Music Video Extravaganza!

As if the economy wasn’t bad enough, MTV has launched a video archive of all those great videos you remember from back in the day which will surely lead to decreased employee productivity as we all sit at our desk watching videos rather than doing whatever--not to mention a renewed round of Rickrolling that is sure to ensue!  But really, we can’t be blamed for wanting to jump back a few (or many) years to check out videos that remind us of high school or college can we?  For me, one of the early videos that I remember seeing a lot and that I loved was this one.

Now even if you love that song and that video as nostalgically as I do, you might be saying, what does this futuristic-Mad-Max world have to do with the lyrics of that song?  Well, that is the kind of question that is now making Dustin Mclean famous.  You see Dustin not only asked the question, "What if we actually wrote lyrics about what was actually happening in the video and sang those to the song’s real music?" he is making those videos. Here is the first effort which, if like me, you are behind the times and haven’t seen yet, get ready to chortle your behind off (and be singing “Take Me On” to yourself all day).

You can read more about Dustin at his site—where you can also see the second effort, a version of “Head Over Heels” by Tears for Fears.

Hat tip to IndieMuse, 50 Cent, and, of course, Wobs for keeping up on all the really important news like literal videos!

Here Comes These United States

This post has been sitting in the mental waiting room for a while and for whatever reason I have just not gotten around to it until now. I am sure you are all relieved that I finally have!

Washington DC-based These United States appear to be a bit unknown at this point--they don't even appear to have a Wikipedia page at this point (c'mon TUS fans, get with it!). Metacritic which is so on the ball it already has reviews up of The Cardinals album that was released yesterday doesn't have an entry for the new TUS album, Crimes, even though it has been out for a couple months--although they do have reviews on the first TUS album (and to be fair that album also came out this year only months before Crimes). And yet I feel a bit behind the times since there are a host of bloggers I follow who took a gander at this album some time ago. I guess the important part here is that just about everyone who has heard this second effort is positive on it--including yours truly. So let's get to it.

First off, I think you generally have to be into lyrics to like TUS--either that or you have to be someone who is totally oblivious to lyrics--although that is hard on this album much as it would be, say on a Dylan album. I am not saying that TUS frontman Jesse Elliott is Dylan (why ever make that comparison), but rather that the writing is integral to the tunes here. The lyrics are full of rich imagery with cultural and literary references that on one level seem to make sense and on another seem to make you wonder what Elliott is really after. Just to give you a sense, a quick scan of the songs on this album gives us references to Cain and Abel, Dionysus, Don Quixote, Samuel Clemens, Atlantis, the Big Blue Ox and John Chapman, and the topics are equally diverse. Overall though the lyrics are interesting and engaging.

Of course it helps that they are set musically in a sound that I can only described as laid-back rock. It has a certain southern blues feel to it, although Elliott's voice and the voice treatment could make you think of Beck. Ultimately, you feel like they are rockin' but no they couldn't be bothered to get up off the couch while they were playing. I actually mean this in a really positive way--it has that feeling of front porch blues overlaid with some indie tendencies. They seem very comfortable with the sound and it has a certain effortless feel and the band sounds really responsive to each other. And all that said, I would really love to see them live as I suspect there isn't much lying about involved in their shows.

And so ultimately, I suspect that there is a lot more coming about These United States. It is hard to know just what to share from this album as I would say it would take at least five songs to give you a sense of it all. Two of my favorites are "Susie at the Seashore" and "Honor Amongst Thieves" which you can check out at those respective links, so I am going to sample three other tunes that I think capture the album.

First is the opening track "How the West Was Won" which sets a great tone for the album--first tracks are so important to me--and really shows off Elliott's lyrical ability. Next to give you a sense of their slower, blues sound is "We Go Down to the Corner" which slowly builds to great resolution as Elliott croons "cheer up, baby, cheer up" and finally "Six Fast Bullets" which has a great laid back sound and the wonderful lyrical warning "I have six fast bullets but only five complaints!" Watch out if you don't want to complete that equation.

How the West Was Won  (Buy Album)

We Go Down to the Corner

Six Fast Bullets (Five Complaints)

Oh, and as a bonus, I switched players (hat tip to Nelson over at Fifty Cent Lighter) which means that if you just start the player on the first song it will play all the tracks as they appear. Good times!

Random Song Heard in Public (RSHIP)

So, I was already to post on the most recent effort by These United States, but I can't get the ole Box.net to upload my files. So in the meantime, let me initiate a new feature designed totally as filler for when I don't have time to write anything of substance but I don't want to disappoint you for taking the time to stop by.

The first part of this idea came to me while I was getting morning coffee at the local coffee shop (not Starbucks!) earlier this week and found myself subjected to this song which I feared would be in my mind all day (I was right). The second part came to me today when Lisa B. linked to this site by a woman who draws something she bought each day and I thought that the idea of sharing just a simple daily experience was cool and perhaps the quintessential motivation behind the blogging experience. Et voila! Random Song Heard in Public (RSHIP). However, since I couldn't bring myself to subject you to Laura Branigan, I give you this tasty little tune from the Police heard while getting soup at Au Bon Pain--Pasta e Fagoli for those who care. Looking forward to your random comments on this first random song.

The NBC Jingle: Flaming Lips Style

How to improve a night of The Office and 30 Rock? This 8 second NBC jingle promo will probably do the trick. And check out Wayne Coyne on Guitar Hero while showing off his techno-gizmo that makes cool sounds--one man's toy . . .

Hat tip to Indie Muse.

Now We're Cookin' / Squirrel Nut Zippers

The Squirrel Nut Zippers are favorite cookin' music here at the home of the TR. We have a saying at our house (in the fall or winter at least) that if it is Saturday night, it must be risotto. And tonight was no exception. Tonight's risotto (given that the Artist has recently realized that he likes animals so much he isn't down with eating them so much) focused on some nice smoked mozzarella to make a creamy risotto topped with some garden fresh tomatoes and parsley accompanied by a nice salad with fresh apples and pine nuts and of course a nice Tuscan red for the grown ups--mmmm.

Of course, risotto takes a lot of stirrin and the Squirrel Nuts are just the band for stirrin and swingin. Here are some perenniel favorites from three of their best that we like to have on while we are coookin.

The Inevitable Squirrel Nut Zippers (Buy Album)
Danny Diamond
I've Found a New Baby
Plenty More

Hot!  (Buy Album)

Put A Lid On It>
Bad Businessman

Perennial Favorites (Buy Album)
Ghost of Stephen Foster
Evening at Lafitte's

Star Maker Machine Match Game

Just cause I think this is cool--that's why. For those of you who haven't had the pleasure of perusing the great Star Maker Machine, you should . . . but wait! First, read the rest of this post since if you go there first the following game will be, well, neither challenging nor fun!

You see Start Maker Machine is a group music blog with a twist. Each week or so the group bloggers are charged with blogging on a theme. Now this could be kind of lame if it weren't for two things. First, SMM has a solid group of bloggers with eclectic tastes and a solid footing in the tunes (not to mention that they do a really nice job on the photo selections). And second, the themes are really fun.

My favorite theme so far was the "2:42" theme in which bloggers were challenged to blog on songs of that exact length. This week's theme "Adjective Noun" (in which each blogger must "post songs whose titles consist of an adjective and a noun, in that order") is generating some solid posts that I think show why SMM is so fun to track. So just for fun below I have listed the songs up at SMM for this theme and the artists--but mixed up. Take a gander, or if you are really ambitious, print it off and see how many you can match-up (yes, I know there is probably some widgetity-thig-a-ma-gig that would allow me to create an online match game--whatever!).

Think Tank	Peter Gabriel
Dire Wolf	The Rolling Stones
Malted Milk	Butthole Surfers
True Colors	Caitlin Cary and Thad Cockrell
Red Rain	Cake Like
Simple Girl	Whiskeytown
Dumb Fun	Pentangle
Yellow Taxi	John Hiatt (or) Roseanne Cash
Bourgeois Blues	Richard Hell and The Voidoids
Silver Bell	Johnny Zamot (or) Herbie Hancock
Blank Generation	David Allen Coe
Haitian Divorce	Jeru the Damaja
Big Nothing	Cyndi Lauper
Sunny Skies	Max Stalling
Second Option	Juliana Hatfield
Wandering Star	Bob Dylan
Bum Leg	Randy Newman
Human Cannonball	Robert Johnson
Pink Bedroom	Beck
Tennessee Whiskey	Matt Costa
Fat Mama	Randy Newman
Cruel Sister	Steely Dan
16 Days	Elliott Smith
Graycoat Soldiers	Prescott Curlywolf
Mental Stamina	James Taylor
Idiot Wind	Norman Blake
Hollow Log	Possessed by Paul James
Short People	Patty Griffin
Brown Sugar	Lucero

Okay, now you can head over to Star Maker Machine to check it out.

Update: There are already two new tunes added to the theme: "High Water" and "Cold Turkey"--extra bonus points if you can name who sings those songs.

A Different Kind of Fiddle

So I know you all have been counting the days until the new Ryan Adams disc comes out hours until I finally put up that post on the viola d’amore before I got distracted by AC/DC. Well, wait no more.

All kidding aside, today we feature a really fine new album, D'Amore, by Garth Knox. The title refers not to "love" (although perhaps you may hear that here) but rather to the varied set of pieces on this disc that are played on the viola d’amore. So first things, first, what is a viola d’amore? The short answer is that it is a viola with an extra set of sympathetic strings that are not played, but rather resonate when the main strings are played. According to the Viola d’amore Society of America (yup, there is one):

The majority of violas d'amore have fourteen strings -- seven playing strings and seven additional resonating or sympathetic strings that go through the bridge and between the fingerboard and neck of the instrument, held by individual pegs in the elongated pegbox. The sympathetic strings are most often tuned to the same pitches as the playing strings. Instruments exist with different combinations of playing strings (four, five, six, and seven) and sympathetic strings (from four up to fourteen).

Knox plays the standard seven-six string v. d’amore on this outing and is ably accompanied by Agnes Vesterman on cello on the majority of the pieces which range from 17th century baroque to traditional Celtic songs to more modern compositions including one by Knox himself. There are certainly differences among these pieces as he moves from period to period and genre to genre, but the arrangements and pacing and the deepness of the playing both by Knox and Vesterman hold the whole set together.

The fullness of these pieces is amazing given that there are only two instruments and I hope that readers who are more oriented to other genres (especially you all who love to hear violins in other settings such as country and alt-country) will give these a listen. As the reviewer over at Gramophone notes, "this is quite simply one of the most outstandingly magical discs I have heard." True, true.

A Pavin

Prima Lezione (the Adante movement)

Celtic Dance