Tag: Music
Sesame Street, Global Edition
by Joanna Kakissis | 10.17.08 | 1:59 PM ET
When I heard Big Bird and South Africa’s muppet Zikwe talking to NPR about Putumayo Kids’ “Sesame Street Playground” album this weekend, I couldn’t help feeling jealous that I hadn’t grown up hearing songs like “Rubber Duckie” in Mandarin. The 40-year-old dean of all children’s shows now airs in 120 countries, and the new album showcases its worldwide reach.
There are songs from Israel, Palestine, Tanzania, South Africa, France, China, Russia, Mexico, the Netherlands, India and the United States. Concierge is especially fond of the “Pollution Song” from South Africa: a ditty about cleaning up after yourself. Wouldn’t it be nice if everyone in the world sang along to that?
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Yahoo! BuzzThe Alphorn: It’s Not Just for Swiss Shepherds Anymore
by Joanna Kakissis | 09.29.08 | 12:23 PM ET
In fact, one 25-year-old jazz musician from Solothurn likes to play Prince, Amy Winehouse and Miles Davis on the 12-foot folk instrument—an act that has ruffled the feathers of Swiss traditionalists used to puffing out tunes like “With the Cows” and “On the Sheep’s Meadow.”
Eliana Burki, who fell in love with the alphorn at age 6, used to practice on a piece of garden hose affixed with a mouthpiece because her parents wouldn’t buy her a horn. Now an alphorn master, she’s played at trade fairs, shopping centers and concert halls in Ecuador, India, Germany and Taiwan, The Wall Street Journal reports, and now, she will be teaming up with Queen’s former producer to put out an album.
Kid From Nirvana’s ‘Nevermind’ Cover: ‘I Wanna Travel’
by Michael Yessis | 09.24.08 | 5:13 PM ET
Spencer Elden, who is now 17, is “so over” high school he’s ready to hit the road. You go, Spencer. Oh, and happy birthday, Nevermind.
The album was released 17 years ago today. To celebrate, a Nirvana performance in France of “Drain You”:
Billy Bragg’s Big Busk: Singing About London
by Michael Yessis | 09.23.08 | 12:21 PM ET
The singer will be leading a come one, come all sing- and strum-along this Saturday at the Southbank Centre in London. The crowd will be singing Bragg’s favorite London songs. He’s got a lot of great ones to choose from, as evidenced by this Wikipedia page of London songs and Time Out’s 50 best London songs.
If I could make it, I’d like “Waterloo Sunset” by the Kinks to make the cut:
Travel Headline of the Day: ‘Iron Maiden Star Flies in to Help Stranded XL Passengers’
by Michael Yessis | 09.17.08 | 3:09 PM ET
Iron Maiden singer Bruce Dickinson is also a pilot, and he was among those called upon to pick up travelers stranded after the collapse of British travel outfitter XL. Said Dickinson: “I was just doing my job.”
Singing the Praises of Belleville, Edith Piaf’s Paris
by Jim Benning | 09.12.08 | 11:20 AM ET
Many travelers know Belleville as the Paris neighborhood where they can find Pere Lachaise cemetery. I recall riding the metro out there more than a decade ago, like every other college kid with a Let’s Go, to check out the tombstones of Jim Morrison and Gertrude Stein. But what I didn’t appreciate at the time was that Belleville was also once the home of singer Edith Piaf.
The Sounds of Los Angeles in Musical Form
by Jim Benning | 09.04.08 | 1:18 PM ET
NPR’s “Day to Day” recently asked musicians to send in their “takes on the California Dream,” and the show just highlighted its favorite: a song composed entirely of sounds of urban Los Angeles, from squeaking bus brakes and clicking skateboards to clacking shoes. It turns out that the 25-year-old artist who created it, Quinn Kiesow, has done the same (albeit in shorter bits) for other cities, including Madrid and New York. You can hear them all here. The Los Angeles recording took 80 hours to produce. It’s particularly intriguing because Kiesow offers great color commentary over it.
‘Better Than the Van’: It’s ‘Couchsurfing for Bands’
by Michael Yessis | 09.03.08 | 3:39 PM ET
The new site helps match free couches with touring bands. Lovely news for musicians. At least those able to scrounge gas money to hit the road. (via Pop Candy)
Alan Bishop on Karaoke, Pop Radio, and the Search for World Music
by Eva Holland | 08.19.08 | 11:08 AM ET
The Believer has an interview with the Sublime Frequencies founder about his global hunt for audio and video music files that “dunk listeners and viewers headfirst into the cultures they document.” Bishop began collecting recordings on his travels in 1983, after he arrived in Morocco and “came across Thriller being shoved down the peoples’ throats half a world away”—the interview covers his methods and outspoken views on the current state of pop music around the globe. It’s a convincing read.
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to Go Global
by Valerie Conners | 08.13.08 | 3:58 PM ET
After forgoing my chance at pseudo-rock stardom when I realized I was a dud at Rock Band, I’m pleased to learn all hope of exploring my inner Dylan may not be lost: The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is hitting the road—first stop, New York City.
In Time for the Olympics, a National Anthems Primer
by Julia Ross | 08.08.08 | 8:27 AM ET
Photo by Philip Jagenstedt via Flickr (Creative Commons).
China’s national anthem, March of the Volunteers, never fails to summon memories of my teaching experience in Shanghai several years ago, when I’d watch 1,600 grade schoolers greet each morning with a full-arm salute to their nation’s red and gold flag. I’m preparing to relive that experience many times over this month as I watch Chinese Olympians take to the podium in Beijing.
Unearthing David Bowie’s Berlin
by Elyse Franko | 08.06.08 | 1:42 PM ET
Those wishing to experience David Bowie’s Berlin will find that the city has changed quite a bit since the 1970’s, when Bowie—at the peak of his career—spent three years living there with Iggy Pop, recording the three albums in his Berlin Trilogy.
Saying Goodbye Again to the Audio Cassette (and Road Trip Mix Tapes)
by Eva Holland | 07.31.08 | 2:35 PM ET
Wait a minute. We kissed cassette tapes goodbye years ago, didn’t we? The New York Times reports that the once-mighty tape received the final nail in its coffin this week—never mind that most people thought that particular coffin was long since buried—when a major New York publisher released its last audio book in cassette format. Audio books had been the last bastion of the cassette, perhaps in part because the majority of American cars on the road still have built-in tape decks—though obviously, that number declines every year.
Video: Europe’s Unlikely Hit, Heiligenkreuz Abbey’s Monks
by Joanna Kakissis | 07.14.08 | 1:54 PM ET
It’s not the first time Gregorian chants have rocked the modern music charts, but thanks to YouTube, the Cistercian monks from the Austrian woods are getting lots of attention on the European music charts and have landed a record deal with Universal Music. Oh, and dairy farmers play the monks’ chants to serenade their prize-winning cheese (the good vibes, it is believed, aid the maturation process). I plan to serenade my mizithra with “Music for Paradise.” Here’s a video:
Youngtown: Neil Young’s Hometown Gets Its Own Rock Museum
by Eva Holland | 07.09.08 | 10:29 AM ET
It’s been a busy season for rock ‘n’ roll museum openings. First we noted the debut of the Woodstock Museum, and now the National Post brings us this article about the new Youngtown Rock & Roll Museum in Omemee, Ontario—Neil Young’s childhood home. Omemee is about 80 miles northeast of Toronto, and it helped to inspire the “town in north Ontario / with dream comfort memory to spare” that Young sings about in “Helpless.” Here’s video, also featuring The Band and Joni Mitchell:
The Making of an ‘It’ Music City
by Eva Holland | 07.07.08 | 11:03 AM ET
There’s an interesting tidbit in this Maisonneuve article about the second wave of Montreal indie rock, explaining how the music industry’s spin machine creates the latest “it” city. “Here’s how ‘it’ works,” Michael Chadwick writes. “Every three or four years, the music press comes to a consensus on a city. Magazines like Rolling Stone and Spin assemble a few bands from that city and classify them to a rigid ‘sound,’ no matter how accurate that designation is. The press, in conjunction with the labels, market them ad nauseum until there is an inevitable backlash, at which point they report on the backlash. They then move on to a new city. Rinse, repeat.”
Jack White’s Poem for Detroit
by Michael Yessis | 07.07.08 | 10:33 AM ET
The singer and songwriter for The White Stripes penned Courageous Dream’s Concern in an effort to make clear that he bears no malice toward his hometown and to express the “Detroit that is in my heart. The home that encapsulates and envelops those who are truly blessed with the experience of living within its boundaries.” The Detroit Free Press has the exclusive. Lyrically, it’s no “My Doorbell” (listen below), and that’s a good thing.
U.S. Ambassador is a Pop Star in Paraguay
by Jim Benning | 07.02.08 | 12:07 PM ET
If we could just replicate James Cason a thousand times over. The U.S. ambassador to Paraguay not only learned to speak Guaraní, the indigenous language spoken by most Paraguayans, but he has recorded a hit album (pictured) of Paraguayan folk songs in the language. Now, just a month before his posting ends and he leaves the country, he finds himself a pop star in Paraguay, featured on TV and in newspapers.
Pulitzer Prize-Winning Busker Stunt Had Already Been Done
by Michael Yessis | 06.30.08 | 3:51 PM ET
In Chicago. In 1930. Gene Weingarten’s story, which chronicled what happened when “internationally acclaimed virtuoso” Joshua Bell busked for 43 minutes at the L’Enfant Plaza metro station in Washington D.C., unknowingly covered ground already trod in the Windy City.
See the World Through the Eyes of Indie Musicians
by Ben Keene | 06.25.08 | 11:23 AM ET
Some good news for travelers who have ever found the nightlife section of a guidebook lacking: Rockbuch will release an inventive compilation of the collective travel wisdom of more than 30 popular bands. Somewhat disappointingly, the “Indie Travel Guide” dedicates its coverage almost exclusively to the U.S., Canada, Scandinavia and the U.K., but it should offer readers an interesting way to experience quite a few cities nonetheless. Having once spent a couple of days wandering around Bergen, Norway, in search of a decent record shop, I, for one, am curious to know what Sondre Lerche would recommend. The book will be released in Europe first, followed by North America.