Category Archives: music

fugazi – epic problem

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From The Argument (2001).

congratulations. stop. wish i could be there. stop. tell me something i don’t know.
is there anything left to know? stop. stop. stop. stop. stop.
accessory, accessory, accessory, accessory, accessory, accessory
we regret to inform. stop. miss you dearly, signed sincerely. stop.
tell me something that i don’t know is there anything left to know?
stop. stop. stop. stop. stop. accessory, accessory, accessory, accessory, accessory, accessory to the time. time. time. time.

i’ve got this epic problem; this epic problem’s not a problem for me
and inside i know i’m broken, but i’m working as far as you can see
i’ve got this epic problem this epic problem’s not a problem for me
and inside i know i’m broken but i’m working as far as you can see
and outside it’s all production; it’s all illusion, it’s set scenery
i’ve got this epic problem; this epic problem’s not a problem for me

julia holter – goddess eyes 1

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“The first thing that came to mind was an image that gradually deteriorates with visual noise, echoing the sonic noise present in the song. We go from lightness to darkness, away from a structured, fabricated place and into raw territory.”
~ Jose Wolff – August, 2012

Music by Julia Holter
Directed by Jose Wolff
Photography by Robson Muzel and Jose Wolff
“Broken figure” portrayed by Bryan Dodds
Shot on site at The Wulf, Elysian Park, and the Angeles Angeles Natural Forest. Special thanks to Emily Jane Kuntz and Eric KM Clark and Michael Winter at The Wulf

©2012 RVNG Intl.

jim morrison on painful feelings

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People are afraid of themselves, of their own reality; their feelings most of all. People talk about how great love is, but that’s bullshit. Love hurts. Feelings are disturbing. People are taught that pain is evil and dangerous. How can they deal with love if they’re afraid to feel? Pain is meant to wake us up. People try to hide their pain. But they’re wrong. Pain is something to carry, like a radio. You feel your strength in the experience of pain. It’s all in how you carry it. That’s what matters. Pain is a feeling. Your feelings are a part of you. Your own reality. If you feel ashamed of them, and hide them, you’re letting society destroy your reality. You should stand up for your right to feel your pain.

~ Jim Morrison

nick cave on love songs

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Though the love song comes in many guises – songs of exultation and praise, songs of rage and of despair, erotic songs, songs of abandonment and loss – they all address God, for it is the haunted premises of longing that the true love song inhabits. It is a howl in the void, for Love and for comfort and it lives on the lips of the child crying for his mother. It is the song of the lover in need of her loved one, the raving of the lunatic supplicant petitioning his God. It is the cry of one chained to the earth, to the ordinary and to the mundane, craving flight; a flight into inspiration and imagination and divinity. The love song is the sound of our endeavours to become God-like, to rise up and above the earthbound and the mediocre.

~ Nick Cave

it’s only a paper moon

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Here are three very different versions out of the countless recordings of this whimsical old standard written by Harold Arlen, with lyrics by E. Y. Harburg and Billy Rose.

The same year it was published (1933), Cliff Edwards, also known as “Ukulele Ike” (and later the voice of Disney’s Jiminy Cricket!), recorded this rendition, with his charming tenor and the sweetest little mouth trumpet solo:

Killer a cappella harmonies from Fiona Apple and Maude Maggart (the pseudonym of Fiona’s elder sister, Amber, a cabaret singer)… Fiona can draw melancholia out of any pretty ditty without being mawkish – I love this about her: 

The Miles Davis Sextet, recorded at Apex Studios, New York City, on October 5, 1951.
Personnel:
Miles Davis – Trumpet
Jackie McLean – Alto Sax (sits out)
Sonny Rollins – Tenor Sax
Walter Bishop Jr. – Piano
Tommy Potter – Bass
Art Blakey – Drums

thundersqueak on the edge of wrong (2009)

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Thundersqueak —  the noise trio of Gareth Dawson, Righard Kapp and Mark van Niekerk — performing live at Cape Town’s 4th annual festival of improvised music, ‘On The Edge of Wrong’  2009. Filmed by Jaco Minnaar.

Righard and Gareth will be playing together tonight at this year’s EDGE OF WRONG.

the edge of wrong festival starts this friday

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It’s a festival kindred in spirit to Fleurmach! Don’t miss EDGE OF WRONG. From this Friday, 22 February until 2 March 2013 in Cape Town, explore the thresholds of what music can be…

edge of wrong 2013
EDGE OF WRONG is premised on the productive opportunities vested in chance, in uncertainty, in the pursuit of the unknown. It welcomes mistakes and challenge, diversity and collaboration.

As such, the festival brings together a community of like-minded musicians and artists from South Africa and Europe to share skills and visions with each other and the SA audience. Artists are invited based on their commitment to experimentation; to find, test and exceed the limits of their creative potential.

Find out more about the performers and line-up of events at the official EDGE OF WRONG site.

billy bragg – valentine’s day is over (peel sessions)

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Recorded live on 30 August 1988 for the John Peel Show.

“God didn’t make you an angel; the devil made you a man
That brutality and economy are related now I understand
When will you realise that as above so below there is no love?
For the girl with the hour glass figure
Time runs out very fast
We used to want the same things but that’s all in the past
And lately it seems that as it all gets tougher
Your ideal of justice just becomes rougher and rougher…”

the boswell sisters – shout sister, shout (1931)

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Recorded in New York, April 23, 1931

House Orchestra: Mannie Klein or Jack Purvis (tpt) Tommy Dorsey (tbn) Jimmy Dorsey (cl, as) Joe Venuti (vln) Arthur Schutt (p) Eddie Lang (g) Joe Tarto (sb) Chauncey Morehouse (d, vib) Victor Young (cond)

Boswell_sisters_01

E-36655-A Shout, Sister, Shout (Williams-Hill-Brynan) 3:13 Brunswick 6109, Brunswick 6847, Brunswick 6783, [BSC1], [NWST], [IY], [ELMB], [ITG], [TOOMA]

Composed by J. Tim Brymn, Alexander Hill and Clarence Williams

The Boswell Sisters were a close harmony singing group, consisting of sisters Martha Boswell (June 9, 1905 – July 2, 1958), Connee Boswell (original name Connie) (December 3, 1907 – October 11, 1976), and Helvetia “Vet” Boswell (May 20, 1911 – November 12, 1988), noted for intricate harmonies and rhythmic experimentation.

heavens to betsy – my red self/my secret (demo tape, 1992)

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Heavens to Betsy was an American indie-punk band formed in Olympia, Washington in 1991. They were part of the DIY riot grrrl movement in the punk rock underground in the early 1990s, and were the first band of Sleater-Kinney vocalist/guitarist Corine Tucker. These two demos are intimate and powerful.

wat die reën bring – neil sandilands

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radio lavaDownload “Wat Die Reën Bring” by Neil Sandilands, with music by Riku Lätti, recorded by Riku Lätti at Koptoe, Magaliesberg. It is one of the tracks I found most beautiful from the collection of recordings Lätti has been gradually accumulating, which he has entitled “Die Wasgoedlyn” (The Washing Line). The whole album can be downloaded from HERE.

Some background from Riku Lätti:

“It started off a long time ago when I began my own recording studio “Radio Lava” and every now and then I recorded my friends (who happened to be good musicians) in all kinds of odd locations and precarious states of sobriety. Most of these artists have pristine studio albums which I kind of think of as “the front of the house” (facade). Nice and fancy, polished spotless. Die Wasgoedlyn are those other recordings of all of these artists as they really are at home. Unpolished, stubbled, raw with their underwear on “die wasgoedlyn” blowing in the wind now for all to hear.

“Anywhere I find somebody is keen to play music of quality, I will be interested in capturing it, bottling it and setting it free so that music doesn’t have to be stuck in an inhumane, sorry, un-humanly state of untouchable perfection. I want to hear the breath before the beat starts, the bird in the background, the train leaving the station, the clanging of the friends’ glasses as they celebrate being there when they spot their favourite artist playing a tune he really meant and felt like playing. We are not putting our best foot forward, we are just “human beings being”, if I may quote Loit Sôls, Goema poet who is also featured on “Die Wasgoedlyn”.

Check out the beautiful (Afrikaans) lyrics to Neil Sandiland’s track after the jump. Oh, and thanks to Toast Coetzer of Bush Radio’s Unhappy Hour Show for stelling my in kennis.

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