I found these talented kids and their video while searching for a different Swedish banjo tune, but this one is better anyway. It’s unusual to say this about Europeans playing slow blues on bluegrass instruments, but they really find the pocket by the back end of the song. The song starts a little slow, so …
. Also in the Michael Jackson Suite at EastPortlandBlog.com: Tribute to Michael Jackson From Patrick Stump of Fallout Boy Brazilian Cab Driver Impersonates Michael Jackson Spectacularly On the Occasion of Michael Jackson’s Death, by Andrew Hamlin Smells Like Rockin’ Robin (Nirvana vs The Jackson 5) – A Mashup Michael Jackson – Thriller (A Cappella) Three …
Since I read the reconstituted, on-line-only version of the venerable CRAWDADDY! [thoughtfully bundled in with my weekly Wolfgang’s Vault concert archive e-mails] with some regularity, I can vouch for its residual interest, though I seldom look at more than one or two articles per virtual “issue”. On the whole, it’s fine. But this li’l bit …
Alcoholic Faith Mission are a cool band. I’ve become friends of theirs through writing about their music and have since met them. They have a new single out which amazingly is (for the moment) a free download via their record company: Alcoholic Faith Mission – Running With Insanity by Paper Garden Records This video is …
John Hammond Jr. is a fantastic live act. To say he’s been around is an understatement. Hammond introduced The Band to Bob Dylan and had a short-lived band that included both Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton. He’s one of those performers who seems to feed off the energy of a live show, and then falls …
[Do English people write and express themselves better than Americans, Australians, Canadians or anyone, really, because they invented the language, forcing us to continue playing “catch up” after all the centuries? Below is Englander Mike Hughes on PJ Harvey. – EPB] “God damn Europeans, take me back to beautiful England” – LOL at PJ being …
Here’s Brazilian taxi driver Jean Walker with his stunning version of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” delivered from behind the wheel of his cab: . Also in the Michael Jackson Suite at EastPortlandBlog.com: Tribute to Michael Jackson From Patrick Stump of Fallout Boy Brazilian Cab Driver Impersonates Michael Jackson Spectacularly On the Occasion of Michael Jackson’s Death, …
OK, here’s another Kate Bush tune for my friends who are fans (her outfit is right up there with some of Barbarella‘s best…Halloween costume idea anyone?) On an aside, do you notice a thematic, though not stylistic, similarity to “Escape (The Pina Colada Song)” by Rupert Holmes? A woman looking for additional racy costume ideas …
It’s a gig Jim, but not as we know it…. Visiting Brits, more used to gigs in student halls or the back rooms of London pubs, we happened to pitch up in Salt Lake City at the same time as the opening night of new music venue The House (http://thehouse.org). It’s situated discreetly in what …
Dallas’ Time Machine Band is performing their cover of I Wanna Dance With Somebody, and the singer is modestly hot and seriously mellifluous, but that’s not where the fun is…
East Portland Blog’s favorite song by The Band. Keyboardist Richard Manuel is on vocals:
East Portland Blog readers may have already been exposed to Complete, but if not, watch this 2008 video of the band playing their own composition “Hoogie Boogie Land”: This seems pretty shitty at first, right? Guy can’t sing, death metal “no established beat” drumming but in a wimpy hard rock format. Maybe these guys don’t …
Richie’s Reprisal: Thoughts from the Pallid Pilgrim OUT-SPECTORING SPECTOR by Rich Horton In the days before multi-tracking, producers of rock-influenced pop records were stuck with the thorny problem of how to translate rock’s bombast over the tinny car radio speakers by which most American teenagers heard the music. Phil Spector’s solution to the problem was …
As I wrote to a friend after finishing my first spin on this: “What the world needs now is more warped master statements!” And to think I almost didn’t spin it once after reading the lyrics in the booklet. Never read before spinning. Even I forget that rule sometimes. Simply reading, you see, you might …
His name is Boo Boo Davis. He’s got the Boo Boo Blues. Damn lucky for him! He coulda been stuck with the furshlugginer Ethel Lipschitz Blues! Man, what a damnation. But he’s got the Boo Boo Blues. We call that order in the universe. And we’re furshlugginer thankful for it into the bargain. Not that …
“All Vocals: Russell Mael” reads a credit on the booklet back of the twenty-first album by Sparks; and I don’t think anybody, not even the folks applauding this record, appreciates what a breathtaking accomplishment that is. Russell (the cute one) used this one-man choir approach on the last two albums and 2006’s “Hello Young Lovers” …
On the Thursday evening after it happened I sat at Charlie’s on Broadway meeting some new people. I said I couldn’t remember the last time four famous people died in one day. Which where the other two, everyone asked. Why, Sky Saxon and Johnny Hart, I said. I found only one man who knew of …
Just in case you didn’t see this today: JOHN LYDON’S TOP OF THE POPS ROOTS REGGAE PICKS: http://www.dangerousminds.net/comments/john_lydons_top_of_the_pops_roots_reggae_picks/ It’s been interesting to read in the Keith Richards book how very deep into reggae he was/is too. Of course, I knew about Peter Tosh opening for The Stones, living in Keith’s house, and Keith’s pad in …
Fish (no relation to Phish), late of Marillion (though he wishes everyone would quit talking about that), always held his various broken hearts so close that they burned from body heat. So when life threw him a genuine own goal—he courts the female singer of a female progressive band, they engage, they set the date, …
This electric, yet unplugged, version of Michael Jackson’s “Smooth Criminal” is trending in Seattle this morning:
Nick Millward and his fabulous Riffbrokers have been providing sweet, crunchy audio candy to the NW for over 10 years now, from power pop to Americana. Nick explores the power and magic of the hillbilly spiritual on a great new song, available for free download. http://riffbrokers.bandcamp.com/track/leaning-on-the-everlasting-arms – Steve Stav
East Portland Blog asked me to write about “Supper’s Ready” by Genesis, but my heart really wouldn’t be in it today knowing that this clip of Louis Prima and Keely Smith exists. Prima was a combination Zelig/Lord of Misrule of 20th century music, with a career stretching from Louis Armstrong’s New Orleans to the LA …
Another reminder that St. Patrick’s Day is just around the corner. St. Paddy’s day in Chicago is a huge deal. Offices may as well close for two days due to low productivity on the day itself and the hangover time wastage which inevitably follows the next day. I never thought I’d miss those wild March …
Corin Tucker, once the siren of Sleater-Kinney, has a new band, the Corin Tucker Band, a new album, “1000 Years,” and, most importantly, a new hat. (Click here for Ken Tucker’s review): Meanwhile, ex-bandmate Carrie Brownstein has a new TV show with SNL’s Fred Armisen.
One of the legacies of World War II, with its enlistment of young men from across the United States for military service in Europe and the Pacific, was the integration of Southern rural culture – both black and white – into mainstream American life. The South, which had been largely isolated from the rest of …
Critic’s Roundtable, Part 4 (This conversation has four parts.) Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3 – Part 4 Behold! http://www.villagevoice.com/pazznjop Look carefully and you’ll see a ballot from yours truly. Almost nobody else voted for my picks, but I expected nothing less. A few observations: those rascally Posies finished at 190, beating out, …