As tempting as it is to purchase the vinyl 12″ remix singles that Radiohead has been releasing this summer, BlackSwanSongs is going to wait until October 10 when we’ll be able to stream all of them on Spotify. (The collected remixes will be released as TKOL RMX 1234567 on October 10 in the UK and on October 11 in North America.)
Coppola: “…maybe art will be free”
August 1st, 2011 § 0 comments § permalink
Francis Ford Coppola pays the bills with his day-job: making wine. Photo via Grazia Magazine
In a recent interview, auteur film director Francis Ford Coppola alludes to a future where the intersection of art and commerce resembles our past more than it does the present.
Interviewer Ariston Anderson asked, “How does an aspiring artist bridge the gap between distribution and commerce?”
We have to be very clever about those things. You have to remember that it’s only a few hundred years, if that much, that artists are working with money. Artists never got money. Artists had a patron, either the leader of the state or the duke of Weimar or somewhere, or the church, the pope. Or they had another job. I have another job. I make films. No one tells me what to do. But I make the money in the wine industry. You work another job and get up at five in the morning and write your script.
This idea of Metallica or some rock n’ roll singer being rich, that’s not necessarily going to happen anymore. Because, as we enter into a new age, maybe art will be free. Maybe the students are right. They should be able to download music and movies. I’m going to be shot for saying this. But who said art has to cost money? And therefore, who says artists have to make money?
- Francis Ford Coppola
Weezer covers Radiohead
May 30th, 2011 § 0 comments § permalink
Although Weezer’s last 3 or so records have been big, silly pop radio affairs, the first 2 albums - Weezer (The Blue Album) and Pinkerton – are legendary. And frontman Rivers Cuomo – Harvard grad – has always been very smart concerning his good taste.
Recently Cuomo took the time to remind us all about how good his taste is by having his band learn a near note-for-note cover of Radiohead’s epic from OK Computer, the now-classic Paranoid Android.
Cover bands with poor chops the world-over are weeping.
It’s official: Death Cab is AC
May 27th, 2011 § 0 comments § permalink
…meaning Adult Contemporary.
We love Death Cab for Cutie at BlackSwanSongs.com. Probably seen them play live about 8-10 times. Following their history for so long is how we’ve noticed their fandom and marketing move from indie rockers, to teens during their The O.C. plot point days, to Adult Contemporary radio format-listening VH1 Storytellers viewers.
And for y’all aging hipsters who will be at home attending to newborns and young children this evening, tune in to VH1 at 10 p.m. central time zone.
And don’t get it twisted. We realize that Death Cab are aging into adults quite gracefully. After all, we can’t all rock-out with the verve of adolescence well into our 60s like The Rolling Stones.
TREE OF LIFE hits Cannes!
May 18th, 2011 § 0 comments § permalink
An old photographer trick: show the tiny baby hand or foot next to a full-sized person.
Since fellow Austinite auteur Terrance Malick doesn’t do press, Brad Pitt is making the interview circles at Cannes this week. The old grey lady posted some insightful audio clips of Pitt answering questions about what it was like to work with Malick…and what the film means.
A few friends worked on this film. Everything I’ve heard and seen of TREE OF LIFE reveals Malick in his finest form. Looking forward to watching this autobiographical meditation.
A Week Chalk Full o’ Fodder
May 7th, 2011 § 0 comments § permalink
Ep. 212: May 6, 2011 – Overtime (extra footage from last night’s show which appears on HBO.com)
Bill Maher never ceases to amaze me. Someone at HBO really pulled a coup landing his political/pop culture talk show so many years ago.
Episode 212 last night was the first time that Maher used the entire hour on one topic: President Obama’s targeted take-down of Osama Bin Laden. Maher uses comedy to reveal truths that the majority of Americans would rather not hear and don’t want to know.
Knowledge is power…and Maher’s Richard Pryor-meets-the Smother’s Brothers brand of humor paved the way for both The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. Maher deserves a lot more credit than he receives. Last night he even rolled tape from one of his previous shows where guest CNN’s Christiane Amanpour revealed that Bin Laden was living in a mansion in Pakistan more than 2 years ago.
Down for A Day, Back Forever
March 21st, 2011 § 0 comments § permalink
Ironically you can interpret that headline several different ways in regards to BlackSwanSongs.com.
We had some down time this weekend. The new WordPress 3.1 install didn’t sit pretty with my servers…until today.
Anyways, your favorite writer that spends more time playing music than writing – that would be me for the uninitiated – is back up in it.
Probably the third interpretation of Down for A Day includes the fact that I was so sick during South by Southwest Music Conference, I only purposefully got to see 2 bands play: The Pains of Being Pure at Heart and Kanye West (and friends).
You can read my Kanye review in the Austin American-Statesman.
And I shot a little video of the Pains… instore at Waterloo Records. You can check that below:
Thurston Moore mid-solo!
March 7th, 2011 § 0 comments § permalink
As we go through the BlackSwanSongs archives, we keep finding little gems hidden in the dark corners.
Hopefully these rediscovered gems – like this photo of Thurston Moore – and many short stories will shape themselves into a book prior to the year’s end.
Boycott the Racist Pill Addict
January 28th, 2011 § 1 comment § permalink
Join BlackSwanSongs.com in signing the petition started by California state senator Leland Yee calling for companies like Domino’s Pizza to stop advertising on the radio show of the ignorance-mongering pill addict, Rush Limbaugh.
The shock jock recently mockingly disrespected all Asian people by ignorantly imitating the President of China.
Editor’s note: See the comments section for a response from Domino’s Pizza.
Recommended: Wanda Sykes at Austin Music Hall
July 10th, 2009 § 0 comments § permalink
| July 11, 2009 | ||
| 8:00 pm | to | 11:00 pm |
Wanda Sykes: a bombshell on the DL.
This weekend, Wanda Sykes brings her super-blue, lesbian-friendly stand-up comedy to the Austin Music Hall. Sadly tickets must be moving slow as promoters have instituted a “buy 3 tickets get 1 free” campaign. Hopefully that enticement will get groups of friends up off the couch to see one of America’s funniest comediennes working.
Hollywood loves to cast Sykes as “the funny friend” in star vehicles with Anglo leads, but she’s at her best when she playing the part of someone 180 degrees opposite from her own persona…like her turn as Biggie Shorty in the 2001 cult favorite POOTIE TANG. That role also revealed that Sykes is a stone cold fox! Well aware of the subtext interlaced in Hollywood’s gender politics, Sykes often downplays her beauty. She also dresses without showing off a ton of skin or clevage, making sure she doesn’t upstage her co-stars in their various leading roles.
Sykes killed it at the recent presidential correspondent’s dinner, so look for her to be in top form.
So You Say You Wanna Be in the Business?
July 11th, 2009 § 0 comments § permalink
I ran across this quote the other day from Hunter Thompson, a journalist that has always inspired me.
“The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There’s also a negative side.” -Hunter S. Thompson
I couldn’t agree with this statement more. The music business is like a sleeping with a super cruel lover. Someone that bites you during oral sex. I miss touring the country and the freedom of waking up and knowing that all I had to do is play music with all my heart for about 45 minutes in the evening. But, I don’t miss the business of music: dealing with labels, booking agents and managers. (Although I must note here that the 2 booking agents I worked with the most – Deb Dietz and Tim Edwards of Flower Booking – worked tirelessly very hard for very litte money.)
Stephen Malkmus Interview: Slack Rock’s Hyper-literate Guitar Hero
July 25th, 2009 § 1 comment § permalink
Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks: Malkmus (in blue shirt) was making literate indie rock before it was cool
Less than 10 years after the 1990s’ melancholy sunset, critical consensus continues to build that Stephen Malkmus and his old band Pavement were one of the most influential rock bands of that entire decade, forging timeless indie-ethos rock from a crucible overflowing with high art/post modern aesthetics, sardonically poetic lyrics and a new genre pastiche wherein “Exile on Main Street” loose-feeling slack rock combined with the steely song craft of one of Malkmus’ favorite bands, The Fall.
Malkmus and his current band The Jicks are currently touring – at their leisure – behind their 2008 release “Real Emotional Trash,” his fourth – and best – post-Pavement solo album.
When I woke up Malkmus at his Portland home for this interview (first published in a super-abridged version in the Austin American-Statesman), he was initially groggy. After a few yawns, the lyrically hyper-literate, ever-ironic songwriter proved to be uncannily happy to expound on his early influences, whether or not Sesame Street’s Elmo inspired a song on “Real Emotional Trash” and how he considered becoming an Austinite after the release of Pavement’s “Terror Twilight.”
Ghostland Observatory circa 2006
July 26th, 2009 § 0 comments § permalink
Vocalist Aaron Berhens and keyboardist Thomas Turner rock Trophy's.
I just uploaded some shots of Austin, TX electronica rockers Ghostland Observatory rocking Trophy’s Bar back in 2006 (back when they could still play small clubs in Austin. I’ll upload the definitive interview I did with them quite soon. As soon as possible. You can check out the other Ghostland photos in the blackswansongs flickr photostream here.
The interview was conducted over three different sessions. The first with both members after a show. Then the second and third parts were conducted with each member seperately. Behrens and Turner have such unique backgrounds that them at first seem like unlikely partners, but so many things had to align just perfectly that their collaboration feels more like fate during the telling of their story.
More to come…
Buck and the Preacher
August 17th, 2009 § 1 comment § permalink
Buck and The Preacher one-sheet
Friday night, the eve before my birthday, I stayed in my tiny downtown Austin apartment and enjoyed a Sidney Poitier film retrospective on one of my favorite television channels, Turner Classic Movies (TCM). I just happened upon the fest, but it was exactly what I was looking for and I happened upon it at exactly the right time.
After watching A RAISIN IN THE SUN and his academy award winning turn in the sublime LILIES OF THE FIELD, I watched a film of his I’d never heard of…BUCK AND THE PREACHER. After an informative introduction from TCM host Robert Osborne, I got comfortable on the couch and strapped in for two (more) hours, but this time instead of Poitier’s brooding antihero or his amiable Christ-like everyman, he wowed me with an original action tale amid 19th century black activism.
Poitier deftly directs himself in the lead as Buck. And it must be noted that this was his debut turn as director, Osborne said that he took over as director only a few weeks before shooting began in the middle of Mexico…without the studio’s official consent when Poitier and co-producer, co-star Harry Belafonte realized that the man they’d chose to direct wasn’t the right fit.
Released in 1972, Poitier takes the “exploitation” right out of Blaxploitation. The story revolves around Buck, a “wagon master” that attempts to lead freed slaves from Louisiana westward so that they might receive their 40 acres and a mule. The freed slaves encounter genocidal night raiders (masquerading as plantation labor recruiters) as they try to make their way to Colorado. Amazingly the clan also encounters a con-man preacher (Belafonte) who they must also escape until he changes his ways and decides to help Buck and the freed slaves.
The pace is brisk and accelerated with a clever sub-plot involving native Americans, accurately portrayed (as opposed to the mumbo-jumbo spouting caricatures that Hollywood was well-accustomed to depicting).
I’d always dug Belafonte, but now I have a new appreciation for his acting prowess. Belafonte obviously relishes his role as the smooth-talking, rotten-teethed grifter who has a change of heart at exactly the correct time. Belafonte is the court jester to Poitier’s kingly, Christ-like Buck. He is the Flavor Flav to Poitier’s Chuck D. And he is so much more…Belafonte character arc has a much larger pitch than any other character in the film. Poitier might have had the meatier, harder role with its subtle degrees of dramatic modulations, but Belafonte’s scene-stealing role should have been an Academy Award winning performance. Sadly the Academy’s blindness to great performances by people of color was still institutionalized despite Poitier’s undeniable winning performance in LILIES OF THE FIELD.
Action, adventure, comedy, drama, tragedy, pathos all rolled up into the story of freed slaves trying to make it to the promise land. It’s a thing of glory and much better than the trailer lets on.
Make sure to set your TIVO, iCal, Google Calendar or DVR for September 18, 2009 at 10:00 p.m. and/or October 03, 2009 at 2:00 p.m. as it will show again on Turner Classic Movies.
TCM’s timing for Friday night’s Poitier retrospective couldn’t have been more prescient: on Thursday President Barack Obama awarded Poitier with the highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Radiohead: “These Are My Twisted Words” free mp3
August 18th, 2009 § 0 comments § permalink
Radiohead's artwork for "These Are My Twisted Words"
Well either Radiohead never had anything planned for Wall of Ice or they did have something planned and now they are just really pissed off that the shark got jumped a little early…cause the wallofice.com page is no longer linking to their W.A.S.T.E. store.
But, in chummy Radiohead fashion, they’ve released a new single for all to download – complete with cool artwork – for free.
Radiohead – “House of Cards”
August 24th, 2009 § 0 comments § permalink
The five gentlemen from Oxfordshire, England have done it to me again. While In Rainbows continues to climb my all-time favorite albums ladder, I heard “House of Cards” this evening and tapped into the subtext of the lyrics at exactly the prefect time. I felt like Mr. Thom Yorke had penned the lyrics exactly for me. I researched the video and was reminded that in lieu of traditional cameras, the video’s director “shot” with lidar technology which detects the proximity of objects from a sensor and yields a grainy, grid-like appearance.
Turns out the technology is not proprietary; the data used to make the video was released under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 license and is available at Google Code.
While the story of the lyrics echoes a scene from the masterful Ang Lee film THE ICE STORM, I keyed into the initial couplet:
I don’t want to be your friend.
I just want to be your lover.
And then I got wrapped up in the next:
No matter how it ends.
No matter how it starts.
Luckily before I got too depressed thinking about lost love, I started thinking about M-theory string theory. I watched a documentary on the Science Channel that explained M-theory in layman’s terms. It worked out to be a much needed distraction for my brain’s solipsistic nature.
Once they broached the eleventh dimension and parallel universes, I was sufficiently safe from entering a manic episode.
My Future Workspace
September 26th, 2009 § 0 comments § permalink
Author Martin Amis smartly put his writing room in his garden...away from the house, where he can still hear his kids play, and where he's allowed to smoke.
Currently I’m trapped in an over-priced apartment in downtown Austin, but that will change beginning January 1, 2010 (when my lease expires).
Assuming I’m still living in Austin, Texas, I look forward to finding an affordable duplex…or something with lots of windows and less people. Living here, I’m reminded why I’ve always hated apartment complexes: people and their horrible habits. People that don’t pick up after their dog. People not correctly disposing of their garbage. People being loud. People, people, people.
A recent article in Lifehacker reminded me that there are more fortunate souls in the world working in much more calm and friendly environments.
I’m picturing – and looking for – a garage apartment that overlooks green spaces. Perhaps something like author Martin Amis’ workspace…but with two rooms.
Check out this article from LifeHacker which shows the work spaces of some very industrious and intelligent people.
Roman Polanski Arrested…Again
September 27th, 2009 § 0 comments § permalink
Roman Polanski might just have to pay the piper.
Film auteur Roman Polanski was arrested while attempting to enter Switzerland for the Zurich Film Festival earlier today. He faces possible extradition to the United States where he has remained a fugitive since 1977 for having sex with a 13-year-old girl, authorities said Sunday.
This case is very, very complex. Polanski has already paid a settlement to his victim, Samantha Geimer after she sued him. Both Geimer and Polanski have asked a U.S. appeals court in California to overturn a judges’ refusal to throw out his case. Polanski’s attorneys claims misconduct by the now-deceased judge who had arranged a plea bargain and then reneged. Further, speculation remains that Switzerland may be trying to placate U.S. justice department officials who have been attempting to add transparency to Switzerland’s bank account system wherein rich individuals around the world are allowed to “hide” their money in the Swiss accounts without paying taxes in their home country. (If this changes, plot points involving Swiss bank accounts in James Bond films and other espionage movies will be forever altered.)
Polanski has had his fair share of hardships between escaping genocide during WWII and the Manson family killing his pregnant wife Sharon Tate. But I personally don’t think that should exempt him from paying his debt to society. Between O.J. Simpson, Robert Blake and countless others, we’ve all seen that if you have money, connections and celebrity in California, you can be above the law. I think the dismissal of Polanski’s case would just be further grist for that warped and smelly mill.
If California does decide to seek extradition for Polanski, I think they should mark the moment as a sea change wherein money and fame are no longer allowed to trump truth and justice in our judicial system. Polanski has created some amazing art in his lifetime…and he has been well compensated for it. But those things, accompanied with his hardships, do not make it OK to get a 13 year old drunk on champagne and then perform oral, anal and missionary sex on her. I know it was the heady 1970s and all – and he was under intoxicating environs house-sitting for Jack Nicholson – but that shouldn’t give you license to date rape a child.
Pyramid Schemes: Ignite and LTDTeam.com
October 20th, 2009 § 1 comment § permalink
"Some of your friends are already this fucked," said Steve Albini.
Within a two week period I’ve had two friends approach me about attending a seminar…one to join Ignite Energy and one to join LTDTeam.com. Being that I’m incredibly skeptical of anything and everything, especially anything that promises financial rewards, I Googled both companies because something just seemed fishy.
A couple of Google clicks on “LTDTeam.com” combined with the word “scam” immediately brought up this Yahoo answer. Likewise, one click of “Ignite” and “scam” brought up a ton of hits.
At first I felt a little insulted that these friends would try to suck me into their collective mess(es), but then I remembered that these “multi level marketing” businesses often insist that the participants try to get their friends and family involved before anyone else.
I feel sorry that someone wasn’t able to warn these two friends of mine. They are both women, but one has a rich husband and the other does not…meaning, the results are going to be much more disastrous for one of my friends.
If a mult-level marketing company tells you how much you will earn by recruiting rather than by selling, then it is moving closer to a pyramid scheme. People often get hooked in because they see all these possible profits from recruiting others: friends, families, acquaintances, the guy pumping gasoline on the other side of the pump. Unless you get in at the beginning, your earnings will come from recruiting other people.
Unless you love sales and are willing to sell to everyone – from your neighborhood letter carrier to the woman ringing people up at Luby’s Cafeteria – avoid multi-level marketing schemes.
Review: Grizzly Bear at Emo’s
October 5th, 2009 § 0 comments § permalink
Saturday evening – just two nights ago – I had the pleasure of attending a sold-out Grizzly Bear and Beach House show at Emo’s. I only caught the last Beach House song…and I’m glad because what I saw of their last song did not sound very good.
I like the Beach House mp3s I’ve heard, but whoa, was the bit I heard of their live show shaky.
Now Grizzly Bear on the other hand, were really amazing. I’m not surprised Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood called them his favorite band.
I wrote a review of their show which was published in the Austin American-Statesman here.
Review: Bon Iver and Megafaun at Paramount Theatre
October 5th, 2009 § 0 comments § permalink
Last night I attended one of the best show’s I’ve seen in a long, long time. I have a copy of the Bon Iver record “For Emma, Forever Ago,” and I knew that the show would be good, but I didn’t expect it to be one of the best shows I’ve ever seen.
There is something about vocalist Justin Vernon’s voice and songs that I identify with wholeheartedly. Knowing his story – how he wrote and recorded the album in isolation, hibernating away in upstate Wisconsin after breaking up with his girlfriend and his previous band – allows the songs to resonate in your soul that much more deeply.
Here is my review, which also ran in the online version of today’s Austin American-Statesman:
Bon Iver — a.k.a. indie-folk musician Justin Vernon and band — turned in one of the most memorable performances from the entire ACL Festival weekend Sunday evening at a sold-out show at the Paramount Theatre.
The band’s final performance before their tour-ending Wisconsin homecoming show couldn’t have been scripted better. The sold-out audience was hyped, fueled by adrenaline, alcohol (and who knows what else) after three days of music, sun and rain. The Paramount Theatre’s acoustics sounded as if they had been fine-tuned especially for Vernon’s booming falsetto. The show was also the final night of Bon Iver’s tour with opening band Megafaun (a freak-folk group of stunning power featuring members of Vernon’s previous band DeYarmond Edison).
Vernon was very gracious the entire evening, whether he was calling up an old friend to start the show by reciting a poem, or whether repeatedly thanking the audience for taking part in an evening that was seemingly a poignant apex in his life.
“I can’t express enough gratitude for y’all showing up to fill this beautiful theater,” Vernon said.
Bon Iver began the show with the first three songs from debut album “For Emma, Forever Ago” played in sequence, a comforting start for those familiar with what’s turned out to be one of the strongest debuts of the decade. The band’s emphasis on tone and harmony was obvious from the detail in the arrangements of their four-part vocal harmonies to the intricacies of their instrumentation. On “Skinny Love,” bassist Matthew McCaughan and guitarist Michael Noyce both played drums, adding a primal, inescapable beat accompaniment. On other songs McCaughan simultaneously played bass and a kickdrum with his foot while drummer Sean Carey played a small electronic keyboard.
As strong as the songs on “For Emma, Forever Ago” are, the band’s tireless touring for the past two years has developed them into an impassioned unit. Whereas some artists become detached from songs after performing them again and again, Vernon slipped into the songs like an old comfortable vintage sweater, filling them out with his passionate voice. The crooks and crannies of each song were not dusty and dark, but were places where Vernon’s bright voice illuminated, revealing the artistry of his song craft.
Just past the set’s mid-point, Vernon played an unexpected, rousing cover of the Outfield’s “Your Love,” inciting screams and laughter from the audience. Vernon pulled back the rhythm and created a bouncing groove, emphasizing a backbeat pocket that doesn’t exist in the original song.
An ethereal and sublime version of “re: Stacks” followed where Vernon played solo for the first time of the evening. The instrumentation stripped away to just his voice and guitar emphasized the power of the lyric and Vernon’s immense songwriting talent, recalling everything that was inspiring in Nick Drake’s music while being wholly original.
Bon Iver closed the night with a two-song encore. The first was the elegiac “For Emma,” then he brought Megafaun and various friends up on stage to cover Megafaun’s “Worried Mind” (In the video above, you can see a version of the two bands performing “Worried Mind” in San Francisco a few days earlier). The group of musicians huddled along the edge of the proscenium and used only the theater’s acoustics as amplification, Asylum Street Spankers style. After a few verses, they called on the audience to sing-along to the chorus, a cathartic “Come ease your mind, come on ease your worried mind.” The collaboration received a standing ovation (as did the first set and Megafaun’s brilliant opening set), proving that sometimes the most powerful performances at a music festival are not merely the loudest and largest.
Setlist
Flume
Lump Sum
Skinny Love
Brackett, WI
Blood Bank
Beach Baby
Josie
Creature Fear
re: Stacks
The Wolves (Act I and II)
Encore
For Emma
Worried Mind
Thom Yorke debuts his new band at the Echoplex
October 5th, 2009 § 0 comments § permalink
Some nice person was generous enough to post their high definition video of Thom Yorke’s new (and still unnamed) band during their live debut Saturday night at the Echoplex in Los Angeles.
The band definitely qualifies as a supergroup: Yorke in front on vocals, Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich, Beck/R.E.M. drummer Joey Waronker, percussionist/multi-instrumentalist Mauro Refosco, and Flea on bass.
Check this video out! And don’t forget to blow it up to full screen. Or better still, cable it to your 1080 p television and check it out super large. The sound is decent and the HD digital video maintains so much quality that the bigger it gets, the more you feel like you are actually at the show…a strange effect of the HD video combined with the location in the room where the videographer is standing.
Film Review: MANCORA
October 12th, 2009 § 1 comment § permalink
The one-sheet for MANCORA...I feel your temperature rising already.
Late night Saturday night at my crib included an HBO On Demand screening of MANCORA, a tight, sexy, Peruvian film directed by Ricardo de Montreuil.
This film blindsided me because I hadn’t read or heard anything about it. It made the festival rounds last year, and it appears to have received an excellent reception at Sundance Film Festival’s 2008 screenings.
MANCORA was very stylish. The cameras moved smoothly through the environment with the life-like grace of the hand-held camera work you might see in a documentary. Peru served as a lead character too: the landscape, people and culture all colliding to guide the lead character Santi into a life-changing epiphany regarding sex, desire and coping with the loss of a family member through extreme balls-to-the-wall hedonism.
This film was steamy. Sexy. Caliente. It will make you want to hang-out with your lover and just take all your clothes off and jump into an enormous, warm body of water. And the film wasn’t at all sleazy or corny. It was just pure, unbridled Peruvian sensuality captured on film in a very creative and original way.
There is subtext about class-battles between dark-skinned Indian people from the country side versus the young, urban, light-skinned Spanish and Portuguese-speaking upper class. And Miami-born actor Enrique Murciano nearly steals the film portraying Iñigo, an affluent “gringo” and Lothario-type who speaks fluent Spanish, yet plays the part of the Ugly American with devilish elan.
I’m reluctant to give any of the plot away, because the film unfolds like that adventure you always dreamed of taking during college. The director spent many years as the creative director for MTV Latin America, so he has a highly-trained visual eye and keeps the viewer entertained with about five or six of the most beautiful young actors in all South America. There’s plenty of eye candy for both men and women in this sexually-charged drama.
I watched it alone, but I definitely recommend watching MANCORA with your significant other…then after the film is done the two of you can plot and hatch plans for your own trip to northern Peru’s bohemian beach paradise.
To view the film’s official Flickr photostream, click here.
Concert: Jay Z in Austin at the Erwin Center
November 12th, 2009 § 1 comment § permalink
One of the BlackSwanSongs’s contributors received a byline on http://brooklynvegan.com for an excerpt of the report below combined with the photos above.
Jay Z appeared very comfortable playing the role of the gracious “king of hip-hop.” Memphis Bleek dropped counterpoint rhymes, providing hardscrabble verbal interplay without the silliness of a sideman like Flavor Flav. I was a casual Jay Z fan going into the show (I bought a “Hard Knock Life” mix tape and have downloaded a couple of other records), but by the end of the show I had been become a hardcore Jay Z fan for life.
The show highlights were too numerous to list here, but they included the rock and bass bombast of “99 Problems,” the audience’s deafening call and response during “Jigga What, Jigga Who” and the booming, thuggish, palpitation-inducing low-end produced by his 10-piece band during “Dirt” and “Big Pimpin’.”
And when Jay Z wasn’t showing us Texans how his crew goes hard in Brooklyn, he spoke from the heart during his between song banter. “I know it sounds cliche, but don’t let any haters block your dream,” Hova said earnestly during one of the final breaks. Another one of the show’s more intimate moments came when he brought up vocalist Bridget Kelly for two songs. After her inspired assist on “Empire State of Mind,” Jigga Man smiled his biggest smile of the evening and said, “Damn…she put something extra on it for Texas…she put some extra bar-b-que sauce on it for Texas!”
Before Jay Z’s final curtain call, he took a break to turn on the house lights and point out individuals in all areas of the basketball arena, personalizing the show and reducing the scale as he talk to individuals, calling them out by their attire, homemades signs, dancing skills, etc.
The set list below is word-for-word identical to the setlist at the front of the stage (which I photographed). I’ve left their abbreviations and notes in tact.
SETLIST: RUN THIS TOWN
D.O.A.
Takeover
U Don’t Know
99 Problems
Show Me What You Got
Give It To Me
Diamonds
Jigga
Izzo
Jigga What
P.S.A.
Heart of City (live)
Already Home (last verse Acapella)
Empire State of Mind
A Star Is Born
So Ambitious
Dirt
—–break—–
Thank You
(PLAYBACK SET)
Big Pimpin’
Hardknock Life
Encore
Forever Young
Austin’s Neon Indian Remixes Brooklyn’s Grizzly Bear; or, The Rise of the Bedroom Rocker
November 25th, 2009 § 0 comments § permalink
The first time I’d heard of Owl City was when I checked the Emo’s show listing in the back of the printed edition of the Austin Chronicle and their show at Emo’s was sold-out about three months in advance. Out of 50 upcoming road shows, the Owl City show was the only one sold-out. I immediately went to their MySpace page (normal early 21st century protocol) and diligently listened. I had to know: “What’s the deal?” Why were they special?
Part-time Austinite Alan Palomo is Neon Indian (with a little help from his friends).
Within 10 seconds of hearing their music I discovered that they were one of those bands that would have never gotten exposure even ten years ago, before the days of MySpace and Facebook, back when radio, a killer live show and an A&R guy dictated what records got recorded.
Owl City is one guy…creating music on his computer…in his bedroom. Owl City is just a kid that spent way too much time listening to the Postal Service; Owl City’s music is like vanilla tasting vanilla ice cream. Their tracks have the gloss of a $100,000 studio, yet its just ultimately…a guy making pop music for the masses out of his bedroom.
Granted, musicians have always recorded masterpieces in their bedroom or rehearsal space, but prior to a few years ago those musicians never had a world-wide distribution network which costs pennies on the dollar. They never had blogs and social networks to spread the buzz. In fact, a great mixtape was lucky to make regional impact.
Now that technology has evened the playing field for recording and distributing music, the bedroom Beethoven can now find his/her niche audience. And his/her niche audience can become such passionate proselytizers that their feverish fandom becomes contagious.
During the music businesses’ old business model (selling CDs), the artists never made money on albums unless they were moving several hundred thousand. The companies had the machine rigged that way (See Steve Albini’s treatise, “Why Some of Your Friends Are This Fucked”).
While Owl City’s music these days exudes a hi-fi gloss, Austin’s latest bedroom maestro Neon Indian (a.k.a. Alan Palomo) possesses a novice, lo-fi charm. Earnest in its cheekiness, the Neon Indian listener feels like they could play in the band. It’s accessible while being arty. It’s the perfect mix of low art and high art pastiched into pop art and pop music.
Neon Indian list their location as Brookyln (cq)/Austin on MySpace. The hipsters of the world with too much money are moving back and forth these days (and occasionally to Portland and San Francisco). This artistic collision between Brooklyn and Austin was inevitable sealed with a miss as soon as Brit Daniel remixed Interpol several years back.
Prior to that, many hipster musician discovered Daniel Johnston through Kurt Cobain, although they likely won’t admit it now.
Every now and again a musician bubbles up from the underground scene in Austin and becomes the flavor of the month in taste-maker circles the world over. Ghostland Observatory took Bob Schneider’s formula for success (self released product + killer live show x ass shaking = exponential word of mouth fame) and moved the happening from the frat party to the dance party, complete with smoke and laser lights.
Now Austin has birthed another musician that combines dance music with a dreamy visual special effects show creating pastiche remix pop art with the insider-meets-outlier feel of someone like Andy Warhol or Jean-Michel Basquiat.
Neon Indian tastes like psychedelic candy mixed with late-night discussions about why every moment in the present is the most important moment in the universe. We live in the moment that will simultaneously decide our broken past and our translucent future. Can you dig it? Let me know what you think about the current Brooklyn-Austin collabo…
Grizzly Bear: “Cheerleader (Neon Indian ‘Sega Genesis P-Orridge’ Remix)”:
Grizzly Bear: “Cheerleader (Neon Indian ‘Studio 6669′ Remix)”:
Friday, November 27, Neon Indian will headline the kickoff show for a new series sponsored by Austin transplants WOXY.com. Click here for tickets.
Tom Ford: Renaissance Man
December 23rd, 2009 § 0 comments § permalink
Fashion designer and director Tom Ford makes his model work.
As Tom Ford jumps from career to career, from fashion design to filmmaking, I find myself fascinated by his life story. Born in Austin to realtor parents, Ford’s family moved around Texas a bit before settling in Sante Fe (one of the cities on the hippie trail that leads up the West Coast). Ford left Santa Fe to attend New York University at age 17; then he dropped out of NYU after a year to focus on modeling and acting. Ford found time to study at prestigious art schools in New York during the Studio 54 days. Later, he provided the artistic vision that resurrected the Gucci fashion line as well as their overall brand. Ford would go on to start his own line, complete with a few boutiques spread around the world. And that is where my Ford appreciation burns hottest: the man knows how to design clothes…from head to toe, glasses to shoes.
And did I mention his clothes. I have no idea how much they cost, but I know their expensive, becauseno prices listed on his online store. Perhaps Ford will one day expand his brand to include the middle class…
…or maybe his brand will remain a fashion-forward lifestyle that we can aspire to.
Tom Ford’s directorial debut A SINGLE MAN is garnering rave reviews in limited release around the United States. Blackswansongs.com looks forward to viewing it.
The genius of Kristen Wiig
December 26th, 2009 § 0 comments § permalink
I’ve been admiring Kristen Wiig in bit parts (ADVENTURELAND, KNOCKED UP) for a while now, but I hadn’t watched enough Saturday Night Live (SNL) to discover that she is a comic genius…until I watched her host the SNL primetime Christmas special as Gilly.
With Gilly – the little trouble-causing, Orphan Annie-resembling minx – Wiig’s face becomes elastic, her voice and spacious timing dastardly neurotic while her eyes bug right out of her head. You can tell that Wiig has fine-tuned her comic skills with more than 10,000 hours of rehearsal. Improvization requires a poker face…and she’s got that nailed too as she never even comes close to breaking character (Jimmy Falon anyone?). With years of training as a member of The Groundlings, her focus and comic timing leave some of the other SNL cast members appearing amateurish and boring.
Digging up the best holiday related clips from season 1 to the present, the entire special was hilarious, but it was the Gilly character that forever sold me on Wiig’s mighty thespian powers.
The Gilly character and her childish desire to create anarchy while remaining mostly silent holds a mirror up to society. She becomes both light and dark, good and evil…and Wiig abandons her mastery of sarcasm with Gilly. Sadistic and adorable, Gilly is Wiig at her most brilliant…rolling the entirety of the dark chaos of the human condition into a character that barely speaks. It’s both creative and creepy…and I totally understand why they had Wiig host the Christmas clips show as Gilly.
I absolutely get it…and it’s genius. Look for Wiig to become SNL’s next break-out superstar.
Editors note: More than a year and a half later we’re watching Wiig open the comedy hit as the lead in BRIDESMAIDS, proving she is indeed bankable at the box office; we already knew she had the charisma and chops to be a leading lady.
Lost albums: Jan and Dean’s “Carnival of Sound”
February 14th, 2010 § 1 comment § permalink
“The music business is a scornful, mirthless lover hellbent on breaking most musicians’ hearts,” said a very wise sage. Actually that’s not true, I just made that sentence up, but I think it’s more often true that not.
No talent pop stars with beautiful smiles often rise to the top of the mediocrity heap while some of the greatest recorded works by the most artful musicians never see the light of day. My friends and their former band Dynamite Hack still watch their greatest creative work collect dust as an unreleased album. Likewise, my old band Schatzi’s sophomore album Snow Is for Saving Hearts remains unreleased, tied up in legal limbo. (The film industry has it’s own version of this scenario – something called “development hell,” or turnaround purgatory – when a project or a great script can never get beyond developmental talks and negotiations.)
That jaded experience aside, Jan and Dean’s lost album Carnival of Sound is an interesting piece of music history that is finally seeing some sunlight thanks to Rhino Records’ Handmade division.
If you enjoy California surf music from the 1960s, you’ll enjoy this creative curiosity that Jan Berry spent 3 years recording after his unfortunate car accident on Dead Man’s Curve, ironically the very same stretch of road that his band immortalized with their hit song of the same name years earlier.
I love the majority of art created during the fertile period between 1967-1969. And Jan and Dean’s lost tracks are no different. Poppy, whimsical and artfully mixed in mono, Carnival of Sound is a deserving legacy to two musician’s that caught a horrible break during the height of their career.
As distribution becomes more and more available to the masses, albums like Carnival of Sound will hopefully find the appreciative niche audiences that they deserve.
Jobs, Jobs, Jobs
February 17th, 2010 § 1 comment § permalink
Road to recovery: the decrease in US job losses.
When I was a little kid, I thought the United States was the greatest country in the world. And in 1976, it very well may have been.
I remember singing Yankee Doodle Dandy in a chorus line at my private elementary school during our end of the year pageant. Being that it was the United States’ bi-centennial celebration, the feeling in the air was quite magnanimous and fantastic. Parades made their way through the Southern Florida streets. In Boca Raton, the Florida town where I spent my first 7 years, many of my schoolmates parents worked at IBM, as did my father, so there was a sense of financial security and middle-class stability as it was still possible to achieve the American Dream.
My father was a hard-working high school valedictorian who ran out of money while attending junior college, yet he was still able to secure good jobs at Lockheed Martin, then later at International Business Machines (IBM). I was proud of my dad when I was a little kid…and I didn’t even really know why. I think I was able to figure out just by watching popular culture that there were not a plethora of African American men working as systems analysts at IBM. Even as a young tyke, I knew my dad was special. Likewise, I quickly picked up that my mother was one of the most gifted high school English teachers in the country.
Now – all these years later – while I think about my country and my president…I feel more pride than I felt in 1976.
And I find it interesting that none of the news cycle pundits are questioning why Congress is voting down party lines – for every vote – for the first time in its history.
If you could put a microphone in the Republican’s caucus meetings, I’m convinced you’d hear: “The Nigger gets none of our votes…not a one…not for anything.”
I can’t wait for that racist, homophobic, sexist baby boomer generation to finally die off.
LOST’s final season finally hits emotional pay-off with episode 7!
March 10th, 2010 § 0 comments § permalink
SPOILER ALERT!!!
LOST's season 6 promo photo resembling da Vinci's "The Last Supper." The homage was no accident.
LOST’s final season has been slightly disappointing…until last night’s (Tuesday, March 9, 2010 in the United States) Ben-centric episode #7, “Dr. Linus.” The episode pulses from a lively, yet taught script and an original vision deftly directed by veteran actor/director Mario Van Peebles.
Whoever the genius was that hired Van Peebles – an established independent film director – to direct such a pivotal episode in the LOST mythology, they deserve much credit for helping to create what proved to be a series-defining episode. Van Peebles has made a few cheesy choices as an actor, but the majority of his work as a director is passionate, powerful and under-appreciated (including NEW JACK CITY, PANTHER and his pièce de résistance biopic about his father, BAADASSSSS!
The LOST creative team have produced a unique situation in network television: for the first time, fans are looking forward to the end of a series…as opposed to watching a great series continually get green lit until it becomes mediocre, running out of new ideas and story themes until finally advertisers drop off and the series is cancelled.
With LOST’s planned series ending, longtime fans anticipate the wrap-up of plot points and conflicts introduced five and six years ago. The writers continue to innovate, appropriately blowing up your standard serial drama expectations as they developed an entire new time line with season 6, further complicating the master story arch.
Now casual and devoted fans alike, don’t get discouraged.
LOST writers Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof have already used the first 7 episodes of sesason 6 to pay off some of the island’s biggest mysteries:
- 1. The numbers – We now know where the origin of the numbers significance. Candidates from a master list of mortal heroes. Mortal warriors for the forces of righteousness, fallen and flawed as all humans.
- 2. The Smoke Monster – …is nature’s dark force. A force that also uses a genetic replica of John Locke’s body to walk the Earth island in human form.
- 3. Jacob – …God? Buddha? Jesus of suburbia? The Holy Ghost? Jacob has clearly come into focus as a force of nature. A force of positivity. A steward of the hero candidates.
- 4. Super Fanboy Easter Eggs – …continue to pay off. Minor characters like Rose, Leslie Artz and many, many others continue to return with crucial plot-forwarding screen time. Likewise, popular deceased characters like Boone Carlyle and Alex Rousseau have returned as part of the “flash sideways” time line. Wikipedia reveals – complete with credible sources – that nearly every major and minor character from the series will return for season 6 including Elizabeth Mitchell as fertility specialist Dr. Juliet Burke, Michelle Rodriguez as police officer Ana Lucia Cortez, Dominic Monaghan as rock star Charlie Pace, Jeremy Davies as deceased physicist Daniel Faraday, Rebecca Mader as anthropologist Charlotte Lewis, Harold Perrineau as Michael Dawson Maggie Grace as Shannon Rutherford, Katey Sagal as Locke’s ex-girlfriend Helen Norwood and Cynthia Watros as Hurley’s short-lived love interest, Libby Smith.
Considering the season 5 cliffhanger wherin series hero Jack Sheppard (his last name is beginning to have added subtext) puts the gears in motion to blow up an atomic bomb and yield the dual timelines in season 6, Jack has been a reflective, passive protagonist throughout season 6…until episode 7.
Absorbing and internally deliberating the universal forces of darkness and light – forces beyond his control – Jack’s standoff with fate, as the lit stick of dynamite hisses, allows the audience to see that Jack’s inner battle has been resolved: his transformation into a man of faith is complete. The prodigal hero even impresses ageless Others’ adviser Richard Albert with his show of faith in Jacob’s motives (at the crucial life-saving moment when Albert has lost his own faith).
Considering the show’s Western hemisphere production, it would be easy for the writer’s to make the good-versus-evil themes play out in a Judeo-Christian sub-textual framework. But show runners Cuse and Lindelof have managed to evade that pothole in which creative works like THE MATRIX and LORD OF THE RINGS unavoidably fell…an endorsement of monotheism by proxy. The promo photo tribute to “The Last Supper” might suggest otherwise, but LOST entire current season is more of a battle between good and evil as opposed to the Christian God and Devil.
Ben’s monologue at the end of act 2, prior to the final commercial break, pulses as a moving work of mannered acting, eliciting that same emotional push/pull that only an unspeakable car-crash combination of happiness and sadness can pronounce. That cold weather melancholy only a Superchunk song can elicit. Or a Nick Drake, Elliott Smith or Big Star song. Prosaic pop songs wherein crushing sadness is only alleviated because you (the listener) realize that there is at least one other person in the world (the songwriter) that feels the way you feel.
The monologue is punctuated by the unexpected response from Jacob’s mysterious guard, Ilana. Her character’s emotional response to Ben, that she’ll be willing to vouch for his soul, to give him another chance at redemption is one of the most original, pure storytelling devises that Lindelof and Cuse have created. Completely unexpected, the often tragic history that we’ve seen associated with Ben’s character arch makes the monologue and the entire episode payoff with a deep emotional punch unlike anything network television storytelling has ever encountered.
SXSW 2010 band showcase picks
March 16th, 2010 § 0 comments § permalink
Looks like this is the first year in a while that I might not be writing reviews for any publication other than the one you are reading, but my editor at the Austin American-Statesman asked me for some showcase picks and the following showcases are what I delivered to her. I’ve provided links for some of the bands that I think you must hear:
Note: showcases in bold hold the highest probability of my attendance.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
8:00 Strange Boys – Emo’s Jr.
9:00 Here We Go Magic – Club de Ville
10:30 Motorhead – Austin Music Hall
12:00 Nas & Damian “Jr. Gong” Marley
1:00 Sixteen Deluxe – Encore
Thursday, March 18, 2010
8:00 Ozomatli – Auditorium Shores (free show; no wristband or badge required)
9:00 Miles Kurosky – Emo’s Main Room
10:00 Rogue Wave – Emo’s Main Room
11:30 Band of Horses – Stubb’s
12:00 Centro-matic – Emo’s Annex
1:00 Evan Dando – The Ale House
Friday, March 19, 2010
8:55 Band of Horses – Central Presbyterian Church
9:30 Cruiserweight – Buffalo Billiards
10:00 Smokey Robinson – Austin Music Hall
11:00 Girl in a Coma – Buffalo Billiards
12:00 Broken Social Scene – The Parish
1:00 Dengue Fever – Encore Patio
Saturday, March 20, 2010
8:00 She & Him – Auditorium Shores (free show; no wristband or badge required)
9:30 Sarah Jarosz – Austin Music Hall
10:00 Margaret Cho – Esther’s Follies
11:20 Xzibit – Club de Ville
12:30 Big Star – Antone’s
1:00 Adam Franklin & The Bolts of Melody – The Tap Room at Six
Breaking News: Superchunk to perform at SXSW Merge Showcase tonight!
March 18th, 2010 § 0 comments § permalink
| reply-to |  mergerecords.com |
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| to | gmail.com |
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| date | Thu, Mar 18, 2010 at 11:08 AM |
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| subject | Re: no worries if you aren’t checking email and/or don’t see this in time… |
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| mailed-by | srs.blackberry.com |
Yes!
——Original Message——
From: Black Swan
To: Mac McCaughan
ReplyTo: gmail.com
Subject: no worries if you aren’t checking email and/or don’t see this in time…
Sent: Mar 18, 2010 11:04 AM…but is Superchunk the special guest at 7:00 p.m. for the Merge Showcase tonight?
From: Black Swan
To: Mac McCaughan
ReplyTo: gmail.com
Subject: no worries if you aren’t checking email and/or don’t see this in time…
Sent: Mar 18, 2010 11:04 AM…but is Superchunk the special guest at 7:00 p.m. for the Merge Showcase tonight?
From an old-school Austin fan (the brotha that comes to all your Austin shows),
Black Swan
http://blackswansongs.com/
@blackswansongs
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T
Sixteen Deluxe rocks AasimFest at SXSW 2010
March 22nd, 2010 § 0 comments § permalink
BlackSwanSongs.com had the extreme honor of attending two Sixteen Deluxe reunion shows, as well as interviewing them for a short feature in the Austin American-Statesman. Easily the best band to emerge from Austin during the 1990s, Sixteen Deluxe had the potential to be a label’s prestige act. Warner Brothers signed them after a small bidding war. But I personally didn’t feel like Warner Brothers properly promoted the release, “Emits Showers of Sparks” during those dark days just prior to mass Internet adoption.
If you enjoy My Bloody Valentine, The Flaming Lips, Swervedriver and other noise pop/space rock bands, please seek out Sixteen Deluxe and their music. Then convince your friends that are music supervisors to use their music in films.
Thank the heavens: A new Superchunk album!
June 6th, 2010 § 0 comments § permalink
Superchunk – Majesty Shredding from Merge Records on Vimeo.
Get ready to pull up the calendar section on your iPhone/smartphone. On September 14, one of BlackSwanSongs’ favorite bands, Superchunk, will release Majesty Shredding on CD, LP and digital download. The band have announced summer festival dates and September east coast dates with west coast dates to be announced soon. Superchunk will also perform on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on Monday, September 20, their first television appearance since 1994. (Let’s pray they announce an Austin show!)
The press release on the Merge Records site reveals:
Having cleared the deck of odds and sods with last year’s Leaves in the Gutter EP, Superchunk frontman Mac McCaughan set about to write a batch of songs that would capture the spirit of the band’s live shows. From 1997’s Indoor Living through 2001’s Here’s to Shutting Up, Superchunk had written most of their records together, building their songs through collaborative writing and rehearsal. But, in an effort not to overthink their new material (and because drummer Jon Wurster lives a couple hundred miles away from the rest of the band), Superchunk approached Majesty Shredding the same way they approached their early records: McCaughan provided skeletal demos to his bandmates, who in turn fleshed out the songs during a brief period of rehearsal and recording.
This sense of purpose is enhanced by the presence of Scott Solter, an engineer and producer (The Mountain Goats, John Vanderslice, St. Vincent) known for coaxing exceptional performances out of the artists he works with. Majesty Shredding is a powerful document of Superchunk as a band, augmented as needed with well-placed harmonies, keyboards, and guitar overdubs (and some backing vocals courtesy of the Mountain Goats’ John Darnielle).
Since releasing their first 7-inch in 1989, Superchunk has run the gamut of milestone albums: early punk rock stompers, polished mid-career masterpieces, and lush, adventurous curveballs. Conventional wisdom holds that a band two decades into its career can only rehash or reinvent, but with Majesty Shredding, Superchunk has done something entirely different. Neither a return nor a departure, Majesty Shredding telescopes two decades into 41 indelible, action-packed minutes. It is the sound of youthful exuberance fine-tuned with grown-up confidence. And it may very well be Superchunk’s best record yet.
Superchunk also recently drank the social media Kool-Aid too; check out their twitter.
Track Listing:
1. Digging for Something
2. My Gap Feels Weird
3. Rosemarie
4. Crossed Wires
5. Slow Drip
6. Fractures in Plaster
7. Learned to Surf
8. Winter Games
9. Rope Light
10. Hot Tubes
11. Everything at Once
Superchunk tour dates:
6/19 Denver, CO – Westword Music Festival
6/20 Chicago, IL – Taste of Randolph Street Festival w/The Love Language
7/24 Omaha, NE – MAHA Music Festival
9/17 Washington, DC- 930 Club
9/18 New York, NY – Bowery Ballroom
9/19 Brooklyn, NY- Music Hall of Williamsburg
9/20 New York, NY – Late Night with Jimmy Fallon
9/21 Boston, MA- Royale
9/22 Philadelphia, PA- Trocadero
New Album: Adam Franklin and the Bolts of Melody
June 12th, 2010 § 0 comments § permalink
One of BlackSwanSongs.com all-time favorite artists, Adam Franklin (Swervedriver, Magnetic Morning) continues his prolific run with a new Adam Franklin and the Bolts of Melody album entitled I Could Sleep For A Thousand Years which will be released June 29, 2010, on Second Motion Records.
You can hear an acoustic version below of a beautiful track from the upcoming album entitled “Yesterday Has Gone Forever.” The melancholy lyrics and atypical pop song structure are just the type of soul-penetrating solipsistic poesy that make rainy days feel that much more lonesome. As Mick Jagger once said to John Lennon, “It’s a blues, John. It’s a blues.”
And if you can’t wait until June 29, 2010 to listen, you can hear a sample of the entire album right now on Amazon.com.
“Carolyn’s Fingers” – Cocteau Twins
June 28th, 2010 § 2 comments § permalink
Had to post this beautiful song after an inspirational recording session earlier today with our band Norushi Minx. Now that I’m thinking about mixes and references for beautifully dreamy guitars, this sublime piece comes to mind. The Cocteau Twins created dream pop perfection too beautiful for the hoi polloi to even comprehend.
The Funky Drummer
September 18th, 2010 § 0 comments § permalink
I’ve really been slacking in recent updates, but reading about Clyde Stubblefield today made me realize that it was time to get writing again.
You know Clyde Stubblefield. You are already familiar with his essence. His drum beat from James Brown’s “Funky Drummer” alone has been sampled more than 200 times in popular songs. The syncopation between his left hand snare hits and his kick drum pioneered the sound that would become known as funk. Stubblefield’s drumming style is the prototype for both funk and hip-hop.
And because the music business sucks, Clyde never saw a penny from his sampled beat. While that is a whole other discussion, it’s pertinent now because Clyde is sick, and anyone that loves music and/or anyone that has ever felt transcendental freedom from his funky-ass beats should come together to help Clyde out with his medical bills.
In July 2009, Stubblefield suffered kidney failure and began weekly dialysis treatment.
Stubblefield is still working playing every Monday evening in Madison, WI, but his medical bills are ridiculous.
He has provided the beat to the soundtrack of our lives. It’s time for us all to say thank you.
You can donate through ChipIn and you can see Stubblefield in action below:
“Our mother is free”
November 15th, 2010 § 0 comments § permalink
“To achieve democracy we need to create a network, not just in our country but around the world,” Daw Aung San Suu Kyi said yesterday after her release from seven years of house arrest. “I will try to do that. If you do nothing you get nothing.”
I typically keep this space politics free, but Suu Kyi transcends politics. She is not only the mother of Burma, she is all of our mothers. As she calls for us to create a network around the world, blackswansongs shall answer her call.
Superchunk’s Mac & Jim acoustic!
December 2nd, 2010 § 0 comments § permalink
If web 3.0 will be all about curation, you’ll notice BlackSwanSongs.com has been getting its start on web 3.0 with our last several entries.
Creative entries and analytical blog posts have given way to the curation of videos as BlackSwanSongs brings not one, but two bands to life right here in little ol’ Austin, TX: Norushi Minx and Paraguay.
Most of the stuff on PitchforkTV does not sync up with the taste of BlackSwanSongs, but an acoustic performance from Mac MacCaughan and Jim Wilbur of Chapel Hill, N.C.’s venerable indie rock band, Superchunk, is must-see BlackSwanSongs TV.
Curation, curation, curation: in the future when everyone has Google TV, AppleTV (or something similar), you’ll be able to come to the main page of BlackSwanSongs.com and just watch – or listen – to the tunes and videos we’ve assembled especially for people with immaculately cool taste.
Gorillaz – The Fall
December 25th, 2010 § 0 comments § permalink
Oh, to be as industrious as Damon Albarn. The guy and his band Gorillaz released “The Fall”, a rock-solid album today that is available to stream for free (and free to download for fan club members).
And for additional one-upsmanship, he didn’t build a million dollar studio on his tour-bus and record this in the lap of modern studio luxury. Albarn recorded the entire 15 track album on his iPad.
Check the details below from his website:
All tracks written and performed by Gorillaz using the iPad and additional instruments: Korg Vocoder, Ukelele, Microkorg, Omnichord, Moog Voyager, Melodica, Guitar, Piano, Korg Monotron. Except track 13 written and performed by Gorillaz and Bobby Womack. Recorded between Montreal and Vancouver over 32 days on the Gorillaz North American Tour 2010
- Phoner To Arizona
Recorded in Montreal on 3rd October - Revolving Doors
Recorded in Boston on 5th October - Detroit
Recorded in Detroit on 13th October - Shy-town
Recorded in Chicago on 15th October - Little Pink Plastic Bag
Recorded in Chicago on 16th October
Additional Keyboards: Jesse Hackett - The Joplin Spider
Recorded in Joplin on 18th October
Additional conversations with: Darren ‘Smoggy’ Evans - The Parish of Space Dust
Recorded in Houston on 19th October - The Snake In Dallas
Recorded in Dallas on 20th October - Amarillo
Recorded in Amarillo on 23rd October - The Speak It Mountains
Recorded in Denver on 24th October
Stream and forest recorded in Santa Fe on 25th October by Mike Smith - Aspen Forest
Recorded in Santa Fe on 25th October and in Vancouver on 3rd November
Additional Bass: Paul Simonon
Additional Qanun: James R Grippo - Bobby In Phoenix
Recorded in Phoenix on 26th October
Vocals and Guitar: Bobby Womack - California And The Slipping Of The Sun
Recorded in Oakland on 30th October
Train station announcement recorded at LA Train Station. Additional conversation with: Darren ‘Smoggy’ Evans, Mick Jones, Jamie Hewlett and Tanyel Vahdettin. - Seattle Yodel
Recorded in Seattle on 2nd November
M.I.A. Wikileaks. Vicki Leekx.
December 31st, 2010 § 0 comments § permalink
Leave it to M.I.A. to shoot 2010′s final parting volley in the musical war for hearts and minds.
On New Year’s Eve, December 31, 2010, M.I.A. graced her fans with Vicki Leekx, a free, 36 minute, polemic-fueled mixtape banger. She enlists Diplo, Switch, Blaqstarr and all of the usual suspects and co-collaborators for production. And while Vicki Leekx isn’t as much of an art-damaged dragonslayer as her previous full length, /\/\ /\ Y /\, Vicki Leekx shows M.I.A. has been busy (on top of being a mom and newlywed wife) chopping, pasting, mashing-up…and keeping up…with current events.
Happy 2011!
This is a public service announcement: M.I.A.'s Vicki Leekx mixtape is a straight-up banger!
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- How I Met My Mother - Guided By Voices
- Imperial Racehorsing - Guided By Voices
- The Big Hat and Toy Show - Guided By Voices
- Who Invented the Sun - Guided By Voices
- The Unsinkable Fats Domino - Guided By Voices
- God Loves Us - Guided By Voices
- Hang Mr. Kite - Guided By Voices
- Spiderfighter - Guided By Voices
- Re: Stacks - Bon Iver - 21 Plays
- Azure - Ella Fitzgerald - 16 Plays
- The Slide Song - Spiritualized - 14 Plays
- Starálfur - Sigur Rós - 14 Plays
- Carolyn's Fingers - Cocteau Twins - 13 Plays
- Cherry-Coloured Funk - Cocteau Twins - 12 Plays
- Malmo - The Album Leaf - 12 Plays
- Remember (D. Whitaker version) - Air - 12 Plays