What We Heard

As y'all know, the kidlet and I made a trans-continental road trip last week. In advance, I asked the assemblage for listening recommendations, and you came forward. And the kidlet showed up prepared, as well. So to get you into the new week, here's a quartet of playlists that'll get you rolling.

This one's from Whitney. It's a great mix of stuff that's not smack in the mainstream, deeper cuts from bands I love and stuff I didn't know. Got a lot of new out of it.

 Zman came through with an entirely different vibe. Dig on African Funk Desert Blues Friday Morning.

Last, but definitely not least, the kid came prepared with her wide-ranging musical taste.

More zShazams

I haven't been carrying my weight around here lately so I'm posting the easiest schtick in my bag of tricks: zshazams.  You too can find stuff like this on WFMU, WFUV, and WBGO.  Here are a few recent gems.

"Viva Prado" by Stan Kenton

I played the trumpet in middle school and I was predictably bad at it.  I love the sound of trumpets played well, especially high notes.  They take on this weird smeary quality like magic markers or when you rub on a balloon.  You'll see what I mean around 2:45.  

"Controversy" by Prince

I saw Prince live once only because I blundered into free tickets.  He was amazing and at the time I thought about familiarizing myself with more of his catalog.  About 6 weeks later zson was born and I forgot about all that.  Maybe I will do so now--Controversy is some funky shit.

 

"Jackie Down the Line" by Fontaines D.C.

This sounds like a Bloc Party song.  I dig it.

"Cain's Heresy" by The Lounge Society

This sounds like a Bloc Party song until the switch at 2:40 when it becomes a psychedelic noodling guitar jam.

"Shombalor" by Sheriff & The Ravels

This is proto King Khan & the BBQ Show.  A quintessential Fool's Paradise song, except Toddophonic Todd played it.

"Hard Rock Potato" by The Cool Greenhouse

These guys are heavily influenced by Greasetruck and the Almighty Yojo, except the eschew heavy vocal distortion.

"Our Love Will Still Be There" by Big Blood

This sounds like a Troggs song because it's a cover.  I think it sounds like a Madonna song too, maybe "Ray of Light" which always reminds me of Mike Buddy because TR and I were at a Yankee game once and when he came to the mound they played "Ray of Light" and I said "Mike Buddy is like a ray of light" and TR laughed and so did I.  We were wildly overserved, it was a double-header and the first game went 18 innings or something stupid like that so we guzzled Coors Light from those flimsy wax-paper tallboy cups for 27 innings so that was a funny thing to say under those circumstances.

And those are the latest zshazams!

Music Monday

This one's a little different. Got a text from my college-aged kidlet last night with a Spotify link to this song, with the description, "this song goes crazy". With some trepidation, I clicked the link. It's hard to describe. And a fun band name to boot. Dig on it.

A Little Memphis Music

John Paul Keith (not to be confused with FOGTB John-Paul) is a Memphis-based musician with a new album, "Heart Shaped Shadow," that deserves your attention. Sometimes he sings straightforward self-deprecating sad country songs like this:



Other times he plays jazzier songs like this:



But my favorite songs are the ones where he lets loose with old school honkytonk flavor:



Give it a listen.

Stuff You Slept On, Alternatively Titled "layzman's filler" -- zman Edition

You should check out "Done by the Forces of Nature" by The Jungle Brothers. Perhaps the coolest thing I ever did as social chair was put "Feelin' Alright" on a party mix--a bunch of Thetasfrom southwestern Virginia wearing pearl earrings and cardigans spontaneously started dancing to it even though they didn't know the song at all. One of them even went "Alright!" when she heard the singer go "Woo-oo-oooooo-oo-oo" at the beginning of the song. That's how good it is.



1989 was a banner year for influential albums: "Three Feet High and Rising" came out in March 1989, followed by "Paul's Boutique" in July, then "Done by the Forces of Nature" in November. All three, in my humble opinion, influenced the way people sample. For example:



And this:



It makes you wanna freaky-deaky, right?



Although the album was produced by DJ Red Alert, an East Coast stalwart, you can hear the West Coast influence in songs like "'U' Make Me Sweat," which sounds like early Dr. Dre:



You can also hear how this song sounds like "Belly Dancin' Dina," albeit much angrier:



The album also features a number of conscious Afrocentric songs like "Acknowledge Your Own History."



If you're just going to download one song, and, like Connell, you like your hiphop bangin, I suggest this:



Despite having 16 outstanding tracks, no one ever talks about this album, let alone listens to it. You can change this. Get the album now and rock it at your next BBQ--no swearing, no racial epithets, some sexual innuendo but it's oblique enough that prudes won't get it. How can you have a bad time when this is going on in the background?

Cauc Hop Revisited

It's been just over six years since G:TB's 1st Annual Caucasian Hip-Hop Artist Invitational. Perhaps unsurprisingly we never revisited this topic, and I'm too lazy to do so fully. But I posit that there are two artists who deserve to be seeded in the top half of the draw: Action Bronson and El-P.

Action Bronson continues to come up large. He's at the point where he even dominates his cameo appearances. He merely gets a "featuring" credit on "Driving Gloves," a new track from Gangrene (i.e., the Alchemist and Oh No) but it's pretty clear he's the star of the show.



If you made it to the end of that video you saw the reference to Meow the Jewels, a Run the Jewels spinoff project in which El-P remixed RTJ2 using only cat sounds. We've mentioned this lunacy here before and I wasn't sure if it was a joke or not. It appears to be real, based on the following from SoundCloud.



I'm not much of a prognosticator, but if these guys couldn't pull off at least 7 or 8 seeds then the legitimacy of the Cauc Hop undertaking has to be called into question.

zman's top 10 list

My initial reaction to rob's call for content was "This could be difficult." But then I decided to just sit down and come up with my top 10 list off the top of my head, an "off the top 10" if you will. These are ten songs that I love. It seems odd that I don't have a Beatles song because I grew up listening to them, but nostalgia isn't the point here. If it were I'd go with Norwegian Wood for sentimental reasons (Rubber Soul was the first album that made me think about different tempos and meters), although Tomorrow Never Knows is probably my favorite Beatles song (it still sounds modern almost 50 years later). It also seems odd that I don't have a Beastie Boys song on the list, but they honestly don't have one standout song that beats out the others on my list (but if I had to pick one favorite it would be High Plains Drifter, just a badass story with a doooooope video).

I also sought to avoid a "sly declaration of new classic-status slipped into a list of old classics":



Upon assembling my list I realized that almost all of the best music ever was made during the 10-11 year span between my freshman year of high school and my 26th birthday. Funny how that happened.

With all that hedging complete, here's my top 10 in alphabetical order:

Build and Destroy, Boogie Down Productions



Woooo! Those three different base lines with that spooky organ? It's like a stripped down RZA production. And those lyrics? No one has anything on their mind like this anymore. Classic boom bap. This is why KRS-ONE is an all-time great. If you like this then also check out Gimme Dat and Slap Them Up (which contains one of my all-time favorite lines: "Yo I'm the best g, don't try to test me, you'll get jacked son even if your name's not Jesse").

Can I Kick It, A Tribe Called Quest



The first song I wrote down when I drafted my list. Probably my favorite song ever. The video isn't that exciting but the guy in the Swarthmore hoodie kills me--just a regular bunch of middle class kids hanging out and making music.

Feelin' Alright, Jungle Brothers



Everybody likes this song. Seriously, listen to it and tell me you don't enjoy it. This gets the party started every time. The greatest achievement of my four year college career was getting a bunch of white Virginian sorority girls wearing pearl earring/necklace sets and cardigans buttoned only at the top button to throw their hands up and shake their asses to this song at a frat party, despite the fact that they never heard the song before and it involves a black man rapping (i.e., general anathema to white Virginian sorority girls wearing pearl earring/necklace sets and cardigans buttoned only at the top button circa the mid-1990s because they only danced to songs they knew, and they only knew songs performed by white people who didn't rap).

Gin House Blues, Nina Simone



I love Nina Simone's music so much that I named my cat after her (full disclosure, it wasn't premeditated--I picked out the cat at the pound and they demanded that I name it right there on the spot for their paperwork, and I was listening to Nina Simone in the car on the way over and I was about to say "Nina" but then I remembered that my friend just had a daughter and named her Nina, so I went with Simone). The "right" "best" Nina Simone song is probably My Baby Just Cares for Me, but I love this live version of Gin House Blues. It's a swinging rocking drunken bender looking for a fistfight or, more preferably, some gin. And the asides to the audience and the band are fun.

Holland, 1945, Neutral Milk Hotel



The power of music and poetry! Mangum's lyrics are abstract and whimsical, but they also deliver a spine tingling stomach punch that make my eyes water when I think about the inspiration.

Jessica, The Allman Brothers



What's not to like? Sure it's old and over-played, but it really cooks. It makes my head bob AND my toe tap.

Mighty Healthy, Ghostface Killah



I can't say enough good things about this song--I like it so much that my iPod is named "Mighty Healthy." Supreme Clientele was like a slap to the face (Jack Urbont would agree). Just when I thought hiphop had stagnated and wouldn't or couldn't do something completely new, Ghostface dropped this masterwork. The lyrics were unlike anything I had ever heard before. "Pretty soloette velvet nice DNA scroll genetics"?!? Mighty Healthy is my favorite track on this album. Nutmeg has some insane lyrics too. Give it a listen.

Outfit, Drive-By Truckers



This song makes me realize how important it is to be a father. Jason Isbell wrote it when he was something like 21 years old, using real advice that his father gave him before he went on his first tour with the band. It makes me a little weepy, but in a happy way. Sands of Iwo Jima, another DBT gem, also makes me weepy, but in a sad way. Those of you who know me and my meager romantic history well likely expected to see Panties in Your Purse on this list.

Scenario, A Tribe Called Quest



I've written about this song before. I probably shouldn't have two songs from one band in my top ten list, but it's my list and they're both top ten without hesitation.

Welcome to the Terrordome, Public Enemy



The ultimate song to get my adrenaline going. From time to time I need to engage in extended verbal confrontation. For professional reasons only, of course. This is what I listen to in order to set the mood beforehand. Here's where I got the idea:



Let the record reflect that I have never taken a deposition wearing only a towel and satin shorts. Terminator X to the Edge of Panic achieves the same ends.

Wisdom, Brian Jonestown Massacre



I don't do drugs but if I did I would listen to this song on repeat with headphones for hours.

And here are my five least favorite songs of all time. I compiled this list with great relish (unlike Teedge who used ketchup).

Blue Bayou, Linda Ronstadt

The first song I ever hated. My mother played this record incessantly circa 1978, which is surprising given her otherwise decent taste in music (she's the one who exposed me to all those Beatles albums), and I quickly grew tired of Ronstadt's canine warbling of the word "biiii-yooooOOOOOO". It still sounds like nails on a chalkboard.

Movin' Out, Billy Joel

I detest Billy Joel's music because it's so fucking hokey. His overly clear staccato pronunciation, his reliance on the Marls Voice when he needs to dip into his lower register, his cheesy horns, the stilted piano riffs. I considered just saying "anything by Billy Joel" but that would be a cop out. Movin' Out crystallizes all of this and more into one song. It clearly rips off Layla. And it hits close to home. You know who wants a house out in Hackensack? zgreat-grandparents, zgrandparents, zmom, and zman, that's who, you short tubby prick. Four generations of my family grew up in Hackensack, myself included.

Make 'Em Say Uhh!

This song single-handedly destroyed hiphop. This is the track that made corny beats and ignorant meaningless lyrics lucrative.

Empire State of Mind, Jay-Z and Alicia Keys

Some have preposterously suggested that this completely over-wrought self-aggrandizing dreck is NYC's new anthem, replacing Sinatra's New York, New York. Ridiculous. It can't hold a lyrical candle to Sinatra's song. "I made the Yankee hat more famous then a Yankee can". Really? "Who the hell are you?" asks Babe Ruth. "Beyonce is a good looking woman, but I fucked Marilyn Monroe" says Joe DiMaggio. "Is that line even grammatically correct?" asks Mickey Mantle. "Speaking of grammar, 'concrete jungle where dreams are made of' makes no sense" notes Lou Gehrig. "Maybe 'concrete jungle that dreams are made of' but that's not what she says."

All that bullshit you guys forced me to listen to in college

I realize I said I wouldn't do this when I shat on Billy Joel, but the list of music I endured in college is unfair. I never heard of Jimmy Buffet before I went to college. I (involuntarily) listened to Jimmy Buffet for four years in college. I have no idea why people buy his music.

Ants Marching and Tripping Billies are the same song and they both suck, as does most of DMB's music. I said this the first time I heard their music and I haven't changed positions on this matter.

Phish made one good song (Tweezer Reprise), the rest is all lyrical gibberish (e.g., "your hands and feet are mangoes, you'll be a genius anyway") and noodling melodies devoid of rhythm. I hope I never have to hear someone tell me "Dude, you have to hear my bootleg of Gamehenge" again. Seriously, what the hell is this?

Music Monday

Fatigue, they say, makes cowards of us all. And at about noon on Saturday, Bert Lahr had nothing on me.

Me, post-bonk. My wife, contemplating her life choices.

After running 7.3 miles at 6:00 on Friday night (if that mile-long climb in the middle of that leg looks like a motherfucker, well, it is) and 9.6 more at 4:20 on Saturday morning, I found myself shuffling up the Woodrow Wilson bridge in unseasonal mid-80s heat a third of the way into my final, 4.2-mile leg of Ragnar DC. And I bonked. Hard.

The rest of the race was one of the worst athletic/endurance experiences I've had. I dragged my sorry ass home in 44 minutes and 50 seconds, crossing the finish line more pissed than happy. 

In an effort to cheer myself up, I cranked the new Chvrches record all afternoon and into today. The Glaswegian trio has been described as 'a godless hurricane of kinetic pop energy'. If you dig guitar-driven hooks, Chvrches ain't your thing. But if you can find time in your rotation for ultra-poppy, super-hooky electronic stuff, this is just the thing. Oh, and in what will come as completely predictable to those of you that know my weakness for the type, lead singer Lauren Mayberry is both terribly pretty and possessing of the kind of take-no-shit-demand-respect attitude I hope to cultivate in my daughters. Check out the full album, The Bones of What You Believe, at your local internet free music purveyor, and dig on 'The Mother We Share' and 'Recover' below.

And I can't wait for next year's Ragnar.

Music Maelstrom

Out of nowhere, this has turned into three days of action packed live music for me.

Saturday night I went to Norfolk's Town Point Park, a grassy downtown knoll that overlooks the Elizabeth River, for the annual Bayou Boogaloo.  If not inherently obvious, it's a New Orleans themed festival that runs for three days.

Upon entering the grounds, I caught the tail end of Amanda Shaw. (Awww, yeah.) I first saw her at JazzFest when her band played the Fais Do Do stage about 10 years ago.  She was 14.  She came directly from school that day to lead her band at the Fest. Unbelievable.  Our late great friend Flynn went up and chatted with her after her set.  I think he hit on her.  Believable.

Highlights, as usual, included Amanda's renditions of "Should I Stay or Should I Go" and "The Devil Went Down to Georgia."

The Rebirth Brass Band followed, delivering their same brass funk soul beat that they have for years.  Always great.

And Trombone Shorty followed.  The offstage Troy Andrews is a phenomenal trombone (duh) and trumpet player who has been part of Tremé's music scene since we was a little kid; we first saw him onstage at JazzFest as a guest for his brother James Andrews (don't go to him if your knee hurts) and the All-Stars around the turn of the millennium, when Shorty was 13.  These days he adds a whole lot of guitar rock funk to the brass, and it's a crowd pleaser.  Saturday night he closed, and he crushed.

But I only saw the first half of the show.  At that point stepbro Ian called a water taxi, and a few minutes later a 20' outboard number pulled right up the the bulkhead about 30 yards from where we'd lucked into VIP section free beers at Trombone Shorty.  For $6 a head, the water cabbie rode us across the river to Portsmouth, right to the nTelos Pavilion.  From drinking an Abita at Shorty to drinking some nameless domestic light at The Avett Brothers in about 12 minutes.  The Avetts walked onstage about two minutes after we walked into the general admission SRO pavilion floor.  Well played, Ian.

The Avetts offered up their each-and-every-time-I've-seen-them frenzied energy and great sound.  They simply bring a level of effort not generated by most bands, plus they've got more talent in their whole body than I have in my pinky finger.  As Willy said, strike that, reverse it.

The Avetts cranked through excellent numbers new (Live and Die, Geraldine, Paul Newman vs. The Demons) and old (At the Beach, Murder in the City, Paranoia in Bb Major) with seamless vigor.  I'm a fan. They bring it.  They brought it.

So, a big night for music for me.  Sunday did not relent.

We're friends with the singer and guitarist of an Asheville, NC bluegrass outfit called Town Mountain, and they played last night at the Taphouse in Norfolk -- for $10 you got a great gig in a tiny watering hole plus all the pulled pork and fried chicken you could eat.  Not bad.  Check out these cats if they hit your town.

[They do many originals and lots of more traditional tunes, but this one has great appeal to me.]

. . . and then there's tonight.  This afternoon I'm headed up to DC.  One of our Virginia Beach friends is cousins with keyboardist Chuck Leavell; for those not in the know, he was with the Allman Brothers in the 70's and has played with Clapton, the Crowes, etc. . . . and, since the early 1980's, the Rolling Stones.  So our friend asked for four VIP tix to see the Stones tonight, and we got 'em.  Giddyup.

And Your Impala Can Sing, Alternatively Titled One of These Days I'm Going to Cut Your Impala Into Little Pieces

I recently posited the point that Tame Impala sounds like the Beatles circa Revolver and Rubber Soul. Mark and rob did not hear the similarity so here is some musical comparison filler. In particular I think their lead singer sounds like John Lennon and upon reflection it looks like the better comparison is Revolver and the White Album (although Think for Yourself and Wait could probably be shoehorned in somehow).

1. Be Above It vs. And Your Bird Can Sing






2. Feels Like We Only Go Backwards vs. Sexy Sadie






3. Nothing That Has Happened So Far Has Been Anything We Could Control vs. Tomorrow Never Knows






4. Sun's Coming Up vs. For No One






6. Endors toi vs. Fool on the Hill






5. Elephant vs. Helter Skeleter

This one's a bit of a stretch as far as the Beatles go, it's definitely a Pink Floyd song.







And that seems like a great way to end, given our readership.