Have Love, Will Travel is a song with an instantly recognisable opening that was originally recorded by Richard Berry in 1959 and subsequently covered by The Sonics, Paul Revere and the Raiders, Crazyhead, Bruce Springsteen, Jim Belushi & Dan Akroyd, The Black Keys and at least two ukulele duos to name a few. (single song, MLYTP)
posted by slimepuppy on Jul 4, 2009 - 4 comments

Hibi no Neiro by Sour [more inside]
posted by Dr-Baa on Jul 3, 2009 - 15 comments

Ten years ago today, Mark Sandman died on stage during a Morphine concert at the Giardini del Principe in Palestrina, Italy. His music and its impact has not always received the type of attention normally given to rock stars tragically struck down in their prime, let alone one this brilliant. [more inside]
posted by allen.spaulding on Jul 3, 2009 - 45 comments

Michael Jackson penned and recorded lots of songs, many of which remain unreleased. Perhaps the most infamous, and rarest recording, is his version of Behind the Mask. Legend has it that upon hearing Yellow Magic Orchestra's original track, somewhen around 1979, Quincy Jones fell in love with the track, and he and Michael worked together on their own version. Jackson wrote new lyrics for it - adding to those of Ryuichi Sakamoto and Chris Mosdell - and eventually recorded it during his Off The Wall sessions. For unknown reasons the track never made the final cut of, arguably, Jones' and Jackson's greatest work. Not long afterwards Greg Phillinganes, Jackson's keyboard player, released his own version of the song, which was later taken up and re-recorded by Eric Clapton for his 1986, Phil Collins produced album, August. The track has since been recorded/remixed by Human League, Senor Coconut, Orbital and others. Does an original Jones/Jackson recording of the song even exist? Perhaps, as the world continues to mourn the star's sad death, someone will finally allow us a listen.
posted by 0bvious on Jul 1, 2009 - 31 comments

S. E. Rogie: Go easy with me. [more inside]
posted by Potomac Avenue on Jun 28, 2009 - 6 comments

I'm not a fan of front-page posts that don't describe their link, but I seriously have no idea what this is. It's Russian. It's from the '60s. Now that I've watched it, I feel my life is complete, yet I somehow simultaneously want my eight minutes back (you've been warned). SLYT.
posted by grumblebee on Jun 28, 2009 - 66 comments

A relatively long list of music videos by Michel Gondry. From his humble beginnings with Oui Oui to his eventual mastery of both space and time. [more inside]
posted by Weebot on Jun 26, 2009 - 31 comments

Back in the days before music videos, and if the band could not make it to the Top Of The Pops studio, then out would come dance group Pan's People. [more inside]
posted by fearfulsymmetry on Jun 26, 2009 - 8 comments

A handy rating guide to 1980s saxophone solos -- "I realized about 5 years ago that at some point in the 80s, lots of the popular music started incorporating saxophone solos into their songs. Some of them are fine, but most of them are ridiculous to have in the songs. I have attempted to separate the quality and appropriateness of the solos from what I think of the song as a whole..."
posted by miss lynnster on Jun 26, 2009 - 140 comments

1983 Ilsington Squatter Punk Documentary
posted by KoobieKitten on Jun 25, 2009 - 15 comments

Greil Marcus writes Real Life Top Ten for the Believer Magazine, in which he lists "anything that remotely has to do with music, a dress Bette Midler wore at an awards show or a great guitar solo in the middle of a song that otherwise wasn't very interesting." But he's been writing this column online for just about 10 years. [more inside]
posted by Potomac Avenue on Jun 25, 2009 - 4 comments

Steven Wells, the ranting music journalist known as Swells during his time excoriating indie bands on the NME, has died of cancer. [more inside]
posted by mippy on Jun 25, 2009 - 39 comments

Honyanko bushi, Tsurumanzoku, Butamatsuri, and Nevaneva Land are music videos produced by Obakejaa. [NSS (Not Seizure Safe), MLYT]
posted by geos on Jun 24, 2009 - 7 comments

This adult swim bump didn't make any sense until I saw this video. I think it changed my opinion of Taylor Swift, if only for just shy of two minutes.
posted by djduckie on Jun 23, 2009 - 109 comments

Metafilter's own COBRA! has been producing a great comic about a rock band for quite awhile; and now it's been released as a book! Get to know the Awesome Boys in Nowhere Band.
posted by interrobang on Jun 23, 2009 - 11 comments

Two 78 sides by Gabriel Brown (yt) [more inside]
posted by 1f2frfbf on Jun 23, 2009 - 4 comments

Osymyso - "Intro-Inspection" (mp3) [more inside]
posted by flatluigi on Jun 21, 2009 - 22 comments

Ustad Ali Akbar Khan passed into his next incarnation on June 18. He was unquestionably the greatest sarod player in the world. A sample of his artistry is on display here and here..
posted by rdone on Jun 20, 2009 - 27 comments

Ralf Hütter of Kraftwerk gives a rare interview to the Guardian, who also have a rather nice interactive feature on the bands influence.
posted by Artw on Jun 19, 2009 - 15 comments

Beck intends to record cover versions of selected albums in a day, unrehearsed, with guest musicians and then to release them on his website. Pitchfork announced it yesterday here. The first song is Sunday Morning.
posted by tawny on Jun 19, 2009 - 48 comments

The Snyderphonics Manta . With a few exceptions like the rare Buchla Thunder and the ZenDrum, computer musicians were stuck with controllers disguised as traditional instruments, rolling their own, or using grids of generic rubber pads. The Manta, in the spirit of the Serge TKB's capacitance touchplate construction, attempts to do something new, and people are already doing interesting things with it. Videos: polyphonic keys, sequencer, technique, and lots more
posted by Señor Pantalones on Jun 18, 2009 - 7 comments

One of the giants of free jazz, Albert Ayler was also one of the most controversial. His huge tone and wide vibrato were difficult to ignore, and his 1966 group sounded like a runaway New Orleans brass band from 1910. - AllMusic [more inside]
posted by Joe Beese on Jun 17, 2009 - 23 comments

R.I.P. Bob Bogle. [more inside]
posted by CheeseDigestsAll on Jun 17, 2009 - 16 comments

DrumChuk: "A customizable Ruby-based MIDI drum controller for the Wii remote and nunchuk on OS X." The code, and more about the project, can be found at github.
posted by ocherdraco on Jun 17, 2009 - 8 comments

The cat organ. The mouse organ. The human organ. Another human organ.
posted by Brian Lux on Jun 16, 2009 - 18 comments

Over 2,500 songs from Newfoundland (and also from away) [more inside]
posted by goingonit on Jun 15, 2009 - 14 comments

It's the mid 1980's, computer games are stored on cassette tapes and they take a very long time to load. This lead to the creation of loading music. [more inside]
posted by hellojed on Jun 15, 2009 - 31 comments

Stan Hugill, often known as "The Last Shantyman," authored a book called Shanties From the Seven Seas, based on his own work experiences in the last days of sail. Influential in the folk revival, the book is one of the most important written sources for music sung aboard ships in the 19th and early 20th century, the "Bible" of sea music. Decades of chanteying in pubs and at festivals have kept many of the songs alive, but in most cases they've strayed stylistically from the verses and versions Hugill collected, or dropped out of popularity entirely. Now, one musician is returning to the source and creating a new audio archive for the original versions of the songs as written, by singing through the more than 400 songs in the book, one song each week, and posting the songs on YouTube, with commentary. [more inside]
posted by Miko on Jun 15, 2009 - 28 comments

Van Shipley was the first electric guitarist in India. The name Van Shipley is Methodist, he [was] from Lucknow [Uttar Pradesh, India]. He designed his own electric eight string steel guitar in the 1940's. The reason he did this was that he'd studied Indian classical music under Ustad Alaudin Khan, the leading classical musician in India, who was also a contemporary of Ravi Shankar. He also studied the violin with a German teacher... so he made an eight string guitar, instead of a five string. His guitar was a solid guitar, designed to his style at the time, it was futuristic. [more inside]
posted by nickyskye on Jun 14, 2009 - 10 comments

The fiddle is usually associated with the hillbilly mania of people like Michael Cleveland (the nerdiest master ever to wield a bow), or the can't-get-it-out-of-your-head knees up party sound of celtic music. The violin, on the other hand, is associated with the elegance of orchestral music. They're actually one and the same instrument, applied to different sounds. And nobody wrote for this instrument more movingly than the Romanian composer Ciprian Porumbescu (1853-1883). Listen to his Ballad for Violin and Orchestra with your eyes closed, and weep for the suffering of the world.
posted by crazylegs on Jun 13, 2009 - 23 comments

JOIN THE COOLCATS MVMT. So-Me is the art director for Ed Banger Records. His job description includes touring with his muse Busy P, living with Justice, directing music videos, fashioning t-shirts and album art, designing Coca-Cola bottles, contributing to art exhibits, and just being a Cool Cat. [more inside]
posted by Juliet Banana on Jun 11, 2009 - 10 comments

Home taping didn’t kill music, says Ben Goldacre - but where did all the money go?
posted by Artw on Jun 11, 2009 - 168 comments

Twangfest 13 is underway in St. Louis. A multi-day festival of Americana music, past editions have featured artists such as the Bottle Rockets, Neko Case, and Jason Ringenberg. Several of this year's featured artists will be playing live on KDHX during the festival, live streaming audio available.
posted by ArgentineBlonde on Jun 11, 2009 - 13 comments

Mind-Melting Demo Disasters. An independent record label posts some of its more....interesting submissions. [more inside]
posted by Dr-Baa on Jun 11, 2009 - 62 comments

Hypnotic Brass Ensemble [more inside]
posted by paisley henosis on Jun 9, 2009 - 12 comments

Before Fleetwood Mac, there was Buckingham Nicks. Their seminal s/t album (1973) has never been released on CD. [more inside]
posted by ageispolis on Jun 8, 2009 - 34 comments

Over the past few years, Eric Whitacre has been taking the composition world by storm. And now he's all over the web. (Most links silent, personal website has an autoplay rainstorm going on.) His choral works range from the mysterious and brooding Water Night to the rambunctious modern madrigal, With a Lily In Your Hand, to the wonderfully lush Sleep (formerly a setting of Robert Frost's "Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening" - tragically halted by copyright infringement, but still available thanks to the magic of YouTube). While his instrumental compositions run the spectrum from silly musical parody (Godzilla Eats Las Vegas) to poignant melancholy (October) with some delicate crossover between vocal and instrumental (Lux Aurumque - first choral, then instrumental!). If you are or think you may be even remotely interested in contemporary classical music, you owe it to yourself to become familiar with the work of Eric Whitacre.
posted by greekphilosophy on Jun 8, 2009 - 36 comments

The Austin Lounge Lizards are Too Big To Fail. (SLYT)
posted by telstar on Jun 8, 2009 - 16 comments

"The Musical Cliché Figure Signifying The Far East", a.k.a. The Oriental Riff
posted by Joe Beese on Jun 7, 2009 - 39 comments

The bar for utterly ironic chorus lyrics has possibly been out of the reach of normal people for now. Hard Place show considerable, erm, 'flair' as well as awareness of, erm....well. Um. This is too hard to describe. Justice can only be done by watching it. (SLYT + 1) via
posted by Brockles on Jun 6, 2009 - 34 comments

"Songs From the Life of Leonard Cohen. More a biographical documentary than a concert, the 70-minute program combines live performances--some complete, many abridged--mainly from Cohen's 1988 show at Carnegie Hall, in support of his then-current album, I'm Your Man, with interviews with Cohen himself, his original musical patron Judy Collins and protege Jennifer Warnes." Parts: one two three four five six seven eight nine [more inside]
posted by Item on Jun 6, 2009 - 27 comments

60s Pop Friday! Ladies and Gentlemen, from Queens, NY, it's the Shangri-Las! Mostly known for their grandly melodramatic songs about teen love gone awry, they aren't all downers. They've been covered by bands from France to Japan.
posted by The Whelk on Jun 5, 2009 - 12 comments

Canadian DJ bloke Tiga has a new album called Ciao. He's made a spoof documentary to promote it. It's really funny, even if you don't know about dance music - A bit like Nathan Barley by the ever wonderful Chris Morris. Part 1 Part 2
posted by debord on Jun 4, 2009 - 20 comments

Lullatone are a half-Japanese, half-American duo based in Japan who make music that can probably best be described as twee folktronica; a recent EP of theirs is titled "Little Songs About Raindrops". And now, you can make your own with their Raindrop Melody Maker Flash web toy, which looks a bit like a pastel-coloured Tenori-On:
posted by acb on Jun 4, 2009 - 9 comments

How Music Works - UK Channel 4 documentary (~180 mins.)
Why do some rhythms get our toes tapping, while others make us feel mellow? How does a love song bring tears to our eyes? What links African drumming to J S Bach?
Part 1 - Melody (alt)
Part 2 - Rhythm (alt)
Part 3 - Harmony (alt)
Part 4 - Bass (alt)
Then: Music producer and neuroscientist Daniel Levitin, author of This is Your Brain on Music: The Science of Human Obsession and The World in Six Songs: How the Musical Brain Created Human Nature, shares some of his thoughts at Google Talk.
posted by Christ, what an asshole on Jun 4, 2009 - 31 comments

Koko Taylor (1928-2009) more than once said she hoped that when she died, it would be on stage (YT), doing the thing she loved most: Singing the blues (YT)...
posted by LinusMines on Jun 3, 2009 - 37 comments

Crescendo in the West Bank : NYT video on the rise of classical music programs in The West Bank.
posted by grapefruitmoon on Jun 3, 2009 - 1 comment

80s Film and TV composers filter: Let's hear it for Serbian-born action-flick composer Sylvester Levay. He scored a #1 Billboard 100 hit in 1975 with "Fly, Robin, Fly,", but moved from pop music to action movies. Maybe he's known best as the genius behind the alleged World's Most Expensive TV Soundtrack, the theme of which you don't have to pay $900 to hear.
Why did he move from action movies to historical musicals in the 90s? Maybe the genre was a little overloaded. [more inside]
posted by hpliferaft on Jun 3, 2009 - 8 comments

You wouldn't expect Iggy Pop to be the poster boy for rock stars who age gracefully, but he seems to be doing a pretty good job of it. At the age of 62, he's released Preliminaires, an album steeped in French Literature and containing jazz standards, hardscrabble blues, and the Louis-Armstrong-meets-Tom-Waits hit, King of the Dogs. NPR's Fresh Air has this interview with a thoughtful, avuncular Iggy Pop
posted by Jon_Evil on Jun 2, 2009 - 53 comments

Last year we discussed a recently discovered 10-second audio recording from 1860 that was thought to be the oldest known recorded human voice, a girl or woman singing the 18th century French folk song “Au Clair de la Lune”. Turns out, it was being played too fast - slow it down and it's the voice of the inventor himself. As well, a number of other recordings have been found, pushing back the oldest recording to 1857. Hear it all on NPR (5-min). [more inside]
posted by stbalbach on Jun 1, 2009 - 24 comments