September.25.2009. • 10:21 AM
I heard the White wedding cover by whip on Pandora and had to hunt it down.
You can find it HERE via: Town Full of Losers
This live song by mount eerie has the audience singing and is strangely haunting and beautiful. I found it HERE via: Large Hearted Boy
Then there is Christian Cuff, whose music I haven’t been able to get out of my head since his live performance in Biddeford’s North Dam Mill (a show that I helped put together)
You can see a vid of him playing live at the Dog fish (local bar/restaurant in Portland, ME)
HERE or listen on his myspace page
I realize I’ve not been blogging nearly as much as I used to or maybe just not the same way I used to…
You can find more recent stuff I’ve posted HERE (if your interested)
Filed under: entertainment., music , mp3, music, songs
Filed under: entertainment., family, life, music, personal., random, youtube , humor, kids, life, parenting, random, youtube
August.10.2007. • 12:57 PM
from dirty jerzey to pampered to xxxl-mas this fleshy Joe Pesci, Heavy-Meadow Soprano- jersey girl makes rap fun again. The odd thing is that this girl, the one in the videos, isn’t the one rapping. ChunkyPam is played by Ashlie Atkinson who is actually from Arkansas (not NJ) and also appeared in 6 episodes of rescue me. Chunky Pam’s voice comes from Meredith DiMenna, but the lyrics she spouts come from the mind of Geremy Jasper. So this chick is so large she is actually three people.
but its still fun to listen to…
Filed under: entertainment., music, random, youtube
For a non-musician, music is such a large part of my life, and for that matter my family’s lives. Instead having the television on eternally, we listen to music almost constantly. It is so much more than just background, it is part of the foreground— it is emotional and intellectual fuel for my day. It has become an essential part of my creative process. I seem to need a constant influx of non-visual stimulations in order to keep me moving forward and music has such profound power. It is the only art form that physically moves us— actually vibrating little bones, and causing waves in the fluid filled chambers of our inner ear. We effortlessly feel music in a way that, as a visual artist, I will be eternally envious of and thankful for.
The last actual, physical CD that I bought was TV on the radio’s return to cookie mountain, and its contents along with their other albums have been a staple for me in the studio. Something about the way they play with the vocals and instrumentation never ceases to stir up emotions and memories. If you are into TV on the radio you might also like Menomena (pronounced like the song from the muppets) they’ve been around for a few years but I have only recently started listening to them with regularity thanks to left of center (Sirius 26). You ain’t no Picasso has one of my favorites up for sampling purposes…
so check out Gay A (via you ain’t no Picasso) and while your at it you may want to give a listen to The Pelican (via the glorious hum) and Air aid (via Pretentious prattle). Tracks are often posted for a limited time only, sample soon so you don’t miss out.
Here are a few more artists/songs that have been stirring me up lately, most of which I originally heard on left of center, later found on the web and eventually bought on itunes:
Breaker by Low— apparently it’s just me and one dude from Iceland listening to these guys. I’d like to credit the blog this track is posted on but I can’t read Icelandic.
+81 by deerhoof (via the sky was candy)
True Affection by The Blow (via Not on the guest list)
if you really dug the un.covers and are looking for more, try these:
If you feel guilty about kinda liking Gwen Stefani try Franz Ferdinand doing Gwen Stefani’s what you waiting for? (via I was here)
If you love the lo fi try Casiotone for the Painfully alone ft. Dear Nora doing Missy Elliot’s Hot Boyz (via dial 6-1-3)
Filed under: entertainment., family, life, music, personal., random, thoughts
Earlier this week I put up a post of some covers that I had found in my various web wanderings. In the first version of the post I was ignorantly linking directly to the songs in question. My goal was not to pass off the content as my own, I was simply interested in making it easier for my friends and the few random readers that stumble in to find these little gems. In my haste (or possibly laziness) I hadn’t given credit to where I found the songs in the first place. (this is atypical even for me) Literally, within minutes of the post going up one of the guys over at auralfitness posted a comment, simply and bluntly telling me of my faux-pas, which I quickly corrected.
We shared a few emails back and forth and he helped me to understand my error and the rationale behind the proper way to post music. I enjoy being able to post about anything that strikes me and, while I have no intentions to make this a music blog, I am sure music will appear in future posts as it is ever present in my life. Thanks to the short email dialog with the Stu, and this article that the guys at auralfitness posted I am learning that there is a real code of ethics that is known by mp3 bloggers. Now that I am aware of this code, I will do my best to follow it.
and for the record, I end up buying most of the music I sample—
so thanks to the real mp3 bloggers out there for helping me spend my money wisely.
Filed under: entertainment., life, music, tech-ish., thoughts, web2.0
I am a big fan of covers, especially the trans-genre or stripped down acoustic varieties— I love getting to know a song in a different way. The list below is not meant to be a list of the newest or even the best covers out there (maybe that’ll be another post), It is simply a list of the covers that are in heavy rotation on my playlists right now.
Billy Jean covered by Chris Cornell (via arpitmehta.com)
Oh my God covered by Lilly Allen (via green pea-ness)
My Humps covered by Alanis Morissette (via if:mv)
Sea Lion woman covered by Feist (via pinglewood)
When Doves cry covered by Damien Rice (via apartment 41)
Seven Nation Army covered by Damien Rice (via torture garden)
18 and Life covered by Nina Gordon (via Nina Gordon)
Crazy covered by the Kooks (via say anything syndrome)
or check it out here
Straight outta Compton by Nina Gordon (via Nina Gordon)
last minute additions.
Hot in herre covered by Jill Sobule (via large hearted boy)
complicated covered by Ben Gibbard (boot leg via auralfitness)
It took a bit of effort to go back and re-find some of these so I hope you enjoy.
Filed under: entertainment., music, personal., random
I do not claim to be an American Idol expert, (or even a fan really) but it would be extremely difficult to engage in water cooler and coffee bar conversation without some awareness of, or opinion on the current Idol contestants. But this year is a little different. There seems to be a growing trend towards voting for the underdog and the misfit in the Idol universe.
Last year Taylor Hicks and his less-than-mediocre singing and dad-at-a-wedding performances was catapulted to the top of the Idol heap. Now audiences have set their sights on Sanjaya. For some (young, shy, socially awkward girls across the country) Sanjaya and his slight, soft spoken personality and his boyish looks are reason enough to vote for him. For others Sanjaya represents an opportunity to take control of a major network show with millions of viewers. Howard Stern, Votefortheworst.com and others are all urging America to vote for Sanjaya for the sole purpose of a feeling of power and control over something typically uncontrollable.
The whole premise of Idol is to turn over the vote to the American audience with the idea that they will use their “power” responsibly and vote for the best singer/performer or at least the contestant with the most “star quality”. But what happens if Sanjaya wins? People all over the blogosphere and tv are talking about Idol loosing its credibility. (as if it really had any to begin with— the show is an advertisers wet dream and a marketing monster) But the thing that I find most interesting in all of this is what happens to Sanjaya if he wins? The sweet, innocent, shy, soft spoken Sanjaya is already starting to be changed by his artificially attained position of safety among the remaining contestants. Even Sanjaya is shooting back at the judges with attitude laden comebacks (despite his increasingly absurd hairdos and word-forgetting, whispering performances). His continued presence on the show and the astronomical number of votes he receives are already corrupting Sanjaya.
Despite his lack-luster, passionless performances Sanjaya remains on the show. And by now he and his fellow contestants must be aware of the various movements afoot to keep him on the show. I wonder what affect this kind of “success” has on a person. How do one would deal with knowing that they are getting votes just to piss off a midget (in the case of Howard Stern), or because they are perceived as the worst singer/performer in the competition. If Sanjaya does manage to win, he will always have the knowledge that he did not do so based on his vocal ability. In all likelyhood he will spend the remaining10 minutes of his carrer(unsuccessfully)attemptingto prove that he really can sing. The other (potentially more interestin) option is that he will begin to believe that he truly is deserving of the votes and subsequently the win. Either way these votes, this success has the potential to destroy anything that is truly appealing about Sanjaya— and that is interesting to me.
Is the Sanjaya movement the future of reality television? Is this tv 2.0? This may just be the beginning. As an audience we are manipulating more than just of the results of a tv show. We are manipulating a person’s life and potentially his character. It would seem that we are no longer content to passively watch as the lives of real people unfold before our eyes on the various realty television and competition based shows— we now want to influence and exert control over those shows and indirectly (for now) over someone else’s life. (probably because we feel like we have little control over our own)
Filed under: american idol, life, music, thoughts
