Wednesday, May 28th
basement jukebox
The Five Jets, “Down Slow,” 1954
music clip of the day
jazz/blues/rock/classical/gospel/more
Category: R&B
2014
Friday, May 23rd
what’s new
Where would Western civilization be without the invention of the three-minute pop song?
Dream Chart Top 40 Songs: May 2014 (5/24/14)
2014
Wednesday, May 14th
basement jukebox
J. B. Lenoir (1929-1967), “Mama Talk To Your Daughter,” 1954
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lagniappe
reading table
In the hospital yard stands a small annex surrounded by a whole forest of burdock, nettles, and wild hemp. The roof is rusty, the chimney is half fallen down, the porch steps are rotten and overgrown with grass, and only a few traces of stucco remain. The front facade faces the hospital, the back looks onto a field, from which it is separated by the gray hospital fence topped with nails. These nails, turned point up, and the fence, and the annex itself have that special despondent and accursed look that only our hospitals and prisons have.
—Anton Chekhov (1860-1904), “Ward No. 6” (opening paragraph; translated from Russian by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky)
2014
Wednesday, April 30th
sounds of Chicago
Specter (AKA Spekter, Andres Ordanez), “Pipe Bomb,” 2011
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lagniappe
reading table
[N]othing enhances pleasures and blocks guilt like a looming cataclysm.
—Aleksandar Hemon, The Book of My Lives
2014
Monday, April 28th
passings
DJ Rashad, October 9, 1979-April 26, 2014
Live, Chicago (Pitchfork Music Festival), 2013
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“I Don’t Give A Fuck” (sampling Tupac Shakur’s dialogue in Juice), 2013
*****
“I’m Gone” (remixing Gil Scott-Heron’s “Home Is Where The Hatred Is”), 2011
2014
Wednesday, April 23rd
sounds of New Orleans
Let Me Do My Thang: Rebirth Brass Band (Keith Reynaud, 2000)
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lagniappe
random thoughts
Day after day tiptoeing through minefields, until finally our luck runs out.
2014
Wednesday, April 2nd
passings
Frankie Knuckles, DJ, January 18, 1955-March 31, 2014
2013 Boiler Room set, excerpt (Lou Rawls, “You’ll Never Find Another Love Like Mine,” remix)
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It could be plausibly argued that Knuckles was as important to the birth of contemporary dance music as James Brown was to soul or Chuck Berry to rock ‘n’ roll. And like those innovators, Knuckles helped nurture a deceptively sophisticated sound that celebrated and embraced outsiders and misfits — in Knuckles’ case, the gay African-American and Hispanic communities.
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—Greg Kot, Chicago Tribune (obituary), 4/1/14
2014
Monday, February 17th
sounds of Chicago
Baby Huey (AKA James Ramey, 1944-1970), “Listen To Me,” 1971 (Curtom)
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lagniappe
art beat: more from Thursday’s stop at the Art Institute of Chicago
Joan Mitchell (1925-1992), City Landscape, 1955
2014
Friday, February 14th
What could be more romantic?
Bo Diddley (1928-2008), live, 1981
#1
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#2
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#3
music clip of the day 