Category: Music

I stumbled upon two new artists this week, and so this Friday Music entry features double-shots from both, because I think they’re keen, and I hope you do as well:

First up, introduced me to Emilie Autumn, a former child violin prodigy who has invented herself as a Dresden-Dolls-meets-Marie-Antionette-meets-Goth-meets-Electronic-meets-Whitechapel-Prozzy, and calls her musical style Victoriandustrial.

Yeah, that’s all it took to grab me, too. I hunted down some of her music, gave a listen, and….WOW. I ordered the CD via the links on her website pretty much immediately.

Here are two tracks from the CD Opheliac:

Emilie Autumn – “Misery Loves Company.”

and the harpsichord-laden title track,

Emilie Autumn – “Opheliac”

The second artist that I discovered this week comes to us from the Scissor-Sisters-esque vein of tone-perfect 70s reconstructions. I listened to two singles from the artist in question, Mika—both of which I present here:

This first is an absolutely perfect tribute to the sound of Freddie Mercury and Queen (even name-checks Freddie in the lyrics): Mika – “Grace Kelly”

Here’s another great mash-up, mixing Johnny Cash with the Wu-Tang Clan. It works a helluva lot better than you’d expect:

Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun died yesterday. He created one of the first indie labels, which fostered quite a lot of talent, and went on to become a jazz and pop empire by the 1960s. He was also a songwriter — here is his best-known work: Ray Charles – “The Mess Around.”

Lastly, just because you sometimes just need brilliant New Wave sung by a playboy bunny wearing a plexiglass bra: Missing Persons – “Words.”

Enjoy.

Back again with another weekly Mix CD:

We’ll start off with one of my favorite tracks from the Blaxploitation collections that I talked about last week. This is the classic track from Donny Hathaway’s 1970 debut album — I’m sure some of you will recognize the bass line and other instrumental snippets from this song, as it has been sampled dozens of times by various electronic and hip-hop acts. Donny Hathaway – “The Ghetto.”

Last month, I caught an episode of the Sundance Channel’s Iconoclasts — a tv series where they pair two people who are groundbreaking in their own particular fields, and just film them meeting with eachother. Very interesting stuff. The episode I saw featured Quentin Tarantino and Fiona Apple (who apparently knew eachother from when Apple was involved with director Paul Thomas Anderson, but hadn’t seen eachother in a few years) — very interesting stuff. Made me think about some of my favorite tracks of hers, including this one, from her largely-overlooked second album: Fiona Apple – “Fast As You Can.”

Sticking with the female singer-songwriter thing for a second: In my senior year of high school, I purchased Suzanne Vega’s debut album on cassette, and played the hell out of it. I never liked her later albums, which featured fuller arrangements — I always preferred what I felt was the “more pure” sound of her first. This is my favorite track from that first album, and, as such, my favorite of all of her songs: Suzanne Vega – “Marlene On The Wall.”

Another standby of my high school years was the soundtrack to Repo Man, which was my entry into punk. This song was a particular favorite, both for the content and for the looks it would generate as I played it loudly in suburban Johnson County, KS: Fear – “Let’s Have A War!” (Copy and paste the link, or click it and dig through the mp3 blog entry where I found it).

Last week’s mash-up link died right before I posted, so you never got to hear it. Ah well. Here’s another good one. Bass 221 productions take the Doors, Jefferson Airplane, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Peaches and a few other sonic nuggets and come up with the following: Bass 221 – “Break It Off.”

Here’s a new group I was introduced to this week. They’re called The Inner Banks, and they are a New York band that combines American roots music (folk, bluegrass, dixieland, western swing) instrumentation with electronica and ethereal vocals. It’s hard to describe, but wonderful. Give a listen: The Inner Banks – “Anthem.”

Another new discovery from the past week — an indie electronica group from Iceland called Worm Is Green. Excellent stuff. Listen to more at their MySpace page (linked back there). Worm is Green – “The Robot Has Got The Blues.”

Lastly, a new track from Fergie which is pretty cool — she’s done a Gwen-ish reggae-infused number, lending it some cred by having Rita Marley and the I-Threes provide backing vocals. I liked this far more than I thought I would…especially when the song completely changes about two-thirds of the way through. Fergie – “Mary Jane Shoes.”

EDIT: Almost forgot! This is one for , which I’ve been telling him about for a while. The 90s UK novelty song for fans of dialects: Bosnians – “Manchester Rap.”

There you go. Enjoy.

OK, the Bond film is out, Thanksgiving is over, and we now return to the standard mix-tape format of Friday Music:

First, though, one last quick bit of Bondage (heh) for : Here is the track I told you about that Bjork did with David Arnold for Shaken & Stirred, which she pulled at the last minute. Bjork – “You Only Live Twice.”

I hit the soul motherload this week — I picked up four double-CD compilations from the UK called “Blaxploitation: Soul, Jazz & Funk from the Inner City”, which , despite the title, are not just tracks from blaxploitation films, but a fantastic general sampler of early-to-mid-70s urban music. Really excellent stuff. Some really great album cover art, too. Anyway, here’s a good track from Vol. 2: Bill Withers – “Use Me.”

Found another great mash-up. The UK’s Go Home Productions mixed AC-DC’s “Back In Black” with Queen’s “We Will Rock You” — along with a bit of Outkast and more. GHP – “Rock in Black”

Some sweeping epic electronica from the latest album, Intercept! by UK electronica duo Bent: Bent – “Exercise 7”

Ramallah Underground is an artists collective based in Ramallah and Palestine, featuring hip-hop and electronic musicians, artists and photographers. They’ve been recently playing gigs all over the world, and demonstrating that art is still possible even in war. Here is a nifty track by Stormtrap, one of the founders of the group: Stormtrap – “Areeb il Shar.”

I’d like to say that this is for , but actually, it’s for me — because she took the CD that sent me, and has been listening to it in her car — and I haven’t seen the thing since! I guess I should have expected it, since the band has a very Duran Duran-meets-Depeche-Mode kinda sound. This is White Rose Movement, from their album Kick: White Rose Movement – “Love is a Number.”

A lot of you have heard this one, I’m sure — but I know that a couple of you have wanted to grab a copy, so here it is — the brilliant cover of “Comfortably Numb” done by Scissor Sisters on their first album, which re-imagines the song as a disco tune by the Bee-Gees. Scissor Sisters – “Comfortably Numb.”

Lastly — as some of you know: As of today, I have ended my consulting contract with RPGNow, which means that I no longer assist them with customer service emails. I am free to focus on my own business, and no longer have to tip-toe around my fellow publishers for fear of reflecting poorly upon RPGNow. In tribute to this liberation, I post the following: Joan Jett and the Blackhearts – “Bad Reputation.”

Aw yeah. Bring it on, bitches. :)