Category: music

Oh hey look, it’s The Bus! (the mobile venue in Oakland)

“XLR8R TV introduces you to John Benson and his Bus.”

Stalkin’ John Benson: just in case there was any doubt that I am one of the greatest web surfers who ever lived:

• Official site
• busshow @ Twitter
• ticulator @ MySpace
• ticulator @ Blogspot
• followthatparade@ Blogspot

I watched an episode of Sitaarre on East Bay public access TV, and they had this performer on, “Hard Kaur” —

She is first indian rapper based in the UK…

Cy Thoth on KFJC is playing some pretty demented “music” right now.

He’s totally nutty; he’s playing 4 tracks on top of each other by artists:

• Shallow Waters
• Darwin’s Bitch
• Haptic
• Meelkopt

I have a song from an alternate universe stuck in my head again.

Ingrid Michaelson’s song “The Way I Am” is very cute they way she sings it. But the way I hear it is as sung by a late 1950’s or early 1960’s doo-wop group.

Imagine this part as she sings it…

Cuz I love the way you call me baby
And you take me the way I am

Now imagine it’s being sung by a man with a high voice, with an a cappella backup. Now have it playing on grainy AM radio with nice analogue tubes in the dead of night… or even playing over a malfunctioning short wave radio set in an isolated outpost. Radio from an alternate universe. See how I snuck the sci-fi horror in there?

Strong temptation to buy the Buddha Machine 2.0 from FM3. It has new colors, new sounds, and even a pitch-shift dial that lets you change the pitch of the sound loops.

While it’s theoretically possible to build your own Buddha Machine, I think it’s a bit pointless, since the packaging is a lot of what makes these little guys fun… maybe if I made a wooden enclosure for it? That might be awesome.

There are also some remixes cropping up. Maybe I’ll have some on my ipod.

This 8-track tape belonged to my grandparents.
It’s Enka; I can’t really read it.
I ripped it to mp3, and transcribed the titles and artists for future analysis.

It’s titled
“トップスターによる心にこる大演歌”

It was released by Nippon-Columbia – 8WY-1021

TRACK 1

• 北の宿から by 都 はるみ
• 目ン無い千鳥　by 大川栄策
• 柔 by 美空ひばり
• 涙の連絡船 by 都 はるみ
• 王将 by 村田英雄

TRACK 2

• 心のこり by 細川たかし
• 悲しい酒 by 美空ひばり
• さすらい by 小林旭
• からたち日記 by 島倉千代子
• おんなの宿 by 大下八郎

TRACK 3

• 津軽海峡・冬景色　by 石川さゆり
• 無法松の一生 by 村田英雄
• アンコ椿は恋の花 by 都 はるみ
• 女のねがいby ぴんから兄弟
• 出世街道 by 畠山みどり

TRACK 4

• 女のみちby ぴんから兄弟
• ソーラン渡り鳥 by こまどり姉妹
• 人生劇場 by 村田英雄
• この世の花 by 島倉千代子
• なみだ船　by 北島三郎

Last night I went to see Holcombe Waller at Cafe du Nord. He was very good; I like his sound much much better than before on “Advertising Space.” I guess that was 10 years ago…

He was mostly solo; he was sitting on a chair alone on stage with his guitar, dressed in flannel with black-framed glasses and a beard, so it was kind of like the Eric Clapton MTV Unplugged.

Waller used his voice as a percussion instrument in this performance. His first song was this thing that I STILL can’t find on the damn albums; the only way I can think to describe it is as sort of a “Walking Song” by Meredith Monk which then transitions into a song that is like a more plaintive “Country Roads” by John Denver. Hopefully I can figure out what song that was, it had the word “Saskatchewan” in it.

UPDATE: it was a Buffy Saint-Marie cover called “Qu’appelle Valley, Saskatchewan.” Remember Buffy? From Sesame Street? Well I do. Anyway, Holcombe Waller’s version is on YouTube, I embedded it below. The version he performed was ever so slightly more mellow than this one.

One of the songs he did that was also really awesome was “Literally the End of the World.” That one is his.

His guitar work was very intricate. I actually bought everything he had there so now I have the complete Holcombe Waller collection. He needs to make more stuff to buy…

Opening for him were two groups also from Portland, OR, including Loch Lomond, who were quite good. Their instrument selection was pretty zany; at one point they used those corrugated tubes you swing over your head. I bought their albums too.

Holcombe Waller performing “Qu’appelle Valley, Saskatchewan”: