OK Go, “This Too Shall Pass”
Didn’t really like this song when I first heard it. (To be honest, didn’t really like OK Go the first time I heard them, either.) Saved — in a huge way — by the video which is simply tremendous and goofy and awesome all at the same time.
The Pixies, “Head On”
The Jesus and Mary Chain is an excellent, excellent band — but this version of the song just thoroughly pounds the snot out of your brain. Yeah.
We didn’t have a soundcheck last week because I was in Ucluelet getting very cold and somewhat wet. But we can have one this week (even though I’m in Port McNeill… getting very cold and snowed on — ah, north island)! And here we have “Hard Rain,” by the Shout Out Louds:
This is another band that I discovered a couple years after they hit the scene, so to speak, and I am still angry that it took me as long as it did to find out about them. “Hard Rain” was the first song I heard by them, and it’s still my favorite. Oh, and as a bonus, the video is shot in Tokyo. Enjoy!
We’re back. After a week of unanticipated downtime, precipitated by database problems — yes, again — and exacerbated by my being on the road pretty much continuously the last two weeks, I’ve managed to restore the blog to perfect working order. (Remember to back up your work, kids.) Not that anyone likely noticed or anything, this blog having all of about four readers. Anyway, we work again. Yes! A proud moment.
I note I am preparing to plunge into the pit of despair that is Amazon Web Services in an attempt to get back into the “this is a real computer” hosting game. Though perhaps that’s not strictly accurate, since AWS doesn’t actually offer, um, real computers. Sort of. Anyway.
We missed a Soundcheck Sunday, so here’s a late one for mid-week: Florence + The Machine, “Dog Days Are Over”
Ignore the video; it’s really silly. That voice is ridiculously amazing. How I was unaware of Florence Welch and her work before some time last week is clearly somebody’s fault, and I’m going to take it out on whoever that was.
Allison Crowe, “Hallelujah”
Though most people who are serious about their music would rate Jeff Buckley’s version more highly — and there is really something magnificent and mesmerizing about the Buckley cover — I have a soft spot for Crowe’s cover. Her voice reminds me of a young k.d. lang, and there’s a simplicity about the way she’s arranged the piano work in this piece that uncovers another side to the song.
Dreams Come True (Featuring Fuzzy Control), その先へ
This is a maddeningly catchy piece of J-Pop whose lyrics I will leave you to research on your own. This would have been posted yesterday, but some miscreant scribbled all over the database, again, so I got to spend my night rebuilding things. Yay. Anyway, I encountered this track the last time I was in Japan, over the closing credits of a thoroughly silly yet technically rather accurate Japanese version of “ER” (“Kyumei Byoto 24-ji,” for those of you with a penchant for looking stuff up), and sadly it has remained stuck in my head ever since.
Interested in that thing the video is shot on? So are other people.
Otis Taylor, “Nasty Letter”
Pink Floyd, “Learning to Fly”
Note that this video was shot in Southern Alberta, and a good chunk of it was shot at CYYC!
I deeply, deeply, love this song. The album version is staggeringly good, probably better than the live version I’ve embedded above — the amount of emotion is just phenomenal.
(Funny story: I discovered Martha Wainwright one morning at 05:10 waking up to some very bizarre very early morning program on CBC radio, something we used to get before the morning shows started. I seem to remember that it was produced out of Kelowna or something silly like that, but the guy who was doing the music picks had ridiculously good taste — Sarah Slean, Neko Case, Martha, Broken Social Scene… Who knew. I guess there’s a kind of freedom doing radio programming when only the weirdos are up and listening!)
(that didn’t post on Sunday, for some inexplicable, WordPress-related reason)
Emmylou Harris, “Every Grain of Sand”
(This is a much better version than Dylan’s original, as far as I’m concerned.)