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Bluesman R.L. Burnside dies at 78

R.L. Burnside, one of the last, great Mississippi bluesmen, whose raw, country blues was discovered late in his life, has died. He was 78.

Burnside died Thursday morning at the St. Francis Hospital in Memphis His health had been declining for some time, said Matthew Johnson, owner of Burnside's record label, Fat Possum.

I found R.L. by way of the Jon Spenser Blues Explosion. I now have three Burnside discs (A Ass Pocket of Whiskey, Mr. Wizard, and Come on In) -- all of which I enjoy, though I can imagine they would be for everyone. Of the three, Mr. Wizard would probably be my pick.

This monkey's gone to Heaven

Misfits that fit

Deal got married and moved to Boston. "I'd lived in Boston for one week and I got this paper called the Boston Phoenix that had ads in the back. A lot of them are, like, 'Bring your chops [talent], must have own van.' Which means, basically, they're looking for someone with a van, because they don't have their own transportation." But one ad caught her eye. "It said: 'Looking for female bassist, high harmony, must like Hüsker Dü, Peter Paul & Mary, no chops.' I thought it was really cool. And I called the people. I'd never done this before. Or since. And I found out from Joe on this tour I was the only one who actually answered that ad."

Good little article about the Pixies with plenty of history and a lot about how the reunion came about. God, I love those kids!

Singing Wings

Just because I did nothing with my aerospace engineering degree doesn't mean I ignore the cool stuff from that field: 'Singing' wings help prevent small-plane stalls

In wind tunnel tests, Salmon stuck sections of plastic piezo-electric film to wing segments. This film vibrates when an electrical signal is applied, producing sound.

Tests using a barely audible sinusoidal tone of about 400 hertz showed a 22% increase in lift, compared with a standard wing. This could translate into a few extra seconds of time for a pilot to boost a plane’s speed before it stalls, says Salmon. The simple tones worked best, though Salmon did experiment: “I can say that songs by the band Spiderbait are more effective than Radiohead’s.�

Spiderbait?! Way to plug the virtually unknown (in the US, at least) Aussie band, Qantas dude! Truth be told I went through a huge unknown Aussie music phase in college. Can't say I stuck with any of the artists I got into back then, but at the time some of my favorite tracks were on those freebie tapes I got a CollegeFest in the Hynes Convention Center.

Back to the airplane stuff... Once, while hiking on Mt. Washington, I saw a couple gliders buzzing around the summit. Literally: their wings were vibrating in the updraft (I assume), causing a high-pitched hum. No piezo-electric plastic involved with that, but it was really cool to me.

Nine Inch Nails: With Teeth

While my reaction is quite as extreme as the one at Tiny Mix Tapes, I do have to say I'm a bit disappointed with Trent's latest. What it boils down to it this: The first single from With Teeth, "The Hand That Feeds" is the best song.

That's a shame. The first single should never be the best song (or maybe "the only good song" is a better way to put it) on a disc.

I'm not saying it's a horrible album, I'm just saying I wish it was all as good as the single.

Bang the drum slowly

Pardon me for being shallow (especially considering the context in which I found this story), but Suphala is totally hot.

There have been a few compromises. Suphala - the name means fruitfulness in Sanskrit - dropped her last name, Patankar, for simplicity's sake. In the photographs accompanying her CD, "The Now," she's clad in Jean Paul Gauthier and Dolce & Gabbana and displays a J. Lo-style make-over.

As much as I like the pretty lady, I also dig that tabla sound. I might even consider buying the disc except:

One song, "The Lover," contains a mix of the voices of Antonio Banderas and Melanie Griffith reading a Deepak Chopra translation of a poem by Rabindranath Tagore.

Um. Ouch. Giant turn-off, thanks.

Actually, after listening to a couple sample tracks at Giant Step, I don't think I'm all that interested. The sample on her site doesn't do much for me either.

Media Consumption

Just a quick catch up on stuff I've enjoyed lately:

  • I just finished reading The Tipping Point by Malcom Gladwell. I'm late to this game, but I highly recommend the book. Even if you're not interested in marketing per se, the lessons in the book will help you look at things in a different way. That's always a good thing. I was also tickled when the tipping point notion was referenced in an episode of Numb3rs, which is not a bad show at all, btw. Malcom's Blink is in my queue, too.
  • Right now, I am reading Freakonomics, which I picked up after seeing it on Kottke. I'm already enjoying it a lot, as it has touched on a couple examples related to the ones in The Tipping Point, but from a totally different angle. There's a Freakonomics blog that may be worth watching.
  • I'm still marinating in A Whole New Mind. I can honestly say that it has impacted the way I approach certain situations at work. This is a good thing. The author, Dan Pink, also has a blog related to the subject matter of the book on his site
  • I caught Velvet Goldmine on the TiVo. Wow. I really loved it. I suppose it could put you off if you're not down with the boy-on-boy lovin', but I enjoyed the heck out of it. (As noted before, I'm a total sucker for almost anything with Ewan McGregor in it.) I might even consider picking up the soundtrack.
  • Then there's the Matisyahu. Man, that guy makes me happy.
  • I am also digging the Kaiser Chiefs album.

OK, that's it. Carry on.

Matisyahu Rocks the Reggae Beats

I usually sit in smug judgement of VH1's Best Week Ever: "Seen it. Heard it. Yeah, I know about that. Big deal." I mean, I live on the internets. Plus, thanks to the brother-in-law, I know people who work on TV shows and stuff. I hear about things, yo. Well, not today. Today they featured an act that set me on fire. His name is Matisyahu, he is a Hasidic Jew, and he sings some funky fresh reggae, raps and rocks a killer beatbox. It's amazing.

Combining the sounds of Bob Marley and Shlomo Carlebach, yet remaining wholly original, Matisyahu's performance is an uplifting, powerful experience for all in his presence. Even the most pessimistic in his audience is inspired by his ability to so honestly convey such a delicate, topic as faith/spirituality. It is his dedication to his belief and openness to others that compels one to respect his artistry and message. It's in that fleeting moment when our skepticism melts and our souls open up, that Matisyahu enters with his booming sound of faith.

So check it out:

  • Here's an empeethree sample.
  • Heavy Radio is obnoxious, but features a full preview of his latest album.
  • Matis killed on Jimmy Kimmel's show.
  • MentalBlog has a ton of links to other videos, etc.
  • If you like what you see/hear, you can buy the disc at Amazon. (Sample clips)
  • Or you can do like I did and get both of Matisyahu's CDs direct for JDub Records. (More samples)
  • My favorite thing ever is in this article (PDF):

    Any plans for other collaborations? I have a lot of ideas. I did this performance with this guy Kenny Mohammed [sic], he’s a beatboxer, and a pretty famous guy. He’s a Muslim guy. I have a thing I would like to put together: a Rasta, an Arabic dude and myself. And do a project, even a song, like a more pop-y kind of song, something like that.

    Kenny Muhammad (aka the Human Orchestra) is the beatboxer you may have seen making the rounds on the intarweb performing in front of an actual orchestra (the NY Philharmonic, it turns out).

Update: There are tons of live recordings at the Internet Archive. Get to downloading!

Good Music in Beantown

Hawaiian punch: Waitiki throws a Polynesian party to play the music of Juan Garcia Esquivel

Tonight at the Lizard Lounge in Cambridge, Waitiki is presenting a very special show, even by Waitiki standards. The group will swell to a 20-piece ensemble, dubbed Waitiki Orchestrotica, for a rare live performance of the ''supersonic space-age bachelor pad" sounds of the late Juan Garcia Esquivel, variously known as the King of Lounge, Mexico's Duke Ellington, and -- oxymoronic though it may sound -- an easy-listening innovator.

Fantasic. The music scene is one of the main things I miss about Boston. And you gotta love any band that travels with its own drink menu.

I wonder if/when Waitiki will have a disc out for us land-locked folks... Or if they will ever travel west of Pittsburg.

The early 90's called...

... They want their music back. First we have the surviving members of Alice in Chains reuniting for a tsunami benfit:

Along with Damageplan singer Pat Lachman, they will take the stage of Seattle's Premier club on February 18th. The relief concert will also feature fellow Seattleites Krist Novoselic of Nirvana, Ann Wilson of Heart, Sir Mix-A-Lot, Christ DeGarmo of Queensryche and members of world music group Children of the Revolution.

(Is it just me, or is Seattle getting a little sad?)

Then there's this: Did you realize Us3 released more than one record and are still around? Hip trip, flip fantasia, indeed!

Eleven years after scoring a Top Ten hit with "Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia)" by sampling Herbie Hancock, Us3 are sampling themselves. The London collective -- set to release its fourth album, Questions, in the U.S. on April 26th -- now has a nine-piece live band creating jazz grooves to mix with its hip-hop beats.

Biddy-biddy-bop!

Where the ladies at?

'For the briefest of moments the genie was out of the bottle'

By the mid-Nineties female-led rock bands were everywhere. Sleeper, Elastica, Catatonia, Belly, The Breeders and Hole. Courtney Love was the new Janis Joplin, PJ Harvey was the new Patti Smith. We played as loud as the boys and partied harder. It felt potent. Liberating. Modern. For the briefest of moments, the genie was out of the bottle.

Fast forward 10 years and there's barely a female rock voice left. Of the 23 categories contested at this year's NME awards, a British female artist is nominated in only one: World's Sexiest Women. How has it come to this? Where is the female Alex Kapranos? Where are the female Razorlight? Didn't we make it easy for girls to become rock musicians and gain the respect of their male peers?

H has been bemoaning this quite a bit lately (since she got an iPod, really). It is rather curious.

B Tom still alive?!

This Red Sox update caught my eye for completely non-baseball-related reasons:

With nearly all of his free agent comings and goings completed by Christmas, Epstein actually found time to take a few days off around New Year's, play some guitar with rockers Buffalo Tom and devote his Sundays to following his beloved New England Patriots.

What?! Buffalo Tom is still kicking around?! Cool!

B Tom was one of my favorite Boston bands during my college years. One of my best concert experiences was seeing them at the Paradise — My buddy and I ended up sitting on the stage, Indian-style, for the whole show. Bill Janovitz could have spit on us, but luckily he's too nice a guy to do that. ;)