I’ve spent the better part of an hour trying to track down any info about the artist. Her name is Hawa, and from what I can gather she’s a soul singer from Lyon, France. She released this cover of Justice’s “D.A.N.C.E” on Favorite Recordings. It was produced by Patchwork. That’s all I’ve got.
No matter though, the cover itself kicks ass. It’s a soulful, jazzy spin on the original. In fact, despite the fact that I like the original a lot, I think this is my favorite version. Check it out and let me know what you think:
Music, like fashion and politics, goes in cycles. What was once popular, having faded out of fashion, will likely make its way back to the forefront at some point. But when it comes back it has usually mutated, changed itself in the long journey from obscurity. The new musicians add bits and pieces of other things that have come along since it was first popular, and the end result is something that looks an awful lot like what you remembered, but has changed just enough to be interesting again. Progress is made. The new style that has been created will fade, only to come back later as something new. The cycle begins again.
What does this have to do with Mighty Tiger? They have managed to add a contribution to this cycle, this evolutionary process. They take sunny 60s pop, with it’s simple structures and cheery sound, and add some 80s synths and other eclectic modern elements. The results is something new, but comfortable, like a brand new pair of jeans that’s almost exactly like your favorite old pair of jeans. Or just something fun to listen to.
Read the rest of this entry »
