music
aardvarchaeology | April 24, 2015My house is near an LSS housing unit. Lagen om stöd och service till vissa funktionshindrade, "The Law of Support and Service for Certain Disabled People", mainly caters to the needs of people with autism and the like. In 6½ years on Boat Hill, the young people living there have never caused us any trouble at all.
But I still cringe a little when I recall my phone conversation with the man who runs the municipality's LSS housing units. I called him because I was curious about who the young folks living next door are, what diagnoses they have etc. I made it very clear that I was not afraid of…
aardvarchaeology | January 30, 2015 Country Funk -- Country Funk (1970)
Here are some good albums that I’ve been listening to lately.
Country Funk -- Country Funk (1970). Not country and not funk: folk psych.
GOAT -- Commune (2014). Eclectic psychedelia with screamy female vocals and bongos!
Opeth -- Pale Communion (2014). When black metal ages into virtuoso prog rock.
Pixies -- Indie Cindy (2014). Eclectic alt-rock, does not look back.
Teenage Fanclub -- Shadows (2010). Fannies doing what they do best.
Wooden Shjips -- West (2011). Drony stony spacey.
aardvarchaeology | December 29, 2014 GOAT: the new groovy weirdness from Gothenburg
Here are some good albums that I've been listening to lately.
Dowling Poole - Bleak Strategies (2014). For all who miss the later Beatles and the Super Furry Animals.
GOAT - World Music (2012). Eclectic psychedelia with screamy female vocals and bongos!
GOAT - Commune (2014). Again!
Mahavishnu Orchestra - The Inner Mounting Flame (1971). Proggy jazz fusion with violin and odd time signatures.
Nashville Pussy - Say Something Nasty (2002). AC/DC rock with dirty funny lyrics.
Soundtrack of our Lives - Behind the Music (2001). Classic rock updated…
jdupuis | November 10, 2014The fallout of the Great Sonny Rollins Jazz Satire Blowup of 2014 is still reverberating through the jazz community, prompting new uproars and bouncing off a surprising number of new jazz eruptions in the wider culture. Definitely interesting times to be a jazz fan, if not always for the right reasons.
Some cool stuff going on, see links below.
Tony Bennett teams up with Lady Gaga, of all people, to put out a duets album
David Bowie teams up with Maria Schneider on a song for his new greatest hits package
Annie Lennox doesn't team up with any famous jazz people for her new jazz standards…
jdupuis | September 19, 2014Is jazz satire possible? Can it possibly be funny or even relevant?
This question is more immediate and pressing that you would normally imagine in the wake of serial controversies in the jazz world.
It all began at the end of July when The New Yorker posted a article in their humour column by Django Gold purporting to be the thoughts of jazz legend Sonny Rollins where he basically says jazz is a waste of time and they his whole life has been in vein. The jazz world exploded as it was not immediately obvious that it was satire. If it had been in The Onion people might have realized it…
jdupuis | September 12, 2014Music critics. Got to love them. Just the right mixture of disdain, hipster arrogance and snobbery to set the teeth on edge. Ooooh, love that band no one has ever heard of. Hate that band that "sold out" and became famous. They were so much more authentic when they were poor and no one heard and enjoyed their music. Ask U2.
Vice's music critics have a new list out, The 123 Worst Musicians of All Time, which hits the hipster music critic disdain nail right on the head. Amongst them they come up with a list of the 123 worst musicians of all time, which amongst them leaves them with basically…
aardvarchaeology | September 5, 2014The English language has a rich tradition of songs celebrating the joys of orgasm. Here are just a few examples.
Sumer Is Icumen In (anon., 13th century)
Come Again (John Dowland, 1597)
Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus (Charles Wesley, 1745)
Come, Thou Fount Of Every Blessing (Robert Robinson, 1757)
Come, Ye Disconsolate (Thomas Moore, 1816)
Oh Come, All Ye Faithful (English lyrics Frederick Oakley, 1841)
Oh Come, Oh Come, Emmanuel (English lyrics Neale & Coffin mid-1800s)
Someday My Prince Will Come (from the 1937 animated Disney feature Snow White)
Come Dance With Me (sung by Frank…
aardvarchaeology | March 15, 2014
The lyrics to Dusty Springfield's 1970 song ”Spooky” are slightly odd. They have a woman describing her relationship with a fickle, unreliable, flirtatious man. ”Love's kind of crazy with a spooky little boy like you”. She constantly finds him winking with his “little eye” at other women. “I get confused and I don't know where I stand / But then you smile and hold my hand.” On the other hand, she won't give him a straight answer when he tries to ask her out. For the time definitely, and largely to a 2014 audience as well I believe, the gender roles in the lyrics are confusing. This is…
milhayser | March 2, 2014Solar cells made with bismuth vanadate achieve a surface area of 32 square meters per gram. This compound can be paired with cheap oxides to split water molecules (and make hydrogen) with record efficiency.
Short-term geoengineering could postpone global warming, only to have it happen more quickly in the future.
Carotenoids tinge blackbird bills a deep orange, signalling fitness; birds with oranger bills are "are heavier and larger, have less blood parasites and pair with females in better condition than males with yellow bills."
Fibroblasts can extrude a tidy biological scaffold for stem-…
dr. dolittle | February 17, 2014 Image of bonobo from Reuters. Credit: REUTERS/KATRINA MANSON/FILES
Researchers have observed that bonobos are innately able to match a beat that was created by the research team. The bonobos demonstrated their musical skills using a special drum that was created to withstand 500 pounds of pressure, chewing, etc. The favored tempo matched the cadence of human speech, about 280 beats per minute.
The ability to keep a beat is thought to be important in developing and strengthening social bonds as well as communicating. In fact, some researchers hypothesize that Neanderthals communicated using…
oracknows | February 11, 2014I don't know if it's a sign that I've arrived as being a bit more influential than just a blogger or just dumb luck when reporters start sending me things, but I'll take it. It's like blog fodder being served to me on the proverbial silver platter. Unfortunately, as a result of receiving a press release, FDA Denies Treatment to Two Terminally Ill Young Women, from two different sources, after yesterday's hilarious (if I do say so myself) bit of fun with a certain woman who fancies herself a "Thinker" when everything she writes shows that she is anything but, I find myself tackling a much more…
aardvarchaeology | January 8, 2014Pär Svensson of Kurtz, himself a rock guitarist with unbelievably eclectic musical tastes, pops in with a guest entry.Hello Cleveland!
Martin asked me to review the debut album of his brother's death metal outfit (as he put it), citing general unfamiliarity with the genre as a reason. Arguably he's also lacking somewhat in the objectivity department. Or, he hated the record and wanted someone else to bring the hatchet down. Maybe I'm a pawn being pushed in some family power struggle or blood feud. Give this job to Clemenza.
But I digress. At hand is Remnants of Forgotten Horrors by Stockholm…
catdynamics | December 11, 2013This is awesome!
I am reliably informed that this was one of the all time great concerts.
Skálmöld and the Icelandic Symphony in concert at Harpa.
aardvarchaeology | September 21, 2013Junior's buddy expressed an interest in psychedelic pop. Here's a selection of good albums, one for each decade. There is of course also heavier psych rock with prominent blues guitar in the tradition of Hendrix.
60s. Beatles, Revolver
70s. This decade produced a treasury of psych rock, prog rock and space rock, but I haven't got a recommendation for something both poppy and psychedelic.
80s. Stone Roses, The Stone Roses
90s. Olivia Tremor Control, Music from the Unrealised Film Script 'Dusk at Cubist Castle'
00s. Of Montreal, Aldhil's Arboretum
10s. Tame Impala, LonerismSee also my blog…
esiegel | July 18, 2013"Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent." -Victor Hugo
Well, they say that man cannot subsist on bread alone, nor should he want to, and I suppose I'm no different. You all know I'm a big fan of music, particularly live, and with outstanding musicianship. You don't get much more outstanding than David Grisman, who's been tearing it up for around 40 years, producing some amazing music, like
Flatbush Waltz > Opus 57.
I've never seen him live, and that's all about to change. Because this year, he's headlining Northwest String Summit.
Image credit…
aardvarchaeology | May 23, 2013For months I subscribed to too many podcasts, and so wasn't listening to a lot of music. But lately I've made an effort to rectify that. Here's what I've been bopping to.
Apples In Stereo – Travellers In Space And Time (2010). Lots of vocoder!
David Bowie – Pin Ups (1973). Glam covers of 60s British pop tunes.
Brimstone Solar Radiation Band – Solstice (2005). Norway's finest psychedelia!
Jet – Shaka Rock (2009). Stonesy, amazingly derivative and amazingly good.
Midlake – Courage of Others (2010). Mournful, close two-part harmony, guitars, flute, always on the brink of over-earnestness.
Norm…
aardvarchaeology | April 30, 2013In your room
Where time stands still
Or moves at your will
Will you let the morning come soon
As we dance to the Masochism Tango
I ache for the touch of your lips, dear
But much more for the touch of your whips, dear
There'll be times
When my crimes
Will seem almost unforgivable
I give in to sin
Because you have to make this life livable
As we dance to the Masochism Tango
You caught my nose
In your left castanet, love
I can feel the pain yet, love
Every time I hear drums
And I envy the rose
That you held in your teeth, love
Strangelove
Will you take the pain
I will give to you
Again and again…
aardvarchaeology | March 28, 2013I used to be kind of angry and disappointed with Kraftwerk. The only album they put out after I started listening to them was 1986's Electric Café which is OK but not great, and after that, no new material. But now I look at their catalogue and think, hey, from 1974 and for seven years on, they released five amazing albums. The stellar Computer World appeared in 1981, the year when Hütter & Schneider turned 35 and 34. In terms of the normal productivity and creativity arc of a band, Kraftwerk have nothing to be ashamed of. And there is that nagging question of what Ralf Hütter's 1983…
esiegel | January 20, 2013"Every day we should hear at least one little song, read one good poem, see one exquisite picture, and, if possible, speak a few sensible words." -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
I don't always have all the answers, but every weekend I strive to bring you something interesting -- in some form or other -- to help remind you that whatever it is you may be most passionate about, there's a diverse world (and Universe) out there for you to discover, no matter how you look at it. And one of the best parts of that (at least for me) is music, something I try and share with you every week. The new song I'd…