Tag: Music

Jazz meets science fiction

March 25th, 2023

I was never a big jazz listener until recently (long story), but even when I thought I hated jazz, The Comet is Coming would’ve hooked me. How am I going to resist a group that would name their album Hyper-Dimensional Expansion Beam, or have song titles like “Deep Within the Engine Deck.”

The Comet Is Coming – Technicolor

I’ve seen them called nu jazz and psychedelic jazz. To me their music sounds like just like their song titles – sci fi. They make very trippy and exciting music. Whatever it is, I’m sold.

Love the look of their website, and the blueprint/star chart theme on the cover of Hyper-Dimensional Expansion Beam, their latest album. Seems like a bold statement, like they’re the blueprint for others to follow.

I like the quote in their Wikipedia article about “aiming to destroy all musical ideals which are unfit for our purposes” looks like they do feel that way. Sounds like a band with a vision.

The Comet Is Coming – Neon Baby (Has Space 1999 clips!!)

The Comet Is Coming – Code
International Submarine Band

March 24th, 2023

I was sitting around, feeling kinda melancholy about the South, when I put on a country music playlist and wow, found Safe at Home, by The International Submarine Band.

Where has this album been all my life? I can be melancholy later. I have to play this album a few more times.

Turns out it’s one of Gram Parsons’ bands, from before he was in The Flying Burrito Brothers or the Byrds. I really need to dig into those.

Really love that mix of country and rock that some of those types put out in the 60s. Legit hippies, but still country in their souls.

Even now, living in the city I can’t forget the country and it’s music. Much as I spent my time there listening to rock and every other kind of music. This is has always been in my heart. I hope Willie never dies. Or Dolly. Never her!

International Submarine Band – Safe at Home
Washing Machine music

March 24th, 2023

Just got through listening to some Juno Reactor, some of the “washing machine music” I used to jam out to in the 90s.

Juno Reactor – God is God

That’s what one of my coworkers called it. She said it sounded like a washing machine with an unbalanced load.

I didn’t dance, cuz this was small townsville and I couldn’t anyway, but I loved the stuff. Seems ironic to have nostalgia over that. It was THE FUTURE.

Played “Fear” ” by Eon while giving that coworker a ride in my pickup.

She said “No wonder you drive like a bat out of hell.” (Kind of, but Judas Priest started it.)

Eon – Fear

Techno and trance were great background music at work. I could go in my office, turn on the jam box and type away on news stories or lay out pages in QuarkXpress while people left me the hell alone. No one else liked washing machine music.

Juno Reactor is the only trance music that still holds up for me. Techno on the other hand, I still play – especially The Chemical Brothers. Love those trippy ass videos.

The Chemical Brothers – Setting Sun

I had file all that stuff in the “electronica” box in my brain once I got into weirder things like Aphex Twin (wtf do you call him?), or more popular things like Daft Punk (discotechno?) and Fatboy Slim.

Now I’ve got my CD drive working, a lot of that stuff is going back into rotation.

Juno Reactor is still at it by the way. Check this out:

Juno Reactor – Inside the Upside Down
The youth are still creating magic

March 22nd, 2023

Romain Axisa – In the Mood for Love

Beautiful piece. I’ve been thinking about young people and their internet lives. Longer post about that on the way. Meanwhile, here’s a new artist touted by Ren, one of the many young artists who keep me hopeful that creativity will not die out.
Madagascar surprises me again

March 20th, 2023

Sometimes a new rabbit hole opens so suddenly and unexpectedly it feels like I’ve been struck by lightning.

I just found a type of Madagascan music I never heard before and I can’t wait to hear as much of it as I can. It’s called Salegy.

Wawa Salegy – 400 Volts

I never heard of it before this, although it’s apparently getting popular in the French-speaking world. So funky.

I wish I knew Madagascan music better than I do, but life is short when you’re curious about everything. I just know whenever I look for music from that island, I find gold.

They have a culture you just can’t put your finger on, African influenced, traces of Indonesia. I’ve been fascinated for years.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Intqmk-KY1w

Mily Clement – Ho Meva

This is why I like world music, to discover things like this. I’ve loved Malagasy music since the 90s. Once you give up the idea of having to know the language, you get beautiful surprises like Salegy music.
News editors are people too

March 20th, 2023

Me, back in the day…

I wish somebody would write a song about a news editor that captured the way it felt when that was my vocation.

Closest I could find was “Newspapers” from Stan Ridgway (singer from Wall of Voodoo. Remember “Mexican Radio”?). He at least made an effort to see it the newsman’s way.

It was stressful, always being “on.” You never had enough help, but you got it done anyway. It wasn’t something you did, it was something you were. Until one day, you weren’t…

Stan Ridgway – Newspapers

Most songs about the news business take journalists to task for their bias – as we all should. But there’s another side: Staying till the end of a late night meeting so they wouldn’t slip something past you, driving pages to press yourself after an all-nighter, running racks on country roads late into the night.

I still can’t find a song about newsmen as good as “Wichita Lineman.” It’s not about us, but it captures some of that lonesome yet rewarding feeling. I tear up every time I hear that line, “I need you more than want you and I want you for all time.”

Yep, that was me, for a while. Sadly, “all time” is not something you can have.

I feel like songwriter Jimmy Webb would’ve understood. I like Glen Campbell’s version best, Friends of Dean Martinez’s spacey instrumental is also incredible.

Friends of Dean Martinez – Wichita Lineman
Madagascar and Latvia: put them together and you get awesomeness

March 19th, 2023

Auli and Kilema – Taltalu

Madagascan and and Latvian? Who would’ve expected that? It’s the combo I didn’t know I needed.

I’ve been a fan of Madagascan music since the ’90s. I’ll be digging into that on the blog at some point. Latvian music, I’ve barely dipped my toe in those icy waters.

Here’s one Madagascan song, just to give you an idea why I love it. How could you not? I’m especially captivated by the tubular zither known as the Valiha.

Linda Volahasiniaina plays Valiha

Coincidentally (or not, I have superstition about “signposts”), a wonderfully pagan member of our Unitarian church chose a Latvian song for the congregation. It kinda fit with her talk to go along with her talk on Ostara.

Tautumeitas – Raganu Nakts
Daniel Knox, voice of the fed up everyman

March 18th, 2023

Daniel Knox is the man I listen to when I’m feeling blackpilled about human nature and he makes me smile. No one else sounds like him.

He’s like yeah, humans suck. And here’s why that’s funny and here’s why it’s sad. And why it’s still beautiful.

I always get over the doomerism I have for humanity. But if I didn’t, I think I’d be like Daniel Knox. His songwriter persona at any rate.

Daniel Knox – Ghost Song

I quit following his career for years. Just played the hell out of his first two albums Everyman for Himself, Disaster, and lately anything I could find on Spotify.

I’ve checked up on him recently and was happy to see he’s been having a lot of success while my mind was elsewhere.

He’s worked with David Lynch, The Handsome Family (and others I probably should recognize but don’t).

And he continues to make beautiful music. Never heard anything like his songs, yet they sound like American standards that could have been around forever.

Daniel Knox – Hollow

Looked up the lyrics to “Hollow” and Genius says “*The author prefers the lyrics to remain unprinted until all of them have been accurately guessed“. How fun! A puzzle. He’s gonna make us slow down and listen for ourselves.

His backstory alone ought to make him a legend. He taught himself to play piano on a grand piano in a Chicago hotel lobby. He used to be a projectionist at the historic Music Box Theater which gave him access to the theater organ.

Still working my way through the rest of his catalog. I’ll be talking about him again.

Daniel Knox – Blue Car
Magic from beyond the world

March 17th, 2023

I can’t help but love humans, as much as they may break my heart. I still hope our species will defy the odds, travel to the stars and and survive for thousands of years. Or millions, while we’re wishing.

Because humans can access a miracle known as inspiration.

I’m addicted to the stuff.

Jim White – Static on the Radio. (This song conveys the idea perfectly. I used to do this as a kid. The mystery…

Real artists bring things to life that never did exist in this world. To be honest, I consider myself a rational man, but it feels like magic.

Maybe it’s not magic, but I’m hanging onto that.

I think of it as the dragon’s whisker. Sometimes it feels like you could almost pull the entire dragon into this world.

When I see certain art, hear certain music, I feel it. It’s a bit like fishing. You can’t see it, but something is there. Something tugging the line. Something from somewhere… Else.

The fish may get away, but you KNOW you had something on the end of the line.

I have had a few tugs, but I don’t think I’ve reeled in any dragons yet. Dragon minnows at best.

I envy the people who reel in dragon after dragon, producing works that change people’s lives.

From the outside they may appear miserable. Magic takes it out of you.

But I know why they do it. It’s better than any drug.

Dead Can Dance – Summoning the Muse

I’m trying to expose myself to as much inspiration as I can before I leave this earth. I know it’s irrational, but I have a drive to listen to every great work of music from every time and culture. Impossible, but I try anyway.

Sarah Jarosz – My Muse

When I can’t channel it myself, I have to get it secondhand.

When I feel that tug, I’ll share. You might not feel it. We’re not all on the same wavelength.

But I have to try. My muse or whatever the hell it is, requires it.
Songs about one of my favorite topics: aliens

March 14th, 2023

Score! Just found my Alien mp3 playlist on a long lost CDR that I thought we lost in the move. Let me share a few of the fun/beautiful/strange alien songs from that playlist.

I Come from the Sun by the Comsat Angels. Criminally underrated postpunk group

I used to make playlists where I would pick a topic and find all the mp3s on that topic. It exposed me to a crazy variety of genres in a short time. So many cool songs I probably wouldn’t have heard otherwise.

Then I’d go on RateYourMusic and nerd out over them with my online friends.

I’m hearing songs right now I probably haven’t played since 2012. Didn’t find any of the other themed playlists.

If they turn up I might share some old favorites I’d forgotten.

Matian Boogie by Brownsville Station, a group primarily known for their hit Smoking in the Boys Room. I heard this a lot on 99.5 FM KISS of San Antonio back in the ’80s.

Now that I think of it, that playlist could come in really handy. I think I’ll be bringing up aliens a lot. I’m a lifelong Science Fiction fan. How could I not?

#Aliens, #MP3s, #ComsatAngels, #IComeFromTheSun, #Brownsville Station, #MartianBoogie