Monday, April 19, 2004
hit th' road jack
Alright, so here's the situation kids; things are gonna get a great deal more stripped down over the next few weeks here at the Hut. Your erstwhile narrator is about to undergo a bit of a trip into the unknown and they don't have DSL on that rough and rocky road.
I gotta go.
But I like you all so much that here's what I'm gonna do: everybody's favorite DJ, Sean at Gramophone has kindly volunteered to post my jibberjabberin' in my stead until I find my way back online. What a great guy!
I've spent most of my weekend typing like a fiend to get together a healthy dose of fill-in spots so that you'll be entertained until I can settle down into my new spiderhole. Do I love you or do I love you?
Unfortunately, I'm only human; so something's gotta give. The "theme", such as it is, for the next few weeks is gonna have to be OneaDay: one track, a few links and a little blurb of commentary. Linkage and anything excess is gonna have to wait a bit.
But that'll start tomorrow! Today we feast; so eat up!
glisten
The next week is gonna be "travelling songs" to commemorate my mighty journey to... well, to somewhere. Details are forthcoming soon.
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Phineas Rockmore - "Travelling Man"
Jaunty little ragtime blues piece that suffers from outdated lyrics; you're unlikely to hear a revival of a song that refers repeatedly to a chicken-stealin' coon.
Racist language aside, this is a solid winner of a storyteller. While his string playin' is only serviceable, Rockmore's singing voice is just amazing.
This is a true American original: bigoted but beautiful.
Buy "Black Texicans: Balladeers And Songsters Of The Texas Frontier" from Amazon
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CD Review
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"Texican as she is spoke"
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Jimmy Cliff - "Hard Road to Travel"
Jimmy Cliff is one of those pinnacles of cool that mere mortals can't hope to attain. You could maybe aspire to someday becoming Beenie Man or Eddie Vedder. That would be reasonable. Being Jimmy Cliff is more of a fantasy, a Charlie Kaufman sequel. Forget it; you can't hang.
Cliff has always been representative of the little man who overcomes impossible odds, though not always to success. Patron saint of "just give me a shot".
Bless me, Jimmy; I may need it.
Get the Jimmy Cliff "Ultimate Collection" from Amazon
Honestly? I'd get "The Harder They Come" first, anyday.
Luckily, life doesn't require such choices. Get 'em both!
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The Official Jimmy Cliff homepage
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The 'Top of the Pops' interview
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Golden Gate Jubilee Quartet - "Travellin' Shoes"
Acapella brilliance of a sort that simply doesn't exist anymore.
Every note is perfect, every harmony blends like ice cream and apple pie.
Instruments are for wimps.
Buy "The Complete Golden Gate Jubilee Quartet, Volume One" direct from Document Records.
Document seems to have finally got around to updating its site and the design is very nice with lots of audio.
Document CDs are as close to guaranteed sight unseen quality buys as you're likely to get. Plunder their catalog; you won't be sorry.
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Meet the Golden Gate Quartet
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Paint your travelling shoes
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Stevie Wonder - "Travellin' Man"
As cheery as depression can get.
Sorry about the sound quality; this CD simply isn't a nice master.
Buy Stevie Wonder's "Greatest Hits, Vol. 2" from Amazon.
It's ALL good, but the cover of "We Can Work It Out" has long been a flavourite.
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Stevie Wonder Songs
But no "Travellin' Man"!?!
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Stevie at the Kennedy Center
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musicblog clicky
You just can't take your eye of the ball in the Musicblog Clicky business; you blink twice and six heads spring up hydra-like.
These first four are straight up gold and going right into the daily pile:
Oddio Overplay left me shaking my head in wonder. DL full length mix CD's of golden age Blues, Asian traditional, international pop, Russian folk; leaf through a "junk drawer" of more free form CD mixes; take a music safari in the plethora of beautifully organized music linkage (this gamelan site alone has kept me busy all day); revel in the slick, easy to navigate design.
I do not exaggerate when I say that if you do not check this action out right now, you are a certifiable Dexter.
I am NOT joking.
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Release the Reality has a ton of great breakbeat dj akshun.
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Music for the Free World joins TALKIEWALKIE and MUSICFORROBOTS in the group musicblog category. I love these communities; they're so rad. Would anybody let me into one of these puppies or am I just invoking Groucho's Law?
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The Suburbs Are Killing Us, out of NYC _and_ South Africa, has an EXTREMELY eclectic collection of tracks, nicely annotated with loads of linkage. What more could you want?
Hey, fellow musicbloggers: are you suddenly getting fifty percent of your hits from the windows version of this?
Y'know, I don't mind Webjay cause their missionstatement is in the right place; but when big companies start anonymously hotlinking to my stuff...
Aw, fuggit. I don't have the energy to tilt at windmillsearches. Clearly the revolution is gonna hafta be televised.
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Opendir and Swen's Weblog are MP3 aggregators in the vein of TOTALLYFUZZY.
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Copious filepile at, ahem, "fuckallyall.com" (catchy!)
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"Its purpose is to show that Hip-Hop continues to be innovative, that sampling is a valid form of artistic expression, and that I am simply the greatest producer ever."
The 'Red Album' producer sounds like Jermaine Dupri to me.
Okay, one more time: NO MORE BLACK ALBUM REMIXES.
(Though really, this one ain't half bad at that, just a little too belligerent with his hooks.)
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Schkopi is a Prince fansite with several Prince-only radio stations orbiting.
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Kempa seems to be just gearing up to musicblogging. Drop by and show your support.
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clicky
A big shoutout to the fine fellows over at Project Neko who forwarded a pretty damn fonky mix cd of jazzed-out hipbop turntablism called "Earful of Wax."
Go check 'em out, the website has plenty to listen to via its detachable music player.
Quite smoov, gentlemen.
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Happyment is a fansite for one of my fave pop bands, Komeda. No tunage, but plenty of info.
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Nothing can quite prepare you for CHENGWIN!
Yes, Chengwin: half chicken/half penguin and his arch enemies Chunk (half skunk) and Chixon (half Nixon).
If this isn't strange enough for you, there's always the adventures of Chabio (half... well, you know).
The movies are must watches.
I'm of the opinion that this may be the greatest idea in the history of the world.
Who's with me?
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The Hut will be continuing to run in diminished capacity as noted above, but we're gonna be on autopilot. Feel free to leave comments and to get in touch, but it'll likely be mid May afore I get back on the horn. Meanwhile, we're up until tomorrow; so if you were ever gonna holla back, now would be the time.
Hugs and kisses ya'll. See ya on the other side.
