Casual Listening
a review of cool new music
by Jeff Pinzino
I think we’ll be ready to launch the new website in a week. Expect a slew of special features as a kind of Grand Opening.
! Nick Curran and the Lowlifes – Reform School Girl (rock)
In the beginning, there was Rock & Roll.
Before the art form got micro-marketed as classic rock, shoegazer, dream pop, and a hundred others, there was one sound that set the world on its ear. That’s the sound Nick Curran plays with uncompromising energy. You can hear echoes of Little Richard in Curran’s bluesy shout, and the rhythm drives hard underneath. There’s even enough edge in the lyrics to make parents nervous. Curran drinks deeply from the source of rock & roll, and listening gives you the same rebellious thrill that launched a cultural revolution almost 60 years ago.
Listen to Nick Curran and the Lowlifes “Tough Lover”
* Preservation Hall Jazz Band – Preservation (jazz)
The kings of New Orleans-style hot jazz team up with a slew of name artists for charity. Tom Waits, Merle Haggard, and Ani DiFranco are all here, but it’s Andrew Bird’s whistling solo that steals the show.
Listen to Preservation Hall Jazz Band with Andrew Bird “Shake it and Break it”
* Dessa – A Badly Broken Code (rap)
Dessa’s hip-hop persona is stripped of braggadocio, leaving clear stories told in straightforward language. Breakbeats are layered with eccentric instruments (hammered dulcimer, bassoon) to surprisingly hip effect. Dessa’s rap won’t sell sneakers, but it has the potential to inspire a thousand young street poets.
Listen to Dessa “Children’s Work”
Jaga Jazzist – One-Armed Bandit (jazz)
These Norwegian fusionistas are advancing the flag of jazz without limits. Broad instrumental range – electric guitar, flute, marimba, harpsichord, electronics – wash in a tidal wave of jazz-rock instrumentals. Shifting keys and time signatures bring complexity to songs that still have clear hooks – M.C. Escher in sound.
Listen to Jaga Jazzist “One-Armed Bandit”
Joyo Velarde – Love & Understanding (R&B)
Velarde’s debut draws heavily from 70’s funk and soul – lush and occasionally psychedelic orchestration. Her voice is impassioned both with romantic love songs, and love-the-world songs. There’s a lot of hope in her music.
Listen to Joyo Velarde “Build This World”
* highly recommended
! highest recommendation
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5 comments:
Your blog keeps getting better and better! Your older articles are not as good as newer ones you have a lot more creativity and originality now. Keep it up!
And according to this article, I totally agree with your opinion, but only this time! :)
I've had my laptop since like April, and just at the beginning of this month it started getting really slow (online and offline), and eventually started warning me about how my hard disk is apparently bad, and I should send it to my manufacturer or something. I was able to hit cancel on these notifications and ignore them, and go about whatever I was doing. I don't want to buy a whole new laptop :(. Maybe ignoring the warnings of imminent failure wasn't wise, but I can't even boot up right anymore. It was just a bad hard disk, I don't think I had any terrible viruses. In fact I don't even know what caused this. ----the question------- But yeah, if I bought a new hard drive, would that fix everything? I'd be pretty much back to where I was when I first got the thing, assuming I bought a hard drive of the same size? ----------------------------- I assume it's the slightly cheaper option as opposed to buying a whole new laptop (Dell Studio 15). If I did, would I just unscrew/take out the hard drive in there now, buy a new one and screw that one in? And I'm good to go? I don't care about the files that were on there, I'm not losing anything important. But like I said, it's only the hard disk that's bad, as far as I know. I don't think the whole laptop is garbage or anything. It was only $700, but still... While I was getting prompts about this stuff, it recommended I take these instructions and print them/save them onto my flash drive: " Instructions For Fixing Hard Disk Errors: We strongly recommend that you backup your computer to avoid potential data loss. After you have backed up your computer, you should contact your computer manufacturer or other hardware technical support to determine if the disk with errors needs to be repaired or replaced. We recommend that you store these printed instructions together with the media used to back up your data (for example, the CDs or USB flash drive used to store your backup), so that everything you need to fix your computer is in one place. The following information is provided to help the hardware technical support person diagnose the hard disk with errors. Disk Name: Hitachi HTS543225L9A300 ATA Device Volume: D:\;C:\" If someone who knows about this stuff could help me out, tell me what to do, that would be much appreciated. [url=http://gordoarsnaui.com]santoramaa[/url]
It is useful to try everything in practice anyway and I like that here it's always possible to find something new. :)
Nice blog, well designed, well written. Keep it up.
Thank you for music information
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