Dzintars: The Latvian Women’s Choir: “Blow, Wind, Blow” (1983)
Here’s a palette cleanser. From an album entitled Songs of Amber, another of Mickey Hart’s World Music projects (“Dzintars” is the Latvian word for “amber”, which is richly symbolic in Latvian culture). This collection of traditional and modern Latvian, Yiddish and Russian songs was recorded during the Dzintar choir’s 1989 US tour, when they were an opening act for AC/DC (kidding).
From the one and only album by the duo of Rebecca Martin and Jesse Harris known as Once Blue. If you like the Rickie Lee Jones-Lite sound and Martin’s smooth vocals, you can pick this album up for about 3 bucks on Amazon. Used copies sell for literally pennies. Well worth it. Perfect mellow-mood jazz-tinged pop.
Say Hi To Your Mom play ubersimple guitar-and-synth tunes that make Weezer sound like Steely Dan. They can’t, or at least don’t, sing on key. They’re not exactly pushing the musical envelope. But the lyrical point of view is amusingly skewed. And the melodies can be catchy. “A Hit In Sweden” just has a chorus I never get tired of hearing:
But it’s never been clearer, just dance in the mirror/And the party will look twice as big//And you can DJ if you bring that record/You said was a hit in Sweden.
If that brings a smile, you might like this band. If you think it’s stupid, well…of course it’s stupid. That’s the point.
Lyle Lovett and his Large Band performed a smokin’, solo-filled four-and-a-half minute version of Townes Van Zandt’s “White Freightliner Blues” on Austin City Limits. The song appears on Lyle’s new covers album, Release Me, which Lost Highway Records did this past Tuesday.
Nice to see the boys in suits and ties. Lyle’s Large Band have always epitomized class and musicianship.
One other thought: This song, true to its title, actually is a “blues”. More often than not an artist will tack the word “Blues” to the end of a song title when the song clearly isn’t.
I reckon that the way I was turned on to Guster is typically how it happens among their fans. A friend handed me their Ganging Up On The Sun CD and said pretty casually, “Every song on this album is good”. I laughed. Said friend’s taste is usually but not always a reliable barometer for me, and this was the most bodacious claim she’d ever made for a band. I scoffed at the thought that there could be an artist out there virtually unfamiliar to me (I’d heard them do “Donde Esta Santa Claus” on a holiday compilation) who could fill a whole CD with musical goodness. But it only took me about three listens to come to the same conclusion: there was no filler on Ganging Up On The Sun. What a fluke.
Shortly after the record reached heavy rotation status in my world I learned Guster was about to release Easy Wonderful. I was filled with the dread of knowing the Guster high I was on was about to crash to earth. No way would the next album be nearly as good. I’d become a fan, you see, but not yet a true believer. Easy Wonderful is probably better than Ganging Up On The Sun.
So I sent some Guster to a friend in Massachusetts. It sat on his pile of music–every hapless music fanatic has at least a stack or two of stuff that’s waiting to be heard; I have about 30–until I reminded him I wanted to know how he liked it. What I didn’t tell him was how secretly smug I was in the certainty that he’d love Guster. Or that I was looking forward to that magical moment…you know, the moment when you get to bask in the reflected glory of a band just because you were the one who handed them off, conveniently forgetting for the moment that friend who was hipper than you and turned you onto the same band. But enough about her…
My friend’s email began: “Ed: Okay, Guster’s great.”
YESSSSS!
Similar stories must happen all the time for this band. They’re one of the archetypical “word of mouth bands”. Their fans aren’t casual fans. “Gusterrhoids” are among the most fanatical followers of any band. I get the reason. Simply put, no current band or artist comes to mind who puts more appealing melodies on an album. If you like somewhat quirky, melodic pop performed by three somewhat quirky, charismatic guys–this is your band. What I don’t get is why they arent’t bigger. Perhaps it’s because their music is simultaneously accessible and outside the realm of mainstream pop. Whatever. I only know of two types of music fans: those who love Guster, and those who don’t know Guster. Easy Wonderful is your invitation to cross to the other side.
On the one hand, it’s comic. On the other, it’s no joke–these guys have real chops. And it’s their obvious seriousness about the music that makes it all the more funny. This is one of those vids I feel I could watch every morning, just to get my day off right.
They are award-winning Finnish street band Porkka Playboys. Check out http://www.porkkaplayboys.com/ if you’ve also got a hankering to see Motorhead’s “Ace of Spades” performed in a sauna (naked of course).
Every Moment Has A Song 