Joe S. // Blog

George was my favorite Beatle, if I had to chose one. In this video set Jeff Lynne and Dhani Harrison discuss the making of George Harrison's final album, "Brainwashed". It is amazing to hear how fully realized George's songs were...to the extent that he wrote down even the sound descriptions.

Peace and Enjoy.

Sigur Rós are an Icelandic post-rock band with melodic, classical and minimalist elements. The band is known for its ethereal sound and lead singer Jónsi Birgisson's falsetto voice.

Jón Þór (Jónsi) Birgisson (guitar and vocals), Georg Hólm (bass) and Ágúst Ævar Gunnarsson (drums) formed the group in Reykjavík in August 1994.Their name is taken from Jónsi's younger sister Sigurrós (which when translated into English means 'Victory Rose'), who was born the same day as the band was formed. They soon won a record deal with the local Sugarcubes-owned record label, Bad Taste. In 1997, they released Von, meaning "hope") and in 1998 a remix collection named Von brigði (IPA: [vɔ:n 'brɪɣðɪ]). The name is Icelandic wordplay: Vonbrigði means "disappointment", but Von brigði means "variations on Von".

The band was joined by Kjartan Sveinsson on keyboards in 1998. He is the only member of Sigur Rós with musical training, and therefore has contributed most of the orchestral and string arrangements for their later work.

An interesting point about the band is their introduction of a new "language". Vonlenska is a term used to describe the gibberish sung by the band, in particular Birgisson. It is also commonly known by the English translation of its name, Hopelandic. It takes its name from “Von”, a song on Sigur Rós’s debut album Von where it was first used. Vonlenska is not a real language as it lacks a consistent grammar structure, word meaning, or even distinct words as such. Instead, it consists of meaningless syllables and resembles scat singing; the band’s website describes it as “a form of gibberish vocals that fits to the music”. Most of the syllable strings sung by Birgisson are repeated many times throughout each song, and sometimes throughout an entire album.

In this video set are three of my favorite songs- "Glósóli", and "Hoppipolla" and "Von" from the concert film "Helma".

Enjoy!

Oh Happy Monday! Two of my "hero" collaboraters have released their new music today. David Byrne and Brian Eno's new album is available on mp3 format. From the album site David says:

Brian Eno and I recently finished our first collaboration in about 30 years. The name of the new record is Everything That Happens Will Happen Today. For the most part, Brian did the music and I wrote some tunes, words and sang. It's familiar but completely new as well. We're pretty excited. The album is available exclusively from this Web site . You can stream all of the songs for free and purchase it in a variety of digital and physical formats, including a limited edition Deluxe Package designed by Stefan Sagmeister. All formats can be downloaded immediately and physical CDs will be shipped in the Fall.

I've been a fan of their music since  TH and "My Life InThe Bush Of Ghosts". I will be at the Lyric in Baltimore this September for this show. Check out the tour dates.

Please...Enjoy!

Glen Ballard is a veteran songwriter and record producer, best known as the producer of Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill, which went platinum sixteen times in the U.S. and more than 30 million sold world wide. He started playing the piano from a very young age and later learned the guitar. Ballard was ten years old when he wrote his first song, and he was in local rock bands beginning in grade five.

Ballard attended the University of Mississippi, where he was a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. He studied English language, political science, and journalism, and he graduated with honors. He had the option of attending either graduate or law schools, but Ballard was intent upon a career as a songwriter. Within a week of graduation (1975), he moved to the West Coast.

There he joined Elton John’s organization in Los Angeles. Starting out as a lower level assistant, Ballard eventually ended up playing piano for Kiki Dee. He was writing constantly, and when Dee recorded his song "One Step" in 1978, Ballard had his first charted single.

Glen has worked with artists, including Celine Dion, Elisa, Anastacia, Shakira, Ed Kowalczyk of Live, Aretha Franklin, The Corrs, Natalie Cole, Michael Jackson, Quincy Jones, Patti Austin, George Strait, Dave Matthews Band, OAR, Christina Aguilera, Barbra Streisand, Van Halen, No Doubt, Goo Goo Dolls, Hanson, Aerosmith, Annie Lennox and P.O.D. He is also credited with launching the debuts of Lisa Marie Presley, Curtis Stigers, Jack Wagner, Paula Abdul, Wilson Phillips, Katy Perry, Josh Groban, Natalia Lesz and Alanis Morissette.

in this set we have Ballard in the studio with Anouk and POD, and videos of his work with Katy Perry and Alanis Morissette.

Once again Youtube's playlists are messed up so if you cannot see the videos on this page, click here to view .

I'm recovering from Joy Division saturation, having watched both the Joy Division Documentary AND the movie "Control " in one sitting. It's a good thing it's Friday!

The seminal song by Joy Division is "Love Will Tear Us Apart". The lyrics were written by the band's vocalist, Ian Curtis, who committed suicide a month after the song was released as a single in April 1980. It is considered by some to be the best post-punk song ever and was listed by NME magazine as the best single of all time in 2002.

After Curtis' death the band continued making music history as New Order. In this video set we have the original Joy Division version, The Cure's fan version (with lyrics...and animals?!), Arcade Fire/U2's (messy) live version and finally New Order performs their rendition of it.

Enjoy!

Upon hearing John Paul Young's Love Is In The Air today my thoughts went to the Yacht Rock greats like the Doobies (circa Michael McDonald) Christopher Cross, and Steely Dan.

This video set is a comic telling of Yacht Rock History with "cameos" by the Yacht Rockers themselves in a smooth rock street fight and a tale of how they saved smooth rock from Michael Jackson and Eddie Van Halen...with a little help from Vincent Price!

Enjoy!

( I don't know what's been going on with YouTube's playlists lately so if you can't see them on this page click here .)

I lived in Minneapolis during "Flyte Time" rise to fame. The songwriter/ producer team of Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis were in The Time and had begun producing some major acts. Their sound became synonymous with the "pow pow bang" beat of the 80's.

The pair met in high school in Minneapolis and formed a band called Flyte Tyme which evolved into The Time. In 1981, they were joined by Morris Day and toured with Prince as his opening act.

As members of The Time they recorded three of the group's four albums (The Time, What Time Is It?, and Pandemonium. The first two albums are said to have shaped early eighties R&B music (featuring "Cool","Get It Up", "The Walk", "777-9311", and "Gigolos Get Lonely Too"). The pair were fired from the tour because a blizzard left them unable to rejoin after a short break to produce The SOS Band. However, one of the tracks they were producing, "Just Be Good to Me", became a big hit and made their reputation, as well that of the SOS Band.

After working with other artists like The SOS Band, Cherrelle and Alexander O'Neal, Jam and Lewis were introduced to Janet Jackson and produced her breakthrough album Control in 1986, for which the duo won a Grammy Award. Their collaboration on her next album, 1989's Rhythm Nation 1814, was even more successful.

Since then they have produced hits for Mary J. Blige, Mariah Carey, Gwen Stephani and Boyz II Men to name only a few.

This video set features The S.O.S. Band's "Just Be Good To Me", Human League's "Human", and an instrumental of Usher's "U Remind Me", all Flyte Time productions. I've also included a cool radio interview of a very casual Jam and Lewis on The Amie Jo Show.

Enjoy.

Another tragic love story involving a girl and a boy...robot!

The Hysterics were discovered in 2004 by an MP3 blog called Music For Robots and were bolstered by a mention on MTV News. Fitting I'd say.

Happy Monday! Enjoy!

There were many musical firsts in the 80's that seem to revolve around friends of producer Trevor Horn (who shows on the last "cry" in the video). Whether it is Yes and the Art of Noise with the use of sampling, or being the first video on MTV, Trevor and his friends were innovators. In this post we have his friends Godley and Creme (of 10cc) and their video "Cry". It was the first to explore morphing as a visual effect.

Being talented and successful songwriters Godley and Creme were also responsible for producing some of the 80's best music videos, including The Police's "Every Breath You Take", "Wrapped Around Your Finger", "Synchronicity II", Wang Chung's "Everybody Have Fun Tonight", Duran Duran's "Girls On Film" and "A View to a Kill", and George Harrison's "When We Was Fab".

Their experiment in morphing inspired and culminated in Micheal Jackson's masterful "Black and White" . I'd love to have it in the set but the Jackson Mafia has disallowed embedding on all of the video sites. I think Michael takes morphing waaaay too personally anyway.

You've heard of seeing stars right? Well I was seeing them sing this morning. This video set is about a group of actors who are also known for their ventures into music. Here are Zooey (from Elf. The New Guy etc. with She and Him), Jack (with tenatious d), Adam, the Hasselhoff, and a live one from the Shat.

Enjoy!

CAUTION: Some language from the comedians. Why is that? At any rate it's hard to tell who the comics are in this set.