The Greatest Love Song

11 Feb

Four letters entrusted with a mighty, untamed and unpredictable concept. Love works in mysterious ways. Love is crazy. Love is every cliche in the book. It is original and fresh, but old and stalwart. It is sometimes evanescent, but idealistically it lasts forever. It makes you act funny. It makes you upset when everything is going well and makes you happy when everything is falling around you. It keeps you stable, but it’s as fickle as the weather.

Let’s get this straight. Love is odd and it is impossible to understand its herculean-like power. But, when you fall in love, the once inextricable vines do weaken and cripple. You are allowed to see what this crazy little thing called love is all about. People toss around the word too often. I love this. I love that. I love you. I loved that spaghetti. I loved how you prepared that spaghetti. God, I am hungry for spaghetti. I have to stop posting at 1 a.m.

It is inevitable that this word will be thrown around. Generally, words like love, that are broad semantically, are used improperly and too often. I am a violator of this. But I save my one real “love you” for my girlfriend and since we will be celebrating our fourth Valentine’s Day together, I want to feature my favorite love song, “Wonderful Tonight” by Eric Clapton.

My guess is she liked it

I “love” (damn, I did it) “Wonderful Tonight” because of its simplicity and genuine dedication. Clapton takes the most banal, uninteresting dinner party lyric and turns it into this symbol of adoration and love. There is no need for any crazy lyric. Love, in Clapton’s eyes, is as simple as thinking that she looks “Wonderful Tonight” and having them take care of you, and he is right. That is what is so beautiful about Clapton’s song. It is also paired with an equally simple, but amazing guitar riff that allows the guitar to guide the song. My favorite lyric:

“I feel wonderful
Because I see the love light in your eyes
And the wonder of it all
Is that you just don’t realize
How much I love you”

The lyric spills it all out there for everyone to hear. She made him feel wonderful. Her simple being makes him feel wonderful. It is a quiet display of absolute love and that is why it is a masterpiece. I hope everyone has a Happy Valentine’s Day.

Projections – The Blues Project

9 Feb

In November of 1966, The Blues Project, a perspicacious band of musicians from New York, released Projections, their second studio album. After its release the band started to fall apart. Was that the reason for the little recognition the album received? I cannot say that the volatile band relations led to a bad album, so no. On the contrary, Projections, is an excellent album that showcased the range of musical expertise that The Blues Project had.

The Blues Project was best when it consisted of Danny Kalb, Al Kooper, Steve Katz and Andy Kulberg. Kulberg, originally from Buffalo, played bass guitar and flute. Kooper, of Hollis Hills, Queens, was a wiz with several instruments, but mainly played keyboard with the band. Kalb, of Mt. Vernon, played blues guitar. Katz, also of New York, played guitar and harmonica.

The band played sharp and creative music because of the intelligence and somewhat prophetic ways of these men I just listed. The Blues Project was one of the first bands to experiment with the psychedelic sound and, along with the Grateful Dead, pioneer a style of jam-band music. If the original incarnation of The Blues Project stayed around for longer it would have been interesting to see if they garnered more respect and success. I’d go out on a limb right now and say absolutely. Projections is evidence of this.

Keep this in mind. The Blues Project’s next studio album came out in 1968. Steve Katz and Al Kooper had left and formed Blood Sweat & Tears, fulfilling Kooper’s longing to form a rock band with a horn section (which also was precocious). No offense Kulberg and Kalb (both fine musicians), but when you eliminate two important band members it is certainly tough to recover.

Projections is our best look at The Blues Project. The album does not disappoint. It has wide display of numerous rock genres and it explores lengthier, more experimental pieces. Let’s cover a few songs.

“Two Trains Running” is an 11-minute blues/rock epic. It goes under-appreciated by the masses even though it is a predecessor to the blues/rock that popular bands like Led Zeppelin played. Remember, this was released in 1966. It is way ahead of its time. Blues is the basis of rock n’ roll but long pieces like “Two Trains Running” were jam-band material that only a few bands were creating. The instrumental precision is also at a high. Everything from the sweet harmonica to incredible organ is just spot on and a pleasure to listen to. This is hard blues/rock before that genre was popularized five years after this release. The Dead were playing trippier music. This is the ol’ fashioned blues revival from a band that focused on the blues.

But…

Wait, what? This marks the sheer diversity on this album. All of a sudden we are transported to medieval Europe with this melodious beginning. This song, written by Steve Katz (hence “Steve’s Song”), showcases wonderful strings and flutes. It actually touches on the psychedelic/folk revolution that had just started taking place in 1966.

Projections is severely underrated and deserves a lot of credit for being the revolutionary album that it was.

R.E.M’s Collapse A Good Thing – Younger Decca – Happy Together (if the grades are okay)

7 Feb

R.E.M‘s New Album Best in Years

In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, R.E.M guitarist Peter Buck said that R.E.M’s new album Collapse into Now, “is, song for song, the best thing we’ve ever done.”

That may be a slight exaggeration. R.E.M has released enough hits that their greatest hits album is jam packed with awesome material. The new album will be released on March 8 and it has garnered a lot of excitement within the threesome. Bassist Mike Mills and vocalist Michael Stipe are also quite excited about the release.

R.E.M. will not tour for this album and this is also their last release for Warner. I will definitely check out the album and encourage you all to do the same. R.E.M. was one of the only good things to come out of the 80’s musically and while the band is certainly far removed from their prime, I am encouraged by their confidence.

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Decca is Back

Decca records is recording again and attempting to crack the impossible mystery of how to get young listeners interested in classical music.

“It’s kind of a reaffirmation of our commitment to classical music, a bit like renewing your wedding vows,” managing director Paul Moseley told Reuters at a lunch celebrating the re-Decca-ration

It’s tough to say because I actually like classical music, but I tend to believe that attempting to get young listeners into classical music is like climbing Mount Everest. Is it possible? Yes. But people may die and it is a massive amount of work. Decca will try to promote young artists but, let’s be real, classical music is just not sexy enough. It is not danceable and marketable to our mainstream youth. Keep trying though. I’m pulling for you.

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Rock Teaching


Mark Volman knows a thing or two about successful music. If I wanted to take a class on music management I would take it with him. You don’t know who I am talking about right? Volman is the curly-haired co-founder of The Turtles and is the guy making the money when you download “Happy Together” from Youtube.

Volman is just one musician that has hit the mainstage of the classroom in order to teach some young folk about music, and not just how to play it.

“People come in with this television idea that everybody is going to be the next Carrie Underwood,” Volman told John Rogers from the Associated Press. “They don’t understand how many nights you’re not going to get paid what they said you would and how many nights you’re not going to have a room to sleep in because the promoter didn’t get it in the rider you signed.”

Check out the rest of this great read: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110207/ap_en_mu/us_school_of_rock

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Washed Out – You and I

5 Feb

Raise your hand if you’re a hipster.

Seeing as no one did, we seem to be in a room full of hipsters. Give me a second while I put on my ironic glasses. My scarf is already tied firmly around my neck so now just let me adjust my stance ever so nonchalantly. And now I will lecture to you, my impartial audience, about music and honestly I care more about the drink in my hand.
The only thing keeping us all here anyway is this chillwave that’s playing.

What IS Chillwave?

Many great minds have pondered this and the general consensus thus far is ‘cool’ or ‘whatever’.

Most heavily I think it is the nostalgia of 80’s synth-pop, but it incorporates many modern day styles such as shoe-gaze and lo-fi. And it is very chill. Just an idea anyway.

The term itself was coined by Carles of the blog hipsterrunoff.com… I’m sure no one’s heard of that. Regardless, the name itself I see as a sort of a reflection on the times and culture of places like Williamsburg. Now while the Hipster’s of this area tend to listen to all sorts of good music, chillwave will always have a special place in their impartial hearts. I mean it would be cool.

And it has a really high success rate of good bands compared to other genres, especially seeing how there’s only like about a handful. Basically something like 4/7 anyway.This band is one of those few gems, and rightfully so.

Washed Out is the stage name of Georgia-based Ernest Greene. One day Pitchfork stumbled upon his myspace, and now he’s famous, having attended every Pitchfork Festival Since.

His style uses ample amounts of effects processing, looping, sampling, synthesizer, and heavily filtered melodic lyrics. Then again all chillwave uses this style. And it works. The sound that is created can be described as a warm and blurry fuzz which is held together by an 80’s work-out video-esque beat and baseline.

This particular song is from the Adult Swim singles project, which also seemed to have jumped onto the band wagon. It features a Caroline Polachek, someone whom I have never heard of before and who nonetheless has a very chillwave worthy voice. The song is also free to download off of Adult Swim’s website.

I also definitely recommend indulging in magic while listening to this. It will be the most relaxing and chill thing you could possibly do. The lyrics will drag you ever so slowly over a pile of warm and slightly tingly pillows. Although you will be powerless, the bass line will make your heart dance in a sort of slow-motion sepia sort of way. Meanwhile your thoughts will realize what the 80’s would have been like if coke wasn’t around. It truly is a musical and magical experience that will change your life.

Get Washed Out’s debut album entitled Life of Leisure, you won’t be disappointed.

That’s all I have to say, not that any of you actually cared.

Effing Hipsters.
&D

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Six Degrees of Your iPod: The Impossible Task

4 Feb

Six Degrees of Your iPod has become an excuse to embed several awesome songs into one equally as awesome post. Then, I tirelessly search for a comparison between the first and sixth song which would be significantly easier if I only liked The Beatles. Yes, I do believe that “In My Life” and “A Day in the Life” are quite connected. Unfortunately, my job becomes significantly harder when I attempt to link songs that have absolutely nothing to do with each other (which is what I often try to do). Let’s get to it.

1.) “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head” by B.J. Thomas.

This melancholic catchy tune was written for the movie Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid by Hal David and Burt Bacharach. Did you know that the song was initially offered to Ray Stevens and even Bob Dylan was reportedly offered the song. God, that would have been weird. B.J. Thomas took the assignment and the song propelled into a #1 hit and an academy award winner for best original song. Good choice B.J.

2.) “Happy Together” by The Turtles

3.) “Pure Love” by The Mountain Goats

4.) “I Want to Grow Up To Be a Politician by The Byrds

5.) “Imitation of Life” by R.E.M.

6.) “The One I Love” by David Gray

A great single off singer/songwriter David Gray’s seventh studio album. How am I going to compare these?

Comparison

And it is judgment time. I believe I am stumped. This is close to an impossible task. A B.J. Thomas song from 1969 to a David Gray song from 2005. An Oklahoma boy and a musician from Cheshire, England. A Grey’s Anatomy episode was named after “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head” and David Gray’s last name rhymes with the first name of the show. That’s not good enough. Here is the best I can give you. Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head peaked at 12 on the U.S. Billboard Album charts while Life in Slow Motion, the album where “The One I Love” only hit #16 on the charts. Have anything better? I’m eager to hear what you can come up with!

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