This is almost too awesome for me to process: It’s the James Last Orchestra, that bastion of PBS pledge drives and your mom’s house, doing Hawkwind. I just don’t know what to say.
Reminds me of the joke about what’s the difference between the James Last Orchestra and a goat: the goat has horns in the front and an ass in the rear.
But seriously: THIS IS INCREDIBLE:
Something got me thinking about the band Fear Factory yesterday, a metal band I was into in the 90s but have totally slipped away from. Then I remembered how incredible the song “Resurrection” was, and how it had this amazing sci-fi video parable to accompany it.
Here ’tis. Enjoy four solid minutes of bad-assery:
Just got an early copy of the upcoming record from Midlake, “Courage of Others.” Man oh man, is it spectacular. It’s only January, but I feel confident saying this is going to be one of the best discs of the year. This is my new go-to record for sipping tea on an overcast day.
None of the songs from it are on Lala yet, but you can listen to their older stuff.
At my house lately, it’s all about “The Beatles: Rock Band.” This game is so well done, so affectionate to the source material, and so durned enjoyable. This is a game that my wife – who previously had never once turned on the Xbox – seeks out and plays when she has a moment to herself. That’s some sort of litmus test right there.
I’ll confess to getting a little bit misty the first time I saw the animated introduction to the game, which is seen here:
My buddy Bill Yackey does something really cool, really simple, something I had never thought to do: Every month, he builds an iTunes playlist of the songs he’s into that month, new or old. The result is two-fold – an easy way to listen to the stuff he’s into right now, and a sort of evolving time capsule of his tastes.
So, I’m starting to do that with this month. For your enjoyment, here are the songs I’m digging for the month of August 2009:
Here, fellow babies, we have one of my favorite songs of all time. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve listened to it, and it still amazes me. Such a great, imaginative story. Such intelligent lyrics. So much butt-kicking.
A barchetta, by the way, is a little Italian race car, the kind with two seats and no doors. The kind of car you picture Patrick Macnee driving while wearing a bowler hat.
But in this case, the barchetta is parked in my uncle’s garage, and it’s an unspecified date in the future when cars are illegal, and “gleaming alloy aircars” patrol the streets looking for delinquent petroleum junkies. On Sundays I elude the eyes, and commit my weekly crime.
I realize that not everybody gets or likes Rush, but man, they do it for me every time. This video shows you them at their very best … enjoy it!
The Decemberists are one of my favorite bands. Ever. They are smart, they are funny, they are ambitious, and they are amazing musicians. (They’re also really nice folks – I got to interview them when they performed on Live Lunch. Scroll down to April 12, 2007 in the audio player.)
Lead singer/songwriter Colin Meloy has such a unique approach to storytelling, certain themes begin to emerge when you look at the entire Decemberists canon.
And so, Decemberists Bingo! Click the image to see the full-sized game board; print, gather some friends, put a bunch of their music in the changer, and see who can spot the most! Suggested prizes for winners include a flagon of ale, a codpiece or perhaps a WWII-era army hat.
For those of you inclined to care about music geeks and their year-end picks … here’s my choice for best album of 2008.
Frightened Rabbit is from Scotland, a heritage that becomes abundantly clear the moment singer Scott Hutchison opens his mouth. That’s a seriously thick accent the man has, so much so that I’ve heard it joked that this is actually Groundskeeper Willie’s rock band.
It’s not. Groundskeeper Willie doesn’t have melodies in him like this. Or at least, I would think he doesn’t.
Beyond the voice … these are some truly incredible songs, all of them ambitious in their construction and scale. Most of them start with fairly small melodic concepts, which continue to swell and get ever larger.
A masterful pop/rock confection from the thinking-man’s nice-guy rock trio. This song is a few years old and the band has made another record since then, but the hook from this one is still ringing in my head. From the excellent album “The Weight is a Gift.” Hey you good ones!
If you’ve never seen this clip before, man are you in for a treat. The 1943 movie “Stormy Weather” featured 20 musical numbers in a mere 77 minutes – and one of them was this astonishing piece featuring Cab Calloway and the Nicholas Brothers, which still might be the best tap-dancing routine ever filmed.
About the brothers, from their estate web site:
The Nicholas Brothers grew up in Philadelphia, the sons of musicians who played in their own band at the old Standard Theater, their mother at the piano and father on drums. At the age of three, Fayard was always seated in the front row while his parents worked, and by the time he was ten, he had seen most of the great black Vaudeville acts, particularly the dancers, including such notables of the time as Alice Whitman, Willie Bryant and Bill Robinson. He was completely fascinated by them and imitated their acrobatics and clowning for the kids in his neighborhood. Harold watched and imitated Fayard until he was able to dance too, then apparently, he worked his own ideas into mimicry. (continue)
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