Category: Music

Another edition for your eager little ears…..

First off, a special treat: Robert Rodriguez – “Sin City Theme”. Yes, that’s right: The brilliant bastard composed and performed the score as well as directing the damned thing. He is quickly becoming my idol.

Here’s a track that I recently re-discovered: Dire Straights – “Industrial Disease”. This was one of my favorite songs way back when. It was from the album Love Over Gold, which came out right before they hit huge with Brothers In Arms, and the absolute radio dominance that followed removed any desire that I had to ever hear them again. It seems that waiting 20 years is just long enough to like something again.

I have an obsession with Rufus Wainwright that is probably too much for any straight man. I first became aware of him via his cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” on the Shrek soundtrack, and soon afterwards saw him perform his cover of “Across the Universe” on some late-night talk show. I was hooked. Here’s a great track of his: Rufus Wainwright – “Matinee Idol”. I love how he plays around with the whole “tinny radio” sound on some of his vocals…he’s got the 30s-40s band singer thing down pat, as can be seen in his cameo in The Aviator.

Modern English is best known for “I Melt With You,” but they had more great songs which never got the same attention. My favorite is Modern English – “After The Snow”, which is from the album of the same name. A great example of what’s now being called “80s alternative”, but at the time I just called “cool.”

Spylab is a UK-based electronic duo, whose album, This Utopia has been on my writing-accompaniment playlist for a while now. Spylab – “The Call” is a fun track: a powerful breakbeat cut with a heavy-Scots-accent voiceover detailing a conspiracy theory involving mobile phones. Give it a listen, and wonder….

Immediately following the breakup of The Police, drummer Stewart Copeland went to Africa, armed with portable recording equipment, to capture ambient sounds, local tribal songs, and more. When he got back, he produced his first solo album, The Rhythmatist, which was abso-fucking-lutely brilliant, and of course, destined for relative obscurity. One track from the album was released as a single. Stewart Copeland – Gong Rock stands as one of the best examples of the art of sampling, as Copeland uses the sounds he found in Africa, and his own instrumentation, to craft a catchy, danceable tune.

There’s another week. Hope you liked it.

Screw April Fools – We’ve got Friday Music

Another edition for your eager little ears…..

First off, a special treat: Robert Rodriguez – “Sin City Theme”. Yes, that’s right: The brilliant bastard composed and performed the score as well as directing the damned thing. He is quickly becoming my idol.

Here’s a track that I recently re-discovered: Dire Straights – “Industrial Disease”. This was one of my favorite songs way back when. It was from the album Love Over Gold, which came out right before they hit huge with Brothers In Arms, and the absolute radio dominance that followed removed any desire that I had to ever hear them again. It seems that waiting 20 years is just long enough to like something again.

I have an obsession with Rufus Wainwright that is probably too much for any straight man. I first became aware of him via his cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” on the Shrek soundtrack, and soon afterwards saw him perform his cover of “Across the Universe” on some late-night talk show. I was hooked. Here’s a great track of his: Rufus Wainwright – “Matinee Idol”. I love how he plays around with the whole “tinny radio” sound on some of his vocals…he’s got the 30s-40s band singer thing down pat, as can be seen in his cameo in The Aviator.

Modern English is best known for “I Melt With You,” but they had more great songs which never got the same attention. My favorite is Modern English – “After The Snow”, which is from the album of the same name. A great example of what’s now being called “80s alternative”, but at the time I just called “cool.”

Spylab is a UK-based electronic duo, whose album, This Utopia has been on my writing-accompaniment playlist for a while now. Spylab – “The Call” is a fun track: a powerful breakbeat cut with a heavy-Scots-accent voiceover detailing a conspiracy theory involving mobile phones. Give it a listen, and wonder….

Immediately following the breakup of The Police, drummer Stewart Copeland went to Africa, armed with portable recording equipment, to capture ambient sounds, local tribal songs, and more. When he got back, he produced his first solo album, The Rhythmatist, which was abso-fucking-lutely brilliant, and of course, destined for relative obscurity. One track from the album was released as a single. Stewart Copeland – Gong Rock stands as one of the best examples of the art of sampling, as Copeland uses the sounds he found in Africa, and his own instrumentation, to craft a catchy, danceable tune.

There’s another week. Hope you liked it.

Friday Music

Another week. More music.

We’ll kick things off with something from the “really nifty covers” category. I’m a firm believer in the idea that if you’re going to do a cover of a song, you should put your own stamp on it, rather than just making it nearly identical to the original…otherwise, what’s the point? This track, Oingo Boingo – “You Really Got Me”, is an inventive new wave cover of the Kinks classic, and a good representation of what Danny Elfman was doing before settling down into a career of composing scores for superhero movies.

Here’s something unsual, but very, very cool: The Evolution Control Committee – “Rocked by Rape”. This group took samples from ACDC’s “Back in Black” and dialog from CBS News anchor Dan Rather, and spliced it up into a track that manages to not only be a head-bobber, but also a fairly amusing indictment of the “TragiCrimePorn” school of news broadcasting that is so prevalent now. Both ACDC (who doesn’t allow sampling of their songs as a rule) and Dan Rather hit them with a cease-and-desist, and so the track was removed from record stores.

I picked up the debut album from Scissor Sisters on Theron’s recommendation. Good call. The album manages to combine several cool elements from 70s music: the biggest influence is glam, but there’s a nearly tone-perfect cover of “Comfortably Numb” done to sound like a Bee Gees tune, and this track: Scissor Sisters – “Take Your Mama”, which has the fingerprints of “Captain Fantastic”-era Elton John all over it.

There’s a cool french movie from a few years back called Vidoq, with Gerard Depardieu. It’s a supernatural/steampunk/mystery, set in Paris in the 1800s. Quite good, and it’s a shame that it was never released in the US. I tracked down a DVD, and when I watched it, I was really blown away by the end credits music. Some of you may have heard of Apocalyptica, a string quartet who does covers of Metallica tunes on amplified and distortion-pedalled cellos, violas, etc. Well, they did the end credits music, which was an original song, rather than a cover. Apocalyptica (feat. Matthias Sayer) – “Hope, Vol.2”. Great stuff.

Another mash-up for you this week. Laura loves this one: DJ Tripp – “She Wants Animals”, which is a mash-up of Ace of Base’s “All That She Wants” and Nine Inch Nails’ “Closer” (no, I’m not kidding….and the scary thing is, it works!).

People who are only familiar with the Cardigans’ sugar-sweet single “Love Fool” will be a bit surprised to learn that their usual sound is a bit darker than that. The Cardigans – “Erase/Rewind”, which I first became aware of when it was used in the soundtrack of The 13th Floor, is a moody, trip-hop-esque song, and I like it quite a bit.

Here’s a brand new track from the soon-to-be-released second full-length CD from Gorillaz: Gorillaz – “Dirty Harry”. Some of you probably remember the Gorillaz first single from a few years back, “Clint Eastwood” (“happy, feelin’ glad, got sunshine in a bag…useless, but not for long, the future is comin’ on…”) I’m detecting a theme here. Still, some of the best stuff you’re likely to hear from a group comprised entirely of cartoons, so there ya go.

…and finally, because I have to get back to working on the latest Thrilling Tales release, here’s one of my favorite tracks from the 1930s (1938, to be exact): Artie Shaw – “Begin The Beguine”.