Kerfuffle

Sing it loud, sing it proud: We're number 37 among all nations when it comes to health care.

Great music video satire from musical blogger Paul Hipp...

Paul packs a lot of great lines into three minutes.  Check out his website for more.

Mr. Ed and Elpis: A match made in horsey heaven. If only she, too, could talk

And now a musical selection dedicated to Elpis, our filly born a week ago...

The Chicago Blues scene lost a great one today: Koko Taylor dead at age 80

Take down the lights on the Wang Dang Doodle stage at ChicagoFest. The Queen of the Blues is dead.

Koko Taylor, the Grammy Award-winning "Queen of the Blues," died Wednesday afternoon at Northwestern Memorial Hospital of complications from surgery, according to Marc Lipkin of Alligator Records. She was 80.

Taylor, born Coral Walton on a sharecropper's farm outside Memphis, came to Chicago in 1952 and worked as a house cleaner. She began to sit in with blues bands and in the early 1960s signed a contract with Chess Records after being approached by Willie Dixon. In 1965 she recorded her signature song, "Wang Dang Doodle."   [Chicago Tribune]

No one did it like Koko.

Let the good tmes roll, but not tonight.  Koko's gone.  Godspeed, Queen of the Blues.

Today, while the right wing crazies are focused on teabagging, I offer a musical respite dedicated to the Iowa Supreme Court and the Vermont State Legislature

From singer-songwriter Matt Alber:

Matt Alber, a native of Wichita, Kansas, is a school teacher turned musical artist.  From his Facebook biography...

I grew up singing in choirs. I enjoy singing with other people with wide eyes and open hearts. I went to school to study music. The best parts were spent in a rehearsal room where we all trusted each other.

In San Francisco I sang with an acapella ensemble called Chanticleer directed by a quirky genius of a man named Joe Jennings. He taught me how to challenge a choir to leap forward and discover the miracle they already had in their hands. We toured the globe and made many records together. (2 of them won the Grammy even. How about that?!)

This year I'm pushing myself to improvise on stage and rearrange my songs continually. I'm also starting my own choir of gay and lesbian seniors, or rather, they might be starting me.

Alber's voice reminds me a bit of Rufus Wainright, with a hauntingly beautiful range and quality that makes it, to me, instantly likable.  His music is available at both iTunes and Amazon (who presumably has not blacklisted his Amazon rank due to "adult content" in their recent "glitch.")  You can also sample his recordings and videos at his MySpace page.

[h/t jbm]

Everyone's a Critic

"You still buy CDs?" asked Ross the Intern. "Why?"

"I don't know," I replied, truly not knowing why I still accumulate plastic discs that are left in stacks after being loaded onto the MacBook, never to be touched again. It's an interesting generational issue, one that most certainly has effects on how people discover, buy, share and collect music. I know a lot college kids who never buy a hard copy of any music. On the other end of the spectrum, my friend Phil has one of the most incredible music collections of anyone I know. This man has vinyl, 8-tracks, cassettes and CDs to fill his entire basement. I wouldn't be surprised if he had piano rolls down there. As for me, I would estimate I have about 2500 CDs plus maybe 250 LPs and some cassettes. All of my stuff would easily fit on the 500GB external drive I have.

It's not just the hard copy versus electronic file preference thing that intrigues me. The very way people get their music now has undergone a sea change in the past ten years. Unless you've been living in a cave, you know that. Still, it's amazing to think that ten years ago, national chains like Tower Records, Sam Goody and Musicland, along with the radio and video programmers, really ran the music distribution business. Now, the only brick and mortar retailers that matter are Wal-Mart and Target. And then there's Amazon. Once i-Tunes hit cyberspace, Amazon and others quickly retooled their models to deliver MP3s. Sure, radio and video still has influence. But with XM and Sirius taking away share, along with no end of streaming opportunities, long gone are the days when local radio play really matters to new artists.

All this got me to thinking about the factors of influence on the music buying public these days. Driving this musing in part is that I have a couple papers to write this semester; one is for a media theory class and the other is a media effects class. In the effects class, we've been talking a lot about the power of personal influence. There are a lot of angles to that area of study. The theory of Two-Step Flow of Communications, which suggests people rely on opinion leaders to help them shape and understand what the media is telling them, has given way to a more complex theory that has everyone influencing everyone else. (That description will not get me far on a test.) For these papers, and perhaps ultimately building up to my thesis, I want to zero in on how the confluence of digital technology and the nature of blogs and social networking are impacting the discovery, sharing, distribution and finances of the music business.

As for myself, I used to owe a lot of my new music discovery to WXRT-FM in Chicago. XRT is a great station that has remained as true to its roots as possible given its transition from independent rebel to corporate property. Some music press added to my information net, along with the occasional recommendation from a friend. Now, with limited access to good over-the-air radio in Madison, I am accommodated by the web in my pursuit of new and different music. Sources of information are still, in part, tools of the industry. I buy everything from Amazon, and their logarithms are always offering suggestions... and I am occasionally acting on them. But, more and more, I am turning to blogs and other internet sources for recommendations. These aren't necessarily major sites. Case in point, my current fascination with Vampire Weekend.

I first heard of this quirky band from a friend's blog:

I've been listening to the self-titled debut album by Vampire Weekend, and its pretty damn good. I was a little apprehensive at first because the band members are all Columbia grads and many of their songs have pretentious titles like "Oxford Comma." So they had a strike against them before I started listening.

But I love their shit. What do they sound like? Imagine Paul Simon circa Rhythm of the Saints getting drunk on a boat with Sublime and Peter Gabriel. A lot of their songs have a quality that I can only put into words as "summer lakehouse-y".
--Mike at Irrational Exuberance

Mike, the blogger, is half my age. We listen to different stuff for the most part. But the way he wrote about this band sent me right over to Amazon to order the CD (hard copy!) sound-unheard. It was worth the ten bucks to take a flyer on it. I am not alone. On the heels of their Saturday Night Live appearance, their debut album holds lucky number 13 right now on Amazon. More interestingly, they are the number three album on iTunes. That kind of supports my research hypothesis that the kids buying music are operating under a different paradigm.

That two-song performance last night merited several positive blogger reviews, like this one, that one, and another one.

But not all is sunshine and roses for these guys. Their rapid ascent, lightweight songwriting and musical prowess, and instant stardom are also already being chronicled. This guy hates 'em, if I interpret his one-line review correctly. Another blogger-reviewer put more thought into why he's not impressed. And he makes a good argument, including this part:

And then I got home and found out who these guys were: a bunch of prep-school white boys from Columbia University. For an indie pop band, this is not entirely surprising, but from a musical standpoint, I find their ubiquitousness kind of troubling. Why? Because they're doing Afro-pop. ...break... I just think there's something inherently racist about what this band is doing, or something at least condescending toward Afro-pop artists who will probably never explode in America in the same way: they're putting a white face on African music and getting the approval and encouragement of their establishment.

--John at The Short List

I think, but can't say for sure, that Vampire Weekend is a good example of a band with a CD to sell whose success is being driven by the web, specifically by blogs and music sites. And with two videos up on iTunes, they are on their way to the fame, however fleeting, that awaits them. In another era, they may have been a one-hit wonder with a novelty song driven by record company promotion and DJ payola. (Think Winchester Cathedral or Don't Worry, Be Happy... if you must.)

I don't know yet if this is a good idea for a series of research projects. It will depend on how much study has already been done... that has data I can get. But common sense tells me that the power of multi-step communications flow (aka interactive media and media users) means end users of content (aka people who listen to this stuff) have a whole lot more sway on what makes it in the music business these days. At the same time, the technology allows even the lonely musician with three fans not including family to put something out in the ether and hope for the best. Publishing is, well, as easy as this tripe I put up here.

So who is the next Vampire Weekend? Watch the blogs and Facebook and you may know before I do.

Who needs a little HEAT in the dead of winter?

The Reverend Horton Heat, to be more specific.

For the uninitiated, The Reverend Horton Heat is the stage name for Jim Heath, a great guitarist who tends to blur the lines between rockabilly, roots rock, country and god knows what else. From his web site...

It's been an almost 20-year journey for Heath, whose country-flavored punkabilly and onstage antics have brought him and his band a strikingly diverse fan base and a devoted cult following, not to mention the respect of fellow musicians worldwide.

The Rev leads a trio that includes a drummer and stand-up bassist. They do a great show, and it's pretty hard not to start to really get into it... and to pound a lot of beer in the process.

Recently, he and a few pals outside the band got to talking about the beauty of the Hammond b3 organ sound. One thing led to another, and the side project "Reverand OrganDrum" was born. Bass lines are incorporated into the Hammond's big sound by b3 impresario Tim Alexander, with the Rev's next-door neighbor, Todd Soesbe on drums.
The RevOrganDrum work pulls in a lot of vintage sounds, and hits a broad spectrum of styles: blues, soul, jazz, surf, swing and more. Even the James Bond theme and the theme to 60s TV show Route 66 get the treatment.
I've been a fan of the Rev for a long time, and hope to catch his show when it blows through Madison's recently revitalized Majestic Theatre in April. I have to credit his record label, YepRoc Records, with doing a nice piece of web cross-promotion that brought this great release to my attention. I picked up their re-release of Nick Lowe's "Jesus of Cool," a phenomenal work in its own right, earlier this week. Inside the CD cover I found a slip of paper offering me a few free bonus MP3 tracks if I visited YepRoc's site. I did, and discovered that the password (Jesustracks) got me more than just the Nick Lowe stuff. I also grabbed some Jim Lauderdale and a a track from The Apples In Stereo, which led me to buy that band's new release, New Magnetic Wonder. That little slip of paper in Nick Lowe's CD quickly sold two more YepRoc releases. Amazon benefited too, since they got the order.

Cool stuff. Retro, but not in a retro way, if that even makes sense. Go forth and buy. (Except you, Phil. This will be in the next batch. Count on it.)

A few low-brow laughs

There are a lot of different videos to this Weird Al song. None are great, but this one is at least visually stimulating. Without further ado, I give you "The Beer Song"

Better without Boy George

I thought this was going to be just another dumb bit. But I kind of liked it. I always liked Jimmy Fallon and Jack Black makes me laugh. Not sure why. But this is a small, seasonal example of why in video form.

Fallon looks like a grown up version of an Abercrombie clone; Black looks like a homeless guy. But the song's sentiment is a hell of a lot closer to the Christmas spirit than all the Wal-Mart displays and shitloads of gift catalogs that clog my mailbox.

Bob and Reba, together again

I always got a kick out of telling people my brother was a roadie for big rock groups. The term "roadie" has sort of negative stereotypical connotations, so I kind of stopped using it about the time he got married and his per diem stopped going up his nose. That was a really long time ago.

He's self-taught at being a highly sought-after concert audio specialist. He started out in 1979 working for a handful of local (not really even regional) acts that played mostly Iowa and Illinois. A few times, he was on one side of the bar mixing sound and I was on the other mixing drinks at a long-gone place called "So's Your Mother" in Des Moines. He eventually started working for bands like Jefferson Starship, REO Speedwagon, Kiss and too many others to remember. I got very used to being able to get back stage passes... even for bands I didn't especilly like. Yep, I was a poseur. Totally didn't belong, geeky looking nerd in a polo short standing backstage with leather clad hangers-on. But who cares. It was fun.

These days, Bob is pretty selective about going out on tour. He works part time for his local school district, running their performing arts center and other techie stuff. The grind is to much when you hit 50. That's right, Bob. You're FIFTY. HAHAHAHAHA!. (Apologies for the outburst. I'm 48 myself. But no matter how old I am, he'll always be older. Deal with it Bob!)

He's cut a sweet deal with Reba McEntire in the recent months. He worked for her a few years in the 90s. He missed the road, and liked her organization. These days, she goes out and does a few shows. Comes back for a few weeks. Then maybe a few more shows. She runs a limited schedule right now. No more "If it's Tuesday, this must be Omaha" grind of a schedule. And I say, good for him. He gets to do what he loves, but not so much of it that it becomes a pain in the ass both figuratively and literally.

The local paper where he lives in Michigan wrote a nice little profile of him this week, which can be read here.

If he ever reads my blog, then he'll know that I am again publicly making fun of him being FIFTY. Like he even cares. But he'll also know that I'm pretty proud of him. You know how it is with brothers. I couldn't ever really say that to his face... that I'm proud of him. Unless maybe if I am buttering him up for some free passes to something. That's what blogs are for.