More free stuff… Not sure about quality — which is my nice way of saying I’m not really convinced — but you may be amused by Che-Il Gwa, which is some kind of Korean industrial music. And to cleanse your palate, something a little more folkypop, from Nagoya: Secret Ocean’s album Kokoro No Furyoku. Okay, and for people like me: Intercontinental Music Lab. Geek out, ya geeks.
Category: MUSIC
Giving It Away For Free?
Those of you who know my taste in music know I’m not all that crazy about hip-hop, but I have to say, there are a few tracks on the new Super Chron Flight Brothers album (titled Indonesia) which are pretty cool. I particularly like “African Robotics” and “Broccoli.” Don’t ask me why: it’s very, um, Mouse on Mars meets Wu-Tang Clan, or something. With moments of Pete Namlook-ishness, and smatterings of that flutey Futurefantastafricanistic sound (yeah, my own term, baby) that always makes me think of Sonny Fortune’s hypnotic flute solo on that amazing Miles Davis album, Pangaea. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/fRXwqX1ag2Q” …
Pop Top 40…
One of the big jazz films for me, when I was a teenager and getting into the stuff, was Spike Lee’s Mo’ Better Blues. I know, I know… the integration of the music into the film is shaky at points, as some have pointed out. I don’t remember it being quite shaky as that guy claimed, but there were things I kind of raised an eyebrow at back in the day — though also a lot of things I thought it got kind of right. After all, the film had style, and it imagined a world where jazz was cool, …
Karaoke Songs?
I know it’s on the horizon now. It was brought up in the context of a goodbye party for my co-worker and friend Gwen, who will be leaving for the States soon. If it’s not at her party, it’s still bound to happen eventually — me and the profs I work with will eventually end up in a noraebang (a karaoke room). I don’t think they have songs by Cam’Ron at these places: [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/qbzYXQpdUfU” width=”425″ height=”344″ allowfullscreen=”true” fvars=”fs=1″ /] … so I suppose I’ll have to settle for a good old standby from my teenaged headbanger days: [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/IYRC4H64EFk” …
On Roh’s Death, Steve Reich, and the Tao of Imagining Sisyphus Happy
I’ve been saddened by what happened recently in regard to ex-President Roh’s suicide. Not the suicide itself, or all of the political wrangling related to it.I’m saddened because I fear suicides will worsen here, for the next while. Korea has a serious suicide problem. It’s the number one killer of people in their twenties, as many blogs are eager to state. It’s the kind of thing many people think about in their youth, of course. But suicide is tragically common here, and in recent days a number of people have talked about it with me. Korean people, I mean. Young …
Conchords Again, This Time Korea-Relevant
Seriously: New Zealander singing Korean Karaoke, out of nowhere, on this TV show I’ve just torn through. Strangely brilliant in the episode, since it is, as I said, out of nowhere: https://youtube.com/watch?v=EzusqpeMdf8 (For comparison, most of the videos are like this:) I love this show so much.
Hiromi & FOTC
Music of the day, suddenly accessible as I reordered tags and crap on my iPod. It really sucks that everything is so dependent on tagging and so on — my cheaper-but-non-haptic MP3 Player is at least bright enough to pay attention to folder structures. Anyway, listen up: [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/ggL_2hk9DyI” width=”425″ height=”344″ allowfullscreen=”true” fvars=”fs=1″ /] It’s a bit, I don’t know… I don’t have a word for what I’m thinking. I used to life very “out” music, stuff that was atonal, free, wild; this music isn’t like that. But it’s really damned good for what it is, just the same, and …
Black Hole Jazz
I’m not referring to any jazz/SF thing at the moment — though I like that title, maybe it could work in another context — but rather to Brad Mehldau Trio’s rendition of Black Hole Sun on their album Brad Mehldau Trio Live. I don’t know why I’m amazed it can be done: plenty of old jazz standards were cheesy Broadway showtunes. Still, I guess the shocker is that someone, post-Wynton Marsalis jazz-fascism-era, is actually daring to do it, and doing it well. The following aren’t the album version, as far as I can tell, but they give you some idea: …
Happy Birthday to G
Yes, March 4th was my birthday. I’m posting on the 5th, but only barely. I had no classes, but I hiked the mountain and the most entertaining moment was running into a crazy Christian lady who segued so suddenly to “Do you believe in Jesus? Believe in Jesus so you can go to Heaven!” than I was confused — I thought she was talking about art, as the Korean word for art sounds similar to how Koreans say the name “Jesus.” She thought I didn’t know who Jesus was, and immediately pantomimed the scouring, crown of thorns, and crucifixion. Finally, …
Expatriates and Creative Bitching
I’ve often got this song on a loop in my MP3 these days when I ride the subways: Before you read the following, seriously, listen to this song, check out the lyrics, of which the following passage grabbbed me (hard, by wrist) when I first heard it: I understand the culture’s Of a different kind, But here [the] word celebration Just doesn’t come to mind! This resonates with me in the context of the story the song tells: a band that describes itself, in its early days, as “a bunch of immigrants jamming” who met at “a Russian wedding in …