Gavin B.

I don't mind the comparison of the Cosmonaut's music to a video game soundtracks. There's some pretty awesome music on Grand Theft Auto and the Beatles music is basis of the Guitar Hero video game. Good music is where you find it.

Flower Child

After reading your review, I just couldn't resist listening to this one. I think you pretty much had it pegged when you said you don't know if he should be in a mental hospital or hailed as a musical genius. While I listened to 'Mr. Walker' I pretty much came to the conclusion the man is a god damn space cadet. Then after the song was over I had this strange urge to listen to it again. Its very intriguing and his voice reminds me of a little kids or a really really old man's, but yet he makes it work somehow. Very very cool review Gavin B, not something you hear everyday thats for sure.

Gavin B.

Song of the Day


Big Chief Monk Boudreaux in full performance regalia with his Mardi Gras crew, the Golden Eagles tribe.

Chase- Big Chief Monk Boudreaux Monk recorded this song on an Sing Me Back Home which was an album by a group of New Orleans musicians to benefit the Katrina survivors. Of all the songs on the album, the Monk Boudreaux song is the most heartfelt and politically millitant. The song has a hypnotic 2nd line jazz rhythm that sounds a lot like the one-drop riddims of reggae. His vocal is in the same chant-down manner of reggae dancehall toasters like U-Roy or Big Youth.

The story told by Monk is from the point of view of the class of New Orleans have-nots, who face the prospect of being driven from their hometown because the post-Katrina redevelopment plan doesn't have any room for those who live in poverty. Monk expresses anger on behalf of those who built the city and are now being chased out of town by community planners and real estate developers to build a New Orleans that has no poverty and offers tourists nothing more than a Disneyland version of the Crescent City.

Gavin B.

Song of the Day


The Slits were the original riot grrrls.

Ask Ma- The Slits One of the best things that happened in music, in 2009, was the reunion of the groundbreaking first generation punk band, The Slits. 28 years has passed and by an odd turn of events, Slits lead singer Ari Up is now John Lydon's stepdaughter. To clear things up here Ari Up is 47 years old, John Lydon is 53 years old and Nora Forster, Lydon's wife and Ari's mother is 67 years old. And that's how Johnny Rotten became stepfather to one of his musical peers on the punk rock scene. By all apperances, there's never been a dull moment in the lives of Mr. Lydon and Ms. Up since Johnny Rotten declared punk music dead.

Granted, the Slit's long time guiding visionary, Ari Up, can come off at times as a cross between a moonstruck rastafarian and a Valerie Solanis protege. However, Ari Up understands the art of agitprop theater and overstatement is a time honored tatic of guerilla theatrics. I've always loved her sense of humor and the strength of her political convictions, however fashionably militant she might be.

Ari Up has a new set of backup musicians but the punk/feminism, the mind bending dub reggae and the pre-riot grrrls attitude that inspired so many girl bands in the late 80s and 90s is intact. Trapped Animal is one of my favorite albums of 2009.

Gavin B.

A Public Service Announcement

Instead of my usual song of the day I'm running a public service announcement from Rob "Tyger" Ruben, paintball playing prodigy and founder of WebDog radio

My friend Tyger provides his commentary on the latest battleground on the e-music wars: YouTube. The Warner Music Group is threatening to pull all their music from YouTube. Tyger has his basic facts straight and offers his own call to action. A caution to those sensitive to crude language: Mr. Ruben uses it early and often.

Gavin B.

Song of the Day




Sometimes Always- Hope Sandoval & the Jesus and Mary Chain- What can I say? Sometimes Always was one of the great songs of the 90s, a decade which, in hindsight, had a lot of great music. Is it too early to start getting nostalgic about flannel shirts, Doc Martin boots, Mazzy Star and the Jesus and Mary Chain?

Gavin B.

Song of the Day


Dub FX: A street performer that has become an international internet phenomenon.

Soothe Your Pain- Dub FX Today's song of the day comes, literally, from the street. If you live in a major metropolitan area in Canada, the United States, England or Europe you may have seen Dub FX's street perfomance in your town.

Dub FX is a beatboxer who grew up in Melbourne performing in various bands before hitting the outernational road. Dub Fx uses Roland BOSS effect & loop pedals to create sounds which when layered creates a live musical construct. All the sounds are his improvised vocals including the drum and bass.

Dub Fx can be currently found busking through Europe. He describes his music as "psychedelic trip-hop acapella." Dub FX's website is http://www.dubfx.net/ He has plenty of free downloads of his songs and news of his latest travels. He has three self produced albums of his songs on his own indie label.

If you're still baffled as to what Dub FX exactly does as a musician, watch the video. It's not that easy to explain Dub FX's "thing" to someone who's never seen him perform.

Dieselboy

That's just beyond cool right there. You gotta love watching people who, when they're performing, are just totally feeling their music and enjoying themselves. So fun to watch. Gonna look through his site when I get a chance today for sure.

Gavin B.

One of the things I miss most about living on the East Coast is the abundant number of public music performers in the subways, the parks and the public streets.

Here in St. Louis there laws against public busking (as it called) and the few performers who get permits are consigned to low traffic areas where it is nearly impossible to earn any money. It's a shame because street busking is a tradition that dates back to antiquity. The minstrelsy and commedia dell'arte (street theater) are rich musical traditions. Busking a great way to enrich our cities culturally and provide a respectable living for many talented musicians.

Song of the Day

In the busking tradition here's a good chill video perscussionist Davide Swarup improvising on the Hang drum in Vondel Park in Amsterdam in 2008. Davide is one of the world's leading players of this exotic musical instrument.

There are only two people who make Hanghang (plural form of Hang), the inventors Felix Rohner and Sabina Schärer. They have a little workshop in Berne Switzerland where every Hang has been created since they began selling the Hang in 2000. If you want to purchase a Hang, be prepared to be wait listed for a year or two and then you have to travel to Berne to pick the Hang up because Rohner and Schärer don't do mail order and don't even advertise because the customer seeks them out. Early in 2009 Rohner and Schärer sent a notice to wait listed customers that we "will not be able to sell you a Hang this year", indicating that a break for a few months would be taken to develop and research the Hang further. To prevent price gouging on the resale market, Rohner and Schärer have reserved the right (as a condidtion of the sale) to buy back any Hang at retail value should the customer decide to sell the instrument.

The Hang is technically a drum but as you can hear from Davide's playing there's a lot more to the Hang that banging a drum. The Hang is in the same musical percussion family as the vibraphone, the Caribbean steel drum, the African talking drum and Maylasian gamelon drums. All of these percussion isntruments have a variable pitch. Of course some folks will tell you that techincally the piano is a percussion instrument because a small mallet inside the piano hits a string each time you strike a key on the piano. As Davide Swarup demonstrates there are endless tonal possibilities depending on how and where you strike the Hang drum with your hands.

Gavin B.

Here's two more tracks from the upcoming Massive Attack album, Heligoland, which is scheduled for release on February 8th.

The featured vocalist on Babel is Martina Topley-Bird who has had a couple of successful solo albums since her Maxinquayle collaboration with Tricky.



Rush Minute has the slightly sinister feel of many of MA's earlier deep end dub explorations. It's my favorite track on the album so far.



I've posted two other tracks from Heligoland in the Electronica forum, and I do so with only one request: BUY THE ALBUM, BOYS & GIRLS!

We live in an era where nearly every song in the world is availiable as a free sample and we do make some real choices over the music we pay our hard earned dollars to support. Massive Attack deserves your financial support and that means purchasing their music in the format of your choice be it vinyl, compact disc or MP3 download.