I have a strong distaste for most kid’s music. I find it condescending and I think that second rate musicians often find themselves recording bad music for kids because they could get published recording real music for people. This offends me, in no small way, because I believe that children have every ounce of capacity they need to enjoy real music. So, when I make kids CDs I make them out of music that wasn’t designed for kids. Here’s the playlist for a new car CD I just burned for Arthur for a trip to Portland we’re leaving on in a few. A note to other parents; I have not vetted these songs for any small use of profanity or adult themes. In “Took A Trip On A Gemini Spacecraft” David Bowie says “I grabbed my space gun and I thought about you”. Yes, that is what he was talking about. This doesn’t bother me. If it bothers you, you should stay clear of this playlist. But none of the songs have refrains that I would not want to hear at the top of a two year olds lungs again, and again, and again.
I Love Rock and Roll Joan Jett and the Blackhearts
Hound Dog Elvis Presley
Super Disco Breakin’ Beastie Boys
I Took a Trip on a Gemini Spaceship David Bowie
Video Killed the Radio Star The Buggles
Golden Years David Bowie
Soul Bossa Nova Quincy Jones and His Orchestra
Big Rock Candy Mountain Harry McClintock
99 Luftballons Nena
I Can’t Explain The Who
The Unforgettable Fire U2
‘Ol ‘55 Tom Waits
Low Rider War
Mr_ Jones Talking Heads
I Missed The Bus Skankin’ Pickle
You Can Dance If You Want To Men at Work
Stomach Vs. Heart Barenaked Ladies
Turn The Wheel Hot Buttered Rum!
Over The Rainbow Johnny Mathis And Ray Charles
Good Golly Miss Molly C. C. R.
Let It Be The Beatles
Over to My House The Inkwell Rhythm Makers
Who doesn’t want to get rich?
A million bucks sounds pretty good,
and we have a little something to invest.
What have we got to loose?
A million bucks sounds pretty good
and it’s so easy to ignore the obvious.
What have we got to loose?
Only our home and life savings.
And it’s so easy to ignore the obvious
until it all comes crashing down.
Only, our home and life savings
aren’t ours anymore.
Until it all comes crashing down
wealthy executives make off with life savings that
aren’t ours anymore.
They end up with taxpayer bailouts to boot.
Wealthy executives make off with life savings that
we unwittingly invested in their high flying schemes.
They end up with taxpayer bailouts to boot,
While we have to rent for the first time in 50 years.
We unwittingly invested in their high flying schemes
to take the money and run.
While we have to rent for the first time in 50 years
the house sits empty and growing mold.
To take the money and run;
The only rational answer.
The house sits empty and growing mold
and we’re heading for the hills.
The only rational answer
at times proceeds from desperation.
And we’re heading for the hills
because we don’t know what else to do.
At times, proceeds from desperation
provide the spark we need to learn a new way
because we don’t know what else to do.
We learn from gnarled handed wise ones.
Provide the spark we need to learn a new way!
True wealth only rises from land and labor.
We learn from gnarled handed wise ones,
loamy soil between their fingers.
True wealth only rises from land and labor.
Who doesn’t want to get rich
loamy soil between their fingers?
And we have a little something to invest.
* “The pantoum is a form of poetry similar to a villanelle. It is composed of a series of quatrains; the second and fourth lines of each stanza are repeated as the first and third lines of the next. This pattern continues for any number of stanzas, except for the final stanza, which differs in the repeating pattern. The first and third lines of the last stanza are the second and fourth of the penultimate; the first line of the poem is the last line of the final stanza, and the third line of the first stanza is the second of the final. Ideally, the meaning of lines shifts when they are repeated although the words remain exactly the same: this can be done by shifting punctuation, punning, or simply recontextualizing.”
- From Wikipedia
There is an MP3 in this post. Last night I went to see Hot Buttered Rum at the McDonald Theatre. They were opening for the Everyone Orchestra, but really I think they were the better act. They play progressive bluegrass, tinged with jazz rock / jam band aesthetics but by and large focused on Appalachian bluegrass roots. They’re based in San Francisco, but spend a lot of time touring the country in a Bio-Diesel Bus.
Here is a tune that I took from the free and band sanctioned Internet Archive (which I assume means that the recording is free to trade so long as I’m not making any money, which I’m (really) not) recorded January 9th of this year at the Filmore in SFO. They played this number last night , and once the second verse started and I recognized that it’s about Obama’s election, I was moved to tears (and crazy-jumping-up-and-down-dancing).
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I recommend going to their website and buying a lot of their music, and going to their shows whenever they pass through your area. This band is HOT!
Great post at Monitor Mix asking the question “who is the essential rock and roll singer?”. Peep the link for Carrie Brownstein’s answer. I think she’s wrong; Mick Jagger is it, despite his blues influence.
Asking questions such as these — those of essentialness — is reductive, but also interesting. Whoever is at the nexus of our musical tastes becomes a litmus test; he or she helps categorize and map our own relationship to music. For instance, if Joe Strummer is your quintessential punk singer, your other punk records form clusters around that sound, either deviating from what you consider normative or emulating it. But if TV Smith from The Adverts or Ian MacKaye in his Minor Threat days possess the essential punk sound for you, your notion of what punk music is might be entirely different from that of the Joe Strummer person. At the very least, what typifies a specific genre for us influences our preferences.
For the past week I’ve been thinking longingly of getting away from Eugene and making another stint in a larger city. Specifically, the siren’s call of Portland has been dragging on me. I lived in Portland for a year, went to school at PSU, and had an apartment in Downtown with Taylor. It was our first house together as married people. Actually, it was a pretty bad year. Taylor had a hell of a time finding work. We got in a car wreck and had to go to months and months of therapy to recover. We had no money, so despite living in the center of a cultural mecca, blocks from amazing museums, restaurants, theater, and music, we could afford none of it. This weekend we visited friends in SE Portland, and it made me want to make another go of it. But then I ran across this tidbit on a favorite Music blog, Monitor Mix, and realized why I don’t want to go back;
“Portland is a highly self-conscious city — a meta-city, if you will — constantly in dialog with itself. The self-obsession, fomented by accolades leveled at us by everyone from The New York Times to Bon Appetit, is a product of our insularity and homogeneity, not to mention progressive politics that veer toward extremism because they’re rarely tempered by opposing views. (During the last eight years, it was wasn’t merely “I don’t agree with Bush,” but “Impeach Bush.” The occasional McCain lawn sign or bumper sticker stood out as more than a simple difference of opinion. A recent Michael Pollan talk I attended felt more like a religious event than a lecture. Us Portlanders, we already know. Get it?)”
Sure, Eugene has many of the same qualities mentioned here. In fact, the liberal monolith in Eugene is more solid than in Portland, not less. But still, at least for now, our liberalism is more tie dye than fleece, more farm fresh than Whole Foods.
I’ve had this idea for some time; to buy inexpensive day-planners, decorate them with feather boas, sequins, rainbows, and other twee accoutrements, and to market such as ‘The Homosexual Agenda’.
Get it?
I’ve not done this, but at this point there seems a good enough reason. There is likely going to be an expensive legal fight in California to challenge Prop 8, the act that used the California Constitution to take a fundamental right from Gay and Lesbian citizens. Selling Homosexual Agendas could be a great fundraiser for this campaign. But I want to see whether or not I would be able to pay back an initial investment. So, would you buy one? How much would you pay, knowing that all proceeds were going to a good cause? Push the comment button and tell me what you think.
Four days until the election, here’s a special treat; one of my favorite mash-up artists has released a recording of a ‘party for change’ for free download. It’s a little under an hour, and it’s really good. The ‘Yes We Can’ section about 20 minutes in was particularly well cut.
Follow the link for a free download, and groove out.
And thanks to Chris, AKA Nightcap, for hipping me to this mix.
Together again after 30 years. Their earlier collaboration, My Life in the Book of Ghosts, is one of my favorite albums of all time for long bus rides and other occasions when uninterrupted listening and opportunities for accidental synchronicity abound. This new compilation promises to hold very much the same role in my life.
Carsie is a singer/songwriter who used to live here in Eugene. She’s moved east and seems to tour back that way. I used to love seeing her play, and would love to see a return for a West Coast mini tour. Click the button to invite Carsie back to the left coast to show us her chops.
It's true. I do. I post what I'm thinking, which is interesting enough I guess, but it's a monologue. I know my ideas are not always conventional, and I know that in flesh to flesh conversations people often disagree with what I have to say. So I'll bet that bit to bit conversations spark disagreement as well. Let's have a discussion. Dialogue is so much more fun.
