Hiatus
Friends & aficionados,
On a brief sojourn in Asia visiting family. Shall return in early February with more new music and bands of interest.
Explore the site at your leisure and see you shortly.
Into the future,
Oedipus
“A Forest” exclusive
“A Forest” is one of my favorite songs by The Cure.
Tomorrow we will post an exclusive never-seen-before video of the band performing this song in Boston in 1980 on Robert Smith’s 21st birthday.
To view it you will need a password.
Join the Oedipus Project on the left and we’ll send it to you.
Exclusive Cure Video
This Wednesday we’ll present the world premier video of The Cure performing “A Forest” on Robert Smith’s 21st birthday!
Yes, that’s from 1980, archived by the inestimable videographer Jan Crocker.
You’ll need a password to view it.
Join the The Oedipus Project on the left for free and we will send it to you.
2010/2011
The world of music is cyclical and goes into hiatus a few weeks before Christmas and into the new year. Slowly new music is released in January and gains momentum later in the winter flowing into the spring.
Bands that enthralled me last year included Arcade Fire, Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti, Avi Buffalo, Badly Drawn Boy, Beach House, Belle & Sebastian, Best Coast, Blonde Redhead, Delorean, The Drums, Dum Dum Girls, Eminem, Girl Talk, Glasser, Gorillaz, Janelle Monáe, Joanna Newsom, Karen Elson, Laura Marling, Lykke Li, Matt & Kim, Mumford & Sons, The National, No Age, Perfume Genius, Phoenix, School of Seven Bells, She & Him, Shearwater, Sleigh Bells, Stars, Titus Andronicus and Warpaint.
And The xx continued to give me great pleasure.
Here you will hear the best new music as it becomes available.
Next week we will have an exclusive Cure video.
Happy New Year indeed.
La Peste (and other Punk Chronicles) on DVD
Jan Crocker is a DIY videographer who worked at MIT’s film resource center in the late 70’s and who had the vision to film the burgeoning punk rock scene in Boston as well then relatively unknown punk bands as they passed through town. The earliest work is pre-MTV, and in those days the cameras were four-times the size of video cameras today–heavy, awkward, and tethered to cables that snaked through the club. In Jan’s own words:
“Shoots in those days were difficult. This was before Betamax and VHS cameras. Shit MTV wasn’t even plugged in then. The hand held stuff and cell phone things we take for granted today were science fiction back then. We used all of the MIT Film/Video Section equipment for the video shoots. They had a ton of equipment and it was all modified and tricked out by the engineer types. The shoots required up to 8-10 people to make it all happen. Most of the shoot had three b/w cameras. The camera signals were sent to a special effects generator and the Director would choose the shots he/she liked and would switch between them. Audio was recorded with two ambient mikes lowered from the ceiling and mixed with a board feed into a portable Shure mixer and sent to the video tape deck. The location production was all done live on the fly. These were students mind you doing the video work and that created additional production issues as well. You know cameras moving up, down, and shaking. Some cameras not even running. Alcohol was also involved.”
This is rock history and Jan wisely recorded and preserved it. His website includes numerous clips of many of the seminal punk bands from the 70’s and early 80’s. Here we can see his own rare footage of the Cure, the Buzzcocks, and Richard Hell, plus vital Boston bands like Mission of Burma, Human Sexual Response, The Lyres, The Neighborhoods, Robin Lane and the Chartbusters, Unnatural Axe, and La Peste. He’s also included early videos of various punk bands from around the world to give a feel for the era. (The Clash, Sex Pistols, Stiff Little Fingers, Gang of Four, Dead Kennedys, The Stranglers, Dead Boys, to name a few.)
Jan occasionally transfers complete performances to DVD. He has just released a concert performance of the formidable Boston band La Peste from various venues across Boston in 1979. Their local hit “Better Off Dead” was also a favorite of the late British DJ John Peel. You can order the DVD here.
We’re indebted to Jan Crocker for chronicling this era. I know I was at many of those shows. How I wish that I had kept a journal. This is a taste of the La Peste DVD.
The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger
The Beatles may finally be available on iTunes, but it is really anything more than repackaging? Everything by The Beatles has been available for years, merely in different formats.
Of greater interest is the new music being produced, and in this case I thought an offspring of one of The Beatles, Sean Lennon. Like the children of all famous parents, Sean will forever live in the shadow of his father. Comparisons are inevitable and generally unfair, but Sean chose the life of a musician and must navigate these waters.
He has performed as solo artist and as a member of various bands. The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger is his latest incarnation, a collaboration is with his girlfriend, Charlotte Kemp Muhl. Together they have released an album called Acoustic Sessions, from which the charming “Jardin du Luxembourg” is a free download and the Song of the Day.
Photo: Christ Devos
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“Jardin Du Luxembourg” by The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger
Rick Berlin: Free download
Rick Berlin is a journeyman musician. He’s been doing it a long time. He’s experienced the highs and the lows of the music business, particularly the latter. He has plumbed the depths. He’s been hyped, glad-handed, ripped-off, dropped, lied to, sued and abused. He has had moments in the limelight with his early band Orchestra Luna, major-label notoriety, tours with well-known bands and radio airplay. But he has also been forced to regroup, change names, and perform surreptitiously. He’s fronted a variety of bands including Luna, Berlin Airlift, Rick Berlin: The Movie, and the Shelly Winters Project. He now performs solo under his own name.
Rick Berlin is an artist. In spite of all of his trials and tribulations, he continues to create. It would be easy to become disillusioned, but an artist cannot give-up. In the music business, many are called and so few are chosen. But the true musicians persevere. In Rick’s case he must perform and write songs. His day job keeps him afloat, but his soul is alive in his music.
Rick Berlin is a treasure as are all artists who give us new worldviews and experiences. No doubt he would do it differently if he could do it all over again, but he would never trade it in for a world outside of music. Artists like Rick give meaning to our lives and we are blessed that they give so much of themselves.
His new album is entitled Paper Airplane. The characters in his songs can only come from someone who has lived a life and has seen it all, or at least most of it. In this free download from the album, he humourously makes fun of himself and the music industry without a hint of bitterness. Yes, a true artist.
[download no longer available]
“If I Wasn’t Such a Bum” by Rick Berlin
Ari Up: a Tribute
Ari Up was only 14 years old when she formed the Slits in 1976. Embracing the DIY attitude of punk rock, the band charted unknown territory for women rockers, and along with the Runaways paved the way for all-female (or primarily-female) rock bands. The Slits featured three women with Ari Up as the lead singer. Not your typical girl, Ari Up grew up in a household with Johnny Rotten as her step-father and received guitar lessons from Joe Strummer. In 1981 she disbanded the Slits and moved with her family to the jungles of Indonesia and Belize and eventually settled in Jamaica.
The Slits debut album Cut, released in 1979, is an obscure punk classic. The album cover featured the women wearing nothing but loincloths and mud. “Typical Girls” was the single from the album and the 12 inch included a marvelous version of “I Heard It Through the Grapevine”. From the original vinyl, both can be heard here. Ari Up lives through her music.
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“Typical Girls”
“I Heard It Through the Grapevine”
Bright Eyes and Sound Strike
The artist boycott of Arizona continues. I have written about it here in the past (refer to the June 1st post) and the list of Sound Strike artists has grown dramatically: those who refuse to aid Arizona economically in light of the passage of the egregious immigration law SB1070.
Money is being raised for the Sound Strike Fund which “donates needed resources to families caring for children in Arizona whose parents are detained or have been deported, immigrant rights organizing and legal defense”. Sound Strike Songs directly benefits this Fund. And the first Sound Strike Song is from Conor Oberst and Bright Eyes.
In an open letter to artists Conor says: “American ideals of democracy and liberty are built on the foundation that all people, regardless of race or country of origin, deserve fair and equal treatment by the government . . . We’ve all seen the power music has to spread messages of solidarity and hope. Please join the Sound Strike Songs project by donating a track and help us . . . enable people to continue to dream.”
This exclusive moving Sound Strike Song “Coyote Song” from Bright Eyes is a $2.00 download. Below is the video.
Support The Sound Strike. Sign the petition. Download the song. Boycott Arizona!
Exclusive Song for The Sound Strike “Coyote Song” by Bright Eyes. from Producciones Cimarrón on Vimeo.
The Social Network
The film The Social Network opens tomorrow to general release. It’s the dramatic story of the early years in the development of Facebook that has forever changed the way that we interact.
I had the opportunity to explore Facebook in its nascent incarnation. In 2004 a neighbor who was attending Harvard University asked if he could produce a short documentary about me for his film class. During the course of the filming, he and his partner told me about this new website that had become overwhelming popular at their school and that was spreading to other college campuses. Membership was restricted to students but they gave me their login information and password. The website revealed many risqué and revealing photographs and much of the content was of a student body unleashed. Facebook then was the wild west that has since been settled and has conquered the world.
The movie has received rave advance reviews. The soundtrack was scored by Trent Reznor and his frequent collaborator, the English composer, Atticus Ross. The soundtrack will be available in later October. Here is a free download of a five song sampler from the album.
“Pieces Form the Whole”
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Dear New Orleans
No city in the country should have such bad luck as New Orleans. First Katrina and then the oil spill. Even though both can be traced to human incompetence and greed, tragedies such as these tend to be compartmentalized if not downright forgotten as they cease to be headline news. New Orleans five years later has still just barely recovered from the hurricane and the recent devastation to the wetlands and to the Gulf from oil and dispersants will be felt for years. Thankfully there are artists, such as Spike Lee (his documentaries When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts and “If God is Willing and da Creek Don’t Rise”) and numerous musicians who will not let us place New Orleans in the scrapheap of forgotten historical disasters. The album Dear New Orleans has just been released (produced by Air Traffic Control, a nonprofit organization that works with Future of Music Coalition for social change and artist activism) to benefit the region’s unique musical heritage and to protect and restore the environment. With 31 New Orleans-inspired tracks from a very diverse range of musicians from Mike Mills and Wayne Kramer to My Morning Jacket and OK Go, from Jill Sobule and Tom Morello to Steve Earle and Laura Veirs, these artists express their gratitude to the city and make certain that we will never forget. From that album here is song “NOLA” performed by Mirah featuring Thao Nguyen and a poem from 2nd Chief David Montana entitled “The Change of Heart Man”.
Mirah featuring Thao Nguyen-“NOLA”
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2nd Chief David Montana-“The Change of Heart Man”
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The xx
The band The xx were just named the winners of the 2010 Mercury Prize awarded for the best album by a UK or Irish band. Established in 1992, Primal Scream’s Screamadelica took home the initial award. Other winners have included Suede, Portishead, Pulp, Badly Drawn Boy, PJ Harvey, Dizzee Rascal, Franz Ferdinand, Antony and the Johnsons, Arctic Monkeys, Klaxons and Elbow. Laura Marling, Mumford & Sons, Foals, Paul Weller, Dizzee Rascal, Corinne Bailey Rae and Wild Beasts were among this year’s nominees. The trio receives £20,000. “Crystalised” and “Islands” are two singles from The xx debut album xx, plus the song “Infinity” a personal fave.
“Crystalised”
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“Islands”
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“Infinity”
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David Byrne: New audiobook and free download
The always fascinating David Byrne has been featured here in the past with his music and various thoughts. (Just use the Search button in the upper right.) He continues to embrace the latest technologies to create new worlds for us to explore. Now he has created his own unique audiobook of his travelogue Bicycle Diaries which was published last year. Here is the letter that I recently received from him and this link will give you a free download for the Introduction to his Audiobook.
“After Bicycle Diaries came out in hardback about a year ago, I wondered to myself, what if the audiobook for this project was more like a cross between a podcast and a radio show instead of the usual author or actor reading in silence? I was thinking about the kind of radio show that NPR stations do from time to time, with background music, street sounds and other ambiences that help put the listener in the picture. So, I did one chapter (“New York”) as a test, with me reading, and though it took a lot longer to assemble than I expected, I felt it did indeed do what I imagined it could; when you heard the tinkle of glasses and silverware during a restaurant “scene,” boom!-you immediately felt you were there. Your mind fills in the details and these little sound cues help paint a fuller picture. If only I could have added smell! When the text went off on one of many tangents, and I began ruminating about a subject off the beaten path, a little bit of music I happened to have available helped tell you, the listener, that, yes, we’ve left the “story” temporarily, but will return soon. It started as an experiment and then turned into a complete DIY project, with the Hendler Brothers keeping the ball rolling.
I also realized that this particular book could be consumed in any order, and it didn’t matter which chapter you started with. So one could download and listen to the chapters as individual podcasts, in any sequence. I could even make the chapters available to download separately-you wouldn’t need to buy the whole audiobook to see if you liked the experience. This all would have been impossible if these were made available only via CD (or cassette!)…or with many other types of books.
Technology had, it seemed, created an opportunity for a whole new format to come into being. I’m not sure anything exactly like this has ever been done before. Sure, there are NPR radio shows with sound effects (Joe Frank comes to mind) as well as ye olde radio dramas (The Shadow was one), but if there’s anything similar out there I’m unaware of it. And yes, there are loads of downloadable audiobooks-but you have to listen to the chapters in the prescribed order, unless you are into self created meta fiction.
So, the first taste-the Introduction-is free. It’s shorter than a regular chapter too”.
Michael Been (1950-2010)
I was saddened to hear of Michael Been’s death. He was the lead singer and songwriter for the band The Call (Santa Cruz, CA) which had a number of hits in the 80s. His best songs were similar in style and majesty to U2, and although Michael had a powerful voice, the band lacked the strong guitar presence of an Edge. The band theoretically existed until 2000, but they were most prominent from 1982-1990. Michael had various side projects post-The Call and recently was the sound engineer for his son’s band Black Rebel Motorcycle Club (vocalist, bassist Robert Levon Been). He died on August 19 backstage in Belgium during a B.R.M.C. concert.
I didn’t know Michael well. We would meet and chat in passing at the radio station when the band came to town, but such encounters are relatively brief. But I recall him as a good man and we shared the joy of his music. Copyright law only allows me to post three songs by a band so first I have chosen “The Walls Came Down” from 1983. This was their first important radio song, and although production-wise it sounds a bit thin today, the anthemic melody is irresistible. “I Still Believe (Great Design)” from 1986 is his memorable song of hope. And finally, the gorgeous short song called “Uncovered” from 1989, which could be considered his eulogy. Michael Been’s life continues through his music.
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“The Walls Came Down”
“I Still Believe (Great Design)”
“Uncovered”