Live 'Strong

Louis Armstrong.

You really don't need to say more.

Louis Armstrong
"Basin Street Blues"

Strategy, y'alls

Yeah, DJ Muggs is an ex-member of Cypress Hill.

There's a Hip-Hop Chess Federation, I think the Wu Tang Clan is involved.

I can take or leave the lyrics and can do without the posturing, but that underlying track is nicely done.

Even if that bit with the chessboard at the end is just plain silly.

DJ Muggs vs. GZA
"General Principles"
Grandmasters

Suits & scooters

Kind of like an acoustic & pop-oriented take on the part of a NIN song before it goes all industrial, but from a woman's point of view. Not bad, but what I really like is the large group of guys, in suits, on scooters.

Good 50's/60's vibe there.

Azure Ray
"New Resolution"

The apocalypse might very well be televised

Much what you'd expect from Ninja Tune. Orchestral hip-hop/electronic to a surrealist, yet post-apocalyptic, post-industrial sight-track.

Slice of life from a life gone seriously awry.

Loka
"Self Safe Tester"

Be not afraid

Ya gotta love Regina Spektor.

This song sounds somewhat unusual (even by her standards), but the wide-eyed, life-affirming, ever-so-New York story is made even better by these ridiculously cute cartoons.

Seriously, they're RIDICULOUSLY cute.

Regina Spektor
"The Ghost of Corporate Future"
Soviet Kitsch

Unrequited love is less than pleasant

No, not the Jethro Tull song.

This is borderline too cheesy for me, but it somehow manages to be overly earnest without seeming silly. Also borderline creepy, but I think we've all pined for somebody who didn't return our feelings, no?

Aqualung
"Strange & Beautiful (I'll Put a Spell on You)"

Argentina to France

Keny Arkana went to France from Argentina when she was a child, and this represents a return to her roots I suppose.

Using the Argentinean flag as a headscarf...yeah, I don't know. The guy with the guitar also borders on being a self-parody of the overly emotional Latin folk singer.

Still, it's Argentina and it's politics, and I have a soft spot in my heart for both, and some of the images are quite striking.

Keny Arkana
"Victoria"

Blue for 50 years

Thus begins a new series, Classic Jazz Mondays. Not much explanation required, I imagine.

And I can think of no better way than posting a most classic cut from one of the most classic albums of all time by one of the most classic jazz performers (ever), released fifty years ago this month.

Miles Davis
"So What"
Kind of Blue

More cake!

Wide eyed & dreamy Scandinavian toy-influenced electronic-like music.

Only with a dark and disturbing video straight out of the northern winter.

Cake on Cake
"Dreams Will Come True"

Cake!

Kind of cute, but kind of disturbing at the same time - and also somehow not quite satisfying. You get the feeling that this is just prelude to something else to come. But in a good way.

This video looks like it was a ridiculous amount of fun to make.

Cake Bake Betty
"64 Little White Things"

Vox populi vermiculus est

Kind of like a cross between Rasputina and Cat Power, Vox Vermillion broke up a while back.

The singer in this video was so implausibly good looking I had to make sure she was actually the lead singer. (She was).

Ballet & books; cello and insanity - what more do you want out of a video?

Vox Vermillion
"Psycho"



BTW, the title is my attempt at Latin - "The voice of the people is vermillion"

Offbeat and off beat

The video is so DIY it's absolutely adorable.

Also adorable is the offbeat, off beat and offhand delivery of the vocals, especially in the chorus.

Especially in the chorus.

The Microphones
"Oh Anna"



(Vocals courtesy of Khaela Maricich of The Blow).

Kids these days

This is "Sweet Child O' Mine" done by Taken By Trees, aka the ex-singer for The Concretes; you can pretty much imagine what it sounds like - slow, breathless and acoustic.

The video is taken from a Swedish movie by the name of Let the Right One In involving "a bullied 12-year-old boy who develops a friendship with a vampire child in Blackeberg, a suburb of Stockholm, in the early 1980s." Might be something worth checking out.

Taken By Trees
"Sweet Child O' Mine"

Alive in New York

This video is so New York City it makes me painfully nostalgic. The track is quite cinematic, interesting concept with the video but this could also be a very good traveling song on a soundtrack of some sort.

Kaki King
"Pull Me Out Alive"

Haircuts, a harpsichord, and a voice to fall in love with

We begin Female Vocalist Week with Isobel Campbell (the woman behind The Gentle Waves), who was in Belle & Sebastian once upon a time. This particular track has an echo-intensive, harpsichord-accentuated 60's sound superimposed on top of what you might expect from a B & S alum.

Though for my money the voice carries the track.

The Gentle Waves
"Falling From Grace"

Synth(esis)

A mashup of Depeche Mode & Eurythmics, so not too much of a difference in styles, but both good songs that combine together quite well.

With a video even.

Depeche Mode vs. Eurythmics (DJ Earworm)
"Policy of Sweet Dreams"

Kitten v. Robot

Psapp is best known for the "Grey's Anatomy" theme, but a lot of their other stuff is pleasantly cute as well.

Though not nearly as adorable as a battle between kittens & toy robots.


Psapp
"Side Dish"

But I'm Posting It Anyway

I really shouldn't like this song. It's not particularly clever, the music is fairly basic and the video is quite amateurish. But it's been stuck in my head today and, oddly enough, I haven't minded that much.

Which means that I seem to like it in spite of myself.

Which is good enough for me.

Piney Gir
"Say I'm Sorry"

Aliens! Art! Truckers!

Today I head back to Houston.

This goes out to all the good 'ole boys out there.

Drive-By Truckers
"Aftermath USA"

Once Upon a Time in Brooklyn

I was at a burlesque show at a metal bar and struck up a conversation with a Venezuelan guy who turned out to be the ex-lead guitarist of King Chango!

Yeah, the style is a bit 15-years-ago because it was (this song was released in 1996) but it was what I was listening to back then.

Oh-so-ever nostalgic!

King Chango
"Melting Pot"
King Chango

Free stuff!

Like the bastard child of Joanna Newsom and Bjork, The Tiny are out of Sweden.

This sounds like the kind of song you'd want to listen to during those long Swedish winters - downtempo and more than a little sad.

The Tiny
"Everything Is Free Now"

Cars! Hot girls! Synthesizers!

A little more electropop, kind of like Ladyron on a quiet night in. Which is just want you need sometimes.

Client
"Drive"

You can dance if you don't want to

The song itself is a pleasant enough tune, but the choreography in the video is absolutely fabulous, stylistically clean while conveying the messiness of matters of the heart.

Wild & crazy Swedes, huh?

OHM
"Follow My Fate"

Country! The drive-in! Grammar!

I feel obliged to point out that the name of this band contains one pronoun in the nomitive case and another in the objective case, and therefore is not entirely correct.

That said, I'm not sure what old-school video of the drive-in has to do with a song that is essentially a traditional sad country ballad, but it works because both of them are worthy of attention in their own ways: kitsch nostalgia for the video and warm, wistful tones for the music.

Only the sum of its parts, but the sum comes out quite high indeed.

She & Him
"You Really Got a Hold On Me"

Old world city blues

And our last entry in Music My Friend Linda in Chicago Introduced Me To Week is an updating of traditional Portuguese fado, with a cute video about how the times done done changed.

Dig the costumes.

Deolinda
"Fado Toninho"

Eat your veggies

Just a quick and cute Cuban song about how you should eat your veggies and avoid meat. Not that the lyrics of the song are as important as the tune.

Pedro Luis Ferrer
"Conga Vegetariana"

Spirals

"Porter" first reminded me of beer rather than carrying luggage. I know exactly what that says about me.

Among the better bands out of Mexico recently, Porter is (alas) no longer with us. However, the ex-lead singer Juan Son has just released the gloriously titled album Mermaid Sashimi. There's an embedding-disabled video with a visual style that's one third The Crow, one third The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and one third David Bowie.

This is their first video.

Porter
"Espiral"

Animated Brazil

This is one of those cases where the video is better than the song not because the song is notsogood, but rather because the video is that good - excellent hip-hop/anime-inspired animation matching a Brazil-funk, almost-bombastic track.

I have no doubt this is one of those bands that would be obscenely good live.

Nacao Zumbi
"A Ilha"

Cuba!

This song is a song about a guy wanting to get the girl; no deep social or political commentary despite the fact that they're Cuban and Castro hates them deeply.

The Cuban son-style guitar works surprisingly well with a solid, old-school hip hop beat, some of the MCs are better than others but on the whole good stuff.

Madera Limpia
"Loco por comerte"

Orgullo boricua

My family in Puerto Rico lives in the countryside, but the close enough to this to provide more than a bit of nostalgia.

Ruben Blades is a classic Panamanian salsa singer who is also his country's Minister for Tourism.

A most excellent tune for taking a post-lunch siesta in a hammock, on a beach with no tourists but plenty of beer.

Calle 13 con Ruben Blades
"La Perla"