Art is the music we make from the bewildered cry of being alive. ~Maria Popova
18 Mar 2021 Leave a comment
in Video of the Week Tags: bread, david gates
18 Mar 2021 Leave a comment
in Songs You May Have Missed Tags: pomplamoose, something about us
Pomplamoose: “Something About Us” (2019)
Formed in 2008 by (now married) Stanford students Jack Conte and Nataly Dawn, Pomplamoose are…uh…I think I’ll let them explain for themselves:
With over 1.2 million YouTube subscribers, Pomplamoose have carved a non-traditional niche as a band. They don’t rely on record companies, extensive touring or physical album sales, instead creating a new “videosong” every week for their YouTube channel, streaming their songs, and providing music for TV ads for companies such as Toyota and Hyundai.
They mix originals and an eclectic variety of covers and inspired mashups, placing them in fresh and often jazz-tinged settings.
Remarkably, the performance you see in a Pomplamoose video is the same that you hear–it is never a lip-synched re-enactment but an actual recording session.
Watch the session for the above “single”, a cover of Daft Punk’s “Something About Us”.
See also: https://edcyphers.com/2025/05/15/songs-you-may-have-missed-779/
17 Mar 2021 Leave a comment
in General Posts Tags: tina turner
(via the New York Post) By Rod McPhee
Tina Turner bids a final farewell to her fans in a touching new film that shows how she has overcome her painful past and finally found happiness.
In the feature-length documentary, simply titled “Tina,” the singer looks back on camera for the first time at her younger years filled with struggle and pain, then the true love and global fame she found as a middle-aged woman.
Now 81 and plagued by ill health, including a stroke and cancer, the soul and rock music legend also suffered kidney failure that led to a transplant in 2017.
In the film, she tells how she wants to enter the third and final chapter of her life out of the spotlight, and it is revealed that she has a form of post-traumatic stress disorder from the domestic abuse she suffered at the hands of her first husband and music partner, Ike Turner.
Looking back, Tina reflects: “It wasn’t a good life. The good did not balance the bad.
“I had an abusive life, there’s no other way to tell the story. It’s a reality. It’s a truth. That’s what you’ve got, so you have to accept it…
Read more: Tina Turner says goodbye to fans with doc amid PTSD, stroke, cancer (nypost.com)
16 Mar 2021 Leave a comment
in Songs You May Have Missed Tags: b.c. camplight, suffer for two
B.C. Camplight: “Suffer for Two (Dave Bascombe Radio Mix)” (2007)
Calling any B.C. Camplight song the “radio mix” is laughable because I’ve never heard any of his tunes on radio. He’s typically too quirky and experimental for even the independent airwaves.
But “Suffer for Two” is a bit more accessible than most of his material. If it piques your curiosity I’d recomment you check out his debut LP Hide, Run Away
If you’re ready to be challenged a little by his more idiosyncratic output, give 2015’s How to Die in the North or 2020’s Shortly After Takeoff a try. Sometimes it takes repeated listens, but eventually the hooks take hold. And the genius.
This is what Brian Wilson might have sounded like if he grew up someplace without drag racing and surfing.
See also: Recommended Albums #6 | Every Moment Has A Song (edcyphers.com)
See also: Songs You May Have Missed #499 | Every Moment Has A Song (edcyphers.com)
15 Mar 2021 Leave a comment
in Video of the Week Tags: don't take me alive, larry carlton, steely dan
15 Mar 2021 Leave a comment
in Recommended Albums Tags: ok human, weezer
Weezer: OK Human (2021)
Weezer’s 14th studio album OK Human is a baroque pop musical departure, recorded entirely on analogue equipment and backed by a 38-piece orchestra. It will almost certainly be among their lowest-charting albums. Oh, and it’s wonderful.
That’s not to say it’ll satisfy the segment of the band’s fans who hanker for the wall of shred of the band’s earlier work. Their upcoming Van Weezer album, scheduled for release just four months after OK Human, ought to meet their noise quota.
But that’s not the point of this album. OK Human is meant to link violin strings to heartstrings. The orchestral setting provides the perfect melodramatic foil for Rivers Cuomo’s endearingly dorkish songwriting voice, so full of misanthropic melancholy. It’s a mix that evokes Ben Folds’ finest moments.
When Sting makes literary references, he comes off a bit up his own arse. When Cuomo does so a winsome humor slips through. Particularly in “Grapes of Wrath” where such references drive home the song’s point.
Cuomo eschews rock machismo cliche, prefering to name check Mrs. Dalloway, Winston Smith and Frodo Baggins. Because he just don’t care, he just don’t care. And anyway “battling Big Brother feels more meaningful than binging zombie hordes.”
Indeed.
Dorkitude aside, it’s the massive pop hooks that have been Cuomo’s calling card ever since “Buddy Holly” in ’94. And on OK Human he delivers the goods again. Critics will talk about guitars vs orchestras, and opine as to whether the lyrics are cheeky, sincere or just corny. But few will take note of the fact that Rivers Cuomo is possibly the best melodist in the world of pop rock.
It’s time the man was given his due.
Listen to: “Aloo Gobi”
Listen to: “Grapes of Wrath”
Listen to: “Bird With a Broken Wing”
See also: Songs You May Have Missed #313 | Every Moment Has A Song (edcyphers.com)
See also: Songs You May Have Missed #484 | Every Moment Has A Song (edcyphers.com)
See also: Ten Great Weezer Songs That Aren’t from the ‘Blue Album’ | Every Moment Has A Song (edcyphers.com)
Every Moment Has A Song 