A common refrain in my mind when listening to music is “I totally could have written that!” as though each lyric were an excerpt from my own life story. So I'm going to put the question out there; if you were a songwriter, or even if you actually are a songwriter, what famous person’s songs do you feel you could have written? Whose lyrics seem to give voice to your deepest thoughts and desires? Whose melodies fit your every mood? Whose cause is your inspiration?
My current answer, and an artist who has claimed this title in my life many times over the years, is Kasey Chambers. I'm not even a big country music fan, but I'm telling you, this woman and I have lived parallel lives and she writes about it in a way that gets me squarely in the gut. Check out Kasey live with her husband Shane Nicholson playing “Once in a While” (a song which, you guessed it, I swear I could have written):
I had the chance to talk to Ziggy Marley earlier this week. In prepping for my interview I came across this video of Ziggy performing "Redemption Song," with Lauryn Hill. Remember her? (Oh Lauryn, where have you gone?) She has five children by Ziggy's brother Rohan, to whom she is "spiritually" betrothed (i.e. they're not legally married). I was dying to ask him if he knows what Lauryn is up to, but I totally chickened out. We did, however, talk about his upbringing, his legendary father, and the recent elections. Stay tuned for the interview. I'll post it as soon as it's edited. In the meantime, check out Ziggy and Lauryn, in her former glory.
As I tend to feel a tight kinship for the few dudes other than myself who are enthusiastically nerdy about comedy, books, and R&B/hip-hop music, I'm a big fan of Jesse Thorn and his public radio show/podcast, The Sound of Young America. On his most recent show, he interviews his fellow Bay Area native Raphael Saadiq, who was an original member of Tony! Toni! Toné! and Lucy Pearl, which was a supergroup of sorts featuring Saadiq with members of En Vogue and A Tribe Called Quest. He's out promoting his latest solo record, The Way I See It, which shows the vocalist/producer/multi-instrumentalist making new songs in the style and sound of vintage Motown. The album has also inspired surprisingly few critics to poke fun at the title by making Starbucks jokes. Nice restraint, critics!
Listen to the interview to learn about the benefits of old drums, obsessive secret practicing, how Prince introduces himself, superior flea markets, and what it's like to play a gig on a cruise ship when you're ten years old. You can stream, download, or subscribe to this free podcast over here.
Considering how many words we've spilled following the flamboyant genius/egotist, we might need to institute an "OMG! KANYE" tag 'round these parts.
In today's Kanye "FIGJAM" West news, he, Plain Pat, and DJ Benzi have a new remix mixtape out in advance of Monday's release of 808s & Heartbreak.
It's a decent collection of remixes that's largely inessential unless you're a Kanye superfan, mostly because it doesn't include any peeks at new material aside from a remix of "Love Lockdown" that's been floating around the internet for a while. It's something you could throw on, set it and forget it Popeil-style, at a party, but it's a little disappointing when stacked up against his past mixtapes, including the two that came out around the release of his last record (the Can't Tell Me Nothing mixtape also mixed by Plain Pat, or The Graduate mixtape, which also features the hipster-pleasing A-trak mashup of "Get 'em High" and the Knife's "Heartbeats" found on Sky High).
If you're curious, you can stream the Sky High mixtape (complete with irritating flow-interrupting between-track advertisements) over at imeem. If you happen to find somewhere to download the thing, please be a friend and leave the URL in a comment.
The video for Kings of Leon’s “Sex on Fire” is definitely not explicit, and when it came out Rolling Stone went as far as to call it “false advertising” because they thought it failed to deliver on the blatant sexuality of the song’s lyrics. But I beg to differ with the critics on this one because I don’t believe I’ve seen another rock video this year (or any time in recent memory) that has generated such a feverish response amongst female fans. And the word I’ve heard used most often in describing the viewing experience? “Hot.” Plain and simple. Perhaps we are base creatures and it’s all just a reaction to the Followill brothers' extraordinary genes, but I tend to think that the real reason this video has women burning up is that innuendo is actually the hottest thing of all.
Most music dorks, whether professional or amateur, love end-of-the-year listmaking time. Clearly, your friendly neighborhood editors are nothing if not music dorks.
As such, we've put our heads together and nailed down our list of the best songs of 2008. It includes some ultra-familar tracks, like our chart-topper "American Boy," but we also fell in love with some less-well-known jams like the bluesy ramble of José James' "Spirits Up Above" and the slinky throwback funk of Menahan Street Band's "Make the Road by Walking," which Jay-Z sampled on one of our favorite songs of last year, "Roc Boys."
We let our customers vote with their wallets, and they overwhelmingly chose Katy Perry's summer-dominating ode to fashionable sexuality experiments, "I Kissed a Girl," as their favorite song of 2008. Some surprises on their list include "I'm Yours," the slow-starting, exceedingly pleasant single by Jason Mraz, and the sassy anachronistic soul of Duffy's "Mercy," both of which managed to edge out Idol-winner David Cook's coronation song, "The Time of My Life."
Here are our respective top-10 lists for your judging pleasure:
Top 10 Editor Favorites:
"American Boy," Estelle (feat. Kanye West)
"Love Lockdown," Kanye West
"The Most Beautiful Girl In The Room," Flight of the Conchords
"White Winter Hymnal," Fleet Foxes
"Make The Road By Walking," Menahan Street Band
"Swimming Pools," Thao Nguyen and the Get Down Stay Down
"Swagga Like Us," T.I., Jay-Z, Kanye West, and Lil' Wayne
You can see both our top 100 editor picks or top 100
customer picks lists in their entirety, along with top-10 lists broken out by genre over at Amazon MP3's Best Songs
of 2008 store. You can also click the play button on either of the below sample players to hear sample clips from all songs included on both lists.
And, of course, please tell us where we went horribly awry with our picks in the comments. Please note, though, we will have no truck with any talk about how we're bad editors because our tastes don't line up perfectly with our bestsellers. We like what we like!
What were your favorite performances of the night? Join the discussion here, or respond on our discussion board in the CMA Awards Store.
In the humble opinion of this on-the-scene blogger, these were some of the best moments at this year's awards:
Sugarland, Love: The trickle of sparks turning into a river of cascading fire as the song built to a crescendo. The call and response between Jennifer Nettles and Kristian Bush really built it up.
Brad Paisley, Waiting On A Woman: grinding it up on the black and gold paisley guitar
Carrie Underwood, Just a Dream: The intro from the wife of a fallen soldier made this performance incredibly moving. Carrie was amazing, again.
Keith Urban, Sweet Thing: The opening guitar duet with the banjo and guitar.
Kid Rock, All Summer Long: when Lil' Wayne joined the Kid on stage.
The final votes of the night are in, and here's your list of winners.
Sugarland, George Strait, and Brad Paisley ended up neck and neck as the biggest winners of the night with two awards each. Otherwise, it was an even spread with the few remaining awards going to Rascal Flatts, Carrie Underwood, Kenny Chesney, and Lady Antebellum.
Single of the Year: George Strait Song of the Year: Sugarland Vocal Group of the Year: Rascal Flatts New Artist of the Year: Lady Antebellum Vocal Duo of the Year: Sugarland Album of the Year: George Strait Music Video of the Year: Brad Paisley Female Vocalist of the Year: Carrie Underwood Male Vocalist of the Year: Brad Paisley Entertainer of the Year: Kenny Chesney
Featured photos (copyright, Lucas Hilbert): Lady Antebellum (top), Carrie Underwood, Brad Paisley, Kenny Chesney
Ok, let's have some updates on the men of Country, shall we? Other than the opener with Brad and Keith, Rodney Atkins and Lady Antebellum played. Rodney is one of my favorites, but there were a couple flat notes tonight.
Kid Rock just took the stage sporting a Titans jersey with Lil' Wayne joining him as a special guest performer. But my favorite shirt in the group was the guitarist wearing a "Joe the Strummer" jersey. Classic.
Here's his photo from the red carpet tonight. Why the glasses, Kid? He sported them on stage as well.
Best comment from Carrie Underwood tonight so far as she introduced Kid Rock, "I can't wait to see if the man is wearing a shirt or not. I know the man can afford one."
Blogger note: CMA recipe for good awards show = make sure the first few females to appear on stage are all blond or close to it. Case and point, this is the order of appearance of the ladies on stage tonight: 1) Carrie Underwood, 2) Nicole Kidman, 3) Kellie Pickler, 4) Miranda Lambert. And then bring on Taylor Swift within the next 15 minutes.
The first brunette to appear on stage was Martina McBride. And yes, she rocked the pipes. Welcome back, Martina.
Getting back to Miranda, she is on a different level. I can just picture her as the next Tammy Wynette or something. Her performance of More Like Her tonight showcased another side that's less bad ass, and more soft-spoken instead. It's good to see her range evolve as her craft develops.
Mr. Paisley is hamming it up, saying something about teenage boys
giving their left game controller for a chance to meet Kellie Pickler. Hmm.
Kellie is the
first of this night’s regular performers. Kellie chose an up-tempo rocker this
year which is less of a tear-jerker than last year when she cried at the end and couldn’t
finish the song, which made it that much more real.
And by the way, she is looking
even more stunning than Carrie in a black leather dress (similar to the one she's sporting in this photo) and knee-high boots. Leather is sooo Country, after all.
Good evening all you Country fans and music addicts alike. And
so, Country Music’s Biggest Night has arrived. The CMA Awards are underway in
Nashville and I’m covering all the events live from the press room. I just got
back from the red carpet where I got some great photos of Kid Rock, Miley Cyrus,
Martina McBride, and Reese Witherspoon who will be presenting at tonight’s
awards. I’ll post some of their best photos soon.
Tonight’s awards will be hosted by Brad Paisley and Carrie
Underwood, so it seems only appropriate to start off with some photos of the
pair. They are now coming out on stage and Carrie is looking stunning in a blue sheen dress.
For now, sit back and enjoy the updates, starting with our
kick off duet with Brad Paisley and Keith Urban. Go boys, go.
Kicking off this year’s CMA Awards from Nashville was a dull
thud repeated over and over again outside my hotel at 4:00 am. It was the sound
of an amplified kick drum going through a loud sound check, and it woke me from
a deep slumber.
One drum soon turned to many and I was in for the full drum
solo fandango. And then a full band started their sound check. Seriously? At
4:00 am? Why, oh why, was this happening to me and where, oh where, did I put
my ear plugs? Fast forward 3 hours and I hear the full band doing their sound
check thing all over again. Such is the price I pay to bring you, oh
Chordstrike reader, the live on-the-scene coverage of this year’s CMA Awards.
It turns out that all the commotion was because SOMEBODY will
play live on Good Morning America to promote the CMA Awards. And who better to
kick things off than Miley and Papa Billy Ray? In that case, the sleep
deprivation was so not worth it. Give me Carrie, give me Brad, give me
Sugarland, or I’ll be sad.
And by day’s end, I think Nashville will answer my call. I will
have more on-the-scene stories to share, coming to you LIVE from back stage and
at the CMA Awards press conference. No need to check your local
listings… start and finish here for it all.
The music world suffers a great loss today in the passing of singer and high-profile exile Miriam Makeba. The former wife of legendary South African trumpeter Hugh Masekela and activist Stokely Carmichael, Makeba was both a great voice and a great cultural icon. Check out video and news of Nelson Mandela's tribute to Makeba here.
Why it's significant: Despite a wave of criticism asserting that Kings of Leon's fourth full-length is "too commercial," Only by the Night
may be the closest thing to a pitch-perfect album to drop in 2008.
Granted, Tennessee's band of brothers (and one first cousin) takes a
turn for the heavily polished here, but what the album lacks in
rough-edged raunch, it more than makes up for in earnestness
and--yes--stunning beauty. From the opening notes of "Closer" to the
listing balladry of "Cold Desert," Only by the Night hardly
misses a beat. Highlights abound, particularly in the trading off of
melodic lines between instruments, and in this regard, bassist Jared
Followill is the album's quiet MVP. Above these gorgeous instrumentals,
singer Caleb emotes with a dramatic grit that never loses its command.
A model of melodic rock composition, arranged and produced with a warm,
inviting veneer, and performed with aching sincerity, these 11 tracks
coalesce into a sanguine whole that eclipses the band's much-discussed
rock posturing and yields more with every play. A good band's great
album, Only by the Night (finally) establishes Kings of Leon as a rock act that worthy of seriously sustained attention.
So just how good is it? Well, Amazon editors and writers voted, and Only by the Night came out as our collective favorite album of the year. Check out our Best Music of 2008 for the rest of our Top 100, customer favorites, and Top 10s by genre.
Why it’s significant: Just when I thought I could never love another Brooklyn-based band on principle alone, along come Vivian Girls, who’s nearly flawless debut album delivers a beguiling mixture of addictive-like-crack melodies, dystopian yet upbeat girl group harmonies, deceptively simple distorted wall-of-sound guitars, and a conspicuous, effortless sense of cool as rare as an evil unicorn.
I love good pop songs, especially when they’re short, sweet, and melodic. They just beg me to listen over and over again. I usually consider it a treat when I find just one of these gems on a record, but in the case of Vivian Girls’ self-titled debut, I’ve discovered an entire album full of them. Coming in at just under 22 minutes, this quick-and-dirty set of ten songs is one of those rare records that demands to be played in its entirety, dripping with a facile cool typically reserved for bands like Sonic Youth or the Velvet Underground. The three ladies that comprise Vivian Girls concoct an intoxicating mixture of bad attitude ‘60s girl-group harmonies, shoegaze distortion, and cunningly simple twee-punk beats. Echoes of their influences—the Smiths, Lush, the Raveonettes, the Shangri-Las, and most notably San Francisco’s legendary, brilliant Amy Linton-fronted bands the Aislers Set and Henry’s Dress--are evident throughout the album, but unlike many lesser bands, the Girls never sound like they’re aping anyone else’s sound. Instead they’re creating their own stew of noise pop perfection, paying respectful homage while still creating a sound that is wholly unique and instantly identifiable.
Sure, Vivian Girls’ songs are simple, but never to a fault, and always cleverly so. Take for example their song “No,” which features only one lyric (guess what it is). It’s a temper tantrum of a track that sounds like the aural equivalent of a pillow fight at a slumber party. And while it's short on lyrics, it, like the rest of the album, is big on fun. Fun is an obvious operative word for this trio--they’re not the greatest musicians—but they never pretend to be, instead playing their sometimes off-key vocals, tempo-varying drums, weenie guitar solos, and other imperfections for charm--and it works. What really, truly makes me love this band however, is their stellar songs. Every single one is a little piece of pop perfection--a solid, savory bubblegum melody employing subtle vocal harmonic changes that might even make Brian Wilson jealous. While all the songs are totally solid, their best (and most polished sounding) track is the hand clap anthem “Where Do You Run To,” where the Girls sing in their dark, split harmonies in front of an inverted girl group drum beat: “run do you run/do you run/do you run to,” – an ingenious, updated, and clever play on the Crystals early ‘60s hit “Da Do Ron Ron.” Sold.
This weekend marks the celebration of Mexican holiday Día de los Muertos, or “Day of the Dead.” In honor of the holiday we’ve compiled a list of music by well-known and sorely missed Latin artists past, as well as inspirational music for those who observe the religious roots of the holiday. Check out the Día de los Muertos page.
Watch a live performance by the late, great Celia Cruz & Fania All Stars:
