You would think I would have heard of the New Vaudeville Band. I listen to the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band and Neil Innes and the Rutles — how could I not know of the New Vaudeville Band? We all have our cultural blindspots. Not only is their greatest hit (albeit one recorded by session musicians,Continue reading “The World of Weird Novelty Songs”
Category Archives: Music
It’s Looking Like a Beautiful Day
This came up in my Facebook memories five years ago today. Students at a high school in England made a music video for Elbow’s “One Day Like This.” I was thinking about this video recently (read: within the last six-nine months) and couldn’t figure out the right combination of search terms to find it. I…Continue reading “It’s Looking Like a Beautiful Day”
The Adam West Christmas Album
I keep thinking about an album that doesn’t exist — Adam West’s 1968 record, Christmas at Stately Wayne Manor. Other than the title and the jacket art — West looking very much like Bruce Wayne, in a velvet jacket against a solid color background — there’s nothing related to the Batman television series about thisContinue reading “The Adam West Christmas Album”
Friday Night in Towson
Friday night, Carbon Leaf played The Recher in Towson. This show had been on my radar since it was announced earlier in the year, but I didn’t buy my ticket until a week before. Meanwhile, the date tickets for their May show in York went on sale I bought one. I don’t like going intoContinue reading “Friday Night in Towson”
Rediscovering a Piece of Hobbit Music
The things you find on old hard drives… a suite of music based on The Hobbit trailer, before the first film came out. It’s impressive what fans can do. 🙂 I admit — I used a utility to “rip” this from the YouTube video back in the day, and when i found it again inContinue reading “Rediscovering a Piece of Hobbit Music”
A Late Christmas Arrival
The weekend of Christmas I learned that Norah Jones released a Christmas album this year. A Christmas album! From Norah Jones! And none of my so-called friends thought to inform me! I heard cuts from it on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and the day after Christmas on various programs on WRTI, Philadelphia’s jazz radio station,Continue reading “A Late Christmas Arrival”
Elbow’s Forthcoming Ninth Album
Yesterday, Mancunian band elbow announced their ninth studio album, Flying Dream 1. According to the announcement email from the band, the album was “written remotely in the band’s home studios before coming together at the empty Brighton Theatre Royal to perfect, perform, and record the songs.” And the teaser video captures some of that. TheContinue reading “Elbow’s Forthcoming Ninth Album”
A Song That Feels Like Warm Summer Days
I am of an age where, when I hear the name Stan Getz, the famous jazz saxophonist, I think immediately of the exchange in That Thing You Do! in which while the Wonders are interviewed at KJZZ, a jazz radio station in southern California, Skitch Patterson begins to talk excitedly about the music that reallyContinue reading “A Song That Feels Like Warm Summer Days”
Starlings
A cover of elbow’s “Starlings” on the ukulele. I have a uke. I bought it in the spring. I thought so might learn to play it… and then I never found — or made — the time.
Hope Christmas Gets You To Me
I slept poorly last night. For some reason, I couldn’t get comfortable. I tossed. I turned. I had a headache; migraine or dehydration, I couldn’t tell. I yanked the sheets off the bed and, at one point, tossed off blankets, later having to recover them because I was cold. I know it’s a bad ideaContinue reading “Hope Christmas Gets You To Me”