Seldom Balanced – Usually Fair
Olly Anna is a Nashville based singer and producer. About 3 years ago, she discovered a flair for her own form of indie rap. I like it.
The lyrics don’t inspire. It’s the sound.
But if you want to see the words….
Sometimes I’m in the mood for mood music. Homer Gaines has been producing my sort of music for a quarter of a century.
Not full time, though.
His day job, in Atlanta GA, is computer program development.
He says he is inspired by Sumi-e, a Japanese drawing technique of brush, ink, and paper that strives for meaning from each brush stroke.
I have liked the music from the time I first heard it about 10 years ago. A high pitched male voice singing about freedom. It was a departure from the band’s usual motif.
Eventually, I listened to the words. I laughed at the humor of a bad sales pitch.
A friend tells me this is about innocence lost.
I think the words are about responsibility aversion and resulting loneliness. It’s an attempt to seduce without commitment. A one night stand being kind of brave and noble, all about freedom.
I still like the music, and the funny words.
A band member was interviewed by Billboard Magazine.
“I made an effort to make it positive cause I thought, ‘If this ever takes off I’m gonna be singing this every night, so I don’t want to be drawing negative energy to myself or projects’…”
“If you listen to the first record it’s all pretty positive imagery. I just want people to be uplifted from the record, feel energized from listening to it. So lyrically I can relate to it.”
Want to see the words?
Continue reading “Vagabond by Wolfmother”
I liked this song ever since I heard it in the early 1960s. The Dixie Cups made it a hit, then other groups picked it up. Its popularity kept getting bigger.
Until this week, I never knew the real story behind the song, or the brutality that took the songwriter out of circulation.
In the early 1950s James Crawford, with the stage name Sugar Boy, was already a local success in New Orleans. Native American rituals were the source of parts of city culture. He combined a couple of native chants he had heard and put the result to music. His group was invited to record the song. The record was a minor hit for a short time, then faded.
In 1963, his little group was headed for a gig in North New Orleans, when they were spotted by the Louisiana State Police. There was no infraction or reason for suspicion. The officers saw an expensive car driven by a young black man and knew that was just not right. During the stop, Crawford was insufficiently obsequious.
One state police officer didn’t like his attitude and beat him to a bloody pulp.
Continue reading “Iko Iko – The Dixie Cups”
Yeah, I suppose it’s disco Sunday. Been thinking about that for some reason.
KC was Harry Wayne Casey. He was a record store guy who scored a parttime gig at a small independent record label production company. He took a chance and started the band in the 1970s.
The group went out of and into and out of business with the sort of personality clashes that afflict a lot of human relationships. One stumble came when KC almost died in a car accident. KC retired in the mid 80s, then unretired in the 90s.
I was happy each time the group came back to life.
At the start, guitarist Jerome Smith drove much of the sound that made the Sunshine Band a success. But he was driven out by drug addiction a few years later.
Rumor was he was thinking of rejoining them when he was killed in a freak accident in 2000. He was driving a bulldozer, fell out of the cab, and was crushed.
The group was fading by then, surviving on the nostalgia scene. I wonder how music might have been if Jerome Smith had been there.
This was internationally popular in the 90s. It was on the first album by the group Black Box. I still like the sound. For me, it still captures the excitement of disco.
But it ran into some controversy. The extraordinary song writer and singer Martha Wash was not featured, or even credited. A member of the group, French Caribbean model Katrin Quinol, lip-synched the voice of Martha Wash.
It was a common pattern in those days. Katrin Quinol was sexy and lip-synched parts of most of the group’s songs. Martha Wash created and sang one hit after another for several groups, but her weight counted against her. She often received no credit and no royalties for her work.
Here she is singing live at a gay pride event a few years ago in Richmond, VA.
I thought this Swedish singer had retired a few years ago, but Kristian Matsson is back with a new collection led by I Love You. It’s A Fever Dream.
Still, I haven’t heard anything much better than this, from a dozen years ago.
He goes by the professional name The Tallest Man on Earth. The unifying theme is one of a constant traveler torn between wanderlust and homesickness.
Want to see the words?
Continue reading “It will Follow the Rain –
The Tallest Man on Earth”
Tierra Whack has been described as the future of hip-hop and, alternately, as independent of genre. According to Wikipedia, “Whack was bullied as a child for being black in a predominantly white school” which, at least partly, inspired her video album Whack World. The album is composed of 15 one minute (to the second) songs.
Pretty Ugly accounts for one of those minutes.
Daniel Bromfield, writing for Spectrum Culture says “Whack draws a paper-thin line between whimsy and sadness.” This is true.
He continues: “Her music is affecting even at its most ridiculous…” which is mostly, not wholly, right. Ridiculous beckons dismissal. We are invited into a near comedic world that is sad and … not ridiculous. Perhaps absurd.
Pretty Ugly reflects that absurdity, I think, with a subdural narrative: torment, hiding, denial, and fighting back.
Want to see the words?
Continue reading “Pretty Ugly – Tierra Whack”
Professor PZ Myers informs his readers that this performer’s name really is Randy Rainbow:
Probably NSFW
Matt is Matthew Wesley Johnson.
Kim is Kimberly Ann Schifino.
They’ve been a duo since 2004.
This has been around for five years or so.
Aunt Tildy was a little reluctant to approve it at first.
Then she figured out they’re just dancing horizontally.
Besides, Buick owners seem to like it.
Nobody really cares about the words.
But in case you’re kind of lyric-obsessive:
Continue reading “It’s Alright – Matt and Kim”