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Showing posts tagged music
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UnknownUnknown12PlaysStill trying desperately to move all my old posts from, well, my old blog. Not having much luck, so I might just delete it and move on.
Meanwhile, this is what I’m listening to right now.
Rickie Lee Jones, a pretty awesome jazz-singer, who just happened to be dating Tom Waits around the ‘Foreign Affairs’-years. She started getting famous, developed a heroin problem and they broke up. A short time later Waits met his wife Kathleen Brennan. Rickie Lee Jones continued touring, and eventually ended up in a cocaine psychosis mid-tour, and got stuck at the Chateu Marmont for 6 months. She still makes music, still tours and still has a beautiful voice. The song, Chuck E in love, is about Waits’ and Jones’ friend, Chuck E. Weiss.
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So a friend, M the Legal Eagle, asked me to write about Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros.
So I decided to plonk a video of their song ‘Home’ right here. ‘Cos it’s a bit great.
For all of you who don’t know, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros is an 11-piece band of gypsy-like musos from LA, led by Alex Ebert, vocalist of the power pop group Ima Robot.
Their debut full-length recording, Up from Below, was released July 7, 2009, on itunes, and a week later as an actual LP on Community Records. Apart from the single ‘Home’, the album also contains goodies like ‘Kisses over Babylon’, ‘Om Nashi Me’, ‘Up From Below’ and the lovely, and very feel-good’y, song ‘Jade’.
The song in the video, ‘Home’, was voted no 15 on Triple J’s Hottest 100 list in 2009 (which is the world biggest music countdown, btw). The song, and the video, went viral and has become a huge internet hit, with gadzillions of YouTube hits and even a feature on Yahoo news frontpage.
According to Alex Ebert (who, apart from sing, also plays the guitar, percussion and piano), the Edward Sharpe of the band’s name was a sort of messianic figure “sent down to Earth to kinda heal and save mankind…but he kept getting distracted by girls and falling in love.”
Their own website, http://www.edwardsharpeandthemagneticzeros.com/ is more than a bit spesh, as you can watch the band dance in the background as you read about their tour dates and other interesting stuff.
While you’re at it, go check out the rest of their music too, available on Myspace at http://www.myspace.com/edwardsharpe
There is also a good article on the Triple J music news website, if you wanna read more about the band and their almost cult-like gatherings of fans, http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/musicnews/s2752013.htm
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Bluejays and red shoes
“theres a little bluejay, in a red dress, on a sad night”
I think, so far, my favourite Tom Waits album is Blue Valentine. Out of his old stuff anyway.
Almost finished the book, starting on another one, ‘Wild Years’, which is all about Waits in the 70s and early 80s. Pretty sure that’ll be interesting, to compare the two versions and stuff.
Bummer I have to read on my ‘puter tho’, as there’s not yet a version available for e-readers. Shit.
As a complete aside, i just got an email from my…well, whatever she is. My project manager said I was one of their best writers and that I’m doing a really good job. Yay!
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Fifteen in fifteen
The rules: Don’t take too long to think about it. Fifteen albums you’ve heard that will always stick with you. List the first fifteen you can recall in no more than fifteen minutes, one album per band.
1. Tom Waits - Blue Valentine
2. Tom Waits - Heartattack & Vine
3. Tom Waits - Nighthawks At The Diner
4. Rachel Yamagata - Elephants…Teeth Sinking Into Hearts
5. Imperiet - Tiggarens Tal
6. Florence & The Machine - Lungs
7. Cory Chisel & The Wandering Sons - Death Won’t Send A Letter
8. Band Of Horses - Cease To Begin
9. Bo Kaspers Orkester - Vilka Tror Vi Att Vi Ar
10. Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings - I Leaned The Hard Way
11. Soda Stereo - El Ultimo Concierto A & B
12. Explosions In The Sky - The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place
13. Gregory Alan Isakov - This Empty Northern Hemisphere
14. Mink De Ville - Cadillac
(I know, i know, i broke the rule about one album per band. What can i say? I really like Tom Waits)
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Today’s playlist
Aretha Franklin - I Wonder
Otis Redding - Come To Me
Tom Waits - Cold, Cold Ground (live)
Etta James - My Dearest Darling
Ella Fitzgerald - Crying My Heart Out For You
Aretha Franklin - Ain’t No Way
Ray Charles - Drown In My Own Tears
Otis Redding - These Arms Of Mine
Louis Armstrong - Solitude
Aretha Franklin - Pitiful
Tom Waits - Nobody
Dave Rawlings Machine - Ruby
Schuyler Fisk - Cold Heart
Etta James - I’d Rather Go Blind
Cowboy Junkies - Walkin’ After Midnight
Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros - Carries On
Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan - Cool Water
Rolling Stones - Ruby Tuesday
Etta James - All I Could Do Is Cry
Is my iPod trying to tell me something here? ‘Cos I’d like it very much if it stopped commenting on my life, and thoughts, simply based on what music I listen to. Judgemental mp3 players, who needs ‘em? (Could also be ‘cos I made a Genius playlist based on that first track by Aretha Franklin. Which is friggin’ awesome, by the way)
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