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Category: music (page 3 of 5)

Sapphire Stylus

3 January 2010 / / 1 Comment

It’s confusing being a Duffy fan. In the early days, Stephen Duffy had two alter egos: (Stephen) Tintin (Duffy), and The Lilac Time. (Oh, there was Dr. Calculus, but we won’t talk about that.) Stephen’s brother Nick Duffy was the member of the Lilac Time who wrote the instrumentals, but later, Nick would make his own great albums, under the various names of Bait, Eagle Ombina, and lately, Nick Duffy. The Lilac Time, meanwhile, was to become ‘Stephen Duffy and the Lilac Time‘ as Nick became less involved. All this in addition to Stephen’s solo projects as ‘Stephen Duffy‘ and just plain ‘Duffy‘.

All of which means that the various proliferating permutations of Duffys are causing considerable cataloguing problems in my iTunes library.

So now what are we to make of this?

Two possibilities:

1) The Lilac Time crew has made a new album, helmed by Nick instead of Stephen. It’ll be like a really good Nick Duffy album, but possibly even better.

2) The brothers Duffy have found a new way to mess with my iTunes.

Either way, I’m intrigued.

Best of Music 2009

28 December 2009 / / 5 Comments

Everyone puts out their end-of-the-year lists in November. Have they no patience? What if something really good comes out in the last week?

Anyway, here are my picks for the best of 2009 in music.

Best Children’s Album
They Might Be Giants
Here Comes Science

This album works on a lot of levels. First, it has great songs that kids and grown-ups will enjoy — but this is TMBG’s fourth kids’ album, so they’re good at this by now. Then, the science content covers a lot of ground: biology, physics, astronomy, engineering. I think I can now name five different jobs that the bloodstream does!

But the most encouraging thing is that the songs have an appropriately skeptical bent, even referencing religious dogma as being inferior to the scientific method. Lyrics from the title track:

I like those stories about angels, unicorns and elves
Now I like those stories as much as anybody else
But when I’m seeking knowledge either simple or abstract
The facts are with science

This is a great TMBG album, maybe their best.

Best Classical Album
Catrin Finch
Goldberg Variations

Mastering Bach’s Goldberg Variations on piano made Glenn Gould famous in the 50s. Now Welsh harp virtuoso Catrin Finch has scored and performed her version. This alone should be enough to merit her place in the classical pantheon. (Not to mention, I love the rock chick look. Brings in the young folks.)

Finch performed the work live several times over the last year, which to my thinking constitutes some kind of marathon of skill and concentration.

Best Album I Missed Last Year
The Daysleepers
Drowned in a Sea of Sound

Saying that this album is Lush meets Cocteau Twins doesn’t cover it, even though it’s true. The surprise here is how good this shoegaze revival sounds. Smooth yet engaging.

Song of the Year
Lusine
‘Two Dots’
A Certain Distance

Compulsively listenable. It’s a little unusual to hear vocals on an ambient electronic track, but here it contributes to make ‘Two Dots’ part IDM, part chill, and very sophisticated.

Album of the Year
The Leisure Society
The Sleeper

I found out about this amazing band via fans of the Lilac Time, and it’s not hard to see the connection. Both bands feature beautiful bucolic (and unmistakably British) folk-tinged music. Both use a diverse range of instruments. And the Leisure Society, like the Lilac Time, makes music that is unfailingly pleasant, and melodic to a degree I haven’t heard in quite some time — every song has its own hummable melody that seems not so much written, as having always existed.

Take the title track. Structurally, it begins and ends with a quiet meditation of mortality and the transience of human achievement.

Someday we all shall cease to exist. 
Someday our towers will fall. 
Roots will reclaim the bricks that we lay. 
Worms will reclaim the soil.

But the middle opens up with a beautiful revelation: ‘Sometimes you need someone.’

At the time I discovered the Leisure Society, I was conducting my own meditations on mortality, and this album provided a soulful but joyous soundscape, perfect for walking, meandering, or dancing down a quiet Perth street. Any life would be enriched by this magical music.

White Wine in the Sun

20 December 2009 / / 1 Comment

I got the chance to see Tim Minchin’s show ‘Ready for This’ last week. Highly recommended, if you ever get the chance to see him. I’ve always enjoyed his musical comedy with a skeptical bent. What I hadn’t expected was how accomplished a pianist he is. He was really ripping up and down the keyboard.

And as a special treat, the encore was his lovely Christmas song, “White Wine in the Sun”. Have a listen.

I like to imagine the family gathering he’s describing — not a bad description of Christmas in Perth, I must say.

When people talk about the ‘true meaning of Christmas’, they usually mean a certain dead Palestinian. That’s not the case for me anymore. Now Christmas is about music (I do a lot of singing), but also being with the people you love, and who make you feel safe.

A lovely song. Follow this link to buy it from iTunes — part proceeds to autism research.

Zippy theme song

2 September 2009 / / Comments Off on Zippy theme song

Did you know that Zippy the Pinhead has his own theme song? I’ve just run across it.

It’s a strange little item. The music was written (partially) by Janis Siegel of the Manhattan Transfer, and the lyrics were written by Fred Schneider of the B-52’s. So if those two artists are on your radar, this is rather a unique collaboration.

The song reminds me of Zippy, in a way. The chord progressions are weird and hard to follow, just like the strip. The lyrics are full of pop culture references, just like the strip. And something about it suggests that it could have been more interesting… just like the strip.

If Zippy isn’t your cup of Fresca, maybe you’ll have better luck with the latest version of Autotune the News. I’m on tenterhooks, waiting for #8 to drop.

Problem solved!

31 May 2009 / / 5 Comments








Separated at birth

13 April 2009 / / 1 Comment

Dear Sister sent me a lovely Easter email with a picture of Jesus coming out of the tomb.


Phwoar, smells like someone’s been dead for three days in here.

Anyway, I’m no expert on Middle Eastern physiognomy, but I’m reasonably certain that Jesus wouldn’t have looked like the lead singer of Boston.

Music vs lyrics

20 December 2008 / / 5 Comments

I’ve been doing lots of Christmas music with my two choirs this week. Last week it was “An Australian Bush Christmas”, with lots of Wheeler and James. You non-Australians have probably never heard of such Christmas classics as “The Three Drovers”, “The Silver Stars Are in the Sky”, and “Sing Gloria”, which is a shame because they really are lovely carols, and very Australian. And tomorrow it’s Handel’s Messiah, which I’ve decided to perform from memory, partly because this is my 7th year and it’s about time, and partly because I don’t know which box my score is in.

Christmas music is one of my favourite things about the season, but have you noticed that the songs are very frequently about Jebus? Funny that. And it’s giving this atheist a case of the screaming jeebies. I want to enjoy it for the music, but it’s hard to do when it means you’re affirming the existence of angels, resurrection, and salvation from non-existent punishment. It’s enough to drive you to reindeer.

I mean, the Messiah is gorgeous and so fun to perform. But I kind of grit my teeth during “I Know That My Redeemer Liveth”, and I feel the incongruity especially keenly during “Since By Man Came Death”, where the choir sings “E’en so, in Christ shall all be made alive.” And I realise that I’m somehow reifying a view I think is false.

I still love Christmas, and I hope that by celebrating it, I can contribute to its secularisation. But the religious nature of it is so entrenched in all that lovely musical tradition. I suppose I’ll eventually either relax about it and capitulate, or else stop performing it.

Kraftwerk, Perth 23.11.2008

25 November 2008 / / 1 Comment

Last time Kraftwerk came to Perth, it was 2003 at the Big Day Out. I didn’t go because… it was on a Sunday and I was still religious. Stupid, stupid, stupid! Fortunately Zeus saw me kicking myself and blessed me with bootleg MP3s of the show.

Well, last Sunday, Kraftwerk was back in Perth for Global Gathering. And where was I? Front and center, bitchez.

Before the show, I was talking to some other festival-goers. Everyone was 18 or so, and it struck me that all these younger people were here watching a concert headlined by a bunch of 60-year-olds. Of course, Kraftwerk are the elder statesmen of electronic music, and they’ve been hugely influential. But for an old fart like me, easily double the age of 90% of the people in the audience (and someone who’s been listening to Kraftwerk for 25 years), it was gratifying to see that the influence of my early heroes has grown and not diminished.

For another 80s moment, consider also that Mark Ronson’s crew finished their set with their version of the Smiths’ “Stop Me If You Think You’ve Heard This One Before”, and was very well received.

But back to the ‘Werk. It’s strange to watch Kraftwerk live. As sequenced as the show must be, one wonders what it is they’re doing up there. They stay in one place the entire time busily focused on their Sony Vaio’s (ugh). Occasionally a foot will tap or a mouse will click. Ralf (on the far left) sings. Other than that, the band gives very little indication that anything’s going on. Yet Ralf says that everything’s being done live and in real time. And in fact the band did have to suspend their Melbourne performance as Fritz was having heart trouble before the show, which suggests that they couldn’t have sent a robot to do his part.

It’s part of their act. They approach the making of music in a very workmanlike way. The ask very little of the audience, no requests to put your motherfuckin’ hands in the air, no jumping around, or any of that nonsense. And the audience gets to enjoy the music in their own way. Which they did. The crowd was really soaking up the hypnotic beats, enjoying the music as much as being in the presence of these techno pioneers.

Ms Perfect said it best: It’s like being able to say that you saw Mozart. I don’t think this is an overblown comparison. These men changed music forever, and it was a pleasure to see them at last, doing their thing in their own perfect way.

Friday Random Five, taking the high road

31 October 2008 / / Comments Off on Friday Random Five, taking the high road

This week I’m really enjoying The Ghost That Carried Us Away by Seabear. It has a child-like quality that sounds very fresh and welcoming. It’s like the Lilac Time did an album with Sigur Rós, with zombie Elliott Smith whisper-singing along.

Song for Children by Brian Wilson
Album: Smile
Speaking of childlike. I don’t know how to take this album. It has some real touches of genius (I think I can hear — no kidding — Monteverdi in the album’s opening), but what to make of the calliope and whirligigs? Is this a retreat into childhood, but maybe (for Wilson) happier this time? A relic of nostalgia-tinged 60’s California? A strange experiment by a troubled genius? I’m willing to give this album some time because this is clearly made with loads of skill and control, but it is odd.

Pay No Mind (Snoozer) by Beck
Album: Mellow Gold
Speaking of odd. Beck was a strange lad in the early years. This one’s a lazy strummer with free-association lyrics everywhere. Try ‘There’s shopping malls coming out of the walls’. No? How about ‘Give the finger to the rock-n-roll singer’.

Waiting for the Sun by The Doors
Album: The Best of the Doors
A dark carpeted room with candlesticks.

Me and My Arrow by Harry Nilsson
Album: The Point (Soundtrack)
I have a very vivid memory of this song on AM radio in the 70’s. I must have been 5 or 6, and my sister was singing this song to me. We were in the kitchen, me sitting on the counter, and we were laughing and singing and being silly.

Eventually she grew up and became less fun, more adult, and that was hard for me to understand at the time. And I know she doesn’t quite understand ways that I’ve changed now. It’s hard to get back to those times.

Reise, Reise by Rammstein
Album: Reise, Reise
I think I like the idea of Rammstein better than I like Rammstein itself. Over the top grinding metal with heavy German vocals. How can you not love the concept? I like the album, but I never seek it out.

Random Five, in six words.

27 September 2008 / / Comments Off on Random Five, in six words.

I try not to play one album too much because the other ones get jealous. But that hasn’t stopped me from playing quite a lot of Beck’s latest release, “Modern Guilt”.

  • This time the sound is sunshine pop mixed with surf rock and deep paranoia. Maybe Beck didn’t get it all from Caribou, but if I were Dan Snaith, I’d be feeling pretty vindicated.
  • Every song cuts off abruptly, so you don’t get too comfortable.
  • Best lyric: ‘Sic a dog on all you know/Cut it loose before you go.’
  • I think this album contains the best song in Beck’s long catalogue, and that’s ‘Volcano’. If you can ignore the Dianetics implications, you’ll find a worn-out beat glued to a beautiful choral setting. I can’t get it out of my mind.

If you don’t want to stray too far from Beckland, you could try my other album of the week, ‘The Sophtware Slump’ by Grandaddy. Man, this is a depressing album, but sometimes it rocks out, and at times it’s quite touching. “Underneath the Weeping Willow” is a simple piano piece about the need to stop and sleep once in a while. Even though there’s sadness, we may yet wake and feel happy again. It was a song that found me sitting in the car at the grocery store parking lot while the song finished. I watched everyone going by, and the world got quiet.

This time I’m describing the random songs using only six words.

Born Slippy by Underworld
Album: Triple J Hottest 100, Volume 4
Never got this. Too much pummeling.
Snot by Isan
Album: Salamander
Early stuff here. They’ve gotten better.
Bowl of Oranges by Bright Eyes
Album: Cold Front: The Winter Chill Collective
Clever lyrics. I like hopeful music.
Offend in Every Way by The White Stripes
Album: White Blood Cells
They have a simple earthy appeal.
Speed Dial No. 2 by Zero 7
Album: When It Falls
Not my favourite. But nice chill.
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