Music That’s Kicking My Butt at the Moment: CocoRosie and José James

Heard CocoRosie Smokey Taboo for the first time on the radio the other day- incredibly haunting, ethereal, childlike, spellbinding. Like Joanna Newsome sitting in on a ghostly drum circle. The bridge/coda is really nice, with the Madame Butterfly vocals taking you drifting into the night like a drunken firefly.

Yeah, I’m afraid of sharks/but not the dark…

I’ve been meaning to post something on José James for quite some time, ever since hearing Black Magic about a month ago. That lurching shuffle, that little-bit-behind-the-beat (I-mean-just-enough-to-turn-ya-on) singing, there’s a real lush denseness to the cut, a nice subtle groove. Then I heard Love Conversation, and I was all like, O_o.

I love artists who can say this much with this little- restrained instrumentation, little more than voices and that great room sound. José James should have a Batsignal- some sort of giant spotlight you could shine in the air whenever you thought you were about to be getting down. We could use D’Angelo’s old one; he used to be the go-to guy for sweet, sweet love. Come on, D, we need ya back!

Read Full Post »

Elvis Costello & Fiona Apple. 2005.

At once absolutely fearsome and fearless:

Completely invested in the song. And Elvis’s guitar playing is truly transcendent. Still slays me every single time I watch it.

Hey Elvis, what was the highlight of the evening?

…Fiona’s incredible job on ‘I Want You.’ For me, that was musically the high point of the evening, in terms of how much you can reach within a song and come up with something that was for you.

Read Full Post »

Neil Young. 1989.

Because, well, it rocks your damn face off.

Plus, Neil’s lungin’ ’round the stage like a murderous praying mantis. Rawk.

Read Full Post »

Architect Gary Chang Transforms One Room Into 24

…right before your eyes. Remarkable.

Now, I’m not advocating living in boxes on top of each other- it’s my pig-headed belief that trees and restaurants make a city, not buildings (I’m from that Ray Bradbury school), but it really is an ingenious use of space, using every part of the architectural buffalo, if you will. More ideas like this, please, along with smart cars, solar paint, eco-friendly Cannonball Runs in which the victor uses the least amount of fuel versus the asinine most to simply go in a circle real-fast-like (hyuk).

And, since I mentioned Ray Bradbury, here’s a nice little interview he did with Frank Black (yes!) who’s Massiff Central is probably in my top 20 songs of all time. The album version from Show Me Your Tears is epic– here’s an acoustic version from the Christmass album.

Ray Bradbury interviews are fantastic, by the way. Just a take-no-prisoners, opinionated old codger who’s pretty much right about everything. I aspire to that level of imperious curmudgeony-ness.

Read Full Post »

Star Wars Trilogy (The Good One) Told in Two Minutes, With Legos

It’s really kinda gorgeous:

I usually avoid Star Wars spoofs (as they’re omnipresent on the web- I’m guilty, too), but this one is a deft little way of pointing out the simplicity of the story of the first trilogy. If anything, it shows once again how little you need if there’s some feeling and actual relationships behind the script, versus toys-disguised-as-story.

Read Full Post »