Some weeks I labor to figure out what to post for Bootleg Friday. This week, it was an easy call. Today's Bootleg Friday is a selection of live Nirvana tracks from various locations from 1987 to their last performance in Rome in February of 2004. Of note are the rather ramshackle covers of the Who's "Baba O'Riley," and the Cars's "My Best Friends Girl," which the band can't seem to decide whether to take seriously or not, and waver in and out of committing to the song. It's pretty hilarious. [...]
The first time I saw Madeleine Peyroux was at Fez, in New York in 1996, when she released her debut album on Atlantic, Dreamland . I didn't get it. Or maybe I did, but what's probably so is that I simply had no ability to listen to a jazz vocalist back then. But Madeleine Peyroux , with her wonderful albums, Careless Love , Half The Perfect World and this year's Bare Bones , has become one [...]
I was listening to the iPod (on shuffle) last night on the way home, and "Bridge Over Troubled Water" came on. I was about to hit the forward button; after all, do I really need to hear "Bridge" again? But I left it play, and once more, I was taken in by the overwhelming beauty of the song, arrangement and vocals. If there's a better gospel song written by a Jewish guy from Queens, I don't know what it is. So today's Bootleg Friday is a Simon & Garfunkel show from November of 1969 [...]
When I was a kid, I expected and waited for the Replacements to get huge. They didn't. Even though it's twenty plus years later, there's still a part of me that thinks/expects/hopes/prays that someday, maybe just around the corner, justice will prevail, and it will happen. Maybe someone will write a blockbuster movie about growing up in the 80's and will use their music as the basis for it – the sound of sensitivity, snark and punk/soul all wrapped into one. I figure that there has to be someone who is a great writer [...]
There are two kinds of improvisation in music. One kind is self-conscious. It is improvisation for improvisations sake (countless jam bands). Then there is the kind of improvisation that exists because the performers can't be contained within the known limits of a song. The songs from this Sam & Dave show in Stockholm, 1967, are examples of the latter. The greatest of all soul duos take some of their best known songs and recreate them - slow them down, expand them, inject subtle changes in tempo and feeling and make them overwhelming. [...]
The Faces . June 4, 1973. Enjoy. I can't think of anything necessary to add. Download: "Cindy Incidentally" 6/4/73, London, England Download: "Angel" 6/4/73, London, England Download: "I'd Rather Go Blind" 6/4/73, London, England Download: "Jealous Guy" 6/4/73, London, England Download: "You Wear It Well" 6/4/73, London, England Download: "Maggie May" 6/4/73, London, England Download: "Borstal Boys" 6/4/73, London, England Download: "We'll Meet Again" 6/4/73, London, England
This is inexcusably late of me, but losing Merl Saunders, organist extraordinaire, at the end of October was a loss I felt keenly. Saunders played with Jerry Garcia, Grateful Dead, B.B. King, Frank Sinatra, Lionel Hampton, Bonnie Raitt, Miles Davis and many more. His playing was warm, fluid and soulful – with an obvious debt to Jimmy Smith, with whom he studied. But more importantly, Saunders had a spirit that lit up a room – his playing was immensely joyful, and if you were lucky enough to be in a room in which he was playing, it [...]
America gets really weird during presidential elections. So I can't think of anyone better to restart Bootleg Friday (on a Monday) then one of the greatest chroniclers of American contradiction and irony, Randy Newman . This performance hails from Paul's Mall in Boston show in 1972, supporting his epochal Sail Away album. His gift here is in full flower, as well as his incredible sense of humor. Equally influenced by Stephen Foster, George Gershwin and Fats Domino, Newman's incisive, literary and moving songs have been [...]
A Deeper Shade Of Soul
![Niki & The Dove - The Fox [OFFICIAL VIDEO]](http://cdn.elbo.ws/youtube/l2f6UbMnlq4_130.jpg)
Skrillex Uses Satanic and Homosexual Influence to Win Grammys
Deadmau5 wears Skrillex's cell phone number on Grammy red carpet. Did u send him a txt mssg?
Music Singles Chart #95
First Listen: Grimes - Visions (album stream)
Video: Maroon 5, Foster The People Perform With The Beach Boys At 2012 GRAMMYs
