From my web ed. brother in Minneapolis, Jeff Shaw:
On the Dreamer's day, we offer up five divergent songs about Martin Luther King and the holiday that bears his name. They are upbeat and somber, they are angry and hopeful, they are old and new.
5. Ray Charles, "Abraham, Martin and John"
First recorded by Dion, the soulful Ray Charles version is my favorite. Penned in response to the assassinations of King and Robert Kennedy, artists from Marvin Gaye to Bob Dylan have lent their voices to the
By Jeff Shaw at our sister paper, Citypages.
Love is a many-splendored thing and all, but it's also dependent upon a relationship's context -- and so is the associated music. You don't want Al Green's "Let's Get Married" to stream through the car speakers during your third date, you don't want your intended to think you stopped listening to new records after "I Love You Just The Way You Are" was released. . .aaaand you don't want "You Oughtta Know" to come on, well, ever.
Swapping out these em
Welcome to Heard Mentality's newest regular feature, Video Savant.
It will appear every Tuesday, if all goes according to plan and YouTube keeps delivering the audio/visual goods.
Video Savant's concept is simple: I scour the vast cyber tundra (mostly the beneficent expanses of YouTube) for unusual and excellent music-oriented videos and then comment on them, for your edification and entertainment. The goal is to expand your musical horizons in weekly increments, so that in good time you can
Set aside your negative bias toward Yes—and while you're at it, lose your knee-jerk hatred of prog rock. Yes fuckin' rock—albeit in a long-winded, redonkulously complex manner. And Chris Squire's bass playing? Completely slaughters Les Claypool's. Ask Squarepusher. He'll vouch for me.
As those SoCal badboys the Mars Volta know, prog rock can be damned exhilarating, when done with just the right amount of excess, killer chops, trippy album artwork and a keenly rococo melodic sense—all of
With only minutes to go until the afternoon sun leaks through my bedroom windows, I should probably be doing something productive like getting ready for work, finishing up an article or at least mowing the lawn or something. But I'm not, it's my day off. And luckily, it couldn't have come at a better time. A few months ago, after some light pestering on my part, my aunt agreed to loan me her 1968 Fisher turntable covered in dust. It was one of the first things she bought when she moved to her ho
I was on the treadmill last night when Rocket from the Crypt's "Summer Survivor" came on the ol' iPod. It's an upbeat ditty that appears to be about people taking over San Diego beaches. Some of my favorite lines include "wet t-shirt/in piss/sun block/with shit I don't care," "bougeouis vikings/dead by noon" and "tastes filling/less great/fake tits/as bait."Anyway, the tune got me thinking that summer is officially here. Each year around this time, I go through a few rituals that usually announc
