Category: Music

KCSM, the Bay Area’s Jazz station, posted this on Facebook:

Great, now that’s something I must own.

I actually bought Canta en Español and Cuatro Vidas on CD about ten years ago when I was adding to my Spanish language CDs (the time I bought a lot of Claudia Acuña, Rocío Dúrcal, Rocío Jurado, Paulina Rubio, Shakira, and José José among others), and I have picked up a couple of the records since then. But there’s a Christmas record? I really, really want to find that out in the wild now.

Probably more likely that finding Ella Wishes You A Swinging Christmas by Ella Fitzgerald. In the original, anyway; apparently, there’s a reissue on vinyl, so I might run across one somewhere, but one does not find Ella Fitzgerald records in the wild, like almost at all.

As I have mentioned, one of my methods for finding new bands is to search for a video from a band I like and run through some of the suggestions that YouTube provides to keep me engaged and watching ads. Although my ad blocker means I don’t suffer through the ads.

At any rate, Sirenia has come up a couple of times, and I like it.

Well, maybe not. The videos I see look to be a couple from the band’s 2006 album Nine Destinies and a Downfall which was the only album by the band to feature lead singer Monika Pedersen. The band has had four female lead vocalists over the years. Maybe I just like Monika Pedersen. Continue reading “Apparently, YouTube Thinks I Like Sirenia” →

This morning, as I was taking my youngest into school, one of my favorite Elton John songs, if not my favorite Elton John song, came on the radio:

“Goodbye, Yellow Brick Road”. I asked him what he thought it was about; he said, “The Wizard of Oz?” I said it was about a guy of humble origins elevated by a relationship with a wealthy person, but who comes to think that the wealthy person does not care for him, but rather likes the novelty of having a partner of lower origin. So the poet-narrator (if they have such things in songs) is breaking it off and returning to his roots. I pointed out how Elton John and the brown dirt cowboy (Bernie Taupin) used a lot of metaphor in the song, which gives it depth you don’t find in much modern pop.

I changed the radio stations; after we caught the last chorus off “All Star” by Smashmouth, “Don’t You Want Me, Baby?” by Human League came on.

“That’s basically the same story, but from the other perspective,” I told him. A partner with a better station in life elevates a cocktail waitress, but she breaks it off with him. This song presents both sides of the story, though, so one gets sympathy for both sides of view. But it’s not as deep as the Elton John song, probably because of the metaphors and imagery in the former.

Tomorrow, on the way to school, perhaps we will talk about the monomyth in love songs. I mean, the young man has a mind to an engineering track and career, but there’s no reason I cannot infect him with some comparative literary criticism skills for fun.

Well, since no one played along with this post from 2017 called Is That the Name of the Song or the Band? wherein I challenged readers:

I’ve often asked this when presented with the written title of a song and a band I’ve not heard of. Mostly, I’m joking.

But when I learned that Fozzy has a song (and album) called “All That Remains”, I thought that was funny because there is actually a band called All That Remains (whose album I bought before I bought Fozzy’s Judas this autumn).

So I got to thinking: What other bands have songs that are actually the names of other bands?

A new band has come to my attention: Plush.

As you might remember, gentle reader, Stone Temple Pilots had a hit with a song called “Plush” thirty years ago:

You know, I will grundgingly admit that STP might be the only decent grunge band, but this song annoyed me. Thirty years later, I’m still not really sure what they’re talking about. Probably drugs.

Live Metal, a blog that offers brief mentions of new metal music.

Better than YouTube’s algorithms, which leads me to Kalidia/Walk in Darkness no matter what I search for.

So I just got Diamante’s album American Dream:

I first heard Diamante in the song she sings with Bad Wolves, a band that the local rock station loves and whose new singles they play all the time:

Diamante, not so much.

But I picked up her previous album, Coming In Hot, based on liking what I saw on YouTube.

She’s got a more husky straight ahead rock voice and presentation than the usual symphonic metal songbirds I pick up. Husky, without going full dirty vocals a la Elli Berlin.

I vote “Ghost Myself” from the new album Most Likely To Appear On Brian J.’s Gym Playlist:

Also, she is pretty in a variety of hair colors.

Continue reading “Coming Soon To A Musical Balance Post Near You” →

So I mentioned that I recently bought Brenda Russell’s album Get Here amongst sixty or so other records at the Friends of the Library Book Sale a couple weeks ago. I didn’t recognize the name, but as I was spinning the platter tonight for the first time, it yanked me back.

Her biggest hit, “Piano in the Dark”, comes from this album.

Suddenly, I am back in the computer room–a, what, spare room or bedroom except it had the stairs to the basement in it–in our house down the gravel road. It’s summer, and I’m monkeying around on the Commodore 128, typing programs in from magazines or playing disks’ worth of games we downloaded from BBSes before moving to a house in a valley a mile or so off the state highway where we had a party line. In 1988. The songs from those two and a half years are somehow more vivid than from other periods in my life.

Then I heard her sing “Get Here”, the title track from the album, and I thought, That’s not quite right.

Because I remember the Oleta Adams cover, which charted much higher, a couple years later.

Suddenly, I’m in college, noodling around either on the Commodore 64 I bought from the later Goth King of St. Louis to take to school or on the old 286 that that my stepmother’s mother bought for $2000 with an employee discount at Sears and I repaid over the course of six months at minimum wage. Probably playing it on the stereo I bought from Iron Maiden poster Dave for $20 My mom says I should charge more because it’s a good stereo, so give me $5 more for the speakers in the days where WKTI played songs like this one and “I Wanna Be Rich” over and over again.

Well, that was certainly worth the dollar I paid for it.

When I pulled up the YouTube video for “Piano in the Dark”, YouTube queued up Breathe’s “Hands to Heaven” and Glenn Frey’s “You Belong to the City” as things to play next. I already have both on CD already, on All That Jazz and the Miami Vice soundtrack. Because I was into 80s pop in the 80s, and I’ve only gotten into LPs and R&B records (and R&B influenced pop) in the 21st century. Or because I’m a racist/misogynist. Maybe both.

In a post called simply Dignity, Severian says:

Karen Carpenter and Linda Ronstadt were always singers, but they were primarily folkies, and while Linda Ronstadt was really something back in her Stone Poneys days — yum! — her biggest hit with them (“Different Drum”) made it clear that she was not the one for you.

One might infer that Linda Ronstadt was not really something after her Stone Poney days (1966-1968). I beg to differ.
Continue reading “Wherein Brian J. Respectfully Disagrees With Severian” →

I just ordered an autographed CD from German band Null Positiv, navigating the site, the store, and the checkout process completely in German (which I do not speak) only then to discover a drop-down list in the footer that, whereupon the user selects English, displays the site completely translated.

At least I think I just ordered an autographed CD. I’m a little afraid to go back and see what I actually ordered.

Also, since this is a German band, I will likely rip the songs to my computer, unlike certain Russian autographed CDs I’ve bought.

By the way, here is some Null Positiv:

I am not sure what Elli Berlin is saying, but I do like the way she says it.

Gentle reader, the week was shaping up to be too busy for me to sneak off to the book sale this week on the north side of town. However, I rearranged some things on the sked so I could pop up for a brief visit on Wednesday afternoon.

I promised the boys I’d be in and out in an hour, and I really only focused on audio/visual materials. The number of records has dwindled from years past, now just a single table, but I managed to find something.

I got:

• He’s Not Heavy, He’s My Tuba by the New York Brass Quintet.
• Casino by Al Di Meola. I think Al Di Meola will be an excellent name for a cat.
• Jackie Gleason presents Music To Remember Her. I think I already have it, but I spent a buck just in case not.
• Zither South of the Border by Ruth Welcome. I am surprised combining the zither with the mariachi lite music of the 1960s did not end the universe as we know it.
• Disguise by Chuck Mangione. You know, that guy from that one animated series. I’ve already forgotten which one he appeared in.
• The Magic Flute of Herbie Mann. Hey, I might have made light of Super Mann when I got it, but I like Herbie Mann.
• Carmina Buruna performed by the Bavarian Radio Orchestra and Chorus.
• Love’s Lines, Angles and Rhymes by the Fifth Dimension.
• No Other Love by Perry Como.
• Dreamer’s Holiday by Perry Como.
• Get Here by Brenda Russell.
• Snowflakes Are Dancing by Tomita, apparently a Japanese composer and synth player, so this is likely to sound like some fusion jazz.
• Pictures At An Exhibition by Tomita.
• Firebird by Tomita. I bought all they had in case I like him.
• Baroque Christmas Cantatas. To add more religious music to the mix come Christmastime.
• Ballads of the Green Berets by SSgt. Barry Sadler. This was a big deal when it came out.
• A Couple of Song & Dance Men by Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire. Some show tunes that they made, but not anything from Holiday Inn.
• High Fidelity by Lena Horne and Phil Moore and Orchestra. I only mention Phil Moore and Orchestra because they also back Crosby and Astaire on the previous record.
• Virtuoso by Liona Boyd, whose Persona I already own. This is classical guitar music, so David Gilmour is unlikely to appear.
• Champagne Jam by Atlanta Rhythm Section.
• The 20th Century Bassoon because I need to update my bassoon music.
• Three Bassoon Concerti: Works by Vivaldi, J.C. Bach, and Graupner. Which does not update my bassoon music.
• Jean-Pierre Rampal Plays Johann Sebastian Bach. He’s no Herbie Mann, but he plays classical flute.
• Born on a Friday by Cleo Laine.
• Baroque Brass by the Eastern Brass Quartet.
• Arabesque: Music from the Film Score by Henry Mancini. I saw this a couple years ago because it had Sophia Loren in it, and Gregory Peck, I guess.
• Billy Holiday: The Original Authentic Recordings/”Piano Man” Bobby Tucker Tells The Lady Day Story. Purportedly collection of live Billie Holiday recordings. How did this one slip through last night? And the Lena Horne? Don’t kids know who these women are?
• The Illinois Brass Quartet.
• Poet’s Gold, a collection of poems read by Helen Hayes, Raymond Massey, and Thomas Mitchell. Produced by Raymond Massey. The guy who played Gail Wynand in The Fountainhead and John Brown in The Santa Fe Trail?
• Cocktail Time with Frankie Carle. I might have this one, too, but it was only a buck, so why not take it to make sure?
• Reaching for the World by Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes.
• The One and Only Jimmy Durante. a 1949 10″ LP.
• Music for Horns by the Horn Club of Los Angeles.
• Look To Your Heart by Perry Como.
• Little Jazz Duets.
• The Springfield Symphony Presents a collection of movements.
• A Song For You by The Carpenters. Okay, I’m really, really not into the 70s folk sound, but Karen Carpenter’s voice has hooked me.
• Antonio Soler: Six Concerti for Two Keyboards.
• Your Guy Lombardo Medley Vol. 2.
• A Very Merry Christmas Volume IV. I picked it up because it has a song by Aretha Franklin on it (she does “Winter Wonderland”).
• The Hits of Benny Goldman.
• At the Candlelight Cafe by the Three Suns. I have quite the collection of their work these days.
• Jazz Meets The Folk Song by the Paul Winter Sextet. Again, as with the south of the border zither, this should have annihilated life as we know it. Scientists are still working to understand why it did not. Or did it?
• A Portrait of Melba by Melba Moore. I think I passed over another one of her records for some reason. Probably because I did now know I picked this one up already in my berserker buying frenzy.
• Seasons by Bing Crosby. As with the Crosby and Astaire album, it’s an older Bing Crosby. According to the back, this is the last Bing Crosby record.
• Najee’s Theme by Najee.

All told, that’s 46 records. On Saturday, it would have only cost $23, but I’m busy Saturday.

My major scores, by my lights, are the Liona Boyd, Lena Horne, and Chuck Mangione albums. I hope I like the Tomita and some of the other things I took fliers on, including the unknown to me soul/R&B titles.

After picking through the records, I hit the videocassette collection. Videocassettes were fifty cents each. On Saturday, they would only be a quarter. I might be tempted to go up there on Sunday and throw what remains into a couple of bags.

But I got the following:

• Three tapes/six episodes of Route 66. Considering how close I am to it, I should probably familiarize myself with the program, ainna?
• Two Marx Brothers films, Duck Soup and Horse Feathers.
• Bachelor Party. I have not seen this in forever.
• Farewell, My Lovely with Robert Mitchum as Marlowe. I’ve got The Big Sleep with Mitchum, I’m think, but I am not sure I have seen this.
• Casino Royale, the James Bond spoofish film from the 1960s. Did they have a copy of the Jimmy Bond Casino Royale? Yes!
• Zulu with Michael Caine.
• Gladiator with Russell Crowe. I saw that in the theaters when I was working my second technical writing position back in the 20th century. I don’t think I’ve seen it since.
• Frantic, which was Harrison Ford doing Taken before Liam Neeson did.

I didn’t even look at the DVDs as my boys’ patience was running short, as was my promise to them to be in and out in an hour.

I did pick up a single audio book, Seven Bad Ideas: How Mainstream Economists Have Damaged America and the World by Jeff Madrick. It’s from 2014, and boy howdee I expect it to have predicted some things from 2021. Probably things I disagreed with when listening to On Thinking Like An Economist: A Guide To Rational Decision Making. I also picked up four bundles of chapbooks that I have yet to unbind to see what I’ve got.

So I was sad to not find any Barbara McNair; I thought surely I would trip over some now that I knew to look for it, but no. Also, no Fluegel Knights. All of the Herb Alpert I already own. No new-to-me Eydie Gorme (only one album, Don’t Go To Stranger, in the boxes).

Still, a good hunt, especially if two conditions are met: I like one of the new-to-me artists, and my beautiful wife is pleased with the brass selections.

Likelihood of my return on Sunday, bag day: 33%. Which is higher than it was a when I started the post.

You know, it might be worth it all to go back to 1995 and tell all the riot grrrls that Ani DiFranco….

has long hair in the 21st century:

I nipped this picture from the Milwaukee Daily Dammit, Gannett! gallery 61 Headliners You Can See At Summerfest 2021 which apparently this year will be held in September and not June and July.

In the terms of Full Disclosure, I am pretty sure I have seen Ani DiFranco in concert more times than I have seen most bands not called The Class of ’62 Surf Boys and probably only surpassed by the Springfield Symphony Orchestra.

I can’t help but note that at a minimum 30% of the acts in the gallery would have been in a similar gallery in 1994.

So on one of my work email accounts, I’ve been testing links to YouTube videos with the normal symphonic heavy metal things (as I mentioned), and so it presented me with the work of Olivia Holt:

A Disney and other things actress.

She’s a little poppy for either my metal or jazz tastes.

Clearly, Google thinks I share musical tastes with the revered Charles Hill. While we have some overlap, no.

Well, no; one can only wonder what the woman behind the LP How To Make Your Husband A Sultan: Belly Dance with Özel Türkbaş would think of this:

I certainly like the music more than the traditional Middle Eastern belly dances.

Apparently, Diana Bastet, probably not her real name, has videos stretching back ten years with dances to various songs with various degrees of production effort as well as some belly dancing workouts. The About page on YouTube says she performs at festivals, but certainly not church festivals, and probably not on this side of the pond.

I found this video because one of the applications I am testing now allows you to link to YouTube videos, and of course, I’m linking to symphonic metal videos.

I did not use any of Bastet’s work as test data, however.

You can see more of Ms. Bastet in motion on YouTube. I have added some photos, which are strangely not blurry, below the fold.

Continue reading “Özel Türkbaş Warned Me There’d Be Videos Like This” →

Richard Marx wrote the song “Dance With My Father” for Luther Vandross.

I thought I had mentioned but apparently have not that this song touched me very deeply when I heard it earlier in the century. I think I heard it first right after my first son was born, so I almost wept not only because I lost my father fairly early in my adulthood, but because I knew that someday I would leave my sons behind, and they would hopefully feel the same about me.

I listen to it at my own risk.

It’s from the 2003 album of the same name.

The article about Richard Marx touts his new memoir coming out, and it sounds kind of appealing. I’ll have to watch for it. Although I don’t tend to go through the show biz books at the church sales, so I’ll likely have to find it at a garage sale. Although I don’t tend to go to garage sales very often. Well, I have enough to read anyway.

See also: Songs of Fatherhood.