House of Jorob

Jamming With Edward!

When I was younger--I was something like 12 or 13--I had a cassette copy of "Jamming With Edward!", an album featuring Mick Jagger, Bill Wyman, Ry Cooder, Charlie Watts, and Nicky Hopkins.

That cassette had some of the kickingest piano jams on it, and there was one piece at the end of the second half called Highland Fling that just ripped.

I realize now it sounded like the rest of the guys were tossing back a few between songs, and from the few reviews of the album that I can find these days, not many people cared for the resulting tracks.

But to me, and to my young mind just beginning to fight against having to listen to AM radio chosen by my parents (WIP, anybody?), that sloppy album with the Smiling Guy on the cover represented something far more.

It was freedom.

Nano today

Nano Day 9: 14,458.

Had one of those days where a minor character popped onto the scene out of nowhere. Have to explore this!

Woodstock: 40 Years After

They're gathering at Yasgur's Farm in New York this weekend, kicking off a grand music festival of peace, love and rock and roll....

Please.

Stop.

Woodstock is over.

It's been over for almost half a century.

That's what 40 years is.

<sigh>

Okay.

I'll lighten up.

The concert is the Bethel Woods Music Festival.

I guess the Faithful can't be blamed for wanting to hear at least a passing resemblance of what their musical heroes sound like live.

So, rock on.

Even if it is for only one more day.

Still, I can't seem to shake the mental image of the line of ambulances needed to carry all the stroke and heart attack victims out of the place when the sun's finished baking the over-sixties types.

Mad Avenue Blues: American Pie

I love a good parody.
Even one that's over nine minutes long.
There are 19 stanzas making up L McDuff's spoof-song, and every one's dead on.
Vocalist Kevin Osbourne's work is up to the task, he doesn't get in the way of the lyric.

McDuff says he wrote his lyrics and produced the vid in just one day.

Wow.

Released in early June, the tunes been viewed 121,000 times.(performed by vocalist Kevin Osbourne)

So bye, bye those big upfront buys.
Pitched my client who was pliant
But the pitch didn't fly.....

Julia Nunes: A Voice, A Ukelele, and a Whole Buncha YouTube

I developed an addiction during the early days of MTV.

When it played music.

MTV being what it is in this century, I don't support my habit there, very often.

But I still have the jones for music vids.

Among other places, I troll YouTube for music.

And there I found Julia Nunes.

She's got a pile of vids on Youtube.

All set in her dorm room, playing her ukelele and singing.

Lots of covers.

Seriously.

Some of them have over a million views.

So I kinda sat up and took notice when one of my fave blog sites recently picked her up as one of the best examples of Internet Wonderful-ness.

Seems she's opened for Ben Folds, is on tour in England, and has an her second album out, entitled I Wrote These.

I love it when talent blossoms.

Rosa Sat.....and Amy sings

Rosa Sat went up on YouTube about four months ago. 

It's had over a quarter-million views since then.

That's 1,950-plus viewers per day.

I get excited when I track 45 viewers in a week.

Amy Dixon-Kolar's song is clicking along, so what's a good musician to do?

Tour.

And so to St. Luke's and the Epiphany for a performance May 30 in Philadelphia.

The chorus of the song has some history.

Including arguments over who put the words together first.

Some quite....lively.

Best summary I could find belongs to Ben Brown.

He's tracked the morphing of the thing back from when it first surfaced almost a year ago.

But he can't sing like Amy.

Wizards in Winter Light Show

This is Carson Williams's 2004 light show.

The original. 

Visitors to the neighborhood heard the sound track by tuning their car radios to the FM channel he was broadcasting his music over--he posted a sign out front with the frequency.

The tune is Wizards in Winter.

The holiday house display spawned a whole bunch of imitators, and got glommed by a beer company.

Williams has gone on to bigger things--read about them here.

Wizards in Winter belongs to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra.

Who might actually have a new album out before too long.

<sigh>.

Perfectionists.

What can you do?

Chinese Democracy. No. Really. It's Coming.

As a public service to those who weren't born yet when the last album was released, here's a quick bio.

Chinese Democracy finally has a release date of November 23, 2008. Head to your local Best Buy, because that's the only place you're going to be able to get it. Gotta love those excluse release contracts.

This is the first collection of new material from the band since 1991, and the first album since 1993.

The band's press release is here.

A link-filled blog post is here.

I had a different wife, a different address, no cell phone, and a different car when the songs from the Use Your Illusion I and II albums were on the charts.

I gotta tell ya. After all this time, it's hard to get excited about the new album.

Everything That Happens: Brand New Music from David Byrne and Brian Eno

David Byrne and Brian Eno. Everything That Happens Will Happen Today. Brand new music!!

All of the songs are streaming for free right now, and the album itself is for sale in all kinds of formats--including CDs for any luddites out there. Right now, there's also an offer to download one free MP3 from the album too.

Go here and listen: http://www.everythingthathappens.com/

I tried to embed the player, 'cause they're giving away the code for it, but I kept screwing that up. It looks like its working now, but I'm leaving the link up there just in case.

It's okay, because the songs start streaming as soon as you get there.

Give a listen. And rejoice that there is good music.