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Natasha Khan recommended Bad by Michael Jackson in Music (curated)

 
Bad by Michael Jackson
Bad by Michael Jackson
1987 | Pop
8.9 (7 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"My first gig I ever went to, when I was nine, was at Wembley Stadium to see the Bad tour. When he died, I was in my bedroom in Brighton and I heard it on the radio and I just spontaneously absolutely burst into tears. Michael Jackson, when I was little, was just this God-like being. You know when you're little and you're singing in the car with your mum and your brother and the sister, the world is so good, there's nothing more fun and nothing better. I don't think I've ever listened to someone singing something with that much joy, he was channelling something so fucking out there and it's like he constantly had a bolt of creativity running through his body, like the way he danced and the way he moved. A consummate dancer, referencing Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers and James Brown and all these people that he channelled but made completely and uniquely his own. I saw a Spike Lee documentary the other night about Bad. Someone else wrote 'Man In The Mirror' but he took and did all of his - [mimics Michael Jackson] "I'm gonna make a change" - and all of that shit. It's just like, who else would do that? Who else would wear plasters all around their jacket? Who wears white socks with loafers and manages to make it look cool? Nobody was telling him to do that. He's just this fucking eccentric one-off. When he died, I thought the climate of music will never be like that again. It was like he was a child and his brain was a playground and anything he could think of, he bloody manifested that in the world; not many people can do that. The arc of music that he lived through, his education and his training all the way through, coincided with all these revolutions in music, music videos and dance. I just think that that was a one-off thing. I'm getting philosophical now [laughs], but I was watching Brian Cox the other day and his astro-physics thing and he put 50 stones all in a row on a desert floor and he was like "each of these stones represents billions of years in the history of the universe and where it's going to go." Then he went "here's one stone" and he showed about a millimetre of that stone: "in this bit, this is where the conditions were perfectly right for mankind to exist, this is this time, we're here now". When you think about culture and popular music from the 50s through 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, 00s, it does feel like there has been a bit of a cycle, and I've been lucky that I came in at the end of that cycle. People that were born in the 50s had it amazing, because they got to see fucking David Bowie and punk music, but Michael Jackson was a guy that happened in our lifetime. I get really passionate about music, but music, for some people, it's like a religion and he was like a fucking icon."

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Velvet Underground by The Velvet Underground
Velvet Underground by The Velvet Underground
1969 | Experimental
8.4 (7 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"This was probably the most important pop album for me in that I think it's the moment where I realised that I could be a musician. It was partly that this band was semi-non-musicians, but it was also because the songs borrowed a lot from what I knew about experimental music at the time. I'd been playing experimental music with various outfits in England and with Morton Feldman and Christian Wolff and all these people that had come over from America to visit us, 32 people who were into the experimental music scene in England. La Monte Young was one of the big figures in everybody's cosmology at the time and The Velvets, both Lou [Reed] and John [Cale], had worked with La Monte. So the first album came out, I thought, ""Fantastic, amazing."" Second album I thought, ""Great, amazing."" But the third album was the one that really killed me. The first album was quite wild and dark and weird, the second album was mad and intense. But the third album was so gentle and beautiful, but because you knew their history there was that undertone of violence and rage, something trying to burst out. Even on the love songs on this – and many of them are love songs – you hear that real tension. What made me think I could do it too was that the songs were simple and the playing was so simple. There's very little artifice at all in this. But also the mood was something that I thought I could kind of connect to. The difficult thing about pop music as I was growing up, and I was 20, I think, when I first heard this, was that it dealt with young teenage emotions mostly, and that just wasn't interesting to me. I loved the music but what the songs were about was sort of childish and it was all about 'me' and 'you' and 'love', and I just wasn't interested in that really. At the same time I'd been working with Cornelius Cardew and all these kind of quite heavyweight experimental composers. But I didn't want just that. I wanted that [pop music] and that [experimental]. So I was always looking for anywhere that somebody was making some blends that started to be interesting. I didn't own this record for years and years. I just didn't buy this album because I never wanted it to become casual for me. I bought this one about five years ago. I never owned it before then. I would only hear it at other people's places because I always wanted it to be special."

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Darren Hayman recommended Into the Gap by Thompson Twins in Music (curated)

 
Into the Gap by Thompson Twins
Into the Gap by Thompson Twins
1984 | Rock
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"I want to write a book on the history of miming to music on TV. No, I don't, but I want to read it. I’m often surprised at how early the convention of miming to music on TV was subverted. From Ringo riding an exercise bike instead of drums on ‘I Feel Fine’ to the Faces playing football, it seems to be a wink to the camera that’s way ahead of anything else you would see at the time. The Thompson Twins seemed to be the first band solely designed to extend this joke. As a 12-year-old, I was fascinated by the fact I couldn't hear any of the instruments they were playing. They would stand behind guitars, congas and double basses but all you could hear were Prophet 5s and Emulators. I knew it was done as some kind of statement that I couldn’t fathom. These were artists, like the ones who Tony Hancock meets in The Rebel; proper oddball, hat-wearing pranksters. The backs of all the 12-inch singles from Into The Gap joined together to make a map of an island that was in the shape of the members' heads. The cassette version had an hour of alternative versions and mixes. They were a treasure trove for a geeky obsessed fan; they paid so much attention to detail. I now see their endless mixes and alternate versions of songs as a gateway into dub music; the idea that things could be transformed as much by subtracting things as adding them."

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Preciso Me Encontrar by Cartola
Preciso Me Encontrar by Cartola
1989 | Singer-Songwriter
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"Cartola is a salty, classic samba character from Rio who I don’t think a lot of people outside of Brazil really know about. I only found out about him through someone I know who married a Brazilian woman and he got super-deep into Samba and its history. “Brazilian music has always been a part of what Grizzly Bear do, especially Tropicalia records, Marcos Valle and Gilberto Gil. All of that stuff has been part of our vocabulary since our early years and in the last couple of years after Shields, I started discovering and getting into straight-up Samba. It isn’t trying to be psychedelic, blast anything open or trying to be crazy, it hits you right in the heart and does exactly what it’s supposed to do. “It’s not trying to blow your mind or anything, it’s just doing what people do in a Samba and it communicates so much. I know a little Portuguese, I don’t speak it well enough to know exactly what he’s saying but you can still feel the vibe and emotion of the song without knowing the words. There’s something so great about music that’s so straight-up in its own vernacular, that’s is exactly what this is and it’s just killing it. “‘Preciso Me Encontrar’ is my favourite track on the record and it’s such a good example of what that music does so well, it’s really honest, as honest as you could possibly be, there’s absolutely zero pretention going on and it’s played beautifully."

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Lipstick Traces: A Secret History Of The 20th Century
(0 Ratings)
Book Favorite

"Some people say that a record or a film changed their life. In my case, it was this book, back in 1990. My hardback copy has a Biro inscription in it: “To Nick love Richey, James and Sean, 28th September 1990”. We’d all read a review in the NME and knew immediately that it was exactly the kind of thing we’d been searching for. Something to link music, art, culture and protest; an alternative history that segued those seemingly disparate elements into one text. It persuaded us that we could attempt to create art that just might deeply resonate with people in the way that the book had resonated with us. Without resorting to cliche, Lipstick Traces is the band's Holy Bible; our cultural equivalent of the Good Book"

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Ivan the Terrible: Part 2 (1958)
Ivan the Terrible: Part 2 (1958)
1958 | Biography, History
(0 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"A great collaboration—more like a mystical fusion—of Eisenstein and composer Sergei Prokofiev. Music takes the most direct route to the heart, but rarely does it have such an insanely rich profusion of imagery hitching a ride to the same destination!! This mad history of Russia’s first czar just gets more ridiculously fascinating and baroque as the minutes mount—and there are lots of absorbing minutes in this pair of films, though not enough for my liking! Eisenstein boldly steps further and further out of his closet—not an easy thing to do in Stalinist times—as he brazenly unfurls, right before old Uncle Joe, ever more strange and massive tapestries. Part III had only just been begun when a fatal heart attack, or something, stayed Sergei’s perfumed hand."

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Tune In: The Beatles: All These Years
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
If you don't know by now, I am a huge fan of the Beatles. Both of my children have their own Beatles song (Hey Jude and Help), however my general knowledge of their history is not so great. So when I saw Tune In, I didn't hesitate at the opportunity to read it. Being born in the late 80s I can only imagine what it was like to live in the world of Beatlemania, endure the sorrow of their breakup, and all the years in between. Which is why I am so excited about this book. Something else about me, is that I value history, learning the facts and details about people and time periods. Tune In is an extremely in depth look at the men that changed music forever.

Beginning with their family histories, we learn everything there is to know about the background, the life, the creation of the Beatles. Each chapter covers a few years to a few months, and a single day in some cases, beginning in 1845-1945 with the histories of their families, going through their childhood years in the next chapter (1945-1954), and taking us through to the end of 1962.

I have only begun to scratch the surface of this book and I think it is safe to say...Mind...Blown. So much detail, so much history. I love it! With about 80 pages of Notes and another 10 for Credits Mark Lewisohn has definitely done his research to give us such an in depth account of Beatles history. If you are a fan of the Beatles, you are sure to love reading Tune In. Now to wait for volume two...

I received a free copy of Tune In (The Beatles: All These Years) Volume 1, from the publisher through Blogging for Books. I was not required to write a positive review. All opinions expressed are mine alone.
  
Greatest Hits by Nina Simone
Greatest Hits by Nina Simone
2003 | Rock
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"As an artist, Nina Simone has inspired me so much. I think she was my introduction to artistry. Especially coming from a woman, it really changed the way I viewed music and gave me an incentive to learn piano. I was probably about nine or 10 when I first heard her music – it was my Dad that played me a live rendition of a song that she’d done two days after Dr Martin Luther King Jr. was shot. It was called “Why? (The King of Love Is Dead)”. I remember waiting for my Mum outside work, he used to play that song. As soon as I heard her voice I was just hooked on it. ""'I Want a Little Sugar in My Bowl' is one of my favourite songs of hers to sing. I have been thinking about [covering it]! It has so much room in it melodically to freestyle, maybe improvising some of the lyrics to make it more relevant to my life. I’d probably do it just on piano instead of with the full band. There’s times when I’ve seen Nina combine classical music with jazz, so I’d probably attempt some of that. It’s such an open song – I think that’s what I love about it. I just love the space in in it. Even the title’s quite metaphoric: sexy, but quite poetic at the same time. ""Nina Simone showed me that there are really no rules with music. The more you learn in any direction, it can only empower what you’re doing. Reading about her history, at first her dream was to be a classical pianist! It’s so effortless – she’s not even looking at the keys, she’s not even thinking! And then she’s singing a pop song on top of a classical jazz fusion! She definitely inspired me to become accomplished where I can, just to add more freedom to express myself more deeply."

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Rock the Kasbah (2016)
Rock the Kasbah (2016)
2016 | Drama
7
6.5 (2 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Music is a language that transcends race, gender, age, and nationality. It is timeless. It is transformative. Music has the power to shape and redefine culture. In Rock the Kasbah, Bill Murray plays Richie Lanz, a washed up Rock manager who seeks to bring one of his acts to Afghanistan as part of the USO tour. Within the first day of arrival, his plans are unraveled as his singer (Zooey Deschanel) panics and runs off with his money and passport in order to return back to America.

After meeting a myriad of characters (Bruce Willis, Kate Hudson. Danny McBride) in Kabul, he is presented with a new opportunity to introduce the world to a true talent. He discovers a young Pashtun girl with an amazing voice who dreams of being able to compete on “Afghan Star,” a musical competition show similar to “American Idol.” Cultural norms forbid her from singing and participating in the competition which demonstrate the complexity of Afghan culture, history, and politics. Understanding the threat to himself and Salima (Leem Lubany), Richie arranges for her to appear on the show, defying traditions and customs.

The film itself is a decent adaptation of the real story captured in the documentary Afghan Star which examines the life of Setara who must go into hiding because of her appearance in the competition. Rock the Kasbah has moments of genuine humor which fully utilizes Bill Murray’s true talents. Unfortunately, there are points where the plot and the storyline does not seem to fit together seamlessly. One great aspect of the film is its use of music to demonstrate the reach that it has across cultural lines. The love of music and artistic expression which had been severely restricted during the years of Taliban rule and Mujahedeen influence survived and is emblematic of how the people and the culture is much more complex and relatable than many would assume. This film goes beyond a story of a young singer trying to express herself and a manager trying to reclaim the glory of years ago. It is about the culture, history, and political framework of Afghanistan and the Afghan people.

It promotes them in a more positive light without relegating them to being a monolithic culture and people. It provides more insight into the circumstances that many of the people both in the cities and the tribal regions deal with. Audiences will be satisfied Rock the Kasbah as it is a musical and comedic showcase. They may even find themselves singing “Wild World” long after the credits roll.
  
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Rob Halford recommended Dirt by Alice In Chains in Music (curated)

 
Dirt by Alice In Chains
Dirt by Alice In Chains
1992 | Rock
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"Around the time that this album was released I was driving my car and I heard 'Man In The Box' [from 1990's Facelift] playing on the radio. To me it sounded like another style of music that was completely out of the leftfield. The incredible combination of Layne [Staley]'s voice and Jerry [Cantrell, guitarist] is just so cool. They were making music like a lot of these bands that was getting played on the radio, and even today in America you need to have songs that can make it onto the radio. They knew that, and they got played all the time. Their vibe was entirely different to KoЯn, and KoЯn's was entirely different to Nirvana, who were in turn different to Pantera. All of these bands were coming out at the same time but they were all making their own unique impressions. It's incredible really. If you look at the history of rock & roll, the beginning of that decade was one of the most exciting times. There was never really anyone with a similar vocal style to Layne though, and that's important too. I think a lot of it is always down to the singer to some extent."

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