This UK group also features Annabella Lwin who joined the band when she was just 14 years old.
Friday, October 30, 2015
Bow Wow Wow & the Cassingle
Did you know that the world's very first cassingle AKA cassette single was Bow Wow Wow's "C30, C60, C90, Go!" in 1980?
This UK group also features Annabella Lwin who joined the band when she was just 14 years old.
This UK group also features Annabella Lwin who joined the band when she was just 14 years old.
Thursday, October 29, 2015
Throw Back Thursday : Pylon
It doesn't get much better than this '80s Athens, Georgia band fronted by Vanessa Briscoe Hay. Their music is like brittle sticks snapping under rhythmic punches. There are guitar melodies but even the vocals accent beats as if they too are a percussion instrument. There is nothing extracurricular about their songs, every note and beat is measured and executed with a dancing precision. Imagine a small and powerful motorboat skidding through choppy, rough waters. This is what their pioneering sound reminds me of.
Their unique version of post punk was inspired by (and peers to) bands like the B-52s, Gang of Four, Television, and Talking Heads but in a decades time would become an influence to the next generations of bands like: R.E.M., Sleater Kinney, Deerhunter, LCD Soundsystem, Wedding Present, Life Without Buildings, Fire Party, and Love of Diagrams to name just a small handful of the artists.
Their unique version of post punk was inspired by (and peers to) bands like the B-52s, Gang of Four, Television, and Talking Heads but in a decades time would become an influence to the next generations of bands like: R.E.M., Sleater Kinney, Deerhunter, LCD Soundsystem, Wedding Present, Life Without Buildings, Fire Party, and Love of Diagrams to name just a small handful of the artists.
Wednesday, October 28, 2015
2015 Favorite : Eerie Summer
Do you like to cuddle? Do you like lo-fi, dreamy, bedroom pop? Do love female fronted C86 twee bands (think of the early days of Camera Obscura or The Concretes)? If you answer yes to any of these questions, I present to you a charming boy/girl duo called Eerie Summer.
I don't know how a band that features one member from Russia and the other from Finland came to be, but I am sure glad they did. Sometimes a little mystery is nice.
I don't know how a band that features one member from Russia and the other from Finland came to be, but I am sure glad they did. Sometimes a little mystery is nice.
Throwback Thursday : Ruud Brink & Astrud Gilberto
I know it is a Wednesday but I am posting a #TBT today regardless.
Here is a little bossa nova for you from 1962. Part samba, part Jazz, this Brazilian genre of music is perfect for a cool fall morning.
Here is a little bossa nova for you from 1962. Part samba, part Jazz, this Brazilian genre of music is perfect for a cool fall morning.
Tuesday, October 27, 2015
New Album Alert : Night Viper
Imagine the belty power of Beth Ditto (The Gossip) fronting Judas Priest. Yes please!
You can stream "The Hammer" from the upcoming record here.
Christine Sun Kim : Sound Artist
What does sound mean to 34 year old Korean-American woman who can't hear them? Let her art show you.
“For me, sound had always been an idea—an intangible space that separated me from others—so I was curious about how art could transcend sound and vice versa.”
This interview (see below) has single handedly changed the way I think about music and sound. Like she discusses in this interview, my initial takeaway was that while I know sound can be projected in a wide spectrum of ways and volumes, this is still a limited understanding. There is a huge difference between sound and listening. I love her detailed exploration of this territory. Sound waves can also be felt and seen which is part of why seeing music (sounds) performed live is so stimulating to the senses. It isn't just something you are listening to, you are also feeling it, interacting with it, and seeing it move matter which takes the form of a band and their instruments. It is almost like putting a song under a microscope and seeing its core particles come to life by skittering about. The art Christine creates is much like this to me. Instead of her being in a band in a traditional sense, she uses a variety of objects (and sometimes people) to bring sound to life.
There is also a much needed dose of positivity here. We all fear failure and shy away from risk taking because of it. If you have aspirations to see an idea of yours come to life, there is only one way to do it and that is it actually DO IT. Nobody will do it for you. Nobody will execute the idea the way you would and if it doesn't work out, you always learn from that experience and keep growing as a person. Win / win.
This is another great interview and look / listen at her work. I found this particular quote about sound and people who can hear incredibly moving: "I saw sound as their possession. Now I'm reclaiming sound as my property."
And to further explore the rules of sound in society...
I am convinced that after watching all of the videos of her various work and interviews, I am a better listener now.
“For me, sound had always been an idea—an intangible space that separated me from others—so I was curious about how art could transcend sound and vice versa.”
This interview (see below) has single handedly changed the way I think about music and sound. Like she discusses in this interview, my initial takeaway was that while I know sound can be projected in a wide spectrum of ways and volumes, this is still a limited understanding. There is a huge difference between sound and listening. I love her detailed exploration of this territory. Sound waves can also be felt and seen which is part of why seeing music (sounds) performed live is so stimulating to the senses. It isn't just something you are listening to, you are also feeling it, interacting with it, and seeing it move matter which takes the form of a band and their instruments. It is almost like putting a song under a microscope and seeing its core particles come to life by skittering about. The art Christine creates is much like this to me. Instead of her being in a band in a traditional sense, she uses a variety of objects (and sometimes people) to bring sound to life.
There is also a much needed dose of positivity here. We all fear failure and shy away from risk taking because of it. If you have aspirations to see an idea of yours come to life, there is only one way to do it and that is it actually DO IT. Nobody will do it for you. Nobody will execute the idea the way you would and if it doesn't work out, you always learn from that experience and keep growing as a person. Win / win.
This is another great interview and look / listen at her work. I found this particular quote about sound and people who can hear incredibly moving: "I saw sound as their possession. Now I'm reclaiming sound as my property."
And to further explore the rules of sound in society...
I am convinced that after watching all of the videos of her various work and interviews, I am a better listener now.
Monday, October 26, 2015
Elvie Thomas & Geeshie Wiley
There are few more haunting American mysteries in Blues than that of Elvie Thomas and Geeshie Wiley. These African American women recorded just a small handful of music in 1930 and '31 (78 rpm format) and other than that, very little was ever known about them . . . until John Sullivan wrote this tremendous interactive New York Time's article last year.
The story is really a coin with two faces. It is one part staggering detective novel and one part fascinating biography and historical account. There are VERY few record collector's of this format of music and genre that would also have any sort of helpful leads in piecing together their collective story. Even more importantly there is a race against the clock to scavenger hunt for people who are family members or knew these women because we are fast approaching a century later. There is almost no one left alive to tell this story from first hand experience.
As it turns out, there are also very few detailed records kept for two poor, black women who may have also been lovers.
For a person like myself who wasn't terribly educated on either Blues or Gospel music, this quote from the article made me painfully aware that I had some homework to do.
"There was a place for lesbians in the blues world. Ma Rainey, Alberta Hunter, Gladys Bentley, Ethel Waters, many others — you can’t tell the story of the early blues without the lesbians. And according to the music historian and gospel producer Anthony Heilbut, whose “The Fan Who Knew Too Much” gets into these questions, there was a place for lesbianism in the gospel world as well. I wrote to Heilbut and asked him what he thought about L.V. He knew “Motherless Child Blues” well and said he was confident that any black person listening to it in the late 1920s would have recognized her delivery as “butch.” But would the church have made a place for her? Could you be both?"
This mystery has it all: A child prodigy, female musicians who paved the way for other women and held their own against the best male players of their generation, lesbian history, a scavenger hunt for clues, eerie music, murder, record collectors that border on hoarders, illegal liquor, religion, and an inconspicuous furniture company from Wisconsin.
The story is really a coin with two faces. It is one part staggering detective novel and one part fascinating biography and historical account. There are VERY few record collector's of this format of music and genre that would also have any sort of helpful leads in piecing together their collective story. Even more importantly there is a race against the clock to scavenger hunt for people who are family members or knew these women because we are fast approaching a century later. There is almost no one left alive to tell this story from first hand experience.
As it turns out, there are also very few detailed records kept for two poor, black women who may have also been lovers.
For a person like myself who wasn't terribly educated on either Blues or Gospel music, this quote from the article made me painfully aware that I had some homework to do.
"There was a place for lesbians in the blues world. Ma Rainey, Alberta Hunter, Gladys Bentley, Ethel Waters, many others — you can’t tell the story of the early blues without the lesbians. And according to the music historian and gospel producer Anthony Heilbut, whose “The Fan Who Knew Too Much” gets into these questions, there was a place for lesbianism in the gospel world as well. I wrote to Heilbut and asked him what he thought about L.V. He knew “Motherless Child Blues” well and said he was confident that any black person listening to it in the late 1920s would have recognized her delivery as “butch.” But would the church have made a place for her? Could you be both?"
This mystery has it all: A child prodigy, female musicians who paved the way for other women and held their own against the best male players of their generation, lesbian history, a scavenger hunt for clues, eerie music, murder, record collectors that border on hoarders, illegal liquor, religion, and an inconspicuous furniture company from Wisconsin.
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