Musicians
- 70s Survival (19)
- Albums (35)
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- Comedy (34)
- Editing (12)
- Literary Criticism (1)
- Lyrics (5)
- Old Posts (27)
- Oracles (13)
- Pedantry (4)
- Quotes (11)
- Reading Classics (10)
- Science Fiction (10)
- Short Stories (7)
- Stock Phrases (4)
- Writers (11)
bite
Posted on January 25th, 2010 by Scraps.
Categories: Music, Musicians.
Frank J Oteri: And in terms of training before you got exposed to jazz? Did you train in classical music at all?
Carla Bley: No, I didn't. I never studied anything.
Frank J Oteri: So you're completely self-taught!
Carla Bley: No, my father taught me until I was four, or five maybe, and then my mother tried and I bit her. I bit my mother at the age of five and they gave up on me. That was it. I never learned anything else.
kristian hoffman, "sex in heaven" (2002)
Posted on June 17th, 2009 by Scraps.
Categories: Music, Songs, Musicians.
Song Project #20
Did you know that reality tv went back to the seventies? And PBS started it. An American Family was shown in 1973, twelve episodes long, depicting an actual family, the Louds. And yes, the Loud Family got their band name from them (and no, not the Loud family on Saturday Night Live); but that's not what I'm writing about now.
Lance Loud, one of the sons, was gay, credited with being the first openly gay person in television history. Eventually he died of AIDS, in 2001. But first he led a critically-respected rock band, the Mumps, in New York City, part of the late-seventies CBGB's scene. A friend from high school, Kristian Hoffman, was the keyboardist.
Kristian Hoffman is not famous, but he should be; well, at least at the level of the new wave and no-wave bands that he played in. He played with Ann Magnuson and Lydia Lunch, and was in Klaus Nomi's band: he wrote "Total Eclipse", the most famous Nomi song. Eventually he arranged for Rufus Wainwright's band, and became a long-term keyboard player for Dave Davies's band. And he played around the Los Angeles scene in the eighties and nineties, becoming not famous, but known to musicians.
I didn't know who he was when I picked up a used cd in a pile of one-dollar cds, but the names made me curious. It was called &; in fact, it was an album of collaborations: fifteen of them, and all of them more famous than him. Rufus Wainwright, Russell Mael, Anna Waronker. Maria McKee. Ann Magnuson, Michael Quercio. Lydia Lunch! Stew! Van Dyke Parks! Paul Reubens?? Well, I bought it.
I didn't prepare myself for the barrage of hooks that came at me. From the first song to the last, one listen was enough to tell me this was a once-a-year find, one I'd play tomorrow and next day and twenty years from now; a top-five for the year. And fifteen songs in (out of 17), the song that blew me away:
That's Ann Magnuson and Kristian Hoffman, trading off. It starts with Magnuson, hushed, piano-driven; the first hook, the verse hook, on the words "boy, earthbound", then loud drums, dum, dum, pause, dum, dum, dum, dum, dumdumcrash. Then repeat the verse. Then the chorus, the drums now there throughout, with tambourine, and guitar, Hoffman singing lead and Magnuson wordless harmony. The main hook at the end of the chorus: "where do I sign?" with the jump up an octave. Then stop, and head back into the verse, again hushed, but added vocal by Hoffman, though distant, ethereal. Then repeat verse, with two added keyboards. Then the bridge, then verse, once through this time, then the chorus, twice.
The chorus is amazing. It occurs four times, and each occurrence has a different musical lead-in to the title ("that's what is costs to buy a note so pure and high and so divine") and after the title ("the bottom line"), and that's gravy: the hook can stand by itself. And the words: it's about castrati, and the longing for the singer ("where do I sign?"), perfectly captured by the hook. That's a perfect pop song: words and music working together.
selling out
Posted on June 16th, 2009 by Scraps.
Categories: Music, Musicians.
On the Well, another "selling out" conversation has broken out. The Sex Pistols' "Filthy Lucre" tour has been cited as selling out; another reader has pointed out "but the Pistols were pretty much meta from the git-go."
Right; and they're a test case. They were selling out from the beginning. Yet Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols was not only a terrific album: it has lasted. The motivation was fake, but the feeling was real. Probably the single cause of it was Johnny Rotten, who delivered one of the most frightening, visceral vocal performances in history. An act, maybe; well, then, a really good act. Sometimes selling out is done with such consummate skill, it becomes art.
the ears
Posted on April 8th, 2009 by Scraps.
Categories: Music, Musicians.
I am learning 2007 and 2008, because, well, I got time. So I got around to Girl Talk, which I gather has generated controversy. And I certainly hear what pisses others off: it really absolutely rips off other artists, twenty times per song.
But I love it. He has The Ears.
the return of black francis
Posted on June 28th, 2008 by Scraps.
Categories: Music, Musicians.
I gave Frank Black a lot of rope before giving up. Not just because the Pixies were the best rock band since the prime of Talking Heads, but because his first two solo albums were great. Then the third one, The Cult of Ray, was just... bad. (And matched by an awful cover, which reminds me of the badness inside every time I see it.)
fig. 1 - badness
The next album wasn't that bad. But it wasn't really good, either; it sounded tossed off. As did the next one, and the next. After five uninspired not-bad not-good albums, I stopped bothering; it seemed like he was content to be just an ordinary rock songwriter knocking off ordinary albums with no memorable songs.
Then in the wake of the Pixies nostalgia reunion, he changed his recording name back to Black Francis, heralding, I suppose, a change in intent. But I never got round to hearing his 2007 album under that name, though I'd seen a few mildly enthusiastic reviews.
A couple weeks ago I ran across a copy of the subsequent EP, Svn Fngrs, and gave it a try. The first track grabbed my attention: it was the sound and style of the first two solo albums. And the songwriting was that exciting combination of angular but propulsive, abrasive but melodic, that had always marked his best work before he'd appeared to stop trying. The whole EP held up, too. I played those seven songs a couple dozen times over the next few days. None of them are likely to make it into my all-time favorites of his, but they're all good: like seven lost tracks from the Teenager of the Year sessions. Yesterday I went back and picked up that 2007 album, Bluefinger, and it sounds like more of the same.
So my own initial mildly enthusiastic review: the feel of Black Francis -- or rather, the early Frank Black -- is indeed back. I hope he keeps this up, because while this isn't great, it's good, and it's interesting, and it reopens the possibility that he could make great music again.
a pleasant work environment
Posted on April 19th, 2008 by Scraps.
Categories: Music, Musicians.
Working at home on weekends is difficult. I can't combat the frequent outbreaks of bass-heavy music and piercing television from apartments on both sides of us with loud music of my own, because Velma doesn't like the music that loud and it just makes the problem worse for her; but I can't concentrate on my work. When I must get paying work done, as I must this weekend, sometimes the solution is to go in to my office. I've done so today, and the office is blessedly empty but for me, which means I can crank my own music, not bother anyone and not be bothered. And being away from the distractions of home helps me focus. The only downside is not being able to share space with Velma, a constant low-level nice thing we both like.
I knew I might need to come in to the office, so I prepared. I have twenty-two beloved Mingus albums digitized to my mp3 player, and I'm playing them all on shuffle now. This makes me very very happy.
r. kelly: creepier than you think
Posted on April 18th, 2008 by Scraps.
Categories: Music, Musicians, Badness.
Bill Wyman -- the music journalist, not the musician -- has been doing a lot of good work at his weblog Hitsville. The most important and disturbing piece he's written, one that ought to be more widely disseminated, is his extraordinary compilation of facts and allegations concerning R. Kelly's sexual history with minors leading up to his trial on one of the allegations.
I knew that he was in trouble for taping himself having sex with a minor. I knew that he married Aaliyah when she was fifteen. But I hadn't any notion of the documented extent of Kelly's history with teenagers. Eleven separate allegations of sex with minors have been reported. Some of the details, as Wyman notes, are "a little bit barfy". For example, a year after he'd settled out of court for $250,000 with a fifteen year old girl, the first sex tape emerged:
...showing Kelly having sex with a young girl. The girl’s aunt identified her, and Kelly. In the tape, the singer called her by her first name; she called him “Daddy.” Besides a variety of sex acts, the girl urinates on the floor at “Daddy’s” direction. “Daddy” then urinates into her mouth.
The girl was fourteen at the time. In the reporting surrounding the case, it emerged that Kelly had settled out of court with two other teenage girls.
Th details surrounding the marriage to fifteen year old Aaliyah are creepy, too:
...she was a singer and a protege of Kelly’s with whom, associates have said, he was having an affair. Without telling her what was going on, Kelly arranged an impromptu wedding at a suburban Chicago hotel and then swept her toward a plane. Fortunately, the girl called her parents. They came and got her and, articles have said, the pair never saw each other again. As rumors surfaced about the union, Kelly lied about it. But then Vibe magazine found a marriage certificate, on which Haughton’s age was listed as 18. The union was annulled a short time later.
There are several more allegations. I'll just mention one more:
Many of Kelly’s associates have been quoted saying they thought he was sick, or had an uncontrollable compulsion to have sex with young girls. Perhaps the strongest evidence of this is that, while already under indictment for filming himself having sex with a child, he was found to have in one of his houses a digital camera with new photos of him having sex with an underaged girl. ... The search that produced the camera was later disallowed by a judge, so Kelly was never prosecuted for those photos.
R. Kelly has been subject to a certain amount of mockery for what has been generally seen, so far as I can tell, as celebrity peccadilloes, maybe a little further over the line than most. I think the record Wyman has compiled makes a compelling case that Kelly is a genuine sociopath. Why he has not been held more accountable by the media and the entertainment industry, I don't understand. Read the whole thing and see if you don't agree.
bob dylan awarded special music pulitzer
Posted on April 8th, 2008 by Scraps.
Categories: Music, Musicians.
My dislike of Dylan and annoyance at the perpetual exaggeration of his (admitted) virtues and ignoring of his (near-constant) flaws aside, I can't argue with the award, which is obviously deserved. My main reaction is to be grateful it isn't a special poetry Pulitzer, which would have ground my teeth to stubs.
i'll bet it was about making a statement. yeah.
Posted on January 24th, 2008 by Scraps.
Categories: Music, Musicians, Badness, Quotes.
Quoted from Idolator:
The Spice Girls are walking away with "£50 million between them" for their sold-out 17-night stand at London's 02 Arena. "The truth of the matter is, to put on this tour has cost £18.6 million," Ginger sez. "This is not a money-making expedition...Hopefully we will break even but it has never been about that."
I'm soliciting theories on what the Spice Girls reunions shows were really about, since they were never about making money (or breaking even), as pretty much everyone on the planet who isn't a Spice Girl might naturally assume.
you don't say
Posted on December 17th, 2007 by Scraps.
Categories: Music, Musicians, Quotes.
As unfathomable as it seems from the distance of over 30 years, for a few months, Gerry and the Pacemakers were the Beatles' nearest competitors in Britain. --Richie Unterberger, Allmusic
For a very brief time in 1964, it seemed that the biggest challenger to the Beatles' phenomenon was the Dave Clark Five. --Rick Clark and Richie Unterberger, Allmusic
cafe tacuba, the repost
Posted on November 26th, 2007 by Scraps.
Categories: Music, Songs, Musicians.
(This is a combined version of the two posts I made on Cafe Tacuba at the beginning of the holiday weekend, just in case anyone who normally reads this didn't see them. I apologize to those of you seeing this twice, especially Martin.)
After last night's show at Hammerstein, I am as confirmed in my opinion as I can be: Café Tacuba (aka Café Tacvba) are the greatest rock band in the world: the most exhilarating combination of energy, invention, and breadth of style currently going. I can't imagine that the language difference is that big a barrier to their being better known in the states, but apparently it is. That and the fact that, for all their variety of form, they aren't trying to break or deconstruct any forms, which makes them of less interest to the indie press than weirder foreign-language stuff.
If you remain interested in where rock and roll is going, not just the underground stuff but the bands that play arenas, I urge you to try Café Tacuba. Robert L, you especially. Try Re first if you can, but try anything. Maybe it won't move you, but you should find out.
A few songs, chosen to represent Cafe Tacuba's entire career, and some of their breadth of style. Not all my favorites -- I like some of their styles more than others -- but all songs I love.
from Cafe Tacuba (1992)
Las Persianas
Rarotonga
three consecutive songs from Re (1994)
El Ciclon
El Borrego
Esa Noche
from Avalancha de Exitos (1996)
No Controles
from Yo Soy (1999)
Guerra
from Reves (1999)
3
from Cuatro Caminos (2003)
Eo
from SiNo (2007)
Volver a Comenzar
tacuba! - some evidence
Posted on November 22nd, 2007 by Scraps.
Categories: Music, Songs, Musicians.
A few songs, chosen to represent Cafe Tacuba's entire career, and some of their breadth of style. Not all my favorites -- I like some of their styles more than others -- but all songs I love.
from Cafe Tacuba (1992)
Las Persianas
Rarotonga
three consecutive songs from Re (1994)
El Ciclon
El Borrego
Esa Noche
from Avalancha de Exitos (1996)
No Controles
from Yo Soy (1999)
Guerra
from Reves (1999)
3
from Cuatro Caminos (2003)
Eo
from SiNo (2007)
Volver a Comenzar
tacuba!
Posted on November 21st, 2007 by Scraps.
Categories: Music, Musicians.
After last night's show at Hammerstein, I am as confirmed in my opinion as I can be: Café Tacuba (aka Café Tacvba) are the greatest rock band in the world: the most exhilarating combination of energy, invention, and breadth of style currently going. I can't imagine that the language difference is that big a barrier to their being better known in the states, but apparently it is. That and the fact that, for all their variety of form, they aren't trying to break or deconstruct any forms, which makes them of less interest to the indie press than weirder foreign-language stuff.
If you remain interested in where rock and roll is going, not just the underground stuff but the bands that play arenas, I urge you to try Café Tacuba. Robert L, you especially. Try Re first if you can, but try anything. Maybe it won't move you, but you should find out.
musing between floods of work
Posted on October 23rd, 2007 by Scraps.
Categories: Music, Songs, Musicians.
I wonder how Rufus Wainwright feels about being the baby-subject of his father's "Rufus Is a Tit Man".
library amusement
Posted on October 10th, 2007 by Scraps.
Categories: Music, Musicians, Untruths.
The New York Public Library has put a big "YA" sticker on Jens Lekman's album When I Said I Wanted To Be Your Dog.
By the way, I suppose it has been much mentioned how much he sometimes sounds like Stephin Merritt? e.g., on "Julie".
pop art
Posted on October 3rd, 2007 by Scraps.
Categories: Musicians, Stuff, Cartoons.
Velma just pointed me to an awesome page full of highly stylized drawings of musicians by this guy Craig Robinson that he calls Lollipops:
This style of character-drawing began when I was asked by the British advertising agency Mother to work on their campaign for the Observer Music Magazine. [. . .] When some of these drawings were exhibited at the Rock en Seine festival in Paris, I had a lot of fun secretly watching people try to guess who they are, so I've not labeled them here. If you do, however, need to know who each one is, just hover your mouse over the image for a couple of seconds and a label should appear.
The Lollipops are faceless yet cute, like dressed up Fisher-Price figures, defined by their accoutrements. I'm reproducing a few here just to give the flavor:
And lots more.
microtonal goofball
Posted on August 28th, 2007 by Scraps.
Categories: Music, Musicians, Comedy.
A music reference book credited Ezra Sims with a non-existent work, String Quartet #2, supposedly written in 1962. So he wrote a piece called "String Quartet #2 (1962)". It's for flute, clarinet, violin, viola, and cello. And was written in 1974.
max roach, r.i.p.
Posted on August 16th, 2007 by Scraps.
Categories: Music, Musicians.
The great, groundbreaking drummer and composer is dead at 83. 83 is a good age, and I knew he was old, but it's still a shock, and makes me terribly sad. Some old jazz musicians, like some old classical composers, never stop doing great work, and any time they die feels like it's too soon. Roach is one of those.
I have no idea how many albums I have that have Roach on them. Beyond the albums that he himself led, an astonishing percentage of the jazz I love from the 1950s and 1960s features Roach. He's everywhere.
I was extraordinarily lucky to get to see the second Cecil Taylor - Max Roach concert at Town Hall in New York, and it was one of the most intense musical experiences of my life.
I am not articulate about jazz, and other people will have a lot more to say about Roach and his importance. But I didn't want to let his death pass without note.
still sad
Posted on February 20th, 2007 by Scraps.
Categories: Music, Musicians.
Kurt Cobain would have been forty today. I still wish we'd had more music from him. If he's conscious out there somewhere, I hope he's resting easy and free from pain.
(n.b.: If your inclination is to react to this cynically or snarkily, there are lots of places elsewhere to express that. Thanks.)
beauty based on science - the microscopic septet
Posted on December 28th, 2006 by Scraps.
Categories: Music, Musicians.
In 1989, I went to see Charles Mingus's monumental Epitaph performed at Lincoln Center. My memory says it was an outdoor concert, but the reviews say it was at Alice Tully Hall. Epitaph was sprawling and intermittently fascinating, but the revelation to me was the opening band, the Microscopic Septet.
They were melodic and intricate and goofy. They didn't sound like Mingus, but more than Epitaph did, they reminded me of the virtues of Mingus that had got me into jazz in the first place: their music sounded heavily composed; no instrument or player seemed to dominate, the music sounding like a conversation, an interaction of personalities; the voice of the music was distinctive, instantly recognizable. I have always preferred the composition-oriented tradition that runs from Ellington through Mingus and Henry Threadgill over the looser improv-over-changes style that dominates most jazz. The Microscopic Septet carried that tradition to the boundaries of jazz; their music often sounded like mutant movie music, or cartoon music. If they had a primary progenitor, it was probably Raymond Scott.
They never got much attention, and their recordings were obscure: four albums -- Take the Z Train, Let's Flip!, Off Beat Glory, and Beauty Based on Science -- of which I have only ever found two (the first and last), each of which was as thoroughly delightful as the show I'd seen. Unable to record for the last few years of their existence, they broke up, and the two songwriters, Phillip Johnston and Joel Forrester, have led bands since then and recorded many excellent albums in a similar style to the Septet. That they continue to languish in relative obscurity I attribute to the unfashionableness of their style; to me they are among the great living jazz musicians. That Velma and I can still see Joel play shows in small rooms with a couple dozen people is nice for us but a sign of something lacking in the breadth of taste of the serious jazz audience (by which I mean the jazz audience that knows jazz doesn't mean the Lite Jazz abomination that passes for jazz on American radio), who generally prize improvisation over composition and experimentation over synthesis.
But. To my delight, Cuneiform Records -- a bastion of experimental music, and one of the great labels in the world -- have reissued the entire Septet released output, plus assorted unreleased material, on two CDs. My Microscopic collection is about to more then double, and I will be doing a certain amount of dancing around the room goofily for the next month. Hurrah!
The Microscopic Septet on Fresh Aire.
Joel Forrester's gig schedule.