Time for some (possibly premature) INDIE ROCK NOSTALGIA!
These two songs are almost too on-the-nose (sorry, Colin) as a distillation of the distinctions of the Krug and Boeckner styles.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zS92Nzikikk
Thanks for another great week at the helm, everybody!
(3 votes, average: 8.00 out of 10)
Loading... I know a lot of people don't like this guy, but I do think he's got a pretty good voice and I try not to take him too seriously. I miss the mariachi horns on the bridge, though.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfjrzZc3bAI
(3 votes, average: 8.33 out of 10)Loading... I know she's been played here a number of times already (h/t Bootsy) but whatever, she's awesome. And I couldn't find a good video of something else I wanted to play.
At least this is one performer I have managed to see live this year. Same night this video was recorded, in fact.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r64DDnkVyz0
Heading into the elevator on the way back to my car that night this dude asked if I'd been at the Wolves game. I was like, "Nah, bro, First Ave." Then he was like, "Aw yeah, I heard them playing on the Current tonight!" And I was like, "Yeah man, Julia Holter!" Then the door shut. That's the end of that story.
(5 votes, average: 8.40 out of 10)Loading... Here's another band that's been through the Cities a couple times in the past year that I'd like to see but haven't gotten around to yet. I gotta move back up there, I'd probably go to a lot more shows.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D94JLrCCzyg
(3 votes, average: 7.67 out of 10)Loading... Still going to chicken out of playing my favorite song off their debut album, but this is also pretty good.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xn4l0fgVJ3U
(5 votes, average: 8.60 out of 10)Loading... Oh look it's The National playing the Grateful Dead.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4paT-FtAHzU
(5 votes, average: 7.20 out of 10)Loading... So I guess it's my Guest DJ week again. OH LOOK IT'S DAN BOECKNER
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PdY3BXbE14
If everything goes as scheduled I'll probably play some other band Dan Boeckner is in by the end of this week, so keep your fingers crossed.
(5 votes, average: 8.00 out of 10)Loading... The love – the love for the music, the love for the culture, the love of father & son – is palpable in this video.
Pops Hayes and I had a falling out when I was sixteen. I moved out of his house and never moved back. I spent a lot of time in my teens and early twenties trying to define myself as anything other than what I saw in him. Eventually that meant running away from the life I was living. The dangers implicit in that new life eventually led to a reconciliation, one which he initiated & worked at until I trusted him enough to reach for the outstretched hand. Getting to know Pops again as an adult eventually led to friendship. Getting to know him as a humble, dying man ennobled by his approach to mortality led to admiration. Getting older without him has led to recognition – I see him in my face, I see him in my better moments, I see him in my less admirable moments. I might have succeeded in completely defining myself as something apart from him, but I don't think I would succeeded at maintaining that difference forever.
Pops laid the foundation for a lot of my musical taste. I grew up listening to Johnny Cash & Chicago, Louis Armstrong & CCR, polka on KWNO, bluegrass on WIZM, & oldies on KQEG. As I got older, my sonic adventurism led me to new musical places. Once we were back on speaking terms, we spent a fair amount of time talking about music. Pops didn't always like the stuff I brought him – he didn't care for Johnny Cash's American Recordings albums, for example – but he kept an open mind.
With one exception, the music I've played this week is stuff I've discovered since Pops died. It's stuff I would've liked to share with him, to hear what he thought. I think he'd really have enjoyed most of it, and at least been intrigued by all of it. We aren't Armenian, so "Bari Arakeel" has no special cultural significance to my family. But the performance...I know Pops would have been interested in the music. I know he would've recognized the love.
It'll be five years tomorrow. I love you, Pops.
(2 votes, average: 8.50 out of 10)Loading... What makes a vocal artist truly incomparable? Power? Range? Fluidity? Tone? Idiosyncrasy of delivery? Some singers have all three: Hank. Ella. Sinatra. Odetta. Sam Cooke. Elvis. Little Richard. Johnny Cash. Ray Charles. Patsy Cline. Otis Redding. Aretha. James Brown. Diana Ross. George Jones. Wilson Pickett. Nina Simone. Solomon Burke. Mavis Staples. Al Green. Dolly Parton. Marvin. Stevie Wonder. Tom Jones. Freddie Mercury. Prince. Tina. Michael Jackson. Chris Cornell. Adele. Gregory Porter.
Cécile McLorin Salvant has all those same qualities. She sings in a genre not many people are listening to anymore, but she's only 26. She'll be on that list someday. One more from the same WNYC session:
(2 votes, average: 9.00 out of 10)Loading... There are some amazing, groundbreaking jazz trumpet players out there right now: Tomasz Stanko, Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah, Avishai Cohen, Enrico Rava, Arturo Sandoval, Ambrose Akinmusire, Terrence Blanchard... and Ibrahim Maalouf. Maalouf's music blends the sonic landscape of his Lebanese heritage with classical training at a Parisian conservatory, a self-cultivated jazz impulse, and funk-inflected rock.
I gave you the longer, more intimate, small-venue live cut of "True Sorry," but if you like it I hope you'll check out this more expansive, atmospheric live recording made possible by the concert venue a Alcaline. I don't think I can pick between them.
I know you may have been expecting a video by Prince today. Instead, I'll leave you with footage of Ibrahim Maalouf in concert, showcasing a sound that embraces everything Prince stood for (and which he would have most certainly dug):
https://youtu.be/YYDOIzmAQxQ
(0 votes, average: 0.00 out of 10)Loading...