Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – ‘Jesus Alone’

•September 1, 2016 • Leave a Comment

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds’ haunting new song, “Jesus Alone,” comes from the forthcoming Skeleton Tree, with a performance video taken from the band’s One More Time With Feeling film.

Cave travels through humanity to an old man sitting by a fire, a young man covered in blood, a woman in a yellow dress surrounded by a charm of hummingbirds. “With my voice, I am calling you,” he sings as a creator visiting his creation, acknowledging its faults, its beauty, but also his imperfection: “You’re a distant memory in the mind of your creator, don’t you see?”

Skeleton Tree is released Sept. 9

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New Marvin Gaye Documentary Coming

•July 13, 2016 • Leave a Comment

Marvin Gaye seminal 1971 album What’s Going On is to be the subject of a documentary.

Album cover of Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On

Centred around themes of poverty, police brutality, drug abuse and injustice in the wake of Martin Luther King Jr’s assassination and with lyrics written from the perspective of a Vietnam war veteran, the film will document the making of a soul classic that “challenged America and the world to self-reflect, going on to inspire a generation of artists and music lovers”, the producers said.

“The relevance of [his] masterpiece … is as strong as ever.”  It is expected to air sometime in 2017.

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Crystal Clear Louis Armstrong Recording Surfaces

•April 23, 2016 • Leave a Comment

An astonishingly clear recording of Louis Armstrong & His Orchestra performing “Ain’t Misbehavin’” has surfaced. According to the video’s description, the track comes from a metal “mother record” that New York City’s Okeh Records sent to Germany’s Odeon Records for their pressings.

Considering the poor quality of most early jazz records, these tracks are a rare treat for any fan of the pioneering New Orleans trumpet master.

Posted in Americana, jazz, music, Video
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RIP Prince Rogers Nelson

•April 21, 2016 • 1 Comment

Sadly very little of Prince’s music is freely available online, but there is at least one glorious exception: this 1982 concert from Prince’s Controversy tour at the Capitol Theatre in Passaic, New Jersey. The show was pre-1999 and Purple Rain, so it’s relatively intimate compared with later arena shows, but that doesn’t mean Prince holds back.

Here is a partial list of the wonders contained herein:

  • A gospel opening to herald the coming of His Purpleness
  • A pole dance (also from His Purpleness)
  • Prince simulating sex with his guitar for four full minutes (starting around 24:40)
  • Prince dancing and doing splits in heels (see around 35:00 for just one example)
  • A Prince striptease (starting around 43:10)
  • Hits including “I Wanna Be Your Lover,” “Uptown,” and “Dirty Mind.”

I can think of no better way to celebrate him than watching the whole thing.

Posted in dance, funk, music, personal, pop culture, Video
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The Flaming Lips Cover David Bowie’s Space Oddity

•April 16, 2016 • Leave a Comment

Tributes continue to pour out for David Bowie after his passing in January. The latest, and one of the most touching, comes courtesy of The Flaming Lips, whose cover of “Space Oddity” shows up in this new video, a couple of weeks after the band played “Life on Mars?” at a pair of tribute concerts to Bowie in New York….enjoy.

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Elvis Costello Channels Bobby Womack’s Soul

•April 9, 2016 • Leave a Comment

The soundtrack to HBO’s Vinyl often features artists of today covering the artists of the ’70s, but it’s fun when it involves one artist who was active in the ’70s covering another ’70s artist. That’s what’s happening with this song: Seen-it-all Elvis Costello taking on “Point Of No Return,” a 1972 song from Bobby Womack, the soul-music great who we lost in 2014….enjoy.

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The Sound of Young Scotland

•March 30, 2016 • Leave a Comment

Relive those heady times with ‘The Big Gold Dream – Scottish Post Punk and Infiltrating The Mainstream’. The story of Fast Product and Postcard Records – Orange Juice, Aztec Camera, Fire Engines, Scars, The Human League, Josef K and Scottish Post Punk…magic!

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