What Are You Listening To Right Now? #25

Oh the dulcet tones of David Bowie. May he rest in peace.

 

two of my favorites (one featuring a guy who grew up fairly close to my home)


and one of his earliest songs

 

That seems like a pretty non- specific category; though I guess that depends on the particular parents, in question. But what does that imply, of the song, in this case-- just that it seemed less consonant, and louder, to the older generation?

In high school, I liked two new songs, on the radio, by Elvis Costello: "The Only Flame," & "Every Day I Write the Book." This was before I'd explored Costello's work, and become a big fan. I'd mentioned my liking of one of these songs, to my younger, but more socially popular, sister, who was both amused, and willing to help, exclaiming, "That's old people music!"

So I tend to shy away from prejudicial sounding categorizing.

 

this guys voice ...wth!

 

the farewell performance of a band i never heard of before. going on my 'driving' playlist

 

this guys voice too!

 

oof... sad

 

Piano fans, I want to share an excellent, young pianist, whom I just discovered (for myself, that is-- the music world already knew of her, I think). I'd been looking for a rendition of one of the most beautiful pieces of music I know, the 3rd Movement of Chopin's Sonata in b minor. Out of about a dozen pianists I'd so far listened to on You Tube, Juhee Lim easily came the closest to being the whole package, of technical prowess, combined with interpretative sensitivity; she did the best at striking the right tones of character, and bringing the appropriate color, to the many shades of feeling, inundating this work of piano genius.

This recording, though, is for the entire Sonata, of 4 movements, which is just over 24 minutes long. I'd recommend listening to the whole thing, but if you want to jump to the third movement (which is around 8 minutes long), it starts right about in the middle, after what I would describe as a circusy sounding ending, to the second movement.





Judging from a quick perusal of the 21st century winners, of a top competition for young pianists, It is very interesting to see that women appear to finally be coming into their own, among concert pianists. In fact, to be honest, I would not normally even expect an Asian pianist to be as likely to really "get," a piece of Western music, as someone coming from a similar ethnic background, as the composer.

Asians have been rated top performers, for a good while now, but my general impression has been that they their sharpness tends to be more on the technical side of things. There are, however, exceptions, as Ms. Lim demonstrates. Though not the very best version I've ever heard, this is a top-notch performance, in front of a rather modestly sized, and fortunate, concert crowd.

 

Local guys-I know the father of the two guitarists: they went to the same HS as I did

 

delete duplicate

 

Was it the dad who sent you the link, or is he not as psyched about his boys knowing Bob Weir, as you are?

I think I've heard you tie your high school to other musicians, as well;
have they ever checked the water supply, in that place?

 

nah I just hit youtube and put in National-Morning dew and picked that one
dave freiberg was the other big name musician (QSMS/Jefferson Airplane/Starship). we had our 50th anniversary when I was a junior-the three most famous grads at the time were Dave Frieberg, Henry Bunis (touring tennis pro) and a guy named Millard Peck-code name werewolf who apparently was a guy that martin sheen's character in Apocalypse now was loosely based on. Since then Senator Rob Portman and the twins Aaron and Bryce I guess will be in the 100th anniversary in a few years

 

That's a notable, interesting, and varied honor roll, your school has there. Any idea, how many high schools, Cincinnati has? I guess there was some basis, for putting the fictitious WKRP, in your town. Ohio sounds like it might be one of those states that's something of an American musical crossroads; and Cincinnati is close to Athens, OH, which was a nationally known music hotspot, back in REM's younger days.

I actually had no idea who you were referring to, by "Aaron & Bryce," because I hadn't previously heard of The National, so I just looked them up, myself. They seem all right. I only started sampling, but I like this one:

 

REM. the B52s, Gaudacanal Diary and the Chickasaw Mud Puppies came from Athens GEORGIA.
the only thing near Athens Ohio is the fur peace ranch that Jorma Kaukonen (Jefferson Airplane, Hot Tuna) runs and the band WILD CHERRY was fairly near there in West Virginia (Play that Funky music white boy)

 

My bad.


Why would any area musician base themself out of Athens, when Cincinnati is not far away?

 

BTW, I absolutely could not stand the B-52s, was not a big fan of REM (owned none of their albums, though they had some good songs), and only vaguely recall ever hearing the name Guadalcanal Diary (not a very good band name, btw, in my opinion). I definitely never heard of the Chicasaw Mud Puppies (which may even be a worse name, than Guadalcanal Diary).

 

Talking about band names, somehow reminded me of this song you posted. I had always meant to tell you that what I had liked about it, was not the tasteless cover art, if by chance, that is what caught your attention-- it's the actual song, which is fun!

Hopefully that will soften my criticism of The National. After sampling all the songs on their album, First Two Pages of Frankenstein, I've gotta say, not a heck of a lot of variety, there. And the overall vibe, is kind of a downer. Interesting, then, that they appear to be getting a lot of good buzz. I noticed they'd been on the PBS News Hour (doing a song, I think), and on the album I gave a listen to, one of the songs, they do with Taylor Swift.

 

Not bad. But nor are either one original enough, to be shocked that neither became household names.

 

hard to say why some bands made it big and one's with more talent didn't. bad management, bad timing etc. Some stuff that is garbage became popular and some really talented artists wallowed in the shadows.

 

Queen of the Slipstream, a Celtic celebration.

 

Good song, sorry for the potato quality video.

 

A song to remember by I can't remember who.

 

Lovely ending don't you think?