In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book. Previous contributors include Jesmyn Ward, Lauren Groff, Bret Easton Ellis, Celeste Ng, T.C. Boyle, Dana Spiotta, Amy Bloom, Aimee Bender, Roxane Gay, and many others. Dimitry Elias Léger’s Death of the Soccer God is an atmospheric, moving, and hilarious novel with soccer at its heart. Kirkus wrote of the book: “Like its predecessor [God Loves Haiti], the novel moves…
To be clear, I wanted to see Piranha 3D. I rented it from Apple to watch on their overpriced headset, specifically hoping that I’d get the full 3D version. But for whatever reason, they only have the HD version, and I just had to imagine that all the fish and oars and motorboat props and breasts were comin’ right at me. I might very well have seen this movie before. It all seemed extremely familiar, but I still can’t tell if that’s because I saw it and completely forgot about it (entirely…
In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book. Previous contributors include Jesmyn Ward, Lauren Groff, Bret Easton Ellis, Celeste Ng, T.C. Boyle, Dana Spiotta, Amy Bloom, Aimee Bender, Roxane Gay, and many others. Sam Beckbessinger’s debut novel Femme Feral is a striking feminist satire. Publishers Weekly wrote of the book: “A darkly entertaining feminist satire…This tale of women’s rage against societal…
hey! this is the first microblog and/or tumblr i have celebrated here, weird!? not only do i love their tumblry/microblog, but i love love love their podcast starring weekly, none other than a frog. hop on in and scroll on through this fascinating frog blog (take a listen to the podcast too 🎧): https://weeklyfrogpod.tumblr.com/ ↗ cozy times on the lily pad.
Seeing another LA landmark last week had me thinking about the years I’ve spent settling in, gradually transitioning from “newcomer” to “resident.” I thought I’d choose a couple of songs about Los Angeles as a tribute. There’s definitely no shortage of them! Frank Black’s, Randy Newman’s, or anything from the La La Land soundtrack comes immediately to mind. But soon after we moved, I started noticing that people almost never write earnestly about the city. At best, there’s a begrudging…
[1960]To get to Telstar you had to have this first. Still sounds sleek and modern, fucking great stuff. I'm wondering if there is a world of Shadows that I've missed out on. I mean my old man had some Shadows records but I never paid them much attention. Was this their one great golden moment or...Apache - Hot Butter [1972]A year before Incredible Bongo Band made it their own Hot Butter did my favourite version of Apache. It's an outrageously futuristic proto-techno space age electro jam. Add N…
Toledo, day 7.
Van Morrison - Armadillo World Headquarters, Austin, Texas, January 12, 1974Get in the Van — we’re headed back in time to Austin, TX, to check out the Caledonia Soul Orchestra at Armadillo World Headquarters! This previously uncirculated soundboard of Van Morrison and his big band at the legendary Lone Star State music hall/beer garden is an hour-and-a-half of pure good times. Van and the Orchestra had spent much of the previous year touring all over, performances that resulted in the classic…
A relatively spontaneous announcement of a relatively spontaneous gig: this for a new quartet combining poetry and music, with myself (poetry), Andrea Burelli (voice, poetry, perhaps violin), Lucio Capece (bass clarinet), and Stellan Veloce (cello). It will happen at the Casino for Social Medicine at Sonnenallee 100, Berlin, on this coming Saturday, 16th May, at 19h.As a trio, Stellan, Lucio and I worked together twice last year, and that was beautiful. (Their duo at a performance a few months…
photo cred: my dad1.Say what you will about the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, its 1936 constitution was a banger.It guaranteed freedom of speech, the press, assembly, and protest. It extended equal rights to all citizens, regardless of race or gender. It shortened the working day to seven hours, affirmed “the right to rest and leisure”, and offered free education and free health care to all, including a “wide network of health resorts for the working people.” You gotta admit this is a…
Best Record of 2001: Day 37 Good morning! Today we’re taking a look at Aaliyah’s self-titled record, aka “The Red Album.” Note: As many of you saw, I recently wrote about a Best Record of 2001 challengeand noted that I’d be writing some of these up. The plan is to do quick hits on each first-round matchup and post them directly to the page. Some will be longer, some won’t, and some might just be a handful of sentences. There’ll probably be a few typos. We’ll also have a few guest posts along…
"A Day In the Life" by The Beatles Listen on Apple Music Your browser does not support the audio element. Share a song from an album you think has great cover art. - A Day in the Life by The Beatles View Lou Plummer's Crucial Tracks profile
Black Orpheus (1959)
That’s a cello.
The latest release from London collective Beauty & The Beat shines a spotlight on the music of Sao Luis, in Maranhao, Brazil, and the local trio, Loopcinico. Four tracks have been revived from the group’s 2013 album, and are now accompanied by 3 remixes. The originals are a melting pot of influences, reflecting the band members’ surroundings. Their rhythms inheriting, absorbing ingredients from Yoruba, Umbanda and Candomble. Both Kingston and Rio. The vibe is that of a real, proper, street…
The song, "Flex," by the music artist Cupid, is not a complex tune. It involves him telling an unnamed person to flex their body because they are sexy, whilst he also shouts out dance moves for listeners to do. That said, the beat, melody, and crooning combine to make a strangely addictive tune that admittedly goes a bit long for what it is (almost four minutes), but still makes you want to get up and move about. It's been out for some time, but it remains a big hit at parties. Have a listen…
In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book. Previous contributors include Jesmyn Ward, Lauren Groff, Bret Easton Ellis, Celeste Ng, T.C. Boyle, Dana Spiotta, Amy Bloom, Aimee Bender, Roxane Gay, and many others. Jeff Miller’s novel Temporary Palaces is an enthralling debut with a punk heart. Publishers Weekly wrote of the book: “A memorable debut … Miller’s bittersweet novel burns with the warmth of lasting…
Like most of us the first music I listened to was my parents'. I'm the oldest so I didn't even have the influence of an elder sibling. I didn't really listen to anything that might be in the charts until I got to secondary school. The impact of Bob Dylan on my life deserves its own post. My dad was a big fan. And I mean Big Fan. My sister is named after the song Visions of Johanna. Guess who my brother is named after? Both my parents were into The Beatles. My mum saw them in concert in 1964…
In an age when we’re all amateur pundits now, I thought I’d do mini reviews of each song entered into this year’s Eurovision. There’s thirty-five of them altogether and I’d say the standard is a little down on the last couple of years yet also more varied. Trends I noted where the inclusion of operatic influences in several songs (though nobody is spinning on a disk like Nemo) and what has become a Eurovision trope- a song starting as a ballad then lurching into all out techno. There are a lot…
When I was in my early/mid-teens, my dream was to work on MTV. When I was in my late teens, my dream was to make album covers. I did neither, but now that I'm OLD and decided to cross-stitch my favorite album covers of my favorite bands, because why not? I decided to start with The Libertines, of course, 'cause I love the band and this album cover is perfect. The Libertines, 2004 They continue to make great music, by the way, and there's this video they released last year that always makes me…
gonna rank from worst to best song ranking system 😇- need to have a looong conversation with whoever made this song 🥹- teared up a little 🥰- i love love love 😊- very good 🙂- good with some issues 🤔- i would let it play in the background ig.. 😪- not feeling it 😠- no this is bad. 😡- this is really bad. 🤬- play this around me and im taking a gun out. for both of us. chilli 😡 the instrumental isn't even that bad it's just like put the autotune down and then they just play in my face with that…
So yes, I’ve been somewhat stuck on the topic of bands breaking up or apart in the last while, but I would be remiss to not point out that some are also coming back out of extended hibernations. 宇宙ネコ子, aka Uchu Nekoko, aka Universe Nekoko, aka Space Cat, aka the mysterious Kanagawa dreampop duo wholly […] The post 宇宙ネコ子 -『Flowing In The Wind』 appeared first on Space Echo.
Madrid, day 6.
Tigerella was another band I discovered through Shelflife CD-R series. Their self-titled EP was the fifth release on that very important series of releases our friend Ed released back in the early 2000s. The EP was released in 2003, in January I believe, it included just three tracks by the Los Angeles five-piece. These songs were “Existential War”, “Rid of You” and “E-Ticket Ride”. The songs were bright. The guitars chimed. Very nice! The band was formed by Bryan Yoshida and Gilber Chinn on…
P4LETTE (github) P4LETTE is a one-page color palette tool. Drag, click, lock, shuffle, name, and export. No accounts. No newsletters. No "premium tier." [ 📌stephanieleary ] Make Your Own Mixtape | Mixtape Create your own mixtape online. Add songs, design your tape, and share it with friends. A modern mixtape maker with a nostalgic twist. [ 📌cogdog ] 😎 Now. please enjoy the mixtape I made for ya!
This week’s theme: Jazz recordings of songs from the pop/rock, television and even maybe a little Yiddish. Artists include George Benson, Freddie Hubbard, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, Grady Tate, Ray Barretto, Richie Cole, Bobby Enriquez, Jimmy Rushing, Zoot Sims, Stephane Grappelli, Martin Taylor, Sonny Rollins, George Duke, Roland Kirk, Rosemary Clooney, John Oddo, Seve Lukather, Jackie McLean, Tony Williams, Hank Jones, Charles McPherson, Sonny Criss, Tal Farlow, Cedar Walton.The post…
Wow!? this Duo must have invented everything chill room infesting and bedroom festering one could care to imagine, it says 1985 to '96 here!? Not that it sounds like it was recorded on one of those cassette four track portastudios which I assume they must have used, with a noise reduction system that can only have been left behind by fleeing Aliens.Just listening to this stuff makes me smug enough to lie about how many O-Levels i got in 1983,or is that a Dostoevsky in your pocket or do you like…
Ester Freider is a writer and digital curator based in London.It’s real folks:Marie Antoinette (2006) dir. Sofia CoppolaIn his thesis on the re-emergence of the baroque in 21st century media, Xavier Gamboa notes the allegory as the baroque literary tool “par excellence” (Gamboa, p. 167). This essay very brashly attempts to cram a homemade term into the already bursting stomach of neologisms overfed by today’s internet theorists – and there is no way that every one of them are “inventing new…
"How You Remind Me" by Nickelback Listen on Apple Music Your browser does not support the audio element. Post a song by a band you think is overrated, but the song is almost enough to convince you otherwise. - How You Remind Me by Nickelback This Prompt is designed to let people share the Nickelback song they hate the least. View Lou Plummer's Crucial Tracks profile
