WonderBlog

"Listen to this!"

Chris had found a newspaper article about the latest teen craze:
Hannah Montana

Apparently, it's a step above Lizzy McGuire, cum HIllary Duff...that pop sensation that has faded.

Billy Ray Cyrus's daughter has a show about a girl who is a huge pop star that goes incognito to be a girl-next-door while she tries to finish high school.

And naturally, the kid is touring in real life. And all the teens are LEANING on their parents to get tickets. But these parental types have become very comfortable in their own homes and haven't been to concerts in years. They don't know that you have to get on ticketmaster THE SECOND the tickets are available and get as many as you can.

The scalpers know that you must. And they have even automated it.

So, all the tickets are gone. And the parents are MAD. They are complaining to disney about this.

I guess the scalpers got carried away. You have to leave a few crumbs, you know.

I heard that regular price is $60 bucks a ticket, but they are going for $200. And some as much as $3000!!!!

Okay. I'd never heard of little missy. I had to Youtube her.

You can too.

She seems like a cross between Saved By The Bell and Shania Twain. I'm sure it is potent stuff for the young.

And after admiring her hair and her outfits for a while, wondering if I would have worn the same things when I was...how old is she again?

But after the second video, I had to get away. I felt like i needed to be grown up again.

KT Tunstall made me feel right again. I would have, have and still would wear those boots.

A music nerd! Missy Hannah "Lip synch" Montana can go cash her check. I'm gonna listen to some music.

AFTERTHOUGHT
"Saved by the Bell"? The loop seems to be tightening..That's 90's

Posted by Murphy Horner at 10:18 AM | Permalink

Christmas was great this year. Chris raided the rubble of Tower’s fall and came up with some good CD stocking stuffers.

But he also asked me for an obscure import he’d heard about:

Labrador “Instamatic Lovelife”

...proving once again that I will never ever be able to reliably guess what sort of music this man likes.

Basically, Labrador sounds a lot like the pet shop boys if they were from Denmark and hadn’t mastered English. There’s something abba-esque about the lyrics. And the pronunciation.

“…that you will try to listen...that you will try to see…all the things I stand for…'cause I know you’re fond of me

Fond of me

Why does nobody listen? Why does nobody care? It’s love and disaster…”

When we sat to listen to the CD, I poked Chris and said, “You’re fond of me…”

“Oh…” he said. “When I first heard that I thought he was saying, ‘I know you from the Flea’…I thought the Flea might be some local nightclub.”

John Donne and the metaphysical poets ran through my head. “The Flea!” I giggled.

The next day I said “Don’t I know you from somewhere? From the Flea?”

The Tower liquidation had some good stuff, too. Remember Toad the Wet Sprocket? “All I Want”? That video is one that I got to see on Asian MTV when I lived in Mirnyy.

Well, the lead singer for Toad the Wet Sprocket has a solo album: glen Phillips “albulum”

It’s alright. Of course, it’s a little moody and college (following the steps of TTWS). The song “Fred Meyers” brought back fond memories of that Wal-mart-type store that I shopped at in Alaska--exactly the opposite of the intended effect of the song, which was meant to be a railing against big box stores.

But the big winner was Dar Williams’s new one “My Better Self.” Chris introduced me to Dar a long time ago, and we even got to see her in concert at the Warfield in San Francisco.

The first song ‘Teen for God’ was so chillingly dead on that it’s hard to listen to. That’s Dar for you:

“Dear Lord I plan each day
the things I will not do or say
But I’m driven by a passion—is it only there to tame?
It fills my heart and it calls my name, and
This world that you made for us,
I know I know it’s dangerous
So I ride a lot of horses I never even swear
It’s sort of like praying I’m just not there”

Bone on bone…that’s how she can hit you sometimes. Probably good PMS music, when you need something to cry about.

There is another album I didn’t get yet. I found it on a commercial, one of those geico caveman commercials. The group is Royksopp and the song is “Remind Me”

I’ll be ordering it soon, but check out the link. I think the video is way cool.

**************************************************
Footnote: I just watched the whole Toad the Wet Sprocket video again. Holy God, they are so young. _I_ was so young..a 19 year old zygote. I shudder to think of that time. I will never be that young again. Thank God for that.
Yay and Amen

Posted by Murphy Horner at 07:44 PM | Permalink

In '82 Madonna put out-- her debut album. Her hair was short and spikey and blonde, with roots as dark as her eyeliner.

Think about this for a minute. Everyone all over the world had a pounding disco hangover by 82. Madonna was brand-new to the music scene and managed to make a dance album that could still make everyone happy instead of sick.

She took some great soul elements, some really excellent keyboard and drum talents to make this album. It's one that deserves a new look. Sure, "Holiday" and "Lucky Star" got over-played, but if you haven't really listened to this album in a while, you'll be really surprised at the talent Madonna had coming straight out of the gate.

Posted by Murphy Horner at 09:18 PM | Permalink

Two things made me go back to where it began. The big M has a new album coming out, and the slathery reviews for it all say something like 'She's gone back to her dance roots!'

The unimagination of the paid reviewers leads me to think that they didn't look past the title (Confessions on a Dance Floor) for press grist.

What exactly are Madonna's roots anyway?

The second thing in this series of events was hearing "Material Girl" on a hip(tm) oldies station. "Wow," I thought. "That song is even cooler than I remember. I should get that album, there is more there there."

And Santa brought me "Like a Virgin" for Christmas. And a few others, but I'll write about that another time.

Let's just say, if Confessions on a Dance Floor is going back to M's roots, it's not going all the way back. This is the stuff. This is the Madonna I will always love.

"Material Girl", "Like a Virgin"; I am ready to go find some lace fingerless gloves and about a thousand bracelets right now. I want the big lacy bow in my hair. And who said bustiers are only for the bedroom? It's time to bust out; show the bra straps on any occasion. And use the wide-tip applicator for my black eyeliner.

I am inspired.

Okay, even besides the fabulous fashions of Madonna, the music is so fun! Perhaps because I was so young the first time, but I didn't realize how New Age her Marvelousness was. She was so popular, I didn't quite get that she was more than a little cutting edge. The synths and the bouncy bass, and the not-a-machine drums are pretty darn great. Bouncy happy dancey music, but not the uber-processed dance music that we have become accustomed to by the time we hit the 21st century.

That's not to say this is 'unplugged' or anything like that. In fact, what I am liking about this album is its mix of real and processed sound. I mean, the synthesizers are so retro that they almost sound acoustic to my jaded ears.

And I can hear her youth in the tracks. I can hear how much Madonna is ready to take over the world, how much she wants it. This album has a push to it, a 'nothing is going to stop me' sound. It's just a shade different from later albums, where the drive is to stay on top, rather than to get there.

I can't say I love everything the Material Girl has ever done, but I am a huge fan of her style and power. And this album rocks my world.

Posted by Murphy Horner at 02:07 PM | Permalink

I love Gene Autry. "The Singing Cowboy"--I sometimes think how the world would be different if America had chosen to embrace Autry instead of John Wayne. If a seranading, happy, snappy-dressed Autry could have been the standard of manhood instead of the Taciturn grunting John Wayne, the world would be so much more beautiful.

Sigh.

Well, Autry made the hit "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer", so of course he would have a Christmas album. He had his hand in two other top christmas songs: "Frosty the Snowman" and "Here comes Santa Claus", taking three spots on the top 20 most played Christmas songs.

This is a great album from a great artist. Merry Christmas everyone!

Posted by Murphy Horner at 09:27 AM | Permalink

In that dark age when Disco was ready to die but not quite dead, Newcleus came on the scene. All the fun silliness of the disco era is wrapped up in this album, but none of the tired stale air of what disco became. This album is full of all the excitement of what rap and hiphop became.

It is dated, but to my mind it doesn't detract at all. According to the liner notes, these guys still loved the Disco music. They were only trying to take it to a new level.

Newcleus, of course, is famous for saying "wikiwikiwiki". That was their vocal imitation of record scratching, which they themselves avoided. The other MCs of the time were consantly scratching at the turntable, and Newcleus just mocked it.

I love their self-referntial sarcasm. This is now one of my favorite albums. Electronic music is one of my most favorite kinds of music, and this is some proto electronica. It seems to me to be like a sort of acoustic electronica, if there could be such a thing. It's so low-tech, it is almost no tech.

Posted by Murphy Horner at 05:32 PM | Permalink

Not really a fan of Ozzie, or that genre. But my friend went there this weekend. He's been a fan for a long time. Long enough that maybe he should be over it.

But he's not. He and his buddy went. His teenage son declined a ticket in favor of staying home and playing World of Warcraft. The son of his buddy was psyched to go, though.

Both the heat and the moshing were intense. The men headed for the beer and the teenager headed for the pit.

Of course, the kid had his cell phone. And his Dad called him in between every song.

"You okay?"
"I'm fine, Dad."
"Okay, be careful."

They discovered that many women had abandoned their tops in favor of bodypaint. He showed me a picture of a lady wearing painted grenades like Ariel wearing seashells. She was one of several.

"You should have seen it! There was a booth called 'Kick me in the head, a###*le'. There was this guy, shaved head, covering his nose, and you got three chances to hit him as has as you could with a soccer ball. There were people lined up around the corner! Bunch of sickos."

"Did you throw the balls at him?"

"Well, yeah. My buddy paid for me to do it."

"Couple more years in purgatory for you."

"Huh, probably. I asked the guy if he like getting hit. He said, 'It's just a job man. It really sucks when you get him five times in a row.'"

"Sounds like a time."

"It was great!"

Posted by Murphy Horner at 10:32 PM | Permalink

I am showing my age when Isay this, but remember when MTV was SO COOL? It was so unbelievably cool, it was impossible to stop watching it.

And 'they' came to say that the MTV generation had short attention spans. Anyone who had cable watched MTV for hours. Music Videos were so exciting!

I guess MTV believed what 'they' had to say, because they stopped even playing the whole video and brought on pre-school-teacher-style hosts and interviewer:

"Maroon 5 is sooooo aMAZing in this video that we just played 20 seconds of...Don't you think so?" (everyone screams) "That's right! And let me introduce you to this other artist-of-the-moment who is standing with me. Say hi!" "hi" "SHE'LL be with us all afternoon as we show more pieces of videos for you all. Doesn't that sound like FUN?" (everyone screams)

Stop. Just stop. It's like a genius got alzhiemer's.

And it's not like VH1 is any better, with it's head sewn on backwards for the permanent retro-nostalgia. How many "100 greatest" anything shows do we really need? Let it go, people.

It's about the music, or did you forget?

Let's just say, Thank GOD for the internet. And here's what set me off:

Live 8 concerts were made for the internet

"Television seemed shockingly old-fashioned during Saturday's worldwide concert for poverty relief. AOL's coverage was so superior, it may one day serve as a historical marker in drawing people to computers instead of TV screens for big events.

Part of it was simply the way things were structured. Concerts held more or less simultaneously in 10 venues are next to impossible for television to get its arms around. Live Aid 20 years ago, with concerts only in London and Philadelphia, was much easier.

And part of it was also MTV's failure to really try. There were as many commercial breaks as performances, and MTV's stable of correspondents spent more time talking about what a fantastic event it was instead of showing it.

With a click of the mouse AOL visitors could jump from a video feed of the London concert to one from Philadelphia, Berlin or Rome. The performances were shown in their entirety. AOL programming chief Bill Wilson claimed that 160,000 people were simultaneously viewing the video streams at any given time, and that more than 5 million people sampled the video at some point during the day."

Posted by Murphy Horner at 09:07 AM | Permalink

Okay, this one song played on the radio was driving me crazy. I couldn't get enough of it.

I had to listen carefully before I found out the name of the artist: Kevin Lyttle.

SO I betook myself to Virgin records, and wandered the aisles and got some non-help from the guy who worked there:

"Kevin Lyttle? That's under Danchall."

Off to find the Dancehall section.

"Miss? MISS? It's over here."

That's Reggae...

"It's listed as Dancehall, but we put it in the Reggae section because we don't have a dancehall section."

But I looked there already.

"Yeah, we don't have a sign for him."

Well, at least I have it now. Couldn't wait to hear the album.

Verdict:
That song still kicks ass.
The rest of the album doesn't.

It's not bad...Maybe it will grow on me. But I could probably have done with buying the single.

Posted by Murphy Horner at 01:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Songs About Jane-this album is kicking asses all over the planet. I guess the single "Harder to Breathe" was out a awhile before "This Love" hit. It was the second song, though, that grabbed me and would not let me go. What a great song!

The melody was catchy and did unexpected things. Once I stopped to listen, I was like..."Oh yeah! That's Steve Wonder singing through the mouth of a 20-something white kid! Alright! We needed some new Stevie sound!"

The whole album really is worth listening too. It's a rock/funk mix...Runk?

THe other thing that makes it stand out as something to pay attention to is that all the songs are about this guy's relationship with this girl (Hey...What was the title again..."Songs about Jane"? OH!)

Giving the album one theme makes it exponentially more interesting. Especially since it's such a soap opera relationship. The lyrics are crafty and subtle enough

"This is not goodbye she said
It is just time for me to rest my head
She does not walk she runs instead
Down these jagged streets and into my bed"

The majority of the album is not the powerhouse of the first two songs, but really, you couldn't sustain that kind of energy. It relaxes into a more mellow soulful sound. That's when the lyrics and the theme keep my interest high.

It's their debut album (if you don't count that one back in high school under a different name). I have hopes for the next one. This one is my new band to watch.

Posted by Murphy Horner at 08:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Two things converged lately, compelling me to go to the nearest Tower Records and purchase Van Halen's 5150

The first thing was that I heard the song "Why can't this be love?" on the radio. Chris had been pestering me about 70's music, which I profess to hate. He says I can't possibly hate all of it, because I haven't heard all of it. I tell him that I just picture shaggy haired teenage boys in powder blue tuxedoes dancing with teenage girls in Gunne Sax prom dresses, batting their eyes through feathered bangs.

Not a pleasant kind of nostalgia. Makes me feel sort of sick to my stomach. Maybe because I remember those particular kids being very mean to my older brother, and just mean in general.

So, while I figured that "Why can't this be love?" song was not actually a 70's song, it was on a radio station that played such songs, so I thought I'd fake Chris out and tell him I'd found one I liked. I liked the guitar on that song.

Either from his encyclopedic knowledge of music, or from being right by the internet when I called and told him I liked the song, he knew right away that it was Van Halen.

Van Halen. Oh my. Brings back memories. Memories not of hearing the band, but of hearing it talked about. Sermons about Rock & Roll, the music of the devil and carnality, would bring up their names.

I remember the church headquarters had video taped a series of sermons about rock & roll. One of the pastors there had delved into the dark regions, and came back to report on what he found.

They taped it so that others did not have to take this risky journey personally.

But he came up with many many examples of how Rock & Roll was evil. Citing Madonna, Twisted Sister, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, and Ozzie Osbourne to name a few

Rap was still off the radar, so none of them were mentioned.

But there were points to be aware of. Music is mentioned all over the Bible as a powerful instrument for the worship of God. We used music as such in every gathering. What if (gasp) Satan were to use it for the worship of himself? And we children, tender children, could be accidentally drawn into the worship of Satan by purchasing cassettes?

As a tender child myself, I thought that worshiping Satan was a little more involved than just purchasing a cassette. I thought that you would have KNOW you were doing it. What I did know was that I liked that music.

I really liked that music. 'Cept maybe Ozzie. He was a little weird.

But those other guys, all of them, with their hair long and flowing, and their tight leather or spandex pants. And the guitars. Wow. Those posters at the mall made me want to stop and look for a long time.

But that was the devil tempting me. I had Christian music. Guys with Long hair and guitars, almost as good as the other guys. Almost.

I loved going to those concerts! Streaming forward and screaming for the music. I could not stay still when they started playing. Heck I could barely stay still before they started playing.

Bands like Petra and Degarmo&Key and Whiteheart and Stryper. Oh, but Stryper was just too hard core. I couldn't really listen to them, they had crossed the line. It wasn't just that they wore spandex, although that was a lot of it. They were just too "rocky".

Petra was by far my favorite. Their "This Means War" Album had enough testosterone-laden guitar riffs to satisfy my restless teenage heart. It was almost frightening how much I liked it.

Petra was put forth as the balm by the aging and now church-going rockers in our congregation. But those same rockers had their own collections. They were musicians, see, Guitar players. And Eddie Van Halen was one of the best, they'd say. They HAD to hear it to learn to improve their own playing.

But we'd better not listen to it. It would sear our ears with Satan.

Listening to Van Halen now, I am stunned with the innocuous lyrics. They are very nice. This furthers my opinion that those church leaders were idiots. And so were the parents who followed them.

But I don't want to forget the other reason I was compelled to buy the Van Halen CD yesterday.

VH1 was showing a movie, called "Rock Star." All the sexiness of those heavy metal boys and the drive of the drums and the siren song of the guitar burst in on me now, as an adult. NOW I know what to do with the feelings those bring on.

Mmm...I still love a man in long hair and leather pants.

Mmmmmmm....

It's a really good movie, even thought I didn't see the end of it.

Posted by Murphy Horner at 09:32 AM | Permalink

Westside Connection has a new album coming out. Some hardcore gangsta stuff. Terrorist threat, the call it.

I heard a piece on the radio, I can't quite remember what it's called. Pimp the nation I think. Now, I'm not such a fan of pimping. But then, pimping is just one form of economic activity.

Check out this lyric:
My Hos wear Thigh-High boots
My Hos wear three-piece suits

Hmm...I think that's clever. I think that' exactly the kind of deadeye gaze at the world that's worth thinking about. You'd think we knew by now...Why pimp hos when you can pimp CEOs?

Hard Core. Plus, the track is excellent. Westside Connection does it again.

Posted by Murphy Horner at 10:45 PM | Permalink

Sinead sure can sing.

She sure can piss people off, too.

This album really shows her voice off, it's full of jazz standards. It makes me feel nostalgic, like I should take up making gin in my bathtub and smoking through a long cigarette holder.

And it makes me want to memorize the words for all her songs and then some.

Which is a decent thing for an album to make me want. I think it's a good album.

Posted by Murphy Horner at 01:47 PM | Permalink

This seems to be pure cotton candy pop.

Happy electronic dancy hoppy pop. It is barely one step removed from The Chipmunks.

Maybe that makes me a sick puppy. But this stuff is GREAT on monday morning. I stumble out of bed and hit play on my stereo, and suddenly the world starts to be happy.

Posted by Murphy Horner at 12:12 PM | Permalink

Has anybody heard this single?

It kicks ass!

It's a jacked-up remix of SNAP's "I got the Power." I've been encountering it on the radio a couple times, and it forced me to spend an hour searching for it on amazon. Well, I found it faster than an hour, I had to spend more time looking for music like it.

One single is not enough. I wanted more of the funky Indian-sounding stuff.

Turns out its Bhangra. This is something that a friend of mine had raved about some years ago, but I somehow had never actually heard. This friend is also into bellydancing, so maybe that's where she was introduced to it.

Now that so much music is sampled and looped, things can sound awfully mechanical. But the lush organic sounds of the indian vocals and instruments that are so new to me are really exciting.

Posted by Murphy Horner at 09:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Some folks have been talking about music to drive to.

Here are a few that would make me happy:

You're the inspiration-Chicago
Walk like an Egyptian-The Bangles
Closer to Fine-Indigo Girls
Blister in the Sun-Violent Femmes
How Bizarre-OMC
Groove is in the Heart-Dee-Lite
What's on your mind-Information Society
Everything I do-Bryan Adams
Hand in my Pocket-Alanis Morrisette
Girls just wanna have fun-Cyndi Lauper

Posted by Murphy Horner at 03:03 PM | Permalink

Once again, I am blown away by Train. These guys consistently put out albums that are good to the last drop.

I like Pat Monahan's vocals. They are textured enough to keep my interest, and very singalong-able.

The music is catchy, and there is a lot of range. Energetic songs, slow depressing songs, and things in between.

The lyrics have good hooks, but they are abstract and intelligent. Wow! I love that about them. Every song on this album is a collaboration, usually involving almost everybody in the writing process.

That's a sign of a tight band, they work together to create. I think that's a sign that they will probably not split off into separate acts. I sure hope not, because I love their sound.

Well, I could say things about this specific album. But I think I can suffice to say that it is consistenly good, like their other albums. It was not a disappointed at all, and I liked their other albums a lot.

Posted by Murphy Horner at 10:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

There was a free concert at Griffith Park yesterday. Surf Music! And they had the surf music God:
Dick Dale.

I have wanted to hear this guy for a long time. I guess he is not quite as well known outside of california. I certainly hadn't heard of him til I moved here.

But he rips a guitar to shreds. He can play more notes in a shorter span of time than anyone I have ever heard. The energy! Wow!

So the concert was Free, all the more amazing. There were other acts, but I wanted to hear Dick Dale. Surprisingly, it was not too loud. I hate it when concerts are so loud that the sounds gets really distorted.

This was just the right amount of sound. He was great great great.

And he was getting old.

Many great rockers are.

Dale had the old rocker gray ponytail.

At first, he ripped through a lot of his classics. His backup band was also hugely energetic, and they bounced all over the stage.

He even was playing the guitar with drumsticks, with all the speed he had before. I couldn't tell you how, you would have had to see it.

Then, some things changed. Dick Dale brought a musical guest on stage:

Jimmy Dale.

That's right, Dick Dale's 11 year old son got on stage and played with his dad. They play exactly alike! And Daddy was so proud! I'm not sure if this was Jimmy's first concert or not, but he did better than most professional musicians I've seen.

An 11 year old kid! He ripped out his dad's songs just like his dad.

It was so great. Really! I felt like we were sitting in their living room, hearing the two jam.

I would watch for Jimmy Dale. He's already composing, even. I sure hope he gets a chance to make his mark. He deserves it.

Posted by Murphy Horner at 03:31 PM | Permalink

Lady can do music!

I picked up a copy of Dance for Me by Mary J. Blige, and every song is making me happy.

Technically, they are all dance mixes of her songs. I am a sucker for dance mixes, so this is just about right for me.

The mixers took a lot of different samples, so the music, even though it stays true to the throbbing beat of dance floor favorites, doesn't get boring.

It's bootylicious, alright.

Posted by Murphy Horner at 03:43 PM | Permalink

Pink is pissed. But in a good way.

Her album reminds me a little bit of "Jagged Little Pill" by Alanis. She even has a song "Just like a pill." Homage? hard to say.

But where Alanis is introspective, Pink is in your face. Her songs say how she wants to have fun, and she does have fun. Songs like "Get the Party Started" really are lots of fun.

She's punky, and in-your-face. I dig her.

Posted by Murphy Horner at 09:46 PM | Permalink

Heard this guy interviewed on a local college radio station. And of course, I heard him play some songs.

Amazing lyrics, wow. The music that I heard seemed to be non-intrusive, you know? mellow, sparse. But the lyrics broke through and stopped me. I had to really listen, once I started to listen.

He was saying some amazing things, about how he had been very successful with his band Juniper. He got really tired of what it meant to be a big musician star. He took some major steps back, and out...He left and remapped his path to his own creativity.

I have so much respect for that kind of introspective work. And I believe that his new album 'O' is reflective of his originality.

Check it out. I'm going to, as soon as it comes out.

Posted by Murphy Horner at 12:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Who says the bunny can't jam? You're buggin'
If you don't know who I am, You're buggin'
If Bugs ain't the coolest in the land, you're buggin'

EEeeehh..we only buggin'

Space Jam sound track is dead on. Most of the songs are really serious songs, and the CD is worth is for them.

I still like when Bugs does the rap at the end. Man, that's funny. He dead on imitates so many of the hip hop affectations.

Bugs can do it...He's the rabbit

Posted by Murphy Horner at 01:54 PM | Permalink

Now that we found love
what are we gonna do
With it?

man oh man oh man! Saw a clip of Heavy D and the Boyz doing that song last night. That is one of those songs that takes my full attention.

The beat, the hooks just get me. I think he's very good.

And he spits out those lyrics like nothing, he just slams them out and moves on before you've even figured out what he did.

I have that CD somewhere, I'm gonna have to find it.

Posted by Murphy Horner at 11:04 AM | Permalink

"I wanna know
What you're thinking"

I like the lyrics, but it was the voice of Spock saying "Pure Energy" that made me love this song. Should I be ashamed of that? I'm a trekkie and I love 80's electronica.

This is pretty good 80's new wave/electronica. Some of the songs are very dated, but more than a few on the album are not. The cover makes me laugh, but that doesn't mean I don't keep playing the music.

I suppose I should check out the greatest hits album. I got this one specifically because of the Spock bits in "Tell me what's on your mind"

Posted by Murphy Horner at 01:46 PM | Permalink

I first discovered Dr. Alban in Russia. 1992. I don't think I ever heard anyone here in America mention him. But the kids in Russia thought he was the bomb back then.

I got his album. Boy, that's a whole nother story!

Let's just say, when I got back to america, I searched high and low, finally special ordering the CD "One Love".

I love it. It is very AFRICAN. The CD is mostly in English, but he has some african language, Swahili, I think thrown in sometimes. I really like hearing songs in other languages. It makes the musical experience more pure, not knowing what is being said. Only listening to the sound of the words, and the emotion in the inflection.

How often do we really understand what each other are saying, even in our native tongue?

Songs in other languages cut me loose to not understand.

Anyway, Dr. Alban is highly electronic. Dancehall reggae, I guess. "Sing Hallelujah" is very gospel sounding. "Om We Rembwe Ike" sounds extremely tribal. I love the foreign (to me) roots of his musical expression. These are great dance tunes.

The message is especially poignant right now, too. "One Love" breaks my heart.

"The rich will live
and the poor will die
this is not it and what is it?
One love"

And "It's my life" works great as a angst teenage song. It also has a deeper meaning, when taken in the context of African politics; Dr. Alban sings love songs to his home Africa.

Continue reading "Dr. Alban" »

Posted by Murphy Horner at 04:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Cher was always associated with my mom. Mom said she liked her style, and I assume that she was talking about the Sonny and Cher show. I don't remember that show at all.

But a couple years ago, I heard Believe on the radio, and I had to have it. I liked how her voice was digitized. And I really liked the words. A beautiful woman, heart-broken but moving on.

I saw her in concert, too. Wowee! That was a great concert. A real show. Way more about the production than the music. Maybe Cher has always been that way. I don't know, but I loved it.

I met a guy later who couldn't STAND her. "SHe should never had made another album."

She is unadulterated pop. But what's wrong with that?

"BABY it's all or nothing now!"

DisCO. Makes me want to find a mirror ball.

Posted by Murphy Horner at 05:37 PM | Permalink

"The 3 P's: Pink Floyd, Pepsi and Physics"

That's was my cute redhead friend said my freshman year at college. I'd run into him in the cafeteria, and had to get his attention away from his headphones.

This is the 30th anniversay of Dark Side of The Moon. I'd never sat down and listened to the whole album before.

But my cute boyfriend (not redheaded) came over with a newly remastered Super Audio CD, and we sat and listened to it the whole way through.

I asked him, "What's it about?"

He said, "Nobody knows exactly. Everyone gets something different. That's why it's popular."

I was suspicious, because I've never been impressed with the kind of music you're supposed to be stoned to really 'get.'

I liked it. It was evocative, and set my mind free to ponder what the music suggested. It worked in the same way that a classical music concert makes me think, too.

It's nice that the lyrics or soundbites are not too rooted in current events, so that it doesn't date itself.

I enjoyed the way the music flowed, without interruption between the songs. It was an entire experience, like a recorded concert.

I think it's a work of art. Chris left the CD over here; I'm gonna listen to it again.

Posted by Murphy Horner at 09:03 AM | Permalink

I've had this Dave Matthews' album forever ( Crash ). I had seen him in concert at the H.O.R.D.E festival before I bought the album. I like him live, and I eventually bought the CD.

I hadn't listened to it in a while, so when I saw it in my collection I grabbed it. I remember I liked it, but it was a vague memory.

The whole album is good, really. I love the fact that he uses horns! More horns, we don't hear enough horns anymore.

But after hitting track three, I remember why I have a fuzzy memory about the album.

That song..."Crash into me"...Oh man...I LOVE that song...wow...SO much. It's like chocolate.

Like really good chocolate
your favorite kind
Left in a bowl on the coffee table
Full

I can't help but go back and back.
I try to get through the album and then I just go back to hear that song. It has this melt-me effect. It sort of turns me into a loose slithery heavy-lidded person.

WHICH I REALLY SHOULDN'T BE WHILE I'M AT WORK.
but that's neither here nor there.

Anyway, I thought I would share that.

Maybe I'll do another review later of other chocolate-type songs. I know I have a few of them.

Posted by Murphy Horner at 09:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

"Blue canary in the alley by the light switch
Who watches over you!
make a little birdhouse in your soul
Not to put too fine a point on it
I'm the only bee in your bonnet"

I LOVE that song. If I have to say why, we are not on the same page. TMBG's Flood is a album where I can say, "Set phasers on repeat, Spock!"

But most of the other TMBG albums are like that. I saw them play live at the Warfield in San Francisco. The concert was so much fun! Fun! Fun!

It was interesting to compare notes afterwards with the guys at the record store I worked at during that time...The week before, the boys had gone to see Marilyn Manson at the Warfield. Apparently, the highlight of that concert was when all the people in the balcony began spitting towards the stage. The boys in the pit got a rain of saliva, even though most of it hit the band. Apparently the band just rubbed it in, making it part of their act.

Not my Warfield experience. MY band did not encourage that sort of thing. We were all in the pit bouncing up and down and bobbing our heads to our favorite songs. Everyone there was congratulating each other on their mutual love of nerd rock and by extension, nerds.

Yay for nerds and yay for They Might Be Giants!

I am excited to read the TMBG and David Eggers are on tour together. How interesting would that kind of show be? Pretty darn, I think.

Anybody going to be checking it out?

Continue reading "They Might Be Giants" »

Posted by Murphy Horner at 04:13 PM | Permalink

I heard this song on the radio once, and I could not get it out of my head.

It is a truly amazing song; it makes me start to move all the different parts of my body to the earthy beats.

MMM!

I only wish I had more body parts.

So I found out what the song WAS:

"Rosa Parks" from Aquemini

It's by far the best song on the album. There are others I kind of like, but this one really grabs me by the scruff of the neck and makes me want to dance in ways I haven't thought of yet.

Posted by Murphy Horner at 10:49 AM | Permalink

(This is Cross-posted)

I'm listening to an old CD...Enigma" MCMXC a.D."

I love this CD. It rocked my world when I first found it. At that time, I didn't notice that it had all kinds of sub-texts going on.

All I cared about was the beat. I had never heard that kind of mesmerizing synthetic beat before, and I could not get enough of it.

And the album is so sexy!

Later, when I actually listened to it, I did hear all the intelligence put into it. THe juxtapositions of desires inside a person. The music is very trace-like, and it nudges your thoughts in the direction of contemplating very deep desires, the desires of the spirit, soul and body.

Enigma was smart about it. They (he? I don't even know) used a lot of very interesting sounds to let the listeners create their own train of thoughts.

I still love it.

Even though I've found additional sources of synthetic beats.

Continue reading "Enigma" »

Posted by Murphy Horner at 04:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

BlogCritics took a vote, and came up with a bunch of music awards.

My vote didn't win, but still it's worth a look. A lot of good albums did.

BlogCritics Music Awards

Posted by Murphy Horner at 12:10 PM | Permalink

My vote for Song of the Year 2002 goes to Elvis's "A Little Less Conversation".

Before that song came out, I really didn't have any feelings about Elvis at all. He seemed to have had some kind of place in history, so I meant to find out about him. But I was never that inspired.

I got the Elv1s album for Christmas, and then I got a chance to get up close and personal. The whole album is great, I enjoy it a lot. It gets me grooving. There are a lot of stupid songs, like Teddy Bear. But stupidity in pop music is ubiquitous, really.

Being a fan of both the swing scene and electronica music, i LOVE what JXL has done with this one song. There is so much that is interesting and exciting, I could dance to it forever.

Posted by Murphy Horner at 04:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I am listening to my Best of the Blues CD at work today. GOOD GOOD stuff. Man, I tell you what. BB King and Bobby Bland are telling me they'd like to live the love they sing about. And BB wants me to know it's a stormy Monday.

Yes. Yes, it is.

Lovin it.

Continue reading "BEST OF THE BLUES" »

Posted by Murphy Horner at 07:41 PM | Permalink

I had a fabulous weekend. Lots of fun and fun people.

Sunday was the day I caught up on all my errands and chores. While I was out grocery shopping, I decided to give myself a treat and go to Eastside Records. It's a great record shop near where I live. My co-worker had recommended it. She said that poeple who work in the industry sold their extras there, and they were cheap.

Cheap is good! They had a lot of different things for sale: CDs, Vinyl, VHS and DVDs. There was not very much organization; they are really set up to browse. They only have the mediums organized into general categories, such as rock & pop, COuntry & Folk, etc. No other order is imposed on the stacks. But there is a lot of room, and things are cheap.

I was thrilled to pick up the latest Alanis Morrissette CD and the latest Counting Crows. I'm gonna get pissed and depressed really good!

Anyway, I didn' t have a chance to listen to them at home, so I brought the CDs to work. I have a huge set of headphones plugged into my computer.

My boss jokes that I look like I'm landing planes. I tell him that at least no one will talk to me and THINK I'm hearing them when I'm really listening to music.

Whatever. I'm not buying new headphones to please him.

So I pop in the Alanis CD into my CD rom, all set to be pissed.

No Dice.

I pop in Hard Candy, ready to be depressed if I can't be pissed.

No luck.

KNOW WHY? The stupid record execs, who had made these two enhanced CDs, have forgotten to put a listening link on the menu of choices available.

Didn't they realize that people who would use the enhanced CD technology would be the same people who use their computers to listen to the CD?
Yes, thank you very much, I can access the "secret website" from the CD, i'm thrilled, yadda yadda.

HOWEVER, I cannot listen to the CDs I paid for.

Sheesh. Get a clue.

Posted by Murphy Horner at 07:39 PM | Permalink

I ran across an article by Angela Davis called " I Used to Be Your Sweet Mama: Ideology, Sexuality, and Domesticity". It had to do with the birth of the blues. Now, i like the blues, but I am not really an expert.

She had a really interesting theory about the evolution of the blues. Basically, it is an African American art form, and it grew up after the slaves were emancipated. Prior to emancipation, African Americans sang in groups, because they never really had a place for the solo performer.

When freedom came, the soloist had a place to perform, and people had a place to congregate to listen. Apparently, the earliest blues singers were women; she names Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, Ida Goodson, and some others. But the part that really grabs me is the subject matter.

One of the major freedoms granted with the release from slavery was the freedom to MOVE. If you are enslaved, you cannot go anywhere of your own free will. When you are your own person, you can go anywhere you want.

So traveling was sung about; it continues to be subject matter for the blues. "Movin' on." I am so excited to see that a historical event, which created new possibilities for travel, revealed itself in an emerging art form.

ALSO!

It gives me new insight into what traveling means to me. Being able to travel is an ultimate expression of freedom. When I am uncertain about where my life is headed or what is in store for me around the bend, I often comfort myself with the idea that I could just get up and go to any place I wanted.

I keep my passport current for that reason.

It's not so much that I WOULD, it's just that I COULD.

It is a form of power. Having a plan. These women who sang and made a new music called the blues knew they had a backdoor; they could leave. Sometimes knowing that makes all the difference. Because when you stay it's your choice. And if it gets bad enough, you know that you can pull the ripcord, hit eject, GET OUT.

It gave her the power again. Being able to travel meant that she was the one in control.
And that can make all the difference.

Posted by Murphy Horner at 03:31 PM | Permalink