A cymbal hit, recorded at a thousand frames per second, looks like a seismic event. A Keith Moon solo would probably look like the end of the world.
Video of the Week: Lyle Lovett’s Smokin’ “White Freightliner Blues”
02 Mar 2012 Leave a comment
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.
Video of the Week: Best Version of Bohemian Rhapsody Ever Played Inside a VW
01 Mar 2012 5 Comments
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).
Video of the Week: Led Zep Mashup–The Howl of 80 “Black Dogs”
29 Feb 2012 2 Comments
80 cover versions of Led Zeppelin’s “Black Dog”, stitched together by the Israeli mashup artist known as Kutiman. Individually, probably none would make for scintillating viewing. Together, they are pretty awesome.
Video of the Week: Guitarist Randy Bachman Demystifies the Opening Chord of ‘A Hard Day’s Night’
29 Feb 2012 2 Comments
The following is reprinted from the website Open Culture:
You could call it the magical mystery chord. The opening clang of the Beatles’ 1964 hit, “A Hard Day’s Night,” is one of the most famous and distinctive sounds in rock and roll history, and yet for a long time no one could quite figure out what it was.
In this fascinating clip from the CBC radio show, Randy’s Vinyl Tap, the legendary Guess Who and Bachman-Turner Overdrive guitarist Randy Bachman unravels the mystery. The segment is from a special live performance, “Guitarology 101,” taped in front of an audience at the Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto back in January, 2010. As journalist Matthew McAndrew wrote, “the two-and-a-half hour event was as much an educational experience as it was a rock’n’roll concert.”
One highlight of the show was Bachman’s telling of his visit the previous year with Giles Martin, son of Beatles’ producer George Martin, at Abbey Road Studios. The younger Martin, who is now the official custodian of all the Beatles’ recordings, told Bachman he could listen to anything he wanted from the massive archive–anything at all.
Bachman chose to hear each track from the opening of “A Hard Day’s Night.” As it turns out, the sound is actually a combination of chords played simultaneously by George Harrison and John Lennon, along with a bass note by Paul McCartney. Bachman breaks it all down in an entertaining way in the audio clip above.
Drink Me: ‘The Quietest Rock ‘n’ Roll Ever Made’
27 Feb 2012 2 Comments
in Best of the Blog, General Posts Tags: drink me, the quietest rock n roll ever made
Listen to NPR’s “Dust-bin Bands” segment on 90’s Brooklyn duo Drink Me, the “dust-bin band” closest to my heart as well as my all-time favorite guitar-and-Fanta-bottle duo.
I consider myself fortunate to have seen them twice: first at Bloomfield Bridge Tavern in Pittsburgh and once more in a place called The Fez in Manhattan, where Jeff Buckley opened for them (I know). Mark Amft is alive and well and a high school teacher last I heard. Drink Me’s shtick is hard to describe but they sounded a little like Simon & Garfunkel with a sense of humor.
The term “Alternative” has never been properly applied in popular music. It should have been used to describe truly original artists like Drink Me.
“Ines” music video (most likely the only one they made):
Every Moment Has A Song 