Sidetracked by Reverend Al...

Tonight I decided that I was going to start looking into this critical listening thing I've been on about. I was going to take a listen to some things over at iTunes and whatnot and follow up with reading what other people have been saying about those songs that catch my ear. I had just about fired up the computer when there was a song in the background (TV noise...I forgot to turn it off). The Grammy Awards was on and there was the Rev. Al Green BURNING up the stage. He made me completely forget what it was I had set out to do. Of course, I'd heard Al Green before. Who hasn't! But DAMN!! The man can sing and so my well thought out plans to jump into anonymous stacks of music turned into me, getting brain deep, in Al Green.

Not all of what I heard was great song writing. But what I heard was a man singing from a deep place inside that is only gotten to by a life time of living hard, resurrecting himself, persevering, and honing a passion for the music over a lifetime. His is not the best voice I've ever heard. That's not the point. It's where that raspy soulful voice can take you. It's the love of the performance and the feeling that he could not do anything else if his life depended on it.

So, yeah, Sunday night, Al Green, all is well.

I have seen the future....

The Eurovision Song Contest is the mother of all televised music contests. Many big name music stars found their start there. (Think, ABBA...) I was introduced to this glamarama wingding of a show last year and I am hooked. The contest consists of song entries from European countries (hence the name...duh!). Each country first has it local contest to determine which song and artist they will send to the big show. Then each country gets the chance to show the rest of Europe what it is they have to offer. This year's competition is being held in Belgrade and it is being shown worldwide via the Internet at eurovision.tv

I can't accurately explain the nature of this show. The production is big...no, ENORMOUS and part of the reason for that is the host country gets this opportunity to show off what they can do. The thing is, they don't often follow the old adage "less is more". In fact, I think they go out of their way to prove "more is more". The songs themselves run the gamut from the very beautiful to the absolutely insane. Last year, I fell into some kind of strange obsession with this entrant.

It's weird, it's over the top, it's kitschy, and, to me, it's wonderful.

The first semi-finals for 2008 happened yesterday and you can see for yourself the strange wonderfulness that is the Eurovision Song Contest. It has everything. Over blown production values, sometimes excellent music, sometimes really bad music, mostly really bizarre performances (see Ireland's 2008 entry) and in your face artsy fartsy everything make this my new most favorite thing in the world.

Silly love songs...

Most people who know me know that my musical taste runs to the darker side of things but I have a confession to make. I am a sucker for silly love songs. Okay, not the "Muskrat Love" type of love song but, rather, those that are relatively well written and have that smack of sincerity to them.

Alex sent me rough of a song he is working on that was written by his friend, Micke and is sung by his brother Jesper. Alex has done all the music and production...somewhat brilliantly, I might add. Admittedly there are a few phrases in the song that probably could have been written better. But the truth is, the way Jesper sings it and the dynamic music and subtle touch Alex has given it is making for a very beautiful song. For the record, Jesper has a hell of a voice. He has this great inflection that he can bring that is really unique. And he can belt it out when that's called for too.

The thing about love songs is that I really believe that love is the universal truth. We all want it and we could all define it differently. Even those who say they don't believe in it really do...they just don't realize how deep it runs. So no matter how silly the songs seem, those are the songs we all end up knowing all the words to and humming along when we hear them. They have different meanings to different people. That's what makes them so great. And, yes, we all laugh at them and brush them off without so much as a thought yet we all know them! So, I proudly confess that I am a lover of love songs. As Paul McCartney once sang, "What's wrong with that?"

A hopeful moment...

Sometimes when you're just sitting around trying to figure out what to do to break the boredom, something comes along by surprise.

I got an email from Brady aka DeadraveN. He did a final mix of a song by our band Wilhemina Murray's Revenge that has been in the works for the better part of a year. We generally take a long time to get a song out there but this one was breaking the record for the wait. Originally, Joel (saetan) was going to mix this one but he got bogged down in school so it sat. Brady ran through a couple of horrendous computer crashes and finally got one that seems to be working so he took the song on and got it down.

Getting that file was just the thing I needed to perk me up. I love the song we did and I'm really happy that this one is finally out there for people to hear.

You can hear it by clicking on the link on the left if you want. All I know is I'm happy and actually feel like starting on something new! Go figure!