Tag: music/Archives

Bo

Diddley:

Utah Phillips

This email today from my friend Marvin Granger, former GM of Yellowstone Public Radio:

It is with more than a little sadness that I report the death of Bruce ‘Utah’ Phillips. He died in his sleep at 11:30 last night following a long battle with heart disease.

Over the past 25 years I benefited from his music and his stories in person, his recordings and on his public radio program, Loafers’ Glory. Utah was a proud, card-carrying member of the International Workers of the World (IWW). I learned the meaning of ‘oral tradition’ largely from his stories of American labor history; that ‘truth’ is not a accurate account of facts so much as personal human experiences that are felt as much as known.

Bruce Phillips was a native of Cleveland, spent many years living and working in Utah, later in Spokane and Nevada City, California. He was a unique entertainer, folklorist, human being.

From Starlight On The Rails : A Songbook, Utah talks about his song “Talking NPR Blues” (1:15 mp3):

“Talking NPR Blues” (2:07 mp3):

From Utah’s recent letter to family and friends:

The folk music family took me in, carried me along, and taught me the value of song far beyond making a living. It taught me that I don’t need wealth, I don’t need power, and I don’t need fame. What I need is friends, and that’s what I found—everywhere—and not just among those on the stage, but among those in front of the stage as well.

Rolling Confusion

Most mashups are mess ups, uninspiring overlays of songs whose combination adds nothing but a bit of sonic amusement. Sometimes, tho, these musical Chimeras form a melodic and lyrical whole, which is equal or even greater than its parts. When that happens, the mashup is often by one of the forms foremost practitioners, Mark Vidler, aka, Go Home Productions.

His new Spliced Kripsies collection has several gems. Best is “Rolling Confusion” which mashes The Rolling Stones (‘Street Fighting Man,’ ‘Gimme Shelter,’ and drums from ‘Slave’) with The Temptations ‘Ball Of Confusion’ (3:47 mp3):

GHP gives away hi-fi (320kbps) mp3s, but doesn’t keep them up long, so grab ’em while they’re hot. He also mashes video to match the audio, and has production notes for each. About the audio:

Absolutely love Beggars Banquet and that whole era of the Stones. Had to slow the tempo of the Temps vocal to fit but I think I got away with it. Quite like the way that the track slips between half and double time…you can’t dance to it. The drum break is pilfered from ‘Slave’ off the ‘Tattoo You’ album.

This video was the last to get completed. There’s no promo for the Stones track, so I had ‘improvise’ so the footage is actually from ‘Jumping Jack Flash’ and ‘Sympathy For The Devil’ performed as part of their Circus spot from 1968. Similar problem with Ball Of Confusion but there was enough ‘vocal’ footage to fill a couple of verses. Amazing how relevant the lyrics of BOC are today. Frighteningly relevant.

Little Fluffy Clouds

The Orb often makes ambient-electro music out of spoken-voice snippets using of the rhythm of the speech. Their best-known spoke-sampled-song (details on clips used below) is from 1991, off The Orb’s Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld, “Little Fluffy Clouds:”

In 2007 Alan Parker: Urban Warrior (comedian Simon Munnery) parodied the song on BBC Radio 1 announcer Annie Nightingale‘s compilation Y4K— The Orb & Alan Parker, “Grey Clouds” (2:30 mp3):

Nicks UnNixed

The internet can still surprise. Years ago we grew tired of Stevie Nicks diaphanous-ness. But lo+behold long comes a backstage video catching in the spontaneous act of…… no, not throwing a tantrum, nor snorting controlled substances with underage hermaphrodites, but rather: “Stevie is singing Love in Store and then Wild Heart in her dressing room while Robin is putting on Stevie’s make up and Lori sings back up.” Reminding us all what a lovely voice she has, “Stevie Nicks Wild Heart- extended:’

Here’s just the end of same vid, but clearer:

Burmese Nats

In DRUNKEN GHOSTS OF BURMA, Music For Maniacs posts a couple cuts Music of Nat Pwe, the Folk & Pop Music of Myanmar (Burma). “It’s all fairly bat-shit crazy (to use the ethnomusicological terminology.)… Nats are spirits who met tragic or violent deaths, so I would imagine there’s a lot of them around Myanmar lately.”

This is Sein Moota peforming “Pay Kyaw Chit Tae Doe (Father Kyaw Loves His Son)” (3:56 mp3):

Higher Lonesome Sound

The Mountain Music Project went lookng for connections between the music of Appalachia and the Himalayas. They found ’em. The film will be finished by end of 2008 (produced by HV’s Jack Chance). The trailer is out now and gorgeous, “A Higher Lonesome Sound:”

Nepali Bob Dylan

I love it while traveling when an HV story comes on the radio. That happened a slew of times this past week (Mtn Gorrillas of Rwanda, Passover poem, Peace Rabbi). The first one I caught crossing the NV desert on NPR Day to Day. It’s another from Jack Chance, international man of trad music mystery…

The Kingdom of Nepal became a democracy this week, holding it’s first elections for representatives who will write the new constitution and are likely to abolish the monarchy. Chance speaks with a young musician in Kathmandu, Rubin Gandharba, whose songs (played on the Nepali sarangi) became a rallying cry for the Nepali Democracy Movement. The call Ruben the “Nepali Bob Dylan” (2:57 mp3):

Ruben’s Tube

Soundwaves on fire, now if they could just turn it into a sound editor; a classic physics experiment, the “Ruben’s Tube:”

Vocal Sampling

Got an email from a listener, Matthew Hazelwood, the conductor of the Interlochen Arts Academy Orchestra. He heard our Radio Dial hour in which I played an a cappella vocal group imitating the sounds of tuning thru the radio dial. I got the recording from a friend who taped it off the radio in South America. Neither of us know who the singers were, so, in the program I asked if anyone in radioland knew.

Conductor Hazelwood did indeed:

“Heard your program this evening on IPR here in Interlochen Michigan and enjoyed it very much. The a cappella group you were asking about is a fantastic Cuban group of 6 vocalists. There are called “Vocal Sampling” (yes, they use an English name), and that “Radio Reloj” is a great track from an early CD of theirs. They are fantastic musiciansand the rest of the track that follows the sound effects section you played is stunning. All the best with your new show.”

So thanks, Matthew; and here ’tis in its entirety, Vocal Sampling, from their 1995 Una Forma Mas, “Radio Reloj” (3:56 mp3):

And if that ain’t enuf, “Vocal Sampling 2006 10”:

PostSecret

“PostSecret is an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a homemade postcard.”

Frank Warren came up the concept, catalogs the cards, and created a community.

Frank Warren has been on NPR’s WE-SAT and ATC. And PostSecret has spawned a swarm of of books and flock of videos. These animated PostSecret cards accompany Donora‘s song “Shhh” in the film “PostSecret – A Valentine Video:”

Sound Sculptures

“Advanced Beauty is an ongoing exploration of digital artworks born and influenced by sound…is an ever-growing collaboration between programmers, artists, animators and architects. The first release will be a collection of Audio-Visual Sound Sculptures, on High Definition DVD and 5:1 Surround Sound. “

And, if you happen to be in Sheffield England in early May, you can attend a premier of these sound sculptures at the Showroom Cinema.

I’ve included a preview of the sound sculptures below:

Bow Down, Mister

Lord help (forgive?) me, I love this old Boy George tune; and lo & behold, I now find its boolywood-meets-baptist visuals housed on the internet. Originally released 1990 under Boy’s alter-band name, Jesus Loves You with the short vers of “Bow Down, Mister:”

In a Song- Frank Newsome

Sundays at the Little David Church in Hayside VA resound with the sweet, haunting singing voice of Frank Newsome. He was featured on today’s NPR WE-SUN. It’s another in the What’s in a Song series, from the
Western Folklife Center, “Virginia Preacher Leads Congregation in Song” (5:54 mp3):

The Virginia Folklife Program posted this video of Frank Newsome, while recording his CD for their Crooked Road Recordings Series, belting out “Sweet Beulah Land:”

Singing, Ringing Tree

Commisioned by a Burnley Council, England as part of the Big Art Project; created by the architects Tonkin Liu for a hilltop at Crown Point, Lancashire, England, is the “Singing, Ringing Tree:”

via JFK-KGLT.

Take that Tom Edison!

Turns out that a French recording from 1860 may be the oldest known recorded human voice, “Au Clair de la Lune” (mp3):

Here’s the New York Times article on the First Sounds project.

Underwear Goes Inside the Pants

The video for the song (in this week’s HV hour) with comedian Greg Giraldo and musicians Lazyboy, from their 2004 CD TV, “Underwear Goes Inside the Pants:”

Song of Tibet

HV doubled down with two pieces on NPR Day to Day, the first— There’s history and politics hidden in the songs of Tibet, which has been under Chinese control for half a century. A music recordist visits during Losar, the Tibetan New Year, looking for traditional music (produced for KGLT-Bozeman), “Song of Tibet” (3:30 mp3):

A masters hands plays the Danyen; a Tibetan type of banjo:

Photo © Jack Chance, March 2008, Kathmandu, Nepal

Godfather and Tenor

James Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006) and Luciano Pavarotti (October 12, 1935 — September 6, 2007) perform live on stage in Modena, Italy on May 28, 2002, “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World:”

ItSpace

MySpace has pages for people, places, and now things. Composer Peter Traub has started ItSpace, a participatory sound project. “ItSpace pages feature everyday household objects. Each page has a photo of the object, a description, and most importantly, a 1-minute piece of music composed of recordings of the object being struck and resonated in various.” A story by Jesse Dukes on NPR Day to Day, “Objects Sing at Itspace” (5:04) mp3):