What Songs Are You Listening To

The Essential Tito Puente. Also some gospel bluegrass.

In light of the mass anti-Putin protests all across Russia this past week, I’d like to post a classic as relevant in 2017 as it was in 1988:
Victor Tsoi – Changes

I was listening to Dr. Octagon / Kool Keith : Earth People etc. That’s from the ’90s. Also some Arabic stuff, Syrian I believe, but the titles are in Arabic (I think) or Persian (?) which are kind of hard to type.

Beethoven & Bach cello sonatas, early to mid Coltrane, lots of Abida Parveen, 60s garage psych so obscure that it makes rubble and pebbles look like boulders, Doors and Dr John, complete Johnny Dowd

“Midnight Train To Georgia” Gladys Knight and The Pips – because it came up on “Beat Shazzam” on FOX

“Highway” Bleeker – From the Stanley Cup Finals (I wish I could be at the victory parade today)

” Pepper / With A Little Help From My Friends” Beatles – on Spotify for the 50th anniversary and all

Life itself is the proper binge – Julia Child
Happy Summer All!

The new old Sgt Pepper – finally see what they were all on about – and
Van Dyke Parks “Jump!”

Another fine Durm-base band is Loamlands:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqdarbxPj-o&index=3&list=PLx0pIjzZIHdNZ2UaFhkARagR64xgn5OSA

In non-North Cackalacky news, there’s some dude named Kevin Morby. I don’t know anything about him other than that he produced this catchy tune:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWDvlekoPkg

Similarly maximal are Los Campesinos! Check out this fantastic nugget:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nj6SO_yKMe8

This fun Santigold number is my 20-year-old daughter’s official jam:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nj6SO_yKMe8

And how about Eve Cassidy’s rendition of Buffy Sainte-Marie’s Tall Trees in Georgia:

Here is 42 seconds of genius, which I have listened to many times:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWD_VPiMlso

Some rando improvising to a horrible schlock TV theme-song. His sense of swing, his phrasing. “This my part, right here!”

If you have ever sung along to a song, you wanted to sound this good.

I haven’t been listening to much music lately (sadly), but if I may recommend an older song, just in case you haven’t heard it, Leyla McCalla’s “Heart Of Gold” (2014) is stunningly good: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDM-xw7igQg

(The whole album is good, my favorite of 2014, but that’s clearly the best song)

40 minutes after my last comment, I can now answer the question in the original post definitively and say that what I’ve been listening to lately is this amazing concert by Leyla McCalla: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HtfHmKNghI

Impressive. Just deeply satisfying music.

Pink Flag by Wire. Hadn’t ever heard it before recently, but damn if it isn’t the most weirdly satisfying album I’ve heard so far this year.

This captures the shape of June:

I just wanted to say that I saw the Mountain Goats two weeks ago at the Mayan Theater in Los Angeles.

Before playing “Paid in Cocaine” John explained that it was about a metal club he used to go to in Long Beach where there was a rumor that bands frequently got stiffed by the club promoter, who would then offer up an 8 ball of coke as compensation when the bands would protest.

The crowd (many of whom had driven from Long Beach, presumably) really got into the chorus. In fact, I think they ended up playing almost every Mountain Goats song that references Southern California locations. There are a lot of those, so they ended up playing like three encores of 5-6 songs each.

Thanks for this Belle,

I like the Victor Tsoi, and the VoB, though my metal days ended a couple of years before New Rose:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTfyUqVqX-0

speaking of The Damned.
They cleaned up a bit in the later years, guess.

So before I lose you on account of my bad taste, I’ll toss in my current favorite from Orquesta Tipica Victor, I still can’t get over the sound quality on that bandoneon
“Jueves”

Ramones, “Beat on the Brat”

I have Kim Jong-un in mind when I listen to this.

Mick claims that he and Keith created the first blues opera with Midnight Rambler. Well, if so, Rambler pales (literally) compared to this sad, funny blues masterpiece. I get to see this performed live every week by an excellent open-mike band out in Vegas. Awesome performance.

“Worried About You” has amazed me for years and years. I never gave much weight to the early part – a tease, maybe? – but the guitar solo and Mick’s fierce singing after – that part sounds true to me. (BTW Wikipedia says that solo was Wayne Perkins. Way to go, Wayne.)

Still most of Art Angels by Grimes. She can really kick it.

Hey Belle, you should consider that you actually have an eternal standing open question from at least me, and I’m sure others too, “what music are you listening to this week?” I’d never heard of the “Mountain Goats” before (I think you mentioned them once before); they’re pretty good. I liked “Paid in cocaine” (when I heard the line, “once proud shiny silver buckles” I recognized Steely Dan), and once again, as with Everything but the Girl’s “Cross my heart”, the horn section’s unison lines reminded me of Ghanaian high life music (e.g., E T Mensah, etc.). The horns have a slight hollowness that evokes the memory of a hall where the band would be playing (possibly I’m standing outside the hall) — a dancehall, not a concert where people are just sitting without dancing, and I thought of this song by the venerable (they’ve been around since the mid or even early seventies) Senegalese group Orchestra Baobab.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWAYV02Ka34

Make sure you listen past the 3 minute mark, so you can hear the beautiful solo by the brilliant Togolese guitarist Attisso. They put out a recording this year, and here’s a track from it; sadly Attisso has retired from the musical life, but they’ve now got a kora player who provides a nice solo here. (The kora is an instrument typical of the music of northern West Africa.)

The new Hey Colossus album, “Guillotine,” with its slow-burn, seething anger about the state of British politics, I just can’t stay away from right now. Especially this track, “Potions.” “One million coping mechanisms in one room … now these potions make up for a slow decline.” This is how this country feels right now, poised on the edge of something …

https://youtu.be/Ye3ecDYxOkg

I have not been listening to the pop music for, like, ever, so I don’t have anything to contribute, but I do want to give a +1 or seven to Daniel @33 for his nod to Television’s Marquee Moon, which is a record of great incredibleness, by which I and my cohort were suitably blown away at the time of its release (or a bit after, actually now that I think of it). The first side in particular, goodness.