I found this article from the Guardian at the Burned by the Sun blog. Wow, that’s some amzing technology, huh? But, just as in the rest of life, “amazing technology” doesn’t always spell “progress” and “good.” The fundamental problem with Hit Song Science is that music isn’t a science at all (or at least it shouldn’t be). HSS accomplishes two… Read more »
A note for note rehashing of a song is pretty much never interesting (see Great White’s version of “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You” from Unplugged). Of course, that doesn’t mean that a cover where the artist makes the song his/her own is a wonderful thing either. Sometimes it is like when Jane’s Addiction did “Sympathy” or when Voi Vod did… Read more »
I think perhaps that Mars Volta is the new Pink Floyd. Not Wall-era Floyd or even Dark Side-era Floyd, but Meddle-era, Live at Pompeii-era Floyd. They’re like Floyd when they were pushing the limits, not once they had perfected the craft (Dark Side) or fallen into decline (The Wall). The question then is this: Will the Mars Volta take the… Read more »
No Idea Records is the coolest label out there right now if you like vinyl. Their biggest thing is Hot Water Music, but they have a stable of interesting and innovative punk and indie bands that stand head and shoulders above the sad facsimile that so much of punk is today. As if the music isn’t reason enought to love… Read more »
I was watching the movie Ray with my wife the other night (by the way, Jamie Foxx is Ray Charles, it’s amazing) and there’s a scene where Ahmet Ertegun gives Ray Charles his song, “Mess Around.” It’s in G, he says and Ray starts to play in G. Ahmet says, “No. More Pete Johnson” and Ray starts playing boogie woogie… Read more »
Maybe I spoke too soon…it’s…gulp….growing on me…maybe I should turn it off… Avoid “Give Your Body Up to the Music” on that Larry Levan CD unless you want to admit there is…uhhh…(whispering) good disco…
I was reading Chuck’s blog (Would you like a policeman with your chalupa, sir?: February 22, 2005, 10:41) and it forced me to do something that I never like to do: consider that disco might not really suck. Intellectually, I know that all of Chuck’s points are valid, that disco is really influential and that disco as I know it… Read more »
Okay, I listened to Digital Ash in a Digital Urn. I was under the impression that this was Oberst’s stab at electronica, but I was wrong. Yeah, there are a lot of electronic elements (drum machines, etc), but Digital Ash is closer to I’m Wide Awake or Lifted than it is to electronica. It lacks the subtle layering that makes… Read more »
There’s a lot of hype surrounding the new dual-release from Bright Eyes and some of it is well-deserved. I bought both, but so far I’ve only listened to I’m Wide Awake It’s Morning. If writing songs that are strong enough and emotional and poetic enough to get away with not being able to sing is the mark of the next… Read more »
Here’s something I wrote for my wife when she was fighting off some idiotic Stones lovers at work a year or so ago. I said in my “Satisfaction” post that I’d address why I don’t think the Stones are all that, so I thought rather than rewrite it, I’d just steal old material from myself. Ask yourself this question: If… Read more »