200th Post and annoucement

This is my 200th post and in celebration, I’m changing my url from www.letsnotgetcarriedaway.wordpress.com to simply, www.letsnotgetcarriedaway.com.  Due to technical difficulties, mainly me trying to figure out how the internet operates, it may take a day or two or more.  In the meantime, please enjoy this picture of a drunk Ron Swanson from Parks and Recreation.

Don Cornelius

As most of you know Don Cornelius died on February 1.

Soul Train hosted some amazing moments.  Click on the photos to see some of my favorites of the “hippest trip in America”.

Aretha Franklin sings “Mary Don’t You Weep”

Billy Preston (and his spectacular afro) “Nothing From Nothing”

The Staple Singers (with Pops) singing “Touch A Hand, Make A Friend”

Rick James and Teena Marie “I’m A Sucker For Your Love”

Jackson 5 “I Want You Back”

David Bowie sings “Fame”

James Brown “Super Bad”

The only time Don Cornelius went down the Soul Train line

“Love, Peace and Soul”

Weekend In LA

Just like last week, the place to go to in Los Angeles are the museums.

First Fridays return to Natural History Museum.  This month’s presentation is going to get H-O-T, as biological anthropologist, Amy Parish discusses the sexual interaction of the bonobos, the closest living relative to humans.  The social system of the Bonobo is unusual in many respects: females form real and meaningful bonds in the absence of kinship, females attack and dominate males, and all possible age and gender combinations participate in sexual interactions.

After the hot and heavy discussion it’s time for some music with Julie Holter, The Soft Moon and Light Asylum.

I should mention that it’s practically sold out.  I recommend jumping on March tickets now.

In event that is not sold out that should be just as nice is at the LACMA where former Leonard Cohen back up singer,  Perla Batalla will perform on Saturday night.  Perla will perform in celebration of LACMA’s exhibition, In Wonderland: The Surrealist Adventures of Women Artists in Mexico and the U.S.  Get your tickets now.  The show starts at 7:30 but get there early and enjoy!

Alan Lomax

Have you ever wondered how primitive folks and world songs in the pre-phonograph era survived?  Well you can thank Alan Lomax.  An early day Indiana Jones, if you will, for going to parts unknown; logging and recording these songs for posterity.

Without these recordings Leadbelly, The Byrds or The White Stripes  might not have discovered “Take A Whiff On Me”.  “Rock Island Line might have been lost and not covered by Johnny Cash or The Knitters.

You get the idea.

January 31 would have been Alan Lomax’s 97th birthday and now “a decade after his death technology has finally caught up to Lomax’s imagination. Just as he dreamed, his vast archive — some 5,000 hours of sound recordings, 400,000 feet of film, 3,000 videotapes, 5,000 photographs and piles of manuscripts, much of it tucked away in forgotten or inaccessible corners — is being digitized so that the collection can be accessed online. About 17,000 music tracks will be available for free streaming by the end of February, and later some of that music may be for sale as CDs or digital downloads.”

You can learn more about this historic undertaking at The Global Jukebox

You can buy a 16 song sampler by clicking on the album cover below.  It’s a little window into the history of music.  Music of all genres can all be traced back to these songs Alan Lomax recorded.

 

 

New Music Tuesday

Poet/Muse/Musical Genius Leonard Cohen comes down from the mountaintop (or from wherever he lives but I’m sure it’s on a mountaintop) to deliver “Old Ideas“.  What are these old ideas? The usual, love, hope, faith, sex, everything you need in life.  Although judging by the opening lyrics of this album,  Leonard will have none of that:

 

“I’d like to speak with Leonard.

He’s a Sportsmen and a Shepherd.    

He’s a lazy bastard living in a suit.”

 

If I’m not mistaken this is the voice of The Almighty speaking (tongue firmly inserted in check).  Leonard’s been at this for well over forty years now and yet this music sounds as fresh as some kid’s debut album.  His baritone voice asserts itself into the lyrics and a special MVP award should go to the background vocalists that act as a Greek Chorus assuring or refuting lyrical passages.  It’s great to have Leonard Cohen back.  I’ll be playing this record for a long time.

On the opposite spectrum sits Lana Del Rey.  Many people are calling her career DOA based on her SNL performance.    Lana was interviewed by Rolling Stone regarding the performance and she seems to take it in stride.  After six months of hype and over 23 million views of “Video Games“,  her album finally comes out.  Rolling Stone is not too fond of it.

It looks like the song that will replace Foster The People’s “Pumped Up Kicks” as the song you can’t get away from is by an Australian named Wally de Bakcer aka Gotye.  Gotye with Kimbra singing vocals has a massive hit on their hands with “Someone That I Used To Know“.  A song that I’m sure you’ll be hearing well into the summer.  Gotye’s album Making Mirrors comes out today.

Click on the covers to hear them on Spotify.

  

 

 

Music Subscription model

Besides the radio model music subscriptions that you are probably already familiar with like Sirius XM, Pandora, Rhapsody and Spotify a number of record labels are now jumping on the subscription model.

The reason for this are these sites usually pay a bare minimum per stream;  0.2865 cents is the average payment.  It’s great exposure for the artists but it will not pay the rent on streams alone so labels are trying to get creative.

Last week, Stones Throw Records, home to Mayer Hawthorne as well as a number of old school hip hop collections announced their idea for fans of the label.  Members get every new Stones Throw album, single and EP as they are released, select music from the catalog, and exclusive advance material.  The subscription price is $10 a month,  same as Spotify and Rhapsody.

For $15 a month, Ghostly Music Service shares with you every Ghostly and Spectral release, delivered right to your inbox to download and stream. Members get select back catalog releases, unreleased, exclusive and curated music.

Do you think 7″ are cool?  Matador Records has their Singles Going Home Alone series.

If you love everything Jack White does (and there are many of us), you’ll go gaga over the Third Man Records vault series.  It might seem a bit pricey at $60 every 3 months but the collectible items are pretty fun.  They usually include a multi-colored vinyl album, a shirt and a 7″ record.

 

 

Free Music Friday

Here’s another “Trail Mix” courtesy of Blue Ridge Outdoors.

Download 20 great tunes from the likes of Rodrigo y Gabriela, Nada Surf and Stew and The Negro Problem.

Click on the photo of Stew singing “Black Men Ski” to get it.

Happy Trails!

 

 

 

Weekend in LA

This weekend is a Museum Free For All! Click on the link to see the list of museums opening up their door for you to explore.

If you find yourself at the MOCA, make sure to see Under The Big Black Sun, California Art 1974-1981.  Afterwards, try to find a way to get into get into the show with X, The Dead Kennedys and The Avengers.  Click on the photo for information.

I can also recommend going to the Hammer museum.  You can find Antony’s exhibit of collage, sculpture and drawings.  If you’re not familiar with Antony’s music, his voice is otherworldly.  I’m sure his art work will somehow reflect his eclectic taste in music.  Here’s a sample of Antony’s amazing version of a Leonard Cohen song.

Antony “If It Be Your Will”

Have a great weekend exploring!

 

Academy Award song nominees

The Academy Award nominees were announced and I’m looking through the list and notice that only two songs were nominated.  Wait, what?  How could this be?  The Golden Globes managed to find five decent songs from 2011.

“Hello Hello” – Music by Elton John. Lyrics by Bernie Taupin. “Gnomeo & Juliet”
“The Keeper” – Music and lyrics by Chris Cornell. “Machine Gun Preacher”
“Lay Your Head Down” – Music by Brian Byrne. Lyrics by Glenn Close. “Albert Nobbs”
“The Living Proof” – Music by Mary J. Blige, Thomas Newman and Harvey Mason Jr. Lyrics by Mary J. Blige, Harvey Mason Jr. and Damon Thomas. “The Help”
“Masterpiece” – Music and lyrics by Madonna, Julie Frost, Jimmy Harry. “W.E.”

A quick search on Wikipedia tells me the reason.

“While most Oscar categories have a fixed minimum and/or maximum number of nominations (such as the Best Original Score, which always has five nominations), the Best Original Song category can have a number of nominations varying from two to five. This is due to the rules set by the Academy. The rules stipulate that each member of the Music Branch of the Academy is asked to vote for their favourite songs, using a special points system using 10, 9.5, 9, 8.5, 8, 7.5, 7, 6.5 or 6 points”.

“Only those songs receiving an average score of 8.25 or more are eligible for nomination. If no song receives an average of 8.25 or more, there will be no nominees. If only one song achieves that score, it and the song receiving the next highest score shall be the two nominees.”

I guess this means that the music branch of the Academy hated the five Golden Globe nominees and most likely gave only one song the required 8.5 score and had to accept a lesser quality song to nominate.

My question is where is the love for the movie “Drive“?  “Under Your Spell” should have been nominated and so should Albert Brooks!

Anyways, congratulations to the 8.5 song and the lesser song.  Which one do you think is which?

“Man or Muppet“ from “The Muppets”
Music and Lyric by Bret McKenzie

“Real in Rio“ from “Rio”
Music by Sergio Mendes and Carlinhos Brown; Lyric by Siedah Garrett

New Music Tuesday

A four CD collection of Bob Dylan covers songs comes out.  The collection celebrates 50 years of Amnesty International and Dylan songs are covered by an amazing array of artists.  As usual with Dylan projects, there are some head scratchers.  Seal with Jeff Beck doing their interpretation of “Like A Rolling Stone” misses the mark as Seal tries to keep it smooth and Jeff Beck tries to rock it.  Ke$ha does her dramatic reading of “Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright” that is actually kind of intriguing.  The most baflling is Miley Cyrus singing “You’re Going To Make Me Lonesome When You Go” who is probably just too young to get to the heart of the lyrics.  Here’s the video.  Try not to wince.  Here’s a couple things that are better:

The Avett Brothers singing “One Too Many Mornings on Late Show with Jimmy Fallon.

Blake Mills singing “Heart Of Mine” on Conan

Craig Finn of The Hold Steady hails from Dylan’s state of Minnesota (Finn in Edina and Dylan in Hibbing) and he is now putting out his first solo record, “Clear Hearts, Full Eyes” which I’m pretty sure is a play on Friday Night Lights “Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can’t Lose!“.  With Craig  you can expect plenty of clever word play but I’m going to miss the muscle of the Hold Steady  not backing him up.  Craig recorded this record in Austin which reflects the rocking country sound of the album.  Here’s Craig’s first single:

Craig Finn “Honolulu Blues”

Native Portlandian Laura Gibson is releasing her latest album “La Grande“.  Her very quiet sound made The Cowboy Junkies sound like Metallica.  Her sound is beautiful and delicate but judging from this first single she may be stepping on the accelerator.  I like it.

Laura Gibson “La Grande”

Click on the photos to give them a listen