Sometimes downer music just feels so damn good. The Carpenters are masters in the art of the pleasantly depressing song. This seemed ideal for a rainy day such as this. Long live Karen Carpenter. (And the Sonic Youth version is just as good, if not better, than the original.)
P.S. Another reason I posted this? I was singing it to my cat this morning.
Time for Twin Peaks. The theme has been playing on repeat in my head for days.
(But there are worse things to have in your head. Love the symphonic rise and fall.)
Dreamy music for a rainy week. Sleep ∞ Over does “La Rose.”
[Via HUH Magazine, my new love.]
I’m thoroughly enjoying retro films set to more contemporary music as of late. “Contemporary” is kind of relative in this case, as The Sham-ettes’ 1966 version of “(Hey There) Big Bad Wolf” has been set to the 1931 Betty Boop short, “Dizzy Red Riding Hood.” Foxy!
For more old film set with fun songs (as well as embarrassing cat videos), check out my YouTube favorites.
Bjork sang Billie Holiday’s “Gloomy Sunday” at Alexander McQueen’s memorial, held at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in London. I’m sure she did not disappoint, as this photo can attest.
The original by Billie:
Gloomy Sunday
Sunday is gloomy,
My hours are slumberless
Dearest the shadows
I live with are numberless
Little white flowers
Will never awaken you
Not where the black coaches
Sorrow has taken you
Angels have no thoughts
Of ever returning you
Wouldn’t they be angry
If I thought of joining you?
Gloomy sunday
Gloomy is sunday,
With shadows I spend it all
My heart and i
Have decided to end it all
Soon there’ll be candles
And prayers that are said I know
But let them not weep
Let them know that I’m glad to go
Death is no dream
For in death I’m caressin’ you
With the last breath of my soul
I’ll be blessin’ you
Gloomy sunday
Dreaming, I was only dreaming
I wake and I find you asleep
In the deep of my heart here
Darling I hope
That my dream never haunted you
My heart is tellin’ you
How much I wanted you
Gloomy sunday
[Via Melissa Dixson]
Seriously rockin’! I’ll be listening to this on repeat all day. Here’s Jack Day with “Little Joe” from 1957.
Via the always enticing, historic and rock and rollin’, Rivet Head.
Aren’t these ladies cute? The Japanese twin sisters Emi Itō and Yumi Itō make up the girl group The Peanuts. According to the almighty Wikipedia, “The Peanuts are remembered most for their versions of European songs and for a handful of Japanese pop songs, such as “Furimukanaide” (“Don’t Turn Around”). Their performing style played heavily on their being nearly identical twins with voices only slightly apart in pitch (making a duet sound like a solo artist using reverb).”
Via the lovely Claire.
There are so many reasons to love The Big Lebowski, but the Sons of the Pioneers’ version of “Tumbling Tumble Weeds” is my favorite (and the most memorable) song from the movie.
Nerdy admission: I just made this the ringtone on my phone.
“New Age people call it Folk. Folk people call it New Age, but it’s neither. It’s transitional. The style is derived from country blues and string band music of the 1920s and ’30s. Fahey referred to it as ‘American Primitive’ after the ‘French Primitive’ painters.” — Peter Lang on American Primitive Guitar
Some moody John Fahey for your day. Found through my new favorite blog, ROLU.
Man, I wish there was actual video footage to accompany these songs. Bunker Hill is a force to be reckoned with! That voice! If these ditties doesn’t make your fanny vibrate, check your pulse to make sure you’re not dead. Also, the last song, “Hide ‘n’ Go Seek,” is totally from the grinding scene at Motormouth Maybelle’s record store in Hairspray. Holla!
Learn more about the man behind the screaming here.
If you hadn’t already noticed, I’m kind of oblivious to contemporary music. I listen to the things that I love, most of which is old and faithful: the Zombies, Cat Stevens, lots of folk and more. Harper Simon is a new artist on the scene, but an old soul (and the son of Paul Simon, if you couldn’t tell by his voice). This lovely 8mm video for his single, “Berkeley Girl,” seems like it’s straight out of my music era. Isn’t Jena Malone so cute? This makes me happy.
This song just came into my head out of nowhere (and I didn’t even remember what the band’s name was, oddly — it’s Extreme). I’m pretty sure I had this CD single at one point. I really love their harmonies…and I’m not ashamed to admit I like soft rock. Yeah, I said it!
What is it about a fully-buttoned up shirt and long hair on a dude? So ’90s, so good.
Some musical experiments for the end of the week. Ariel Pink is the king of surrealist soundscapes that are still listenable.
Eeep! I was so excited to learn about the eccentric music conservator William Savory’s collection of rare jazz and swing recordings from the 1930s through the 1950s. “The Savory Collection,” as it was known to rabid collectors and jazz devotees, is a thousand or more discs of performances at clubs and musical interludes on the radio, recorded live. These mysterious unreleased recordings, accomplished on an ancient form of disc that only recorded 3 minutes at a go, have been moldering in a basement for the last 70 or so years. After Savory’s death in 2004 they were finally brought to light and have since been donated to the National Jazz Museum in Harlem (yay!). Now they’re in the process of digitizing performances by musicians that include Cab Calloway, Billie Holiday, as well as many obscure artists that I can’t wait to hear. Listen here.
P.S. Savory is quite a looker, no?
Scoff if you want, but Rush freaking rules. You know you love it. Look at all that hair!
My favorite song of the moment. It’s nihilist angst with a voice like trickling honey. God, I adore Peggy Lee!
And just for good measure, here’s “Black Coffee.” My friend Chelsea sings it best.
This is how I imagined my high school life playing out, circa age 15 — boys in scuffed white loafers serenading me with Otis, working in a record store, having a cool older friend (LOVE Annie Potts!). I don’t know how many thrift store finds I ripped apart in the hopes of coming up with some Andie-esque creation, but my sewing skills are a bit lacking. (And her prom dress was pretty heinous, I must admit.)
But seriously, why would anyone choose a Blaine over a Duckie? Any dude that loves Otis that much is a gem.
Dude. I was desperately into George Michael as a wee child. I had a full-body poster of him hanging above my waterbed when I was, oh, seven? Picture a little me in stonewashed jeans, clutching my Snoopy on a Carebears quilt with a giant poster of G.M. in sunglasses glowering above me. (I have a picture of this somewhere.)
“Everything She Wants” is a more recent obsession, as well as kind of depressing. For example, this wailed line really makes my anxiety broil up: “And then you tell me that you’re having my baby / I’ll tell you that I’m happy if you want me to / But one step further and my back will break / If my best is never good enough than how can it be good enough for two?”. In addition to all of the lamentation about how much this woman wants, the groany chorus really worms the song into your brain. Enjoy!
P.S. The fact that this is Wham! and there’s another guy is totally lost on me. Who cares about that dude? It’s all about G.M.
’90s nostalgia: it’s back! I had such a thing for Beck in middle and high school. Seriously, my dream dude. Songs like “Loser” — really all of Mellow Gold and Odelay — were crucial to my formative years. I first got MTV when I was 12, which is kind of late, but definitely the right time to get it, if you’re going to. I remember sitting in front of the mammoth hand-me-down console in my bedroom and watching Garbage, Beck and No Doubt videos in a trance, usually while combing my hair. I still have a giant Beck poster in the basement of my mom’s house.
Selda Bagcan is a Turkish folk singer best known in the ’70s. She can wail. I’d love to learn more about her.
Lee Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra’s ’60s collaborations are seriously dreamy, especially “Some Velvet Morning.” Riding that horse across the dunes, leather vests and blurry solos — mmm. Also, Lee’s voice? Deep as a well holding a trapped child. (That’s deep.)
I also love “Summer Wine” — both rosé and this song. (Pink wine is the best and I’m not ashamed to admit it!)
Currently obsessed with Jonathan Richman (and Egypt, but that’s nothing new). This video is from Top of the Pops, circa 1977. Check out those camel humps!
[Via The New Electric Ride]
I recently rediscovered my Rough Trade Post Punk compilation while packing to move. This was the soundtrack to my junior year of college, and good lawd is it good! I immediately uploaded it to my iPod and have been jammin’ out since. Here’s a crucial track from the compilation, the Mo-Dettes’ “White Mice” — the video is lo-fi incredible! Look at those ladies jump around! Summer soundtrack, anyone?
When I was in college I hung out at a bar with a great jukebox — a real one, not the digital kind that litter bars these days. My playlist usually included a gin and tonic (heh), “Wild Horses,” something by the Smiths and a track from the Louvin Brothers’ iconic album Satan is Real (which has a crazy album cover). Ira and Charlie Louvin’s repertoire was heavily influenced by their Baptist faith and warned against sin, though they were both known to throw back some whiskey. Spreading their gospel (literally) allowed the brothers to popularize close harmonies in country, as well as some serious guitar picking and mandolin playing. Now I want to visit the Foxhead and listen to some swelling duets on the juke!
Here’s the Louvin Brothers’ version of “I Don’t Believe You’ve Met My Baby” on the Grand Ole Opry.
I also ran across a documentary on the history of country music. Check out the Louvin Brothers contribution to country music here.
I’m getting more and more into folk as of late. I randomly ran across the 1976 Silly Sisters album by June Tabor and Maddy Prior and it’s been on repeat ever since. Their harmonies are just…”poifect.” (Writing phonetically is the only way to truly express how much joy I get from this album.) I’ve been listening to their solo work too (gotta love iTunes recommendations!) and it’s just so lovely. Definitely a must-listen.
Also, it doesn’t hurt to have an album cover that looks like this. You are my inspiration, ladies.
Listen to The Grey Funnel Line
[Via Carson Ellis]
“Why Don’t You Love Me” – Beyoncé from Beyoncé on Vimeo.
Whoever did the art direction and costuming for this video is a freaking genius. Seriously. I’ve never wanted dirty blond Bettie Page bangs, garters and a high waisted bathing suit more than I do right now! Yowza! Beyoncé does it again.
Listening to Sibylle Baier on repeat these days. She has the most amazingly clear, smooth voice that feels like it’s perched inside your ear just for you. The story of her first, almost lost album:
“‘Colour Green’ was recorded in Germany in the 1970-1973. In a particularly dark and moody period of her young life, Claudine, a friend of Sibylle’s, dragged her out from under the bed and took her on a road trip to Strasbourg, ending up across the Alps in Genoa.
“Upon the return from this trip Sibylle felt her sprits renewed and she set out to write the song “Remember the Day”, grateful for being alive. It was the first song she ever wrote. Recorded in the late 1970s in her home on a reel to reel recording device, the songs on ‘Colour Green’ are intimate portraits of life’s sad and fragile beauty.”
Some of my favorites. Listen here:
Somehow I’ve never heard Dolly’s “We Used To.” It breaks my heart a little. I really adore it.
I love you, Dolly.
I first started watching The Golden Girls on a regular basis when I was 12 or 13. I was at that awkward age where I couldn’t really get a job yet so I was spending my summer vacation at home with my younger sisters. Every morning (and I mean every morning) I’d turn on Lifetime, make a batch of muffins, a cake or a weird experimental jam made out of poisonous berries from the backyard (I baked to fill my free time) and watch endless reruns of Designing Women, Golden Girls and Mama’s Family. Hanging out with Dorothy, Blanche, Sophia and Rose on the lanai was one of my favorite pastimes, and it’s never really faded away. (I also based all of my preconceptions about Florida on their experience of Miami. All Caddies and sassy ladies in shoulder pads!) I still watch an episode or two every week, even though I’ve seen them all a billion times. It’s comforting.
Needless to say, all of the recent Betty White hype gets me totally pumped. I’m so glad to see her back in the limelight! This video recently surfaced and it makes me ever so happy. I knew that Betty had been in show business long before Golden Girls (I remember her on Mary Tyler Moore as well), but I had no idea she had her own short-lived television show in 1954! Here’s Betty singing “Nevertheless, I’m in Love With You.”
[Via Neatorama]
