With this video for “I Love Isan,” a new release from The Isan Project, you can hear and see the sounds of Isan, a region in Northern Thailand, hitting the charts. Two brothers from Manchester, UK, Producer Will Robinson and his brother, hand-assembled four traditional Thai instruments, played them, and added some very Western EDM …
Television host Steve Allen plays the piano on this and it forms a moment of unusual beauty. Here’s Jack Kerouac, our latter day Whitman, singing the body electric in old school San Francisco. He uses the word “fellaheen” a half century before middle eastern class and sectarian struggles would dominate the headlines. Something in this …
When Steve Wynn finished producing Chris Cacavas debut solo album in early 1989, I took the master tapes over to the offices of CMJ; College Music Journal. I played this song for the editor and he smiled and looked at me and said “holy shit, this sounds like the Buffalo Springfield jamming with Steppenwolf”. Two …
Yes, a staggering talent, like discovering the next Dalai Lama in the body of a six year old American boy… http://joeyalexandermusic.com/
One of the best French pop songs of the sixties. OK, Sylvie has crazy teeth and this video is all cheesy sci-fi robo-bondage, but the tune endures. If I ever go on tour beyond Spokane or Walla Walla, I’m gonna figure a way to include this in the set. And yeah, I’ll sing in French. …
Great piece from Charles Pierce on the Cubs win last night. http://grantland.com/the-triangle/beatdown-the-cubs-keelhaul-the-bucs-in-pittsburgh/ Pierce appears to have made a regular assignment of covering Wild Card playoff games in Pittsburgh. This is the one he wrote last year when the Giants paid their visit. http://grantland.com/the-triangle/baseball-playoffs-mlb-roger-goodells/ Even as they suffered their second year of one-and-done disappointment, last night’s …
This is from one of my favorite recently acquired jazz albums, Rising Son by Takayu Kuroda, a great up-and-coming jazz trumpeter. Modern jazz with a distinctive afro-beat influence (I’m a big afro beat fan). – Don Lundell
Here are 30 bands that I’ve NEVER shared a stage or dressing room with – and I’m totally at peace with that: 1) Pavement 2) Thurston Moore 3) Bonnie Prince Billy 4) Kid Rock 5) Tool 6) Helmet 7) Fleet Foxes 8) Rem (after Bill Berry left) 9) Replacements (after Bob Stinson passed) 10) Beyonce …
Yonatan Gat is a guitarist from Tel Aviv, and I saw him live at a rainy event on a farm yesterday, and he’s the REAL DEAL — just playing with a trio, and 90% instrumental. So many sounds from his guitar — ferocious surf punk and psychedelia that’s so musical it’s bursting and wonderfully exploratory. …
How fricken cool was it to open up the video file of Slim Wray’s “Take it or Leave it”?! About as cool as pulling an unlabeled can from the cup board, popping the seal and finding out it’s full of “Hell Yeah”. If that analogy doesn’t reach you, maybe you could imagine releasing a squirrel …
The Foreign Resort will perform at Kelly’s Olympian in Portland on Oct. 30. and at Substation in Seattle on Oct. 31. Tuning in to The Foreign Resort’s new release single “Under Bright Neon Stars” was like a trip down memory lane. I found myself back in the era of The Cure and quite frankly I …
This Bach fugue (a classical guitar favorite) is particularly stunning in Chris Thile’s hands – his subtle musical approach to the piece is incredible… and on a very limited instrument. Genius. – Don Lundell
Being uninitiated to Ghosts in Pocket and their music, I clicked on “stream” and released the flow of their musical creation. The bass line sawed away, the drums tapped and then, the lyrics sang, my mind opened, and I felt refreshed. Focusing in, I submerged for a closer look. For me, Ghosts in Pocket’s new …
Back in the days before Marvel’s more “realistic” super heroes overthrew DC’s dominance in the comics marketplace, DC would sometimes feature what they referred to as “imaginary stories,” which was a rather endearing way of saying the plot pursued an alternative story arc that didn’t fit in the overall fictional continuity of the characters involved. …
This is a great moment in the history of music on the internet. Both Fleck and Washburn caress the fretboards of their respective banjos, one bluegrass style, the other frailing style, with such delicacy that they refashion this uberdramatic metal tune into passionate chamber music. Also, Bela looks awesome-tastic with long hair… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5AsyuNia5Y
This guitarist reminds of a young Michael Hedges. This vid is fun. The tune he’s playing is Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” and the acoustic rhythms are imaginative, strong and splendiferous.
Imagine Dragons took an honest and introspective approach to creating the music video for their new single, “Roots.” The video follows lead singer Dan Reynolds in his struggle to maintain a sense of self and balance in the chaotic whirlwind of tour life by rediscovering his roots.
(((This turned into an essay of sorts about my dog Ruby’s cremation day (a word I hated when it came to being associated with her) and it’s about her essence of course… written not of sound mind perhaps, but there’s beauty in the story and I needed to tell it quick…thank you all so much …
one more time, i’m posting this amazing record cover. it’s the cover of the LP (issued in 1967, a few months after “sgt. pepper” hit the streets) of the mothers of invention’s “we’re only in it for the money.” the delicious parody of the sgt. pepper cover is beyond cassic. it’s beatles anti-matter. the story …
I was writing a song in my backyard on my Spanish guitar, when a pair of raccoons came out of the bushes to check me out. The hood is alive… with the sounds of these little thieving quasi monkey bears and the sound of sensitive pony tail music. – Davin Michael Stedman
last wednesday, i was honored to be at a book signing event for a rather momentous and very important little poster book project. scott mcdougall is one of the best experts i’ve ever met on all things psychedelia. his own artwork (he desgned the cover, for instance) is enough to entrench him into the hall …
This is my new favorite video. This house should be made into a national historic place. I’m a little surprised there hasn’t already been a reality show…
This is downright hilarious: http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/09/24/442822266/a-visit-to-the-worlds-first-boozy-taco-bell – Chuck Strom
Nations of the Soul are an indie folk duo from Norway who have just released their second single, “To the Loved Ones” (above). It’s a lovely, catchy tune which you’ll adore once you hear it. The duo’s first single, “Dancing Spirit,” released sometime before summer, was picked up and loved by the Norwegian press and …
Every couple of years, a new generation discovers folk singer/songwriter Jackson C. Frank – and gets all obsessive about him – similar to Nick Drake, Judee Sill, (and for reasons I’ve never understood) Vashti Bunyan – and yet, oddly not enough people do that with Sandy Denny. Anyway Frank is worth some obsessing – and …
New article in Grantland by Charles Pierce: http://grantland.com/the-triangle/peytons-place-why-the-broncos-quarterback-should-retire/ Very thoughtful on the current state of Peyton Manning’s career and the physical toll it has taken on him. The NFL season has just begun, and conversation already seems to be more about casualties than the games. It makes me wonder if football may decline, like boxing, …
The Queen of Rock n' Roll by The Sinners The Sinners have released a straight ahead rocker which is AWESOME and have chosen to have their world premiere on East Portland Blog which is even more AWESOME! Timothy Riley (that’s him in the photo on the right) is the chief among the Sinners as he …
Pope Francis has landed at Andrews Air Force Base for his first visit to the United States. There’s a lot of speculation about what he might say, especially when he addresses Congress Thursday morning in light of first visiting Cuba. I am hopeful that he will discuss American capitalism’s flaws, a theme he has hit …
Blending the gospel with the secular; Dylan in New Orleans, November 1981: This show was recorded for a proposed live album, which was never issued (apart from “Heart of Mine”, which appeared on Biograph), Dylan scholar Paul Williams calls this “one of his most inventive tours”, and the setlist — which mixes songs from the …