7 great covers: #6 Mad World

I think I first heard Gary Jules' cover of "Mad World" in the movie Donny Darko, and was convinced that R.E.M. or Michael Stype were responsible for this rather pleasant interpretation of the song. I still think the vocals are incredibly typical of Stype, but the effect was even bigger and more confusing before understanding that it actually wasn't Stype. (I couldn't find anything on the internet when searching for "mad world stype".)



The original:



Previous covers
#7 I'll be seeing you

7 great covers: #7 I'll be seeing you

My father and I spent an evening trying to convince my younger brother of 12 years that jazz once was what punk came to be many years later: a combination of new sonic landscapes and a "FUCK YOU" attitude.

Iggy Pop seems to have made that connection. This is his and Francois Hardy's interpretation of jazz classic "I'll be seeing you".




The song was originally written for a musical, but came to a wider audience through Bing Crosby in 1944. It can be downloaded here, but isn't available on YouTube. Instead, I give you Billy Holiday.

6 seconds of fame

The Amen Break has been sampled more than 400 times since the 80's, mostly in hip-hop, jungle and drum & bass. You may have hummed, danced or even rapped to it thousands of times, but neither the drummer or composer ever got a dime.

Could be that this a good thing. Sharing is a powerful force and a prerequisite for innovation.



PS Thanks, Eyvind.

PPS Even though I agree with the arguments in this film, I still think end consumers should pay for the music they consume.

7 defining influences: #2 Jerome

It's taken a while for me to write this post. Partly, I've been busy. But mostly, I think it has to do with the emotions I associate with growing up in Manila and some of the friends I had at the time.

When I came to the International School of Manila (ISM) as a 14 year old I was very into music, and very much into pop. I liked some alternative pop, but I wasn't a big fan of rock. In fact, I remember how some "bad boys" hanging around a juke box with torn jeans jackets (with Rolling Stones markings) had hassled me in Geneva before leaving for Manila. (I think they stared at me when I went in to a café to buy gum.) Obviously, rock was for bad people.

At ISM, I quickly became friends with Jerome, a Dutch chap in my home room who also shared a few of my classes. At ISM (and many other schools I attended), your identity was to a certain extent based upon where you came from. Jerome's gang was made up of a few Germans, two Norwegians, one Australian, a few Filipinos and a hand full of Americans. In this gang there was a continuous battle between the Europeans and the Americans about politics, cars, food, history and - music.

I hardly need to point out that European music was better than American music...

I realize now that Jerome was into quite advanced music for his (our) age. Apart from introducing me to the Smiths and the Cult I remember him playing Anne Clark:



Jerome also shared my interest for lyrics and we could spend a lot of time (mostly during our Economics class) discussing the angst in Morrissey's lyrics or imagery in Bono's. I may have missed out on the exact explanation behind the kinked demand curve but excelled att text analysis... Also, we thought we were very cool.

One big step I took holding Jeromes hand was towards guitars. U2 and the Cult were big steps, and when the Cult released their third album Electric they moved from alternative rock to more 70's inspired hard rock, a step I initially was uncomfortable with. But the lyrics helped me find my footing and soon I was singing along to Peace Dog and Lil' Devil.




I haven't met Jerome since 1988. I wonder if he still listens to music. I do, partly thanks to him.

Previous defining influences or influencers:
7. First singles
6. In the car
5. The collective
4. The stranger
3. DJ

Remaining defining influences or influencers:
1. The tapes

10 k run

It's been some time since my last post.

Partly, I've been busy with work. Partly, I'm having a hard time completing my second to last post about my 7 most important influences.

Also, I spent the weekend out of town, competing in a seeding race in preparation of a half marathon later on this summer.

For some reason or other my music dissappeared from my iPhone during a back-up so I had to re-create my running list on Spotify.

Voila: one hour of running music. (The idea was that I would finnish with "Enter Sandman" pushing me along, but it didn't quite work out that way.)

Move those legs!

Celebrating my long lost fish

Listening to the radio last night I all of a sudden found myself singing along to a song I couldn't remember ever having heard, even though I knew parts of the lyrics by heart.

Turns out the song was a hit by An Emotional Fish - "Celebrate".

Great song by a band that either couldn't handle living in the shadow of U2, or were set up in some kind of a scandal with the BBC - my googling didn't bring much clarity.

When I get home I'm going to have to dig through my old singles and see what worms I find.

Strokes new album streamingly hot

Listen to a stream of the complete new Strokes album on their site:

http://new.thestrokes.com/featured/listen-to-angles-here

While you do, I'll be watching this instead:

Gold

A well made cocktail in my hand, a beautiful woman across the bar, and Nina Simone in my ears.

I'm not complaining.

Not Radiohead or NIN

This track by The Naked and Famous sounds like a cross between NIN and Radiohead.

Will run this on repeat for the rest of the day.

Guitars and sunshine

You can listen to the new Foo Fighters single here: http://www.foofighters.fm/.

Did I mention that I have tickets to their tour this summer? Inner circle...

7 defining influences: #3 DJ

The most common comment I got as a DJ was "You suck. Can't you play something that we can dance to?".

The fact that the dance floor often was full of moving bodies didn't seem to influence the overall picture; I sucked.

Most of the time I didn't mind. Obviously, the people who enjoyed the music were too busy dancing to chat with me. And anyway, life isn't a popularity contest. At least that's what I try to convince myself.

Appart from paying my bills while I "studied" at university, being a DJ gave me time to listen to a lot of music, and also gave me a legitimate reason to buy music. (We actually payed for music back then. In fact, I still do.)

Most of the clubs I played at had a more or less explicit alternative flavour, which made life easy for me. But I still needed to figure out what worked and what didn't. And I also needed to weave in 70's disco and 80's pop and even (this hurts) 90's euro-techno.

As I became more and more experienced I learned I few tricks:

• Don't try to fill the floor early in the evening with the latest hits unless you're prepared to use them again.
• Always have one long, mainstream song prepared incase you need to go to the bathroom.
• The right choice of songs is more important than perfect mixing.
• It's OK to loose one third of the floor when you switch genre - just make sure you stick to that genre for at least three more songs and you'll be fine.
• The best floorfiller, early on in the evening in a club with lot's of girls (ladies?) at the bar: Eurythmics' "Sweet Dreams".

One interesting reflection is that most of the DJ's I hung out with at the time played various types of music as DJ's, but all hade similar tastes off the dance floor. We played Black Box ("Ride on time") on the dance floor, but listened to the Pixies at our after parties.... In other words, we were prostitutes.

Ultimatly though, being a DJ just gave me a reason to be a huge prick! I still remember telling one of my best friend's sisters that she couldn't choose what music to dance to at her own party. Since I got payed to play music, I new what was right, and what was wrong, and she could go to hell.

I'm still sorry.


Previous defining influences or influencers:

7. First singles

6. In the car

5. The collective

4. The stranger

Remaining defining influences or influencers:

2. Jerome

1. The tapes

Shiny happy people

I used to be quite the ornithologist and could go off for walks with close friend J. to enjoy nature, silence and friendship.

In Swedish, the Kite is called "glada" which is near to the Swedish word "glad": happy. Since we are such crazy and unpredictable funny guys, we would start singing "Shiny happy people" every time we saw a Kite.

After helping launch the indie music movement and putting out some 4 or 5 incredible albums, R.E.M. lost some (all?) of their initial momentum but developed an uncanny talent for creating songs that were so brilliantly likable that they could make me cry.

Bur after having heard the song 3 times I would be bored, and after three more I needed to cry again.

After spending some time with Radiohead's "The King of Limbs" I realize that they are the exact opposite of the R.E.M. of today. It takes time to understand and appreciate their music - but it lasts.

In fact, the first single, "Lotus Flower", has grown so much on me that I can't even begin to understand how I didn't come to love it from the start.

Our Japanese friends

In case you wonder why this blog is called "thinkin' about music", the answer is simple.

There already is a "thinking about music", here.

I wonder what happened, Michelle! Where did you go?

By coincidence, one band that was much more interesting live than on record is Eggstone. And they had an unproportionally large fanbase in Japan. Did you research that, Michelle?

An explanation?

I complained about the difference between the National live and on record. Matt explains:

The National - MTV Shows

Still waiting for the National

So now I've seen them live - The National.

Pity, really, because now I can no longer listen to their studio material. Not until they find a producer who can capture the energy, power and delicacy of the band.  And what's the deal with keeping Matt Berninger's phenomenal singing a secret?

Appart from being blown away I was impressed by the fact that they actually have two lead guitars (rather than one lead and one rhythm), and that they on one song, "Afraid of everyone" used two base guitars.

7 defining influences: #4 The stranger

This the is countdown of the seven most important influences or influencers that formed me and who I am today - when it comes to music.

I'm not sure if it was in 11th or 12th grade, but at some point we read Albert Camus' "The Stranger" in my literature class. I remember sitting in class (with favorite teacher Mrs Valdes) discussing various passages out of the book. At some point, it dawned on me that the song "Killing an arab" must be about the book.

I listened carefully to the song and discovered that the lyrics quite accurately describe the murder scene and Mersault's subsequent existential torments. Any uncertainty was resolved by the final words Robert Smith says (quietly): "I am Mersault".


I wrote a paper comparing Camus' writing technique to the song and was allowed to bring a tape with the song to class to include in my presentation.


Imagine the scene: 20 or so relatively serious students in a classroom (the typical multinational mix you would expect in an international school somewhere in Asia). I'm wearing white trousers and a light blue t-shirt with the Rossignol brand on my chest. Yes, I was very serious about my position as the European sports jock - not that I made any varsity teams (but then alpine skiing was one sport I at least could pretend that I would have been really good at...).


So, one minute I'm that guy, the next minute half the class is staring wide eyed at me, and Eric (I think his name was) exclaims "You listen to THIS type of music?!?".


And I realise, right then and there, that music was the platform I needed to build my personal brand. 


Yes, I listen to that type of music.


I don't think I ever wore that Rossignol t-shirt again.


Album version (with "I am Mersault" 2:07 into the song, listen very carefully), poor quality.



Single version

Previous defining influences or influencers:
7. First singles

6. In the car

5. The collective

Remaining defining influences or influencers:
3. DJ
2. Jerome
1. The tapes

7 defining influences: #5 The collective

This the is countdown of the seven most important influences or influencers that formed me and who I am today - when it comes to music.

I spent three or four of my university years living in a collective. The apartment housed three (and a half) students and when adventurous Hagar moved out E. and I decided to have a look att a tall bloke who had just moved into one of the dormitory's a few floors down.

The interview was a serious affair. Two issues needed to be resolved: was he interested in moving in, and what music did he listen to.

He answered "yes" on the first, and "pop" on the second.

We returned back to the apartment and discussed what to do. What exactly did he mean by pop? What if, I argued, he turned up with a bunch of Michael Jackson records, or maybe even Back Street Boys? Was it worth the risk? I'm not sure E. was equally concerned, I actually think he might have liked the idea of somebody normal getting on my nerves a bit...

I remember feeling very grown up when we decided to take him aboard despite not having mapped out his taste in music. I even think I thought to myself that I might learn something new, even if it did mean listening to Michael Jackson.

Turned out that M. was a perfect match. "Pop" equaled the Beatles, Pixies, Ride, Breeders, Eggstone - a bunch of stuff I was well acquainted with and a whole bunch of stuff that I needed to get acquainted to.

It also turned out that M. became quite an influence, teaching me to appreciate country and softer guitar pop than I was accustomed too. He was always prepared to challenge any of my beliefs, and always ready to test different projects. Like listening to Frank Sinatra on old vinyls for a whole weekend.

Or like the time Kravitz released "Are you gonna go my way?" This was the time before mp3's and unlimited access, and often record companies would release new singles to MTV and radio stations before they were available in record stores.

We both considered that track to be the best thing to happen R'n'R for ages, and after a long night on the town we came back to the apartment, put on MTV and decided to wait until they played the video. We waited a good 4 hours, watched Lenny's drummer with the big black glasses and went to bed without saying a word.

I'm convinced the years in the collective opened my ears to a lot of music I would otherwise have been deaf to. But I still categorize people according to music taste. There are friends, and then there are FRIENDS.

Previous defining influences or influencers:
7. First singles

6. In the car

Remaining defining influences or influencers:
4. The stranger
3. DJ
2. Jerome
1. The tapes

I'm really old

Rolling Stone's readers have voted their top 10 albums from the 90's. Check out the list here.

My first reaction was that I could have lived with 5 of these albums on the best ever list, but then again,  I had a lot of time to listen to music in the 90's.

OK Computer, Nevermind, Achtung Baby, Siamese Dream, What's the morning glory; in fact, all groups behind these albums par G'n'R (who I loved to hate) and Pearl Jam (no relationship) belong to my absolute favorites of all times.

Interesting that Smashing Pumpkins managed to get 2 albums onto to the list - overall I would consider Radiohead the bigger act but I guess it is a matter of debate if their best work came in the 90's or after.

The interesting thing is something completely different though. I was in a sushi bar the other day and heard music by Suede (where are they on the list?), Green Day and some other act from the 90's. I asked the guy behind the counter if he was in charge of the music and he said: "No, it's the radio channel Classic Rock!".

Classic Rock? CLASSIC rock? WTF?!?

I thought classic rock was Led Zeppelin et al. Good music, but OLD.

Apparently I'm old.

Tom is a clown

New single on youTube and album for d/l now!

Check out the new Radiohead single "Lotus Flower" here:



and go to www.thekingoflimbs.com/ to download the album.

Single reminds me of Thom Yorke's solo work. Amusing video, don't think I've ever seen Thom do the role of a dancing clown before.

Here here!

Radiohead just announced that they are releasing a new album - this weekend!

As if I wasn't already looking forward to the end of the week...

Three Radiohead favorites: