All posts by AMR

Friday Music Day: April 5, 2013

Murder by Death is a band that I wished I liked more. They've toured with Ha Ha Tonka twice, and are now on the same label, Bloodshot. Unfortunately, I just find their songwriting weak and hookless: nothing to draw me in or make me want to come back, except for a few jokey things about whiskey and shaving with knives. They may have finally released the album that will fix that for me: a covers album, with the covers selected by fans on Kickstarter. Among the titles:
NEVER TEAR US APART By INXS
LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD by Sam The Sham and the Pharoahs
KISS by Scout Niblett*
NEW COAT OF PAINT By Tom Waits
JUST DROPPED IN By Kenny Rogers
WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD By Louie Armstrong
WE ARE THE ROAD CREW by Motorhead
HOLD ON By Wilson Phillips
I even like their fans' taste. Hope this covers album is good.
*Still one of the five best songs on my iPod.

With that out of the way, go ahead and share your random ten. If you wish, you could pick one that you'd like another band/artist to cover, or pick a song for one of those artists to cover.

FMD: March 22, 2012

Apropos of nothing (other than listening yesterday): Is Fog's "Pneumonia" the best song to come out of Minneapolis since Purple Rain (and disallowing any later Prince)? Listen and decide for yourself (Lyrics contain profanities):
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WavKots-bK0
"The casserole was good and the drives were so nice. Welcome to the worst part of your life."
I'd also entertain notions that "Check Fraud" (vocal version) and "What-A-Day Day" by the same artist could be nominated, but by gum does that turntable solo kick ass and flip genres. Basically, it's a Neil Young-type ballad with record scratches for drums and guitar solo. I saw Broder play this once at First Ave, after I had become familiar with the album. I was mesmerized.

Friday Music Day: March 15, 2013

So far, I've played for y'all two of the pieces of music I've made. Today, I'm going to share a piece that I'm pretty sure is my favorite thing I've ever done. Called "Mbeer", I assembled it solely from one short .wav file of Homer Simpson saying "Mmmm...beer", and teasing it all until it fell apart, stretching it, folding it back on itself, until it was a ten-minute piece of angry, jagged sonic taffy. My only functions were cut, copy, paste, delete before, delete after, reverse, halve speed, double speed, volume +25%, volume -25%, and echo. I had one level of undo.

If you don't have ten minutes to listen to more-or-less unpleasant noises, I also assembled a three-minute radio edit, with which to focus your discomfort. I wish I could remember how I did that.

I know so little about noise as a music genre, and I know way more now than I did when I made this.
One thing I've really enjoyed about listening to Aaron Dilloway's Modern Jester is that it's reminded me of this one thing I made that I'm really, truly satisfied with, even after 15 years.

I know this isn't "music" or what most of you would listen to, but please be kind, I've never really shared this with anyone other than EAR (who can't really do much more than "That's nice, hon"). If you've listened to either, a good Minnesota-nice "That sure is different!" is fine by me.

Friday Music Day: 3/8/13

I did a full iPod purge last night. Cleaned it full off and started a new list from scratch of what I wanted. Although much of that was good stuff, I needed some different good stuff, y'know? I'd guess that the iPod has 90% new content (vs yesterday).

Watch as my random ten looks the same as any other week. Then share yours.