whyisthisinteresting

The Saturday Selection, Vol. 113

Play any FIFA game long enough, and its soundtrack becomes inseparable from that period of your life.

honest-broker.com

12 YouTube Videos I'm Enjoying Right Now

Fabrizio grew up in poverty in Huánuco, Peru, and moved to the US at age fifteen, where he worked the lowest level jobs—busboy in a Mexican restaurant, door-to-door sales, etc. He eventually found himself in Nashville, and is now ready to make his mark on the country music scene.

honest-broker.com

What You Won't Learn About the Odyssey from a Movie

In both instances—the epic poet and jazz musician—the performer learns numerous stock phrases of specific metrical length, and often uses these repeatedly in live renditions. For Homer, these are the descriptors that recur in the Odyssey, such as "rosy-fingered Dawn" or "swift-footed Achilles." Jazz musicians do the same thing, but their building blocks are known as "licks."

themarginalian.org

Legendary Cellist Pablo Casals, at Age 93, on Creative Vitality and How Working with Love Prolongs Your Life

The only credit we can claim is for the use we make of the talent we are given. That is why I urge young musicians: "Don't be vain because you happen to have talent. You are not responsible for that; it was not of your doing. What you do with your talent is what matters. You must cherish this gift. Do not demean or waste what you have been given. Work — work constantly and nourish it."

currincy

Flea Talks About How Jeff Parker Just Gets People, Including Him

There's like this combination of a deep knowledge of music, a very comfortable and tactile relationship with his instrument, and this sensitivity that he's listening and reacting. He's not, like, sticking to a plan of, 'I know what I can do, and this will work.' He's listening. And there's this river of music inside of Jeff—all the stillness and the violence and the chaos and the absolute ethereal beauty that he can bring to music through his playing.

currincy

Andrew Watt Talks About Making Paul McCartney’s “The Boys of Dungeon Lane”

I asked him how he's able to do that in front of everyone last night. He said really such an enchanting thing. Instead of sitting there and trying to tell someone else, 'No, no, it goes like this. No, no, do it like this,' you just do it yourself and then you know the way the song goes. You know what the drum part's supposed to be, what kind of groove you want. You're just beating yourself up to get it right.

honest-broker.com

Authenticity in Music

The musicians who strike me as most authentic never realized that inauthenticity was even a choice—they wouldn't know how to arrive at that destination, even if you gave them a map and GPS coordinates. Discovering this kind of authenticity is a gift, but it's an unusual kind of gift—defined as much by what you relinquish, not what you gain.

jefftweedy

Let's Build a Car (Swell Maps cover)

The best rock stars, in my opinion, are the true believers who put themselves together for the sheer joy of inventing themselves.

longreads.com

‘David Bowie Was a Crazy Workaholic’: Labyrinth at 40 – an Oral History

My dad [Jim] wanted a huge rock'n'roll icon. He was pretty much only considering Sting, Michael Jackson and David [Bowie]. I was a big cheerleader for David. I had seen him in The Elephant Man on stage. Modern Love was my favourite song. Let's Dance was my favourite album. So I was thrilled when my dad decided to offer it to him.

honest-broker.com

Objective Standards Really Do Exist in Music

All musicians are not created equal. I know this with certainty because there are at least some objective tests and standards.

jefftweedy

Dreams (Fleetwood Mac cover)

I love learning songs that are challenging to me, vocally. And this one is right at the edge of my upper range, right where it crosses over into falsetto. That's actually kind of a fun place to sing.

currincy

How Peter Frampton Changed Tom Morello’s Life

There's an arrangement trick that he does in 'Do You Feel Like We Do' that I lifted for Rage Against the Machine. And it's basically where there's a long breakdown where the rock power goes away, the title of the song is said over and over again, then it comes crashing in with a completely monstrous rock power that raises the hairs on your arms and makes you want to jump around the room. Well, that's the formula for pretty much every Rage Against the Machine song.

honest-broker.com

Ten New Albums I'm Recommending Right Now

Chicago harmonica star Billy Branch has been teaching blues for 46 years but, he claims: "Never have I encountered anyone as young as Harrell Davenport with such a laser focused drive and ability to play the blues as it was played in the bygone golden era of the masters."

jefftweedy

In My Life (Beatles cover)

If you haven't heard them, you should check them out. I'm always turning people on to that band.

jefftweedy

Baby Where You Are (Ted Lucas cover)

I'm sharing a cover of a Ted Lucas song today, using the overdubbing capabilities of an iPhone, which are rudimentary but fun.

themarginalian.org

The Neurophysiology of Enchantment: How Music Casts Its Spell on Us

When we listen to music with others, the great rhythms of our bodies — heartbeat, breathing, hormonal fluctuations, sexual cycles, bodily motion — once separate, merge into a synchronized pattern. We sense that we are part of something larger, a community, a pattern of energy, an idea of the times — or what we might call the sacred.

honest-broker.com

12 New YouTube Videos I'm Recommending Right Now

Even from this tame adaptation you can see how wild this stuff is from a purely musical perspective—no polka dots required.

honest-broker.com

New Music Is Slowly Dying

Instead of going to music school, you are advised to find a wealthy spouse—that's how you will prepare for a music career in the future.

jefftweedy

Year of the Horse

I want to feel what it feels like to make that song go. I think that's taught me to recognize when a song of my own feels right.

jefftweedy

Year of the Horse

Since then, when I hear a song that I really love, if I have the aptitude to try and learn it, I usually do. And it's because of the same impulse. I want to feel what it feels like to make that song go.

jefftweedy

Year of the Horse

I want to feel what it feels like to make that song go. I think that's taught me to recognize when a song of my own feels right. The same excitement I feel about someone else's song, the desire to be moved, is intact when I'm trying to write my own.

longreads.com

25 Years of iPod Brain

Maybe this is the essential blessing of the iPod: the software gives you the potential for an unlimited musical library, but the hardware's limits still lock you into a committed relationship with the songs you choose.