Hania Rani – Ghosts. This one really hits the spot for me today.
Don’t tell my wife, but I think I’m in love with this woman. I just discovered her via her live KEXP performance. She’s got something special. Classical yet modern.
Her synth pieces remind me of Michele Jean Jarre, the only New Age composer I really like. Her piano pieces put me in mind of Erik Satie. She has a beautiful voice and her lyrics are compelling.
Interesting to find that she’s from Poland. More evidence of a rich cultural life. So it’s back to that old Rabbit Hole I guess. It’s been a bit of a rough week, so this music was just what I needed today. Just put it on and chill…
I swear I’m a music lover, not a music snob. All snobs do is turn people off. Sure it feels lonesome being the only one who knows or likes a band and having no one to discuss it with, but taste is subjective. If you wanna listen to K-pop, listen to K-pop.
Mr. Bungle – Air Conditioned Nightmare
Unfortunately there’s a little asshole in my brain I call Mr. Hipster. He’s one of the Jungian shadows I try to ignore. Every now and then he comes out like Mr. Hyde and sneers at somebody for liking something “objectively bad.”
“You have a right to your wrong opinion,” he says to my wife, who just rolls her eyes. (She doesn’t like The Beatles, which doesn’t compute for Mr. Hipster.)
He’s usually right, but he’s damn annoying. He made dating so difficult.
Mr. Bungle – California, full album. Listen to it however.
I was listening to Mr. Bungle a little bit ago and wanted to make sure my friend knew how awesome their album California was in case I forgot to mention it, and nag him until he listened to it. I do that to people (in my defense, he does it too).
That article killed me. For one thing, the feud was way more ridiculous than I remembered.
For another, Greg Gutfeld at Fox going off on the Chili Peppers because he was a rabid Faith No More fan, was just too much.
If you’re gonna have a strong opinion about something, better it be about an ancient feud between musicians.
Mr. Bungle cover Under the Bridge while pretending to be the Red Hot Chili Peppers – to mock them. Note how many comments sound just like Gutfeld and Mr. Hipster.
“Nothing personal,” says Mr. Hipster. “But how anyone could listen to Mr. Bungle’s California album and still give a shit about the Red Hot Chili Peppers is a legitimate question.” That’s how he talks.
Oh, and he would also like to add, “Flea is still awesome.”
If I’m serious, Mr. Bungle is an acquired taste. If you want to acquire it, start with California.
Their albums Disco Volante and the self-titled debut were kinda rough to listen to at first, though now I can’t figure out why I had a problem with them.
There are a couple of fan-made Mr. Bungle videos I wanted to include, for “Pink Cigarette” and “Retrovertigo,” but they’re really violent. They’re also really creative and kind of funny in a dark way. I think the guy who made them has Hollywood Horror movie potential.
Secret Chiefs 3 – Exodus
Incidentally, I may be MORE of a fan of Mr. Bungle guitarist Trey Spruance’, after discovering’s band Secret Chiefs 3. It’s as unique as Mr. Bungle.
They rock with a Sufi/Bollywood vibe, but they’ll throw in any style including death metal. They’ve made some incredible albums and they’ll come up again on this blog. Mr. Hipster insists.
Definitely going to check this podcast out. I have a ton of respect for this guy. He’s actually a damn great bass player and a real intellectual.
The Match – A New Light LP (individual songs are linked)
Suddenly I feel like I’m 6. A New Light by The Match is streamable via YouTube and Spotify. (I may have to track down the CD in case it one day isn’t.)
I’ve tried to hunt this album down for years. I couldn’t find anything about them going back decades. I wondered if I imagined them. But these songs were down on my gray matter somewhere. I remember them.
Listening to this album reminds me of old TV themes, ’60s movies set in Europe and of course Mom and Dad. They used to play this all the time. At home and in the car (on a homemade cassette – this was early ’70s).
This is soft rock, very of its time (1969), with lush music and beautiful harmonies.
They remind me of The Association and The Carpenters – especially “Saturday Night,” the one hit where Richard sang lead.
I’m behind the curve as always, but as you get on in years you have to be a little more choosy. Just discovered Skating Polly – young people doing rock just like the good old days.
Skating Polly – Hickey King
Rock was life from the ’70s through at least half the ’90s. And by rock I mean rock. Rock as I defined it – meaning it had to ROCK. Led Zeppelin, AC/DC and Judas Priest were gods to me, if that gives you an idea. Glad to see the spirit is still alive.
A lot great rock songs had lines about how rock was never gonna die. I used to believe it too. But at some point it felt like it really did kind of die. What I heard wasn’t exciting me anymore, and it seemed like the world stopped caring.
I branched out into every kind of music imaginable, starting with the blues – not a big stretch there, since that’s where Zeppelin got their whole schtick.
I have a lot of listening options, but I still get excited to see this stuff still being made. There are a lot of kids keeping it alive. The kids who cover Tool songs are pretty amazing. Glad to see the art is still being taught. Maybe these kids will grow up and create music of their own.
Kids Cover – 46 and 2 by Tool
Now I think of it, maybe these kids will go on to form their own bands, avoid all that tech that takes the punch out of everything, and ROCK.
Molly Drake – The Tide’s Magnificence: Songs and Poems of Molly Drake
Molly Drake is my new favorite artist and will be for a while. Nick Drake’s mother! Why didn’t anybody tell me about this?
I haven’t been this moved this much by anything in years. Just a beautiful voice singing beautiful poetry. I guess I can see where Nick Drake got his talent. She was obviously an influence.
I just discovered her songs and was captivated. If I had discovered her when I was in college I probably would have retroactively fallen in love with her. I was a weird kid.
Her music is old school art. She should be as famous as her son, as a singer and as a poet. It’s kind of… I don’t know, classical? 40s pop? British folk? It’s kind of old fashioned, but at the same time it’s like buried treasure. Something your art teacher forgot to mention.
Her music had no exposure until 2000 when people heard a couple of her songs in the Nick Drake documentary, A Skin Too Few. It seems crazy that she’s been so little-known all this time. She also has an amazing life story.
In a way it makes me sad. We’re all having wars about culture and we have plenty of entertainment, but it sometimes feels like people have forgotten how to love art. Except for hip hop of course. (They’re the only relevant American poets anymore. Not all, but some.)
I love this almost as much as Pink Moon. It’s crazy that I hadn’t gotten around to talking about Nick Yet and here I am posting about his mother. I just had to share. I’m that big a culture nerd.
Just found out last night that Ryuichi Sakamoto passed away and thought I needed to show my appreciation. I first came across his music via the Yellow Magic Orchestra.
I found them on Napster back when I thought I was a pirate trying to download the entire internet. I was way into techno and all kinds of electronica back then. Any kind, from any place.
Yellow Magic Orchestra – Rydeen
YMO sounded like the future – and also the past. It reminded me of my teenage years in the early ’80s, at the arcade. The ’80s were when I knew for certain that the future was coming. I think I still have a few of those tokens. Anyone remember those?
Yellow Magic Orchestra – Firecracker
YMO definitely put their stamp on the future, but Sakamoto was way more than that. He composed the soundtracks for numerous movies, including The Last Emperor and the Revenant. But what really blew me away was discovering songs from his soundtrack to Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, a movie Sakamoto appeared in, along with David Bowie.
I found that thanks to another of my musical heroes, David Sylvian, formerly of the group known as Japan. I followed Sylvian’s career after Japan. I really love his unique voice. Sylvian and Sakamoto collaborated more than once, but “Forbidden Colours” is the one that really turned me onto Sakamoto. Such a beautiful song.
Yellow Magic Orchestra – Ballet. Vocals are by Yoshiro Takahashi, who also passed away earlier this year. I definitely need to show him more love. I totally mistook his voice for Sylvian’s at first. Maybe that explains why he and Sakamoto were able to collaborate so well.
Yellow Magic Orchestra – Cosmic Surfin’. How cool is this? Wish I’d been there.
This is still International Trans Day of Visibility, so I thought I would share some musical awesomeness by some trans performers.
“Follow Sun Ra” is from the After the Flood 2 album, a really obscure project with experimental ambient and related music, although this one is a bit industrial. Scottish singer #CinderSharp from #Cindytalk is on vocals.
“Burning the Old Home” is from Psychic TV, featuring singer Genesis P-Orridge, who sadly left us in 2020. This song is so good I’m going to have to check out their whole catalog – that guitar solo at the end!
Two Indian uncles listen to psytrance music: Blastoyz – Mandala
Had to pass this along. This really made me smile this morning. So much joy. I get that feeling when I hear their music too. I like the little bit at the end.
“Repent you people repent half of the sins” with the Star of Tarab Kaddour Midoni – Alrashool. Relying on Google Translate again… I take it the performer’s name is Kaddour Midoni. Corrections from Arabic speakers welcome.
Just found another gem from people who I believe are Berbers living in part of Morocco.
I’m fascinated by the Nacer Records YouTube channel where I’ve been finding these treasures. I just know it’s full of culture and interesting music from that part of the world.
Too bad I understand almost none of it. Always the frustrated wannabe world traveler…
Tarab is apparently more than just a kind of music. It also involves a relationship with the audience. Definitely want to dig into that in the future. (How to stop going down new rabbit holes before I finish the first one?)
Ever since a co-worker turned me onto Middle Eastern Ensemble music in the ’90s, I’ve been fascinated by the instruments from other cultures – some resembling those we Americans and Europeans know, some not so much.
I love how they sound when tuned to non-Western scales. I love them all, but I can never resist the sound of the oud, the ancestor of the European lute, still in use all over North Africa and the Middle East. “Al oud” kinda sounds like “a lute,” doesn’t it?
Peter Pringle – Lament For Gilgamesh on the Gold Lyre of Ur
A song about Gilgamesh sung in the original Sumerian on the Gold Lyre of Ur? That’s something I never expected to find. Fascinating stuff this man is doing.
Peter Pringle started his career as a thereminist, but has recently begun performing on recreations of ancient instruments and songs. Some of it has to be guessed at, but they know how the instruments would have sounded.
I’ve always been amazed at how long fragments of a culture can last. Apparently archeologists have uncovered more relics of Mesopotamian civilizations than I realized.
Check out more of his material on YouTube. He has songs from other traditions as well.
Here’s one in English. Old English, that is. He usually has the history of the song and instrument either in the video or in the description. I think this stuff is amazing. Take that, entropy!
Peter Pringle – Caedman’s Hymn on the Anglo Saxon Lyre.
Late Boomer's Den 