Author Archives: KulturBlogGuest
Halloween Pop
by S.P. Bailey
I like Halloween. I like costumes. I like fun size candy bars. I like scary stories—you better believe I will be busting out the Poe come Saturday. I also like the pop music. These are my top three: Read the rest of this entry
RIP Reading Rainbow
by S.P. Bailey
Story here. I watched Reading Rainbow as a kid. Now my kids love it. It’s hard to believe they are failing to renew it due to bland stuff like Word World and Super Why. Why, PBS, why?
Rank the solo careers of the four Beatles
by Brian V
In order of your preference, please. This has nothing to do with any of the songs they wrote, sang, or whatever while in the Beatles – I’m mainly interested in what people think of the solo stuff.
I’ll go first:
1. Paul – He gets a bad reputation because he tended towards treacly, over-sentimental stuff both in and out of the Beatles, but he’s hands-down the most interesting of the four. Pretty decent arguments could be made about his first 2 albums (literally homemade, playing 99% of the instruments himself, with weird, half-finished experiments sitting alongside pop gems like Maybe I’m Amazed) being a large influence on the lo-fi indie-pop thing that happened in the 80s and 90s. The highly-underrated Wild Life and the classic Band on the Run are also very worthy of your attention. And while it’s true that he’s been not very good in the last few decades, he does surprise you every once in awhile with something like 1999′s Run Devil Run, where he covers some of his favorite 50s rock songs. The whole thing isn’t great, but the 1/3 to 1/2 that is good is almost punk-rock in its approach and execution (see the title track, She Said Yeah, I Got Stung, and Honey Hush if you need proof).
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2. George – All Things Must Pass is far and away my favorite solo Beatle project, but I’ve ranked George at #2 because it’s the only one of his albums that I really like. Granted, my collection is missing Gone Troppo, but I’m fairly confident that it wouldn’t move him past Paul.
http://www.seeqpod.com/cache/seeqpodSlimlineEmbed.swf
3. John – A good portion of my favorite Beatles material is John’s, but remember, we’re talking solo. His first solo album, Plastic Ono Band, is a classic. About half of his second album, Imagine, is good, but the slide into mediocrity has already begun. Beyond that, you’re looking at a few good singles (#9 Dream, Mind Games, Jealous Guy) swimming in a sea of over-produced light rock. His oldies album, Rock & Roll, is totally smoked by Paul’s Run Devil Run.
http://www.seeqpod.com/cache/seeqpodSlimlineEmbed.swf
4. Ringo – I’m actually putting him here by default since I’m pretty unfamiliar with his solo stuff other than a song or two.
2007 Movies that were Better than Michael Clayton
by Roasted Tomatoes
So, the nominations for this year’s Academy Awards were announced early this morning. The Best Picture Nominees are: Atonement, Juno, No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood, and Michael Clayton. In one sense, this is a very good list. The Academy usually finds a way to nominate at least one horrible film, and that seems not to have happened this year. And yet… Michael Clayton? Read the rest of this entry
Concert Review: The Swell Season, Washington DC, 11/18/2007
by matt b.
The Swell Season is Marketa Irglova, the 19 year old Czech piano prodigy and singer, and Glen Hansard, frontman of the Irish alternative band the Frames (strictly speaking, “The Swell Season” is the title of the album the two released). They’re backed up by a bass, a cello, and a violin, which makes for the same distinctive, slightly folky sound that the Frames have. However, the Season is on the whole quieter and more contemplative than the Frames are. They recorded the album before beginning work on the film Once, which starred Irglova and Hansard as two musicians beaten down by the dreariness of Dublin life who inspire each other to seek happiness and make music. Much of the work on the album was used in the film. They played Washington DC the night of November 18. Read the rest of this entry
How Do You Tattoo Music?
by jenma
Okay, I want to get a tattoo representing music. I have quite a few tattoos already and they are all well done (i was even fortunate to win a couple awards and be in a magazine – that’s my 15 minutes of fame!). So, I’m coming to you guys with a request. I am looking to get a tattoo that represents what music means to me. But I am having a problem with trying to define music with an image. I would like to avoid anything stereotypical like a guitar with wings, or a music note, etc. I am very passionate about the music I listen to but do not claim to be an expert by any means, so I also don’t want anything that would make someone think i’m a blues, jazz, metal freak, you know? Anyone have any ideas?
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Philip Glass and Leonard Cohen, Together at Last
by Roasted Tomatoes
Last night, I heard a performance of the recently-debuted collaboration between Philip Glass and Leonard Cohen, Book of Longing. The piece provides a musical setting for some twenty poems. The poems are by Cohen, the famous Canadian singer-songwriter (who, for example, wrote the song “Hallelujah” that shows up in the first Shrek movie at the point when all of the main characters are separated and depressed) and sometime Buddhist monk. Glass, composer of various operas, symphonies, film scores (The Thin Red Line, Notes on a Scandal, The Hours, Kundun, The Illusionist, Candyman, etc.), and less traditional musical forms, supplies the orchestral and vocal score. Read the rest of this entry
Blogging the RS 500: 490-481
by Roasted Tomatoes
Brown Sugar, The Rolling Stones, 1971. My experience in listening to this song is entirely dominated by its horrifying lyrics, which draw on imagery involving the slave trade, including slave owners’ violence toward slaves, for erotic purposes. Clearly, there is a (very successful!) effort at violating taboos at work here. Yet the deliberate taboo-breaking in this song creates its own terrible consequences, since it suggests that the lyricist sees interracial sex — the central topic of the song — as fundamentally as taboo a topic as slavery and sexual violence. I think it is, and perhaps should be, impossible to really get past this racially-loaded material and appreciate the music through which it is presented. Read the rest of this entry
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