en http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/ Thu, 1 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 Thu, 1 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 60 http://www.audioscrobbler.net/data/webservices http://www.last.fm/user/pdever/journal The Last.fm journal for pdever. Last.fm journals are a place to talk about all things music. http://www.last.fm/user/pdever/journal/2007/09/17/b6yoo_must_ask_him_what_he_was_playing Mon, 17 Sep 2007 19:44:11 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/pdever/journal/2007/09/17/b6yoo_must_ask_him_what_he_was_playing Ah, I feel so un-hip.

My wife and I just spent a lovely evening with our friends Nico and Nicole. Nico had some music on the whole time, which was great. He was playing good stuff that complemented dinner time conversation very well.

In and of itself that's no surprise. Nico has great taste in music, as evidenced by the show he DJs on KDHX

I liked it all, but the thing is, I didn't recognize any of it. Well, OK, there was probably some Andrew Bird in there--but I simply didn't know much of it. It was all new and cool.

Yep, I'm on the outside of hip.]]> http://www.last.fm/user/pdever/journal/2007/09/13/b6yon_steve%27s_mix Thu, 13 Sep 2007 22:34:45 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/pdever/journal/2007/09/13/b6yon_steve%27s_mix 01- Till I'm Laid To Rest
02 - Has It Come to This
03 - Rosa Parks
04 - Knocked Up
05 - Que Onda, Guero
06 - Get Behind the Mule
07 - Bulldozers and Dirt
08 - We Used to Vacation
09 - Crazy
10 - Amazon
11 - Thug Angel
12 - None of Us Are Free
13 - Father And Daughter
14 - Rolling Stone From Texas
15 - Peace]]> http://www.last.fm/user/pdever/journal/2007/08/30/b6yom_summer_mix_2007 Thu, 30 Aug 2007 19:14:12 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/pdever/journal/2007/08/30/b6yom_summer_mix_2007 1. Heaven
Rough Shop is a local band, and I like local music. Plus this is a good version of a good song. And what better way to start than with a little piece of heaven?

2. I Burn Today
Frank Black sets a great mood. "Our house/was filled with many birds/She said to me, I can undersand their words"

3. See the Sky About to Rain
One of my favorite titles, ever. Mellow and melancholy.


4. Streets
Another local band, now defunct. How sad is that?

5. Can I Be Free from Crying
Mellow, melancholy reggae.

6. Fear Is A Man's Best Friend
Sometimes melancholy changes into, well, fear. But is that a bad thing? I love this take on the emotion. What an artist John Cale is. The end of this song astounds me.

7. Big Empty Field (No. 2)
The Swell Maps are famous, right? I like this groove, too, and since we've broken with the melancholy we may as well have fun. Good energy. I love little sounds that you don't usually hear, like the sound of a guitar pick scraping a guitar string. This song is full of weird little noises like that.

8. the o of adore
Another guitar track. Veraline is a guitar anti-hero. I like it.

9. Ring of Fire
A beautiful version of this song. I've been listening to it a lot and I like it. I played the autoharp once when my fourth grade class performed some musical show for parents. If it had sounded like this I would have wanted one for myself.

10. Seven Devils Dead
The word manipulator. The word refrigerator. Lee Perry is too cool.

11. Prince of Darkness
I'm a fool for the Mekons . . .

12. Millionaire
. . . and especially Sally Timms.

13. September Gurls
It's an oldie but a goodie.

14. Venus
I listened to this track the other day and it seems quintessentially "New York City". What the hell is up with those background vocals? I love the call and response here:

I fell
Did you feel low?
Nah. I fell . . . straight into the arms of Venus De Milo.

15. African hitchhiker
Hitchhikers carry trunks, so do elephants, the mice came with the elephants . . .

16. Johnny Miner
Did I mention I love the Mekons? I always have and I always will.]]> http://www.last.fm/user/pdever/journal/2007/03/05/b6yol_best_show_ever%3F Mon, 5 Mar 2007 16:18:30 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/pdever/journal/2007/03/05/b6yol_best_show_ever%3F I was sitting at the South City Diner on Saturday when Julie asked about what bands we'd seen live and what was our favorite. Tough question, but I was ready for it because I'd been thinking recently about the strangest and best performance I've ever seen.

The Mekons were touring after the release of me. Their performance of the song Narrative, was one of those great moments that made my brain smoke.

You kind of have to know the song to appreciate what happened. It's a dog song, sung in doggish, about a dog and its master(?). But maybe the dog is confused and doesn't really know which is which. But, who does?

On stage the band slowly became more and more doglike until they were crawling around growling, sniffing each other and baring their teeth. It was so gradual . . . they became animals right in front of your eyes.

It was Brilliant! The song, the performance, the energy all coming together at once in a way that only the mekons can pull off.

If you have a favorite performance, let me know.]]> http://www.last.fm/user/pdever/journal/2007/02/23/b6yok_erik_satie Fri, 23 Feb 2007 00:22:16 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/pdever/journal/2007/02/23/b6yok_erik_satie Erik Satie has written some pieces he terms Musique d'ameublement (Furniture Music), which he says is "music not to be listened to". Wikipedia calls it the precursor of muzak, and there may be something to that. But get this: it was to be performed live. So his Tenture de cabinet préfectoral (Wall dressing for the prefect's office) was supposed to be played by musicians stationed in the corners of the room. What's more, the piece is made to be repeated as many times as the performers wished . . . presumably as the prefect and his colleagues went about their normal business.

HA!

Check out L'orchestre de Satie, Yutaka Sado conducting the Orchestre des Concerts Lamoureux.]]> http://www.last.fm/user/pdever/journal/2007/02/16/b6yoj_big_star Fri, 16 Feb 2007 17:30:25 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/pdever/journal/2007/02/16/b6yoj_big_star Whatever happened to Big Star? I saw them in St. Louis this fall. It was kind of like they were phoning it in.

Of course it wasn't the Big Star from days gone by (25 long years ago: #1 Record). It was some new version of Big Star--Alex Chilton and (first Big Star drummer) Jody Stephens plus a couple of Posies (Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow--I don't know anything about them).

It was still fun.

Check out this picture of Alex Chilton and Jody Stephens from that performance (shot by St. Louis photoblogger PrettyWarSTL. I recommend his stuff.).

If you look at other photos posted with this pic you'll see how sparse attendance was. Too bad, it was a gorgeous day. I looked for myself in the pictures, but there was always someone between me and the camera man.]]>