The first piece of music i heard by composer Arvo Part was Tabula Rasa, which still stands most likely as my favorite. He is a minimalist composer, who creates deeply emotional music from sometimes seemingly simple interactions. This clip is from the documentary 24 Preludes for a Fugue released in 2005 and is chock full of intimate moments in which you get to see the sort of meditation and thought he puts into the music. It’s generally the kind of music you want to dedicate some amount of time to fully enjoy. It builds and swells usually from very quiet to occasionally quite raucous and lovely. Watch this clip and if you are the slightest bit intrigued, I’d recommend Tabula Rasa as a starting point.
Classic experiment in physics involving propane, a pvc tube, a speaker…and a crazy dude. Ok he’s maybe he’s not entirely crazy, and this is a pretty damn fun way to waste an afternoon probably. Basically you have to poke a bunch of holes in the tube and run the gas into it. Then you manipulate the flame with sound…just watch the video it’s one of those cases where my lame attempt to explain it falls short…A search on Youtube brings up a few (million) more examples.
So I was wasting time on Youtube when I should have been working…it’s OK I am kind of the boss, so I’ll take it out of my own bonus this year thank you. However I “stumbled upon” this interesting video from Miho Hatori, who was a member of NY hipster group Cibo Matto. Miho is originally from Japan and she creates music that has an interesting South American electronica flavor to it. Anyway the name of the song is…Barracuda, now you probably know there is ALREADY a song called Barracuda, and fans of the classic rock mainstays Heart may take offense to this name hijack…so let’s have a poll. Watch the videos, and vote…and make sure to tell your fellow fans as this could change the course of rock n’ roll forever…*I added an extra option to the poll for those complete geniuses among us who of course hate EVERYTHING and are way too cool for school*
Canada seems to be a really fertile ground for great bands these days. Museum Pieces are a two piece hailing from Halifax. they tour in a honda civic and will go anywhere, i’d suggest you contact them and get them to come to your town. The music is basic indie rock style, maybe falls into the category of shoe gazer, I’m not much on categories in general…It’s good song writing, and a really nice full sound for just a duo. their last full album was from 2005 on Canadian label Youth Club. Check out the video for “It Keeps Me Up” a damn fine song.
Have you ever been annoyed that you could not download the songs from Myspace? Well here is a dastardly website which will let you grab whichever song you like. I’m sure it’s illegal, and we of course totally don’t condone you in any way use it…You can however download pretty much any of the music I’ve created in the last 20 years as a musician with my blessing.
San Francisco’s Tussle are a four piece band, but not in the traditional rock sense. The line up contains two drummers, bass, and one gentleman designated as full time knob twiddler. The result is a solid dance backbone with lots of repetition, percussive sprinkles, heavy bass, and ambient noise accents. They have an accompanying visual video presentation that tends to lean towards the abstract psychedelic end. Recent live highlights include extra percussion onstage for members of the audience to take part in should they choose. They currently have a few releases on the Smalltown Supersound label.
Raymond Pettibon is of course most famous for his great artistic illustrations that have graced many a punk rock flier, and album cover, and he designed the ubiquitous Black Flag logo. His style is fairly simple and usually involves an illustration and a caption, and some good old punk rock sarcastic wit. Raymond was born here in Tucson AZ so we have an extra soft spot for the guy, and I discovered this great page of recent works in progress (recent as of 2003 let’s hope some are done).
Go Hank! He is really on a roll here speaking in Israel about his visits to wounded soldiers at Walter Reid Hospital, and the effects of war. He’s so damn good at crafting these speaking things these days, his points are perfectly illustrated, he delivers with just the right amount of candid human appeal, and he is careful to not offend the people he is trying to make a point to. He ends with a very heartfelt personal appeal to the people in the audience to find their anger and stop this fighting so that their children do not inherit it. Thank you once again Henry for providing a whiff of sanity in this crazy time. The politicians and the profiteers don’t want to stop the wars…it’s up to us.
Peaches proves once again why she has won my heart, and the hearts of so many others. Here she is, probably given the scheduling shaft, and having to play during the day at some music festival. Watch as she performs probably the best song ever written (yeah i know, but c’mon it is a great one) and takes a leisurely stroll out into the crowd. It seems 3/4 of the people just looked stunned that this woman in a XXX cape is singing “fuck the pain away” out in their midst, she does eventually find some fans to help out.
Does anyone have the pulse of the REAL underground like M.I.A.? Her last album “Arular” along with the wild mixtape “Piracy Funds Terrorism Vol 1″ were a complete annihilation and resurrection of everything pop should be, a perfect blend of hiphop, electronica and dare i say good old punk rock attitude. She combines this music with her stunning beauty, and a high voltage live performance into what is simply an unstoppable typhoon of underground pop music perfection. It seems from this video release of a new song, “Bird Flu” (which we assume is from a forthcoming album) she has settled into her groove pretty well and is continuing to bring the sound from the people to the people.
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