Monday Music Roundup

“Something In The Way“
Nicolai Dunger
Neither a Nirvana cover, nor a Beatles cover, this ex-footballer (and by footballer I mean soccer player) Swede has a pleasant backyard BBQ vibe, which is something I can appreciate in the cold brown of winter. When I first heard him, I thought “Sondre Lerche?” Similiar geography (Sweden vs. Norway), reminiscent sound, but different guys. Dunger has also been likened to Van Morrison in his use of harmony and the tone of his pleasingly rough voice, but I hear that comparison more validly on his 2001 album Soul Rush. This track is off his 1999 album This Cloud Is Learning.

“Cupid“
Otis Redding
This one’s just because.
It’s not new (um, obviously), but because I love Otis Redding and this is one of the best little songs ever recorded. I hadn’t heard Otis’ version until recently, being more familiar with the Sam Cooke stylin’ – who is also just a dose of good stuff. Otis makes it a little rougher, a bit more pained (unh). He throws down the fat bass riff & makes the drums more prominent to make you wanna stand up, maybe shake it. Add a little soul to your week.

“Lonely Soul”
Unkle featuring Richard Ashcroft
In honor (honour?) of Richard Ashcroft kicking off what is informally billed by some as his “comeback tour” in the UK recently, here is a downtempo trip-hop collaboration he did with Unkle on their 2003 album Psyence Fiction. This reminds me of Moby or Portishead, a very chill sound. Picture me on the Tube, with my headphones, speeding under the streets of London, listening to this. I might be wearing black, and/or sunglasses. But I am definitely feelin’ cool in the eardrum region.

“Quiet Town“
Josh Rouse
I really like Josh Rouse, and the deeper I dig into his back catalog, the more I am consistently impressed with the quiet quality of his releases. Underappreciated? Definitely. Here is a track from his upcoming March 21 release Subtitulo. It is gentle and harmonic, with plucky guitar and gorgeous strings. Josh recently picked up and moved to Spain (a variation on my ‘move-back-to-Florence’ dream), and this song is a paean to this sleepy hamlet of Altea where he first settled upon arrival. I would expect some more tour dates to be announced shortly to promote the new album – he just did a limited run in January, hitting Chicago, Nashville, L.A., San Fran, and New York.
Subliminal message: cometodenverpleasecometodenver.

“Like A Star“
Corinne Bailey Rae
From Leeds, England, this young woman’s voice possesses a straightforward honesty which I find extremely appealing. Corinne Bailey Rae sounds vocally like a cross between Nellie Furtado and India.Arie, with a hint of Billie Holliday. She’s got a unique & organic soulful sound which I like very much. Check out her recently released 3-song EP of the same name, and thanks to Aurgasm for the tip.

BONUS: iGIF has the new Vines song “Gross Out” for download. The Vines’ site has the new songs streaming, but unfortunately your favorite friendly blogger is not technologically competent enough to know how to rip mp3s from streaming audio. So thank God we have Connor.

Behind the Music: Eddie Vedder, Bad Radio & early Pearl Jam

Look closely at the ’80s photo above and you may recognize now famous Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder sporting some extremely questionable fashion choices in 1989 with his band Bad Radio. While living and working in San Diego (as a gas station attendant), Ed was a driven songwriter on a passionate quest to be heard and have his music heard. The early Vedder/Bad Radio recordings are still floating around, both demos and live performances. I think it is interesting to hear that same awesome voice, albeit over some music that sounds pretty, well, 1989. But it is a hell of a lot better than most of the other top albums of 1989 (to refresh your memory, Bobby Brown, Debbie Gibson, Milli Vanilli, and everyone’s favorite saccharine American Idol judge, Paula Abdul. That is the year my fifth-grade classmate Carl Harris promised me tickets to the New Kids on the Block concert, and I was sorely disheartened when they did not materialize. Ah, 1989.).

“Believe You Me” – Bad Radio
In 1990, Bad Radio won the battle of the bands (San Diego) contest at Rio’s using this song.

“Homeless” – Bad Radio
Interesting to me how the subject matter here is strongly reminiscent of Even Flow. I also love the way his voice soars on the final verse, “Look me in the eye just this one time I mean it, I won’t be here tomorrow, there’s only one place left to go…”

“Betterman” – Bad Radio
(did you know this was a Bad Radio song? Kind of scratchy live recording, but cool)

While doin’ his thing in San Diego, the roots of PJ were beginning to form further up the coast in Seattle. The story is full of kismet: Stone Gossard, Jeff Ament and Mike McCready were already playing together, working on stuff for Temple of the Dog. They had just finished a three-song instrumental demo with Matt Cameron (Soundgarden) on drums. This cassette tape demo found its way down to Vedder via ex-Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Jack Irons, who passed it along to Ed during a hiking trip together.

When Vedder got this instrumental demo tape, he listened to it several times, and then headed out to the companionship of the waves for an afternoon of surfing. Amisdt the solitude of the ocean, lyrics began to percolate. Vedder then dubbed these lyrics as vocals over the cassette tape and called it the Mamasan Trilogy: Part One – Alive, Part Two – Once, and Part 3 – Footsteps. It tells a story which Vedder calls a sort of mini-opera.

Well, the guys in Seattle liked what they heard when the tape was returned to them, and Vedder flew up to Seattle at the end of October 1990 to test the waters musically together. They clicked. That first week of rehearsals (10/23/90) and some of the demo versions of songs that they laid down are still extant, and today you get to hear ‘em too:

PEARL JAM: FIRST WEEK REHEARSALS/DEMOS

Even Flow
Once
Breath
Release
Girl
Goat
Alive
Alone
Oceans
Black
Improv (will later become one of my favorite songs, Yellow Ledbetter)
Weird A
Daddy Could Swear I Declare

*ZIP FILE OF ALL SONGS*

Vedder, Ament, McCready, and Gossard (with the addition of Dave Krusen on drums) called their new band Mookie Blaylock, in reference the pro-basketball point guard of the same name (pictured right….uh, jersey number Ten). This name was changed (legal trademark concerns) in favor of Pearl Jam, after briefly considering the name Reenk Roink, and the band was solidified. And fifteen years later, we all still reap the benefits.

Thanks, as always, to The Sky I Scrape for some of the PJ history.

NOTE: If you dig the “remember when” music history like I do, also jet on over to the featurette that (superfan) Chad put together on Elliott Smith back when he was just a young-un, fronting a band called Stranger Than Fiction. The high school photo is priceless.

Our Lord sings Robbie Williams

This is almost too bizarre to be true. But very interesting in theory.

“I wouldn’t know a Buzzcock from a ballcock so I couldn’t really comment on the music. All I can say is that they are not doing a Christian service, it is a piece of contemporary theatre and that is going to get people to think about the story in modern terms . . . It is going to be challenging and shocking and is going to get things rumbling – it’s going to be brilliant.”

Hookin’ up words and phrases and clauses

I am so ridiculously excited about this post. If you are roughly in my age bracket, or if you are younger and have *exceptionally* cool tastes, then you know what I am talkin’ about when I say, “I’m just a bill. Yes, I’m only a bill. And I’m sitting here on Capitol Hill….”

Schoolhouse Rock! was instrumental in my academic formation, and contributed extensively to my mad verbal skills today. As their website says so eloquently; “Every Saturday morning between 1973 and 1985, a classroom of imagination defying enormity was assembled on ABC, run by a small cadre of renegade Madison Avenue ad men. Class sessions were short but intense – squeezed between episodes of Scooby Doo and LaffOlympics, and Underoos met the dress code. No one assigned homework, no one slapped your knuckles with a yardstick, no one beat you up for your milk money. The institution of learning was called Schoolhouse Rock, and if you can recite the Preamble of the Constitution by rote and know the function of a conjunction, you probably attended faithfully.”

Don’t you feel smarter just remembering all this stuff? Three times six is … eighteen! School House Rock was great at breaking down complex issues into easily understood (and damn catchy) rhymes. In 1996 a bunch of their songs were re-done by good people so now you can rock a little as you learn (from the CD Schoolhouse Rock! Rocks). Please enjoy these as much as I do. And all good English majors should remember:
“I get my thing in action (Verb!)
To be, to sing, to feel, to live (Verb!)”

Splendid.

Conjunction Junction – Better Than Ezra

Three Is A Magic Number – Blind Melon

I’m Just A Bill – Deluxx Folk Implosion

No More Kings – Pavement

My Hero, Zero – The Lemonheads

The Energy Blues – Biz Markie

Verb: That’s What Happening – Moby


Also, today is my sister’s birthday – my childhood companion on the couch in our jammies, watching and learning all this stuff, filing away all the tunes into our encyclopedic musical memories. Happy birthday, big sis! Love you!

Art Brut

I have been hearing rumbles around in the music world from friends who either love South London band Art Brut or hate them. I finally broke down and purchased a few of their songs off eMusic (cos I’ve got this 50 free downloads deal that I’ve got to use up in the next like 4 days – free music! I recommend it). I couldn’t handle them in large doses, or forever, but for now it sounds like a cross between The Streets and Blur. A little bit of simplistic, self-effacing, punk-influenced fun.

“Emily Kane” – Art Brut

“Bang Bang Rock and Roll” – Art Brut

World Music Wednesday

Pau Donés was born in the Spanish region of Aragon, but was raised in Barcelona. Along with his band Jarabe de Palo they released the Cuban-influenced La Flaca in 1997 and the title track became a huge hit that summer, selling millions of copies.

I absolutely love this song, from the beginning slow and sexy guitar notes, to the building Latin beat and the smooth Spanish lyrics (of which I understand maybe half, thanks to Señora Navarro and my high school Spanish classes). It is quite a smoldering song.

La Flaca was the informal clubbing anthem of my study abroad experience in Italy in Fall of 1999. I spent many a (swirling and hazy) night trying my best to do some sort of samba imitation on the dancefloor to this alongside my Italian amici. Top notch. As the song says, “y bailar y bailar, y tomar y tomar…” I, of course, had life-altering educational and cultural experiences while studying abroad as well, but those were more during the day.

It is really a fabulous song, bar none. I highly recommend it.

“La Flaca” – Jarabe de Palo