Welcome to Listening Jail, where I force you to listen to the stuff that’s been blowing my mind recently. This episode is predominantly female artists.
Catherine Ribeiro
She rocks. Apparently she was one of the French Chanteuses singing folk/pop music in the 60′s. If I’m going there, it’s usually Francoise Hardy. My money is on her freakout stuff with 2bis and Alpes. The record with 2bis is one of my all-time favorites, and is high on my list of recommended listening for people looking for inspiration. This is from a different project (I think) with a group called Alpes. Killing
Hanne Hukkelberg
Yeah. Bad Ass. Absolutely ridiculous. Her first record was on heavy rotation on my iPod for at least a solid year, and then fell by the wayside. I accidentally skipped her second, and thanks to Spotify have been catching up on a lot of stuff, Hanne included. I strongly suggest checking out all of this stuff – inventive and heart-felt.
Charlotte Gainsbourg
I had totally dismissed Charlotte Gainsbourg for some reason. Bad idea. This record (IRM) has been growing on me. Reminds me a bit of the Wendy & Lisa record “Girl Bros.” Also check out the track “Trick Pony.”
Blonde Redhead
Eternal favorite of mine. Pretty much can do no wrong by me. I have not stopped listening to this record since it came out, mainly the last 4 songs.
Morena y Clara
I stumbled across this on tour last month. The video is spectacular. Yes.
Las Grecas
Also in the late 60′s/early 70′s Catalan funk era is this banger. Absolutely in love with the guitar in the intro. And the video.
Andy Stott
And now for something completely different. If you’re listening to this on iPod headphones or your computer speakers, just stop right now and go get a real set of headphones/speakers. Then turn it up. Yeah so the heavy side-chain compressor is a little played out, it doesn’t matter. This is artful use of a technique and it serves the vibe. Also check out North to South from the same record.
So October was full of some serious shrekking, from New York to Paris, Kiev, Gdansk, Innsbruck, and everything in between. It was with David Krakauer and the Madness Orchestra, of which I am ostensibly a part. It truly was mad – we had one day off and two nights without gigs in 19 days of touring. I actually did find something on the youtubes from that tour.
The material for this tour was a mix of David’s music and John Zorn’s music from The Book of Angels. This is where all the Masada music comes from and is some of my favorite of his output. After this grueling but amazing tour was over we had a week off, then headed into the studio. We laid it all down in 6 hours and I still had time to catch a Plainville concert in Brooklyn. Badass. Anyway, I’m just posting to let you all know that this record will be coming out on Tzadik at some point in the future and it will be burning.
You will notice some changes these next few weeks. Probably most unnerving will be my mug up there on the top left. Sorry. I am watching you. I aim to compile a bunch of music that I’ve written over the years and put it into an easily downloadable format and basically answer all those questions of “how to I listen to your music?” And, I made it so the soundcloud player up there can keep playing while you surf around the site so as to not interrupt your jams.
I have also added a PayPal “Donate” button. This is me jumping on the bandwagon trying to make it big on the internet. If you listen to the music and enjoy it, please drop me a little something in the PayPal box. My thanks will be yours.
One of my favorite performances of 2010 was January’s jaunt up to Hamilton, Ontario to perform at the What Next? festival. Not only were the performances well thought out but they were full of people eager to enjoy music of any persuasion. People got down to everything.
This year I’ve been asked back to fill out an evening of Brass chamber music in a church. I love performing in Churches, and can’t wait to do this one. I’ll bring my laptop and a bunch of sheets of music and see who I can’t find to play along with me. I’m putting together a set of old and new music – about half of it will be stuff nobody’s ever heard, and the other half is all remixed for performance in such a live space.
So I’m super stoked on a project I’ve been working on recently. I’m mixing the new record for Anti-Social Music, a group of musicians that don’t care what you or I think. Seriously tho, get ready for some excellent music – this stuff is hot. One of my favorite quotes about them from the Pitchfork people – “On the cutting edge of making your friends and neighbors feel awkward is the New York City collective Anti-Social Music.”
While I can appreciate their sentiment, I hardly feel like this record will make you feel awkward – on the contrary I think it will make you rock.
Yeah, and I’m sorry I forget to post things on my blog ever.
