Fave OYB Tuneage….
Music is weird. What’s a surprising, hard-to-find, refreshing gem for the jaded is just everyday tuneage and old hat for those whose wavelength is shifted back or forward a bit.
Well, it can’t hurt to let you know what we here at the Sugar Shack listen to of a winter’s night.
One word: opera. La Boheme. Madame Butterfly. Pacini’s the man for now. A good place to start. Get the arias. The 3 Tenors. Mario Lanza! (Be sure to it has “Funicula Funiculi”.) Turn it up loud. Beats alt.music anyday.
Tired of alt.music? Do you suspect Lisa Loeb? Do you doubt those glasses? Try Sister Rosetta Thorpe. (Order via Email via the cool WFMU cultural oddities catalog.) Gospel gittar lady rocker from the 30’s–spirit at its best. There’s a voice and a purpose and a lyric for ya. Shut up you waifs.
The Shaggs. Via WFMU again. Homemade music from a girl rock trio that didn’t know how to play. I’m diggin it!
Just looked inside the Shaggs CD. Liner notes to tempt you: “It’s easy to see how someone could have been confounded by this wonderful music. Here were three teens playing instruments we’ve heard countless times, but this time with none of the familiar signposts we’ve come to recognize and yes even expect. OTOH, listening without preconceptions reveals a refreshingly playful, yet decidedly structured sound with its own comlex inner logic.” –J. DeAgnelis. Preach it brutha! Shaggs lady 30 years later: “When ‘Philosophy’ first came out it was played a few times, but we never got any reviews or anything. We figured that was the end of the album. Until NRBQ called us, we even thought the album was nonexistent. We only got one box of them. And when Rolling Stone named the Shaggs the Comeback Band of the Year–I guess astounded would be the word.” So buy it, play it, get mad at me for awhile, play it some more, then you’re done for.
Credence Clearwater Revival. “Fortunate Son,” “Down on the Corner.” Martha and I dance around the house to that one real loud. Gives the grungers somethin to shoot for. Do they come close?
Counting Crows “Mr. Jones”–moves. All Crash Test Dummies. Luscious Jackson can be dangerous.
Bob Wiseman—painful yet beautiful-sounding renderings of a homeless poet’s ravings. Damn fine writin. (Airplane on the Highway, Blind Horse.) That bum musta had a hard time at school being so creative. Neil Youngesque voice. Rockin on the Hammond B3. The best environmental songs I ever heard. I’ve never really heard any others. I’ve heard some awful lesbo tunes, so I know alt.issue songs have a tuff go of it. But Bob is king! Canadian.
Bob Wills—smooth Texas swing.
Freedy Johnston—another good bad voice and fine lyrics.
Nuff for now!!! Let me know your faves and how you like mine!!!
-JP
