1.22.2006 | Podcast no. 1

Okay, so it's not really a podcast in the technical sense, but you can download it to your iPod (or other portable media player) if you like. I took some songs I like and put them together in a brief broadcast. Check it out:

Click to hear my music

Links:

• Bent Fabric


• Mocean Worker

Update (1/26/06): I wrote the artist who contacted the music company who owns the rights to the CD, and Bent Fabric's "Jukebox" album is now available on iTunes. Still waiting on the single that has an extended, though.

12.13.2005 | I've got the Verve

Check out The Verve Remixed Complete Box Set on Amazon.com. A friend recently introduced me to the collection via (legally purchased) CD. iTunes also has a version that costs $10 more but comes with bonus tracks. It's an eclectic collection of some old jazz standards electrified with some funky fresh beats. Here are my favorite (non-bonus) tracks from the collection:

Spanish Grease 7:26 Willie Bobo (Dorfmeister con madrid de los austrias muga reserva mix) How Long Has This Been Going On 4:57 Carmen McRae (MJ Cole Remix) Return To Paradise 5:52 Shirley Horn (Mark De Clive-Lowe Remix) Strange Fruit 3:19 Billie Holiday (Tricky Remix) Hare Krishna 6:57 Tony Scott (King Britt Remix) Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby? 4:58 Dinah Washington (Rae and Christian Remix) Summertime 6:50 Sarah Vaughan (UFO Remix) Manteca 6:53 Dizzy Gillespie (Funky Lowlives Remix) Sinnerman 4:35 Nina Simone (Felix Da Housecat's Heavenly House Mix) Whatever Lola Wants 4:40 Sarah Vaughan (Gotan Project Remix)

Blues From Brother George Jackson 5:11 Archie Shepp (Mondo Grosso Next Wave Mix) Do What You Wanna 5:24 Ramsey Lewis (Mr. Scruff's Soul Party Mix) Soul Sauce 4:16 Cal Tjader (Fila Brazillia Remix) Fried Neckbones And Some Home Fries 4:30 Willie Bobo (Dan The Automator Remix) Just One of Those Things 4:48 Blossom Dearie (Brazilian Girls Remix) Little Girl Blue 5:18 Nina Simone (Postal Service Remix) Sing, Sing, Sing 6:07 Anita O'Day (RSL Remix) Fever 4:38 Sarah Vaughan (Adam Freeland Remix) The Gentle Rain 6:01 Astrud Gilberto (RJD2 Remix) Peter Gunn 5:08 Sarah Vaughan (Max Sedgley Remix) Stay Loose 3:20 Jimmy Smith (Lyrics Born Remix)

There's also a parallel set of albums called Verve Unmixed – the old jazz standards without the funky fresh beats. The best ones of these worth downloading are "Strange Fruit" and "Do What You Wanna."

11.24.2005 | Fun

If this doesn't make you dance, laugh and/or smile at at least one point in the video, then I don't know what will (RealPlayer required).

11.21.2005 | Songs stuck in my head right now

	Hung Up Madonna Confessions on a Dance Floor
	Excerpt: Every little thing that you say or do I'm hung up, I'm hung up on you Waiting for your call, baby, night and day I'm fed up, I'm tired of waiting on you
	Romeo Basement Jaxx Rooty
	Excerpt: You keep on givin' me the hold up You know I wish you'd make your mind up 'Cause when we're gettin' on it's so-so You used to be my Romeo

4.24.2005 | Two months later...

Gee, two months already? So much has been going on in school I haven't noticed the world pass me by. One tidbit I happened across thanks to my friends at my school paper, though, is this music video by Junior Senior, a Danish techno band. Once you see it you'll be hooked; I promise. Warning: contains explicit references to squirrels, nuts, nut juice, and ducks enjoying cartoon nudity. And oh yeah, a dancing robot.

3.05.2005 | Un-Chumbawamba

So I did a search on Apple iTunes to see what Chumbawamba had been up to since their one-hit wonder "Tupthumbing" back in 1997, and I was pleasantly surprised by their latest release, Un. It's a pleasantly capricious album with various musical influences, and in some cases a few distinctly political overtones.

Most notable among the songs is "On eBay," which is also available in a radio edit and remix on the iTunes Music Store. Another song, "Everything You Know Is Wrong," has censor-like beeps at the beginning, but I searched for the lyrics online and the material was political, not explicit. Interesting. I definitely suggest you check it out. Here's the playlist:

1. The Wizard of Menlo Park
2. Just Desserts
3. On eBay
4. Everything You Know Is Wrong
5. Be With You
6. When Fine Society Sits Down To Dine
7. A Man Walks Into A Bar
8. Buy Nothing Day
9. Following You
10. We Don't Want To Sing Along
11. I Did It For Alfie
12. Rebel Code

The title of the first song is a reference to Thomas Edison, inventor of the phonograph. This appeal to history reminded me that this one man was responsible for two media that now seem absolutely indispensible to our lives: recorded sound and the motion picture.

It's the first album I've ever discovered on my own without the radio to help me along, and it's also one of those rare albums where I liked enough of the songs to buy the whole thing. They all lend themselves to each other, and the snippets I heard on iTunes were tempting enough to make me buy each song. It may just be my new speakers enhancing the sound, but I'm really happy with it.

The title is also fitting, since the album is really quite unlike anything the group has done before, making it truly "Un-Chumbawamba."