For someone my age to get a really good idea of what Joy Division was really like, I think it’s best to check out some of the groups live recordings. Because of their song “Love Will Tear Us Apart”, Joy Division has got grouped in with the pasty faced goth kids hanging out in graveyards, and all that darkness bullshit. Imagine if Nirvana was remembered as a pithy goth act just because Kurt got depressed a lot and ended up killing himself. It just isn’t right. And like Nirvana, it’s in Joy Division’s live shows that we see how raw and raging they were.
There is a really awesome live Joy Division recording called Les Bains Douches 18 December 1979, which has been out of print for a little while and sells for a lot. Well, I guess we’ll see how much it sells for, since I just added one to eBay yesterday. Check the auction here.
With HD TV and radio rolling out up everyone’s wazoo, we’ll soon be missin’ the soothing sounds of white noise and visual arty-facting with TV antenna “snow” and other interference. This week, I’m trying to track down some info and clips on Bo Harwood, composer and sound engineer for later John Cassavettes films and numerous TV shows. So in the meantime check out this nifty and totally accidental VCR edit that was made while I was flipping channels and watching a hilarious episode of “Green Acres.” And yes I always record myself channel surfing.
I sat in as a guest DJ at the Kinda Cloudy Radio show on KFAI here in Minneapolis. We played a nice selection of soul, jazz and funk. It was my second time doing it, and I’m getting a little more comfortable with being in the studio with all the controls, which is nice. It’s a little weird talking into the microphone when you didn’t have a speech prepaired, but this week I was ready, a little. You can stream the entire show at the shows website www.kfai.org/node/3921
Nagra, is Polish for “[he/she/it] will record.” It’s also the name of a series of well-known tape recorders which were the standard in sync-sound recording from the 1960s till the 1990s. Hence, a series of posts on music and sound in film.
The Amphibian Man, a well-known Russian sci-fi novel published in 1928, was brought to film in 1962, directed by Vladimir Chebotaryov, and quickly became one of the most beloved movies in the USSR. If you were lucky enough, last year, Seagull films had a number of old Soviet sci-fi 35mm prints travelling around U.S. cinematheques. In the film, a young man named Ichtyander has a set of shark gills grafted on by his maverick-surgeon father to cure a pediatric lung disease. As with many Soviet and Soviet-satellite-states-era films, the suggestions and allegories are under layers and layers of censorship and state-controlled cinema. Suffice it to say, there is a “greedy” fish merchant, who won’t give fish to the poor, and the surgeon/scientist tries to create an underworld Utopia.
Shot in fellow communist Cuba, and a product of the late ’50s and early ’60s Eastern European pop-culture thaw, the movie is packed with gorgeous underwater footage, Latin song & dance numbers, Russian actors in brownface, and an eerily Arian-featured Ichtyander. The first song and the musical theme of the movie - “The Sea Devil” - became a hit that was sung well into the 90s, as we’ll soon see…
It’s songs that you upload, and you put in order. Make yourself Muxtape, and leave the url in this comment box.
Check out my Fabio Muxtape http://fabiosings.muxtape.com/.
I haven’t heard the whole Still Da Baddest album yet, but this song “Look Back At Me” has got me rollin’! I played this at the record store, and everyones jaws dropped at the same time. Leave it to Trina to come up with the nastiest club bangers. I was just thinking that Spank Rock should be working with Trina. Why hasn’t that happened yet?
I went to the Acid Mothers Temple show last night, but really I was just interested in seeing their opening acts, Cadence Weapon and Danava.
Danava are some skinny MF’s
After a ridiculous episode of waiting around the Block E bowling alley for a half hour to get my checkcard back from the night before, I got to the 7th St Entry just in time to catch the Cadence Weapon set, which was short, but they managed to get the 60 some people that were there at the time off the back wall and up onto the floor, which is pretty impressive for a Tuesday night in Minneapolis. Their show was awesome. Seriously, if Cadence Weapon wasn’t the opener, they would have had the place going nuts, dancing and shit.
Cadence Weapon - Real Estate
After Cadence Weapon played, I left for a little while, missed the Born Ruffians set, but made it back in time to see Danava, who are the 70’s metal revivalist guys I went to see anyway, and let me tell you, I was not disappointed.
The Cadence Weapon DJ gave me one of his left over drink tickets, so I grabbed a beer, got somewhere near the front, and fucking rocked my head to their amazing Sabbath-esque jams the whole time Danava played. I wish I had more of a review of their show to give, but I didn’t pay much attention to the details because I was too busy giving myself whiplash.
After their set, the bassist asked if there was a place to get burritos within walking distance, and even thought there should be, there isn’t anything like that near First Ave. I tried drawing him directions to Little T’s on a bar napkin, but I guess that didn’t make much sense, so I ended up driving them there. Shit, I would have given all of them blow jobs after that rockin’ set they played, but all they wanted were burritos. C’est La Vie.
Check out Danava’s video for “Where Beauty And Terror Dance”
Last September, I wrote about picking up the 7″ for “Mule Skinner Blues” by The Fendermen, and even though I didn’t make up any outrageous stories about the origin of the song, or make any claims that would raise a huddle of comments from people who’s job it is to correct information on music blogs, I should have done a bit more research on the origin of that song, because as it turns out the song was an Appalachian country/bluegrass standard performed by many artist years before the Fendermen ever did their version.
Jimmie was a cowboy
In 1930, “America’s Blue Yodeler” Jimmie Rodgers recorded the song as “Blue Yodel No.8″ for RCA/Victor. The song became a hit, and a stand-out in Jimmie’s recorded catalog of Blue Yodels. Here’s a YouTube video of Jimmie’s recording, plus the lyrics pop up so you can figure out what’s being said, or just do your own karaoke version.
In the 1950’s, Joe D. Gibson did a souped up version titled “Good Morning Captain”, which served as a model for the later version by The Fendermen.
“The Mule Skinner Blues” also became one of bluegrass creator Bill Monroe’s signature songs. Here’s a real nice looking video of Bill Monroe & the Blue Grass Boys playing “Mule Skinner Blues” and “Blue Moon of Kentucky”, with and introduction by Merle Kilgore (co-wrote “Ring of Fire”).
I know that Edith Piaf has the name “Little Sparrow”, but the dramatic coloratura sopranoYma Súmac literally makes sounds like a bird when she sings. With a vocal range of well over 3 octaves, Yma does a mean guttural growl, as well as spooky ghost sounds and wild horsey noises.
This video isn’t completely in-sync with the song, but I think you’ll get the idea.
