Martin Klimas, Paint, Music and Photography
Martin Klimas’ 3D artwork uses paint positioned above a very loud speaker. Here’s the results of “Bitches Brew” by Miles Davis. (via Kottke.org, naturally)
St. Vincent – ‘Cheerleader’
Beans and Cornbread
Seeing as how we were talking about cornbread . . .
and we’ve been talking about cornbread for over a year now . . .
Louis Jordan and His Tympany Five serve you up some “Beans and Cornbread.”
It makes no difference
What you think about me
But it makes a whole lotta difference
What I think about you
Visible Tom Waits
By Jim Lockey.
R.I.P. Don Cornelius (1936-2012)
Don Cornelius checked himself out, it would appear.
See him here — doin’ it to death — with Mary Wilson in the Soul Train line dance.
John Statz | Distance
I’ve been listening to this album for the last few days. I had a little trouble picking out a track to share, so I just went with the first one.
tweet of the day
Whenever you hear a bell, an angel gets his wings. Whenever you hear Bohemian Rhapsody, a DJ gets to pee.
— Matthew Baldwin (@matthewbaldwin) January 28, 2012
A Little Skipper…
Reminded me, by way of Jean in Deron’s post.
Seems I’ve failed to embed it. Nor link it for that matter. Nevermind. It isn’t that good. Don’t take up your time.
Wye Oak, Civilian
This is an acoustic version of Wye Oak’s Civilian, shot for They Shoot Music Don’t They.
Update: The original, for comparison. And thanks to Karl Pichotta for the tip.
tweet of the day
I once bought a Bonnie Tyler satnav. It was rubbish. Kept telling me to turn around, and every now and then it fell apart.
— Jen (@paddyinacab) January 23, 2012
Turn It Off
I like this guy’s response to a ringing cell phone. Nicely done, sir.
Stolen Instruments (Public Service Announcement)
This is of primarily local (Chicago) import and is not your typical clusterflock post, but what happened makes me so blistering mad that I want everyone I know to know about it and to keep their eyes and ears open.
STOLEN INSTRUMENTS alert! Violin and 2 guitars stolen from trunk of car outside The Whistler on Milwaukee on Sat night:
VIOLIN — Handmade, bears label: “Samuel Giovanni Casco in Örebro Anno 2010 For Ethan Adelsman”. The back has these measurements: 35.2 cm, 16.5 cm, 11.1 cm, 20.3 cm. The linseed oil-based varnish is a warm orange-brown color on a golden ground. The bow: Handmade by E. Herrmann of Brazilian pernambuco wood with silver mounted hardware. The bow bears inscription: E. HERRMANN *** Violin & bow were in a Bam Lotus case, black with grayish stripes on the top and black backpack-style straps.
tweet of the day
I’d be less likely to think “isn’t it ironic?” than “why the fuck did I buy 10,000 spoons?”
— Matthew Baldwin (@matthewbaldwin) January 18, 2012
The Mother Courage of Rock
She was skinny, quick-witted, disarmingly unprofessional, alternating between stand-up patter, bardic intonations, and the hypnotic emotional sway of a chanteuse, and she was sexy in an androgynous way I hadn’t encountered before. The elements cohered convincingly; she seemed both entirely new and somehow long-anticipated. For me at nineteen, the show was an epiphany.
Springtime 1976, I was living in the cinderblock building on the glorified median strip there where they split Highway 13, and one day I went over to this one girl’s apartment, she lived right by the guy who dealt me speed, and she said, “Hey, you know who you remind me of? You remind me of Patti Smith!”
Gave her a possum grin I’m still grinning.
recording a tree
Via BoingBoing:
This music — which sounds like a moody piano soundtrack for a existentialist movie about a rainy day — is made by slicing a tree in cross-section, sticking it on a turntable, and dropping a tone-arm with a PlayStation Eye Camera in the head, and processing its output through Ableton Live. It’s called Years, and it was created by Bartholomäus Traubeck.
Absolutely beautiful.
SHUT UP AND PLAY THE HITS
A trailer for the documentary on LCD Soundsystem’s last show:
LCD frontman James Murphy had made the conscious decision to disband one of the most celebrated and influential bands of its generation at the peak of its popularity, ensuring that the band would go out on top with the biggest and most ambitious concert of its career. The instantly sold out, near four-hour extravaganza did just that, moving the thousands in attendance to tears of joy and grief, with NEW YORK magazine calling the event “a marvel of pure craft” and TIME magazine lamenting “we may never dance again.” SHUT UP AND PLAY THE HITS is both a narrative film documenting this once in a life time performance and an intimate portrait of James Murphy as he navigates the lead-up to the show, the day after, and the personal and professional ramifications of his decision.
(thanks, Josh)
90s Dance A Capella
I am not sure how I missed this back in March, but there it is.
(thanks, Rich)
Captain Beefheart’s Ten Commandments of Guitar Playing
4. Walk with the devil
Old Delta blues players referred to guitar amplifiers as the “devil box.” And they were right. You have to be an equal opportunity employer in terms of who you’re bringing over from the other side. Electricity attracts devils and demons. Other instruments attract other spirits. An acoustic guitar attracts Casper. A mandolin attracts Wendy. But an electric guitar attracts Beelzebub.
(From WFMU’s Beware of the Blog. Via Brian Beatty.)
Blues in the Night
There’s a twisted thread that leads to my recalling this song, but I will not even try to unravel it, merely to recollect a boy named Danny Stevens, whom I knew when we were age seven or so, who used to sing this song as he loped down the halls of our school.
Except he only kept repeating the one line:
Muh mama done tol’ me
Muh mama done tol’ me
Muh mama done tol’ me
Muh mama done tol’ me
Danny also used to say to his classmates, “Shu-u-t up. Beat-cha brains out.”
At the end of second grade, Danny and his family moved to a state he called Organ.
Wilco, Nick Lowe & Mavis Staples rehearse “The Weight” backstage at the Chicago Civic Opera
(via Jason Fried via Jim Coudal)
King Washington – Bawl and Change
Oh, did you want a new favorite band?
King Creosote And Jon Hopkins: An NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert
Set List:
“John Taylor’s Month Away”
“Bubble”
“Cockle Shell”
“And The Racket They Made”
Beautiful. Speechless.
(thanks, Amy)
dueling banjos
Probably the thing I like least about Jane Fonda is during the Vietnam War she put Ho before bros.
— Andy Levy (@andylevy) December 30, 2011
Sometimes I feel like Bob Seger is trying a little TOO hard to convince us he had sex in high school.
— Sean Thomason (@TheThomason) December 30, 2011
I was feeling all hurt
and helpless and hopeless, then I heard this on the radio, and my heart rose up in spite of me.
Funk songs from Vietnam GIs
If you didn’t get a Christmas present from me, it’s because I’m waiting till the New Year to buy you East of Underground: Hell Below. (Thanks to Valerie for the tip.)
In 1971 the US was pulling troops out of Vietnam, and its bases in Germany were full of draftees at a loose end. “You were painting shovels, picking up cigarette butts – it was a lot of busy-work,” remembers former serviceman Lewis Hitt. “There was a longing by everyone, especially the draftees, to get home and go back to what you were doing before.”
This was the crucible in which were formed scores of raucous funk bands made up of servicemen, four of which have just been compiled by Now-Again Records. Adoring crowd noise was crudely dubbed on top of their records, which were then distributed in recruitment centres. These bands were used by the army to present service as varied, even hip. But the songs they cover – the bitter, suspicious likes of Backstabbers and Smiling Faces Sometimes – undermine any potential propagandising.
