I love it!

This video is so awesome. Wonderful, upbeat, simple song, great David Byrne delivery, arbitrary appearance from Dizzee Rascal, and tons of naked people cavorting with clever graphics. Enjoy.

THE BPA 'TOE JAM' FEAT. DAVID BYRNE & DIZZEE RASCAL

Ponytail

Is there a band more joyously alive right now?

Ponytail

I missed seeing them several times during SXSW, but I'm really looking forward to the new Ponytail album. I liked their previous, debut effort, Kamehameha, a lot. Here's a taste of the new record. A little Deerhoofy, a little bubblegum, a lot of dada. Yes!

Jeremy Jay--Airwalker

H/t my man Jeff Britt. Not great, but catchy.

This is just awesome

I thought it was interesting, Stockhausen and Ike Turner passing away around the same time last month. Check out this mashup from composer Miguel Frasconi of one of each of their works.

(Hat tip to Night after Night)

Happy 2008

Wow. I haven't blogged in quite some time. Busy busy busy, and that's not going to change in January, so things might be a little sparse for the next month or so.

In the meantime, one of my recent discoveries has been the Walrus Music blog. They've got a lot of good stuff over there, and I like the sensibilities of the staff. This post from today is not to be missed. Seriously, go over and make yourself a little tiny bit ill.

Today's unlikely aesthetic pleasure pairing; or listen up, b***ches!

Here's today's bizarre juxtaposition. My friends Jeremy and Mike work over at G4, and they have hipped me to G4's little online show, Freestyle 101. I was already a fan of Gift of Gab, but this is, so far, my favorite installment of the show. You can tell it's improvised, in that it's constantly brushing up against going of the rails. Every once in a while you can hear the gears grab the teeth in his mind at the exact moment you're thinking he's missed the beat. But hey, he outlasts the sample and brings it home a capella. Fierce.



Unrelated, I buzzed over to Kyle Gann's blog about contemporary classical music and composition this afternoon, something I don't do frequently enough.I was reminded, while over there, that Gann is an expert on and scholar of reclusive American composer Conlon Nancarrow, whose fiercely rhythmic oeuvre consists entirely of works for the player piano(!).

So, because this is the kind of dude I am, i.e. concerned about the likelihood that Gift of Gab and Conlon Nancarrow, whose works offer not much in common except that they are by American dudes each pursuing their happiness, have ever been paired anywhere (likelihood: .0005%), I hereby declare them kindred souls and marry them, artistically, here.

A taste on the Nancarrow piece Gann deems most important. Math robot boogie-woogie.

Conlon Nancarrow – Study for Player Piano No. 41a

And treat yourself. The Nancarrow album has been transcribed for two players of regular pianos, so while not exactly Nancarrow's thing, it's the one album of his compositions that I have. And everybody should own Blackalicious' (Gab's group) Blazing Arrow.

My friend Tim

Is coming to Austin in a couple weeks. He's the main dude and frontman of the band The Actual Facts, and I just discovered today that some of their tracks are available in their entirety over at Last.Fm Have a listen.


The Actual Facts – A Better Computer

Yards, Art, Black Dice

Maybe not much posting today. Will mostly be getting the yard and house ready for hosting the Austin Improv Collective's annual banquet and awards ceremony.

We may also go check out some stuff with the East Austin Studio Tours. This year there are even a couple of locations in Windsor Park, our neighborhood.

Also, after talking about Miles Davis yesterday, I got to thinking about this band, and how they exist in the microclimate opened up by experiments like On the Corner. Again, not for everybody, and hardly riveting from aspect of performance, but still a thing exerting the shape of itself.

Miles Davis: On the Corner box set

This kind of stuff doesn't appeal to tons of people, but I have to say I'm excited about the release of The Complete On the Corner Sessions by Miles Davis.

If you want to get a feel for the music and this history in Miles' career, you can check out the video over here. Sidenote--why the hell doesn't Amazon let you embed their videos?

Zyzzybalubah

So, yesterday Emmett came down with strep. We could tell he was feeling really poorly after school and he started running a fever. We almost never let him watch TV on school days, but he felt so crummy that we let him just veg out on the couch and watch TV. He wanted to watch Pee Wee's Playhouse.

The one episode I paid any attention to while Lacey and I were cooking involved the entire Playhouse being abducted into outer space by a fleshy-headed alien named Zyzzybalubah, which, in the opening moment of the episode was also established, improbably, as the word of the day.

I thought to myself, hey, there's a decent name for an improv group. Turns out there's a quirky band from Philadelphia (lots random observations connecting me to that city these days) with the name already. They're pretty decent, although their sound is not quite as weird/raucous/Pee Wee Hermanesque as their name and accompanying visual would suggest. But I'm linking to them, so I guess that's a recommendation or something.

Rhys Chatham: Waterloo, No. 2

Get a taste. Hell yes this is classical music and tough as a boot. Listened to this track a bunch if times today. Yay, paradiddles.

Rhys Chatham – Waterloo, No. 2

This is pretty amazing

http://jamphat.com/rap/

Just go check it out. Hat tip Dave Buckman.

Sun City Girls: Space Prophet Dogon

Some time a while back--okay, maybe a long while back--I stumbled across what I thought was a sonic similarity between too seemingly disparate acts--Sun City Girls and Doseone's project, Subtle. So I spent part of today trying to locate the tracks that suggested this comparison and couldn't find them.

Somewhere in all of this was the seed of a post mentioning the fact that Dax Pierson of Subtle was injured near my home town, Atlantic, Iowa, a few years ago. Why does that matter? I don't know, except thew thought of an African-American experimental hiphop musician being treating for serious spinal injuries in the dead of winter in my hometown hospital says something bleak and true about our country. And he lived and is still making music, and that also says something bleak and true to me.

Anyhow, what I did find was this little gem off of Sun City Girls' Torch of the Mystics. Like a lot of American stuff I like, it's dramas seem private but not perverse, and the stakes feel real. Like Pere Ubu, they're another band that I don't know as well as I probably "should." I got into this particular album, as happens to me a lot, well after it was released, in this case because of an interview I saw with members of Pavement (this was in maybe '95 or '96) where each listed 10 or so of his favorite or most influential albums. Can't remember whose list this was on, but it was several years after the interview that I finally got this.

Oh, members of SCG are also responsible for one of the best, toughest "world music" labels out there, Sublime Frequencies. Man, I should put some of the Iraqi stuff up here next. Maybe tomorrow.

Anyway, enjoy the track. To me it sounds like majesty.

Sanctimony

Not much posting yesterday, as you you can obviously tell by looking at the blog. Lacey and I got a ton of work done on our backyard, however, in anticipation of our hosting the AIC awards banquet this coming Sunday.

This is going to seem like a weird thing to talk about, but discussions today on the Austin Improv forums reminded me that this post of mine accounted for the single highest blog traffic day for me, by a factor of four or so. It is also a post about which no one at any time ever said a single word to me, even though I have proof that quite a few people read it. Oh well. I should also say I stand by my central assertion, that one need not like what you like, nor is it proof that one has a chip on one's shoulder against what you like. It merely means that one has other interests. Nor should one feel ashamed of stating those priorities or having opinions. One need not be part of the informed cognoscenti to hold those opinions, and one isn't disqualified from haviing opinions for lacking the correct pedigree and credentials.

But enough of that, because I want to turn both me and my argument around and talk about sanctimony. I'm all for getting polemic in public ways. We're artists, and while people in the arts often have tender egos, their often terrific verbal sparrers and polemicists. That's all fine and good. I love having things I believe and trying to articulate them.

Buuuuuuutttt......

I hate when that position-taking element creeps into the art itself. Lacey and I have been watching a ton of Weeds lately, which overall is pretty good. My single biggest complaint about the series, of which we've watched almost the first two seasons, is the revival and reinsertion in the culture of this song by Malvina Reynolds. Take a listen:



In season one, this version played before every episode. Seriously, it's catchy as hell and worms its way into your brain. In season two, it's reinterpreted by different artists, so now there are 12 more versions of it floating around out there.

Here's my beef with the song. I don't necessarily disagree with the sentiments expressed in the song. Heck, overall I'd say I probably agree with them. My problem, then, is that the song agrees too much with itself. There's no doubt in the assertions put forward in the song, a dreadful air of superiority, which renders it propaganda. This is why satire is killingly hard, because it's hard to make art that doesn't end up just coming across as preaching.

I have the same beef with Lemony Snickett's little holiday trifle from McSweeney's, The Latke That Couldn't Stop Screaming, which showed up at my house recently becuase I got a McSweeney's Books subscription. The sentiment of the book I agree with (all religious cultures in America should be afforded their place in the sun rather than being shoehorned into the Corpotate XMAS mono culture)--it's the haughty tone I can't stand. It made me think to myself "Go screw yourself, silly overpriced hipster children's holiday book--I'm a goy who knows what a latke is so get over yourself."

Which I guess is not that far from my reacting to sentiments and discussions outside works of art which dictate to me what sentiments are "acceptable." I don't mind agreeing with you, I just mind being told I have to.

In Philly

Pretty much spent all day travelling. Just got back to the hotel after eating Italian food with Shana and Sara.

More soon, but this morning I was thinking a little about the Mountain Goats after hearing "Cotton" on an episode of Weeds. If you're not familiar with John Darnielle's work, here are a couple of tastes.



And this song, which just tears my heart out in the way that I was flattered to be compared once to Jimmy Stewart's character in The Philadedelphia Story; being indignant about the injustice of hurt and casual cruelty, something like that.

Speaking of Malkmus

Dylan, Greil Marcus, American shit and whatnot.

This is pretty sweet.

Boy That Sounds Swell

During the marathon day of shooting this weekend, I finished the Greil Marcus book. Nice long chapter on Dave Thomas and Pere Ubu, whose work I don't know nearly as well as I might. I do have a copy of Dub Housing which I like quite a bit. I know this band is legendary and all, but I still don't think they get their due, Marcuses and his ilk aside. Here's the lead track from Dub Housing, "Navvy." The two chimes at the top of the chorus get me every time. And there's something a little Malkmusy about the guitar intro. Enjoy.



Treat yourself.

Start of NaBloPoMo--Henry Flynt

A post a day, huh. All right, here we go.

Today, killing some time while I was having our house cleaned up, I swung by Waterloo Records on something of a whim and because I had 15 cash dollars in my wallet and because I'm going to be recording some voice over for Rooster Teeth's new Red Vs. Blue XBox miniseries later today. Lucky me they were having a 20% sale, so I picked up a copy of Henry Flynt and Nova Billy's album. This was just released by Locust Music, and over the past year or so I've really gotten into Flynt. I think I first encountered him on Last.fm, and I've been able to get a bunch of Flynt reissues on eMusic.

He's quite an interesting character.

If you like Red Krayola, Mayo Thompson, John Cale's viola work with Velvet Underground, or tangy, slightly eccentric driving art-rockabilly of any ilk, this stuff is for you.


Here's a little sample, which will get you acquainted with his Mayo-ish voice:

Henry Flynt & Nova' Billy – Good Morning

And this for the yeehaw bow sawing, which is one of Flynt's signatures:

Henry Flynt & Nova' Billy – Double Spindizzy


If you're interested, the entire record can be picked up at fine local establishments everywhere, as well as at Amazon. I'd link you to the eMusic link or elsewhere, but you can't get the last track off the download version. Be a completist!

This is why I love the Internet

It allows you to find stuff you like that you wouldn't otherwise know existed. Case in pint, this little track excerpt from a dude going by the moniker Nonloc. I love it, and found it becuase I'm listening to the Last.fm station dedicated to tracks like the ones Paige Maguire from the Austinist listens to.

Nonloc – Processional