Archived: Music
I dig music. I'm just a little annoyed I don't have any musical talent.
Here's anyway, here's my mutterings on the topic of music...
See also:
The A-Z CD Challenge
In amongst painful browser-wranging this morning, Emiliana Torrini's Sunnyroad came up on iTunes' shuffle like a musical ray of sunshine. If you haven't heard it, this is a song so blissfully sweet that it makes everything okay with the world. At least for the three minutes and four seconds you're listening to it.
This morning it was followed by Simon and Garfunkel's similarly mellow The Only Living Boy In New York, which I can now report has a slightly disconcerting stereo effect on the vocals when played on headphones.
Posted on Thursday, May 25, 2006
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Right next to the stereo at home there's a small stack of CDs that I've been cycling through lately, mostly because I can't be bothered walking to the other end of the house to my CD collection just to pick out a new album.
The current stack, from top-to-bottom:
- There Will Be A Light - Ben Harper and the Blind Boys of Alabama
Bought it after hearing the title track on a mix album and digging the combination of Harper's wails and the soulful bass of the Blind Boys. Sounds beautiful on good speakers.
- Is A Woman - Lambchop
So very mellow. It still amazes me that so many people are involved in making such quiet music.
- Riot on an Empty Street - Kings of Convenience
"I'll make you laugh by acting like the guy who sings."
- Autumn Flow - Lior
Mellow. Australian. Hoping to catch him playing live soon.
- Even World (EP) - The Hampdens
I'd peg it as their best EP. Still wondering where the rumoured album went, and if we'll ever see a release of their cover of The District Sleeps Alone Tonight (originally by the Postal Service).
- Cities - The Cat Empire Project
Great album. A little bit motown and with more emphasis on the keys rather than big-band. It's a different mood, but I think I'd rate it above their last outing, Two Shoes.
- We Are Little Barrie - Little Barrie
A bit nasal, but good fun.
- Comfort of Strangers - Beth Orton
Beth Orton can do no wrong. Unfortunately I missed her tour last month (sighs).
- Premiers Symptomes - Air
Must also acquire a copy of Moon Safari, if only to hear 'All I Need' again... Such a sweet song.
Honourable mention goes to Veneer by Jose Gonzalez, which is in the other stereo (next to the CD collection) at the other side of the house. It's also mellow, and it's definitely an album to wake up to.
What's in your stack (or playlist) at the moment?
Posted on Wednesday, May 17, 2006
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A few months back, Derek Powazek wrote a little piece called Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, about switching to a purely digital music collection. It struck a chord with me.
I'll be the first to admit to an unhealthy love for my iPod and my frustratingly-fragmented iTunes libraries spread across my G5 at work and two laptops.
But I don't think I could ever give up CDs in favour of digital downloads.
Continue reading "Liner Notes"
Posted on Friday, May 12, 2006
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A while ago on a road-trip to Pemberton we set a challenge for a friend of mine with a fairly encyclopaedic knowledge of music.
With my iPod set on shuffle, his mission was to connect each artist to the next using less than six steps. The connections might be cover versions, producers, bandmates, whatever. It's about finding the right combination of very few, but very obscure links.
It turned out to be a great way to discover music, so I thought I'd give it a go here.
So, here's my challenge for you. These are five random songs to come up in iTunes:
- 19-2000 (Soulchild Remix) - The Gorillaz
- A Love Supreme - John Coltrane (A Love Supreme)
- The Hardest Button to Button - The White Stripes (Elephant)
- Discotheque - U2 (Pop)
- Superfly - Curtis Mayfield (Superfly)
How would you connect the artists/songs? Leave me a comment with some ideas (if you're stuck on one, comment with the ones you know).
Posted on Tuesday, March 14, 2006
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It's been on my to-do list for years now, since at least October 2001 apparently (I knew keeping my archives was a good idea!).
Learn to play the guitar.
When she and Matt left the country a little over a year ago, April left her beautiful black acoustic guitar in my care and it's been sitting at arm's reach for all that time, reminding me of my threats to learn to play music.
Late last night I got home from dinner out in Subi and, in all the wisdom that can be mustered at a quarter-to-twelve at night, decided to start learning the guitar. There and then.
I grabbed some learn to play guitar videos off the web and ran through the introductory lessons ("okay folks, this is a fret!") before crashing for the night.
We'll see how it goes.
I've had the pleasure of knowing a great bunch of musician-type friends over the last few years (the photo's of Luke at a party on the beach in Mandurah years ago) so if I can make something even half-musical sounding out of a piece of hollow wood and some strings I'll be a very happy man.
So, I'm now in the process of striking one thing off my to-do list. What's on your list? (And tell me about your musical gifts!)
Posted on Sunday, February 26, 2006
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There's something about jazz and Friday nights.
Tonight I'm trying out the debut album from The Conglomerate, and trying to ignore the fact that if I lived in Melbourne I could be watching them play live tonight at Bennett's Lane, the greatest jazz club I've found yet.
Disclaimer: I haven't been to enough jazz clubs to make such sweeping statements.
Making it through the working week tends to take it out of me at the moment so I'm something of a mellow Friday night kinda guy, not much of a party-goer (geez, saying that makes me feel old). Catching up with friends and then listening to some late-night jazz at home in the dark about sums it up for me.
Your idea of a good Friday night?
Posted on Friday, February 10, 2006
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I ended up having an interesting conversation with some friends the other day that basically centred around whether everyone there listens to the lyrics or sound of new songs.
I'm wholeheartedly in the music-first camp, usually deciding if I like a song or not based almost entirely on the sound of it. The lyrics stick in my head after a few repeats, but I don't really pay attention to them, and without the music I'd struggle to remember most of them.
What about you? Lyrics or sound?
Posted on Thursday, February 2, 2006
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Tickets for U2's (Eastern) Australian tour went on sale yesterday morning. After a frustrating two hours trying to get tickets to the Melbourne show through Ticketmaster's log-jammed website and continually-engaged phone line the show appeared to be sold out and I admitted defeat.
But I'll rant more on that experience another day.
They've added a second night which goes on sale next Monday. Wish me luck.
Posted on Tuesday, December 6, 2005
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November involved lots of hard work at work. Which, as usual, had the side effect of lots of my buying lots of new CDs to listen to.
Now I'm a bit weird about the first time I listen to new albums. I like to be able to sit down and listen to them properly on my stereo at home at home, not on headphones at work and not in little glimpses in the car. Unfortunately this doesn't sit too well with working long hours, so I've got a few albums that I haven't listened to yet.
But for the ones I have listened to, here's some random adjectives to describe each (because I think we all know that wordsmithery isn't a talent of mine).
Tak (Sigur Ros): A lush, enveloping, beautiful album. I'm prepared to use it as justification to put Iceland on the itinerary of future European holidays.
Main Street (Epicure): playing as I write this post. A worthy follow-up to The Goodbye Girl and great accompaniment for tired Friday nights.
What Was Left (Clare Bowditch and the Feeding Set): Quietly beautiful. Really should try to see her play live some time.
Tea & Sympathy (Bernard Fanning): as promised, a little bit country. Also very much great.
You Have to Dig Deep to Bury Daddy (Jeff Lang): I broke my not-at-work-through-headphones rule for this one and was glad I did. Amazing guitar makes a work day smoother and quicker.
And speaking of music, I also caught Epicure playing at the Fly by Night down in Fremantle (which is still one of my favourite venues -- for what's basically an empty shell it's got a strangely intimate vibe). A great gig, including the acknowledged faux-pas of singing Happy Birthday to the bass player, a sing-along to Armies Against Me and several song intro's featuring the words "here's another song about suicide."
Posted on Friday, December 2, 2005
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This is an old photo from a trip to Perth Zoo years ago. I discovered it going through one of my old sites and thought it deserved another airing. Anyway, onto the unfinished business.
Last year I'd planned on buying a cd every fortnight, working from A to Z over the course of the year.
For most part, I managed it. I'm still missing albums by bands/artists with names beginning with Q (I'd intended to get a Queen CD but could never choose), Y and Z (had been contemplating Zero7).
Any suggestions?
Posted on Saturday, September 3, 2005
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A couple of months back I worked out how to set the timers on my stereo so that it's acting as an alarm clock. Turns out it's easy to set up so that the alarm kicks in at the same time for Monday-Thursday and later on Fridays, since I get to sleep in then.
Long story short, I now get woken up each weekday by the first track of whatever CD I've got in there. This morning it was Thievery Corporation's The Cosmic Game (the first track is 'Chasing the Hate Machines') and The Hampden's Even World ('The Hype') is becoming something of a regular Friday thing. Lately I've also been partial to the Garden State soundtrack (Coldplay's 'Don't Panic'), The Kings of Convenience's Riot On An Empty Street ('Homesick') and of course Morcheeba's Big Calm (The Sea).
After a couple of months I think I've worked my way through most of the first tracks that are nice and mellow enough to wake up to. There's a heap of CDs with good tracks later on but that start out a bit too rowdy for 6am...
Got any suggestions of good first tracks? Leave a comment and let me know!
Posted on Monday, July 11, 2005
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I never managed to catch the seven-part documentary series Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues when it was released in cinemas a couple of years ago. Luckily ABC TV are playing them as part of their tv/radio/online Blues festival.
I'm looking forward to checking out the films by Scorsese and Eastwood in particular, but the whole line-up of directors all look like we should be in for some good films.
The only bad news is the time slot -- 10pm, Saturday night.
Posted on Thursday, June 30, 2005
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The other week I got bored one night and rearranged my cds into a kind of colour spectrum. Discovery #1: Most of my cds have either black or white spines. Discovery #2: I clearly have too much time on my hands.
And now, onto that music meme that mik sent me...
Continue reading "That Music Meme"
Posted on Monday, June 13, 2005
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I've gotten bored with my usual playlist in iTunes and wanted something new to listen to so I figured I'd play the keyword game instead.
My new workday playlist searches my library for tracks with a word in the title. Today's keyword: what.
It just segued from Spiderbait's Should Have Done What My Mum Always Told Me To to Miles Davis' classic So What -- I love this playlist already.
I'm tempted to run with playlists for Who, Why, When and How to continue the series, but I'm open to word suggestions from you. So bring it on.
Posted on Wednesday, December 1, 2004
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My stereo's back! Yay! Happiness is having non-headphoned music back again.
Speaking of music, last week I kind-of-officially cheated in the A-Z music 'challenge' which is still kicking along every fortnight or so. Technically I'm meant to be buying a CD from an artist I don't already own each fortnight, but I caved last week and bought U2's Achtung Baby for U because, well, how could I not? It's Achtung Baby.
Anyway, it's covered in beautiful Anton Corbjin photos. How could I refuse
Posted on Thursday, October 14, 2004
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- I can now report that Missy Higgins' Scar EP is indeed the best. I do miss the more jazzy sound of her self-titled release, but The Cactus that Found the Beat more than makes up for it.
- It's hard not to be happy when The Cat Empire's Hello comes up in iTunes.
Posted on Wednesday, August 4, 2004
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I caught Missy Higgins performing a solo acoustic version of Scar on The Panel last night, and it was pretty damn cool. I'll definitely be picking up the EP on Monday. In the meantime, I've got a rip of last night's live audio to keep me entertained.
If you can't wait that long, Mot's got a super-exclusive pre-release review over at his site.
Photo: Somewhere in the CBD, Perth.
Posted on Thursday, July 29, 2004
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After his amazing performance on The Panel last week, I finally caved today and bought Jamie Cullum's Twentysomething on CD today. It's the latest in the quasi-jazz crossovers from Verve, who also brought us Norah Jones a couple of years back.
Continue reading "Twentysomething"
Posted on Wednesday, July 28, 2004
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A big music weekend last weekend -- a couple of gigs and a swag of new CDs (the new K CD was finally released and I was able to get on with the a-z). I started a longish post covering it all but I'm snowed under at work and haven't had a chance to finish writing it, so this will have to do.
In other news, Matt can play pool (I can't, that's why I usually end up taking photos of people playing pool).
Photo: Matt playing pool, Swan Basement, Freo
Posted on Tuesday, June 22, 2004
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Around Christmas last year I finally caved and bought the Morcheeba live DVD Brixton to Beijing, not too sure how they'd sound live.
Of course they sound great (and the live scratching is pretty damn cool) but the one thing that always surprises me is Skye's accent. Skye Edwards, the woman behind the silky-smooth vocals, is from the UK. You knew this, I knew this -- it shouldn't come as a shock. But it does.
The same voice that makes sounds like this also sounds like this (two between-song banters spliced).
Her singing however, sounds amazing live.
Posted on Friday, May 21, 2004
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And the rest...
The Year of Music Continues
Eventually
Gee
Stone
The desk
A Random Twenty
A very sexy excuse
And so it begins
a year of music
impulse buy
set list
cravings
beo
mosaic at the grosvenor