From Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators of
South Park, and Robert Lopez, of
Avenue Q, comes the new Broadway show
"The Book of Mormon." The
show "tells the story of two young Mormon missionaries sent off to spread the word in a dangerous part of Uganda" while gently (and no so gently) lampooning organized religion and traditional musical theatre.
The entire show is now streaming on NPR. Songs are extremely Not Safe For Work.
posted by ColdChef
on May 9, 2011 -
84 comments
How I Wrote is a series of videos from The Guardian where musicians perform a song after talking about it a little bit. Among the artists who've taken part are
Rufus Wainwright,
Kristin Hersh,
Corinne Bailey Rae,
Laura Marling,
Keren Ann,
Patrick Wolf,
Elbow,
Gruff Rhys,
Warpaint,
Cee Lo Green,
Antony and the Johnsons,
P. J. Harvey and
Emmy the Great, who sings a song about the Royal Wedding, appropriately enough for today (though I suppose the Cee Lo Green song is appropriate too).
posted by Kattullus
on Apr 28, 2011 -
27 comments
"The "chitlin' circuit" sounds like something that's gone, and with good reason. After all, the name itself derives from the "soul food" of chitterlings (fried pig intestines) that was a staple at early performances. But from CC Blues Club on Thomas Street to the Cannon Center downtown, thousands of Memphis music fans flock to hear stars like Marvin Sease and Bobby Rush sing what's too risqué for radio play, and to watch dancers shake what's too big for TV. That's both the beauty of the chitlin' circuit and the reason for its survival. While its roots run back to racial segregation, it thrives today because performers give audiences what they can't get through mainstream media. It's called "grown folks music," and it's all in the name of the blues."
Soul-blues singer
Marvin Sease has
died at age 64. Here's
a comprehensive playlist of his (sexually-explicit/NSFW) songs on YouTube, including the one that never received any radio airplay but whose title the former gospel singer took as his professional nickname:
Candy Licker [more inside]
posted by zarq
on Feb 9, 2011 -
15 comments
And just think: When your shitty kid marries someone you violently disapprove of 20 years from now, this song -- with its references to blowjobs and songs that were ground into the ground before the kid was a twinkle in your eye -- will serve as the couple's first dance. As you watch your offspring and new in-law twirl around the dance floor, you will reach for a glass of Champagne Loko (President Kid Rock won't try to ban the stuff until he's up for re-election in 2032) and wonder how everything went so, so wrong.
The Village Voice presents the
20 Worst Songs of 2010. [more inside]
posted by Lutoslawski
on Dec 22, 2010 -
169 comments
The Music of Jacques Brel is an article by music journalist Amy Hanson about the career of pop music legend Jacques Brel and his effect on popular music in the English language. A lot of songs and covers are mentioned in the article, below the cut are links to the songs that I could find videos of online.
[more inside]
posted by Kattullus
on Aug 6, 2010 -
49 comments
Given the seeming homogeneity of many hit songs, it might come as a surprise that some very strange and unconventional songs have found their way to the top of the pop charts in the past. Some are
novelty songs, some are just weird...
[more inside]
posted by LSK
on Apr 29, 2010 -
55 comments
'A site dedicated to songs about London. The only rules are that the songs must be brilliant and that the blindingly obvious numbers are excluded.'
The London Nobody Sings takes you on a musical tour of the capital, by
bus,
train and
tube, via
Camden Town,
Parliament Hill,
Portobello Road,
Shepherd's Bush,
Southall,
Tottenham and
Tooting Broadway. And if it's
too late to take the Underground? Don't worry, the
trams may have gone, but you can always catch the
Nightbus home.
posted by verstegan
on Feb 14, 2010 -
14 comments
Pain Pack — Ze Frank posted a phone number and asked that anyone experiencing emotional pain leave him a message. He received a number of very distraught messages. From those, DJs and musicians created 138 samples for him—and those samples have since been made into songs—and the collaborative process continues.
posted by netbros
on Feb 1, 2010 -
26 comments
Gather round the microphone, friends, put your headphones over one ear, and wave your hands in the air like you do care, very deeply. It's time to celebrate the
benefit song. [MLYT]
[more inside]
posted by DiscourseMarker
on May 22, 2009 -
36 comments
Mountain air, clear as wine
And the scent of pines
Brought by the twilight breeze
With the sound of bells
Shortly before the Six Day War of 1967 an amateur singer
performed [YT] an elegy for the then-divided city of Jerusalem "locked in a dream ... with a wall in its heart".
[more inside]
posted by Joe in Australia
on May 21, 2009 -
8 comments
Leonard Cohen live in London, July 18, 2008. The entire two and a half hour concert. Available for one week only. Previously:
1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
8.
posted by msalt
on Apr 25, 2009 -
76 comments
The Belfer Cylinders Digital Connection is a collection of old cylinder records at Syracuse University. The library has started to digitize them, both in mp3 and wav format. They have only
293 online yet but aim to have 6000 cylinders digitized by the end of next year. It can be searched either by genre, keyword or Here are a few that I really like:
Bedtime at the Zoo,
That Syncopated Boogie-boo,
Mary, You're a Little Bit Old Fashioned,
Fifty Million Frenchmen Can't Be Wrong,
Phoebe Brown,
Was zu Gott ist zu Gott und was zu leute ist zu leute,
Aberystwyth,
Glada na lusch,
I Love a Lassie and
Pussy's in the Well.
posted by Kattullus
on Apr 1, 2009 -
22 comments
Silent Night in
English,
German,
Irish,
Arapaho,
Czech,
Italian,
Finnish,
Russian,
Hungarian,
Swedish,
Norwegian,
Portuguese,
Japanese,
French,
Spanish and
another 120 languages. The official song of the
Christmas truce.
[more inside]
posted by twoleftfeet
on Dec 11, 2008 -
26 comments
The Isleños are
said to be a dying traditional American subculture.
Descendants of Canary Island immigrants of Louisiana, the name Isleños was given to them to distinguish them from Spanish mainlanders, known as "peninsulares." But in Louisiana, the name evolved from a category to an identity
. For a long time they were one of those rare subcultures that found a way to maintain a living tradition as the world around them modernised by carving out a livelihood as crabbers and 'shrimpers'.
Then Katrina hit and the wetlands, which were central to the Isleños identity, essentially dissapeared. Despite the blow to their economy, they still
have their songs and
annual fiestas, evidence of a strong culture which binds their community together, and their
rebuilding following Katrina demonstrated how strong that sense of identity and culture can be. So perhaps the Isleños shouldn't be written off just yet, then. After all, as Isleño Irvan Perez says, "
This is home. Where else would we go?"
posted by Effigy2000
on Dec 7, 2008 -
7 comments
