The Refractory

I listen to this song almost every morning on my way to work....

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:59:00 -0500

I listen to this song almost every morning on my way to work. Not unlike myself, it’s a bit morbid under its sunny exterior.

This song was later used for a musical revue that ran for a short time in LA. She planned for it to run on Broadway, but critics weren’t having it. I would kill to have seen this.

Beautiful song from forgotten German folk singer Sibylle...

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 10:00:00 -0400

Beautiful song from forgotten German folk singer Sibylle Baier.

Here’s her official Web site.

Broadcast talk psychic time travel, astrology (Trish is a...

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 10:40:32 -0400

Broadcast talk psychic time travel, astrology (Trish is a Libra).

Wow. Can’t wait for Vessel. How ‘bout you?

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 14:40:37 -0400

Wow. Can’t wait for Vessel. How ‘bout you?

Mourning the death of auto-tune. Thanks, Jigga!

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 11:28:09 -0400

Mourning the death of auto-tune. Thanks, Jigga!

Aww HELL YES! Summertime = Time for some...

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 12:59:02 -0400

Aww HELL YES! Summertime = Time for some Kells.

bg5000:

callofthewild:

What remix is this?

R Kelly - “Felling On Your Booty”

Really, I have no words for how cool this video is. Annie Lennox...

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 14:40:12 -0400

Really, I have no words for how cool this video is. Annie Lennox is the best music video actress I’ve ever seen. Anyone wanna argue?

R.I.P., Koko. Honestly, I feel like I hardly knew ye. Other than...

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 14:31:00 -0400

R.I.P., Koko. Honestly, I feel like I hardly knew ye. Other than a live cassette that I found in my brother’s collection as a kid, I never engaged myself with her music. What a voice. The Windy City will miss you, I’m sure.

ADDENDUM 6/4, 2:44 PM: And might I take this opportunity to express a sense of self-disgust. I never, ever listen to The Blues for the specific way that it makes me feel. You see, I have an association with The Blues that includes white people in medium-sized cities drinking Bud Light on waterfronts. This is very unfortunate. The Blues has things to teach us, but my tendency to avoid a certain type of audience leads me away from ever learning whatever lesson may lie within it. I’m not so sure if it’s a simple matter of white people bastardizing an entire genre, though that may be the case. But there’s just something so inherently LAME about the blues music that I’ve been exposed to. It goes so far that I cringe every time I listen to a certain type of chord progression. Immediately I’m taken to a humid Peoria riverfront, with a sea full of white people trying to get down. This is a place I don’t want to go in my mind.

But upon discovering Koko Taylor’s powerful instrument, I think I’m ready to disassociate.

I’m happy to report that Broadcast isn’t dead. They...

Fri, 29 May 2009 19:54:22 -0400

I’m happy to report that Broadcast isn’t dead. They provided the live soundtrack to a film by one of their homies in London this March. Hopefully a new record really IS in the works, like they promised in 2007.

"What are they singing about...?"

Tue, 19 May 2009 15:17:22 -0400

"What are they singing about...?": Hear Camera Obscura talk about each song from their new record....

Sure, I’ve had the blues before, but it never felt like...

Tue, 12 May 2009 16:17:00 -0400

Sure, I’ve had the blues before, but it never felt like this. From what little research I’ve done, Karen Dalton is one of America’s most outstanding “lost” folk singers, whose voice needed an “acquired taste” to have been appreciated.

Speaking of acquired tastes, Bob Dylan was an early champion. Some say early wannabe. Check out the video of her version of “It Hurts Me Too,” which is just as nice to watch. Oh, and this song was featured in Margot at the Wedding.

A Reading of the Equation

Mon, 11 May 2009 13:53:03 -0400

A Reading of the Equation: Check out my friends Marisol and Eugene’s new Space. And then thank...

Wonderfully irreverant indie-pop nihilism from an 80s Aussie...

Fri, 08 May 2009 14:34:47 -0400

Wonderfully irreverant indie-pop nihilism from an 80s Aussie band called The Triffids. Check out their Site here. Be prepared; there are a lot of jams to go through.

One of the coolest videos I’ve come across in quite some...

Thu, 07 May 2009 00:23:00 -0400

One of the coolest videos I’ve come across in quite some time. It certainly helps that the song is a total jam. Her name is Bachelorette; check out her MySpace for more music. She’s playing, 6/15/09, Cake Shop…anyone?

Everything they touch is gold. God, I love them.

Sat, 02 May 2009 00:50:41 -0400

Everything they touch is gold. God, I love them.

"Alright kids, I have a confession..."

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 15:02:00 -0400

"Alright kids, I have a confession...": My new confession, 8 years later, is that I still...

Connie Converse

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 00:21:55 -0400

Connie Converse: In Japan they have this phenomenon of men who disappear from the world, leaving no...

Wherein Milk gets cockteased...

Thu, 22 Jan 2009 11:11:45 -0500

Wherein Milk gets cockteased...: Before I even saw Milk, I declared that it would win Best Picture....

One thing and one thing only took the wind out of my angry sails...

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 13:30:00 -0500

One thing and one thing only took the wind out of my angry sails after hearing Rick Warren’s invocation: Aretha Franklin. That hat! That voice! That big, sometimes squeaking voice. There’s really no denying The Queen of Soul, if not only because she’s an Aries, and we all know they’re some loud folks. But I digress.

It got me thinking: if elected president, who would I invite to sing at my inauguration? Obviously it would be the first thing on my mind on November 4th after Wolf Blitzer announces my win. Beyoncé, this generation’s Diana Ross, would be a funny choice, but she doesn’t really have the pipes. I love the idea of Gladys Knight getting up there and singing her face off. But the reality is that Aretha was such a big part of the “pop culture segment” of the civil rights movement in the 60s, she was most likely chosen for that reason. And I think that’s a wonderful reason to choose someone. But if I, who in theory would be the first gay president of the United States, were to choose someone in that context, who would it be?

Here’s where the pipe dream gets silly, and here is where I come up short. Honestly, how many historically important openly gay singers do I have to choose from? George Michael? Michael Stipe? I suppose the synthesis of Aretha-esque pipes and symbolic importance would be Donna Summer. You know, disco and all that… But would I really want to succumb to such a cliché? Or I could always pick our best friend, Dolly Parton. I bore witness to the fact that she can still sing, and she’s from Aretha’s generation.

Fuck it. I pick Amelia Flecther of Talulah Gosh. I want to be known as the first President who listens to twee on his iPod in the Oval Office.

BTW, the photo is a link to Aretha’s performance. And also, I mean do dis-R-E-S-P-E-C-T to the Queen.

Seasonal Affective Disorder, or SAD as it is so appropriately...

Sat, 17 Jan 2009 12:32:00 -0500

Seasonal Affective Disorder, or SAD as it is so appropriately abbreviated, isn’t a genuine form of clinical depression. Though one would think the statistic may be higher, SAD affects nearly 14% of the human population. Though the cold is unbearable, one cannot place SAD’s burden on sub-zero temperatures alone; often, diet and lack of exercize cause SAD.

My guess is that a disproportional number of the 14% are musicians. Any lyric containing the word “winter” must be accompanied by a minor chord, cello, or some other romantically SAD tone. One of my newly re-discovered favorite Winter Records is The Softies’ Winter Pageant. Their song “Anywhere But Here” conveys winter’s lazy restlessness. Linked above is a video of the reunited Softies singing their classic song.