Wednesday, 9/29/10
From a small orchestra in Germany to one in Senegal.
Orchestra Baobab, “Utru horas,” live
Here’s a big (23rd) birthday shout-out to my son Alex—with whom I saw these guys a few years ago at Chicago’s (much missed) HotHouse.
music clip of the day
jazz/blues/rock/classical/gospel/more
Category: hard-to-peg
2010
Monday, 9/27/10
Something new to sing in the shower.
Felix del Pilar Perez Castro, “Amor Loco,” Soy Cuba (I Am Cuba, 1964)
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lagniappe
Paul Anka, “Crazy Love” (1958)
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In response to yesterday’s clips:
Amen!
2010
Saturday, 9/18/10
replay: a clip too good for just one day
Here’s Arthur Russell, the “seminal avant-garde composer, singer-songwriter, cellist, and disco producer” who died in 1992 at the age of 40 (of AIDS-related complications) and is the subject of both a recent documentary, Wild Combination, and a new book, Hold On To Your Dreams: Arthur Russell and the Downtown Music Scene, 1973-1992.
Arthur Russell
“Get Around To It”
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“You And Me Both”
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“This Is How We Walk on the Moon”
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“That’s Us/Wild Combination”
(Yeah, the fact that I’m posting four tracks by this guy shows how much his music, which I just encountered recently, has been getting under my skin.)
(Originally posted on 11/23/09.)
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lagniappe
[Russell’s] various distinctions—folkie, art-music songwriter and improviser, dance-club maven—seem incoherent until you hear several of his records. When musicians get angry about being categorized by critics, I usually feel frustrated: readers, after all, want to know what the record sounds like. With Russell, I take the musicians’ angle. Just listen to it and you’ll understand.
—Ben Ratliff, “The Many Faces, and Grooves, of Arthur Russell,” New York Times, 2/29/04
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For Arthur, there was no cachet to being eclectic. Rather, he played across genre because it would have required a colossal and entirely counterproductive effort on his part to stick to one sound. . . . Drifting into an ethereal, gravity-defying zone, Arthur had come to embody the interconnectivity of music.
—Tim Lawrence, Hold On To Your Dreams: Arthur Russell and the Downtown Music Scene, 1973-1992 (2009)
2010
Wednesday, 9/15/10
Here’s a MCOTD first—music by someone who’s been featured previously (here, here, here, here, here) as a visual artist.
William Eggleston, piano
Live (Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me [forthcoming])
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Live, Japan (Tokyo, Hara Museum of Contemporary Art), 2010
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lagniappe
art beat
William Eggleston
2010
Saturday, 9/11/10
To these ears, this is just inches shy of insufferable—too cute, too precious, too fey. But those inches make all the difference. As it is, I find it beguiling.
Clare and the Reasons, “Wake Up (You Sleepyhead),” 2009
For those who’re interested in such genealogical details (and are old enough to remember), Clare is the daughter of Geoff Muldaur.
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lagniappe
reading table
Utterly unbelievable, incontrovertibly real: his poems, at their best, have the associative logic of a dream.
Russell Edson, “Let Us Consider”
2010
Wednesday, 9/8/10
Sunday, South Africa; Monday, Morocco; today let’s head to the center—the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire).
Konono No. 1, “Lufuala Ndonga”
2010
Monday, 9/6/10
Morocco—it’s just a click away.
Musical Brotherhoods from the Trans-Saharan Highway, excerpts (2007)
2010
Wednesday, 9/1/10
Weathermen redux?
Speaking of M.I.A., who else conjures the ’60s like this—its mix of ferocity and nuttiness?
M.I.A., “Born Free” (2010)
2010
Tuesday, 8/31/10
When your kids go back to college (as my older son Alex did Saturday and my younger son Luke ten days ago), it’s not just their voices you no longer hear around the house; it’s also the voices they listen to—like this guy, for instance (a Luke favorite).
Mike Posner, “Cooler Than Me,” live, Los Angeles, 2010
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lagniappe
So where would she [M.I.A.] live if visas and tour plans weren’t a factor? She pauses for a moment, then says, “Space. I’m over Earth.” She laughs. “Earth is so 2000-and-fucking-9.”
—M.I.A. (Rolling Stone, 8/5/10)
music clip of the day 