On my recent drive back to Canada, among the many other good things that happened, I had a chance to be reminded why I love Etta James singing Damn Your Eyes so much. Here, you have a listen, and it should be obvious why that is: As I was listening to it, I got to thinking that I don’t have… Read more →
Tag: Music
Things on the net that please me
The story about the classic “car on the roof” trick at Cambridge–my favourite bits are how they used skirt-hitching distractions, and the bit about the case of champagne the Dean sent. Dawn Tyler Watson & Paul Deslauriers performing Led Zeppelin’s classic Going To California. Make sure to click the “watch in high quality” link. There’s a new Negativland album coming… Read more →
Under The Covers, Up On Youtube
Remember back in May 2007 when I mentioned my pal, musical genius Danny Michel was planning to co-host a radio show for the CBC with his pal Emm Gryner? (If you don’t remember, click back and refresh your memory) Well the pilot for that program aired quite a while ago, but it did get picked up, and Danny and Emm… Read more →
Cool Web Tool: The Awesome Highlighter.
That’s its name. Not that I don’t think it is awesome–I actually kind of do–but I think it’s even funnier that they called it “The Awesome Highlighter“. And it does just what you think, based on the name: you give it an URL, then you highlight parts of the page, and you get a link to your highlighted page that… Read more →
Oh CBC, no.
I have often said that I hate hockey. That’s a product of being a kid in a family where my dad played in two leagues, and my brother played, and did hockey school all summer. That meant that I was pretty much always at the rink. At least three nights a week one of them had a game, and most… Read more →
Robyn Tuesday
This post is in honour of my old pal Roach, a real fegManiac, and my pal EBOC“of the Shire” who is about to have his first Robyn Hitchcock experience. I’ve got about a half-dozen Hitchcock albums, mostly from the 80s and 90s. I think I might have had one or two before Roach started campaigning heavily in favour of Hitchcock,… Read more →
Officers, in offices, being official.
Look, if you know me, or you’ve read this blog for any length of time, it should come as no surprise that I am a huge Tom Waits fan. I dig Tom’s music of course–hell Hold On is probably my all time favourite song, and he’s probably got a dozen at least in the top hundred, but I also like… Read more →
If you like the arty, breathy, female singers…
…like Kate Bush, or Tori Amos, or Bjork, you may like Bat For Lashes. They’re new to me this week, following a pointer from Emma Bull. Me, I like those artistswell, I would pretty heavily qualify in time my Tori appreciation…. Plus, the videos on Youtube are pretty great. Check these out: Read more →
Lazy Post: Wednesday Night Music
That’s my favourite Montreal blueswoman, Dawn Tyler Watson, performing her song “Hey Hey”, the lyrics of which inspired the title of her album Ten Dollar Dress. (I found her because I saw the album on a wall once, and the title more or less forced me to buy it.) Read more →
Early Saturday Morning Gallimaufry
And, time to close a few more tabs… It’s lovely that the Internet can bring me an interactive beer and food matching guide. Sadly, it uses a different algorithm than I do–resulting in far more matches with “see through” beer than my scheme would generate. Speaking of beer, I love the idea of beer haiku. My favourite so far: You… Read more →
There’s not a lot of pop music with this inspiration
That’s the video for the World Party song Is It Like Today?. The reason it’s here: it’s explicitly inspired by, and intended to be a precis of, Bertrand Russell‘s History of Western Philosophy. Lyrics after the jump: Read more →
Grateful Thursday
I am totally having a Grateful Dead day today, and I feel motivated to share with you all. Annotated Lyrics: Scarlet Begonias, Ripple, Uncle John’s Band, and Tennessee Jed. The other track, Me & My Uncle, is a cover. Read more →
Rokia Traore: Nothing to do with superstrings
A few years ago I picked up a Rokia Traore album. I’m not sure what the impetus was–probably I was looking for another hit of the same kind of musical whammy that I got from Orchestre Baobab‘s Pirate’s Choice, so I was exploring African contemporary. Let us cut a long story short and say that I enjoyed the album, and… Read more →
Just as plausible as any other theory I’ve seen
I like the latest “why the recording industry is in the tank” theory from Esquire this week–it’s not the same old piracy or consumer selectivity or even “end of format shifting” arguments, but instead a simpler economic argument. I have no idea whether or not it’s any more true than any other, but it seems just as plausible. Here’s the… Read more →
Say That I Was Foolish, Say That I Was Blind…
…NEVER say that I got left behind. I have not been here, because I have been driving ridiculous distances around North America to visit friends and to see the Oysterband live (third time!) I think I had an idiot grin on my face for about six hours after the show. I will be discussing this at length at some later… Read more →