desire

so yesterday i was talking to my good friend frankie who is a fellow music lover about a dilemma we're both having: you know when you find a really special band/musician and you know they'll be huge in like a month...so you don't want to share them with anyone? well, this is certainly the case with our new found love for the singer/guitarist anna calvi who brian eno recently dubbed "the new patti smith." i think music is something to be celebrated and shared, and i think that calvi is incredibly talented and should get the following she deserves. therefore, i'm going to swallow my pride and share her album with my blog readers...whoever you are (hi mom). anna calvi's self-titled debut album is probably going to be the best of 2011 in my humble opinion. born in london, calvi has been playing in bands for years, and her eclectic taste in tango, classical music, and rock n' roll is evident in her complex songs. her powerful vocals are inspired by the great edith piaf, and opera singer maria callas, and she uses a circular strumming technique on the guitar, giving her songs a haunting quality. according to calvi, every sound in this record is intentional. her vocal quality is also very precise: in one song she will shout a phrase and then retreat to a conspiratorial whisper. the album is produced by pj harvey's producer and drummer, rob ellis, which is pretty clear if you're familiar with any of pj harvey's work. i can also hear some similarities to siouxsie and the banshees in this record, but comparing it is kind of pointless. it's very original. i think music is in an unfortunate place at the moment, where female singers can speak over a synthesizer or do their best impression of billie holiday (what's up zooey deschanel), and people eat it up. i'm not saying everyone has to be inspired by opera singers like calvi, but i think that the voice is a very powerful instrument, and true singers should be celebrated. i love dancing to half-ass vocals, but we shouldn't keep settling for less. calvi is a true artist. okay enough of my ranting. i'm not going to put up the link for this record because you should all BUY IT. but here's a video with my favorite song: click HERE to listen

  

ask me no questions

i've been pretty obsessed with johnny thunders' album, 'so alone' for a while now. thunders totally surpassed the punk stereotype by actually being an amazing guitarist, and by writing songs with some pretty sensitive lyrics. for a strung out punk, he was very in touch with his emotions. from the beginning of the record, he makes his skills apparent by opening with a cover of the surf rock song by the chantays, 'pipline.' thunders was one of the original members of the new york dolls, and later formed the heartbreakers with the dolls' drummer, and richard hell on bass. 'so alone' was recorded in 1978, and features vocals by chrissie hyde of the pretenders and instrumentals by awesome musicians like the sex pistols' steve jones and paul cook. in the same way the ramones covered the ronnettes' single, 'baby i love you,' thunders does a great cover of 'great big kiss' by the shangri-las on this album. i really can't get over how beautiful the songs 'ask me no questions,' 'you can't out your arms around a memory,' are, and '(she's so) untouchable' is that song you wish a guy had written about you.

 

click HERE to download 'so alone'

seriously ridiculous, but still so good...check out the bassist

where do the children play?

okay so i know that yusuf islam (or who used to be cat stevens) is a little...extreme. but i was recently watching 'harold and maude,' and was reminded of how beautiful his music is. he didn't write the songs specifically for the film, but the they work so well. kind of like simon and garfunkel's soundtrack for 'the graduate', although they did write the single 'mrs. robinson' for the movie. folk music is so cool because it's usually musically simple, but it can still manage to be lyrically profound. another good example of this is leonard cohen's music. check out his song 'chelsea hotel no. 2' about his romance with janice joplin. cat stevens' 'tea for the tillerman' was one of the first albums i bought for myself and for one summer i listened to the CD every day along with 'sticky fingers' by the stones. the album was recorded and 1970, and stevens apparently painted the picture on the cover. check it out if you don't have it already!

click HERE to download 'tea for the tillerman'

ps, 'mona bone jakon' is also a great record.

dark side of the rainbow

last week i stayed in austin, tx for the holidays and decided to attend the alamo drafthouse's screening of 'the wizard of oz' accompanied by pink floyd's 'dark side of the moon' for an event called 'high for the holidaze.' after watching the whole thing, i'm pretty sure now that this synchronization was not intentional, but you can drink in the theatre, so the whole experience was pretty enjoyable to say the least. it also reminded that 'dark side of the moon' is an amazing, beautiful record. recorded in 1973, 'dark side of the moon' is a concept album about death and time. it also explores mental illnesses, inspired by syd barret's, the band's original singer, battle with a problem that has never been pinpointed, but has been speculated as bipolar disorder or schizophrenia. i'll make a post about syd barrett later because his music rules. but for now, download this record if you don't have it already!

click HERE to download 'dark side of the moon'

RIP captain beefheart

dean ween was such a babe