A couple weeks ago, I finished Singing Family of the Cumberlands by Jean Ritchie . It was a recommended book for a class I took in the fall of 2002 and I'm glad I finally decided to read it. Jean Ritchie was the youngest of thirteen children, growing up in Viper, Kentucky, in the Appalachian Mountains. Her family was well known-and well documented-for singing ballads, in the Anglo-American folk tradition. That is to say, they sang ballads that came over with English, Scottish and Irish settlers and could still be found on both sides [...]
John Vanderslice by Adrian Bischoff I'm looking forward to this . John Vanderslice: vocals, guitars, keyboards George Ban-Weiss: bass, upright bass Ian Bjornstad: keyboards Matthias Bossi: drums, percussion, keyboards Sylvain Carton: saxophones, flute, clarinet Matt Cunitz: orchestron, mellotron, pump organ Laura Dean: intermittencies, paper tigers Ben Goldberg: clarinet Daniel Hart: violin, vocals, piano Carla Kihlstedt: violin, viola, nyckelharpa Mitch Marcus: saxophones, flute, clarinet Michael Mellender: bass Jason Slota: drums, percussion, vibraphone Scott Solter: distressed [...]
cred: ipickmynose As of a couple minutes ago, I'm on the air doing my "I Once Was Canadian" radio show on KZSU 90.1FM. You can listen in each week to hear me Tuesdays from 3-6pm . Listen in! During either show you can listen online or at 90.1 FM. You can also follow along with my playlist online .
The other day my friend sent me an email that made my day. It was an mp3 he'd ripped from a 73 in the collection of his grandfather, who had lived in SE Pennsylvania. It was Pennsylvania Dutch stand up comedy. It was so weird and wonderful that I had a grin for hours. Here it is. Like I said, you're welcome. Prof. (Herman E.) Schnitzel - Schussel Along with Schnitzel (mp3) This blog has more about Prof. [...]
On Friday I saw Wanda Jackson ( myspace ) in my first trip to Slim's in years. I covered a lot of the background when I previewed the show, so I won't cover it again here. The crowd at Slim's was a bit different from what I imagine it normally is-a mix of ages and a heavy contingent of punk rockabilly girls; tattooed and pierced girls wearing classic 50s-style dresses were well represented in the crowd. [...]
Judging by youtube viewership of the video , you've probably seen unemployed, never-been-kissed Scot Susan Boyle blowing away the judges and audience on Britain's Got Talent last week. I'm not a fan of musicals-counting myself a fan of only one -or overly sentimental drivel, but I'm not made of stone. So why is this so affecting? Undoubtedly she's got a great voice, but there are scores of professional (and amateur) singers who do as well. I'm thinking it must be the expectations and the story. She's not [...]
As I said, all the cool kids were going to Record Store Day and I'm cool (not really) so I went to Aquarius and Amoeba and had a good time while buying some sweet stuff. Aquarius was up first. They had donut holes and custom Barsuk Records Jones root beer soda. I happened to be wearing my Barsuk shirt so they gave me one immediately. It was a jovial atmosphere. I picked up the Numero Group compilation [...]
Rural Alberta Advantage by Adrian Bischoff Seeing Rural Alberta Advantage ( myspace ) at SxSW ( twice ) has reignited my love of the band. Paste has a really cool video interview/ acoustic session by the band, including a great piano-based version of "In the Summertime." Hearya recently posted their session with the RAA. It sounds really clean and crisp-better than Hometowns in parts. They also have a video, which is below. [...]
Song obsessions are those songs that we listen to on repeat. I noticed that my obsessions are often a week long. I also thought that other people might have similar obsessions. I've collected a panel of a few like-minded individuals and gotten their "song obsessions of the week." Quite often it's easy to explain why the song is good; it's much hard to explain why we're obsessed. Maybe you'll become obsessed with one of these. - Adrian ( me ): J Tillman - When I Light Your Darkened Door [...]
Record Store Day at Amoeba last year I'm just going to assume that you're going to Record Store Day on Saturday because that's what all the cool kids are doing. What are you going to get among all the exclusive releases ? Here are some of the things I'm going to keep my eye out for: Andrew Bird / Loney Dear split 73 Booker T Warped Sister 73 Gaslight Anthem Live at Park Ave 103 (maybe) [...]
Posted every Thursday, On Sale Soon is a weekly series of the tickets going on sale that weekend. Where to get tickets: The Independent , Great American Music Hall , Slim's , Fillmore, Shoreline, and other Livenation venues , the Warfield . Another Planet booked venues like Greek Theatre @ Berkeley, Palace of Fine Arts, etc. Bimbo's . On sale now/ Thursday April 16 : 5/10 Strings for Industry, Bill Nershi @ Slim's 6/12 She Wants Revenge @ Bimbo's [...]
On Monday night I saw Blind Pilot ( myspace ) and Loch Lomond at the Cafe du Nord. First off, let me say how much I love two-band bills? Big bills are nice if everyone's good or if you can be pleasantly surprised, but in the age of the internet, I'm usually going into shows with a good idea what each band sounds like and I'm infrequently surprised. Loch Lomond was up shortly after I got there. [...]
stock photo Wanda Jackson ( myspace , wikipedia ), known as the "Queen of Rockabilly" and a 2009 inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as an Early Influence , is playing Slim's this Friday. Very young in the 50s and 60s, she had a voice equally capable of strained howls and nuanced moments and a band swinging in the rockabilly style. What first caught my attention was her song "Funnel of Love" on the fantastic box set One [...]
cred: ipickmynose I'm on the air doing my "I Once Was Canadian" radio show on KZSU 90.1FM. I've got three hours! You can listen in each week to hear me Tuesdays from 3-6pm . Listen in! During either show you can listen online or at 90.1 FM. You can also follow along with my playlist online .
It's been a while since I've posted any of my Blackdrop Portraits , so here's another batch. David Bazan by Adrian Bischoff Toromiro by Adrian Bischoff Elvis Perkins by Adrian Bischoff [...]
Andrew Kenny of Wooden Birds, by Adrian Bischoff Since I saw the Wooden Birds ( myspace ) (twice) at SxSW I've been trying not to listen to their forthcoming debut album, Magnolia . The Wooden Birds are the new band front by Andrew Kenny, of American Analog Set along with members of other ipickmynose favs, Lymbyc Systym and Ola Podrida . I've been trying not to listen to Magnolia , out May 12, because I know it's the sort [...]
Listening to the two following pieces. Rimsky-Korsakov's Russian Easter Overture : Widor's Tocatta from Organ Symphony No. 5 : It's obvious how the former came to be a part of our tradition, but the latter? I think the organist at a church we went to when I was very young played it on Easter.
Adrian ( me ): Sufjan Stevens - For the Widows in Paradise, for the Fatherless in Ypsilanti (mp3) ( buy ) I have a tendency to go back to one album of an artist, even if I like a lot of their stuff. For instance, I listen to Pedro the Lion's It's Hard to Find a Friend a lot but I don't listen to Winners Never Quit much despite the fact that I know it has good stuff on it. I'm not sure [...]
Last Friday Great Lake Swimmers ( myspace ) played at the Bottom of the Hill. Kate Maki ( myspace ) and Ari Shine ( myspace ) opened. Ari Shine was a last minute replacement for Winterbirds. I was excited about seeing them , so it was already a bit of a disappointment before I saw Ari Shine. I also found his music to be a fairly typical and uninspiring songwriter material. Kate Maki played a nice set. [...]
Posted every Thursday, On Sale Soon is a weekly series of the tickets going on sale that weekend. Where to get tickets: The Independent , Great American Music Hall , Slim's , Fillmore, Shoreline, and other Livenation venues , the Warfield . Another Planet booked venues like Greek Theatre @ Berkeley, Palace of Fine Arts, etc. Bimbo's . On sale now/ Thursday April 9 : 4/13 Kevin Rudolf, Jeremy Greene, Hyper Crush, Cash Cash, The Audition, Go Crash Audio @ Slim's [...]
ipickmynose
Bison - Quill
Neutral Milk Hotel- Aeroplane Over the Sea
Shinichi Osawa – Big Beach Mix 2012
