Don't mess with perfection. That's what they say. I'm not sure who "they" are exactly, but in this case, they're sort of wrong. I'd amend that old aphorism to say, "Don't mess with your own perfection." Consider: As a writer, it's possible to be too much of a perfectionist and ruin perfectly good copy in the revision process. Not that I've ever produced perfect prose, but over the years, I've learned when to let it go. Occasionally, I've hit "publish" to soon, but that's what the edit button is for. I've never created anything as [...]
I prefer my women in music extremely talented and wildly unpredictable. Is she country? Is she rock & roll? Is she pop? Is she soul? Those are the questions that pop into one's head while listening to the music of Maria McKee, particularly her 1993 opus, You Gotta Sin to Get Saved , one of my Top 5 favorite albums by female singers in the '90s -- right up there with Annie Lennox's Diva , k.d. lang's Ingenue , Neneh Cherry's Homebrew and Joni Mitchell's Turbulent Indigo . (PJ Harvey's [...]
Marvin Etzioni - You Possess Me (feat. Maria McKee)
Maria McKee: Wayfarin' Stranger [ purchase ] Jerry Reed: Wayfaring Stranger [ purchase ] "Wayfaring Stranger" is a standard in the folk music catalog, dating back to the 19th century. A religious ballad, it gained new meaning during the 1930s, with lyrics seemingly reflecting the plight of the displaced and homeless -- poor wayfaring strangers, "traveling through this world of woe." In the 1940s, it became a signature tune for Burl Ives, who named both his autobiography [...]
McCabe's Guitar Shop Santa Monica, CA September 23, 1988 Video goes on for :50 too long. Should end at 3:10. Consider this an addendum to my Lydia Loveless post . When I first started writing about "Jesus Was A Wino," "Drinkin' In My Sunday Dress" was a natural point of reference. Unfortunately, after roughly 27 drafts, I realized that the post worked better without it. That said, I think the comparison makes sense. Maria McKee is an obvious antecedent to Lydia. When Maria was 20-21 years old (1984-85), she was a badass [...]
Lately, I've been dwelling on something -- in this blog, in the gym, on the street and pretty much anywhere I never venture without my iPod: great singers who either fell short of finding a sizable audience or ones whose heydays were far too brief. In my quest to give a few of them a little bit of their due, I posted a video by Shara Nelson -- whose stunning voice made Massive Attack's "Unfinished Sympathy" one of the most powerful musical statements of the '90s -- on my Facebook wall. [...]
To celebrate Van Morrison's 66th birthday, we've assembled a collection of five different covers of his work from throughout his career.
Happy Birthday to underrated songwriter and former Mott The Hoople front man Ian Hunter - featuring cover versions from everyone from Barry Manilow to Great White.
For many years 1978’s Darkness On The Edge Of Town , in my view Bruce Springsteen’s greatest album, was rather underrated. The trouble might have been that it produced no hit single, and nothing as exuberant as Born To Run on the preceding album of the same name or Hungry Hearts on 1980’s The River . The album’s title suggests an existential sense of alienation, a loss of hope and a ferocious anger, which is reflected in the songs, in their sound and in their words. The hope of Thunder Road on Born To Run gives [...]
"My girlhood among the outlaws was salty, bittersweet, The things I did, I could just kick myself now." Maria McKee, 1993 If you're like me, you've often said to yourself, "Wouldn't it be nice if someone put together a 40-45 minute documentary on early Lone Justice? You know, before the band was engulfed by mediocrity and their souls cannibalized by music industry tiger sharks???" Of course you did. Well, you're in luck because I did just that. Granted, it's an audio documentary, but the upside is you can download it to your [...]
Hail the Size are LA based Charles Ezell and Matt North, who enlisted a "small cast of local friends and musicians" and the vocal and piano talents of Maria McKee, the former lead singer of Lone Justice who duets on three tracks and added piano to seven of the albums ten listed tracks, all the songs are originals mixing clever lyrics, dark humour and some healthy cynicism - wrapping them up in Ezell's convincing vocal. The album opens with the title track I Can't [...]
Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 [...]
Back in April, I wrote a long piece about a girl who would put on really obnoxious music whenever we'd have sex at her place. You can read it here . Read it now - I can wait. This post began a bit of an obsession on the subject of sex and music. Mainly, I wanted to hear other people's stories about the songs that have soundtracked their sexual experiences. Last month, our snazzy contributor Ben had a discussion with his friend Christy about this topic. The highlights of this discussion were condensed into an incredibly entertaining [...]
In the 1980s, Los Angeles was the birthplace of a curious genre called cowpunk, a mashup of punk rock with roots music. Among the more famous practitioners were the Beat Farmers, the Blasters, Los Lobos, Green on Red and of course, Lone Justice. Lone Justice came together in 1982 under the guidance of guitarist Ryan Hedgecock and singer Maria McKee, an L.A. singer whose half brother was Bryan McLean from the psychedelic band Love. In their early days, Lone Justice was a hot band in the L.A. area - thanks in part to having famous champions and fans [...]
I'm not just a Bruce Springsteen fan, I'm one of those freaks who has every official release, a bookful of bootlegs, and a few thousand dollars less in the bank account thanks to all the shows I've been to. But you can only listen to so much Boss. Then you have to listen to people that covered the Boss. So I decided to put together a list. In the end it was a little difficult, but I narrowed it down to ten favorite covers of Springsteen songs that I think everyone should hear. It also serves as [...]
!["American Idol" Gets Whacked By Quentin Tarantino [Idolator's American Idolatry]](http://cdn.elbo.ws/posts/1656630_lg.jpg)
This week, American Idol goes to the movies, with director Quentin Tarantino sitting in as mentor as the contestants take on the frustratingly vague theme of "songs from film." (Tarantino has actually served as a guest judge on the show in the past, and he's not exactly a pushover , which should be awesome when he deals with Lil Rounds' outsized ego.) The bloodthirsty Tarantino has always had a deft touch when it comes to putting together soundtracks for his own flicks, and part of me kind of hopes [...]
Star Maker Machine recently spent a week profiling songs from 1989 . I failed to contribute, despite the fact I had a song picked out, and fought for the theme. What can I say? My jackasseritis flared up. In fact, 1989 had a profound impact on me. That was the year I started DJing at KCSC , Chico State's campus radio station ( see flyer below ), and discovered so much greatness in the vast American rock 'n' roll underground. It was like seeing in color for the first time. Music didn't suck, [...]
I caught the brilliant movie Pulp Fiction on cable this weekend. The soundtrack is equally brilliant, with many of the tracks selected by Quentin Tarantino himself. Some of my favorite tunes from the soundtrack... Ricky Nelson - Lonesome Town.mp3 Urge Overkill - Girl, You'll Be A Woman Soon.mp3 Maria McKee - If Love Is A Red Dress (Hang Me In Rags).mp3 The Statler Brothers - Flowers On [...]
Gary Paxton (aka Rusty Dean): Saturday Satan, Sunday Saint [ purchase ] Maria McKee: You Gotta Sin To Get Saved [ purchase ] "Saturday satans and Sunday saints, Fooling their neighbors, at least that's what they think, Reading that Good Book and singing those hymns, But come Monday morning and it's back to their life of sin." --Gary Paxton (aka Rusty Dean) "Now I pray the Lord won't scorn me if I make an [...]
THEME FOR GREAT CITIES
gbabuts
Star Maker Machine
The Adios Lounge
Cover Me
Any Major Dude With Half A Heart
Beat Surrender
heartonastick.blog-city.com
The Opening Acts
30 Days Out
Salty Salutes
Idolator
Rockstar Aimz
Kanye West Pushing Will Smith To Record, Release New Music
[MP3 Playlist] Indie Dojo (May 2013 Round #5)
Dimmed lights on the Sunset Strip
