I just came across a 2006 Livejournal entry of mine in which I shared some song lyrics I'd written and had long since forgotten. I had no refrain or chorus but I'd still like to do something with it. In this day and age it seems apropos:
Vesuvius:
I am the mushroom cloud that leveled Nagasaki I stood on the shores the day Atlantis sunk I'm the windshield of Diana's Maseratti I'm the first of the locusts and last of the crops What is it that causes such unrest? over-sexed and beating on your chest bred to destroy everything that's left an all consuming black hole when at your best
I am the collapse of the tower of Babel I was aboard space shuttle Challenger that day the first thread that began Rome's unravel woke up bright and early one morning in Pompeii there's no reason to ponder the day you die no constant fear of impending doom there's no changing the future, don't bother to try the day of the fifth moon is coming soon.
Sufjan Stevens released a song by the same name on 2010's The Age of Adz. It's pretty cool. Here it is.
I'm gonna try to ease back into this blogging thing by writing about one of the few things I have an opinion about. Music.
Probably THE most exciting musical event for me this year is next month's release of Bobby Womack's first album since 1994. Co-produced by Damon Albarn of Blur and Gorillaz, it's certain to be something all together extraordinary. The single and small snippets that I've heard have not disappointed me in the least. Here's a short doc that can be found on Bobby's official site about being brought back into the industry and the creation of the new record:
So much enthusiasm and such gushing words about Damon and Richard Russell. It makes me happy to watch. I've absolutely loved Bobby's contributions to the latest Gorillaz releases and this pairing continues that excitement. I'll probably get this album for my dad on Father's Day. It's that transcendent. I hope it's used as a vehicle to bring new fans to both artists bridging generations. Richard Russell did similar work on Gil-Scott Heron's final album, I'm New Here, which I also hold in high regard.
I hope this trend continues. Albarn has another project that I'm hoping to hear something from soon called Rocket Juice and the Moon which he features along with Flea and Legendary Afrobeat drummer Tony Allen, founding member of Fela Kuti's Africa 70. Tony Allen has been busy over the past decade working with some of my favorite French artists like Sebastian Tellier, Air, and Charlotte Gainsbourg. I could continue with this 6 degrees of separation all night. Suffice it to say, something good is happening in music. A revival of artists to be appreciated by a new generation. It just goes to show that relevance doesn't go away. It just ebbs and flows from the collective consciousness. Something new comes along and if it, too, is good it will last and eventually will all be assimilated. Nothing good dies. It all takes new forms.
Here's the first single off The Bravest Man In the Universe. The album will be out on June 12th in the US.
I can't watch people kiss. Ever. In person or on screen. That's a small tidbit about me. Whenever, on film, the characters are going in for that lip-lock I have to look away. But often that is not enough because more than seeing the kiss taking place I'm completely compelled to shudder at that canned lip smacking sound effect that usually accompanies the act. I know it's not logical and I'm sure it goes back to some maladjustment in my formative years but it is what it is. I am disgusted by couples who insist on publicly forcing their affections on innocent bystanders. 'Making out' outside of any secluded area is absolutely uncalled for and, in my opinion, in poor taste. If it weren't a means to an end I wouldn't want to do it myself on most occasions. I'm not a very endearing man.
I say all of this because of the following. I shared this song last year on Valentines day and now, after a formal album release of Hall Music, Loney Dear has a video for this lovely song. This is one of at least two videos. The other that I've seen is completely ineffectual for the tone of the song and I'd dismissed it completely. This one is very fitting and although it's one that I won't likely watch again (due to the aforementioned offense), it's fitting for the season.
Or I should say Robert Raimon Roy. And I, for one, am thankful for the name change because web searches for "Rob Roy" were mostly fruitless unless you were looking for Liam Neeson flicks.
Here's the first single off of the forthcoming album 'Le Tigre Blanc'.
Give it a minute to settle.
I heard this song first sung by Englebert Humperdinck off of his 'A Lovely Way To Spend An Evening' album. I'd purchased it in Toronto, I believe, while in spring break in the early 2000s and it was a major catalyst in my wanting to put together a lounge act.
Vs.
This version was not too recently introduced to me by Bumoltua after we'd found that we were mutually familiar with the song and kicked around the idea of throwing a trite version into our live show. He later sent it to me via email and it's been on various playlists of mine ever since.
It's been a gross oversight on my part, both on this blog and on my show at GoldenStringRadio.org, not to acknowledge and share condolences for the passing of Mr. Nick Ashford of, arguably the greatest Soul duo of our time, Ashford & Simpson.
I'm really dating myself now but I used to be so amped when this video would come on Video Soul back in the day. And I didn't really understand why at the time but I came to realize later in life that what it was that they were so good at is making the most inspirational and affirming music without being preachy. It was just universally good 'we got this' music. The type of music that kept marriages together. The type of music that kept family reunions festive even under storm clouds. The type of music that had me dancing on the couch in my Spiderman pajamas each time Donnie Simpson would introduce it. Plus this mix, exclusive to video version, had the best intro ever with Valerie Simpson's a capella building directly into the chorus. Brilliant.
Here are a couple of my favorite Ashford and Simpson songs:
I share in the grief for the loss of yet another musical icon but more so I celebrate a career that's personally touched my life as well as innumerable others.
One of my new coworkers has commissioned me for a introduction to rap music sampler. I pride myself on my ability to put together excellent mixes, but I've had my head so far out of hip hop over the past 5 to 10 years that this has proven to be somewhat of an awakening for me.
She actively asked me for the mix with no provocation or previous conversation on the matter. I applauded her curiosity and gladly obliged. To add a bit of perspective, this request had come from an adorable petite little porcelain princess who lives in middle american Ohio where, I can only imagine, Confederate flags are a common occurrence on many a neighborhood front porch. Thusly I consider this an honor and an opportunity to broaden the horizons of someone who is genuinely curious. I highly doubt that what I had to her will be what she wants or expects. That's understood and dually noted. My prejudice places her hip hop knowledge to be limited to that of late 90's Ja Rule and and aught Jay Z. She also mentioned something about Rhianna which she quickly and sort of apologetically conceded with, 'Oh well, I guess that's not really rap'.
No, my dear. It's not.
I take this duty very seriously and have been working hard on it on my 4 day holiday weekend. I'm doing a listen-through right now of what I think may be the final cut. I won't post the track listing as, honestly, I don't want to date myself nor am I confident in my choices. I tried to choose some of those most accessible and potent songs in my library. It just so turns out that 6 of the 14 ended up with J Dilla production. Kanye, Outkast, and The Roots have also made the cut. Admittedly It's very niche.
While on memory lame I stumbled upon one of the dopest and ballsiest instrumentals, in my opinion, in rap history. Every now and again Diddy (back then Puff Daddy) would come out with something that reminds you of just how he got on top. Too bad this track was squandered by one of his many lackluster MCs and his own incessant yelling over top the song. Here's G-Dep's 'Special Delivery':
It has no bass line!
To be fair, though, Outkast did do that first (and also with no proper drum track) with one of my dearest songs off of their ATLiens album, E.T. (Extraterrestrial):
Kate Bush, one of my all time favorite songwriter/performers, is releasing a new album of reworked songs from her two most critically successful albums: The Sensual World and The Red Shoes. The track-list leaves me a bit underwhelmed (personally I would love to hear reworks from The Whole Story and The Kick Inside) but the fact that she's touching up songs that she wasn't entirely satisfied with on the original releases is totally justifiable. I am very excited to hear the new versions of:
&
One of my favorite and most relatable lines in any song is featured in the latter when she sings 'I don't want your bullshit. I just want your sexuality'. There are few song writers as well versed and passionate about her content. I was assigned to read Wuthering Heights in high school and didn't make it past the first few chapters. After, at around the age of 23, listening to Kate Bush's song adaptation I went back and reread the whole book. It wasn't great.
I'll leave you with one of the best examples of her use of imagery and double-entendre. Off of 2005's Aerial album, An Architect's Dream is one of the sexiest songs you will ever hear. Ever. And she does it without being overt. Without ever saying what need not be said. It's like sitting under a honeycomb.
That's just the fact of the matter. It's a bold statement from someone who can hardly sing but it's what's going to happen. I can't stand not being on a stage, and thus far in 2011 I've been on far too few. I've been far more productive and proactive, musically and in other regards, since the beginning of winter. I've gotten a great deal of fulfillment out of recording and working on new material for various projects and the idea of performing it makes my salivate.
In my primary project I share vocal duties with two other accomplished front men who've together been in more bands than I'm aware of. I've never had any experience being a lead vocalist and I'm very insecure when it comes to my vocal ability. The number of takes required for me to put down a vocal track in the studio at least triples theirs. None the less I feel a very strong sense of value and that I bring something to the team that otherwise would go unfulfilled.
A lot of people have been curious as to why I've made some of the decisions I've made and decided to work with who I have. Among more minor reasons, I've been afforded the opportunity to study under one of the best front men this town has ever seen and I'm very lucky and thankful to be in such a position. Along with one of the best funk bassists and band directors around and not to mention the total amount of experience accumulated between the 6 band members equaling 30+ years. There's an amount of contribution that I haven't felt was asked of me in older projects. This is the most comfortable I've felt musically probably in my short performing career.
I'm gaining my voice. Both literally and figuratively. I'm finding pockets that I'm comfortable in realizing where my strong points are. I'm practicing all the time. One of the luxuries of living alone in a big house is that I can sing at the top of my lungs and not have to be concerned with room mates or neighbors.
I've modeled my vocal style after the late great Glen Goins, herald to the Mothership, of Parliament/Funkadelic (and later Quazar) who can be seen at the end of the following clip singing down the Mothership in Houston, hands up palms open to the sky as if saying 'this gift is not of me but comes from he whom all good things flow'. This was before I was born. When most of the great music was already made.
Church
I don't kid myself into thinking that I can ever even emulate such an amazing talent, but I can damn sure try to imitate. If one doesn't aim high then what's the point of trying?
Glen Goins died too soon, as too many of the great ones have, but that only allows us to appreciate fully what gifts he had to give in his short time.
I've been pretty musically busy as of late, even if on my own which may be preferable. I just submitted a new song for Band #2 which seems to be a final addition to the album if all goes well. That one goes by the title of Drought Song. I usually hate self-aware titles but the I think in this case it's fitting and better than the previous working title, Blessed Daughter.
I'd been "working" on that one all winter. By that I mean I had the verse, chorus, and bridge melodies down musically and I'd been singing the chorus in my head for about 4 months. That was when I was freaking out about global water shortages. Now after I'd rewatched Steven King's The Stand and I'm now following that up with BBC's Survivors, I'm now freaking out about pandemics and super flus so I wrote a verse about that. I laid down a scratch vocal and mailed it off to the rest of the band to do with what they please.
Anyhow, what I was intending to get around to was sharing this instrumental I put down last night on my iMac in garage band. I've gotten off my ass and started putting down new demos this weekend since I really have nothing else to do.
I oftentimes have song titles before I have any music in mind which I think is why I have such a hard time getting anything done. It's really hard to write a song to a title rather than naming a song after it's content. After about an hour of work and a wee bit of editing I have another title I can scratch off my list. Just an instrumental at this point. Probably going to stay that way. I don't know if it's about Jonah as much as it is gestation.
And by the way, Survivors is a really good show. It's on Netflix instant. I just finished up the first season. Unfortunately they'd cancelled it after the second.
I've gone on and on with my praises for the latest PJ Harvey album 'Let England Shake', and as much as I do love this song and think it's near perfect to close the album, the purpose of sharing this is to point out the style and panache of PJ and company in the beginning a cappella. UK Fashion at it's best and most functional.
Also the air of nonchalance with which they perform. So badass.
After my first listen-through of the newest Radiohead release I'd said that it Sounds like a collection of B-sides and remixes of songs that should have been on the album. I still stand by that but not with as much ill-intent behind those words. After a couple weeks with it I still can't imagine myself listening to it as a cohesive album ever again. Honestly most of the tracks will collect dust in my iTunes library. It proves to be a very boring and indifferent listen all together. Only one song- 'Feral' -caught me on the initial listen and for all intents and purposes, it's an instrumental. Atop that, I liked it better in 1984 when it was called 'Moments In Love'.*
Two other songs managed to grow on me. The first being the opening track 'Bloom' which I'll now go on record touting a brilliant track. Back during the Kid A/Amnesiac sessions they had a tune on their chalk board of potential songs called 'Fela Kuti' and I can't help but think that this trippy afro-beat groove is what's become of it. This one made it onto my workout mix and I have to stop myself from singing along with lest the strangers on the ellipticals next to me think I've gone mad.
The other song that's grown on me is the single 'Lotus Flower'. Still not sensational but one of the few multifaceted songs on the album. Thom's falsetto always gets to me and this is a case in which it's the saving grace on what otherwise would be an unremarkable track.
The rest of the tracks range from bland to mediocre which is most unexpected from a band once described as the most important in rock and roll. But as I've said, I believe Radiohead will go down like the Stones. Their discography is going to reach into the dozens and people will debate the merits of each for decades to come. Nothing can be taken away from them and that's the one thing everyone will agree upon. The King of Limbs just happens to be the first real valley in a history that now contains BOTH highs and lows.
5.5/10
*if you're unfamiliar with Art of Noise deduct 6 points from your credibility score and Grooveshark them immediately.
February, the most depressing of all months in my opinion, is now taking it's last shallow breaths and giving way to one of my favorites. March isn't great by any means. It still resembles much more of February than April and is littered with the blight of college basketball but it has a number of redeeming qualities. Besides being my birth month, which does make me partial, it also has what may be my favorite holiday: St Patrick's. The sun begins to become a more familiar staple during the day and daylight lasts well into the 7 O'clock hour here in Ohio, not to mention that since 2007 we now spring forward in March as opposed to April.
Personally I'm looking forward to getting back into the studio to record some really great music that Band #2 has been working on. That may be (but not likely) followed by a St Patty's day in NYC. My Spelling Bee at the Lemon Grove is finally taking place at the end of the month. But most exciting is the fact that I've been hitting the gym pretty hardcore and hope that the high of this new membership doesn't wear off any time soon. I've been going almost every other day since joining and I'm becoming quite the meat head. Been mostly working on cardio so that I can be in peak condition for the frisbee league this spring but also started doing strength training because my arms have always been as weak as delicate little seedlings.
I plan on taking my shirt off a lot this Summer.
I'm currently listening to Gil Scott-Heron & Jamie XX's 'We're New Here'. A collection of remixes to Mr. Heron's first album after a 13 year hiatus. I have to say I'm enjoying it.
Also, I've decided I'm going to live in Brazil before this life is over.
I hear so much Kate Bush in this album. I hear quite a bit of Bowie. Even perhaps a bit of Cyndi Lauper? But the one I was initially searching for, Ms. Polly Jean Harvey, I couldn't find. Not the PJ Harvey that I've grown to know and love. But she's in there. Poured over this record, heart and soul, and saturated down to the marrow.
This is the follow-up to 'Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea' that I've been waiting for. 'Uh Huh Her' didn't really do much for me and 'White Chalk', even less. I was a bit fearful that the avant-garde PJ that I'd loved had moved on to a more safe and sedated place. This album, however, I've not been able to stay away from. I'm very cautious of trying to not burn myself out on music that I enjoy so I'll stop listening to it even when I feel I'm not finished with it, that way letting it be a pleasant surprise when it comes up on my shuffle. Every other day though I find myself queuing up this album in its entirety.
Richard Ashcroft & The United Nations of Sound's 'United Nations of Sound' is going to see a proper US release On March 29th under the moniker of simply Richard Ashcroft. This, I believe, is a horrible idea and I'll tell you why:
The album is shit.
And I don't mean to say that with any malicious intent. I've tried to force Richard Ashcroft's solo work onto everyone I know who's got a heavy head. Most know him as the lead singer of the now thrice disbanded The Verve, but it's songs like 'I Get My Beat' 'XXYY' and 'Science of Silence' that he'd released as a soloist that placed him high among the numbers of my favorite artists.
There is very little of that man found in this latest project. Richard's song writing and backing vocals seem completely phoned in. The lyrics are rehashes of previous songs on prior albums. Songs that were done better the first time. And what the hell is with that awkward falsetto on 'Life Can Be So Beautiful'? Why did no one tell him it was a bad idea? Even still that turns out to be one of the catchier songs. Granting these set backs Richard's voice is just as good as it's always been. I don't fault him entirely for the shortcomings of this outing. Primarily I will blame that on the production done, surprisingly, by Chicago native and notable Hip Hop producer No I.D.. I remember No I.D. from back in the mid nineties when he was working with soon-to-be superstar COMMON and mentoring a young Kanye West. I haven't really followed his career much after that, because I was never really blown away by him but it seems he's kept busy. He's responsible for Jay Z's 'Death Of Auto-Tune'. So when I read that he'd worked on this album fond memories flooded back to mind. Those were soon followed by massive apprehensions about how this collaboration would turn out. All of those fears were confirmed once I got my hands on the album.
Every thing's played in really tight 4/4 arrangements. Metronomic high hats. Smooth ass bass lines. With a couple exceptions, tracks that would seem more fitting for rap verses or spoken word. I personally prefer the twangy slide guitar of his first album 'Alone With Everybody'. I used to say the Brits make Country music far better than us Yanks.
Not to say that this is all bad, but it's a departure and that's fine. My point is that it should be an off-shot side project as opposed to being included in the formal canon of Richard Ashcroft albums. He's made some truly exceptional music and at moments that potential peaks it's head out on The United Nations of Sound but either it's short lived (i.e. the ending of She Brings me the music when the song just starts to be worth the 3 minute investment right before it abruptly ends) or it's stifled by the ill fitting instrumentation.
4.5 out of 10
Standout songs on The United Nations of Sound are:
Good Lovin'
She Brings Me The Music
Glory
Life Can Be So Beautiful
I'll let you look those up on your own time. As for now I'll leave you with a few of the Richard Ashcroft songs that I've loved throughout the past decade.
