Year Released: 1986 Top chart position: #61 Some albums stand the test of time. Abbey Road , for example, sounds as fresh as it did 35 years ago. Prince's Purple Rain and its genre-bending blend of rock, funk and glam is still innovative after 20 years. Honeymoon Suite's The Big Prize doesn't stand that test at all. It's macho arena rock played by guys with big hair. It makes [...]
Most of the reviews I've read of Narrow Stairs , the new album from indie darlings Death Cab for Cutie, mention that it's darker and more somber than their previous releases. To that I say - Whaaa? That would imply that their earlier releases are more positive or happier. You can't get any more depressing than "What Sarah Said" off their last album, Plans . Death Cab for Cutie have never been a sunshine pop band, and while the lyrics may be more poignant, Narrow Stairs is more of the [...]
Table of contents for Joy Division Joy Division = Modern Art Weekly Update in my Quest to Like Joy Division Joy Division: The Final Verdict Sorry, I tried. They suck. Related Posts: Weekly Update in my Quest to Like Joy Division Joy Division = Modern Art [...]
Table of contents for Music and the Mind Music and the Mind: A Series Over the next few weeks, I'll be writing a series on Music and the Mind , based in part on Oliver Sacks' Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain . Sacks, the author of the book-turned-movie Awakenings , has explored the effects of music on the brain and recounts some remarkable stories - man struck by lightning who suddenly becomes a concert pianist; [...]
I just found Nirvana. Andy Baio at waxy.org just posted some information on the Whitburn Project, "a huge undertaking to preserve and share high-quality recordings of every popular song since the 1890s." I had heard about the Whitburn Project, but I didn't know they had created a spreadsheet of their work, which consists of a spreadsheet of 37,000 songs, complete with data such as the length of each song, the beats per minute, and week-by-week chart position. Baio has started analyzing this data and has found, just for starters, that the average song length [...]
Have you formed your own viewing party Friday night to view MTV's " Hottest MCs in the Game "? Time's a-wastin! Apparently, Lil Wayne may successfully defend his title, but don't count out DJ Khaled and Weezy, or Bun B, Fabolous, Fat Joe, Flo Rida, Ghostface Killah, Pusha T, and Shawty Lo! According to one commenter, "yea he should be #1 noody messing w/ him right now even though he is falling off with that new song he did w/ t-pain." I think that about says it all. RUNNER-UP: Amy Winehouse. I've [...]
Burt Bacharaach turned 80 yesterday. Most people under the age of 30 have no idea who he is, save for an appearance in a Geico commercial,alongside several pop culture icons such as Joan Rivers, Little Richard and that guy who does the voice-overs for movie trailers. But Bacharach has been a trailblazer over the past 50 years, having started his career as part of the famous Brill Building crew of songwriters. He was the workhorse behind Dionne Warwick's career. and has been the inspiration for numerous singer-songwriters today. According to Wikipedia , Bacharach has written 70 Top [...]
Top chart position: n/a Okay, I know it's bad to form first impressions. Sometimes you can be totally wrong about someone, analyzing a person based on their looks or the way they talk, and then realize that he or she is completely different - like Joe Pernice of the Pernice Brothers. Here is a guy whose solo album, called Big Tobacco , featured such tracks as "Pipe Bomb," "Bum Leg" and "Prince Valium." His previous band was called the Scud Mountain Boys, which featured the songs "In a Ditch", "Van [...]
Last week , I announced the beginning of a new project: To start liking Joy Division (or at least figure out why people like them). So far, I've watched several documentaries on YouTube about them (they even have a full-length motion picture about them!) and read some biographical sketches, and I have realized something quite profound: I think I could like almost anyone given a good enough story and a scintillating "Behind the Music"-like documentary. This happened last year with the Sex Pistols. I read England's Dreaming, Revised Edition: Anarchy, Sex Pistols, Punk Rock, and [...]
All I got is a red guitar, 3 chords and the truth. - Bono, "All Along the Watchtower" When I first started learning to play guitar, I was discouraged that I only knew three chords - C, D and G. Until I realized that I could play most of John Cougar Mellencamp's repertoire. John Cougar Mellencamp is the ultimate Americana singer. With his T-shirt, denim clothing, cowboy boots and acoustic guitar, he bridged the gap between country and rock and roll during the 1980s. His [...]
Judging from the title, you must be thinking that at one time, I didn't like the Beach Boys. Yep. Hated 'em. Growing up in the 80s, I was witness to only one Top 10 hit by the group, the horrendous "Kokomo" from the even worse movie, "Cocktail." I found their sound formulaic, their lyrics inane and Mike Love's voice like chewing aluminum foil. Then I heard "God Only Knows." My first exposure to that song was a really bad cover by David Bowie from his 1985 album Tonight. But when [...]
So Entertainment Weekly reviews KanYe West's (According to his web site , the Y is capitaLized) concert at Seattle's Key Arena and gives his performance a B+, which in my book means, "Hey, that's pretty good." But apparently, it's not good enough for KanYe, who unleashed a barrage of proFanity on his blOg toward the reviewer: Yo, anybody that's not a fan; don't come to my show. For what?! To try and throw ya'll [sic] two cents in? Ya'll [sic] rated my album s****y and now ya'll [sic] come to the [...]
Courtesy of Maybe We Ain't That Young Anymore , I've discovered a new blog from The New York Times called Measure for Measure . The blog, which is about the art of songwriting, immediately spoke to me, for it validates exactly what I'm trying to do on this blog. Songs "are created by artists who draw on some combination of craft, skill and inspiration," according to the blog, and guest bloggers such as Roseanne Cash and Andrew Bird are encouraged to reveal their secrets. A guest post by Suzanne Vega (one [...]
All my friends know that I'm a Beatles fanatic. Some dismiss my obsession with a wink and a smile; others probably think I need either medication or a serious reality check. I have become a student of the Beatles discipline, a Master of Beatles Arts, not only listening to their music, but studying the group's history, musicology and solo years. In addition to owning all their major releases and several bootlegs, I have also collected more than 20 books on the Fab Four. (I'm sure that every time I buy one, my wife wonders why I need yet [...]
So I have this pitch thing. Some call it a blessing, but I call it a curse. It's the ability to detect within a quarter tone or so whether a voice or an instrument is not in tune. You can tell when I hear it. My eyebrow rises, and the hair on the back of my neck stands on end. I pitch my head sideways like a dog sensing an earthquake, and I start making a moaning sound. (Sounds pleasant, doesn't it?) I went through it the other day while listening to Joy Division ( Day [...]
Alison Krauss Brad Delp Kate Rusby Paul Carrack Susanna Hoffs Related Posts: Imperfect Pitch: Five Off-Key Songs and Musicians Top 10 Songs You May Have Forgotten
Whatever happened to the Power Ballad? More than just a slow song, it was a way for the manly hard-rock hair bands of the 70s and 80s to show that they had a more sensitive side to their pounding, screeching anthems, a way to woo screaming teenage girls (making each girl think that the group was singing to her , mind you!), and a way to "branch out" musically, often by adding a non-masculine instrument such as a piano or - gasp! - even an orchestra. ("Beth" by KISS comes to mind - It was the only [...]
I had a recent conversation with some friends who were trying to convince me that modern art was, indeed, art. Instead of a realistic depiction of a material object, modern art represented emotions and themes, and it's what you get from each piece - or what you bring to it while viewing it - that mattered. Now I'm a simple guy when it comes to art. I like my pictures of flowers to actually look like flowers, people to look like people...you get the idea. I've never gotten modern art, with the exception of Claes Oldenburg, whom I [...]
I tell you, this is getting too easy. For Hmph Day, I should just subscribe to a Mariah Carey RSS feed and print the latest incident. Yes, the reigning champion of Hmph Day, in which I point out all that's wrong with music, has not one, but two recent news stories that garner attention: 1. At Good Morning America's summer concert kickoff last week, we discovered that Mariah uses a pre-recorded track - um, one that started too early for her to start singing with it. Then apparently, the vocals track screwed up again three-quarters of [...]
My hmphs
Avicii – Two Million
Beck – I Just Started Hating Some People Today
H&M Lookbook Mujer y Hombre Otoño 2012.
Avicii - "Two Million" (MP3 Download)
