Beloved Monsters

Now, I've had several mixes laid out and planned in Winamp for weeks now. Some, I've been using in the store, and some I've just had hanging out and waiting for just the right time to unveil. I was talking to Meera about which one to finish up and post, being as vague as possible with the descriptions and she wound choosing the chilled out, singer/songwriter kind of mix. Therefore, Beloved Monsters.

Beloved Monsters

1. I am Robot and Proud - A List of Things that Quicken the Heart
2. Jeff Buckley - Hallelujah
3. Ben Folds Five - Cigarette
4. Andrew Bird - Heretics
5. Natalie Merchant - Beloved Wife
6. Nick Drake - Free Ride
7. Neko Case - That Teenage Feeling
8. Otis Redding - Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa (Sad Song)
9. Neil Young - Only Love Can Break Your Heart
10. Norah Jones - Wake Me Up
11. Iron & Wine - Cinder and Smoke
12. Charlotte Gainsbourg - little monsters
13. Jackson C. Frank - Cover Me With Roses
14. Jarvis - I Will Kill Again

ROCK AND ROLL!

I've been indulging in some of my favorite rock movies lately: High Fidelity, About a Boy, Wayne's World, the Wedding Singer, School of Rock and even Airheads.

Now, High Fidelity and About a Boy both deal in deeper matters, and that's the cool part about Nick Hornby's books. They take the everyday, examine it, and just make it cool. It's also good for thinking about the human condition and all that rot. It's all in the brilliant writing in the original novels that translate extremely well into those two films (however much they were changed, distilled, and otherwise distorted to put together a cohesive story that would work well on film.) They're great, really. And High Fidelity should be required viewing for almost. . . well anyone.

The others movies are the visual equivalent to a brilliant pop song. Mostly useless, sometimes a bit novelty, but something you that will make you smile. Airheads is about what's cool about Rock'n'Roll. You might suck, you might have been a dweeb, but still, in the end it's all about "ROCK AND ROLL!" (Hell, School of Rock examines the power of rock and how it changes lives. And it does. Really.)

Sometimes, it's all about one great song or one great show that will people will remember.

Here's a little collection of You Tube postings having to do with most of those movies.

Rabbit Stew

Here's a YouTube mishmash of this and that. Mostly is a mix of stuff being abused, people, emotions, pianos and guitars. Frankly, it's not for everyone, but there's some cool videos on here.

Magical Watchtower Road 3

Here's the third and final installment in this particular series of mixes. The final track has been a minor obsession of mine lately. Now, I've heard the song a lot over the years, but somehow, listening to during a car ride a couple weeks ago made me finally hear and go "Wow!" It really is that cool of a song, and I had no idea it was done by the Hollies.

Also, "Walk Away Renee" by the Left Banke got a little bit of a nod from my father. Who knew he liked the Left Banke?

Magical Watchtower Road 3

1. Santana - Evil Ways
2. Heart - Magic Man
3. The Archies - Sugar Sugar
4. The Byrds - Mr. Spaceman
5. The Band - The Weight
6. Wilson Pickett - In the midnight hour
7. ? And The Mysterians - Don't Break This Heart Of Mine
8. THE LEFT BANKE - Walk Away Renee
9. Procol Harum - Toujours l'amour
10. Creedence Clearwater Revival - Down On The Corner
11. The Moody Blues - Ride My See-Saw
12. Jeff Beck - Let Me Love you
13. Hollies, The - Long Cool Woman In A Black Dress

NPR : Jazz Legend Max Roach Dies at 83

NPR : Jazz Legend Max Roach Dies at 83

It seems like we're doing this more and more, marking the passage of some beloved great. Max Roach was probably the best drummer who ever lived. And what's so remarkable about this is that he hung out and helped start a movement in jazz by simply hanging out and jamming with so of the other "best who ever lived." This dude used to hang out with Charlie Parker, Mingus, Miles Davis, without him, none of them would have been as cool as they were.

I've been digging into the albums he released under his own bands, and I've been blown away.

Magical Mystery Road 2

This is the second mix of this little series. There's not much to say about this one other than it's a good way to spend an afternoon.


Magical Mystery Road 2

1. The Lovin' Spoonful - Do You Believe In Magic?
2. The Supremes - My World Is Empty Without You
3. Cream - Strange Brew
4. The Who - Magic Bus
5. The Kinks - Tired Of Waiting For You
6. The Seeds - Pushin' Too Hard
7. The Zombies - She's Not There
8. Classics IV - Spooky
9. David Bowie - Space Oddity
10. Traffic - John Barleycorn
11. Blossom Toes - Peace Loving Man
12. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - Almost Cut My Hair

Soul Filled Evening.

A YouTube playlist of some soul favourites. Enjoy.

Magical Watchtower Road

Finally, a mix. I know I've been slow getting this up, but I've been distracted by just how good it is. I've got two others sitting, waiting to be made and I just can't stop listening to them. I even managed to make a CD based off those three for my parents and they're digging it.

You just can't not like this kind of a lineup.


Magical Watchtower Road

1. The Beatles - Magical Mystery Tour
2. Dusty Springfield - Son of a Preacher Man
3. Mungo Jerry - In the Summertime
4. The Beach Boys - Wouldn't It Be Nice
5. The Youngbloods - Get Together
6. Jefferson Airplane - Blues From An Airplane
7. Kaleidoscope - A Dream for Julie
8. Jimi Hendrix - All Along The Watchtower
9. The Doors - Twentienth Century Fox
10. Steppenwolf - Sookie Sookie
11. Janis Joplin - Try (Just a Little Bit Harder)
12. Frijid Pink - Crying shame
13. The Blues Magoos - Tobacco Road

I've got a bike . . .

40 Years old today and it never fails to impress. And in a few weeks, the 3 Disc special edition comes out.

The Field and Myspace recomendations.

I was at my favorite traditional Irish pub up in Dania this evening and I heard yet another remarkable performance by their house band, Celtic Bridge. They do trad. Irish music with some rock tendencies that usually remind me of an unplugged Zeppelin or a version of Jethro Tull I'd like.

So when I got home, the whiskey still floating around my head, I started digging around Myspace and the internet as a whole for this little band. Sadly, nothing turned up on it's own, but I was able to come up with something from one of the members, Ade Peever.

I listened to the tracks damn, they were pretty cool. So I kept digging around Myspace and came up with an interesting list of recommendations.

The first I found from checking out some of the friends to Ade Peever, looking for their other projects. When I tell you it's a talented group of musicians, I'm not lying in a music rep kind of way. These people are the real deal.

First I found ShaSha. This is a classically trained violinist who was born in China, educated in the UK, introduced to Irish folk music and somehow found her way to Miami. I don't ask how. It seems a bit like asking the gods how music came to be. The tracks she has up sound like a kind of fusion that sells by the millions around Pledge time of PBS. . .

What I want to know is, why isn't she better known?

The next I found, again from Ade Peever's Myspace page. They're a straight up Blues Rock group from the Leeds. Doesn't get grittier than this without heading straight into the deepest, diviest, gin joint you can find in the deep South. They're called Rain Dogs

Another found me by accident, actually. Well, I found them via a mailer Snocap sends out. I just happened to listen to one of their tracks and I was completely and utterly blown away. They're called The New Up. They are a psych band with a female vocalist that doesn't come off like Jefferson Airplane of Big Brother. Not to say I don't harbor a necrophiliac love for Janis Joplin, but The New Up nearly melted my brain.

Bands like this only hit me once every few years. It was like I heard them in my head and finally something clicked and this band filled in faces and the name for what had been there all a long. I felt that way when I first heard the Flaming Lip's "Yoshimi" and Porcupine Tree's "Lightbulb Sun" and of course, Mars Volta's "Francis the Mute." I stared at my laptop's screen for minutes when I listened to "Chewbacca's Garden."

I told Del that I immediately needed their CD. She laughed, and I'll be purchasing it ASAP.