This week The AV Club put their latest season of their always fantastic Undercover series on hold to offer up a couple of tunes about a topic near and dear to many of us around HT HQ - baseball. For this special off-shoot bands where allowed to independently pick the song of their choice relating to America's pastime. Singer-songwriter Basia Bulat went with the more obvious selection of Bruce Springsteen's Glory Days , delivering a stunning rendition that would have you convinced it was originally recorded [...]
Cover Classics takes a closer look at all-cover albums of the past, their genesis, and their legacy. It is hard to remember that in 1998, when Mermaid Avenue was released, Billy Bragg was a well-respected leftist folkie, a former busker who had progressively cleaned up and expanded his sound, and he was probably at the height of his commercial popularity. By contrast, Wilco, which was struggling to emerge from the shadows of Uncle Tupelo and Son Volt, had released two albums - a debut that was not fawned over, and a follow-up that was critically adored, but far from a hit. [...]
Filed under: News , Exclusive , The Hit List , Music Appreciation PA The sea has long been a source of inspiration for poets and musicians. From Samuel Taylor Coleridge's lyrical ballad, "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" to Iron Maiden 's metal ballad "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner," every musical genre and permutation of the art form has been entranced by the romance, the adventures and the misadventures that can happen when a [...]
After more than thirty years in the business, Billy Bragg has earned a reputation as one of folk's elder statesmen. The rough punk edges have been sanded down and the brash Essex accent has softened on Tooth & Nail, his first album of original material since 2008 . Gone is the barricade-jumping, hard-living Bragg of old, perpetually thumbing his nose at the establishment and Maggie Thatcher. The intervening years have calmed him down, and this is most apparent on his new album. The 12 [...]
Filed under: News , Exclusive , New Music , Politics as Usual , New Releases Andy Whale The middle class that's disappearing across western society seems to be doing the same thing in the record industry and British singer/songwriter Billy Bragg says it's the most pressing problem facing young musicians today. "For those of us who have name recognition the internet's been a great tool," Bragg tells Spinner. "It allows [...]
Filed under: Exclusive , Movies "GOODBYE HORSES" FROM "SILENCE OF THE LAMBS" Okay, forget all that stuff about irony. In a scene featuring a serial killer getting dolled up as a prospective victim stands trapped in his well, this echo-y one-hit wonder by Q Lazzarus just sounds creepy. Lazzarus first met director Jonathan Demme when he entered her cab, which was playing a tape of her music. The 1988 song has something to do with Hindu philosophy, but the thing we all [...]
Though July is usually more well known for celebrating America, this year the list obligatory is taking its hat off to the best songs for President's Day! While you would probably assume that...
Fifteen Oklahomans were nominated in eighteen categories, but only one act came away a winner at The 55th Grammy Awards last night. Checotah's Carrie Underwood won her sixth Grammy: Best Country Solo Performance - "Blown Away" Her performance of "Blown Away" also earned songwriters Josh Kear and Chris Tompkins a Grammy win for Best Country Song. The following Oklahomans helped earn Grammys for others: The Woody [...]
The origins of The Cargo Culte lay in a collection of mixes that BaddBob and I began sharing in the late fall and winter of 2008. A few scant months after the banking meltdown I found myself back in Los Angeles after eight years of wandering, living off of unemployment. BaddBob a behind the scenes [...]
Rosie Schaap, author of the new essay collection Drinking with Men , shares her five favorite boozy novels at Zola Books . The publisher of Woody Guthrie's only novel, House of Earth , talks to Morning Edition about the recently published book. "Woody Guthrie has something that every artist would dies for: a voice," says Brinkley. "You can read House of Earth and you know it's Woody Guthrie. You know it's coming [...]
The debut solo album by the lead singer of a popular band can be a mixed bag of failed experiments and half-assed leftovers that weren't good enough for the artist's main project. For every breakout artist like Peter Gabriel there's a dozen like Mick Jagger , whose solo career pales in comparison to his band's legendary output. In the case of My Morning Jacket's Jim James , he finds himself in an interesting position. As his band's albums have become more bombastic, James [...]
Memory is a funny thing. It the power to twist over time and become the source of our greatest pride or most painful regret. This week, the list obligatory looks at those songs that are simply about remembering. For many of us, memory is the one of the strongest forces in our [...]
Be it playing a police officer for R. Kelly's "Trapped in the Closet" or horsing around at Zach Galifianakis' farm during a Kanye West video shoot, you never know where Will Oldham might turn up next. This one comes as less of a surprise, but no less enigmatic in execution given the costume: Bonnie 'Prince' Billy performing Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land" wearing a crochet beard and mustache. The YouTube clip, apparently filmed off-the-cuff with his laptop camera, popped up on the site of a new project from PBS where anyone can submit their take for [...]
From the resilient folk of Bhi Bhiman to the poignant rap of Brother Ali and Oddisee, from Bob Dylan’s continuing lyrical excursion to the catchiness of The Dig and The Mowgli’s, here are my 20 favorite albums of 2012. Alabama...
from Winterlights: A Season in Poems and Quilts by Anna Grossnickle Hines It's the first day of Hanukkah, aka Chanukah, and though the candles have long since burned down, as in past years, my holiday playlist didn't even last as long as the light it was designed to accompany. Thanks to a small selection of new covers, however, this year was closer than ever, giving me hope that one day soon we'll have more than a single set to offer over these eight nights. [...]
Nominees for The 55th Grammy Awards were announced Wednesday night by The Recording Academy during a live nomination concert. The Woody Guthrie box set Woody At 100: The Woody Guthrie Centennial Collection earned two nominations: Best Historical Album - Woody At 100: The Woody Guthrie Centennial Collection Best Boxed Or Special Limited Edition Package - Woody At 100: The Woody Guthrie Centennial Collection [...]
Editor's Note: From a blog post appearing originally in 2010. This is a classic! The album, not the blog post. We have dusted off some of our own all-time favorite albums from our own collection, and today we want to share one that’s perfect for the Thanksgiving holiday – Alice’s Restaurant , from Arlo Guthrie. The title song is of course an American classic – and a song played by many radio stations on Thanksgiving Day. It’s a true story about a 1965 Thanksgiving when Arlo, the son of legendary songwriter [...]
With the Presidential election drawing in on a close, the list obligatory takes a closer look at songs about politicians. Shake a hand. Kiss a baby. Read the list. Regardless of your political leaning, it is impossible to avoid being annoyed by the constant coverage of politics at this point of a [...]
Last weekend I walked into my local Berkeley coffee shop and Bob Dylan's Desolation Row was playing on the stereo. I turned to my friend and asked if he had any way of identifying what verse we were at - but neither of us could place how far into the song we were, or how likely it was the song would still be playing when we left. It was, in fact, still playing when we left. Later that night, I saw Wilco at The Greek Theatre open with One Sunday Morning (Song For Jane Smiley's Boyfriend) - yet another song [...]
The new Dan Deacon album was released yesterday, and it's perhaps the last thing we would have expected from a man once so interested in the idea of music as a purely sonic entity, devoid of any narrative or greater meaning: it's a loose concept album about America. Deacon has written some interesting stuff about the ideas behind the album, which is entitled simply America , on his website , noting that "The inspiration for the music was my love of cross-country travel, seeing the landscapes of the United States, going from east to [...]
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MP3: Daft Punk – “Horizons” (RAM Japanese Bonus Track)
Seven Lions: Fevers (Feat. Minnesota and Mimi Page)
Akabu feat. Alex Mills – Everybody Wants Something (Joey Negro Strip Mix) [New Release]
Listen to producer Jacques Greene’s “On Your Side,” featuring How To Dress Well
