Talking Heads Live in Rome

Boing Boing reported a few days ago that someone had posted an entire concert video of the Talking Heads live in Rome (circa 1980!!) to You Tube. Holy Crap.

I am and have always been a fanatical follower of this incredible band, who (along with Television) totally redefined the way I think about the interplay of the instruments in a band.

This show reveals why the great Talking Heads remain the stuff of legend, and the rich vibrant energy that they emit on-stage is intoxicating to say the least. In a word, this is a-w-e-s-o-m-e.

So grab a drink, get comfortable, unplug the phone, and put your rawk goggles on!

The Songs:

* Psycho Killer
* Stay Hungry
* Cities
* I Zimbra
* Drugs
* Take Me to the River
* Crosseyed and Painless
* Life During Wartime
* Houses in Motion
* Born under Punches

Live! James Brown, Michael Jackson, and Prince in Supersoul Throwdown!

In keeping with the recent burst of video love, I just had to drop this clip of an old James Brown show where Michael Jackson and Prince both get called to step up from the crowd and onto the stage to add a little spice to the Godfather's mega-jive. Holy crack-rabbits, this is some cool sh*t....

She Wakes Up Just Long Enough to Rawk!

This video I found at haha.nu is awesome. This little girl rocks like nobody's bid-ness!
I wonder how long till she can quit her day job?

Maple Practice Amp!

Something cool featured on Make, is this swigity-sweet little practice amp that came from a personal website called nonentity. Really lovely work indeed! Check out a step-by-step (with pictures!) of how this hand-crafted beauty was made.

Guitarist Zack Kim Shreds Mario Bros.

For all us tragically nostalgic kids who owned one of the first Nintendo game systems and who's voices changed not because of puberty but from blowing into game cartridges and screaming endless hours at the Koopa Troopas, here's a guitar virtuoso who feels our pain.

This is a priceless video clip I caught over at haha.nu of an Australian guy named Zack Kim playing the original Super Mario Brothers Theme on two guitars simultaneously using a finger-tapping technique that would make Eddie VanHalen proud as a pickled herring.

Check out his site for loads of links to similar videos he's made (including other video game themes!).

***Edit!***

Awe, screw it. Here's a few more unique samples of the Mario theme I found on YouTube after posting Zack Kim's. Enjoy!

Classical Guitar:

11 String Bass:

Drums and Bass:

Major League Soccer Gets Adidas-Sponsored Anthems

Look out, soccer fans!

Adidas has teamed up with a number of artists under a new promotion they're calling "Represent" which enlists well-known musical talents to 'Represent' their home towns by penning and performing original fight songs for their local Major League Soccer Teams. This is a great idea in that it's wicked fun for soccer enthusiasts and music lovers alike, and allows a closer sense of that pride and community that our European counterparts enjoy with the sport.

Visit THIS site set up by Adidas, click through their landing page, and select your favorite MLS team to listen to and/or download their new fight song for free! To save time, here's a run-down of the line-up you'll find:

• Chivas USA - "Chivas Explosivas!" by Akwid


• New York Red Bulls - "Woo, Alright, Yeah... Uh Huh" by The Rapture


• Real Salt Lake - "The Mighty R-E-A-L" by Meg and Dia


• Colorado Rapids - "Goal!" by Rose Hill Drive


• Houston Dynamo - "Houston Dynamo (Don't Play)" by Mike Jones


• FC Dallas - "H-O-O-P-S Yes!" by The Polyphonic Spree


• Los Angeles Galaxy - "We Are the Galaxy" by Kinky


• Kansas City Wizards - "Ain't Nobody Gonna Stop Us Now" by Blackpool Lights


• Chicago Fire - "Here Comes the Fire" by Ok Go


• Columbus Crew - "It's Your Crew" by RJD2


• Toronto FC - "TFC" by Barenaked Ladies


• D.C. United - "DC United" by Bad Brains


• New England Revolution - "Revolution" by Damone

iTunes Stops Playing Those Mind Games, Sells Lennon Solo Stuff

I remember back when I was just out of high school I applied for a job at a record store. On the application was a question: What are ten bands/artists that you think deserve more recognition? I tried my best to fill the list with obscure, intelligent choices to show my prowess as a discerning audiophile, but I was laughed at when I went in for my interview because riding atop my A-list of brilliant underground jazz artists and indie-sceners was the Beatles. I remember the guy's face now- "you think the Beatles should be more popular?!" Um, yeah, why shouldn't they be? Looking back at the decades of legal disputes that have kept a new generation from exposure to the Beatles and their solo work, I still feel the same.

That's why I was happy to come upon an article in the Journal Star today reporting that iTunes, which has been slowly but surely warming itself up to the release of Beatle's material owned by the EMI label and Capitol records, has just made available 16 of John Lennon's post-Beatles solo albums. I for one am happy to see it- even though my Lennon/Beatles collection already overfloweth, to say the least- and think it's really about time. It's a shame that the work of one of the most influential and prolific artists of the last century, one of those few individuals who actually had a hand on the hammer that hewed out the genre that is now modern popular music and helped it to be regarded as a serious art form, has been plagued with such difficulty in the release of his music (with the Beatles and solo) through any legitimate, legal digital music provider. I guess there's also a certain amount of sentimentality too, thinking that John Lennon is not alive to negotiate his music's release on his own terms.

It should be said though, that despite the catchy title of this post, EMI has surely had a healthy hand in keeping the Fab 4 from the ears of a new generation who listen and live online, and so have the Beatles for that matter. It took decades for the royalty disputes between EMI and the remaining members of the band + Yoko (via Apple Corps) to be resolved (a $59 million resolution, from what I understand) and the feud between Apple Corps and Apple Inc. over trademark infringement has only recently come to an end. All friends now? Who knows, but all this law-suiting has kept many music lovers literally licking their lips for nearly two decades anticipating this turn.

I guess to many, of course, the real news was when Steve Jobs announced that iTunes would carry music by the Beatles earlier this year. I realize too that Yoko Ono already released a remastered collection of John Lennon's work to many online music stores like Napster and MSN Music, but that too was a long time coming. Anyway, iTunes is the largest online music store and they should be carrying the work of music giants like the Beatles and John Lennon. So, this is indeed news.

Oh yeah, and just for good measure, here's "Mind Games" from Lennon's "Walls and Bridges" album to help you celebrate!

Busking, Round 2

I jumped up and act a fool and did it again.
I went back to what I learned is called a "pitch" back on Queen Anne and tried my fingers and throat again at busking.
I went a little earlier in the day this time, and wasn't as thorough with the sun screen, so i have odd burned patches on my right tricep and neck. I was there not quite as long - about 1.5 hours (i had some time constraints) and i earned nine dollars sixteen pence in tips. Not bad!

I gave one dollar away to a homeless dood who boozily wobbled up to me and said he played guitar, and that he'd had 7 guitars stolen from him down town (indeed sad), asked if i thought the pizza shop would give him a slice if he asked - I said "take a shot, who knows?" he came swaying back with a hot slice of cheezy goodness and then asked me for a dollar out of my hat. Well, friends - it's hard to say no to somebody who had such a story and seing as how we were both looking down at the hat with it's couple bills and shiny coins all arrayed just so I said, sure - take a dollar. Small price to pay for some karma i suppose. I got blessed by the cheese filled slightly yeasty smelling fella who then headed off to more adventure no doubt.

No dog pee this time. that's a plus.

I worry i'm getting greedy...I spent some of my pay pretty quickly down at the Arab Festival going on at the Seattle Center - and it sort of stung! I either need to not spend my take or maybe move to a higher traffic area - I don't want to get locked in to thinking "busking = that one pitch on queen anne" y'know?

Musically i had a good time - i need a broader collection of songs and instrumentals to shake it up for me, but I, on the spot, figured out two Dylan "licks" that I'd been wondering about forever. one is that quick hammer-on pull-off thing he does in in "Hollis Brown" and the other is the G variant chord in "Billy 1 - 4" . I was thinking he did it with an open tuning, but it turns out its the same chord/lick trick that's used in "Girl from the North Country", "Spanish Boots..." and Tom Paxton's "last thing on my mind" where you've got the G chord and you move your fingers into a C with your 1st and 4th fingers on the G on the high and low E strings...you know what i'm talking about. {jguitar lists it as possibly a G 6th, suspended 4th - which makes sense harmonically - i'm in love with Jguitar.com}

Also - I'm working on my own version of this song below. I can't top this - ever, but i can try and that second chord is such a pleasure to play. I could play that second chord ALL day. RT does it here with thumb and 2 or 3 fingers and that gives it a very "English" sound. Since i'm still learning the American country blues finger picking style I'm doing it with thumb and index finger. but anyone whose heard Rev. Gary Davis knows that those two fingers can bring on a FLURRY of notes.

Richard Thompson, man. I used to think that Jimi Hendrix was the most creative and possibly the greatest guitarist to have lived - I don't think that as much anymore.

Last thought - whose living room is that? How do I get Richard Thompson to come to *MY* living room and play one of the best songs in the universe?

Willie Nelson on Vinyl

There is just not much more pleasant than opening up the doors and windows, when the air is still bright and morning like. And dropping a needle on to the grooves of some Willie on vinyl. Sure, there are some instrumental tracks that don't really move the story along, and the story kinda doesn't make sense - but then really does make sense. But there is such magic in this record and listening to it in two halves and watching that black disc circle round and round - it's just special.

Just good and pure and sad and happy and tragic and fun, simple and difficult, joyous. In a way few pieces of art in any medium
succeeed this record (played on lovingly preserved vinyl) is pure, muddied, Art.

(p.s. - Thanks to Sonny and Margaret for letting me have this when they downsized their vinyl collection)

Beyoncé Battles Stairs, YouTube, and Aliens

Has anybody seen the footage of Beyoncé's recent fall in Orlando?

Apparently, she took a face-firster down 12 stairs during a concert then got up, dusted herself off, and kept workin' it! Some concert-goers reported that Miss Knowles even appeared to be bleeding. The show must go on, I suppose- bravo, Queen Bee!

After the show, Beyoné requested that no one release any video footage of the fall on the internet, but it surfaced quickly on YouTube anyway. Sony music yanked it, though, by the time I got there. Doesn't matter anywho because I managed to find some stills of the video that was released to Fox News and the quality is so bad you've got no clue what you're even looking at- could be Beyoncé falling down a flight of stairs, could also be a fuzzy bootlegged scene from "Close Encounters of the Third Kind."

Probably the second, I think.

*Edit* Maybe, it's both....

Where You Been?

To anyone who might have thought that I'd been devoured by dinosaurs or pushed off a cliff for insurance money, I apologize for my glaring absence from the Effect Return over the past couple of months. School and work have been alternating, taking bites out of my pearly-white seat cushion, and I'm just now getting my head above water. Fortunately, our man on the scene, Dr. Confusion, has stepped up and been posting overtime with a fury that would make even the 300 Spartans proud.

Thanks, Dr. C, for keeping ER alive!

Starbucks Label on the Move with Mitchell

So, there's been a little debate here at the ER over the new Starbucks record label, and new developments are abound. We mentioned before that Paul McCartney had signed to them, which he did, and his album "Memory Almost Full" has already sold 447,000 copies, 45 percent of them in Starbucks stores, according to the Sun-Sentinel.com.

Now Joni Mitchell has signed on with the Hear Music label to release "Shine," her first album of new compositions since 1998. Very interesting, indeed. The label is apparently planning to sign one more artist this year and another eight more in 2008. Considering who's already on board, it will be exciting to see who will be the next to get snared into Starbucks' silky web of ingenuity.

First Busking Experience

This Sunday (that just happened) - I took the advice of my very lovely and brilliant Wife. She said "you've been talking about playing on the street forever, so here's my idea.

• I'm going away for a couple days - so practice your favorites
• Then go to a neighborhood where no one knows you
• don't tell nobody
• Play 10 songs, and if its a terrible time - you can bail and noone's the wiser.

So, I did exactly that. I practiced a couple songs, and made a list of more than 10 songs to maybe do. and I fiddled, I faddled , I dawlded, and I procrastinated harder than ever - until sunday afternoon, after doing all the laundry, cleaning the floors and doing the dishes like 3 times. So I was at my computer listening to the Great Rev. Gary Davis, and reading about his life. And how he played on the street for more than 35 years. and I just felt "If I don't go now, i'm never going to do it"

So I jumped up and ran out the door and immediately caught the bus going downtown, I hopped off in Lower Queen Anne, and walked up the Hill - To work off some of my nerves. At the top, i stopped across from a safeway, where the food traffic would be heavy-ish, but I could be set back from the sidewalk.

I was pretty nervous so I started with Corcovado and played that a million times so I wouldn't have to actually sing. And then, i tried "lonesome whistle" - But it took me a million tries to find the right note and the right first chord...

I was playing a bunch of country songs, and San Andreas (which I could play forEVER) - but generally the stuff that seemed to put the strollers by at ease and enhance the pleasant ness of their day were the instrumental stuff. To maximize money from that crowd it's definitley less John Cale and more John Fahey.

I did make some money - the first in my life that I've ever made from music. I made eight dollars fifty cents. The first dollar was from a lady what that walked by her dog wanted to pee on my guitar case. She was successful in diverting the pungent amarillo stream away from my trusty case - to which i'm eternally grateful. After securing the incontinent beast she scurried over and dropped the first dollar in to my hat. Thanks much Lady.

I ended up playing about two hours...I included some GoA stuff, and just going until my fingers hurt, and my voice was blown out, and then I left. Feeling pretty triumphant.

More later!

Nercore Undercover

My homie, Z - from Hipster, Please! has put out his very own compilation record of Nerdcore and semi-quasi-demi-tasse nerdy musicians. That's RAD. and he gave me a shout out... so right back atcha Z!

Go Steve!

Let it be known that I agree with Steve Albini in just about every way he illustrates. He's a super smart dude and had brought a lot of good music into this world. I wish I was more like Steve. Right Now.

Merlin Mann and John Roderick

Here's two WAY too smart guys being way to funny talking about playing guitar.

It is.

Elucidating.


(and part 3 of 4 total parts so there's lots more.)

Ravi Shankar Compresses Time Because He Loves You

The Hindustani art music version of playing a Beethoven symphony in 3 minutes.

This. Is. So. Punk.



it's one minute of the Alaap, one minute of Jhorl and Jhala - then it's on to the medium and fast Ghats for the remaining minute. when it was done I cheered. out loud. at work.

Poseidon's Harmonica

This is one of the most awesome things i've ever heard of:

The Sea Organ in Zadar, Croatia.

It's like John Cage and Poseidon and Brian Eno all made love to the same idea at once!

There's video!

found via metafilter.

{update: Just hold the phone, This website is giving me a case of the thrills!}

Dancing, Mashups, and Missy Elliot's Unstoppable Kung-Fu

Last Saturday night was off the chain.

Turns out, one of my favorite Mash-up Dj's (assemblers?, synthers?, Grafters? - what is the term for someone who makes a mash-up?) DJ Freddy, The King of Pants lives in Seattle and hosts a mashup and illegal music dance party at my favorite places to go out - the Re-bar - every 3rd Saturday. This is sort of like being a new convert to catholicism, who lives in Rome, and is thinking about joining the priest-hood being informed that the Pope, in fact, lives down the street.

Dj Freddy is a a super nice sweet-heart! We got there sort of early and I went straight to the booth and let him know I was so excited and I had just put his "Badd To Me" on my latest Ugata disc, before I knew he was from here - and he immediately added it to the mix...DOPE!

So we and the crew went and danced for Approx 2 and 75/100ths of an hour. It was fantastic. But the mash-up dance party has a inherent - i don't wanna say flaw - but you know how to fly a plane has to over come the drag that the atmosphere produces? that same atmosphere that allows the plane to fly? it's kind've like that.

Mash-ups are great cause they re-contexualize the familiar, and the juxtaposition factor can be thrilling - but it can also distance from the core initial response we have to it. For example, i was struck by how well the underlying rythmn of "Come as you Are" works as a dance beat - but doesn't sound like a traditional dance rythmn. And I was boogie-ing away - but then, i realized I was thinking about the music too - so not really lost in the dance sort of vibe.

That to me indicates that, at least for me, a Mashup can be much more cerebral than kinetic, in a sense. Of course, the more seamless and alarming the juxtaposition - that is, the more skill fully the mashup is executed - the less this is an issue. But it does mean that a mashup dj needs to be on point, in a way that a regular dance music creator doesn't.

Also - sometimes it seems the juxtaposition can be a hindrance to "getting the party started" We might all be philistines, but there was a palpable surge of energy on the dance floor when a mashup had a section of song that was just a pure source from one track. There was a sense of releif and of "HEY! this is what i recognize!" feeling - when the both lobes of our brains had been furiously listening, dancing, investigating, remembering, and processing flipped over to - "YAY! this is the music AND the chorus to the same Madonna song! WOOO! let's boogie a little harder!"

Don't let this make you think that mashups aren't good to dance to. We're going back next time frankenboot drops at the rebar. It was mad fun and the experience needs to be repeated over and over again.

Seriously. It was fun and we'll be back. More to come!

Also - Missy Elliot sounds incredible rapping over Any, and Everything.

The Masterclass

This, my fellows. Is how it's done.