The Current Music Blog: January 14, 2008 Archive

The Stream 01/14/08

Posted at 8:58 AM on January 14, 2008 by Barb Abney

Bjork vs. paparazzi.

M. Ward and Zooey Deschanel to record together as She And Him.

Fiery Furnaces collaborator/granny passed away.

Today In Music History:
1938 - Allen Toussaint was born.
1969 - Dave Grohl (Nirvana, Foo Fighters) was born.
1970 - Diana Ross made her last appearance with The Supremes.
1982 - Caleb Followill (Kings of Leon) was born.
1992 - Jerry Nolan (New York Dolls) died from a stroke.
1993 - The Pixies announced that they had split.
2005 - A statue to honor Johnny Ramone was unveiled at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

Live Blogging 01/14/08

Posted at 9:42 AM on January 14, 2008 by Barb Abney

11:15 a.m. Pavement (related)
Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks will release Real Emotional Trash on March 18th.
They're playing First Avenue along with John Vanderslice on March 19th.
More...

10:30 a.m. Rhymefest
"Get Up" features DC rapper Wale. It's on the Michael Jackson dedicated release Man In The Mirror.
The new full length, El Che will be released later this year.
More...

Song Of The Day Info - Tyler Ramsey
Today on our Song Of The Day Podcast we're featuring Tyler Ramsey with the tune "These Days" from A Long Dream About Swimming Across The Sea which will be released tomorrow.
He's opening for and performing with Band Of Horses on this tour.
More...

9:50 a.m. The Raveonettes
Lust, Lust, Lust will be released on February 19th.
They're playing 7th Street Entry on St. Patrick's Day.
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9:30 a.m. Local Music - Cloud Cult
They've had to cancel a few dates due to personal health issues. Go here to send them your well wishes.
If you're missing the chance to see them live on one of those cancelled dates, watch their most recent in-studio performance in our archives.

9:15 a.m. Nada Surf
They're playing First Avenue on April 3rd.
More...

"My 3 Songs" for Monday

Posted at 12:59 PM on January 14, 2008 by Steve Seel

Janice Laurencot of Inver Grove Heights starts off our week with three tunes that are, as she says, "simply fun to drift with .. driving, running, cooking, playing disc-golf ... whatever."

1) Richard Ashcroft, "New York"
2) Grand National, "Drink to Move"
3) Flavor Crystals, "Checker Board"

Well, I'd say they're not only good for those activities, but they're also less-than-obvious choices ... nicely done, Janice.

Cover songs ... don't ya just hate'em !?

Posted at 3:55 PM on January 14, 2008 by Mark Wheat (64 Comments)

For many years I did, illogically, I would dismiss them even before I heard them!

Perhaps it was a generational thing. Covers seemed dislocated from their origin in a way that disabled me from loving them. I know I was stupid, but I thought that the whole point of creating music was to bear your soul as a singer, which you could only do by writing the song yourself or being very close to the source. Now I love them, so does Barb Abney, she even is a self confessed connoisseur of Bee Gees covers, so she was smitten by The Bird and the Bee.

I've been listening a lot to the soundtrack for the film "I'm Not There" which is all covers of Dylan songs. It's traditionally very tough to cover a legend, but I think the album benefits from having different voices deliver those huge songs (sorry I don't always like Bob's voice!)

Bonnie 'Prince' Billy takes on some legends on his latest CD "Ask Forgiveness" and also delivers wonderful renditions which we discuss on the latest 'Musicheads." When you discover a song from a cover, it is sometimes interesting to go back and research the source, like Dale from the Morning Show did with one of the B.P.B. choices, originally written by Mickey Newberry, "I Came To Hear The Music."

It has a wonderful line about the concept of time and Dale discovered "one very specific attribution is to a writer named Ray Cummings, who supposedly put it in a story called "The Girl in the Golden Atom" in 1919. Somebody even put the relevant section online, starting with a line from a character simply called "The Chemist":

"To get a conception of this change you must analyze definitely what time is. We measure and mark it by years, months, and so forth, down to minutes and seconds, all based upon the movements of our earth around its sun. But that is the measurement of time, not time itself. How would you describe time?" The Big Business Man smiled. "Time," he said, "is what keeps everything from happening at once."

"Very clever," laughed the Chemist.

An idea like that is worth covering!!

Last week we talked about "Shipbuilding" which was written by Robert Wyatt, another artist with a distinctive voice that might be described as an acquired taste so perhaps it worked better as an Elvis Costello song?

Does an artist have to bring something new to the song, or just in a style of their own that makes it work?

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