I was immediately taken with the warm-up music at Gnomedex 8.0. I was unfamiliar with it but Jamie recognized it as Hotel Costes.
It’s sort of a funky jazz with a French feel. If I understood Jamie correctly, the music was originally mixed for the hotel on the French Riviera in Paris. This is what you’d hear in the lobby, I guess. You can sample it at last.fm.
Jamie is what my mom was talking about when she said I should start hanging out with a better class of people.
Coffee Zone proprietor Tasir Yanis has an amazing mix of songs on his iPod. That’s what we listen to here at the Zone. Maybe it’s just the ambience of a coffee shop but the former radio program director in me often thinks Taisir’s mix would make a great radio format. Except for all the commercials you’d have to jam in between the songs.
Or we could just download this little app for our iPhones. If I understand this correctly, it enables you to tap into your entire music collection on your home PC via your iPhone – and the music collections of your friends, too – and stream all of the above to your phone, wherever you go. [YouTube demo]
I found this on Mark Ramsey’s Hear 2.0 who describes it as being able to “create our own radio stations from our own content and share them with friends who are mobile.”
So I could listen to Coffee Zone Radio wherever I am? Or Planet Nelson Radio? Or Scott Brandon’s Friday Funk?
Okay, the iPhone is starting to look more and more like something I’m going to have to have. But I really want the thing to stream video, too. I’m getting close.
I don’t think I’ve ever heard a sadder love song than We Just Get Along by the Evangenitals.
I gave it some thought before I wrote that. I tried to remember some of the saddest love songs (are all sad songs love songs?) I’ve heard in the last 40+ years. Don’t worry, I won’t try to list any here. My list wouldn’t look anything like yours.
How sad and achingly beautiful is We Just Get Along? Do you remember the moment in Thelma and Louise when Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis are sitting the car near the edge of the cliff with the cops coming for them and they look at each other with perfect understanding? It’s that sad. And just a little bit sadder.
I’m nothing like her
Which may be why he likes me so much
I don’t have her power
I don’t have her touch
No one’s in heaven here
but no one’s in hell
We just get along
Naw, that doesn’t cut it. You gotta sit in the dark with that last beer, remembering. Remembering a time when you were in love and they weren’t.
As I listened to the half dozen cuts from the CD (Everlovin’) I kept wondering, “Why aren’t these songs hits?” But that’s just the old DJ/Billboard Hot 100 coming out. We don’t need radio to make hits anymore. The songs –if they’re good enough– take on a life of their own and roll across the Internet, from one link to the next.
I really enjoyed the movie Million Dollar Baby… right up until I realized it was not going have a happy ending. I spent the last 15 or 20 minutes of the film in the lobby, watching some brats play air hockey. I didn’t watch the ending of Old Yeller either. I bring it up because I just discovered a connection between Maggie Fitzgerald (the Hillary Swank character) and Juli Crockett, the lead singer of the Evangenitals who dropped us a comment last week.
“Boxing trainer Jerry Boyd had never met Juli Crockett when he wrote the stories on which the film Million Dollar Baby is based. But when he did–at a bout in San Diego–he was convinced she was Maggie Fitzgerald, the tough and driven fighter of his fiction (played by Hilary Swank in the movie) come to life. Like Fitzgerald, Crockett came from the South, grew up without a father (but found one in the ring), and had a brief but stunning pro career (3-0, with 2 knockouts) cut short by injuries (though not nearly as severe as Fitzgerald’s). Other parallels: ambition, boxing style, that smile. Crockett, now 29 and a grad student, saw Million Dollar Baby for the first time last week.” [Interview in USNews]
Turns out Ms. Crockett is much more than a humble singer/songwriter.
It never ceases to amaze me how many of the people I mention here find my humble little notes and get in touch. I could mention a few but it would be the worst kind of name dropping. Okay, I’ll mention one.
A week or so back I gushed about the song Fuck ’em All by the Evangenitals and how I had searched (unsuccessfully) for the lyrics. Well, guess who left a little comment love:
“I’ll tell you what… I’m going to add Fuck ’em All to the Evangenitals website, and I’ll put the lyrics up there just for you. :-) Give me a few days, and as you wish, so it shall be. Thanks for finding us, for listening, and for hearing.”
Love, Rev Juli Crockett (lead singer/songwriter)
– The Evangenitals
I can’t believe I haven’t mentioned this band before. Hopefully, I’m the last one to discover The Evangenitals “…once a fictitious band – a fib on a phony website born to amuse its founders and maybe a few friends. On a whim, Juli Crockett, Lisa Dee, and Brett Lyda – who all worked at the same sex toy company in L.A. (like the Sex Pistols) – brought the ghost to life and debuted a handful of “hillbilly truck-stop lullabies.”
Somewhere I stumbled across one of the songs from their latest CD (“Everlovin'”). A haunting ballad/anthem titled “Fuck ’em All.”
I’ve looked high and low for the lyrics but that’s just as well. You need to hear the song, not read the lyrics. It’s only 99 cents. If you don’t like it, I’ll send you a buck.
PS: This post is number 3,500 here at smays.com. I normally miss things like this but just happened to notice this one. I promise not to bring this up again until 4,000.
It occurred to me today that some of my favorite songs are pretty depressing. I wondered how many I could come up with off the top of my head. Real quick.
This is just a starter-list, in no particular order. And I’m willing to bump some if you can come
up with some that I like as well but still make me want to blow my
brains out. Ten would be a good number, don’t you think? Comments are open.
Our man in Pensecolda, Matt Zeni, files this review of Sheryl Crows performance at the civic center last Saturday night:
“She talked about traveling to Panama City with her family many years ago and going to Mrs. Reed’s trailer park where they rented a space for a week or two with their “cool” Airstream trailer. She and the band traveled to Panama City Saturday and saw a lot of changes with many, many condos but Mrs. Reed and her trailer park are still there. She also mentioned that she ‘hangs out’ down the road in Destin.
She looks terrific for being 46 years young and all she had been through the past three years and she touched on the events in her life the past few years. She was incredible [photos]. First time I saw her in concert. I had the chance to talk with her about 5-10 minutes when she was (in Columbia, MO) about ten years ago. She was in town for a concert and for MU homecoming and she was at the station(s) with her parents.
She was amazing. I even called a friend back in Columbia while in the civic center before the show. She asked me to call her back when Sheryl played her favorite song, My Favorite Mistake. I did and Tracey enjoyed the 6-7 minutes thanks to T-Mobile. Nothing like a live concert on your cellphone! I saw quite a few cellphone and I-phones sending video and audio to all parts of the world.”
Thanks for the report, Matt. Makes a boy wonder how concert promoters will stop thousands of fans from streaming live video from concerts like this. Or if they should try.
One of the best parts of having a blog is connecting with people. You could argue it’s the only part. One of the first sites I created was a tribute to KBOA, the radio station where my father worked for many years and where I spent a dozen years. The site is packed with great photos, most of which were taken by the late Johnny “Mack” Reeder.
I captioned one of those photos “Unknown Hillbilly Band” because I had no idea who they were. Now I do, thanks to an email from one of the men in the photo, Charley Crawford:
“The name of the group is “The Senath Lions Quartet” and this was in 1951. We started the quarter in Senath High School. The members are left to right front, Charley Crawford, Jimmy Milligan, behind Jim, right to left are Charles “Tod” Horner, James Allan and David Adams at the piano. We were on the radio every Saturday morning at 10:30 a.m., sponsored by the Senath Merchants.”
Charlie was also a member of The Foggy Mountain Boys Hillbilly Band in 1948.
CORRECTION: I assumed –incorrectly– Charlie was referring to The Foggy Mountain Boys featuring Flatt and Scruggs. Charlie and friends were in a local band of the same name.
The Foggy Mountain Boys was an influential bluegrass band that performed and recorded during the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s.
Twitter pal Matthew is at a party, grooving on tunes from my era. (We need a term for drunk tweets. Dweets?) I’m flashing on music from my era, specifically, 1968:
Hey Jude, Beatles
The Dock of the Bay, Otis Redding
Sunshine of Your Love, Cream
Mrs. Robinson, Simon Garfunkle
Hello, I Love You, Doors
Born to Be Wild, Steppenwolf
Jumpin’ Jack Flash, Stones
You Keep Me Hangin’ On, Vanilla Fudge
White Room, Cream
Think, Aretha Franklin
Piece of My Heart, Big Brother and the Holding Company
Suzie Q., Creedence Clearwater Revival
Best thing about being 60? Being 20 in 1968.