Brad Mehldau – The Art Of The Trio Vol. 1 (1997)

Brad Mehldau – The Art Of The Trio Vol. 1

Warner Bros.
1997 / Jazz

Some mighty fine music here, alright!

A performance by a jazz trio has not sounded this good in years and years!

Prodigious technique, an emphasis on harmonic impressionism and delicately strung arpeggios, a preference for the high-wire austerity of piano, bass, and drums: if jazz pianist Brad Mehldau sounds like he’s grooming himself as the next Bill Evans, his second album only heightens the comparisons, right down to its deadly serious title.

Happily, Mehldau pulls it off on this critically-acclaimed 1997 release, which finds his luminous touch bringing fresh power to standards (including the opening “Blame It on My Youth,” “I Didn’t Know What Time It Was,” and a lovely reading of the Beatles’ “Blackbird”) and some equally strong originals. Drummer Jorge Rossy and bassist Larry Grenadier prove sympathetic partners, but it’s Mehldau who transcends mere technical cuff-flashes to let the underlying lyricism carry the day.

-Sam Sutherland

Simply wonderful. in Art of the Trio Volume 1 Brad Mehldau clearly seems to inherit the cloak of the marvelous Bill Evans, argueably, the best Jazz pianist of all time. The song are deep lyrical, just beautiful. Expressions of true emotion. His bass player Paul Grenadier meshes well, placing emphasis and pushing back where needed without seeming to get into turf battles (as sometimes happened with Evans) and Jorge Rossy drums are also perfect. A well oiled machine.

The best stuff here is the standards: “Blame it on my Youth”, “I didn’t know What Time it Was”, the bouncy “Nobody Else but Me” and “Blackbird” (I always wonder why Jazz groups don’t work more with the lyrical Beatle melodies, as Jazz musicians of the past used the pop melodies of Cole Porter, and Gershwin?). But the best of all is the heart wrenching, slow “I Fall in Love Too Easily”. It takes courage to publicly display this kind of deep sadness (it isn’t just a tempo). There must have been a failed love affair somewhere…

The original songs are, well, not up to the level of the standards, but what can you expect? They’re new. It’s really it’s a great record from beginning to end. Despite some sad songs, the Trio genuinely seems to be enjoying themselves in playing!

Well recorded, good harmonics on the piano.

I would love to see Brad and the Trio make another CD this good!

By rash67

Check Official Brad Mehldau Web Site

Tracklisting

1. Blame It on My Youth
2. I Didn’t Know What Time It Was
3. Ron’s Place
4. Blackbird
5. Lament For Linus
6. Mignon’s Song
7. I Fall in Love Too Easily
8. Lucid
9. Nobody Else But Me

Here she be:

Brad Mehldau – The Art Of The Trio Vol. 1 Part 1

Brad Mehldau – The Art Of The Trio Vol. 1 Part 2

Big thanks to unblogandalou.blogspot

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Comedy Stylings of Mitt Romney

by szep

Elliot Smith – "Needle in the Hay" from The Royal Tenenbaums OST

Elliot Smith – “Needle in the Hay”
from The Royal Tenenbaums OST
Mp3 / RS

I’m gonna kill myself tomorrow.

Elliot Smith’s sublime “Needle in the Hay” used to absolute perfection in an amazing scene from the Royal Tenenbaums.

This is the seminal suicide scene where Ritchie first shaves off his beard and then slits his wrist with the blade, to the sounds of the late great Elliot Smith’s “Needle in the Hay”.

This segment itself could be the greatest music video ever created!

Catch The Royal Tenenbaums – DVD and Soundtrack – and other Wes Anderson stuff here; Wes Anderson

Your hand on his arm
Haystack charm around your neck
Strung out and thin
Calling some friend, trying to cash some check
He’s acting dumb
That’s what you’ve come to expect
Needle in the hay
Needle in the hay
Needle in the hay
Needle in the hay
He’s wearing your clothes
Head down to toes, a reaction to you
You say you know what he did
But you idiot kid, you don’t have a clue
Sometimes they just get caught in the eye, you’re pulling him through
Needle in the hay
Needle in the hay
Needle in the hay
Needle in the hay
Now on the bus
Nearly touching this dirty retreat
Falling out 6th and Powell, a dead sweat in my teeth
Gonna walk walk walk
Four more blocks, plus the one in my brain
Down downstairs to the man, he’s gonna make it all okay
I can’t beat myself
I can’t beat myself
And I don’t want to talk
I’m taking the cure
So I can be quiet wherever I want
So leave me alone
You ought to be proud that I’m getting good marks
Needle in the hay
Needle in the hay
Needle in the hay
Needle in the hay

From: lethalegg

Here she be:

Needle_in_the_Hay_Elliot_Smith.mp3

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Cute Christina

What a lovely set!

Of wheels!

Let’s play Fantasy Garage!

Excuse me, Ms Mechanic, I need something fixed here real bad!

I think I’ve blown a gasket!

Cutie Krystal Forscutt

Great view!

Of the city, I mean!

Mmmm … Angie Romasanta

Angie, I still love you, baby, everywhere I look I see your eyes,
There ain’t a woman that comes close to you

Wall Flower

Why I love Tokyo Buses!

Get me a fucking bus pass NOW!

Ohh Alex Lynn

Merry Amerie

Tunnel of love

Nico – These Days

Nico – These Days (1967)
Mp3 / RS

This is a great song – and version thereof – that has undergone significant re-assessment in the past few years, all thanks to it’s prefect placement in a perfect movie back in 2001!

Yes, all thanks to supreme director Wes Anderson and his sublime the Royal Tenenbaums.

Wes Anderson is a genius at meshing scenes and songs together beautifully.

There’s a beautiful scene in the sublime the Royal Tenenbaums, when Ritchie Tenenbaum returns home after a long period at sea and is being met at the port by his loved one – and half-sister! – Margot, when this magnificent Nico track meshed perfectly with the scenario, the cinematography and the acting.

Even better than this great Nico scene though, was the suicide scene where Ritchie first shaves off his beard and then slits his wrist with the blade, to the sounds of the late great Elliot Smith’s “Needle in the Hay”. That segment itself is the greatest music video ever created!

Catch The Royal Tenenbaums – DVD and Soundtrack – and other Wes Anderson stuff here; Wes Anderson

The track was written by Jackson Browne and first appeared on Nico’s great Chelsea Girl LP back in 1967. Strangely, neither Nico nor Browne are said to have been happy with the recording from the 1967 sessions! I am though! So are many others!

Jackson Browne now plays the Nico arrangement of the song at his shows, so he must’ve changed his viewpoint too!

The song has, since then, been recorded by numerous artists – including Gregg Allman and Browne himself – in many different musical styles.

The song has lasted for decades as a classic of introspection.

What’s most remarkable though is the fact that Browne was only 16 years old when he wrote it!

In the mid-to-late 1960s Browne was a precocious songwriter who was pitching his material to various artists and publishing houses. On January 7, 1967 he made some demo recordings for Nina Music Publishing at Jaycino Studio in New York City. Included in these demos was ” I’ve Been Out Walking”, the earliest manifestation of “These Days”. Yet the song was even older than that; Browne would later say he wrote it when he was sixteen years old, meaning in 1964 or 1965.

Nico was the first to record “These Days” for release, on her October 1967 album Chelsea Girl. Here there was an odd mix of production elements: a fairly fast, almost upbeat fingerpicking electric-sounding-acoustic guitar – part of its time – by Browne (suggested by Andy Warhol), combined with strings and flutes (added after the fact by producer Tom Wilson, without Nico’s knowledge) combined with the sad, near-desperate tone of the lyrics, all wrapped around Nico’s mannered, icy Teutonic vocals.

While Nico never achieved much commercial visibility, her work caught the attention of other musicians and songwriters. And although Browne was still several years from getting his own recording contract, his wise-beyond-his-years talent was quickly recognized by other performers looking for material.

Of Browne’s catalogue during this period, “These Days,” along with his “Shadow Dream Song,” were regarded as his gems. Thus “These Days” was recorded in 1968 by The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band on their album Rare Junk, by Tom Rush on his 1970 album Tom Rush, by Kenny Loggins’ first band, Gator Creek, around the same time, and by Iain Matthews on his 1973 album Valley Hi.

The song has, since the Royal Tenenbaums, been the subject of much critical re-assessment and has suddenly become one of Browne’s best known songs.

In 2006, Pitchfork Media placed the Nico version of “These Days” at number 31 in The 200 Greatest Songs of the 1960s !

I’ve been out walking
I don’t do too much talking these days
These Days
These days I seem to think a lot about the things that I forgot to do
And all the times I had the chance to

I’ve stopped my rambling
I don’t do too much gambling these days
These days
These days I seem to think about how all the changes came about my way
And I wonder if I’d see another highway

I’ve had a lover
I don’t I’d risk another these days
These days
And if I seem to be afraid to live the life that I have made and sob
Its just that I’ve been losing so long

I’ve stopped my dreaming
I don’t do too much scheming these days
These Days
These days I sit in cornerstones and count the time in quarter tones to ten
Please don’t confront me with my failures
I had not forgotten them

From: lilbranda

You can DL this track here;
These Days_Nico.mp3

You can DL the LP via this post;
nico -chelsea girl

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Guantanamo Bay … by roykeanz

© roykeanz, 2008

Nico – The Marble Index (1968)

Nico – The Marble Index

Avant Garde | Pop | mp3 | 320 kbps | 63 mb | covers included

Here’s where Nico, in one fell swoop, became the Godmother of Goth!

The Marble Index was Nico’s second album, a complex and challenging work which could be described as a mixture of gothic-folk, neo-classical and avant-garde, recorded and released in 1968.

Where the statue stood,
Of Newton, with his prism and silent face,
The marble index of a mind forever
Voyaging through strange seas of thought alone

- William Wordsworth

The album featured long-term associate John Cale, who had worked briefly with Nico during her stint in The Velvet Underground. They would work together again many times in subsequent years.

Cale had an extensive background in the world of the avant-garde, having worked with minimalist composer LaMonte Young, among others.

Cale and Nico here created an album that radically deviated from traditional rock music song structures. Cale said it was the first rock album to do so. He also said that The Marble Index had “made a seminal contribution to the body of modern classical music“.

Nico wrote all her own songs on this album and accompanied herself on the harmonium, which has also been referred to as an “Indian pump organ”.

The lyrics are typically dark and the subject matter far different to the cliched themes of most songs written at that time – and indeed since.

The arrangements are abstract and, musically speaking, “cold”. The effect is akin to the psychological sound experimentation of famous electronic and serial composer, Karlheinz Stockhausen.

The Marble Index has been described as a “nightmare in sound”. It has influenced a wide array of genres in contemporary independent music. Artists such as Coil, Jocelyn Pook and Dead Can Dance, as well as numerous contemporary goth bands have all cited Nico as a seminal influence.

Sail away, sail away my little boy
Let the wind fill your heart with light and joy
Sail away my little boy
Let the rain wash away your cloudy days
Sail away into a dream
Let the wind send you a fantasy
Of the ancient silver sea
Now you see that only dreams

This was the second solo album from the late, one-time, Velvet Underground chanteuse, and it’s several galaxies removed from the conservative, pleasingly orchestrated songs of her debut album from merely one year before, Chelsea Girls.

Here Nico’s Gregorian chant melodies, cryptic lyrics, and wavering harmonium combine with always sparse, consistently absorbing arrangements (courtesy of fellow Velvets exile John Cale) to create a singular work fresh from the mausoleum.

While Marble Index is occasionally tedious, give a listen particularly to “Lawns of Dawns,” “Frozen Warnings,” and “Evening of Light,” and you will feel like you are peering into Hades itself.

This is one truly creepy and morbid-sounding album, but never over-the-top to the point of silliness like, say, Diamanda Galas’ Plague Mass.

You and your friends definitely won’t be bringing this along to the Halloween party at that abandoned, decaying mansion on the dead-end road.

A radical statement, highly recommended for those who dig chamber prog (e.g. Art Zoyd and Univers Zero), and maybe also fans of the more straightforward R.I.O. Those prog fans against a lot of avantness should most likely steer clear of this one.

Tracklisting

1. Prelude
2. Lawns Of Dawns
3. No One Is There
4. Ari’s Song
5. Facing The Wind
6. Julius Caesar (Memento Hodie)
7. Frozen Warnings
8. Evening Of Light
9. Roses In The Snow
10. Nibelungen

Here’s Nico;

Nico_Marble_Index.rar

Big thanks to the original poster

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Romney – No dirty laundry!

Nico sings Chelsea Girls in the Chelsea Hotel

Shes turned another trick. Her treats and times revolves, she’s got problems.

A great VU-like track from Nico’s first post-Velvets solo album. A fine LP it is too which we’ve posted already.

Here’s a wonderful video clip where Nico performs a marvellous live version of Chelsea Girls in a room at the Chelsea Hotel. as well as talking about that place and that time.

Who else but Lou Reed could have written these lyrics!

The great music comes from his VU side-kick, Sterling Morrison.

Here’s room five four six
Its enough to make you sick
Bridget’s all wrapped up in foil
You wonder if
She can uncoil

Here they come now
See them run now
Here they come now
Chelsea girls

Here’s room one fifteen
Filled with SM queens
Magic marker row
You wonder just
How high they go

Here they come now
See them run now
Here they come now
Chelsea girls

Heres pope dear Ondine
Rona’s treated him so mean
She wants another scene
She wants to be
A human being

Here they come now
See them run now
Here they come now
Chelsea girls

Pepper, she’s having fun
She thinks shes some man’s son
Her perfect loves don’t last
Her future died
In someone’s past

Here they come now
See them run now
Here they come now
Chelsea girls

Dear Ingrid’s found her lick
Shes turned another trick
Her treats and times revolves
She’s got problems
To be solved

Here they come now
See them run now
Here they come now
Chelsea girls

Poor Mary, she’s uptight
She can’t turn out her light
She rolled Susan in a ball
And now she can’t
See her at all

Here they come now
See them run now
Here they come now
Chelsea girls

Drop out, she’s in a fix
Amphetamine has made her sick
White powder in the air
She’s got no bones
And can’t be scared

Here they come now
See them run now
Here they come now
Chelsea girls

Here comes Johnny Bore
He collapsed on the floor
They shut him up with milk
And when he died
Sold him for silk

Here they come now
See them run now
Here they come now
Chelsea girls

Here they come now
See them run now
Here they come now
Chelsea girls

(Lou Reed, Sterling Morrison)

Nico sings Chelsea Girls in the Chelsea Hotel

From: 25thNovember1970

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ype6Hw_Hmjo

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Russian Bear in the Honey Jar

Another great work from the wonderful Olle Johansson, Sweden.

E-Mail Olle at: tecknar-olle[at] fro.ac (replace (at) with @)

Visit Olle’s site.

Leggy Lucy Lawless – "O Come O Emmanuel"

Leggy Lucy Lawless – “O Come O Emmanuel”
Mp3

Of course we love this leggy Xena chick who’s now become a leggy cylon clone!

Unfortunately, “O Come O Emmanuel” is not the name of a porno movie!

A strange curiosity this, thanks to our pal joe le taxi! In his email, Joe says;

Crawling my hard-drive some days ago, I found Lucy Lawless, downed when searching the net for french xmas songs. I never heard this name before nor knowing ‘Xenia’. Now you’re posting Lucy Lawless, and here’s the add-on – totally different to your pix!

So here’s Lucy singing “O Come O Emmanuel” at a Christmas concert in New Zealand!

Dressed in this skimpy erotic clothing, this, the concert must have been a success!!!

Here she be:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=YJR4AQNC

All thanks to joe le taxi!

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Nico – Chelsea Girl [1967]

Nico – Chelsea Girl [1967]
mp3 – 192kbs – 62mb

Shes turned another trick. Her treats and times revolves, she’s got problems.

Here’s Nico’s first post-Velvets solo album. A fine LP it is too.

Chelsea Girl is the debut solo album by Nico, released in October 1967 by Verve Records, also home to The Velvet Underground.

After collaborating as a singer with The Velvet Underground on their debut The Velvet Underground and Nico (recorded during 1966, released in March 1967), Warhol superstar Nico toured with the band in Andy Warhol’s Exploding Plastic Inevitable multimedia roadshow.

Before the EPI came to an end in 1967, Nico took up residence in a New York City coffeehouse as solo folk chanteuse, accompanied in turn by acquainted guitarists, such as Tim Hardin, Jackson Browne and Leonard Cohen, but also her Velvet Underground colleagues Lou Reed, Sterling Morrison and John Cale.

Some of her accompanists wrote songs for her to sing, and these form the backbone of Chelsea Girl. Browne and Hardin contributed some songs, Lou Reed gave her one of his early Velvet Underground songs, “Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams” (which did not surface as a Velvet Underground recording until it was included in the 1995 box set Peel Slowly and See), and Reed, Cale and Morrison in various combinations contributed four more songs. Additionally, Bob Dylan gave her one of his songs to record: “I’ll Keep It with Mine”.

Musically, Chelsea Girl is best described as a cross between chamber folk and Sixties pop. The musical backing is relatively simple, consisting of one or two guitars or, alternatively, a keyboard instrument, played by either Browne or (a combination of) her Velvet Underground colleagues. There are no drums or bass instruments. Adding to the chamber folk feel of the music is the strings and flute arrangement superimposed over the initial recordings by producer Tom Wilson and arranger Larry Fallon without involving or consulting Nico.

Nico was dissatisfied with the finished product. Looking back in 1981, she stated:

“ I still cannot listen to it, because everything I wanted for that record, they took it away. I asked for drums, they said no. I asked for more guitars, they said no. And I asked for simplicity, and they covered it in flutes! [...] They added strings and – I didn’t like them, but I could live with them. But the flute! The first time I heard the album, I cried and it was all because of the flute. ”

Because of the Velvet Underground band members involvement and the similarities with the softer The Velvet Underground and Nico tracks, Chelsea Girl is sometimes seen by fans as a companion record to that album. “Little Sister” and “Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams,” and perhaps others included here, had also been played live by The Velvet Underground during Nico’s time with the band. Polydor (the record label that oversees The Velvet Underground’s Universal Music Group back catalogue) tends to agree, adding Chelsea Girl tracks to Peel Slowly and See, the 2002 Deluxe edition of The Velvet Underground and Nico and the 2005 Velvet Underground compilation album Gold.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelsea_Girl_(album)

Tracklisting

Side A

The Fairest of the Seasons (Jackson Browne, Gregory Copeland) – 4:06
These Days (Jackson Browne) – 3:30
Little Sister (John Cale, Lou Reed) – 4:22
Winter Song (Cale) – 3:17
It Was a Pleasure Then (Nico, Reed, Cale) – 8:02

Side B

Chelsea Girls (Reed, Sterling Morrison) – 7:22
I’ll Keep It With Mine (Bob Dylan) – 3:17
Somewhere There’s a Feather (Browne) – 2:16
Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams (Reed) – 5:07
Eulogy to Lenny Bruce (Tim Hardin) – 3:45

Personnel
* Nico – vocals
* Jackson Browne – acoustic guitar (A1-2, B2-3, B5)
* Lou Reed – electric guitar (A3, A5, B1, B4)
* John Cale – viola, organ, guitar (A3-5)
* Sterling Morrison – electric guitar (B1, B4)
* Tom Wilson – producer
* Larry Fallon – strings and flute arrangements

Here she be;

http://lix.in/-2a3872

all thanks to joe le taxi

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