MUSIC
My CD Collection - updated only biannually, this collection ONLY reflects the hard copy on hand. MP3s and 4s are a WHOLE different set of stuff. Which is why my Pod sports the most hard space available. :-/
Music is more important to
me than almost anything...books and animals being the two things that
come readily to mind when I try to think of what I would NOT be willing
to give up in order to keep music in my life. Bother the rest of
it...gimmee music. I hear songs in my head
fairly constantly, as those who know me well can attest. "There's
a song for every occasion" has become the running joke about me amongst
my friends and family. Even my husbands (there have been two
brave - or foolhearty enough to give it go) call me now and then to ask
about a song or a movie, and frighteningly - or not, I always seem to
have the answer.
Mid-life,
all the musical
influences of my interesting little life (an intricately woven story
that includes time on the road doing sound with some big names,
parental influences of no small demeanor, marriage to a recording
engineer, and marriage to a musician) have apparently sunk into my
soul,
for I can suddenly pick up instruments and just start playing
them! A strange and wondrous evolution, and I am even more amazed
than
my friends at this talent. May it please the
Cosmos, I would like next to be able to speak all those languages I've
heard all these years and tried to learn... I've got terrific
tonal
memory but the place in my brain that stores the connections twixt all
those sounds is lacking somehow. Ah well....ask me to sing almost
any
song and I'm on it like white on rice.
I play an alto recorder I picked up for 100Kr at a Danish Loppemarket (used goods...known as a flea market in the States). Playing the silly thing has had an unexpected benefit, too; my breath control when singing is WAY better...I sound positively good most of the time! I started playing piano for dad one day and was amazed to hear some really good stuff just flowing out, though I don't really enJOY the feel of a piano very much. Someday I'd like to snag a clarinet, for use with the jazz and torch songs I especially enjoy playing, simply because the clarinet offers a far better range of notes than those available with my recorder, and thus is ideal for that type of music. No idea where the talent's coming from or who I'm channelling, but I hope it sticks around.
I play an alto recorder I picked up for 100Kr at a Danish Loppemarket (used goods...known as a flea market in the States). Playing the silly thing has had an unexpected benefit, too; my breath control when singing is WAY better...I sound positively good most of the time! I started playing piano for dad one day and was amazed to hear some really good stuff just flowing out, though I don't really enJOY the feel of a piano very much. Someday I'd like to snag a clarinet, for use with the jazz and torch songs I especially enjoy playing, simply because the clarinet offers a far better range of notes than those available with my recorder, and thus is ideal for that type of music. No idea where the talent's coming from or who I'm channelling, but I hope it sticks around.
Listening Preferences
Honestly, I really will listen to
pretty much anything, once. I'm wide open to new sounds and
ideas, and have recently found myself listening to more and more hip
hop and some rap. Gnarls Barkley is really interesting and Mary J.
Blige is simply fabulous, as are a
bunch of other folks WAY too many people from my generation haven't
given a
shot.
There is some really FAB local
music that I embrace and listen to live whenever possible. Abney
Park, Deepsleep Narcotic Company, and the largely unknown
but really amazing band to accompany the creation of art is Surrealized
- their music is similar to that of Deep Forest/Enigma/Delerium. Along the same lines of those
folks are the WONDERFUL Beats Antique, Thievery Corporation, Solace,
Maduro, Daniel Agust Haraldsson, The Presets, Pentaphone, Snog,
Morphine, and Portishead, and a ton of others
worth your while.
BTW, if you have the bandwidth, I REALLY recommend Pandora.com internet radio to you. Very cool folks with a great product.
My playlist will give you taste of
the variety that moves me....THIS week
- Beatles, Beatles, Beatles -
I have always used The Beatles as a palette cleanser, an auditory path
back to center. In December I watched 'Across the Universe' at
the
Rose, and ever since I have been on a Beatles kick.
- Jethro Tull - I have been
in love with their music since I heard the first note, though the truth
depth of my soul wasn't touched until Thick As A Brick arrived on my
turntable. Managed to see them in Denver, 1972...yeah, the Thick
As A Brick tour....same summer and place I saw Led Zeppelin on the IV
Album tour.
- Talking Heads - I used to listen to David Byrne and company ALL the time back in the early 90s, but drifted away. Now I'm back, and feeling all the power that music lends me.
- Waterbone - Tibet - Ancient visions in an extraordinary mix of trip hop grooves and organic voicings. This one will keep you moving with a fluid rhythm. By now, if you've been paying attention at ALL, you will have noticed a trend on this page toward tribal funk, world beat, something out of the ordinary. This is another of that genre. By the way, very nice stereo separation on this..nice work, Greg.
- Meshell Ndegéocello - Bitter - LOVED her first album, so gave this one a shot, and I really it, too! Mellow music, sexy, a little bluesy, sort of a far more refined Tracy Chapman. Nice underlying hopeful notes, though.
- Miles Davis - Kind of Blue - Two weeks ago it was Bitches Brew..I just can't get enough of this intense master of the trumpet. It doesn't get much better than this.
- Tina Turner - When I'm
all alone, dancing to the music of Tina is more freeing than any other
experience I can think of. She is simply the best.
- Beausoleil - There is NOTHING like Cajun music to improve your mood, and help you get your work done so you can party.
- Nils Petter Molvær - Khmer - Strange, interesting, tribal jazz primitive trumpet from a Norwegian group headed by trumpeteer Molvær. Sounds like ice..glacier grotto ice..with more than a touch of Lybian desert lurking right outside the door. As I said, strange...interesting.
Here's some good stuff to try:
- MOX - One of my favourites, especially when working on an art piece. Here's the RGB Records blurb, "A wicked stylish mix of classic electric guitars, ambient electronics, world beats and tasty samples. The debut CD from this San Francisco instrumental group delivers the best of three privately released albums. MOX will give equal delight to fans of Duane Eddy, Sheila Chandra and Brian Eno."
- D'Cückoo - "Ready for post-industrial cyber-tribal world funk? The newest sound from San Francisco is a band called D'Cückoo, the all-women multimedia, techno-arts ensemble that's booting up a hip new groove for the 90's. Their debut CD, Umoja, turns on fans of rock, pop, techno / dance, and world music." (RGB Records site)
Sadly, RBG has
gone T.U. (tits up). Gone. Kaput. Vanished from the scene, man.
Music is the pure essence of
language,
and poetry (lyrics included) is the pure expression of our souls.
No matter what your preference, it's very likely I can pull some of
that music off my shelf
and will gladly listen with you, though I confess my rap selection is
somewhat limited, and there is NO reggae, 'cause it BORES me.
That said, I will say I love The Teddybears 'Cobrastyle' but that's
probably because it has a solid techno beat, and I'm a sucker for
techno-industrial. Have I mentioned how wild I used to be about
Cabaret Voltaire and The Future Sound of London? No? Well...
I'LL SLEEP WHEN I'M DEAD
Just so you know, I shall
always simply adore Warren Zevon. An artist till his ride showed
up too soon.
I don't miss him cause I have his music. Somebody remember to play it at my funeral, 'kay?
I don't miss him cause I have his music. Somebody remember to play it at my funeral, 'kay?
It seems the songs do tend to remain the same...
And now for something not particularly different...some favourite songs with links to videos
Urge For Going
Joni Mitchell
I get the urge for going when the meadow grass is turnin brown and summertime is fallin down and winter's closing in
All I Want
Joni Mitchell
I am on a lonely road and I am traveling
Looking for the key to set me free
Busload of Faith
Lou Reed
You can't depend on no miracle...you can't depend on the air...you can't depend on your family
...you can't depend on your friends ...you can't depend on a beginning ...you can't depend on an end
...you can't depend on intelligence...you can't depend on god
...you can depend only on one thing..you need a busload of faith to get by)
Here Comes The Sun
Beatles
I feel the ice is slowly melting. Here's comes the sun, and I say it's alright...
Mad World
Tears for Fears (Gary Jules' version)
...and I find it kind of funny, I find it kind of sad
that the dreams in which I'm dying are the best I've ever had
Why?
Annie Lennox
I tell myself too many times Why don't you ever learn to keep your big mouth shut?
I may be mad, I may be blind, I may be visciously unkind...
Once In A Lifetime
Talking Heads
Letting the days go by/water flowing underground
Into the blue again/after the money's gone
Once in a lifetime/water flowing underground.
It's Only Life
The Feelies
What does it mean?
What can you do about it?
What can you say?
You don't even know about it
Nobody talks
Nobody listens
Well look around
Yeah look out your window
They're having a ball
Having a party
Well come inside
You can do what you like
Well it's a nightmare
It's all negative
Nothing matters
And what if it did?
You could lock your doors
Close all your windows and
Hide away ...
It's only life ...
Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight
Beatles
And in the end, the love you take
is equal to the love you make