Whistling in the dark » music

Gregory Liszt’s Deadly Gentlemen at the Cluny2 in Newcastle

Yaffa — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 22:38:32 +0000

Went to see the Deadly Gentlemen at the Cluny 2 in Newcastle this past Wednesday. It was a Jumpin’ Hot Club gig – they put on lots of folk, alt-rock good stuff on in the area.

Serious Sam Barrett opened. A guy from Leeds singing country…I had an amusing misheard lyric moment on one of his songs. ”She’s as pretty as the hair on the mossad? what?!!…spoke to him between sets to ask him what he was singing…She’s as pretty as the heather on the moorside - makes a lot more sense. : )

Gregory Liszt is the banjo player from Crooked Still. We saw them at the Cluny 2 also. They are amazing and the venue was packed that night. Greg Liszt was very entertaining and as soon as I saw this new project he was doing was coming I immediately bought tickets. I was stunned that there weren’t more people at the gig, maybe people were scared of winter weather.

Happy to document a very fun gig (their first ever in England). First off they are really talented musicians – Mike Barnett on fiddle, Stash Wyslouch on guitar, Sam Grisman on bass, and Greg Liszt on vocals and banjo. They bring to mind a cross between Chris Thile and Mike Ford from Moxy Früvous bluegrass mixed with speed, the ability to communicate lyrics that are super-quick and clever. See for yourself.

Love Hobo Rockstar cause it reminds me of Kitteh and Pip.

Kitteh and Pip the Laugh-Out-Loud Cats

Shot videos while my battery lasted with Greg’s blessing (I asked before they went on stage). Shot it with my new Kodak Zi8 with the internal microphone. The neat thing about the Zi8 is that it can also take an external mic (though I didn’t bring one).

I was pretty close (2nd row) and there was an empty seat in front of me that I could lean the camera on as a makeshift stabilizer. The Zi8 is pocketsize and many people mistake it for a largish smartphone. Nope, just a decent pocket video camera that shoots HD. Should have also brought another recent purchase a portable, rechargeable power supply for when your battery runs out…oh well.

Shot the videos up until the battery went dead which to be fair I didn’t charge it before I left the house so it was on half strength from shooting random stuff.

Wish it would have lasted to the end. The encore was especially great. The small but enthusiastic crowd cheered them on to get back on the stage. They agreed to play another song but did it unplugged, off the stage – near the door with the crowd on their feet. I was not even 2 feet away from them. It was in the dark and awesome.

It would be great to see them in a festival setting like the Cambridge Folk Festival; they’d be loads of fun in one of the tents. The next night they were going to be at Celtic Connections in Glasgow. Check out their myspace page for upcoming gigs.

Random extra info: At one point during the gig, Greg asked if anyone in the crowd or the band plays a banjo. He thinks they’re cool and that people should pick it up. Just don’t give one to a beautiful woman anonymously according to this ask.mefi thread. The consensus is it’s creepy.

Hit of the Week: Whistling in the Dark – 1931

Yaffa — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 18:41:50 +0000

Whistling in the Dark {Silbando en la obscuridad}
Fox Trot
1144 – Durium Products Corporation – New York
Music by Dana Suesse
Lyrics by Allen Boretz
Performed by Sam Lanin’s Dance Ensemble

Whistling in the Dark was a 1931 Hit of the Week. These were cardboard records sold via newsstands for 15 cents during the Great Depression.

Hit of the Week records were promoted in 1929 with the following:

“This is the new Hit-of-the-week record. It is made of Durium, the great invention of a Columbia university professor. Its tone is as rich as the costliest record made. It is guaranteed to play perfectly longer than any other record. It won’t break if you drop it. It brings you the latest dance hits each week played by Broadway’s best orchestras, at the sensationally low price of fifteen cents! Each week our music jury, composed of Florenz Ziegfeld, Eddie Cantor and Vincent Lopez, selects the outstanding dance hits of the hour for the Hit-of-the-week recording. A new Hit-of-the-week record is on sale each Thursday at all news-stands in this city. Fifteen cents!” (source)

Digital Sheet Music Download for sale here (unless you are in U.S., Canada or Venezuela).
Shirts, posters, greeting cards and mugs with an image of sheet music for the song available here.

Radio Dismuke – Online station of 1920s & 1930s Popular Music and Jazz

They Might Be Giants’ Whistling in the Dark here

Bon Iver kicked my ass tonight

Yaffa — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 23:43:06 +0000

Went to see Bon Iver perform at the Sage Music Centre in Gateshead tonight. It was in the smaller Hall 2, sound is as amazing as Hall 1. We were on level 3 (as high as you can go) and the view was still great.

Anais Mitchell opened for them. She was pretty good…best song of the set Cosmic American from her 2004 CD “Hymns for the Exiled”. Her latest CD is “The Brightness” released on Ani DiFranco’s Riteous Babe records.

The main event was Bon Iver (pronounced: bohn eevair, though when I heard Anais Mitchell say it it kind of sounded like bonnie bear) is mainly Justin Vernon plus Mike Noyce and Sean Carey and a bass player who I can’t find the name of for the life of me.

Justin Vernon has a gorgeous voice and a wicked collection of guitars and the four musicians on stage work together tightly for a really rich sound. You can hear the album (there’s only the one) on their virb.com page. They also have a myspace page and an official site.

Mike Noyce was stunning as he sang a beautiful cover of Graham Nash’s “Simple Man,” and the whole group sang a cover of Sarah Siskind’s “Lovin’s For Fools” after it was requested by an audience member. The video to the right is the same cover, different night.

Justin Vernon kept commenting on what a nice, professional venue the Sage is and the caliber of the crowd…he seemed a bit surprised and bewildered to be there at times. For me I can’t imagine hearing Bon Iver in a place with flawed sound – what a travesty it would be not to get the full range of emotion and beauty in the songs.

All well and good, the part that kicked my ass – the song that came on after the encore song when the lights came on: “Love Me Sexy” by Jackie Moon aka Will Ferrell in Semi-Pro (one of the many movies I saw on flights on this summer, surprisingly entertaining).

Squeeze and King Creosote at Newcastle City Hall 30-Nov-2007

Yaffa — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 12:51:36 +0000

King Creosote

The opening act King Creosote was really good. The reason there are more pictures of them is because a dumb usher thought my camera was a DSLR because it had a zoom on it, I tried to explain but he threatened to take my camera away so I could only take pictures of Squeeze during the first song.

Never mind that my picture-taking is way less disruptive than other people around me since I don’t use flash and I don’t use the LCD display. All the cell phones and small cameras taking videos and pictures are way more annoying.

It was a great show. My husband, while he loves my photos, was happy I was free to dance with him.

Glenn Tilbrook

Chris Difford

Glenn Tilbrook and Chris Difford will each be on UK tours in 2008. I kind of enjoy them more separately and hope to see them again then. I would also enjoy seeing King Creosote again. Live performance is one of my favorite ways to be exposed to music I don’t know so I try to make it to shows in time for the opening acts.

Squeeze Setlist:

Stephen Large

Take Me I’m Yours
Up The Junction
Piccadilly
I Think I’m Go-Go
Love Circles
Is That Love?
Third Rail
Electric Trains
Slightly Drunk
In Quintessence
Maidstone
Some Fantastic Place
Labeled with Love
Messed Around
Melody Motel
Slaughtered, Gutted and Heartbroken

Setlist

Goodbye Girl
Another Nail in My Heart
Hourglass
Pulling Mussels (From the Shell)
Slap and Tickle
Cool for Cats
Annie Get Your Gun
Tempted
Walk Away
Black Coffee in Bed
—
Squeeze Store on Amazon.com

Ivan Sandomire at Sidewalk Cafe

Yaffa — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 03:54:54 +0000

After the Shkspr show Eduardo and I met Lee and her friends Emek and Holly at Sidewalk Cafe to hear Ivan Sandomire. He was amazing, especially if you like introverted, tortured souls who can sing.

Sidewalk Cafe has free live music (2 drink minimum, not too strictly enforced plus they pass a bucket around for the artists – suggested $5). I used to go all the time in college to hear Matt Sherwin play on Monday nights. The Trachtenburg Family Sldeshow Players are playing next Friday! I will be in Chicago though.

Ivan Sandomire's Guitar

It is difficult to shoot photos at Sidewalk Cafe because it is really dark there.

Gorgeous song as remixed by tacet

Yaffa — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 15:19:02 +0000

tacet [disclosure: aka my fiance] has posted a gorgeous remix of a remix by oldDog of a song by calendargirl on ccmixter.

calendargirl is a vocalist for Freeform Five and has a neat project called calendarsongs. She is posting a song per month for remixing by the interweb, at the end of a year, the goal is to have an album.

Chris Thile and The Tensions Mountain Boys

Yaffa — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 23:56:35 +0000

Chris Thile and The Tensions Mountain Boys at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall (part of IN YOUR EAR REDUX, a weekend festival curated by John Adams.) were amazing. Chris Eldridge was on Guitar and Vocals, Greg Garrison on Bass, Noam Pikelny on Banjo, Chris Thile on Mandolin and Vocals and Gabe Witcher on Fiddle and Vocals. This was the World Premiere of Chris Thile’s “The Blind Leaving the Blind (in Four Movements)” plus they performed songs off of “How to Grow a Woman from the Ground.” Other reviews are linked from the bluegrass blog. Setlist, some banter and bad photos below:

Setlist:

01. O Santo De Polvora (Milladoiro)
02. Wayside (Back in Time) (Gillian Welch and David Rawlings)
03. Stay Away
04. Blind Leaving the Blind (Four Movements)
05. Recreation of the first time they played it
06. How to Grow a Woman from the Ground (Thomas Anderson Brosseau)
07. The Beekeeper
08. Dead Leaves And The Dirty Ground (White Stripes)
09. Watch ‘At Breakdown

Encore 1
10. If The Sea Was Whiskey
11. The Eleventh Reel

Encore 2
12. Ophelia (The Band) (Gabe Witcher, Main Vocals)

Banter before Stay Away:

Thank you.

This is not the regarded Carnegie Hall. This is Zankel Hall.

We’re not nervous in the least and uh and very actually amused that you all decided to show up in nothing but underwear.

Kind of ridiculous though what were you thinking?

We got dressed up. Looking pretty sharp for all of you.

So Ok.

So we started with a song called O Santo De Polvora and despite the title and despite that it was written by a Spanish band called Milladoiro um we kind of feel that it’s fitting to play it on St. Patrick’s Day.

First of all it sounds Celtic. But also because again the title O Santo De Polvora we’re almost sure that it’s a tribute to the great Cubs thirdbaseman Ron Santo and he was a Chicago Cub. Chicago, might be the most Irish of all American cities.

And he played Of course at Wrigley Field, Chicago which had the Ivy League of Green.

And it’s a baseball field so actually there’s a lot of green.

So we feel like that one was completely appropriate.

The song after that less appropriate and we will continue to play less and less appropriate songs and music

That one was called Wayside and the parenthetical title which I mention only because I like saying parenthetical And that is Back in Time. That was written by Gillian Welch and David Rawlings.

And Dave, Dave always dresses sharp. So does Gil. He would have shown up in a suit and tie if he were playing.

At this point someone’s program drops from the second balcony up. Chris offers by gesture to throw the used tissue on the stage near him that he has just been using. The offer is declined.

Intro to Blind Leaving the Blind:

Alright, so we’re going to play this piece that I wrote for five of us to play.

Quintet, quintet

A stringed quintet as the preferred term for our instruments and three of us will sing and we’re very very excited.

And it’s in Four Movements. It may sound like six depending on how you count.

There will be three complete stops. During which we’ll tune no doubt. All of us.

See there are two stops where some of us will tune you may think that that’s a new movement.

You would, sitting there in your underwear. We love you people.

That’s what the whole problem is. We love it here.

This song is called

This song?

a nice tune.

A lttle long, It’s a little long. Really.

We hope you like it.

It’s called the Blind Leaving the Blind.

And it’s in V??

[Lights go blue]

That’s why it’s Carnegie Hall.

There’s a vibe, there’s a vibe if you play in here.

Blue for Bluegrass.

After Playing Blind Leaving the Blind:

CT: Thank you very much.

(From Audience: Thank you. That was nice.)

CT: Ok, we’re gonna do a couple more normal songs now.

CT: Oh dear, I’m not ready to come down yet. Is everything 15 BPMs too fast?

NP: The first time that we tried playing certain sections of this piece It was about a year and a half ago. We got together for about a week. And the first thing we started learning which was the final movement the hardest part. Which I think that’s Chris’s style, of course, to do the hard part first We tried playing that, certain sections of that last movment. After three days of rehearsal in the Living Room in NY about a year and a half ago And I don’t know how we had the idea that we could get through it but we told ourselves we’ve got to just still play it This is the only way we’re gonna get better at it And if anyone makes a mistake It’s no big deal But if you make a mistake that you can’t recover from Just scream out “What?” in the middle of the song And we started the piece And about 40 seconds into it Critter (Chris Eldridge) yelled out Who-What.

CT: We’ll recreate it for you. Ok now And then I was actually so incredibly nervous it really was like 15 beats per minute too fast and we’ll recreate that part as well

[Reenactment of first performance including the yell]

(From audience: We love you critter.)

CT: It was awesome.

He then suggests the recording of that first time should be secret track on the new record with Critter making some extra royalties on it or something.

Beekeeper Intro:

This was the last bit of banter where Noam Pikelny explains where the title for “The Beekeeper” comes from. Not because of the current crisis with bees rather people ask what it’s like to play with Chris Thile all the time and the best way to describe it is that he’s a Musical beekeeper, he gets an idea and then just runs with it and goes crazy messing things around, speeding things up and then telling them where to play it, how fast to play it, play it faster, and then they have the piece. They started rehearsing it and then Gabe came up with an idea, Chris ran with it and came back 15 minutes later and had all these very difficult, very fast parts to play. Musical bees and he told Chris he wouldn’t play it unless he called it The Beekeeper, and a deal was struck.

my flickr: Chris Thile and The Tensions Mountain Boys

CDs from amazon:

Punch Brothers - Punch

How to Grow a Woman from the Ground

Nickel Creek - Best Of

Korin Allal and Eran Zur at Makor Cafe

Yaffa — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 23:55:39 +0000

Went with my cousin Liat to see Korin Allal and Eran Zur at Makor‘s Cafe. We had dinner at Spice on the East side and cabbed it. We got to the cafe which is a neat venue, there was a good jazz band playing before the show. If you are going to Makor cafe go have dinner there…you get a bunch of people who show up and grab a table and leave jackets or whatever there saving half a table’s worth of chairs [It is very fifth grade.] and the venue refuses to add more chairs. We got there in plenty of time for the show but definitely not to get a seat. We stood at the back in the center which wasn’t bad since it is not a large venue. The show was amazing. They both know how to rock hard. Lyrics to some of the songs below…wish I had a complete setlist.

Songs:

Korin Allal and Eran Zur – Cshe’zeh Amok – Hebrew Lyrics
Korin Allal and Eran Zur – Tmuna Impressionistit – Hebrew Lyrics
Eran Zur – Parparei Ta’atu’a – Hebrew Lyrics
Eran Zur – Leilot Shel Yareah Maleh – Hebrew Lyrics
Korin Allal – Motek – Hebrew Lyrics
Korin Allal – Ein Li Eretz Aheret – Hebrew Lyrics – Was kinda fun to listen to this song in a roomful of Israelis who have chosen to live in NYC.
Korin Allal – Hataba’at Nafla – Hebrew Lyrics
Korin Allal – Zan Nadir – Hebrew Lyrics – Not Zan Adir
Korin Allal – Eretz Ktana Im Safam – Hebrew Lyrics

Aqualung with Sara Bareilles at Hiro Ballroom 12-March-2007

Yaffa — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 17:33:03 +0000

Went to Hiro Ballroom, straight from work. This is my third show there. Lee was meeting me there. Met a couple of nice, interesting people Jason and Kate (I feel really bad because I’m not sure if his name is Jason or James – it was something with a J) and asked to share their booth. The opening act Sara Bareilles was good. Her voice sounded a bit like Sara McLachlan with Norah Jones and some slight Tori Amos going on. Not bad singers to be compared to….

Aqualung were fun as ever with a mix of old and new songs and cute banter. Pressure Suit is available as of today. I finally have a women’s aqualung shirt….damn American Apparrel….some of their XLs fit and some of them don’t….the cute Memory Man shirt fits! Lee and I both wanted shirts, the trouble was they didn’t take credit cards and we didn’t have cash so we ran out to get money from a nearby ATM (at the bodega where I ran to get batteries during the Robyn Hitchcock/Mark Pickerel gig)….the stupid machine wouldn’t take my card but did take Lee’s card. We ran back and the doors to the venue were closed….we weren’t too worried because the drummer was outside smoking a cigarette but I had left my camera with Jason and Kate and we definitely needed to get back in there….thankfully Jason thought to come out to open the door for us….

We then got to talk to Matt and I asked him to sign the Strange and Beautiful poster I got at the closing Tower Records (R.I.P) for me and Kevin….Kevin sent me their music originally and Strange and Beautiful and Brighter than Sunshine were a part of our soundtrack for our long-distance relationship. We used to listen to them together/apart.

Below are photos and videos from the show and a link to their CDs on Amazon:

Popout

Strange and Beautiful

(Music)

Artist:Aqualung
Manufacturer:Sony
Released:17 January, 2006

Memory Man

(Music)

Artist:Aqualung
Manufacturer:Sony
Released:13 March, 2007

Chris Difford at B.B. King’s

Yaffa — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 23:57:21 +0000

Chris Difford of Squeeze fame was amazing at B.B. King’s. Dorie Jackson was also on vocals. Melvin Duffy was on Pedal Steel. Got cheap tickets through GoldStar Events. Went with Cathy and David, Jocelyn, Liz and Melissa’s friend Brian. The first time I ever met Cathy we went to see Glenn Tilbrook at BB King’s in 2002.

Chris Difford’s description here.

Squeeze will be performing some shows as a group again!

South East Side Story

(Music)

Artist:Chris Difford
Manufacturer:Luna Records
Released:19 September, 2006

I Didn’t Get Where I Am

(Music)

Artist:Chris Difford
Manufacturer:Drt
Released:17 February, 2004

Squeeze – Greatest Hits

(Music)

Artist:Squeeze
Manufacturer:A&M
Released:18 September, 2001

dj BC – They Might Be Starting

Yaffa — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 17:27:13 +0000

They Might be Starting
is a mash up of They Might Be Giants (Don’t Let’s Start), Will Smith (Party Starter) and Pink (Get The Party Started). It is really good. Will have to check out more of dj BC’s stuff.

They Might Be Giants at Southpaw – 2006-Dec-16

Yaffa — Sun, 17 Dec 2006 17:55:22 +0000

It was a high energy show that started slow but had some real gems.

Setlist:

1. Asbury Park
2. Damn Good Times
3. Bee Of The Bird Of The Moth
4. Fingertips
5. We Live In A Dump
6. Birdhouse In Your Soul
7. E Eats Everything
8. Why Did You Grow A Beard?
9. We’re The Replacements
10. Till My Head Falls Off
11. She’s An Angel
12. Experimental Film
13. Robot Parade
15. The Day
16. Spy
17. Older
18. Why Does The Sun Shine?
19. Alphabet Of Nations
20. Dr. Worm
21. Meet James Ensor
22. The Famous Polka
23. Drink!

Encore:

24. Feast Of Lights
25. Santa’s Beard
26. Snail Shell
27. This Damn Band
28. Twisting

Encore:

29. Don’t Let’s Start
30. Turn Around

Have nothing to add to this review which is ridiculously thorough with the banter. The opening act was The Last Car with Chris Anderson, Robin “Goldie” Goldwasser, and Amy Miles. They were good (they sing songs about Mr. T) they had to be – tickets were mislabeled with a Doors time of 8:00. Doors were at 9:00 (and it was cold!) and The Last Car went on at 10:00. TMBG went on at 11:00. We got out at 1:10…no Hanukkah party at Jocelyn’s for me but a great time was had by all.

Lee’at’s mom drove us to the show…Thank you Ann…We are again 15 instead of 30.

A User’s Guide to They Might Be Giants

(Music)

Artist:They Might Be Giants
Manufacturer:Elektra / Wea
Released:03 May, 2005

New TMBG and Nickel Creek

Yaffa — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 22:56:53 +0000

Hello Radio is a new collection of covers of They Might Be Giants songs featuring bands like OK Go [OK Go are opening for Snow Patrol in March.] and The Wrens, Frank Black and Jason Trachtenberg [will be seeing him perform with his family in December.] – so good – lots of alterna-mellow rocking covers. Does not feature the cover of Kiss Me, Son of God by Israeli band Pollyanna Frank on their rarities CD Nadir in Hebrew נדירים [a play on words since in hebrew Nadirim is rarities, in English nadir is the lowest point.]

Mellow and good is also the new Nickel Creek best of CD/DVD. A continuation of my newfound Chris Thile fandom. Plus his bandmate’s voice is a bit Duncan Sheik-like – yippy.

Mark Pickerel Video is on the Bloodshot Records Site

Yaffa — Mon, 27 Nov 2006 12:50:08 +0000

Saw Robyn Hitchcock & The Venus 3 on November 17th. Mark Pickerel former dummer of the Screaming trees opened. He had a very cool dark Sun Records vibe to him and he’s cute. He was also a nice guy – after the show he told me to email his record company with the stuff I shot. Link to their site with the video I shot.

His Cd is worth getting and apparently his dad drew the amazing cover below.

Snake in the Radio

(Music)

Artist:Mark Pickerel and His Praying Hands
Manufacturer:Bloodshot Records
Released:09 May, 2006

Video of Mark Pickerel performing Forest Fire:

For a great look at Sun Records – originally saw it at a midnight showing at Doc Aviv:

Good Rockin’ Tonight – The Legacy of Sun Records

(DVD)

Manufacturer:Image Entertainment
Released:08 October, 2002

Robyn Hitchcock & the Venus 3 plus Mark Pickerel

Yaffa — Sat, 18 Nov 2006 00:31:31 +0000

Went to the Hiro Ballroom tonight to see Robyn Hitchcock & the Venus 3 (Peter Buck, Scott McCaughey and Bill Rieflin) plus an opener I didn’t know. Opener Mark Pickerel was very good. I love it when it when I get exposed to new music I like in an opening act. He had a neat, dark Sun Records vibe. He is the former drummer for The Screaming Trees. And also a nice guy based on the short conversation we had after the show.

Robyn Hitchcock was in excellent form…during his banter he brought up the recent excellent story that has come out about elephants going crazy.

Mark Pickerel : Forest Fire

Popout

Robyn Hitchcock : Snippet of Madonna of the Wasps
Popout

Snake in the Radio

(Music)

Artist:Mark Pickerel and His Praying Hands
Manufacturer:Bloodshot Records
Released:09 May, 2006

Olé! Tarantula

(Music)

Artist:Robyn Hitchcock, The Venus 3
Manufacturer:Yep Roc Records
Released:03 October, 2006

Good Rockin’ Tonight – The Legacy of Sun Records

(DVD)

Manufacturer:Image Entertainment
Released:08 October, 2002

Next Page ›

Chris Thile and Hilary Hahn at Housing Works Used Book Cafe

Yaffa — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 23:46:03 +0000

Went to an amazing show tonight at Housing Works Used Book Cafe. [All proceeds for all performances at this venue benefit Housing Works an advocacy and aid organization for homeless people living with HIV/AIDS.] Chris Thile the incredible mandolin player from Nickel Creek and Hilary Hahn the incredible classical violinist. They played separately and together. They rearranged pieces for solo violin or violin and keyboards to be for violin and mandolin. They also did a Dylan cover for the encore – “Masters of War.” They each have new CDs highly recommended.

Chris Thile

Chris Thile – How to Grow a Woman from the Ground Fantastic mandolin playing and a southern voice make for some good music. Check out the videos below for Chris Thile in action. The second song is from this CD and was written by Jack White of The White Stripes

Hilary Hahn

Hilary Hahn – Paganini: Violin Concerto No. 1 / Spohr: Violin Concerto No. 8 – Gesangsszene She performs Paganini and Spohr with virtuosity. If you enjoy the thunder and calm a violin can inspire get this CD.

Below are 4 videos from Chris Thile’s start to the evening – he likens himself to the “musical corndog” of the evening compared to Hilary’s elegance and what a mighty fine corndog was he. I wish I had more memory cards to record more of this evening. The venue was packed and people were on their feet and cheering. More classical shows should have this unstuffy, rocking vibe to them. Guess they should keep combining with bluegrass.

Video 1/4: Untitled

Video 2/4: Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground
[by Jack White of The White Stripes]

Video 3/4: I am your musical corndog banter
Stay Away

Video 4/4: J.S. Bach – Gigue from the D Minor Partita
He introduces this as Foie Gras infused relish to extend the musical corndog metaphor.

Bonus: Toxic covered by Nickel Creek at SXSW 2006

Sondre Lerche at Hiro Ballroom

Yaffa — Wed, 20 Sep 2006 23:36:15 +0000

Sondre Lerche the young, cute, Norwegian reincarnation of songwriting gods was goofy and great tonight. A new album Phantom Punch will be available in January. Show available here for now.

Setlist

01 Everyone’s Rooting For You
02 Minor Detail
03 Dead Passengers
04 Dead End Mystery
05 Across The Land Intro
06 Across The Land
07 Across The Land Outro
08 Don’t Be Shallow
09 Once In A While
10 Days That Are Over
11 The Duper Sessions and Diaries Are For Girls
12 Phantom Punch and Stupid Mammories
13 (You Knocked Me) Off Of My Feet
14 Human Hands (Elvis Costello Cover)
15 After All (from Phantom Punch)
16 My Hair’s So Long Apology
17 Modern Nature (with Audience)
18 Till You Let Me Know (NEW SONG – not on Phantom Punch)
19 (I Wanna) Call It Love
20 Distortion Pedals
21 You Know So Well
22 Wet Ground (Phantom Punch)
23 Living Lounge
24 No One’s Gonna Come
25 Two Way Monologue
26 Encore – Tragic Mirror (Phantom Punch)

ccmixter

Yaffa — Thu, 16 Mar 2006 20:50:38 +0000

ccMixter is a community music site featuring remixes licensed under Creative Commons, where you can just plain listen to or actually get actively involved with music by sampling and remixing to create your own.

There’s an open contest to remix a Fort Minor track at the moment (Linkin Park side project).

The previous contest – “Copyright Criminals” features one of my favorites – tacet.

Full track here.
Bits for remixing here.

Jason Mraz and Toca Rivera @ Housing Works

Yaffa — Tue, 18 Oct 2005 16:00:13 +0000

Jason Mraz and Toca Rivera @ Housing Works – July 27, 2005.

Jason Mraz and Toca Rivera at Housing Works Used Book Cafe.

All proceeds for all performances at this venue benefit Housing Works an advocacy and aid organization for homeless people living with HIV/AIDS.

The venue was so packed and sweaty it should have been group sex…it was my first real exposure to Jason Mraz – he was a cross between the laidbackness of John Mayer/Jack Johnson, the wackiness of early Barenaked Ladies mixed with random innocuous boybandness though most of his fans would probably kill me for saying so…

Another version of the audio here.

Great fansite here.

Whistling in the Dark Lyrics

Yaffa — Fri, 05 Jan 1990 17:58:17 +0000

A woman came up to me and said
“I’d like to poison your mind
With wrong ideas that appeal to you
Though I am not unkind”
She looked at me, I looked at something
Written across her scalp
And these are the words that it faintly said
As I tried to call for help:

There’s only one thing that I know how to do well
And I’ve often been told that you only can do
What you know how to do well
And that’s be you,
Be what you’re like,
Be like yourself,
And so I’m having a wonderful time
But I’d rather be whistling in the dark
Whistling in the dark
Whistling in the dark
Whistling in the dark
Whistling in the dark
Whistling in the dark
There’s only one thing that I like
And that is whistling in the dark

A man came up to me and said
“I’d like to change your mind
By hitting it with a rock,” he said,
“Though I am not unkind.”
We laughed at his little joke
And then I happily walked away
And hit my head on the wall of the jail
Where the two of us live today.

Whistling (whistling), Whistling (whistling)
Dark (dark), Dark (dark)
Whistling (whistling), Whistling (whistling)
Dark (dark), Dark (dark)
Whistling (whistling), Whistling (whistling)
Dark (dark), Dark (dark)
Whistling (whistling), Whistling (whistling)
Dark (dark), Dark (dark)

Flood was released by They Might Be Giants on January 5, 1990.