The catchy tune, the internet sensation, but I dare I mention that the Teletubbies version is my favorite parody? [On a more serious note, our hearts go out to the people of India this weekend.]
Open thread below...
I've been planning out a trip to Mali and Senegal for a few months and I'm getting ready to leave soon. I failed in persuading Amato to come along-- although I have a feeling if it was Maui instead of Mali, it might have worked. Meanwhile these two west African countries have incredibly rich musical traditions that have had immense impact on popular American music. I've been lucky to have introductions to musicians in both countries. I didn't know much about Bassekou Kouyate-- aside from the fact that he's a cool ngoni player, did some work with Dee Dee Bridgewater and Taj Mahal and that he is at the Royal Albert Hall in London tonight and has a killer My Space page and a wonderful EPK. I'll write back from Bamako after I see him play live in a few weeks. For now, I hope you enjoy his music as much as I do.
December 5th is the release date for the film, Cadillac Records, the story of the most legendary of all American record labels, Chicago's Chess Records. Chess was founded in 1950 and it's address, 2120 So. Michigan Avenue, was immortalized by a Rolling Stones song of the same name. The label was the home of a breathtaking list of artists including Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Sonny Boy Williamson, Memphis Slim, Jimmy Rogers, John Lee Hooker, Buddy Guy, The Flamingos, Chuck Berry, the Moonglows, Bo Diddley, Etta James, The Dells, Johnny "Guitar" Watson, Fontella Bass, Moms Mabley...
The film was written and directed by Darnnell Martin and stars Adrien Brody as Leonard Chess, Jeffrey Wright as Muddy Waters, Mos Def as Chuck Berry, and Beyoncé as Etta James. The trailer is here.
And here's Beyoncé's cover of the classic Etta James song, "At Last," which will be released as the soundtrack's first single in two weeks.
Bonus question: why is the film called Cadillac Records?
Because I used to work at a record company I still get tons of demos from aspiring artists. It makes no sense because "used to" means "now I'm a blogger and I don't do music biz anymore." Most of the demos aren't very good and I rarely pass them along to John or Blue Gal, let alone put them on LNMC. Today, however, a guy in Montana, Patrick Dwyer, sent me this simple performance YouTube he made of himself singing a Patty Griffin classic, Heavenly Day. What do you think? Should I send this guy to meet some A&R guys?
A few months ago the Late Night Music Club debuted Jason Joseph's first single, "One Man." A friend of ours did his own very powerful Obama-oriented video for it. Today Jason sent us the official video-- simple, stark and extremely effective. (You might recall that Jason also did a fantastic clip for Blue America's campaign for Regina Thomas in Georgia.)
Break Up The Concrete is the new album-- the first since Artemis released the mostly unheraldedLoose Screw six years ago-- from The Pretenders. I love it. So many great references to Dylan! And, like most Pretenders' albums I love it because of Chrissie's songwriting. And yet, tonight we're listening to one of the two songs on the album, the other being "Rosalee," not written by Chrissie. Actually this isn't even officially on the regular album. It's a bonus track offered by a certain unnamed big box retailer for CDs sold in their store. And, fittingly, it's a song, "Both Sides Of Goodbye," by Hank Williams, Jr. Fortunately Chrissie chose Willie Nelson to sing it with her.
Layla was the big hit off this record, but this is my favorite track.
"Have You Ever Loved a Woman."
Duane Allman was good, but Clapton smokes on this cut.
"I Confess" from 1982. The Beat is still touring, by the way...
I met Mitch in LA a couple of times through some music friends, but that was a long time ago. RIP.
Mitch Mitchell, drummer for the legendary Jimi Hendrix Experience of the 1960s and the group's last surviving member, was found dead in his hotel room early Wednesday. He was 61.
Lost in the shuffle between New York's old school hip-hop artists and the new L.A. "Gangsta" scene, 1987 brought us this righteous rap of a man giving up the thug life to go legit. Rakim's rhymes are backed by one of the hardest beats imaginable, sprinkled with samples including Bogie, Don Pardo and Ofra Haza; it's a veritable smorgasbord of sound!
(Extra love from me if you can name all of the samples used on this track. Or even just one or two! )
This album changed music.
The secret to Roy Orbison's amazing, four-octave, nuclear-yodel voice is that it didn't produce "sound" as we humans understand it. It produced "Royvicles" -- discrete packets of sound that can propagate through the pellucid medium scientists call "the Orbisphere".
Which is why Roy Orbison is the only one human in history whose voice is audible in space.
And now, three-and-a-half minutes of seemingly fluffy/bouncy/goodfeel from the freshly post-Watergate year of 1975 that I've always suspected was not-very-obliquely referring to Richard Nixon and John Dean (among others), the "Saturday Night Massacre" and, when played backwards, Charo.
