Musical Musings

It's been ten months since my last Musical Musings column which may be the blink of an eye on the geological scale, but is an eternity on the celebrity marriages scale (this scale is much more scientific and applicable in everyday life. Incidentally, ever since Rob confessed that "everyday" versus "every day" was his pet peeve, I have been careful to use the appropriate terminology).

Gordon's Gardenparty (1994)
Bluest Eyes in Texas (2001)

The last "hometown" act I plugged was Preston Grey featuring Dave McGarry, and now I've got another one for anyone who likes to spice up their day with acoustic acts:. Rebecca Berlin went to my high school several years after I graduated. I first came across her music (composed and sung by her) when I worked as a composer/arranger for the band director back in 2000, and found one of her high school songs in my files during last week's cleanup session. Relying on the Google workhorse, I found that she's still writing and has some decent samples up on her page. I'm also a sucker for artistic lyrics that aren't just "I went to the store / and bought me a door / make that four / four doors" and female vocalists with a clear timbre (see also, Nina Persson, Natalie Imbruglia, Sita, and Tracy Shayne).

Nina Persson says "Bubbles" in Happy Meal
The Hi-Lo's become a musical saw in Italian Street Song
Bobby McFerrin vocalizes Spain with Chick Corea
The Tonight Show band does a bloated round in Jumpin' at the Woodside
Kansas destroys the barline yet again in Journey from Mariabronn
KT Tunstall builds up to beat the crap out of the high note but then jukes into prettiness in Universe and You
Muse dabbles in twelve-tone disco music in Space Dementia
Scissor Sisters dabbles in Pink Floyd disco music in Comfortably Numb

To continue with the disco theme, this month's Funny Song of the Moment is "Bra Size 45" by Ivor Biggun .

I had the pleasure of hearing the greatest song ever written on XM last week -- it's a shame it doesn't get more air time, considering that it was essentially the theme song for the URI! Zone in 2005.

I've recently heard a good bit of Rhythms Del Mundo on XM Radio -- remixes of popular works by groups like Coldplay and Arctic Monkeys against Cuban rhythms and instrumentations. Not all of them are successfully, but they're definitely an interesting take on the songs. The songs are at their worst when it becomes apparent that the original singers weren't singing in tune (but then again Franz Ferdinand never sings in tune).