I think a lot about cover tunes, particularly when the musical genre is transposed. Prince was a master of genre-bending, and when he died I immediately started thinking about cool covers I would love to hear by well-known artists. Here is what I came up with, titled in tribute of Prince’s album as TAFKAP.
Note: The sound I envision for the final track is the reggae sound Willie Nelson cultivated on his remarkable Countryman album.
Recently, I’ve been binge-watching Louie. I particularly liked the episode with Dane Cook, because the two of them are comics whom I genuinely admire and they’d been involved in a controversy in which other comics accused Cook of stealing C K’s jokes. I really respect how Louis C K handled the whole thing, because I think the hate Cook has gotten from other comics is completely unwarranted and transparent.
This week’s Music Monday is a noir tale of murder and sexuality called Come to Bed, drawing on blues, reggae, and hip-hop.
rubstone (n.) A whetstone. In 1687 Samuel Sewall ordered,
“Send me for my own proper accountt … six doz of rubstones.”
–Colonial American English by Richard M. Lederer, Jr.
March saw the release of London has Fallen, the sequel to Olympus Has Fallen, which was paired up with the similarly themed White House Down in 2013. White House out-earned Olympus by nearly $50 million.
So, why did Olympus get a sequel while White House hasn’t? Because although both films received similar mixed reviews, Olympus nearly doubled its $70 million budget with $161 million worldwide gross, while White House barely skimmed over its $150 million budget a $205 million global take.
But, I’m not here to talk about the business of film-making, but rather the craft. Continue reading
Now that we (in the northern hemisphere) are finally saying goodbye to winter, I thought it would be a good time to share a winter-themed mash-up.
You probably know most artists in this mash-up: Vivaldi, Maxi Priest, Neil Young, and Journey. Vivaldi provides the “Winter,” while the other three provide songs with “world” somewhere in the title. I was originally inspired by how the chord progression in “Winter,” “A Wild World,” and “Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)” matched up.
I was listening to Vivaldi in the car and singing Maxi Priest and Journey over it; the mash-up just grew from there.
But, the core riff (and a few other bits and pieces) are from a song called “Stereo” by one of the most under-rated bands out there, 4th Avenue Jones. I bought their CD HipRockSoul because I had also written a song called “Stereo” and wanted to see what this other song was all about. It was one of the best musical discoveries of my life.
After you check out the mash-up below, go check out 4th Avenue Jones. Continue reading
