Activist, artist Harry Belafonte has passed away, he was 96 years old.
Usually for RIP's I make a brief comment, post a song, and direct people to the NY Times article or elsewhere. I will still do that.
However, I also had the pleasure of listening to this great American talk years back at NYPL when he released My Song and I wrote a review of that special night.
Today marks the 50th Anniversary of one of the all time great albums and the birth of a rock and roll icon. January 22nd 1968 Gris Gris was released and the world was introduced, for the first time to Dr. John.
While the world may have heard some music from session musician Mac Rebennack. they had never experienced anything from Dr. John, The Night Tripper. Mac (who was 27 at the time) was inspired by his sister to create this character tying him into New Orleans voodoo lore while he was stuck in LA, and the rest is rock and roll hall of fame history.
Seven years ago we went deep on the album for NYPL so we are not going to rehash those thoughts, we just want to take a moment to celebrate the man and his music, which was lively from the jump.
Today it is especially cosmic because tomorrow the best festival in the country, New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival announces its lineup for 2018 and we hope to catch the good doctor yet again down south.
Until then enjoy some tunes from one of the coolest, oddest, and transportive debut albums of all time:
Galactic, the NOLA funksters, are coming out with their newest disk titled Into the Deep on July 17th but recently released a track with Macy Gray.
We have dug on Galactic in the past, and wrote about them as a NOLA staple for NYPL but it took us that album (Ya-Ka-May) for RtBE to really get into them. We are certainly awaiting the new one so lets not wait any longer and listen to the first track here:
Pretty anthemic straight ahead stuff from the group. This seems like a departure for the band and we are curious to hear the full new disk in a few weeks.
Hey all, we got our latest post up over @NYPL. You can read it right c'here! It is our newest installment in the Great Albums You May Have Missed series with a focus on Miles Davis live diskDark Magus.
This disk has been with us for a long time, and it is great to be able to write about it for the day job and have it finish up our Jazzy January series. We still remember grabbing a copy from the second floor of the old Tower Records on Broadway back when it was first released. It enchanted from the get go and was a perfect mix of rock/funk/jazz/punk/whatever in our brains. It was a pleasure to write about it for NYPL and again you can read the full long post here.
Also you should check out Robert Christgau's review of the disk. We will probably write more about the Dean at some point, but it is shocking how many times we will go back to see what he said about an album, after our opinion is already formed, and see him feel the same.
In this case the phrase that stuck with us that Christgau wrote was, "single palpitating organism" that sums it up. This music is as alive now as it was in '97 when the CD came as it was in '77 when they released it in Japan, as it was in '74 when the players played it in Carnegie Hall, just a short walk from the library itself. I can't imagine it won't sound fresh and amazing in 2077 and yet one more reason it was dumb of Ken Burns to not talk about fuison, electric jazz, etc in his documentary.
The live show is a slippery thing. There are lots of variables at play
most having little to do with the performance itself. Does the venue
have enough bathrooms? Is it going to rain? What day of the week is it
on? Did I have a shitty day at work before hand? Did tickets cost
waaay too much? All of this effects one's opinion of a live show before
the band even tunes up and with reason, but when the stars align, there
is no place RtBE would rather be then in the moment of magic occurring spontaneously from the stage.
LiveMusicHasNoEqual.
While we can't see every show that is out there, we try our hardest to see as many as we can (and more then most) here at RtBE. Sure there are a few left in the calendar year, but for now here is a listing of of the best concerts we
were fortunate enough to have seen in 2014. Also because who doesn't love arbitrary rankings, one show at the bottom
that took the top prize as RtBE's 2014 Show of the Year. To continue our Best of 2014 just click that Read More button and get started
It was a hell of a good night, got to Red Hook Early to watch some playoff baseball pre-show, I got to make new friends, speak with some people who got me into music way back when and hang with longtime comrades. It was my first time at Rocky's and with how good the vibe and Guinness were I doubt it will be my last. Excellent show, and a great way to finish up our Black 47 run, which started when we first saw the band back at the RACC at SUNY Albany in 94!
We missed the Metallica front-man's birthday, so happy belated birthday Mr. Hetfield who turned 51 on August 3rd. Most years we wish a Happy Birthday to Jerry Garcia (and our sister) on August 1st but this year we are going for another man from the Bay Area who happens to be the most metal person in the world....
Errr...maybe not these days, but god damn was he ever....
Our friends over at Hyemen and Metalfunkel did not let the glorious moment pass, in fact they recorded a musical tribute to the master of headbanging and they did it in their own turtleneckin' style:
Big up's to Sean Paul and Andrew for an excellent version of the Metallica classic in a form only they can pull off.
They rule...
And just to slam the metal point home here is some killer classic Metallica for the occasion:
I wanted to create a blog post that tied in the Libraries excellent exhibit Ladies and Gentleman...The Beatles! with modern day rock music. I hope I did that by pointing out 5 of our favorite bands that have Beatles influences but also had their own twist.We have a lot of fun with these NYPL Posts, you can find them all here.
If you haven't checked out the exhibit yet, you really should it is pretty great. I particularly dug the handwritten set lists, usually on hotel paper, that are shown. Pretty neat to see exactly what the band was playing and how they arraigned it for their early shows. Get to LPA before May 10th to check out the exhibit for free of course.
Below we will just put some videos of the groups we talked about in the post playing a Beatles song in a live setting. Feel free to listen while you read.
Sir Paul with Nirvana:
No Beatles covers by Dr Dog on Youtube, so you get one of our fav's:
We dig on the world of Westeros, having read all the books, watched the series and conversed with friends about it. We have mixed feelings about George R.R. Martin's writing, his storytelling is fantastic however. I won't say much more here (now on the topic). you can go over to the post and comment converse there. Will end with a few gifs:
and how about we end with "Arya's Prayer" by Dominik Omega from Catch The Throne
I bet George RR Martin never envisioned a world where Magazeen would drop a pronunciation of "Iron Thrannnne" like he does on his Reggaeton bumper "Iron Throne" but these are the days we live in...winter is coming.
The immense popularity of the excellent HBO series has given rise to tons of spin offs, events and promo work, this free mix-tape being one of the most inventive and will possibly open up the series to a new generation of fans. Catch The Throne mixes established and up and coming hip hop/reggaeton/experimental artists performing Game of Throne inspired songs.
While the lyrics are the neat twist, the music all come straight from the show as well, weaving the score behind beats and intro clips that let us hear Tyrion Lannister quotes as well as a fire commands from Daenerys Targaryen. It is the combining of hip-hop boasting and the mythical struggle for power that meshes well.
Big Boi's flow opens things up on "Mother Of Dragons" and it instantly brings a smile when he combines the world of Westeros with his own knee rehab; like most tunes here it is quick, clocking in and out before the idea becomes stale. As with any mix-tape some experiments (Snow Tha Product's "Fire", Bodega Bamz "Win Or Die") work better then others (Dee Goodz "The Parallel", Kilo Kish "Magical Reality"). Wale gets bonus points for incorporating the bad ass musical theme to the show into his "King Slayer" closeing a fun mix of styles.
Extra time and notes need to be given to one track in particular though, easily for fans of hip hop and the novels Dominik Omega gets the all-star nod with "Arya's Prayer". While the other artists combine snippets of the fantasy world into their tracks Omega seems to be a mega fan as he stays strictly with Arya dealing with her insane journey. His complete insertion into the realm is exhilarating and ending the chorus with "Valar Morghulis: All Men Must Die" makes it is impossible not to get juiced up a highlight of this pretty whacky/great idea.
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A neat combo. We just finished up A Dance With Dragons and while we are invested heavily, we actually think HBO is doing a better job with the shows then Martin is doing with the books...but that is for a nerdy conversation at a bar over drinks. Today we got some cool hip hop with a fantasy mix.
We love this album on so many levels and with the band ending their run this year we felt the fellas needed some love on their early 90's masterpiece.
We wrote a ton on it going into every song, and have a bunch of links so we won't do much more here, go read the piece. Pumped to catch them live with Ed and the crew come Paddy's Day and are looking forward to the new album. Cheers Fellas!
We are very excited to check it out and hope to swing by The Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center in the next few weeks. If you are a fan of the fab four you should check it out, even if you're not you still should. I think it is hard to comprehend what a seismic impact they had on the world...
Here is also an amazing look at how the Beatles broke into America as hugely as they did, written by Steve Greenberg. It is really exhaustive and brings up lots of cool things, like how "Beatlemania" was a play on "Lisztomania" regarding the insanity that emanated from Franz Liszt; I can see the petticoats flying now for locks of this this piano great's hair...
On a slightly different note I recently caught The Rutles 2: Can't Buy Me Lunch which I never knew existed. I watched the original back in my junior high school Monty Python obsession days, but had forgotten most of it. The sequel basically just rehashes the first with more celebrity interviews.
The surprising thing was how much I liked the "fake" songs or better put the parody's. In particular "I Must Be In Love" is fantastic, better then quite a few Beatles song I think. That said I doubt The Rutles will make the exhibit, but here is a video sample of some of the finer tunes written by Ron Nasty aka Neil Innes:
It is a review of the fantastic event held by LIVE From The NYPL focused on the new Paramount Records Third Man are releasing. The event was an immediate sellout due to RtBE favorite Jack White speaking at the event along with Greil Marcus, Daphne Brooks, Dean and Scott Blackwood.
It was a super cool night that had a distinct "PBS, Record Nerd Vibe" but that is exactly what I was looking for. The review is long so I won't say too much more, would rather embed some of the songs that were highlights, you can watch the full talk at the bottom of my blog post.
I particularly love one of Jack's answers and David's Response:
You have so many pieces of America involved in this one thing: a
company that's going out of business, looking to stay afloat, so they
decide to go into the record business.
Basically the reverse of what's happening in the record industry now.
This is pretty spot on, I have been thinking a lot of the music industry the last few months, and am currently reading David Byrne's amazing book (thanks Tom). I hope to go into it in much greater depth (hopefully by the end of the year) but until then listen to some old timey tunes:
Charlie Jackson "Cat's Got The Measles"
Ida Cox "Mama Doo She Blues"
In an added twist which we just found out about this AM White will be speaking on this Paramount release in a few weeks here at NYPL. To say we are more then a little pumped to see him, Greil Marcus and others wax poetic on this topic would be an understatement.
I love it when the day job intersects with the cool stuff, and this is one of those moments.
The Rodgers and Hammerstein Archives of Recorded in NYPL's Library for the Performing Arts is holding a Vinyl Record Sale today and tomorrow. This is some exciting stuff, the library has tons of amazing material and the fact that you can own some of it is frankly remarkable.
I do not get over to LPA nearly enough but I will hit this bad boy up and hope to score some nifty records. The last vinyl I bought was The Genius Of Ray Charles off a sweet street vendor who hangs out around 7th ave and 27th St. A timeless LP that cost me only 5 bones...that reminds me I need to go see him again soon! Have a great weekend and "Let The Good Times Roll":
We are dipping back into the Free Database Service Freegal, provided by the good ol' NYPL. We have compiled 9 songs for your listening pleasure, spanning all over the globe, genre and musical timeline. Below we will go over our picks, but just realize they will be jumping around a lot, just like a good mix should. Enjoy.
1. Consolacao - Trio 3D
2. You Pretty Little Girl - Dwayne Dopsie, The Zydeco Hellraisers
3. I Got A Right - Iggy Pop & The Stooges
4. Watch Out - Modus
5. List of Demands - Saul Williams
6. The Night Time Is The Right Time - "Big" Joe Turner
7. Piggly Wiggly - Beale Street Washboard Band
8. Where You Find It - Unknown Instructors
9. Girlschool - Britny Fox
Some overview should go into this haphazard collection, but basically we just grabbed some stuff we knew and some we hadn't. First off is the Brazilian Jazz of Trio 3D, they were the reason we started this mix, so we figured we'd open with them.
While listening to some jazz on youtube, this song popped up on the right hand side, we played it and loved it. After not finding too much about them online, we decided to try the Freegal database and this mix was born. The intro here reminds us of a Primus intro and the jazz after that is delicious.
Never too far from NOLA (in our mind at least) we dip into some Zydeco next with Dwayne Dopsie. This is the second time we touched on this genre this month. The Punk rock distorts its way home with Iggy Pop & The Stooges next, they sure do have a right. A band called Modus is next, not too much known about them, except that we love this tune with it's garage rock style and meaty organ sound.
After that Saul Williams gets some air time. We actually reviewed this awesomely titled album back when it came out, and we mentioned just grabbing this song and moving on....so that is what we did for you. "Big" Joe Turner is next up with a great live version of "The Night Time Is The Right Time", a pure gem.
We go back even more old school for the Beale Street Washboard Band as they old-timey their way through the festive "Piggly Wiggly". The post-punk of the Unknown Instructors is next, I hadn't heard of this pairing of artists (a reunited Minutemen rhythm section!) until I started digging into Fregal and doing some research. This song was very interesting to me, hope you enjoy it, but I know it may not be for everyone.
Speaking of not for everyone...We end things strictly because of a drunken rambling the other night with Tom. For some UN-godly reason Britny Fox came up in conversation...please do not inquire as too why. Anyway, this is another great use for Freegal, dredging up long dead memories and making them come to just as ugly life as you remember them....
This wouldn't be complete without Britny's video for "Girlschool". The video is the reason one synapse in my brain remembered this song, well maybe not the whole video, but the main girl at least never left my mind...smoking hot... here you go...
you are welcome, I think. Anyway enjoy the mix and I apologize to Big Joe Turner's ghost for including him with Britny Fox...ahhh Rock and Roll....
On a side note here is a nice time capsule film that video artist Nelson Sullivan recorded while visiting Brant in his Rolling Stone office back in 1985 as Brant was leaving the publication.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Really neat piece of history, and glad the NYPL is involved.
That is really all we have to say (not really but we need to stop now or we won't ever), read the review, read our take on YLAOM and watch the videos below...here's hoping they officially release this in the near future, it was pure boosh from the opening to closing notes.
"Little Fury Things" with Lee Ranaldo on vocals
"Tame" Pixies Cover with Frank Black
"Alone" with Kyle Spence, Al Cisneros and Kurt Vile
"Don't" with Kim Gordon fucking killing it one of the most emotional/symbolic outings I have seen. Everyone was thinking of her divorce and it made it even more amazing....
Hey everybody. This post got delayed a bit, but I have a blog post up on NYPL's site that I think you might get a kick out of regarding the Baseball Hall of Fame and Nicknames:
This summer when Jeff, Hot Tub, Mike and myself drove up to Cooperstown to catch Lee Ranaldo and Wilco play (review here and pics here) we made the obvious trip to the Hall of Fame to check out the history etched there. For those who read the site or know me, my love of baseball knows very few boundaries, and a trip to Cooperstown needs to be done every few years. So much goodness can be seen in those halls and hours can get lost. While checking out the plaques I started taking pictures of some of my favorite nicknames and it was suggested I should do a blog post for this. So during the world series I got one up on NYPL blogs.
Give it a read, feel free to comment (here or there) and let me know what you think....excitingly Spring Training is only a few months away!
This is my latest entry in the the Great Albums You May Have Missed series at NYPL Blogs. Readers of RtBE have known of my Dinosaur Jr. love for years now, but it is always fun to cross over the free time stuff with the work stuff.
If by some odd reason you have not heard this album, do so immediately. It is one of the great guitar rock albums out there, the power contained with in is seismic. I mentioned this post was coming when I previewed the new single "Watch the Corners" from the band's up coming I Bet The Sky. I have written a ton about it already, so below are a few clips that you can enjoy. Take the disk out of the library here, buy the album here and support the artist as always.
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