18 March 2012 - Jenny Toomey - Baby Would It Matter

Every musician wishes they had Jenny Toomey's career.  In addition to her solo work - which is brilliant and what we are showcasing today - she has led no less than five really cool bands - I'm going to try to list them from memory without looking them up - Tsunami, Geek, Choke, Grenadine, Liquorice.... I know I'm missing one, but no matter.   AND she founded her own record label - Simple Machines - which ended up being a major player in the DC punk/indie scene, along with Dischord and Teen Beat Records.

And she walked away from musical brilliance to join the Ford Foundation, where she is a Senior Program Officer.  She is sorely missed in the music world, but she is doing good work. (Editor's update: she's in a new role there and the link reflects that)

Here is a live performance of two of my favorite songs by her, "Baby Would It Matter" and "Artful Dodger".  In addition to the coolness of the songs, I love the cowboy hat.  I hope you enjoy the music.

 

Because I am doing this as a public service, I wanted to offer a 2nd performance, from the famed Fort Reno in Washington, DC.  Again, she opens with "Baby Would It Matter."  No cowboy hat this time but, in my opinion, a richer performance.



(Update: 15 May 2013) I just discovered this version of the same song from two years earlier, done by Jenny's band Liquorice.  It's a more melancholy interpretation, but it still is pretty damned awesome.  More organ on this version, but it fits the mood.

(Update: 19 January 2022) So Low.  That's the one I was missing.

11 March 2012 - Jonathan Coulton - Curl / Code Monkey

So, two weeks ago, we posted the Non-Guilty Pleasure to celebrate the end of the Scotties Tournament of Hearts, the Canadian women's national curling championships.

Today, the Tim Hortons Brier, the Canadian men's national curling championship, comes to an exciting conclusion.  Glenn Howard, from Ontario, the curler with the most Brier matches of all time (his brother Russ is 2nd), takes on Kevin Koe, the 2010 Brier and world champion, from Alberta.  If you care, I predict a Howard victory, as I have all season.

But we're not a curling blog (I do have one of those), but a music blog.  And so, today, I highlight the 2nd greatest song ever written about curling.  Mr. Coulton - an American, by the way - has four times embarked on Thing-A-Week projects, where he writes and records a different song every week.  You probably know his song "Code Monkey", which has been a viral hit and was part of Thing-A-Week Three.

Thing-A-Week Two was released in November 2006.  Track 7 was this gem:



Yes, I know, this is a fan-made video.  It's still pretty fantastic.  Not only do you get the 2nd best song ever written about curling, you get Colbert curling!

And, since I teased you earlier, here is the video for his biggest hit as well.  I am not a code monkey, but this is a pretty fun song for all of us in IT.

4 March 2012 - 50 Foot Wave/Kristin Hersh - Your Ghost

My favorite band is a little band from Newport, Rhode Island called Throwing Muses.  Led by Kristin Hersh, a paranoid schitzophrenic and teen mother, the band continued through 2003, with a number of personnel changes, but with the same drummer - David Narcizo.  The last lineup included those two and bassist Bernard Georges, who had toured with the band an awful lot before he joined them full-time.

But Kristin had a growing solo career, and David a growing art business, so the band broke up.  They've gotten back together a few times since then - and made another album.  But they've also kept themselves busy with other projects, in addition to their primary careers.

Kristin started a band that was NOTHING like Throwing Muses, nor like her art-folk solo sound.  She did recruit Bernard for the new band - 50 Foot Wave - but a new drummer.  The band's music is completely available through Kristin's Cash Music project, which is essentially an open source artist's royalties platform that has worked pretty well for a few artists, including Kristin.

The hard-edged band even covered Kristin's best known song.  Even though it isn't as folky as the original, it works.



For reference, here is Kristin's original version, a duet with Michael Stipe.  It got MTV airplay, and was featured in the movie With Honors. It also works, but is a completely different song.



Kristin wrote the song, as well as the reinterpretation.  She is one of the most overlooked songwriters of her generation (which also happens to be my generation). Last year, she wrote an excellent book - Rat Girl - that I recommend you read, if you want to hear the genesis of a musical genius.

26 February 2012 - The Weakerthans - Tournament of Hearts

On the day that this is posted, the Scotties Tournament of Hearts - the Canadian women's national curling championship, and the greatest women's curling competition in the world - comes to a dramatic conclusion.  Team Scott from British Columbia will be taking on Team Nedohin from Alberta in the final, from Red Deer, Alberta.

So what better time to post the greatest song about curling ever written?  The Weakerthans are a nice little band from Manitoba.  This video was taped at a curling club - you can see a lot of old-time curling footage in this video, and even a Scotts Tournament of Hearts banner or two - it has recently been rebranded the Scotties.

And even though there is a lot of curling jargon and imagery used  in the song, the song is about a lot more than curling.  It's about a guy who is hiding from a conversation with his significant other.  He just happens to be hiding at a curling club.



Why this song wasn't a huge hit, I'll never know.

Now, for those who read my other blog, American Curler - I do need to update it, but I promise you that I will very soon - here is a bonus video from this year's Scotties provincial qualifiers.  Jennifer Jones, 2010 Scotties champion (and 2012 bronze medalist) is one of the best in the game.  Enjoy her shooting.

19 February 2012 - Sunny Sweeney - If I Could / Kasey Chambers - Goin' Fishin'

Speed country!

This song, a cover of a country classic, is brilliantly covered by Ms. Sunny Sweeney.  This was an early single of hers, and she has gone onto a great career. Great singles, great albums, and it all started with this great single.

12 February 2012 - Adele - Chasing Pavements and that other song (Special Grammy Edition)

In 2009, Adele won the Best New Artist Grammy, largely on the strength of this powerful song.  Then, she was forgotten for a couple of years.  That's pretty typical of a Best New Artist.  48 of the last 50 Best New Artists have not gone on to ever with Record, Song, or Album of the Year.  Norah Jones and Natalie Cole, by the way, are the two notable exceptions.



I first heard this song when she performed it at the 2009 Grammy awards, and I was instantly hooked.  What a powerful voice!

I'm not going to say that Adele will be breaking that so-called curse, but she is nominated for all three awards at tonight's Grammys.  And there was this little ditty that I am sure none of you have ever heard....



In all honesty, I was such a huge fan of "Chasing Pavements" - and all of Adele's 1st album - that I had a lot of trouble accepting Adele as a big hitmaker.  And although there are some gems on it - like this song - I still say 19 is a better album than 21.  Having said that, in 2011, 21 sold three times more units than any other album, worldwide AND in the US, and 19 was the 7th best selling worldwide, so others are discovering her first album, too.

5 February 2012 - Katy Perry - Electric Feel

I promised you a tune that you could listen to without guilt.  Here it is.

Katy Perry did a live in-studio cover of the MGMT tune "Electric Feel."  Before I heard this song, I couldn't stand Katy Perry.  After this, I enjoyed almost everything she did.  It's that well done.

Long time readers of my blogs know that this isn't the first time I've gushed over it. Sadly, there still isn't a real video of this song, recorded in a 2008 BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge session.  However, the audio is so good, I still think you'll enjoy it.

 

 I think Katy's version even beats the original. By a mile.  However, I'll let you judge that for yourself.


For me, the original gets even more enjoyable with this video.

29 January 2012 - Phantogram - Mouthful of Diamonds

As some fine readers of this blog know, I am a member of a Track of the Day club group on Facebook.  It has been going on since the summer - right about the time Spotify hit the States - and it is the finest musical education I've ever had.  Finding out about new (and old) music from my fellow club members, scattered throughout the country (and in Japan), has been enjoyable.

As a result, I will have a lot of material for Non-Guilty Sunday.  Thanks to Frank Boscoe, this song was stuck in my head for weeks.  Anyone who has been my Facebook friend for any amount of time knows that I have, on more than one occasion, gushed over this tune. From Saratoga Springs, NY, Phantogram is a 2-piece band that sound like they are a 6-piece band.  This particular tune is from their 2010 album - Eyelid Movies. It's a great song, and a great looking video.  Enjoy.

Bonus:  Here is the band performing the song live at the SXSW festival last year.  They are really good, and I am going to catch them the next time they're in town.

Bonus:  I *did* catch them live, they did this song, and they were arguably the best band I've ever seen live.  So, here's another bonus: a 2008 performance of the song, when the band was still called Charlie Everywhere.  Yes, that was actually the band's name.

22 January 2012 - Mala Rodríguez - No Pidas Perdón/Nanai

Welcome to Non-Guilty Sunday, where we wash the guilt away with an artist who isn't going to make you feel so bad about liking them.  I open with two songs that have been stuck in my head ever since I did that Shakira post.

Mala Rodríguez. At times, she has gone by La Mala - her name means bad.  As in, bad-ass.  From Spain, she has come to America to work with the top names in hip hop, a musical genre for which she obviously has a lot of respect and understanding.  She also worked with Nelly Furtado when she was going through her Spanish language phase, but we've all made mistakes.

It wasn't her birth name.  That was María.  Please don't make me type any more accent marks.  

This first video, from 2010, is for a song that won the Latin Grammy for Best Urban Song.  The video is one of those few that actually enhances the song, despite not really having anything to do with the lyrics. It is also pretty bad-ass.

Mala's fashion sense is nothing new, as can be seen in this 2006 video for an earlier song, Nanai.  Clearly, her music has matured since this time, but you can more clearly see her energy and her respect for hip hop.  In fact, I think it's much easier to see her energy from this video than in her later work.  The other thing that is clear in this video? The flamenco influence on her performance style.

Update: here's a working live video:

 

I discovered her music through a curling friend of mine from Schenectady, Victor Rodriguez, and his Spotify playlists, which correspond to two of her albums.  He knows his movies and his curling, and he has excellent musical taste.  He's also on Twitter, and you should follow him.  I give him full credit for making me a huge Mala Rodríguez fan. 

I know that 90% of you aren't going to understand these lyrics.  I think both of these songs transcend language barriers, as do most of Ms. Rodríguez's songs.  I just hope we hear more from her soo