The Dancing Thumb (aka: music recommendations)

[juv3nal]

Daptone has released a playlist with what looks like the full debut album from The Olympians:

 

It's very much of a piece with other instrumental soul stuff on the label. 

[TheLastBaron]

Man, what-cd shut down and I'm super bummed. There were so many albums I got from there that I literally couldn't find anywhere else including ebay/discogs/emailing the labels. I don't see anything replacing it either since now the majority of people can get the music they want through streaming so there's not as many people willing to put in the massive amount of work that what-cd took to build after oink this time around. 

[Nappi]

 

 

Uuugh.. Can't wait.

[Ozzie]

Funky tune, biting lyrics, great video:

 

[Ozzie]

https://problembaer.bandcamp.com/track/planeten-epilog

 

The best and grandest album closer I've heard all year. Uplifting and prone to giving me goosebumps. Even better in context, of course. The album overall is one of the better ones in the German language, though it's rather inconsistent: the tracks where the artist tries to convey swag don't convince.

[Nappi]

 

Christmas fucking miracle, indeed!

 

 

[Vulpes Absurda]

I just picked up Mitski's new album and I'm really digging it:

 

 

 

[Mawd]

 

[Erkki]

Mouth moods?

[Erkki]

I have only listened to the whole thing once, but there are two things I really like from Mouth Sounds:

 

ACVC

 

y Shit

 

kind of meh on the rest so far.

[Ozzie]

So far T.I.M.E. and The End are my favorites. Both of these mashups have pretty much the same structure as the songs the vocals are taken from, which doesn't always work as well on other tracks of the album that do this (like the Wonderwall one). The tone reversal (The End happy and upbeat and YMCA the opposite) is also surprisingly effective, especially since it brings out another quality in the vocals, a certain kind of desperation in YMCA, for example.

Actually, T.I.M.E. is sincerely moving. This review brought me to the album in the first place:

 

Quote

In 1992, the Pet Shop Boys covered the Village People song Go West as a kind of darkly ironic commentary on (among other things) the way the song had framed San Francisco as a kind of "idealistic gay utopia" (in the words of Pet Shop Boys keyboardist Chris Lowe). This, bear in mind, was in the wake of the AIDS crisis decimating the gay community, with San Francisco in particular being one of the places hit especially hard. Though this lends the cover a depressing subtext, the overall mood of the song is still pretty kitschy - even with the historical context in mind, it's still ultimately a Village People song. How on earth does one even begin to make a Village People song sound depressing?

Well, almost exactly 25 years later, Neil Cicierega found a way.

I know, I know, the whole "mash the vocals from Y.M.C.A. up with the most somber backing music imaginable" conceit is meant as a joke (Neil Cicierega has stated repeatedly in interviews that none of his mashups are intended as social commentary), but god damn if the song T.I.M.E. isn't one of the most unexpected emotional gut-punches I've gotten in a while. Maybe it's because it comes in the wake of some of the worst election results for non-straight people since the Reagan era, or maybe it's because the bleak tone of it is such a jarring musical left turn in context, but the way the histrionic, oversung vocals of Y.M.C.A. contrast with Hans Zimmer's typically bombastic soundtrack music makes it sound like the most desperate, defeated thing in the world.

And then, of course, it ends with the fucking whistling from All Star by Smash Mouth so people like me can feel like a total schmuck for having taken it all too seriously.

 

Kinda wish there wasn't such a tonal whiplash right after. The material after T.I.M.E., save for the last track, doesn't capture my interest quite like everything before, so I guess the album could have used some trimming. I rarely listen to mashups, so I can't judge what the state of the art is in this genre, but I think overall this is a good album!

[melmer]

Just been crying like a baby listening to this

 

 

makes more sense if you've seen the movie (Sing street), its on Netflix get to it.

[Beasteh]

On 25/01/2017 at 11:27 AM, Erkki said:

Mouth moods?

 

It's been, one week since... you posted this question. One Week by Barenaked ladies seems to be the glue that holds this album together. When the Thumbs talked about it on the cast I was expecting more of Smash Mouth. Didn't go away disappointed though - Mouth Moods is grrrrreat!

 

It's an entertaining set of mashups, done to be funny rather than anything deep. At times I laughed hard at the sheer audacity of the songs he puts together (how does he get away with it! He keeps getting away with it!) like the Wonderwall one, or the One Week/Smooth Criminal mashup, or the suprise samples he just casually throws in. I'm having a great time with it. Anyway, here's wonderwall:

 

 

 

Also, Wow Wow is better than any original Will Smith song. Fact:

 

 

P.S. Sleepin' makes me feel good!

 

 

[simonster]

I liked the Neil Cicierega album(?[suddenly I felt out of touch]) and I listened to it this past weekend as I was dancing around cleaning up the place and washing the dishes. But it also made me go back to another mashup project from Girl Talk, all day which I really liked. Don't think I have anything else to contribute except a link to a free download of All Day on Girl Talk's website and to embed the first chapter from the film based on Girl Talk's mashup album named Girl Walk // All Day.

 

Link:

http://illegal-art.net/allday/

 

Video:

 

[melmer]

Sundara Karma are the shit

 

YO TUNE

 

[Erkki]

Listened to that Sundara Karma album - not a genre I'd usually be into, but quite liked it.

[Roderick]

This is quite excellent: someone on Youtube is very slightly altering existing songs, taking the instruments or tempo just ever so lightly out of tune. The results are good.

 

 

[melmer]

Been listening to this Grateful Dead tribute album (5:30 hours long :tup:) perfect background music to work too

 

http://www.dayofthedeadmusic.com/

 

 

I got on to this after listening to the latest WTF podcast with Ryan Adams, which was a pretty great listen. Never really listened to Ryan being interviewed before. Anyway they discus this grateful dead song at the end which lead me down this rabbit hole

 

 

[Trip Hazard]

Recently, I've been on a bit of a country music kick.  For the longest time, the only country music I ever heard was about rednecks swilling cheap beer and disrespecting women, or modern(ish) country pop stuff like Shania Twain and, more recently, Taylor Swift, whom it is impossible to avoid without going to live in a cave on Mars.

 

But, I knew that good stuff was out there, I just had to look for it. Here are some of my favourite things I found, and, yes, they are mostly traditional country songs with an emphasis on authenticity in the music and the lyrics. Most of them have a religious bent. I don't like the mass-produced stuff cos I'm a big snob.

 

 

There's this from O Brother, Where Art Thou? 

 

 

And this by Willie Nelson, recently featured very prominently in "Preacher"

 

 

[Trip Hazard]

listened to this today, and I think we can all agree that it's incredible

 

 

[TheLastBaron]

7 hours ago, Trip Hazard said:

Recently, I've been on a bit of a country music kick.  For the longest time, the only country music I ever heard was about rednecks swilling cheap beer and disrespecting women, or modern(ish) country pop stuff like Shania Twain and, more recently, Taylor Swift, whom it is impossible to avoid without going to live in a cave on Mars.

 

But, I knew that good stuff was out there, I just had to look for it. Here are some of my favourite things I found, and, yes, they are mostly traditional country songs with an emphasis on authenticity in the music and the lyrics. Most of them have a religious bent. I don't like the mass-produced stuff cos I'm a big snob.

 

 

There's this from O Brother, Where Art Thou? 

 

 

And this by Willie Nelson, recently featured very prominently in "Preacher"

 

 

I actually saw Nitty Gritty Dirt Band live last year and they were really good.  I've seen Alison Krauss/ Union Station live probably 4 or 5 times and they are also super good.  I also saw Lucinda Williams live last year and she was terrible, like I've seen her live before a while ago and she was good, but this time she seemed super out of it and was incoherent a lot of the time and didn't seem to even know where she was at points.  It was pretty sad.

[Vulpes Absurda]

Real talk, I unironically really like Mouth Moods as an album. *goes back to pretentious indie rock about being sad but in like, a cool way*

[Trip Hazard]

On 19/02/2017 at 8:34 PM, TheLastBaron said:

I also saw Lucinda Williams live last year and she was terrible, like I've seen her live before a while ago and she was good, but this time she seemed super out of it and was incoherent a lot of the time

 

I've never heard of Lucinda Williams before, but there's some of her stuff on spotify. Are her albums worth hearing? Very jealous of you seeing Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. What was the composition of the crowd? I often wonder if this music appeals more to liberals or conservatives, religious folks or satan worshippers like myself. Or, more likely, a hodgepodge of all types.

 

Heeeeey, where've I heard this before? I'm getting some major deja vu...

 

 

 

[TheLastBaron]

8 hours ago, Trip Hazard said:

 

I've never heard of Lucinda Williams before, but there's some of her stuff on spotify. Are her albums worth hearing? Very jealous of you seeing Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. What was the composition of the crowd? I often wonder if this music appeals more to liberals or conservatives, religious folks or satan worshippers like myself. Or, more likely, a hodgepodge of all types.

 

 

I'm in the Bay Area and II can't speak for other people, but I have always been under the impression that Nitty Gritty Dirt Band appealed more to liberals.  They could very well appeal to everyone, but being from California and having 60's hippy vibes to them makes me think their fanbase leans left.  The crowd was mostly old white people, but they were playing at a winery so that kind of goes with the territory.  They talked a lot about the time they spent in Humboldt in the 70's and the audience seemed really into it, so there's that (for context if you google Humboldt California you get pictures of fields of marijuana plants).

 

I'd say Lucinda Williams is worth checking out, but I have no idea if you'll like her music.  Here are some of her songs that I like:

 

 

 

 

Also if you haven't listened to them already you should probably check out The Band, and also watch The Last Waltz.

 

 

[Ozzie]

 

A good song for a new page!