A brief intermission

Real life intrudes for Corbett today so there won't be a song until this evening at the earliest. Hearty apologies.

In the meantime, you can check out a few blogs we've added to the blogroll. First, there's Amy's blog about her trip to Japan with the anime club from her high school. She just updated with the best picture of Mt. Fuji I've ever seen.

Next, there's "It Takes Two" by the mysterious Laura, who is blogging about her newborn twins, L. and H.

I caught up last week with Chris, who built this amazing pre fab house on a hillside in West Virginia that we've mentioned before. It's starting to get some great press, and the "official" website is now up. Any readers in DC or Virginia should consider a weekend up there. Tell them I sent you, you will be entitled to nothing.

Finally, there's my personal favorite, Cornerstones of New York, which appears to be going for the award for "most pointless blog in the world," though there's some tough competition. Even so, it's off to a good start, I think!

BEAUTY

Listen to BEAUTY (Live in her Reykjavik lounge room) by Lay Low.

The country-blues of Lay Low is next up in our week long live series from Reykjavik. Like most who made the Easter weekend pilgrimage to Ísafjörður for the Aldrei Fór Ég Suður (I Never Went South) festival, Lovisa Elisabet (who records as Lay Low) returned with a nasty flu. She trucked on regardless when I popped by to record her and managed to complete this one song, Beauty, before she realized that her voice was cactus.

As is the case with many musicians in Iceland, Lovisa is not content with playing in just one band. Her other, Benny Crespo's Gang, are renowned for their guitar driven, synthesized-pop-metal-rock stew. Check out their 10-minute jam Conditional Love here.

Be sure to check out the accompanying videos each day as they feature the sound synced from the featured track. So, without any further ado, the video for Law Low's Beauty (live in her Reykjavik lounge room):


Photo: fresh, by Arnþór Snær.

TEENAGE KICKS

Listen to TEENAGE KICKS (Live in Studio) by Seabear.

Howdy. Stuart popping by to bring you a week of new Icelandic tunes. Why? For mine, the music coming out of this far flung island is more compelling, unique and fresh than anything out there right now. I'll spare you my tome on why this is for now and instead let the bands and tunes do the talking.

All five of this week's recordings were made in Reykjavik during the last weekend in March. In a 26 hour period I recorded a few dozen songs with 10 bands. I filmed the sessions with a lo-fi point-and-shoot camera and synced the sound that was recorded and mixed for the most part by the bands themselves.

First up is Seabear. I caught the band in their Reykjavik studio during the recording of their second album. They played me a few songs from their debut, "The Ghost That Carried Us Away." This one, a cover of the Undertones' Teenage Kicks, was the third take after Inga tried a couple of different xylophones. The other songs recorded at the session were Seashell and Cat Piano.

(Late update, from the editor: we don't yet have permission to let everyone download the mp3, which is why the link is back to the youtube of the performance. But you can also still stream the song on the right, like usual.)

(Even later update: Permission granted! You can and should download this live track now, at the usual link above. ...plus, enjoy it all properly punctuated)

I hope to see you back here again this week. Enjoy.


Photo: set speed, by Arnþór Snær.

All mod cons

I know a few of you would like to play music directly over the internet without worrying about downloading and importing and all that. To that end I added a music player on the right-hand side of the blog. Just click on whatever song and it should stream directly, if you have Flash capability. If it works for people, we'll keep it!

I neglected to do this earlier, but I also wanted to point people to my friend Kendal's essay on Oklahoma's 100th birthday (tomorrow!). It's thoroughly readable and original and for my money it gets at something important about the Oklahoma character.

Maybe I know that

Just checking in. We're still waiting for a moisture meter something-or-other on the ceiling. It's getting annoying. Philip and I went to see a couple of shows the last two days. First we saw Andrew Vladeck play a little folk showcase. Mainly so we could congratulate him on finally finishing his album. But it turns out he's not finished! Give it a year or two... (Having said that, I listened to the mixes he does have and they sound fantastic. The last round I heard in June I thought were good, but these are even better. So Andrew, if you're reading this, you done good!)

Last night we went out to Williamsburg to see Alana Amram's CD release party. She was just as good as expected, but the real surprise was this band called Puddin' Tang. Very Nuggets-y, but very tight. You never think openers will be any good (especially with such a bad name, frankly), but we both thought they were brilliant.

The other day I was looking through old blog posts trying to get this year's Christmas CD started, and I came across my friend Chris's blog on building a prefab home in West Virginia. If that sounds even remotely interesting, definitely go check it out. He's a very good blogger, and the house looks like a dream already, You can only imagine all the work that's gone into it--Actually not true, because he's told you all the work that's gone into it. Add it to your RSS feed, or your bookmarks, or whatever you do.

DRUNKARD'S LAMENT

DRUNKARD'S LAMENT by The Honey Brothers.

DRUNKARD'S SPECIAL by Coley Jones.

So we mentioned on Monday that Andrew has been trying to finish recording a solo album. We're looking forward to it, and are hoping that when he tours to support it, he schedules some gigs up in Maine so he can swing by our wedding!

Andrew's got another project he's been putting a lot of time into lately: The Honey Brothers. These guys--brothers, sorry--play a bunch of irreverent, tuneful pop songs, with surprisingly solid results. I recall getting their "Honey 4 U" record back in 2001 and being amazed at how tight and poppy it was. Drunkard's Lament is from that EP (now out of print looks like!), sung by Andrew, and borrowed from the "Anthology of American Folk Music" (known there as Drunkard's Special by Coley Jones). When I finally picked up that Anthology, Amy and I realized we knew half of the songs on it from Andrew's concerts.

LISTEN to The Honey Brothers.

LISTEN to Coley Jones.

Photo: New playground.

WAITING FOR THE COFFEE TO KICK IN

WAITING FOR THE COFFEE TO KICK IN by Andrew Vladeck.

SIGN ON THE WINDOW by Bob Dylan.

Back when Amy used to regularly attend Andrew's shows (that is, before she started having to teach the kiddies), Waiting For The Coffee To Kick In was one of her favorites. It's easy to like: a friendly, relaxed melody; clever yet plain lyrics. It's a world weary message but as far from overbearing as possible.

Dylan comparisons are always stupid and unfair, especially in Andrew's case--man with guitar & harmonica, nasally voice, story songs, etc. But I'll risk it, especially since I'm not invoking the Blowing In The Wind stuff. Instead, I'm thinking of my own favorite Dylan period, his post-superstar, post-motorcycle accident period, like the Basement Tapes, "Nashville Skyline," "New Morning,""Pat Garrett." What I like about the music from that period I can recognize in some of Andrew's music: engaging but not needy, street smart, self-aware. His music can be formally straightforward, lyrically casual, but by choice not necessity. Restrained.

Sign On The Window is classic, and it gains in esteem by knowing that Bob's not giving you everything here. "Here's a pretty little song," he's saying, "and that should be enough."

LISTEN to Andrew Vladeck.

LISTEN to Bob Dylan.

Photo: Sun-up.

GOD BLESS AMERICA FOR WHAT

GOD BLESS AMERICA FOR WHAT by Swamp Dogg.

Swamp Dogg is a legend. Let him tell you:

Without any formal training I awakened one morning only to find that I was a genius and could master a number of musical instruments including piano, tambourine, sticks, finger cymbals, tweezers, washboard and bobby pin. ... I owe all my present success to a very dear person, someone who stuck by me when things were really bad and has never made a motion to harm me or my talents in any way. A person whom I love, worship and admire beyond any shadow of a doubt - ME!!!

God Bless America For What is another funny, bitter political song written by Swamp Dogg. The title once again gives you the gist of the song. It's from his second album, "Rat On!"

The cover of that album was deemed by the Grauniad to be one of the ten worst album covers of all time. Maybe so, but I have a theory that it also, along with Slim Pickens in Dr. Strangelove, may have inspired Nick in the design of our save the date cards. Go past the jump to judge for yourself!




LISTEN.

Photo: In the middle.

Peter Bjorn and John - Interview and live w/Victoria in NYC

Check out Stu's interview with Sweden's finest, Peter Bjorn and John, best known for their great Young Folks (especially the video).

IT'S YOUR THING

IT'S YOUR THING by Cold Grits.

Back in 2005 I had the pleasure of attending Jeff's 30th birthday party in Marrakech. On the way, though, I stopped in London and picked up a bunch of CDs in Berwyck Street. One of them was this breaks compilation. One night over in Marrakech I played this track and spontaneously started hopping around my room. And I mean hopping because at the time I was recovering from knee surgery and could only hobble around with a cane!

Later that year I stuck it on this mixtape I did, which remains just about my favorite one I've done (favorite cover, at least!). Anyways, not much about the track, but it's really good, believe me! Better than the Isley Brothers even. Enjoy your weekend.

UPDATE: I see that Soul Sides has released the tracklisting for its (? his?) Volume Two compilation, which I've been looking forward to. I have a few of these tracks, including, as it happens, this very tune!

LISTEN.

Photo: Graffiti in Valparaiso.

Shameless plug

Some of you may know my little sister's gettin all married & stuff. She and Chris have a website, which all the thousands hundreds tens of you should go check out, if only to stare at the wall of pictures for awhile.