Sat - September 6, 2008

Os Mutantes' "A Minha Menina" in McDonald's Commercial


I'm a little late to the party. I read that this ad first played during the NBA finals, but still, I was surprised to see and hear it. The setting is a kids soccer game, with the losing team getting McDonalds, and the winners envying them. Strange. Great song, though. I saw it while either watching the Daily Show or Colbert.

The song, "A Minha Mulher ", was written by Jorge Ben for Os Mutantes. It has a cool sound, with fuzz guitar and all. There's also an album of theirs called Technicolor, in which they translated a lot of their songs into English with different arrangements. Some folks love it, others hate it. Os Mutantes have a lot of fans: Belle and Sebastian, Beck, Of Montreal, Band of Bees, David Byrne. In fact, David Byrne made the first album in Luaka Bop's Brazil Psychedelic Classics series, Everything Is Possible, a compilation of Os Mutantes' hits. And they reunited for a tour in 2006. There's a live album from London on Luaka Bop also. On the original cut from the 1968 eponymous album by Os Mutantes, I think that's Jorge Ben's voice opening the song, and he seems to be playing acoustic guitar on it as well. Jorge Ben Jor was just in NYC for the Brazilian Day festival on 46th street along with Lulu Santos. We just missed them, que pena.

Posted at 11:24 AM     Read More  


Fri - November 9, 2007

Librarian Gets Burned By iTunes-Exclusive Track, Lives


I've been listening a lot of classical radio in the car lately, part work, part pleasure, and I enjoyed a version of Bach's Prelude in C major BWV 846, performed by Helene Grimaud, so I thought I'd get it for our library.

I opened up iTunes, and went out to the store, and saw that it was available on her disc, Credo. As soon as I saw the cover, I recognized that we already owned it, so I was lucky enough to find it on the shelf. I looked on the back cover, and it only had seven tracks. Bach's prelude is the eighth, according to iTunes. So I popped it in my computer, expecting it to be one of those Easter egg hidden tracks. Nope. Not even the extended track legerdemain, where if you let the album continue playing, after ten minutes of silence, you get another song. Whaaa?

I googled the bejebus out of the artist's name, the piece, the album name, etc. In France, the disc has the track included, so I thought, maybe there's a later version of the disc. I went out to WorldCat and only found my edition, and the SACD edition. What gives?

Finally, I looked up Deutsche Grammophon's website, that happens to be via Universal Music's portal, and I read that the track is an iTunes exclusive. Damn! But wait, I thought, maybe Universal, known for being pissed at Apple, offered it to Amazon for download. No. Credo isn't included in the Amazon catalog at all.

It turns out the track is available on a two-disc DG collection entitled Piano Moods, along with other performers, but it's the first time I ever ran into that. I always thought the iTunes exclusive tracks sucked. lol.

Posted at 01:12 PM     Read More  


Wed - September 12, 2007

Zeppelin reunion in November


The BBC has a story that Led Zeppelin will be getting together for a one-time gig in honor of Ahmet Ertegun, the founder of Atlantic Records. It will be in England on November 26th. John Bonham's son, Jason, will be playing the drums. Tickets will be 125 pounds a pop.

A nice once in a lifetime thing for all the younger crowd. I used to hide my taste for Zeppelin growing up, because of "Stairway". But now, it's ok again. I gotta admit, they are very good. I don't think I'd want to see the show though. It'd be too damn loud. lol.

Posted at 04:10 PM     Read More  


Mon - September 10, 2007

Radio David Byrne


We changed our intranet anatomy, so the mp3 server is on another subnet from the PC I use in the back. iTunes sharing doesn't work across subnets, I gather. So, instead of setting it up to work across the subnets, I'm just too busy and/or lazy to do that, and I end up listening to radio via iTunes. I like the eclectic stuff, and David Byrne's monthly music sampler is usually pretty good. Anyone who's familiar with his Luaka Bop compilations wouldn't be surprised. He has a good ear. The site is Radio David Byrne.

He puts together a new two-hour or so program each month, which loops constantly, and sometimes it's classical, sometimes, like this week, it's pretty much pop. But no matter what, I end up enjoying it. For example, a few months back he had a set with Panda Bear, Ron Sexsmith, Regina Spektor, Niobe, among others, and it was super. Panda Bear, in particular, hits the spot. There's an innocence, an optimism in there. Some of the tracks on Animal Collective's latest, Strawberry Jam, hit a similar vein. My wife's funny, when I put it on in the car, she gave me a "what is that shit?" look. But then again, I listened to the last track at least 10 times in a row.

As a sometime cataloger, longtime listener, it's fun detective work to figure out where some of these record labels hang their hats. For example, Manu Chao's latest, La Radiolina on Nacional Records: the liner notes drove me nuts. Maybe the label address was in there somewhere, but I usually end up going out to the web to find where they are. With Animal Collective, I was bouncing around, and I see today that they were in Boston the day after I bought the CD, que pena. I also found a neat interview with Noah Lennox, aka Panda Bear; just questions that the label asks its artists to answer for the label's website, and it was cool to see that he grooves to Blazing Saddles, "Randolph Scott!", as well as Brazilian telenovelas, since he lives in Lisbon. Speaking of telenovelas, I wanted to call our new beagle puppy, Leiticia, because of a Brazilian soap. We didn't, but I just loved how the guy on the show always said it. It took place in the Nordeste. Now, it's gonna bug me all day. I can't remember the name of that show. It was on around fifteen years ago, right before O Dono do Mundo on Rede Globo. No, wait, before Journal Nacional. The headliner telenovela would show after JN. That was a weird time, watching the first Gulf War from Brazil, btw. Ramble, ramble...

So what do you call this kind of music? Trip-pop? I'd put the Flaming Lips in the same genre, if I had to. But, I'd rather not. It just _is_, man. (said in Homer's hippie voice.)

Anyhoo, getting back to David Byrne's program, this month he's got a song on that's by Bonde do Tigrão, "O Baile Todo" or "Só As Cachorras" , that's a reworking of the Baha Men's "Who Let The Dogs Out". This style of music, Baile Funk, Funk Carioca, was popular when we took our boys down to Brazil for the first time to meet the relatives. There's another one they had, "Tchutchuca", that was also fun. Sort of Beastie Boyish. So, when was that, winter of 2000-2001? Good times. That song makes me laugh. Brazil goes through these musical fads that sweep the nation every few years or so, then you never hear of them again. 1989-1990...lambada and Fernando Collor were taking Brazil by storm. Two years later, both were recognized for their inherent evil. Ripley's, I still have some lambada CDs in my collection. "A little classical music there, Jim." Now Collor is back in politics, a senator no less. Go figure. Fade in the Ratt: "Round and round, what comes around goes around..." (That's for my youngest son, who's into Guitar Hero.)

Another Brazilian artist I recommend is DJ Dolores, which was recommended to me by my brother. He's got some newer stuff out, but there's a song "Salvo (the Preacher), that is really cool. In fact, although it's upbeat more than spooky, (Jezebel!) it reminds me of David Byrne & Brian Eno's My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts album. There are samples of a preacher throughout it, although I can't really make much of it out. "Salvo eu sou." Also a bit of the sign of the cross. My wife isn't into helping me figure it out. Just like going to a mass held in Portuguese. It's rough. All those vossas. DJ Dolores, from what I read, is from Recife, so the marching band horns make sense. Check it out. There's a snippet on iTunes, although it doesn't get to the horns part. Salvo (The Preacher)

Posted at 04:47 PM     Read More  


Tue - May 1, 2007

Foghorn Stringband


When the weather's nice, there's nothing better than sitting outside with a beer and my banjo or mandolin. Lately, I've been learning a few new tunes of an older CD, Rattlesnake Tidal Wave, by the Foghorn Stringband. I have it on my iPod, which I play via a set of those Logitech portable speakers. My favorite song this week is "Grey Eagle". The band is very good, and they don't sap it up with modern "stylings", which drives me nuts about Irish folk, or even Cape Breton music. Cut that shit out! If I wanted Enya, I'd buy her CD. Old time would be tres cool for contra dances. I wonder if the dances around here have much old time. Neek, neek, Indians!

An interesting story is how I discovered this band. I was looking for some old-time songs, and heard some decent stuff on a few of these no-name artist, best of bluegrass, yadda yadda, CDs on iTunes, by a group called the Pine Tree Stringband. I bought the CDs for the library, then once they came in, I liked what I heard. I wondered about a few songs on the discs, Sweet Marie, Hangman's Reel, some of the clawhammer stuff, and particularly, Kennesaw Mountain Rag, but I couldn't find any other recording of it except a mention in the folk music database at ibiblio. So, I did a little detective work, and figured out that the musicians were session men essentially, and that most of them were members of this other group, Foghorn Stringband. The band had a website, so I dropped them a line, and got a quick response from Kevin, the guitar player. Anyhoo, long story short, check them out.

Here's their website: Foghorn Stringband

You can hear partial tracks on iTunes, and some full tracks at their website, or via their MySpace page. (Warning: music will probably play automatically!)

Posted at 01:26 PM     Read More  


Mon - May 29, 2006

Red Wing, Wizard of Oz, An American in Paris


Sweet serendipity. What do all these things have in common? Yeah, I guess you could probably find a lot of things they have in common, so I'll cut to the chase: both The Wizard of Oz and An American in Paris have bits of the song "Red Wing" within them. At least, I thought they did...

I was up at an old-time music jam, and an older fellow was playing "Red Wing" on the fiddle. I recognized that melody from The Wizard of Oz. The other musicians looked at me like, "of course." I still was intrigued, because I always thought that the melody I recognized in the Wizard was just incidental music written specifically for the movie.

So, I went out to the Great and Powerful Interweb to find out more. Maybe it's just my poor searching skills, but I have yet to find any mention of the Red Wing - Wizard of Oz connection. But in my search, I came across this website full of information about songs of yesteryear, including "Red Wing" (check out this great cover art!) :




http://www.perfessorbill.com/index2.htm

Red Wing is about three-fourths of the way down the page. After you read it, click on the topmost Red Wing sheet music cover, and a javascript will run playing the Red Wing Intermezzo. What does that intro make you think of? If you're like me, it made me think of George Gershwin. I wrote to the Perfessor, and he replied that the intro was his doing. Aw, man. I thought I was onto something. Still, his website is worth exploring.

Posted at 12:07 PM     Read More  


Wed - June 8, 2005

CD's that came in Friday, Classical on the radio


Some replacement copies: Fear of Music, More Songs About Buildings and Food, Gorillaz, Endless Numbered Days; soundtracks: In Good Company, Dick (replacement), Saturday Night Fever; staff requests: Banned in D.C., Redlight, Specials (actually a replacement). I'm only interested in some of what came in.

The Talking Heads CD's are old faves. I've noticed that it's the melodies that I pay attention to more. The lyrics come later. My favorite tracks on Fear of Music: Mind, Air, Heaven. On More Songs: Thank You, The Good Thing, Warning Sign, The Girls, The Big Country.

The Gorillaz CD we had for a few years already. It got nabbed, so I reordered it, seeing that a new Gorillaz CD was imminent, and I had just downloaded their new single, Feel Good, Inc., with the free download scratch card I received from the Tiger release party. The kids like it. On the Gorillaz album, I've been listening to 5/4 a lot.

Iron & Wine's album and their song at the end of In Good Company are mellow and good. The Trapeze Swinger is the name of the song from the movie. I don't think it's available elsewhere.

Dick is a good soundtrack for memory lane. I love Redbone's song, and George McCrae's Rock Your Baby reminds me of going down to Myrtle Beach for vacation with the family. The power of AM radio. I remember trying to get that track a few years back and it was hard to get, i.e., it wasn't on many compilations.

The Specials CD is another memory generator. My friend, Bart, and I borrowed my brother's car when I was fifteen to purchase the album, along with Madness' first album. At the Great Lakes Mall, drinking Little Kings on the way. Crazy teenagers.

I have the alarm clock set to a classical music station. I set it a few minutes before 6 a.m., so I can hear a little music, then hear the DJ give the name of the piece and the composer. I usually stink on the Chopin and Schubert. I've got Dvorak and Smetana down cold! Yesterday morning I recognized the melody, but didn't know the name or composer. It turned out it was from the Pirates of Penzance. I was surprised that I knew it, and where I'd heard it before. If someone asked me about Gilbert & Sullivan, all I could mention would be the "modern major general" bit. So I'm guessing that I know it from the Simpsons' Cape Fear parody in which Sideshow Bob serenades Bart?

Posted at 10:42 AM     Read More  

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