Curious about what your favorite artists are shopping for? Wonder no more...

You will recall the great "Amoeba Music" from one of my earlier posts about the best places for vinyl shopping.

Amoeba in San Francisco

Recently I found out that, for 10 years now, they have been doing a wonderful video series called the "What's In My Bag?". The idea is to make short movies about the shopping bags of their famous patrons.
And here's how it works; a musician, actor, comedian or other celebrity comes into one of Amoeba Music's three California locations (Berkeley, San Francisco or Los Angeles) and sifts through the store's gigantic inventory of music, films, TV shows, memorabilia and, sometimes, food. Then they reveal their selections and their reasons for choosing those specific cultural artifacts.

Amoeba Music in LA

I think it is really a good and inventive show to attract the music lovers to real music shops to physically check out what's out there (maybe I am too old fashioned but no digital means can compete with the actual touch of a vinyl record...).

Amoeba in Berkeley, CA

The series date back to 2008 and started in a very casual way when Weird Al Yankovic visited the LA shop for shopping. The crew in the store asked him if he would like to share on camera what he bought in the shop. And that recording was the first episode of the long running series.

First Episode with Weird Al Yankovic

It is so fun to watch all these musicians and artists explaining their purchases, why they picked those items and what those items really mean for them.

The series also let you to discover many different artists that you wouldn't hear about so easily and in my opinion even only this could be a good reason to watch.

I did not manage to watch all the episodes obviously, but I really plan to. Of course I started with the people I was curious about, so check it out yourselves and find someone that might be of interest to you to see what they got in their shopping bags...

Here is my top 11 for the moment...Not in any particular order, just out of curiosity what's in their bag...

• Gary Numan

• Moby

• Kamasi Washington

• King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard

• Ethan Hawke

• Belle and Sebastian

• Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings

• Jean-Michel Jarre

• Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer (yes, Amanda F. Palmer)

• Johnny Marr

• Myrkur

Please visit the below website to reach all the episodes of the "What's In My Bag?" series. I am sure you will enjoy all and discover many new stuff...

What's In My Bag?

Five Songs for the Weekend - XXIII -

Hello dear readers, here I am with another weekend songs list. I hope you all enjoy welcoming spring and a little more sunshine. Bad things going on all over the world but let's try to keep our hopes up with more music.

As Chopin once said;

“Bach is an astronomer, discovering the most marvellous stars. 
Beethoven challenges the universe. 
I only try to express the soul and the heart of man.” 

Please enjoy this week's list;

• Portishead  - "Sour Times"

• Shocking Blue - "Never Marry A Railroad Man"

• Mr. Fingers - "Electron"

• Sergio Mendes & Brazil '66 - "Chove Chuva"

• Grace Jones - "I've Seen That Face Before (Libertango)"

Hope you have a great weekend.

nb. You can open the actual youtube page by clicking the name on the upper left side of each video.

R.I.P.: Scott Walker, a man of many influences...

Scott Walker was a name that I had discovered in the 80s when he was shifting to an avantgarde style after making pop and rock for many years.

He had started his career with the Walker Brothers (the members were neither brothers nor related to each other) in the early 60s. The band lasted till 1967 when Scott Walker decided to continue solo (they re-united for a short period in mid 70s).

The Walker Brothers

Scott Walker (born Noel Scott Enge) was originally from Ohio, USA but after gaining more commercial success in UK, he moved there became a British citizen in 1970.

When he was a teenager, his family moved to Los Angeles where he started show serious interest in jazz and European cinema.

During the early stages of The Walker Brothers, he had played the bass guitar and made the back vocals (the lead vocalist was John Maus). However the band did not get popular until Scott Walker took the lead singer position with his baritone voice.

The Walker Brothers - "Pretty Girls Everywhere"

They did many singles between 1964 and 1967 and reached the No.1 in UK charts with the below single.

The Walker Brothers - "Make It Easy On Yourself"

In 1967 he left the band and started to seek a solo adventure. He recorded 4 albums till 1969. That was also the year he started to host a show on BBC. He was at the top of his fame when he issued his fifth solo recording, Scott 4 (the fourth solo album was  "Scott: Scott Walker Sings Songs from his TV Series"). These years also mark as the years when he was inclined to do research on classical and more contemporary music. He spent quite some time in a monastery during this period.

Here is a Jacques Brel cover from the Scott 2 album, Jackie...

Scott Walker - "Jackie"

Early 70s were the decline and drinking years for Scott Walker. He did record some albums but none of them had the charm of the previous ones. 

In 1975, The Walker Brothers re-united to record three albums. None of them turned out to be commercially successful recordings. It was during that time Scott Walker started to change his direction into something new. Their last album together, "Nite Flights", recorded in 1978 is still one of my personal favorites.

The Walker Brothers - "The Electrician"

"Climate of Hunter" in 1984 was the album I had become acquainted with Scott Walker. The recording, in my opinion, was rather well and a continuation of Nite Flights however turned out to be a disaster for Virgin Records. That is probably why the company gave up the idea of making a second album with him that was going to be produced by Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois.

He was silent until he recorded the album "Tilt" in 1995. That was again a beautiful work, both musically and lyrically.

In 2004 he signed a deal with 4AD records and released his first recording for the label in 2006 called "The Drift". This was probably his most experimental album so far, full of effects, a bit dark and disturbing.

Scott Walker - "Clara" from The Drift album

In 2012 came the last album of Scott Walker, the great "Bish Bosch". Here is a song from that album.

Scott Walker - "Epizootics!"

He actively continued his career making successful collaborations with Bat For Lashes, Sunn O))) and some other artists/productions.

Scott Walker,  a visionary musician, will definitely be missed. 

Let's wrap it up with his record label 4AD’s statement:

“From teen idol to cultural icon, Scott leaves to future generations a legacy of extraordinary music; a brilliant lyricist with a haunting singing voice, he has been one of the most revered innovators at the sharp end of creative music, whose influence on many artists has been freely acknowledged.”

Five Songs for the Weekend - XXII -

Sorry for being a day late with the weekend songs post; but better late than never. I was on a business trip in Berlin during the week, such a great city especially for art and music scene. I hope to have more time to enjoy when I revisit in May for the Superbooth 2019.

As Plato said;

 “I would teach children music, physics, and philosophy; but most importantly music, for the patterns in music and all the arts are the keys to learning.” 

Here is our list for this week;

• Bror Gunnar Jansson - "Ain't No Grave (Gonna Hold My Body Down)"

• Oneohtrix Point Never - "The Station"

• St. Vincent - "Cruel"

• Marquis Hill Blacktet - "Her Story"

• Martha Wainwright - "Bloody Mother Fucking Asshole"

Hope you have a great weekend.

nb. You can open the actual youtube page by clicking the name on the upper left side of each video.

You Speak Jive?

It is true that jazz music is a language in its own right but is there literally a language for jazz?
Well maybe first you should watch the below video in order to decide...

Cab Calloway - "Mr. Hepster's Dictionary"

Apparently there is a language for jazz, or should we call it the "Jazz Slang" or "Jive"? Guess they are all the same coming from Harlem and dating back to the 40s. But how did it evolve?

The era following the first World War and the Great Depression was quite a unique period for the US. Everything was changing very fast, jazz music was highly popular and mostly dominated by the African-American musicians. Obviously behind the scenes (and sometimes on the scenes too) there were some crazy things going on... And these things needed to be somehow communicated. That's how "jive" appeared mostly among the people of jazz.
So it's sole purpose was not only to describe jazz or the jazz life but also to help to secretly communicate for certain acts that I mentioned above...

Cab Calloway, one of the leading jazz figures of Harlem has introduced the "Jive Talk" in 1939. The charismatic bandleader not only had a way with words, his love of them led him to compile a "Hepster's Dictionary” of Harlem musician slang. This dictionary initially featured 200 expressions used by the "hep cats" when they talk their "jive" in the clubs of Harlem. It was also considered the first dictionary written by an African-American.

You may click on the below link to have access to the whole dictionary.

Follow the Link for the Hepster's Dictionary

Here is another video that might be worth to look at on the topic.

Jazz Slang

That's it for this post hep cats, how about some mitt pounding for the great Cab Calloway... And don't forget who the real hepsters are especially when you see the dudes riding fixies with big beards and plaid pants...

Cab Calloway - "Minnie the Moocher"

Five Songs for the Weekend - XXI -

Hello dear readers, I just noticed that I have already posted 100 songs in the weekend songs posts already...I hope each one of you has found at least one song or artist that quickens your pulse.

As the Swedish proverb says;

“Those who wish to sing always find a song.”

Here we go with this week's list;

• Damon Albarn  - "Everyday Robots"

• The Lounge Lizards - "John Zorn's S&M Circus"

• Aphex Twin - "T69 Collapse"

• Billy Thorpe & The Aztecs - "Back On The Street Again"

• Andy Milne & Dapp Theory - "Three Way Mirror"

Hope you have a great weekend.

nb. You can open the actual youtube page by clicking the name on the upper left side of each video.

A cool website: https://beehy.pe

From time to time, I do wonder what's happening on the local music scenes all over the world. After all, we all are surrounded by the big media that is trying to push us, the music lovers, to the mainstream.
Unfortunately, even during this time, that really limits our reach to local artists and music if we are a bit lazy to do the research ourselves.
Thanks to the creators of the website https://beehy.pe/, we can now have a global reach to many different artists and music genres.

And of course, a big thanks to my dear friend from Basel (www.cereyanlimusiki.net or @cereyanlimusiki on instagram) who introduced me this website.

This is how beehypers define themselves; "beehype is run by music journalists, bloggers and DJs from around the world. We collect and carefully select what is best in our local scenes and present it to the global audience.To date, we have introduced around 3000 musicians from about 140 countries, and organized four exhausting and exciting marathons: Best of 2017, Best of 2016, Best of 2015 and Best of 2014."

From the homepage of the website you can click on any continent and any country to have access to a specific country's local music scene which offers the listener many options to discover.
You can also check out the "Best Of" lists based on years and if you are really really lazy there is also a radio for you.

This is how the web page looks like but please give it a try and visit the page, you don't need to register or anything, just visit and enjoy the music.

Here is a track I found on beehype called "We Are All" from the Chinese musician Moxizishi...




I hope you enjoy the site as much as I do...https://beehy.pe

Beth Gibbons singing Henryk Górecki: Symphony No. 3 (Symphony of Sorrowful Songs)

Cross genre collaborations are becoming more and more popular in music but most seem as commercial efforts to me and they do not contribute much to the true soul of musical art.
However I recently came across a project that is worth mentioning and I strongly believe the outcome will be different than the experiences I mentioned above.

Actually let me make a correction, this is not a new project, dating to the last months of 2014, but the recordings and the film will only be available later this month.

This amazing collaboration brings together Portishead's Beth Simmons together with Krzysztof Penderecki, the Polish composer and conductor. And the composition they team up on is again Polish composer Henryk Górecki's "Third Symphony (Symphony on Sorrowful Songs). Penderecki is conducting the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra.

The cover of the recording

The original performance took place in the National Opera Grand Theatre in Warsaw. You may view the official trailer in the below video.

If you are further curious about the project, one of the best websites is Beth Gibbons' own website to learn more on the insights. And here is the link;

Click for more info about the project

Five Songs for the Weekend - XX -

Here I am with the 20th post for the "Five Songs for the Weekend" series. I can't believe it's already been 5 months.I hope you are enjoying the songs I pick. As you might have already noticed by now, I am trying to post the songs I like from different genres and eras in order to reach each one of you. If you find the selections too eclectic, bear with me, I am sure one day you will listen to a song that you will say "hey, this is my song!"...

As Richard Nixon once said;

“If you want to make beautiful music, 

you must play the black and the white notes together.”

And here is our list for this weekend;

• Jon Batiste - "Chopinesque"

• Betty Davis - "F.U.N.K."

• Yuja Wang & Martin Grubinger - "Libertango"

• Róisín Murphy & Ali Love - "Jacuzzi Rollercoaster"

• Joey Alexander - "My Favorite Things"

Hope you have a great weekend.

nb. You can open the actual youtube page by clicking the name on the upper left side of each video.