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Archive | October, 2010

Becoming Jimi Hendrix and a Song for the Road

I have probably exhausted every photo of Mr. Jimi Hendrix that Google images has to offer. But, I can’t help it. It is hard not to write about perhaps the greatest guitarist of all time. Well, in my opinion, he is the greatest. But, what’s the sense of sparking arguments. HE’S THE BEST!

But, seriously, Jimi has not been with us on the physical Earth realm (sounds like a cliche video game) for 40 years, but he still lives on as an indelible musical presence. He is a rare music immortal, a mark in the history books one could say. Well, I am saying it. I know two people agree with me.

Steve Roby and Brad Schreiber published Jimi Hendrix: From Southern Crossroads to Psychedelic London, the Untold Story of a Musical Genius in August of this year. The book is a magnificent read and it provides a well-written, entertaining look at one of music’s greatest. It is the essential inside look at Jimi Hendrix.

PopMatters was kind enough to post an excerpt from this wonderful book and I would like to share it with all of you.

One rainy night, Private Billy Cox and a friend, after seeing a John Wayne movie, waited for the downpour to ebb. Through an open win¬dow of Service Club 1, Cox heard a solo guitar played in a wildly unique manner. He later claimed it was as if Beethoven and John Lee Hooker had merged.

“It was something the human ear hadn’t heard,” Cox reported. “I said, ‘That’s incredible!’ And the guy I was with said, ‘Sounds like shit to me.’ I went in and introduced myself to him and said I played a little upright bass, and I checked out the Danelectro he was playing.”

Boy, Jimi Hendrix was awesome.

Read the rest of the article here: http://www.popmatters.com/pm/feature/129823-becoming-jimi-hendrix-from-southern-crossroads-to-psychedelic-london/

Let me also give you all a good song for the road. I know this is a repeat, but, I am in the guitar mood. “Bridge of Sighs” by Robin Trower is an epic piece of music. A 10 minute live version is just heavenly.

Tags: Jimi Hendrix, Music, PopMatters, Robin Trower

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Categories Music News
Author Matthew Coleman

The United States of America…According to Joe Byrd

14 Oct

Try to picture this. You are recording music in 1967. The Beatles just released a little album entitled Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band. Moby Grape, Jefferson Airplane and The Doors are setting the psychedelic scene on fire and Jimi Hendrix is pondering whether or not you are experienced (and setting his own guitar on fire). You cut an album to compete in one of the greatest years for music ever…and you don’t use a guitar!

Sure fire failure, right? Wrong. Utterly wrong. What you do get is a psychedelic record way before its time. A record that shattered preconceived notions of rock n’ roll and challenged listeners to understand its pulchritudinous and spatial splendor. And, like many great works of art, it was smothered by the popular music of the time and left to rot on the discount racks. But, it has been received well by recent reviewers and will now be featured as one of the most underrated albums of all time on the Music Court. It is the eponymous United States of America.

Straight out of LA, CA, US

The USA only released this one album that hit #181 on Billboard’s Top 200 in 1968. Afterwards, the band went their separate ways. Joe Byrd, the main electronic music man, went on to form his field hippies and go on creating psychedelic works. While it may not have looked like it at the time, the USA seriously quit while they were ahead of the psychedelic game.

The album was influential more for the band’s adroitness with the emerging electronic sound that was about to become pervasive in the 60’s music scene, rather than Byrd’s radical lyric that made the band name rather humorous). And, because the technology was obscenely expensive at the time, the band was left with whatever oscillators and other devices they could get their hands on. But, the sound that they produced. Wow.

Also, because Byrd was really into early American music (dixieland jazz and marches for example) he included clips of these pieces in USA’s elaborate compositions. Therefore, the listener is bombarded with a sound attack that combines old-time America mixed with the newer psychedelic sound and vocalist Dorothy Moskowitz’s freaky voice.

Just check out “The American Metaphysical Circus.”

The rap on USA at the time of this album’s release was that they were too mechanical. But, truthfully, they were just moving into a different realm of psychedelia. This was an experiment and it blew the top off of the conventions of an electronic sound.

Tags: Jefferson Airplane, Jimi Hendrix, Moby Grape, Music, United States of America

Flying Lotus – Recoiled

12 Oct

Hello all! I have been super busy with work and school, but here is a post!

(POST)

Fall is upon us! The cold catches us sleeping as we make the best of the fleeing sun. With hopeless bliss we under dress but then disease spreads without mercy. As we struggle, throat sore and head aching, school catches up to us just to tell us that we are behind. But you just want to party. And before you know it winter is here and fall was just a blur.

But fear not! I have the solution!

*I reach into my music library and play a song*

This is Flying Lotus. He will aid you on your journey through fall and prepare you for the coming winter. And his music will leave its impression on your forever, so you will remember this season in at least one way.

This song he skillfully conjured up using three ingredients; melodic harps and spacey vibes, random electronic sounds and sampled video game noises, and a wrapper of the illest hip-hop beats ever to hold it all together.

Its name is Recoiled and it is featured on his album titled Cosmogramma. It leaves you startled and confused. But although fall can be just so (startling and confusing), you have to remember about the pretty leaves on the trees. This song can easily be a red, orange, and yellow, dance party in a dying forest, one from which you were recoiled.

And what a gangster party that would be. This guy does what most hip-hop artist can’t even dream of doing. 2:54 is so fucken hip it should give you shivers and an urge to bounce (or hop).

And he does it all without even saying a word. The many different sounds just blend into shining tides of peaceful exploration of technological mystery. Its tells a story and words aren’t even needed. This is true experimental hip-hop in all its beautiful glory.

And according to most hipsters, this album is one of the most revolutionary things to happen this year. Thank you hipsters. I recommend listening to the entire thing, because it cannot be described in words. It will turn your fall into a rise.

Oh and apparently Flying Lotus was inspired to make this album after having tried DMT for the first time. &)
-oko

Tags: Flying Lotus, Recoiled

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Categories Journey to the Center of the Mind
Author okocim

Get Back to Where You Once Belonged

11 Oct

I went out with a Beatles‘ song and six long days later I am certainly back to where I once belonged.

I apologize for the long Court hiatus. Court was still in session, but, blog posts were left entrapped in my head while my body moved from place to place to place. Business is in my nature.

But, as the Jets prepare for their Monday Night Football game against the Vikings of Minnesota, I am finally back writing and am quite happy to do so.

How about some Links?

How can we not remain on the subject of those man on the rooftop above. Well, specifically just the man in the picture. Arguably the greatest rock musician since Louis Jordan composed one of the first rock songs with “Choo Choo Ch’Boogie in 1946, John Lennon would have celebrated his 70th birthday two days ago, if he was still alive that is. His murder stopped an incredibly talented 40-year-old right in his tracks and cut off any chance of him to achieve more musically and politically. No post can do the man justice so I thought I would just provide you with something I found interesting in the large amount of news about Mr. Lennon that has been popping up on the internet recently.

Link: http://www.nme.com/news/john-lennon/53338

The FBI is still bothering Lennon even after his death. What? Conspiracy Theory? I am just kidding of course. I am keen to absurdity and the Lennon conspiracy theories are certainly absurd, but, so is the FBI seizing 34-year-old fingerprints. Seriously, even if it is government property, how is it affecting anyone anyhow. I am confused.

I mentioned Louis Jordan and this inspirational song helped bridge the gap between country and blues music. It formed some true rhythm and blues and was truly before its time. Enjoy.