Somehow it just seemed like The Long Winters couldn’t have… videos? Turns out the Blue Diamonds video is appropriately weird (in a good way).
“There’s A Spirit in Iraq” (A Tribute to Tom Fox: Christian Peacemaker) (by jonwattsmusic)
I think we can all agree that “Bringing on the Heartbreak” is simply the best pop song ever made.
On a Sufjan Stevens kick tonight (yeah, like who’s not?). Brilliance in a wash of perplexity. Above: Chicago.
His new album can be streamed at sufjanstevens.bandcamp.com. The standout song for me is Vesuvius, which someone filmed at a concert in Montreal a few days ago:
The biggest surprise? My wife Julie likes him too. Only Def Leppard has been able to serve as a musical bridge for us in the past.
It feels so right it must be bad for me, let’s do it, let’s do it again.” New from The Vaselines.
(Don’t show Julie)
The Rainbow and the Superman by Thee Ludds. Sounds like they’re having a lot of fun even if it is completely-unapologetic retro posing. Indirectly via the King of Garage Rock Bill Kelly who played their song “I’m a Moron” on last week’s show.
From the site description: “Jon Watts is a dedicated member of the Religious Society of Friends as well as a prolific songwriter and poet. He has spent the last two years touring extensively throughout North America and is now in the studio recording his 3rd full-length album.”
His site has videos, tour schedules and a ‘vlog’ from this Spring’s bike tour!
In theory I should be head over heals in love with Broken Bells, the collaboration between The Shins’ James Mercer and Danger Mouse. In reality, the album hasn’t quite caught me, at least not yet. But it’s good stuff. Here’s The High Road, the first single off the album.
I’m building up a seeded playlist on Pandora. The title is inspired by an outburst by the Jack Black character in “High Fidelity.” Griping about a Belle & Sebastian song, he shot back “Put on some old sad bastard music, see if I care.”
The xx: Crystalised (video)
Quaker musician Jon Watts just left from a nice visit to the Convergent Friends South Jersey HQ (aka my dining room table!). Jon’s become world famous as the musician behind Youtube’s most watched Quaker video, Dance Party Erupts During Quaker Meeting for Worship (embedded below). Good conversation about Quakers inside and out, and the tensions between “what Quakerism is” versus “what it can be” and what that means for outreach. The discussion was too good to interrupt with a video interview, but the sketch we made while talking (above) should give you the gist. You can check out his QuakerPoet blog here. Those confused/offended/elated by his video should pay special attention to Dance Party Reflections Two Months Later.
Via someone’s cell phone camera by the look of it.
I’m so into the Magnetic Fields these days. Here’s “All my Little Words” with a cute fan video made up of vintage tragi-comic movie clips.
The Snake Brothers singing today at the Feast of the Assumption at St Mary’s Malaga. I’m sorry I missed them, Julie says they put chills down her spine. Luckily they’re playing again on the 29th at Estell Manor as part of the Pinelands Folk Arts Festival (PDF flyer). I won’t miss them this time!
And to fair, the opening theme to The Osmonds cartoon show (1972).
If the song sounds overly Motown, it’s because this was more-or-less the Caucasion sequel to “The Jackson 5ive” cartoon.These shows would play back to back on Saturday morning. In the mixed Philly neighborhood where I grew up, five year old Black kid and five year old White kids would spend Saturday afternoons arguing over which cartoon had better songs and who stole whose style from the other (ummm, and yeah, I argued for Donny & bros!).
