I stuck this new Ian Brown single into my CD player, and thought 'oh yeah, here we go. Another anti-war song'. Then I realised that actually there's not been too much musical opposition to this ridiculous war, and perhaps a good anti-war song is exactly what we need. Remaining silent is to be complicit in this murderous farce. Of course now that we're up to our necks in the mire (in Afghanistan
I was really excited about this theme when Erin proposed it to me - we both love music and film, and we talk about both all the time (yes, she was the one who introduced me to the charms of "Scotty Doesn't Know"), so this was her perfect storm of an idea, and I had lots of fun thinking about the movies and tunes that are completely inseparable in my mind. Because this is such a wide open challenge, right off the bat, like Matt, I eliminated a couple of things to shrink the pool of available [...]
Courtesy of Focus Features / Stéphane Fontaine (For those who may have missed last week's intro , this is a weekly one-stop resource for movies screening in L.A., with Rotten Tomatoes/Metacritic averages, showtimes, and more. Almost all of these movies are also either currently screening outside of L.A., or are going to be in the near future). Talk to Me , starring Don Cheadle as iconic '60s radio personality Ralph Waldo "Petey" Greene Jr., opens this week to mostly friendly (though hardly ecstatic) reviews. Standing out is the film's [...]

Photography by Ilya LiS via Afuckaday Yes, my friends, we are going little old-skewl today, a delicious treat courtesy of TsuruBride , Sam Cooke's Sam Cooke At The Copa . Originally released in 1964, it is Sam Cooke "The Crooner" at his finest, singing to a predominantly white audience. It stands in complimentary contrast next to Live at the Harlem Square Club (another incredible album that I'm finally getting on vinyl). I'm not going to [...]
On Saturday night I was an honored guest and official band bartender at the annual freak fest known as Parkerzalooza, which was headlined by san Diego's Earthless... They play at a deafening volume...and capped off a night of many bands, mucho... visit for more mp3's & random revelations
Sam Cooke: That's Heaven To Me [1958?] written by Sam Cooke taken from The Man And His Music

Sam Cooke: A Change Is Gonna Come From Ain't That Good News (RCA, 1964) Aretha Franklin: A Change Is Gonna Come From I Never Loved a Man (Atlantic, 1967) I recently crashed at a friend's place after staying up to an ungodly hour. Both of us were groggy later that morning but instead of firing up some coffee, the first order of business was putting on some music and he put on Sam Cooke's "A Change [...]
This week Contrast Podcast contributors continue to forge the song chain that Tim started just over a month ago. Like last time, there's some wonderfully twisted logic links to delight in, and you can do by downloading the cast directly here , or by subscribing to this RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/Co ntrastPodcast Go on folks, yank my chain. And lest the graphic give you the wrong idea, I'll take an old skool loo ANYDAY over those anodyne, feeble, lever flush johns!! (00:31) The Weakerthans - The [...]
In case you haven't been reading my other blog, I should bring you up to speed on how I've been making posts recently: I broke my left pinkie finger about 2 weeks ago, making it really painful/difficult to type. I wanted to keep my regular posting schedule, so I began recording my posts as videos, creating a series of "hands-free" entries. I'm still not able to type well, so the hands-free postings will continue here. YouTube has a 10-minute limit on the length of uploaded videos, so I had to split my comments on this month's songs into [...]

Dear friends, 1. Tiffany aka New York from I Love New York , said the following on her last show in response to one of her suitors getting his weep on: "Everybody cries. Babies cry. Dogs cry. Even Doves cry." Sigh. I love this show. I will miss it when it's gone. 2. Speaking of big manly tears, this is the number that stoic types should cough up their jukebox quarters for when their relationships go kaput. It's a rare breakup song that acknowledges heartbreak, doesn't overtly announce "It will get better" but [...]
BRING IT ON HOME TO ME Sam Cooke One Night Stand: Sam Cooke Live RCA : 2005 [BUY IT] WHAT DID I DO WRONG? Betty Harris Sansu : 1966 Available on: Lost Soul Queen [But wait for a legitimate release to BUY IT] As a mom, trying to raise a daughter in today's challenging world, I'm always thrilled to find quality entertainment that the whole family can enjoy. Today, it's my honor to present the mother's seal of approval [...]

Sam Cooke would've been 76 years old today. It's hard to imagine. This is a sweet recording, one of his last releases on Specialty, and came out concurrently with his first Keen single "You Send Me". The band features Rene Hall on guitar, and the great Earl Palmer on drums. Listen: mp3

James Brown was called by many names, but a national treasure said it all. He was the master of funk; although his flamboyant style will be missed, his influence will live forever. Some others said it best... Fifty years after recording his first hit song, the Hardest Working Man in Show Business has played his final encore. James Brown , the Godfather of Soul, died early Christmas morning after a brief bout with pneumonia in an Atlanta hospital. – Source: James Sullivan, Rolling Stone Magazine [...]

The Perfect Fit - Unexpected Mood Music * A Playlist for people who like all kinds of music. A Dozen new tracks from some of the best bands. Each song has its place and time. [...]

I am in the midst of one of the busiest periods of my year right now at work. Without going into major detail: I am having to file some reports entailing a great deal of data management while juggling my regular day-to-day responsibilites. I have been bringing work home and doing it at night. The worst thing is that somehow I managed to overwrite a file yesterday and lost hours of work. It has forced me to miss Frank Black (playing at the Avalon in Boston) tonight. I have been suffering through an on-again, off-again headache but I still got [...]

The Brand New Heavies was originally the creation of three schoolmates from the London suburb of Ealing, with a particular admiration for 70s funk and soul. Initially instrumental, the trio grew with a cult following in their native London using their smooth style of acid jazz and soul with an occasional hip-hop influence. Many of their albums employ flexible R&B singer N'Dea Davenport, whose last album with the group came in 1994. Since then, The Brand New Heavies have used a revolving door of vocalists, such as Siedah Garrett and Carleen Anderson. Davenport has reunited with the band [...]
EVERYBODY KNOWS O.V. Wright If It's Only For Tonight Back Beat : 1965 Available on: The Soul of O.V. Wright MCA : 1992 [Buy It] Readers of Moistworks, O.V. Wright is playing over the headphones and I'm about to pack it in. Moistworks, I mean, though it's not really mine to fold or bestow. James Morris (he of the masterly post the other day) started and designed this site, and ran it singlehandedly for a year or so. Our bloggerly quirks, and brave disregard [...]

I had a dream last night in which I was being eaten by something. I'm thinking that's a bad sign. I must be worrying too much about bears. My soap and toothpaste are packed in a separate bag that will be locked in the car while I am sleeping. Bears like toothpaste, and I'm being dead serious. Anything that has a smell can attract a bear. I head out in the morning, so this is going to be my last post for the rest of the week. If [...]
The Mountain Goats - "Get Lonely". Ernie wakes up early. It's before four a.m. and it's December and in Montreal, and it's very cold. He wears a large down winter jacket, a collar that goes high around his ears. He can only find one mitten so he doesn't wear any. His shoes are sneakers. He put on his headphones - this was important, there in the room at four a.m. when he was considering things, feeling the cool weight of the darkness out the window. He put on his headphones and then tried to decide if he should wear a [...]