Heavy Rotation

The Blakes - The Blakes

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros - Up From Below

Crocodiles - Summer of Hate

Handsome Furs - Face Control

The Cribs - Ignore the Ignorant

When I'm too busy to update my blog, what am I busy doing, you ask? Lots of stuff - all of which is accompanied by good music. One of these days I will make my loyal blog readers a downloadable mix, until then go find these goodies at your local record store. Happy listening!

Music to My Eyes

I love a good cassette tape just as much as the next guy, so obviously I am totally digging this art by irI5. These portraits are so spot on, and the creative use of the otherwise out of date cassette is genius. If only I would have been inspired by these in my youth instead of wasting valuable hours desperately winding beyond-repair tapes back in to their case with the end of a pencil...
Make sure you take a look at her flickr set for more fun pieces.

Run Keith Run

True story: when I'm stumped for a blog post sometimes I just want to post this adorable picture of Keith Richards that has been sitting on my desktop for a year. Today it is finally getting some use because iTunes has released Keith's 1978 single of Run Rudolph Run. It has promptly been added to my holiday mix, and I highly recommend it gets added to yours as well. Not in the mood for festive tunes? Well, when you buy the "album" for a whopping $.99 you also get Pressure Drop, a little Toots & The Maytals ditty you may have heard before with Mr. Richards singing backup. Who says you can't get anything good for a dollar these days?!

Nigeria Rocks!

This is hands down the best album I have ever purchased without first hearing a track or two. It's nice to have a record store that knows their music, so when the Reckless staff review said they wished Sound Way would stop releasing these comps because they keep blowing their paycheck on them I knew it was a must-have (though I'm sure my obsession with Africa coupled with my love of funk music aided in my purchase). This is the third release so I need to track down the previous two stat. Go pick up a copy, I promise it won't disappoint!

Is It Cold In Here...

...Or is it just me?

A mere 3963 miles away Coldplay is playing live at Brixton Academy and I am enjoying every second streaming live from BBC Radio 1! Technology rules (though I would rather be in London)! I took a break from the tunes to go check my mail and this was in my mailbox:
Aghhh! I have only been waiting all week, and it arrives in the middle of their concert! I haven't had such a wonderfully Coldplay-filled 48 hours since this picture was taken: Obviously that is Chris Martin on the left in the black, taken as JLB and I chased him down the street. If anyone doesn't know how that story ends, it is better told in person, but let's just say it involved a frog umbrella, a red light, my trusty sharpie, ticket stubs, and near heart-break followed buy utter euphoria. Oh, and an even more intense crush than we had before. Sigh...Chris. I can't wait to go buy Viva La Vida tomorrow! Hooray for new music! Wheeeee!

Un-wrinkled

In my final days as a cable watcher I have been giving The Sundance Channel a lot of love... The other night I caught Gimme Shelter, a flick I had seen bits and pieces of but had never watched in one sitting. Wow.

What a great reminder of how amazing the Rolling Stones are. Yes, I choose to use the present tense there because even though they are all old and look like prunes and have become a tad bit robotic in their concerts ("Phoning them in," to borrow a quote from Jim DeRogotis) they are still an amazing band. Ironic that old songs are great, but old men...not so much. If you need a refresher to re-instill your love for The Stones this movie will be just what the doctor ordered. I forgot how ridiculously adorable Keith Richards was back in the early days.

Merry Christma....What the....???

I'm still obsessed with buying CD's instead of digital music because I like the ritual of opening the jewel case, enjoying the disc art, reading the liner notes etc...

I could write another entry about that subject, but I just wanted to share this specific incident demonstrating the fun of being "surprised" when you open a CD which just occurred today:

I had been waiting with bated breath for my new arrival in the mail, "A Christmas Gift For You From Phil Spector." This little out of print gem has such great holiday music, my personal favorite being Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)- Darlene Love, and is worth any amount of money if you happen to come across it. This album was released in 1963, reissued in 1989, and features The Ronettes, The Crystals, Bob B. Soxx, and Darlene Love. Good Stuff, I promise you won't be disappointed, but I digress...

When I opened the CD insert to my surprise, horror, and amusement I found this lovely poster:


This brings to mind 3 questions:
Why Phil, WHY?
How come all the talented people are also loony???
And why is there a random top hat in the background?

Thank you Phil, for this lovely gift.

Mom: Cue up the G N' R!

On my last trip to see my parents I found some of my old cassette tapes. In addition to the first tape I remember buying with my own money Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em and the late 80's classic Forever Your Girl I discovered a treasure trove of various mix tapes, some given to me by various friends, others carefully constructed by yours truly after tedious hours sitting in front of my Sony dual-deck boom box with the radio on and my finger on the record button. As my skills improved I made a few tapes with the actual recordings of songs from the albums that didn't cut off the beginning of the track or have an annoying radio dj in the background. Here are a few of the gems:

The Beatles 1967-1970 made with "love" by my grade school crush of all crushes Josh. As I recall, I saw him buying the tape after school, called him that night (thank you school directory for making his digits public knowledge) and asked if he could make me a copy. I didn't really know who the Beatles were, nor did I care....Josh was making me a tape! A tape that he TOUCHED and was going to GIVE to me! Swoon! Nothing ever happened with Josh, but I have him to thank for introducing me to the Beatles....except that he ran out of room to include Across the Universe and The Long and Winding Road so until late adolescence I had no clue these songs even existed.

Mushy Mix/Oldies contains a lovely arrangement of radio friendly tunes including, but not limited to:
Maybe I'm Amazed - Paul McCartney
Unchained Melody - The Righteous Brothers
Time Is On My Side - The Rolling Stones
I'll Make Love to You- Boyz II Men
I Can't Make You Love Me - Bonnie Rait
American Pie - Don McLean
This Magic Moment - The Drifters
I Know This Much Is True - Tears For Fears at least the first part of this song made it onto the tape...I was actually impressed my pre-teen self had the ability to enjoy a remotely cool song and deem it worthy of the Mushy Mix/Oldies tape, but my praiseworthiness was quickly fleeting as the song was cut off and replaced with...
(I am so embarrassed to admit this)
Angel - Jon Secada

Clearly I stood by the saying "You can never have too much of a good thing," because I found numerous tapes that had the same song on them several times. Who wouldn't love a cassette with this playlist:
Brown Eyed Girl - Van Morrison
Better Man - Pearl Jam
You Don't Know How It Feels - Tom Petty
American Pie - Don Mclean
My Name is Mud - Primus
Low Self Esteem - Offspring
You Don't Know How It Feels - Tom Petty
Stuck In the Middle - Steelers Wheel
Brown Eyed Girl - Van Morrison
You Don't Know How It Feels - Tom Petty
Thunderkiss '65 - White Zombie
Low Self Esteem - Offspring
Groove Is In the Heart - Dee-Lite
and drumroll please...
You Don't Know How It Feels - Tom Petty
Who could be bothered to push the rewind button to hear a song when 2 tracks later you can hear it again! Ironically, Tom Petty's Wildflowers cd wont play in my stereo, or computer...worn out perhaps???

Another great example of my obsessive nature can be found on Best of GNR Mix.
Side A:
November Rain

Side B:
Live and Let Die
Don't Cry
Estranged
Patience
Welcome to the Jungle
Paradise City
Sympathy for the Devil

I should mention that November Rain is recorded not once, not twice, but as many times as you can fit on one side of a Maxell 90 minute tape, 5.0279 times in a row to be exact. Laugh all you want, but I think this idea is genius. At ANYTIME while listening to Side B I could switch sides and hear November Rain! Brilliant! This was especially handy when being driven around by my parents while confined to the backseat. If left up to them and their fast forwarding and rewinding skills I could potentially arrive at my destination before hearing the key track. I was just making it easier on them, and I'm sure they loved every 8 minutes and 57 seconds of it. I was so ahead of my time.

Soul Sister

Writing about new music that I've taken a liking to would be a pretty time consuming task, and would probably end up being the same drivel you could find in Rolling Stone, TimeOut, or pretty much any magazine these days. Who needs to read one more album review they don't agree with or wants to be told what they MUST purchase immediately? Not me. That being said, I feel like I am doing the world a disservice by not writing about the woman that has been in constant rotation in my life for the past few weeks: sassy soul sister #1, Marva Whitney. Marva got her big break singing with James Brown and his funky people in the 60's, and trust me when I say this woman has soul. I decided to get a solo album of hers a few weeks ago, and little did I know what a gem I would come across. When I saw the release date of I Am What I Am was 2007 I assumed I was coming across a nice remastered re-issue of some old Marva cuts, when the exact opposite proved to be true. This album is Marva's first solo effort in 36 years...this woman just turned 63 and she is cranking it out like she is back on the stage with James and the gang. Marva's voice could stand alone, but on this album she is accompanied by Osaka Monaurail, an amazing Japanese funk band. Yes you heard me correctly, a Japanese Funk Band. These guys perform with the same style and zeal as James and his band without coming off as a cheesy tribute group. Marva Whitney and Osaka Monaurail sound like the 60's were frozen in time and thawed out in 2007. They are truly a force to be reckoned with. If you want an album to bring the funk, this one with not disappoint. Take it to the bridge Marva!