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Music
I've had a pretty complex relationship with music over the years... ought to write about that sometime. Anyways: I listen to a lot of it, in genres like "rock" and "pop" and "folk", and play some of it, primarily in the genres "old-time" and "classical".
The Apostropher has posted volume 6 of his funk mix and it's good stuff. I've only listened to the first six tracks so far but what I've heard makes me happy.
This is kind of interesting: I was listening to it in the car this morning and just not getting any response to it at all, which surprised me since I had really been digging it last night. But then I went to the gym, turned it on and immediately started grooving. The difference seems to be whether I am standing or sitting down -- when I was sitting in my car I could not really move my legs, which seems to be a vital component of digging this music.
The portion of "Crumbs off the table" where it's mostly the drums playing, with Lee* singing and an occasional strummed chord, is excellent and hypnotic. "Flunky for your love" is fantastic except the ending, which gets progressively weaker as it goes on longer. (If memory serves -- there was a weak ending on one of the early tracks, I think it was this one.)
Update: Curs'd memory! It is not "Flunky for your love" that ends weakly but "I'm comin' home" -- a song which, while danceable, is not nearly in "Flunky"'s league of greatness. It's built around one riff, and not a powerful one enough to support the whole song. And that ending just blows -- you end up waiting for it to be over already.
* It's just a coincidence, but a nice one: I find it difficult to say "Laura Lee" without thinking "Lorelei". What a great name for a singer.
Tom Hunter, whose music I remember fondly from my childhood, is in poor health -- he has been diagnosed with a progressive neurological disease. If you remember enjoying his music, drop by his family's blog, A Time for Sharing, to wish him well.
Just downloaded from DimeADozen, this concert -- Robyn Hitchcock and The Electric Trams, 5/18/2008, Arts Theater, London, which includes a cover of "Up on Cripple Creek". Nice! I don't think I've ever heard Robyn perform a song of The Band's before; it is very pleasant to listen to. Dig the saxophone.
I had been thinking about
this combination of artists recently because I've been listening a lot to Robyn's "Serpent at the Gates of Wisdom", which includes the lines "Rolling down the frozen highway/ Like a burning tyre." Sounds to me like an obvious reference to Dylan's motorcycle accident by way of "This Wheel's on Fire". (And note that Robyn said he pictures Danko singing lead on this.)
Other good covers in this set: George Harrison's "Old Brown Shoe"; The Beatles' "I've Got a Feeling". Also, "Adoration of the City" off of "A Star for Bram", which I had never heard before.
...I love a coincidence: today a post on Catbird Records' blog features Robyn covering Every day is like Sunday, by The Smiths.
Looks like putting up a wish list was a good idea -- my birthday present from my parents just arrived in the mail, and it is volumes 1 and 2 of The Music of Kentucky: Early American Rural Classics. Great stuff too -- the fiddle music is incomparable.
Woo-hoo! Robyn Hitchcock is doing a tour of the northeastern US in July; and on Saturday the 12th he will be playing at The Blend* in Ridgewood, not far from here. And I will be there watching him. Other dates:
July 9th: The Iron Horse, Northampton, MA
July 10th: The Linda (WAMC Performing Arts Center), Albany, NY
July 11th: Stephen Talkhouse, Amagansett, NY
July 13th: John & Peter's, New Hope, PA (Hmm: maybe I could go to this show as well.)
"We live for the strike of a match." Here's video of him recording on NPR for the Bryant Park Project -- more audio here -- Laura Conaway writes about another episode of BPP mentioning "I Often Dream of Trains" here. Will try and embed it later on. Here's audio of him on KQED's California Report. Also: he will be playing at Symphony Space in November, with Captain Keegan.
...Also: Here is a live performance of "Creeped Out", from Irene Trudel's show on WFMU. Hitchcock has an interview in this episode of "Paul Morley's Guide to Musical Genres" on BBC2.
So last week, Captain Sturdley posted this song that I just loved, "Deep Henderson" by the Savannah Syncopators (aka King Oliver and his Dixie Syncopators) -- this follows on her posting a few weeks ago, another jazz tune that I just loved, Mel Powell's "Blue Skies". And this week, she has some Bessie Smith tunes! Excellent.
[redacted: a bunch of fumbling around about whether I understand jazz or not. Unworthwhile.]
Janis lent me a CD of Jelly Roll Morton's music, which I'm loving. Today after listening to it for a while, I played this on my violin, which I think is supposed to be kind of a take on the music I was listening to:
So what do you think? I was really enjoying playing that piece and I think if I had some kind of accompaniment (and -- of course -- spent more time on polishing the performance and the arrangement) it could be really worthwhile music. But I'm not sure how I would find someone that was interested in playing like that. Or for that matter what the instrumentation should be.
Let me know what you think about the sound.
Update: Two songs that I think I could play and that would go really well with this, are "Gimme Pigfoot" by Bessie Smith and "They're Red Hot" by Robert Johnson. (Thinking about it, these two songs are very similar to one another -- but not exactly the same.)
posted evening of May 6th, 2008: 2 responses ➳ More posts about Songs
Sylvia and I get in the car, and Robyn Hitchcock is playing "Glass Hotel".
Sylvia: I have that guy's voice stuck in my head. Me: Me too! Sylvia: Because every time we go in your car, he's singing... about his wife and his dead wife and the rocking chair. I don't get that: if she's dead how could she be combing her hair?
...A little later "I Something You" starts playing.
Sylvia: How come he's saying "I haven't got a wife", if he had a wife and a dead wife? Me: Well the songs don't have to be about him, they could be stories he made up. Sylvia (laughing): "I something you", like he forgot what he was going to say!
posted evening of May 5th, 2008: Respond ➳ More posts about Sylvia
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Tom Hunter
Robyn Hitchcock and The Electric Trams, 5/18/2008, Arts Theater, London, which includes a cover of "Up on Cripple Creek". Nice! I don't think I've ever heard Robyn perform a song of The Band's before; it is very pleasant to listen to. Dig the saxophone.
Looks like putting up a 
Master of the Hammond organ 