Category: Music

Shuffle mode

In lieu of a substantive post, here’s what iTunes recently thought I wanted to hear:

1. “Drug Train,” The Cramps
2. “Vingt Regards sur l’enfant Jésus: Regard du Fils sur le Fils,” Olivier Messiaen/Michel Béroff
3. “Hide and Seek,” Curved Air
4. “Piano Sonata in B minor, S.178 – Lento assai – Allegro energico – Grandioso – Recitativo,” Franz Liszt/Jorge Bolet
5. “Echo Sonata for Two Unfriendly Groups of Instruments,” P.D.Q. Bach
6. “3cm,” Yoko Kanno; Macross Plus OST
7. “Birds of Fire,” Mahavishnu Orchestra
8. “Sugar Plums,” Dometsch Ensemble/Elizabeth Poston/Felix Aprahamian/Lionel Salter/Eric Thompson/Peter Hemmings/Robert Ponsonby (Hoffnung Music Festival)
9. “A Quick One While He’s Away,” The Who
10. “Black Magic Woman (Live),” Fleetwood Mac
11. “I’ve Got a Feeling,” Pentangle
12. “Elephant Stomp,” Jennifer Batten & Tribal Rage
13. “Go Go Cactus Man,” Seatbelts (i.e., Yoko Kanno)
14. “Oh Well (Live),” Fleetwood Mac
15. “El Rayo-X,” David Lindley
16. “Sahara,” Sky
17. “St. Mary’s (12 String),” Adrian Legg
18. “Mizuumi,” Mayumi Kojima
19. “Next Stop Earth,” Steve Vai
20. “Sun Medley: Mystery Train/My Baby Left Me/That’s All Right,” Danny Gatton
21. “Concerto in A Minor for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 53: I. Allegro ma non troppo,” Dvorák/Southwest German Radio Symphony Orchestra
22. “Clarinet Polka,” Brave Combo
23. “Coal Boxes and Daisy Cutters,” Boud Deun
24. “My Monkey-no Satogaeri,” Mayumi Kojima
25. “Palladium,” Weather Report

That was fun, I guess. Let’s do it again:

1. “Taxicab,” Bunky and Jake
2. “Prelude #17 In A Flat, Op. 28/17,” Chopin/Martha Argerich
3. “Supercell Track 04,” Ryo (featuring Hatsune Miku)
4. “Yubiwa,” Yoko Kanno & Hajime Mizoguchi; Escaflowne Movie OST
5. “Is This Mexico or What?,” Stephen Bennett
6. “La Huida de Los Amantes por el Valle de los Ecos,” Leo Brouwer / Michael Chapdelaine
7. “Free Bird – Mahiru no tsuki heto,” Itou Masumi & Ueno Youko ((Not to be confused with the Lynyrd Skynyrd ode to masculine irresponsibility — this is an entirely different and much better song from an “image” album associated with Haibane Renmei.))
8. “The Guitar Rag,” Pat Kirtley
9. “Yoake Mae,” Yoshino Yuuji; Spice and Wolf OST
10. “Prism,” Ikeda Ayako; Dennou Coil OST
11. “Lovers Are Crazy,” Steve Vai
12. “Hunting Tigers Out in Indiah,” Bonzo Dog Band
13. “Truth Ola,” Steve Morse
14. “Hashiru,” Yoshino Yuuji; Spice and Wolf OST
15. “Searchlight Rag,” Scott Joplin/William Albright
16. “Bank On Me,” Yuki Kajiura; Madlax OST 2
17. “Piece Of Mind,” Curved Air
18. “Ab la dolchor del temps novel,” Camerata Mediterranea/Joel Cohen
19. “Kalamak Ya Habibi,” George Wassouf (from a sampler of Middle East music)
20. “Hikari Sake,” Masuda Toshio; Mushishi OST
21. “Chopin: Impromptu #4 In C Sharp Minor, Op. 66, CT 46, “Fantaisie-Impromptu”,” Murray Perahia
22. “Dancing In The Street,” The Mamas & The Papas
23. “Under The Double Eagle,” Asleep at the Wheel
24. “Idol Talk,” Yoko Kanno; Macross Plus OST 2
25. “Variations on ‘Annie Laurie’: Variation 3 (Alla gigolo),” Festival Ensemble/Gordon Jacob (Hoffnung Music Festival)

Just wondering: does anyone else remember Bunky and Jake?

The universal language

I wasn’t able to go to Winfield this year, so I only just now discovered that the winner of the International Fingerstyle Guitar Championship last Thursday evening was Akihiro Tanaka of Kyoto. He took second place last year, and I caught his main stage performance then.

Update: The international language II

Old-time music has its followers in Japan. Some friends of mine recently discovered one of their videos on this bulletin board. (See item #104.)

Fifteen in fifteen

Blame John Salmon and Terry Teachout for this.

The rules: Don’t take too long to think about it — choose fifteen albums you’ve heard that will always stick with you. List the first fifteen you can recall in no more than fifteen minutes. (These aren’t favorite albums, necessarily, just the fifteen that will always stick with you.)

Mahavishnu Orchestra, Birds of Fire

Chopin, Waltzes (I forget who played on the first recording I heard. It was a record I found in the University of Dallas library back in ancient times.)

Bach/Isolde Algrimm, Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I, first disc (This and the next were other records in the UD library that I frequently checked out.)

Songs by Tom Lehrer

Simon and Garfunkel, Bookends

Fairport Convention, Liege and Lief

Nitty Gritty Dirt Band et al, Will the Circle Be Unbroken?

Beethoven/Claudio Arrau, The Last Four Piano Sonatas

Dan Hicks and the Hot Licks, Last Train to Hicksville

Norman Blake, Whiskey Before Breakfast

Don Ross, Bearing Straight

Pentangle, Basket of Light

Mothers of Invention, Absolutely Free

Scott Joplin/Joshua Rifkin, Piano Rags (The first disc, with the green cover.)

King Crimson, Discipline

Blame the ducks

Specifically, GreyDuck and Wonderduck.

1. If you’d like to play along, reply to this post and I’ll assign you a letter.
2. You then list (and upload or link to the video, if you feel like it) 5 songs that start with that letter.
3. Then, as I’m doing here, you’ll post the list to your journal with the instructions.

So here are five tunes in the key of H. I’ll skip the obvious ones — you all know “Highway Star” and “Hardware Store,” right? And “Harold the Barrel” and “Happy Jack”? These you might not have heard before.

Ghost Hound was a major disappointment. I expected so much more from the Lain veterans. But the opening did introduce me to singer Mayumi Kojima. ((Some of her recent recordings can be found at amazon.com, but they don’t show her at her best.))
Mayumi Kojima, “Himawari”

[audio:http://tancos.net/audio/himawari.mp3]

The Webb Wilder Credo: “Work hard, rock hard, eat hard, sleep hard, grow big, wear glasses if you need ’em.”
Webb Wilder, “Human Cannonball”

[audio:http://tancos.net/audio/Human Cannonball.mp3]

Here are John Jorgenson, Will Ray and Jerry Donohue, and lots of guitar.
The Hellecasters, “Highlander Boogie”

[audio:http://tancos.net/audio/Highlander Boogie.mp3]

To clear your ears, here is some finger-picking from a Winfield veteran.
Pete Huttlinger, “Hortensia”

[audio:http://tancos.net/audio/Hortensia.mp3]

Let’s finish up with a classic anatidian tune.
Raymond Scott, “Huckleberry Duck”

[audio:http://tancos.net/audio/Huckleberry Duck.mp3]

Here’s a more recent recording by David Bagsby and Kurt Rongey, alias “XEN.”

[audio:http://tancos.net/audio/Xen – Huckleberry Duck.mp3]

*****

Bonus H tune: What show does this come from?

[audio:http://tancos.net/audio/mystery H tune.mp3]

Want to play? Leave a note in the comments, and I’ll give you a letter.

Memo to every singer-songwriter who performs at open-mic nights

Passion and sincerity are cheap. If you want to hold my attention, show me craftmanship. Write lyrics that scan, fit them to actual melodies, and sing on key. Learn how to play your guitar, not just strum chords. Maybe then I won’t passionately and sincerely loathe hearing you.

*****

Memo to everyone who enjoys old-time fiddle music: If you ever have a chance to hear Chirps Smith, drop everything and go.

Make chimpanzee noises and hide the otter

I recently discovered that John Stump, the composer of “Faerie’s Aire and Death Waltz,” wrote other pieces of music, including the “String Quartet in A Minor (Motoring Accident).” A tribute to Stump, with scans of his scores, can be found here.

More remarkable scores can be seen here, here and here. Some of them have been performed.

The Kabuki mullet and root-level physics

More than you ever wanted to know about the Japanese music industry.

(Via Anime Instrumentality Blog.)

Speaking of mullets …

*****

In case there is anyone on the planet who still hasn’t seen the grandest of all Pythagorean devices:

Here’s a story and some videos about it.

(Via Steven Riddle.)

Update: here’s another noteworthy contraption currently under construction:

(Via the Borderline Sociopath.)