Category: Music

Welcome back — man, this week has flown by. But I’ve got some more music for you, which has been the soundtrack of my week as I continue to recover, while working on getting some projects done (Far West is nearing completion of layout, and I’ve got some Dr. Who manuscripts headed to Cubicle 7).

I will be glad when my final surgery occurs at the end of the month. I should be completely recovered by mid-May, and things will finally get back to normal. The next month, June, features my birthday…and, as is the case every four years, the best birthday present ever: The World Cup. As a footy fanatic, there is nothing better than those few weeks of summer every four years. The entire world’s (and a growing segment of the United States’) attention is focused on the Beautiful Game — a palpable sense of shared experience on a global scale.

And, sure enough, every year there are “World Cup Songs” — and here is the first to release, from a collection put together by Pepsi called “Beats of the Beautiful Game.” The first track, which I’m sure will be used in commercials this summer, is a cover of the David Bowie classic, “Heroes”, by Janelle Monae (whom some of you may remember was featured on Friday Music back when she debuted with “Tightrope”). An artist I like covering another artist I like? Yes, please. Janelle Monae – “Heroes.”

On a far less celebratory note, this week saw the passing of a music legend. Frankie Knuckles was one of the inventors of House Music — the dance music that transformed disco into the various electronic genres that proliferated in the late 80s and into the 90s (and whose evolution continues to this day). He was only 59, and diabetes appears to have been the cause of his far-too-early death. This is one of his most famous tracks — the first example of Chicago House (the original name of House). The original was a demo recorded in 1984 by Jamie Principle, which only existed on acetate and was regularly spun by Chicago DJs — and then Frankie Knuckles produced this version in 1987, which became a global hit and launched a genre. Frankie Knuckles – “Your Love.”

Sticking with Frankie Knuckles for a moment, to demonstrate the breadth of his talent, here is a remix he produced — which definitely fits into my philosophy that a remix should totally transform a song. Here, Knuckles takes the well-known Michael Jackson classic “Rock With You”, and starts it off as a jazz piece before transforming it over the course of the track into pure House. So good. Michael Jackson – “Rock With You (Frankie Knuckles Remix).”

Over the years I’ve been doing this, I’m a bit surprised that I haven’t featured Steely Dan a bit more. They’re one of my all-time favorite bands, from the time that I discovered them via raiding a friend’s older brother’s record collection in the very early 80s. Anybody who listened to “classic rock” stations over the years will of course be familiar with their big hits (“Reelin’ in the Years”, “Do It Again”, many more), but I want to share with you one of my favorites, a lesser-known album track from 1974’s Pretzel Logic, which rarely gets airplay (lost in the fact that the album featured their best-performing pop single of all time, “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number.”) I love everything about this: the hook, the arrangement, and the lyrics. Steely Dan – “Any Major Dude Will Tell You.”

Watched the Veronica Mars movie earlier in the week and loved it — and was pleased to note that it featured two of my favorite songs on the soundtrack. A 70s classic by Lou Rawls (“You’ll Never Find”) accompanies some tense action late in the film, and earlier on, during a romantically-tense car drive between Veronica and Logan, they layered in this — my favorite piece by Sufjan Stevens, which was great to hear again. Sufjan Stevens – “Chicago.”

Finally, a track that I discovered yesterday, when it was shared by by friend Rachel on Facebook. I’ve featured London Grammar, the UK-based trip-hop trio, on one of the few Friday Music entries I did last year, with their single “Wasting My Young Years.” I am in love with vocalist Hannah Reid’s sound, which is that resonant English alto that is possessed by Adele as well as Florence of Florence & The Machine. I’m a sucker for it. This track was the next single from their debut album last year, If You Wait: London Grammar – “Strong.”

And there you have it. Wow — three weeks in a row. You guys are going to get spoiled! Anyway — Enjoy, and see you back here again.

Welcome back! I said I was going to give this a shot at weekly entries again, so here we are. An interesting mix this week, which I hope you enjoy: Some obscure 60s soul, a killer remix, and another gem I discovered via a television commercial (hey, like I’m going to find new music via the radio?).

The pic at the left is a 45 from Ninandy Music, the New-York-based record label co-owned by the legendary Nina Simone. It’s a release from 1969 — an example of Northern Soul, a music and dance movement that emerged from Northern England out of the Mod scene in the late 60s — essentially black American soul music, sung by white working-class Brits. Most of the acts never made it big, and many only released a single or two. This is the case with this act, which had this one 45 to its name: The Swordsmen – “Oh My Soul.”

My attitude towards remixes is pretty simple: Transform the original, or don’t bother. Don’t just add a dance beat, some drops, and call it a remix. Completely re-invent the original track. Make us hear it another way. This is an example of a great remix — a Chicago-based set of DJs who operate under the name Autograf take one of my favorite songs of all time, Stevie Wonder’s’ “Superstition”, and turn it into a chill downtempo House track. Wow. Stevie Wonder- “Superstition (Autograf Remix).”

I discovered Thievery Corporation back in 2000, when they released The Mirror Conspiracy, which they described as a soundtrack to an imaginary spy thriller. (So you can see why I was intrigued). I’ve been a fan ever since — I love their cool mix of dub, bossa nova, jazz and electronica. I found out this week that they’ve got a new album coming out in April — and this is the first cut they’ve released. Thievery Corporation – “Depth of My Soul (feat. Shana Halligan).”

Another great find from a television commercial — this one the most recent Southern Comfort ad (with the triple exposure of the guy dancing). The song is a 1983 track from Brazilian musician Marcos Valle — a superstar who has worked from the 60s through the present day (although, naturally, less known here). He has worked in many genres – samba, bossa nova, jazz, rock… but this track, when it was released at the height of the aerobics craze, was called “workout music”: Marcos Valle – “Estrelar.”

A track which I first heard on the soundtrack to the video game FIFA 12: The band is pretty much the second-most-famous thing to come out of Wasilla, Alaska. The song is a tone-perfect call back to the British glam sound of the early 70s, which is why I love it: Portugal, The Man – “Got It All (This Can’t Be Living Now).”

A few years before they became famous for recording the pretty good theme song to a pretty mediocre sitcom (Friends), The Rembrandts released the following song, which got quite a lot of airplay on the Modern Rock charts. I liked it quite a bit at the time, and I still do: The Rembrandts – “Just The Way It Is, Baby.”

So there ya go. Another week down. Hope you like it.

Again, if you’re out there, drop me a comment — these things are easier to do when I know that people are enjoying it.

More next week.

Here we go again… For those of you who aren’t aware, starting a hair over 9 years ago (!!!) in February 2005, I started a regular feature on my blog, called Friday Music. It was a “Mixtape of Teh Intarwebs” — a set of mp3s of stuff that I’d been listening to recently, or had just discovered myself. It ran for quite a while, years of weekly entries– and then, of course, less frequently, until it faded away almost entirely. My last attempt was in May of last year. I’ve had a few people ask me to bring it back, and when I recently mentioned that I’ve been tempted to do so, I was hit with a bunch of folks saying “Please!” — so here we are.

As always, if a link gives you trouble, try copy-and-paste, and if it’s down (these links usually are ephemeral), a Google search or a search on iTunes or Amazon will track the song down for you. Now for this week’s songs:

This first track is something I’ve been searching for since February 1980, when the “Space Rockers” episode of Buck Rogers In The 25th Century first aired. The episode featured… well, Space Rockers. A band called Andromeda, whose music was being used to make The Kids commit violent crimes on behalf of The Bad Guy via subliminal messages — sort of an early version of the plot of the Josie and the Pussycats feature film. Anyway, the appregiated-synth-heavy funk of Andromeda was something that, for whatever reason, really stuck with me, and I’ve been trying to find a copy of it ever since. Late last year, collector soundtrack publisher Intrada released a 3-CD version of the music from Season One of Buck Rogers, and, sure enough… here are the Space Rockers. Johnny Harris – “Andromeda (from Space Rockers)”.

Long-time readers will recall that I’ve got a fascination with K-Pop groups. This is one that I’ve posted about before, 2NE1 (I previously featured “I am the Best (내가 제일 잘 나가)” – link to video here). This is another one that is a serious ass-mover — but also subject to a bit of controversy — at around 1:55, the song features a sample of a young boy singing passages from The Quran, and the Korean Muslim community immediately took offense. The abbreviated title of this song stands for “Mental Breakdown” — 2NE1 – “MTBD (멘붕).”

Here’s a track that I found via a Target commercial, of all things. I was struck immediately by the very 80s sound of it (to my ear, at least), and out came the Shazam app on the iPhone, so I could find out who it was. This L.A. band played Glastonbury in 2013, and earned a top spot in the BBC’s Sound of 2013 poll. Haim -“Forever.”

UK musician Barry Adamson has been a member of The Buzzcocks, Magazine, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, and Visage. This swingy sexy instrumental is from his 1996 solo album Oedipus Schmoedipus plays like a lost mid-60s Bond soundtrack tune, which, of course, is why I love it. Barry Adamson – “The Big Bamboozle.”

A track from my writing playlist for FAR WEST, from a late-period Spaghetti Western (and recently used to good effect in Tarantino’s “Django Unchained”). The song was composed by Luis Bacalov (who did, among other things, the theme to the original “Django”), with vocals — in English — by Edda Dell’Orso. Luis Bacalov, with Edda Dell’Orso – “Lo Chiamavano King (His Name Was King).”

A little bit of UK hip-hop, from one of my favorites of that genre, Roots Manuva. This track is a remix by Matt Helders — the drummer from the Arctic Monkeys. Roots Manuva – “Again and Again (Matt Helders Remix).”

Reliving parts of my misspent youth by listening to a bunch of 2nd-wave Ska recently — I found a copy of the concert documentary “Dance Craze: The Best of British Ska LIVE!” from 1981. One of the performances is The Bodysnatchers doing a cover of a 1967 Desmond Dekker tune. No recording of the cover exists, so here’s the original. Dem a loot, dem a shoot, dem a wail! Desmond Dekker – “007 (Shanty Town).”

So there you go. We’re going to try to make this a regular thing — so I’ll make you a deal: Sound off with comments below, or via Twitter or whatever — let me know you’re out there, and I’ll see you back here in 7 for another entry. Enjoy!