Cassandra Wilson - Red River Valley

I first heard this song on CBC RadioTwo, back when I was working at Vesey's. I was working in the small former sometimes greenhouse attached to the back of the equipment building. The corrugated plastic siding of which was yellowed and cracking. The next season, the equipment department transformed it into the washbay for golf carts and mowers. And used it as a breakroom, though it was not all that comfortable on overly bright and hot days. So, to get back to my story: I was sitting in the little greenhouse, transplanting little sprouts from fiber paks:



in which they grew in groups of at least six to individual pots for each sprout. Sitting on a stool, leaning on an almost rotting wooden shelf, listening to CBC RadioTwo on a radio that had difficulties maintaining clear reception. I think I was listening to Studio Sparks, hosted by Eric Friesen (one of my favourite radio hosts; he always sounded so personable, someone I could sit down and chat with about all sorts of musics). This song came on; that first arpeggiated chord and the resounding, dirty twang that followed, the sparse, almost empty expanse of the song, hooked me. I slowed down with the transplanting; I held my breath; I turned up the radio and listened to the static and volume pitch and yaw until finally settling comfortably into something barely louder than what I'd started with.

Then Wilson's voice entered. These are the only two instruments throughout the song: the lone, mournful slide guitar and the full, expressive voice.

I snatched up a plastic planting stake, grabbed my Sharpie and wrote "Cassandra Wilson - Red River Valley" across it and admonished myself to find this song. I searched online when I got home, learned the name of the album, went to the since expired music store in the Charlottetown Mall and, to my surprise, found the album and learned that Marc Ribot is featured on it (though not this song)!

And, though the rest of the album pales in comparison to Wilson's rendition of this classic, it's a pretty strong release.

The way the guitar and voice play across each other——dance, even——is exceptional. They are entwined, enmeshed, they strive together to create a beautifully melancholy version of this song, pulling it up from the mire of countrified melody into some sort of almost ethereal, spiritual, rarefied experience.

DOWNLOAD!

A side note: until I can find a better way (for example: somewhere [free, obviously] to host audio which I could then stream in my blog, I'm going to use rapidshare for downloading. Of course, this will only be for the songs I can't find videos for on YouTube or as an audio stream elsewhere. I'm open to suggestions on this, so if you know of anything, please let me know.)

Tori Amos - Raining Blood

When I first heard (this was before it was released) about Strange Little Girls, I was pretty excited. Number one, I love Tori Amos and, number two, I really like covers. A lot. And I was really excited about her plans for the songs. How she intended to (and succeeded at) a new vision, a reinterpretation, not only of the sounds and structures of the songs, but also the intentions, the meanings of (at least some of) the songs.

And "Raining Blood" comes out a big winner for me, in some respects. Mostly because of how chillingly she transforms a pretty much classic thrash tune. Sure, the Slayer tune is good, but it lacks in everything except rifftasticness and speed. She imbues the song with emotion, with atmosphere, with scope and depth.

Amos' version is haunting. Spine-tingling. And expansive. The drone which carries throughout the piece draws everything toward it and provides a shifting foundation, like storm clouds rolling through. And Amos' vocals float over the top, a harbinger of doom, an ill wind blowing through.

It's too bad Slayer's not this dark and ominous sounding...

Laurie Anderson - O Superman

I first heard this song in the Women, Gender and Music course I took at Dal when I was going to King's.

The class was, if I remember correctly, in the Dalhousie Arts Centre——the same building that is home to the Rebecca Cohn Auditorium. The room our class was in had a pretty decent sound system, a projector and a large screen at the front of the room. We watched the video (included below——I highly recommend watching it in its entirety) and i sat stunned, silent, awed. From that first note straight through to the end. And every time I've listened to it since then, it's still really resonated with me. It's a powerful, moving piece of music. And a wonderful experiment, too.

Anderson was quite a pioneer with the whole electronic music thing, invented some cool things, including "a tape-bow violin that uses recorded magnetic tape on the bow instead of horsehair and a magnetic tape head in the bridge." (stolen from the Wikipedia article about her) She uses that on, among other things, the United States Live 5LP set that I'm slowly working my way through. She was all about using pitch-bending effects to alter her voice, to present the entire spectrum of range for the human voice through just one person. Things like that. She had Things to say, too. And would not, from what little I know, hold back. Sort of an inspirational person, really.

This song is totally one of my favourites. And I don't mean one of my favourite Laurie Anderson songs (although that is also true), but just one of my Favourite Songs. For real.

Kanye West - Love Lockdown

This is the first attempt at something I'm going to do my damnedest to keep up with: I'm going to review(/write something about) one song a day (I'm sure I'll do a great job at keeping up with this——just wait: my longest streak will be two days; let's lay bets.). Sometimes (like today), it'll be a song I don't know by an artist I don't know. Sometimes, it'll be a song I've loved for a long time by a favourite artist. And I'll try to include a YouTube link to each one, whatever it may be (whether that means linking to a fan-created video or an official one, it all works out the same).

So, Kanye West's "Love Lockdown." Obviously, I've heard of Kanye West. Mostly from Taylor's gushing. And one day I read an article about West's upcoming album 808s & Heartbreak. I thought it was a pretty wicked title, so I searched around on YouTube for Kanye West, and found "Love Lockdown."

The three-note bass/drum intro, which continues throughout the song, is understatedly wicked; it focuses things, it keeps things on track.

I really like the vocal line in the verses; sure, vocoder may be a bit overused, but I think West's embracement works. It, like the bass/drum loop, is never really overstated.

The only thing that is, really: the choruses. They're sort of involved in an excess, with a driving tribal drum feel. Tribally rococo? Sure. Though this contrast is, certainly, intentional. And, what is more, it works.

Also, I heard that, due to pressure from fans, West is rerecording the song. I don't think it's necessary, but, since I'm not one of his real fans (as this is the first song of his I've heard), I suppose I shouldn't have much of a say in the matter.

It's a pretty swell song, to be sure.

Jolie Holland makes a GREAT SHOW!; or: How to Win Gabrielle's Respect (or, at least, one way to do it)

The title, part one:

Though I prefer the older albums, which carried an atmosphere of an earlier era, the new album still holds my interest, as Jolie Holland is one of my favourite singers. She has a voice that is uncannily well suited to bluesy, countryish folky music; a sort of slow, drawling lilt (which is, as Gabrielle pointed out at the show, lower pitched than her bass player fellow's [more on him later]) that fairly drips with a sincere emotion and a clear——a lucid——tone.

I would have liked to have heard a couple of my favourites ("I Wanna Die" [more on that later] and "Stubborn Beast"), though I did get to hear my other two favourites, so I won't complain too much; these being: "Adieu False Heart" and "Old Fashion Morphine." Though the latter does work better when it involves horns as it does on the album. Still an awesome song, though, and played with just the right sort of sway and slide.

Everything was played superbly (though I think the other guitarist could've been turned down a wee bit during most sections).

The "more on that later" for the bass player: he told a whale joke that, though incredibly, geekily funny, I can't repeat here. Not because it's naughty ('cause when would that ever stop me, am I right?), but because it's a joke that needs to be told out loud.

The "more on that later" for "I Wanna Die": see, I would've loved to have heard it live, but, really now, I didn't feel right about yelling "I wanna die" at the show. Maybe someone would have misinterpreted things. Also, I wanted to ask, after the show, if it was in any way referencing "House of the Rising Sun" in a continuation of the American revisioning of old broadside ballads. Since I didn't actually get the chance (big crowds around her), I'll assume the answer is yes. It just makes sense that she'd be involved in the continuous evolution of ballads, in the malleability of the form or in a commentary on it.

It was a great show, no doubt, and I'm glad I got to see it.


The title, part two:

You can:

— be of a more diminutive stature than anticipated when appearing on stage.
— drink (white) wine from the bottle on stage and follow that up later on with what was (probably) rum 'n' Coke.
— wear a ginormous ring on one of the fingers of your fretting hand and still manage things with no visible difficulty.
— be pretty much awesome (this last one, I think, might be a requirement [i.e., there's no wiggle room on this one]).

Wicked times.

!

Dear Blog,

Do you want to know something awesome?

Being an unskilled person looking for a job in a city full of skilled people looking for jobs. That's what's awesome.

Love,
Daniel

I Haven't Had Much to Say (Which Is Why I Haven't Been Saying Anything)

I am still jobless. That's some of the less exciting news I have.

More exciting things:

— Next week, we are going to see Jolie Holland!(for which concert there will undoubtedly be a review posted here. Several days late, of course.)

— Tonight I finished the longest piece of writing I've ever completed. A short story which clocks in at 21 pages (6134 words), called "The Weather God." I'm at least reasonably pleased with how it turned out. Obviously it needs some (read: a lot of) work, but the ideas are there. Most of them, anyway. A first reading by someone who isn't me will let me know if I was clear enough, though still subtle enough, with the hinted things. Or, perhaps, too out in the open. The reading will help. And this story is something I intend to include in a collection I'm developing in MY BRAINS called Hello, City. I have two other stories finished in rough drafts, both of which are only about a quarter of the length of this one, called "The Guitar Man" and "The Man Wearing the Black Suit and Carrying the Gray One." I like both of them, too, which is a nice surprise. Also, I have plans to insert, between each of the stories, little things I'm calling "vignettes of place," which are very short——no longer than a page——and have no characters, no plot; none of that stuff. Just descriptions of places. I have a few of these started: "The Payphone," "The Pigeon" and "The Bathroom He Used" (this last one may not be included. It was just something I whipped up, though it probably doesn't belong with the rest of the collection.). And several other ideas, including the backyard at this place and a parking lot.

Hi, my name's Mr. Pretension. How are you?