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rainydawgradioblog · 2 years

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I want your M I D N I G H T S ✨

Dawg with a Blawg: Ed. 1

Taylor Alison Swift (she/her) was born in West Reading, Pennsylvania on December 13, 1989. But that’s a different story.

At midnight EST Oct 21, 2022, the 13-track album Midnights was released to fans worldwide. At 3am EST, Taylor swiftly dropped the 20-track LP Midnights (3am Edition) as a surprise. It gives insight to the sleepless nights of her life with that post-"reputation era” confidence. The weight of the anticipation for TS10 grew exponentially since its official name was released– during her acceptance speech for MTV's Best Longform Video "All Too Well: the Short Film". Do I think there’s an equally high amount of pressure for this album? Absolutely not. This year, she’s released the most personal music of her career with the support of fans (known as Swifties, despite being verbally referred to as such ~1.5 times). Having such a strong fanbase allows her to successfully re-record her masters, finish old song concepts, and release new music she’s made in the meantime. I’m definitely here for Taylor’s newfound confidence in releasing music for Swifties’ sake.

* Disclaimer: this review is intended for all that listened to the album, not just die-hard stans *

To celebrate new releases, normal fans throw album listening parties. I have to read the lyrics during and have ample time alone to contemplate after. I texted my mom the setup, projected the lyrics onto my living room wall, and made fruity “funny drinks” as we call them. A part of me did wish my Mahogany Edition vinyl record came in to complete the sacredness of waiting to flip it over and reading the lyrics. But listening to the album made me extremely grateful. Wearing my folklore cardigan, I thought back to room 515 in McCarty Hall where I listened to the lyrics “this dorm was once a madhouse” for the first time. Today, I’ll be sharing my thoughts on notable moments of select tracks. So let’s get into the tracklist. <3

Lavender Haze

I’m sorry but Track 1 is made for the girls, gays, and theys.

Zoë Kravitz writing credits.

Yes, I’ll take the lavender oat milk latte to go pls.

Maroon

The breakdown in the last chorus/outro really makes the song.

Lots of unique lines in this one.

Clever description of different shades of red felt in different circumstances.

Anti-hero

Playful, simple production from the bassline established in the beginning to the little chimes at the end.

The first part of the intro is a cry for help, then she sings in a more recognizable lower register.

At the end, it sounds like she’s singing to me, just as she did when I first heard “White Horse”. It sucks that she felt alone growing up. Whenever I did, I would listen to her records.

Fun fact: the lyrics “it’s me, hi” and “did you hear my covert narcissism I disguise as altruism like some kind of congressman?” both exist on this song.

You’re On Your Own, Kid

Has simple phrases and can be read as a poem telling the story of her life.

Places me in a time where she suffered from disordered eating, as detailed in the documentary Miss Americana.

Taylor is known for her turns of phrase, she often switches things up by repurposing common phrases and circling back to them through the song. The song ends with the nice thought that growing up means facing moments of aloneness but how independence can become a healthy state. It’s much like how leaving for college is a learning curve for many.

My case for Midnight Rain:

When asked after my first few listens, I thought Midnight Rain was my favorite. I love how she sings songs about the pain of a good relationship turning ugly. Each time I listen to this song, I get that familiarity and hear something new. “He wanted a bride, I was making my own name” relates to this album’s themes of others trying to get her to settle down before reaching her aspirations.

Question…?

Casually samples her own track.

I’m a fan of her experimentation with vocal effects, especially the reverb distortion in the line “do you wish you could still touch her?”.

My case for Vigilante Shit:

The first line of the song hits. In fact, hooks in essays or speeches rarely have to be elaborate. “Sharp enough to kill a man” is repeated right before the pre-chorus in “they say looks can kill and I might try” establishing a clear theme of fighting and metaphorical death. Her saying “the lady simply had enough” in that posh, poised voice is juxtaposed with arguably her first mention of Schedule I substance use. This leaves me with all sorts of questions. What were the “white-collar crimes” told to the FBI? Was it a true story? Do the Haim sisters know about it given their “No Body, No Crime feat. HAIM” collaboration? Will there be a Billie Eilish version of this song that is longer than 2:45? I’m hooked.

Bejeweled

To me, it’s about underestimation: how someone mistook her kindness for weakness and now she's over it.

Personally, I’d rather listen to Beyoncé’s Lemonade or Renaissance when I’m in that headspace, but I’m sure it’s all part of Her Plan.

In truth, I wish “Would’ve Could’ve Should’ve” had a permanent spot on the tracklist and made this song a fun bonus track.

My case for Labyrinth:

This is the wild card. It’s also the golden song: track 10, album 10, released in the 10th month of 2022. This is exactly what I thought Midnights to be like. Sets up Karma and Sweet Nothing in a great way. The beginning is very hesitant and the second verse starts with “it only feels this raw right now” showing the growing pains of vulnerability following a traumatic time. It’s heartbreaking because, much like “Sweet Nothing”, it reveals the difficulty in moving forward again.

Sweet Nothing

I love how he kept the pseudonym William Bowery because it keeps the focus on her album, not the relationship she’s in. This is also important given how she used a pseudonym when she wrote the lyrics in her ex’s song “This is What You Came For feat. Rihanna”, detracting from her influence in the project.

It made me cry at the first listen. It was none other than the bridge that got me. After hearing about all the pressures she has, she says she’s “too soft for all of it” but that all he ever wanted from her was sweet nothing! Wedding reception DJs rejoice. Too cute.

Paris

My little sister was born in 2003 which makes the “2003, unbearable” line amusing.

I love her songs about escapism (“I’m Right Where You Left Me”) and keeping her relationship private.

Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve

Such an important song on the topic of unknowingly flying too close to the sun with manipulative abusers.

Given it’s sensitive content and how much I love the 10 min. version of All Too Well, you know why I don’t feel like defending my case for this song being my favorite on the album.

LIVING FOR THE THRILL OF HITTING YOU WHERE IT HURTS. GIVE ME BACK MY GIRLHOOD, IT WAS MINE FIRST!

My stepsister listening in Tennessee said she expected slow songs that one would write at midnight, rather than the “pop-y” songs she previewed. I, too had anticipated some sleepless night, staying up alone storytelling from this album. Not including this year’s re-recordings, we’ve heard heavy midnight in candlelight influences in recent sister albums folklore and evermore. Yet, the album’s lyrics insinuate Taylor’s lighter on the cover art is being used for recreational late-night activities rather than just lighting candles. Her saturated eye makeup also makes me think of midnights under a disco ball or the aftermath of an eventful night.

Honorable mentions:

Her middle part in the music video for “Bejeweled”

The voice crack when she said I really thought I lost you in “The Great War” and No one wanted to play with me as a little kid in “Mastermind”

No deal , the 1950s shit they want from me

Now that I’m grown , I’m scared of ghosts , memories feel like weapons

I searched ‘aurora borealis green’ , I’ve never seen someone lit from within

He stayed the same , all of me changed like midnight rain

Salt streams out of my eyes and into my ears

You said I was freeloading, I didn’t know you were keeping count

No one sees you lose when you’re playing solitaire

Karma takes all my friends to the summit

Xoxo, Millie

Musical notes from a budding musician

#no its becky #taylor nation #taylor swift #midnights #rainy dawg radio

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bountyofbeads · 5 years

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https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/14/magazine/music-black-culture-appropriation.html

I'd encourage all of you to read -- actually read -- the reported essays in the #1619project. If these ideas or facts are new to you, if they upset you or make you uncomfortable, if they challenge your idea of America, ask yourself: why?

For centuries, black music, forged in bondage, has been the sound of complete artistic freedom. No wonder everybody is always stealing it.

By Wesley Morris | August 14, 2019 | New York Times | Posted August 18, 2019 7:52 PM ET |

I’ve got a friend who’s an incurable Pandora guy, and one Saturday while we were making dinner, he found a station called Yacht Rock. “A tongue-in-cheek name for the breezy sounds of late ’70s/early ’80s soft rock” is Pandora’s definition, accompanied by an exhortation to “put on your Dockers, pull up a deck chair and relax.” With a single exception, the passengers aboard the yacht were all dudes. With two exceptions, they were all white. But as the hours passed and dozens of songs accrued, the sound gravitated toward a familiar quality that I couldn’t give language to but could practically taste: an earnest Christian yearning that would reach, for a moment, into Baptist rawness, into a known warmth. I had to laugh — not because as a category Yacht Rock is absurd, but because what I tasted in that absurdity was black.

I started putting each track under investigation. Which artists would saunter up to the racial border? And which could do their sauntering without violating it? I could hear degrees of blackness in the choir-loft certitude of Doobie Brothers-era Michael McDonald on “What a Fool Believes”; in the rubber-band soul of Steely Dan’s “Do It Again”; in the malt-liquor misery of Ace’s “How Long” and the toy-boat wistfulness of Little River Band’s “Reminiscing.”

Then Kenny Loggins’s “This Is It”arrived and took things far beyond the line. “This Is It” was a hit in 1979 and has the requisite smoothness to keep the yacht rocking. But Loggins delivers the lyrics in a desperate stage whisper, like someone determined to make the kind of love that doesn’t wake the baby. What bowls you over is the intensity of his yearning — teary in the verses, snarling during the chorus. He sounds as if he’s baring it all yet begging to wring himself out even more.

Playing black-music detective that day, I laughed out of bafflement and embarrassment and exhilaration. It’s the conflation of pride and chagrin I’ve always felt anytime a white person inhabits blackness with gusto. It’s: You have to hand it to her. It’s: Go, white boy. Go, white boy. Go. But it’s also: Here we go again. The problem is rich. If blackness can draw all of this ornate literariness out of Steely Dan and all this psychotic origami out of Eminem; if it can make Teena Marie sing everything — “Square Biz,” “Revolution,”“Portuguese Love,” “Lovergirl” — like she knows her way around a pack of Newports; if it can turn the chorus of Carly Simon’s “You Belong to Me” into a gospel hymn; if it can animate the swagger in the sardonic vulnerabilities of Amy Winehouse; if it can surface as unexpectedly as it does in the angelic angst of a singer as seemingly green as Ben Platt; if it’s the reason Nu Shooz’s “I Can’t Wait”remains the whitest jam at the blackest parties, then it’s proof of how deeply it matters to the music of being alive in America, alive to America.

It’s proof, too, that American music has been fated to thrive in an elaborate tangle almost from the beginning. Americans have made a political investment in a myth of racial separateness, the idea that art forms can be either “white” or “black” in character when aspects of many are at least both. The purity that separation struggles to maintain? This country’s music is an advertisement for 400 years of the opposite: centuries of “amalgamation” and “miscegenation” as they long ago called it, of all manner of interracial collaboration conducted with dismaying ranges of consent.

“White,” “Western,” “classical” music is the overarching basis for lots of American pop songs. Chromatic-chord harmony, clean timbre of voice and instrument: These are the ingredients for some of the hugely singable harmonies of the Beatles, the Eagles, Simon and Fleetwood Mac, something choral, “pure,” largely ungrained. Black music is a completely different story. It brims with call and response, layers of syncopation and this rougher element called “noise,” unique sounds that arise from the particular hue and timbre of an instrument — Little Richard’s woos and knuckled keyboard zooms. The dusky heat of Miles Davis’s trumpeting. Patti LaBelle’s emotional police siren. DMX’s scorched-earth bark. The visceral stank of Etta James, Aretha Franklin, live-in-concert Whitney Houston and Prince on electric guitar.

But there’s something even more fundamental, too. My friend Delvyn Case, a musician who teaches at Wheaton College, explained in an email that improvisation is one of the most crucial elements in what we think of as black music: “The raising of individual creativity/expression to the highest place within the aesthetic world of a song.” Without improvisation, a listener is seduced into the composition of the song itself and not the distorting or deviating elements that noise creates. Particular to black American music is the architecture to create a means by which singers and musicians can be completely free, free in the only way that would have been possible on a plantation: through art, through music — music no one “composed” (because enslaved people were denied literacy), music born of feeling, of play, of exhaustion, of hope.

What you’re hearing in black music is a miracle of sound, an experience that can really happen only once — not just melisma, glissandi, the rasp of a sax, breakbeats or sampling but the mood or inspiration from which those moments arise. The attempt to rerecord it seems, if you think about it, like a fool’s errand. You’re not capturing the arrangement of notes, per se. You’re catching the spirit.

And the spirit travels from host to host, racially indiscriminate about where it settles, selective only about who can withstand being possessed by it. The rockin’ backwoods blues so bewitched Elvis Presley that he believed he’d been called by blackness. Chuck Berry sculpted rock ’n’ roll with uproarious guitar riffs and lascivious winks at whiteness. Mick Jagger and Robert Plant and Steve Winwood and Janis Joplin and the Beatles jumped, jived and wailed the black blues. Tina Turner wrested it all back, tripling the octane in some of their songs. Since the 1830s, the historian Ann Douglas writes in “Terrible Honesty,” her history of popular culture in the 1920s, “American entertainment, whatever the state of American society, has always been integrated, if only by theft and parody.” What we’ve been dealing with ever since is more than a catchall word like “appropriation” can approximate. The truth is more bounteous and more spiritual than that, more confused. That confusion is the DNA of the American sound.

It’s in the wink-wink costume funk of Beck’s “Midnite Vultures” from 1999, an album whose kicky nonsense deprecations circle back to the popular culture of 150 years earlier. It’s in the dead-serious, nostalgic dance-floor schmaltz of Bruno Mars. It’s in what we once called “blue-eyed soul,” a term I’ve never known what to do with, because its most convincing practitioners — the Bee-Gees, Michael McDonald, Hall & Oates, Simply Red, George Michael, Taylor Dayne, Lisa Stansfield, Adele — never winked at black people, so black people rarely batted an eyelash. Flaws and all, these are homeowners as opposed to renters. No matter what, though, a kind of gentrification tends to set in, underscoring that black people have often been rendered unnecessary to attempt blackness. Take Billboard’s Top 10 songs of 2013: It’s mostly nonblack artists strongly identified with black music, for real and for kicks: Robin Thicke, Miley Cyrus, Justin Timberlake, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, the dude who made “The Harlem Shake.”

Sometimes all the inexorable mixing leaves me longing for something with roots that no one can rip all the way out. This is to say that when we’re talking about black music, we’re talking about horns, drums, keyboards and guitars doing the unthinkable together. We’re also talking about what the borrowers and collaborators don’t want to or can’t lift — centuries of weight, of atrocity we’ve never sufficiently worked through, the blackness you know is beyond theft because it’s too real, too rich, too heavy to steal.

Blackness was on the move before my ancestors were legally free to be. It was on the move before my ancestors even knew what they had. It was on the move because white people were moving it. And the white person most frequently identified as its prime mover is Thomas Dartmouth Rice, a New Yorker who performed as T.D. Rice and, in acclaim, was lusted after as “Daddy” Rice, “the negro par excellence.” Rice was a minstrel, which by the 1830s, when his stardom was at its most refulgent, meant he painted his face with burned cork to approximate those of the enslaved black people he was imitating.

In 1830, Rice was a nobody actor in his early 20s, touring with a theater company in Cincinnati (or Louisville; historians don’t know for sure), when, the story goes, he saw a decrepit, possibly disfigured old black man singing while grooming a horse on the property of a white man whose last name was Crow. On went the light bulb. Rice took in the tune and the movements but failed, it seems, to take down the old man’s name. So in his song based on the horse groomer, he renamed him: “Weel about and turn about jus so/Ebery time I weel about, I jump Jim Crow.” And just like that, Rice had invented the fellow who would become the mascot for two centuries of legalized racism.

That night, Rice made himself up to look like the old black man — or something like him, because Rice’s get-up most likely concocted skin blacker than any actual black person’s and a gibberish dialect meant to imply black speech. Rice had turned the old man’s melody and hobbled movements into a song-and-dance routine that no white audience had ever experienced before. What they saw caused a permanent sensation. He reportedly won 20 encores.

Rice repeated the act again, night after night, for audiences so profoundly rocked that he was frequently mobbed duringperformances. Across the Ohio River, not an arduous distance from all that adulation, was Boone County, Ky., whose population would have been largely enslaved Africans. As they were being worked, sometimes to death, white people, desperate with anticipation, were paying to see them depicted at play.

[To get updates on The 1619 Project, and for more on race from The New York Times, sign up for our weekly Race/Related newsletter.]

Other performers came and conquered, particularly the Virginia Minstrels, who exploded in 1843, burned brightly then burned out after only months. In their wake, P.T. Barnum made a habit of booking other troupes for his American Museum; when he was short on performers, he blacked up himself. By the 1840s, minstrel acts were taking over concert halls, doing wildly clamored-for residencies in Boston, New York and Philadelphia.

A blackface minstrel would sing, dance, play music, give speeches and cut up for white audiences, almost exclusively in the North, at least initially. Blackface was used for mock operas and political monologues (they called them stump speeches), skits, gender parodies and dances. Before the minstrel show gave it a reliable home, blackface was the entertainment between acts of conventional plays. Its stars were the Elvis, the Beatles, the ’NSync of the 19th century. The performers were beloved and so, especially, were their songs.

During minstrelsy’s heyday, white songwriters like Stephen Foster wrote the tunes that minstrels sang, tunes we continue to sing. Edwin Pearce Christy’s group the Christy Minstrels formed a band — banjo, fiddle, bone castanets, tambourine — that would lay the groundwork for American popular music, from bluegrass to Motown. Some of these instruments had come from Africa; on a plantation, the banjo’s body would have been a desiccated gourd. In “Doo-Dah!” his book on Foster’s work and life, Ken Emerson writes that the fiddle and banjo were paired for the melody, while the bones “chattered” and the tambourine “thumped and jingled a beat that is still heard ’round the world.”

But the sounds made with these instruments could be only imagined as black, because the first wave of minstrels were Northerners who’d never been meaningfully South. They played Irish melodies and used Western choral harmonies, not the proto-gospel call-and-response music that would make life on a plantation that much more bearable. Black artists were on the scene, like the pioneer bandleader Frank Johnsonand the borderline-mythical Old Corn Meal, who started as a street vendor and wound up the first black man to perform, as himself, on a white New Orleans stage. His stuff was copied by George Nichols, who took up blackface after a start in plain-old clowning. Yet as often as not, blackface minstrelsy tethered black people and black life to white musical structures, like the polka, which was having a moment in 1848. The mixing was already well underway: Europe plus slavery plus the circus, times harmony, comedy and drama, equals Americana.

And the muses for so many of the songs were enslaved Americans, people the songwriters had never met, whose enslavement they rarely opposed and instead sentimentalized. Foster’s minstrel-show staple “Old Uncle Ned,” for instance, warmly if disrespectfully eulogizes the enslaved the way you might a salaried worker or an uncle:

Den lay down de shubble and de hoe,

Hang up de fiddle and de bow:

No more hard work for poor Old Ned —

He’s gone whar de good Niggas go,

No more hard work for poor Old Ned —

He’s gone whar de good Niggas go.

Such an affectionate showcase for poor old (enslaved, soon-to-be-dead) Uncle Ned was as essential as “air,” in the white critic Bayard Taylor’s 1850 assessment; songs like this were the “true expressions of the more popular side of the national character,” a force that follows “the American in all its emigrations, colonizations and conquests, as certainly as the Fourth of July and Thanksgiving Day.” He’s not wrong. Minstrelsy’s peak stretched from the 1840s to the 1870s, years when the country was as its most violently and legislatively ambivalent about slavery and Negroes; years that included the Civil War and Reconstruction, the ferocious rhetorical ascent of Frederick Douglass, John Brown’s botched instigation of a black insurrection at Harpers Ferry and the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.

Minstrelsy’s ascent also coincided with the publication, in 1852, of “Uncle Tom's Cabin,” a polarizing landmark that minstrels adapted for the stage, arguing for and, in simply remaining faithful to Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel, against slavery. These adaptations, known as U.T.C.s, took over the art form until the end of the Civil War. Perhaps minstrelsy’s popularity could be (generously) read as the urge to escape a reckoning. But a good time predicated upon the presentation of other humans as stupid, docile, dangerous with lust and enamored of their bondage? It was an escape into slavery’s fun house.

What blackface minstrelsy gave the country during this period was an entertainment of skill, ribaldry and polemics. But it also lent racism a stage upon which existential fear could become jubilation, contempt could become fantasy. Paradoxically, its dehumanizing bent let white audiences feel more human. They could experience loathing as desire, contempt as adoration, repulsion as lust. They could weep for overworked Uncle Ned as surely as they could ignore his lashed back or his body as it swung from a tree.

But where did this leave a black performer? If blackface was the country’s cultural juggernaut, who would pay Negroes money to perform as themselves? When they were hired, it was only in a pinch. Once, P.T. Barnum needed a replacement for John Diamond, his star white minstrel. In a New York City dance hall, Barnum found a boy, who, it was reported at the time, could outdo Diamond (and Diamond was good). The boy, of course, was genuinely black. And his being actually black would have rendered him an outrageous blight on a white consumer’s narrow presumptions. As Thomas Low Nichols would write in his 1864 compendium, “Forty Years of American Life,” “There was not an audience in America that would not have resented, in a very energetic fashion, the insult of being asked to look at the dancing of a real negro.” So Barnum “greased the little ‘nigger’s’ face and rubbed it over with a new blacking of burned cork, painted his thick lips vermilion, put on a woolly wig over his tight curled locks and brought him out as ‘the champion nigger-dancer of the world.’ ” This child might have been William Henry Lane, whose stage name was Juba. And, as Juba, Lane was persuasive enough that Barnum could pass him off as a white person in blackface. He ceased being a real black boy in order to become Barnum’s minstrel Pinocchio.

After the Civil War, black performers had taken up minstrelsy, too, corking themselves, for both white and black audiences — with a straight face or a wink, depending on who was looking. Black troupes invented important new dances with blue-ribbon names (the buck-and-wing, the Virginia essence, the stop-time). But these were unhappy innovations. Custom obligated black performers to fulfill an audience’s expectations, expectations that white performers had established. A black minstrel was impersonating the impersonation of himself. Think, for a moment, about the talent required to pull that off. According to Henry T. Sampson’s book, “Blacks in Blackface,” there were no sets or effects, so the black blackface minstrel show was “a developer of ability because the artist was placed on his own.” How’s that for being twice as good? Yet that no-frills excellence could curdle into an entirely other, utterly degrading double consciousness, one that predates, predicts and probably informs W.E.B. DuBois’s more self-consciously dignified rendering.

American popular culture was doomed to cycles not only of questioned ownership, challenged authenticity, dubious propriety and legitimate cultural self-preservation but also to the prison of black respectability, which, with brutal irony, could itself entail a kind of appropriation. It meant comportment in a manner that seemed less black and more white. It meant the appearance of refinement and polish. It meant the cognitive dissonance of, say, Nat King Cole’s being very black and sounding — to white America, anyway, with his frictionless baritone and diction as crisp as a hospital corner — suitably white. He was perfect for radio, yet when he got a TV show of his own, it was abruptly canceled, his brown skin being too much for even the black and white of a 1955 television set. There was, perhaps, not a white audience in America, particularly in the South, that would not have resented, in a very energetic fashion, the insult of being asked to look at the majestic singing of a real Negro.

The modern conundrum of the black performer’s seeming respectable, among black people, began, in part, as a problem of white blackface minstrels’ disrespectful blackness. Frederick Douglass wrote that they were “the filthy scum of white society.” It’s that scum that’s given us pause over everybody from Bert Williams and Bill “Bojangles” Robinson to Flavor Flav and Kanye West. Is their blackness an act? Is the act under white control? Just this year, Harold E. Doley Jr., an affluent black Republican in his 70s, was quoted in The Times lamenting West and his alignment with Donald Trump as a “bad and embarrassing minstrel show” that “served to only drive black people away from the G.O.P.”

But it’s from that scum that a robust, post-minstrel black American theater sprung as a new, black audience hungered for actual, uncorked black people. Without that scum, I’m not sure we get an event as shatteringly epochal as the reign of Motown Records. Motown was a full-scale integration of Western, classical orchestral ideas (strings, horns, woodwinds) with the instincts of both the black church (rhythm sections, gospel harmonies, hand claps) and juke joint Saturday nights (rhythm sections, guitars, vigor). Pure yet “noisy.” Black men in Armani. Black women in ball gowns. Stables of black writers, producers and musicians. Backup singers solving social equations with geometric choreography. And just in time for the hegemony of the American teenager.

Even now it feels like an assault on the music made a hundred years before it. Motown specialized in love songs. But its stars, those songs and their performance of them were declarations of war on the insults of the past and present. The scratchy piccolo at the start of a Four Tops hitwas, in its way, a raised fist. Respectability wasn’t a problem with Motown; respectability was its point. How radically optimistic a feat of antiminstrelsy, for it’s as glamorous a blackness as this country has ever mass-produced and devoured.

The proliferation of black music across the planet — the proliferation, in so many senses, of being black — constitutes a magnificent joke on American racism. It also confirms the attraction that someone like Rice had to that black man grooming the horse. But something about that desire warps and perverts its source, lampoons and cheapens it even in adoration. Loving black culture has never meant loving black people, too. Loving black culture risks loving the life out of it.

And yet doesn’t that attraction make sense? This is the music of a people who have survived, who not only won't stop but also can’t be stopped. Music by a people whose major innovations — jazz, funk, hip-hop — have been about progress, about the future, about getting as far away from nostalgia as time will allow, music that’s thought deeply about the allure of outer space and robotics, music whose promise and possibility, whose rawness, humor and carnality call out to everybody — to other black people, to kids in working class England and middle-class Indonesia. If freedom's ringing, who on Earth wouldn't also want to rock the bell?

In 1845, J.K. Kennard, a critic for the newspaper The Knickerbocker, hyperventilated about the blackening of America. Except he was talking about blackface minstrels doing the blackening. Nonetheless, Kennard could see things for what they were:

“Who are our true rulers? The negro poets, to be sure! Do they not set the fashion, and give laws to the public taste? Let one of them, in the swamps of Carolina, compose a new song, and it no sooner reaches the ear of a white amateur, than it is written down, amended, (that is, almost spoilt,) printed, and then put upon a course of rapid dissemination, to cease only with the utmost bounds of Anglo-Saxondom, perhaps of the world.”

What a panicked clairvoyant! The fear of black culture — or “black culture” — was more than a fear of black people themselves. It was an anxiety over white obsolescence. Kennard’s anxiety over black influence sounds as ambivalent as Lorde’s, when, all the way from her native New Zealand, she tsk-ed rap culture’s extravagance on “Royals,”her hit from 2013, while recognizing, both in the song’s hip-hop production and its appetite for a particular sort of blackness, that maybe she’s too far gone:

Every song’s like gold teeth, Grey Goose, trippin’ in the bathroom

Bloodstains, ball gowns, trashin’ the hotel room

We don’t care, we’re driving Cadillacs in our dreams

But everybody’s like Cristal, Maybach, diamonds on your timepiece

Jet planes, islands, tigers on a gold leash

We don’t care, we aren’t caught up in your love affair

Beneath Kennard’s warnings must have lurked an awareness that his white brethren had already fallen under this spell of blackness, that nothing would stop its spread to teenage girls in 21st-century Auckland, that the men who “infest our promenades and our concert halls like a colony of beetles” (as a contemporary of Kennard’s put it) weren’t black people at all but white people just like him — beetles and, eventually, Beatles. Our first most original art form arose from our original sin, and some white people have always been worried that the primacy of black music would be a kind of karmic punishment for that sin. The work has been to free this country from paranoia’s bondage, to truly embrace the amplitude of integration. I don’t know how we’re doing.

Last spring, “Old Town Road,” a silly, drowsy ditty by the Atlanta songwriter Lil Nas X, was essentially banished from country radio. Lil Nas sounds black, as does the trap beat he’s droning over. But there’s definitely a twang to him that goes with the opening bars of faint banjo and Lil Nas’s lil’ cowboy fantasy. The song snowballed into a phenomenon. All kinds of people — cops, soldiers, dozens of dapper black promgoers — posted dances to it on YouTube and TikTok. Then a crazy thing happened. It charted — not just on Billboard’s Hot 100 singles chart, either. In April, it showed up on both its Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart and its Hot Country Songs chart. A first. And, for now at least, a last.

The gatekeepers of country radio refused to play the song; they didn’t explain why. Then, Billboard determined that the song failed to “embrace enough elements of today’s country music to chart in its current version.” This doesn’t warrant translation, but let’s be thorough, anyway: The song is too black for certain white people.

But by that point it had already captured the nation’s imagination and tapped into the confused thrill of integrated culture. A black kid hadn’t really merged white music with black, he’d just taken up the American birthright of cultural synthesis. The mixing feels historical. Here, for instance, in the song’s sample of a Nine Inch Nails track is a banjo, the musical spine of the minstrel era. Perhaps Lil Nas was too American. Other country artists of the genre seemed to sense this. White singers recorded pretty tributes in support, and one, Billy Ray Cyrus, performed his on a remix with Lil Nas X himself.

The newer version lays Cyrus’s casual grit alongside Lil Nas’s lackadaisical wonder. It’s been No.1 on Billboard’s all-genre Hot 100 singles chart since April, setting a record. And the bottomless glee over the whole thing makes me laugh, too — not in a surprised, yacht-rock way but as proof of what a fine mess this place is. One person's sign of progress remains another’s symbol of encroachment. Screw the history. Get off my land.

Four hundred years ago, more than 20 kidnapped Africans arrived in Virginia. They were put to work and put through hell. Twenty became millions, and some of those people found — somehow — deliverance in the power of music. Lil Nas X has descended from those millions and appears to be a believer in deliverance. The verses of his song flirt with Western kitsch, what young black internetters branded, with adorable idiosyncrasy and a deep sense of history, the “yee-haw agenda.” But once the song reaches its chorus (“I’m gonna take my horse to the Old Town Road, and ride til I can’t no more”), I don’t hear a kid in an outfit. I hear a cry of ancestry. He’s a westward-bound refugee; he’s an Exoduster. And Cyrus is down for the ride. Musically, they both know: This land is their land.

Wesley Morris is a staff writer for the magazine, a critic at large for The New York Times and a co-host of the podcast “Still Processing.” He was awarded the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for criticism.

Source photograph of Beyoncé: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images; Holiday: Paul Hoeffler/Redferns, via Getty Images; Turner: Gai Terrell/Redferns, via Getty Images; Richards: Chris Walter/WireImage, via Getty Images; Lamar: Bennett Raglin/Getty Images

#archives #music #must reads #african american history #american history #history #arts and entertainment #entertainment #entertainers #news #latest news #trending news #hip hop news source #1619 #1619project

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that-buckley-gal · 6 years

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Powerless - Chapter Seven

June 23, 1943 When I came to, it was ten to seven, which was my usual wake up time during the summer. As I lay in bed, stretching and letting out quiet squeaks, the sun’s light began to flood my room. When I was wide-awake, I pushed the blankets off and slowly exited my room to go see what Steve was attempting to cook, if anything. Seeing Agent Carter this early in the morning took me by surprise, and I stopped in my doorway watching my brother and the woman he admired for a moment. The two of them were sitting closer together than necessary, but farther apart than Bucky and I usually sat when we were alone together. I couldn’t hear every word they were saying; it seemed pretty important but not romantic.

“…and the rest of Erskine’s team would like you to give some blood so they can attempt to recreate the serum,” Peggy said softly. “Is that even possible?” Steve asked. He and Peggy looked at each other and stared. I felt awkward just looking at them so I ducked back into my room for a moment until I heard Peggy say that it was possible. I decided I would make myself known. “Good morning,” I said. Steve visibly jumped whilst Peggy’s eyes widened for a mere second before her face fell into a neutral mask and she smiled at me. “Peggy, good to see you.” “Good morning, Madison.” “Morning,” Steve said as he looked between Peggy and I with a weird look on his face. I simply gave him an impish grin before I moved to the bathroom to freshen up before going to see what was happening and why an agent was once again in our apartment. I emerge five minutes later with my hair pinned up into a bun and a clean face. I notice that there’s a little more space in between Peggy and Steve than before but I don’t comment on it as I ask if they’d eaten already. They hadn’t. I asked if they wanted to eat and they said yes. As I started ransacking the kitchen, I asked Peggy why she was here. “Erm,” she gave a pointed look at Steve, who then looked at me. I looked back at Peggy who figured out Steve and I told each other our secrets. “Well, Steve’s the only man who has been given the serum. If it had worked, which it had, then Erskine and his team could easily make more of it, but after yesterday’s unfortunate events, the serum was lost. The Allies’ only hope of recovering the serum lies within Steve’s blood, and I was here to ask if he’d be willing to go and donate some blood.” “Oh, that’s nice,” I said turning back to the kitchen. I dug around once more and discovered some oatmeal, and I figured that would have to do. I put a kettle of water on as well and Steve excused himself before retreating to his room. I remained focused on the food before me, but I heard Peggy shuffle. I glanced at her in my peripheral vision and noticed she was now taking a closer look at the pictures littering the living room. “Steve’s changed a lot,” I told her. Once again, she didn’t start physically. “On the outside I mean. As far as I can tell, he’s still the same person he was.” “Yes, that’s nice, isn’t it?” Peggy smiled at me. “Is this your fiancé?” “Yea…his name’s Bucky. The only reason why he’s smiling so big is because Steve rode the Cyclone and ended up sick earlier that day. Steve’s smiling only because he won a signed Wizard of Oz poster playing darts just before this picture was taken.” Peggy smiled and resumed looking at my and Steve’s lives as I finished up the oats and tea. Carefully I made three plates and set three cups of hot water on the table before calling to Peggy and Steve that breakfast was ready. I carefully set out honey, tea, and sugar as the two came and sat down. “What time are you heading over to do Steve’s thing?” I ask. “The appointment’s at ten,” Peggy declared. “Would you like to accompany us?”

“Peg, it would be my genuine pleasure.” Steve looked putout that Peggy and I weren’t letting him plan out the day with us, but he also looked happy that she and I were getting along so well already. After breakfast, Steve insisted he clean up while I change my clothes. When the three of us are ready, Peggy lead Steve and I down to a car, which she took the front seat of leaving Steve and I to get into the back. We cruised around Brooklyn for a while, Steve taking in a new interest in the neighborhood now that he’s most likely not to get beat up in every alleyway now. “You know,” I said, my voice was quiet enough that only he would hear. “You’re probably gonna be the one beating up people in the alleyways now.” Steve just chuckled under his breath at me and shook his head. The drive continued on until Peggy told the driver to bring us to “the medical center”, which the driver immediately did. When we got there, Peggy once again took the lead as she walked into the building. She ushered us into an elevator that took us to the seventh floor before we went to a room where nurses and men in uniforms were standing around. I noticed that most of them stopped and stared at Steve like he was a specimen until they caught sight of Peggy’s steely expression, at which they got back to work. As Steve settled onto a chair, I took a chance to stand beside him, eager to ward off any other unpleasant gazes as well as let my brother know I was here for him. After a few vials of blood were filled up, I thought we would be done and ready to go, but the nurse doing the job plugged another vial onto the receiving end of the tube. As the blood started to fill the vial, I looked to Steve, who didn’t look bothered about the amount of blood taken. When another empty vial was there, I grew nervous for Steve and wondered if I should save him from this by revealing my secret. “Isn’t that more than enough?” I ask the nurse, slight venom coating my words. She didn’t react to me, instead saying she had to fill up all the vials. I counted thirteen, and she loaded up another one with one more being empty. The vials weren’t so big, but they weren’t little either. I look at my brother. “Are you feeling dizzy at all? Any nausea or fuzzy spots?” “I’m fine, Mads,” Steve said. I saw the nurse’s lip curl up and I turned away. When the last vial was finally filled, the nurse was pulling away the tools she used after taping a cotton ball to Steve’s arm. She didn’t spare me a glance, but instead I moved to Steve’s other side and pulled his sleeve down over the makeshift bandage, which caused him to give me a weird look. Instead of commenting on my protective nature, he asked the people in the room if they think they got enough samples. “Any hope of reproducing the program is locked in your genetic code,” Peggy said patiently. I let Steve go and he moved to stand by his crush as she continued, “But without Dr. Erskine, it would take years.” Once again, I felt bad that the serum wasn’t completely lost as I had the last vial in my bedroom, but I knew Erskine trusted me to keep them a secret until the time was right, which right now it wasn’t. So I kept my mouth shut as Peggy and Steve conversed about the recently deceased scientist. I take my spot next to my brother again, painfully aware of our significant difference in height. He looked down at me and I up at him, silently asking each other if we were okay and we both nodded once. As Steve looked back at Peggy, voices from the hall filled the room. “Colonel Phillips, my committee is demanding answers.” “Great. Why don’t we start with why a German spy got a ride to my secret installation in your car?” A gruff voice rang out. Peggy visibly started this time before she inclined her head towards the door before walking away; Steve and I followed her. As we walked from one room and to another, I could hear people speaking about Hydra when a somewhat familiar voice rang out, explaining that he didn’t know how the German’s technology worker. “Hydra is the Nazi deep-science division,” she suddenly barked out. “It’s led by Johann Schmidt, but he has bigger ambitions.” “Hydra’s practically a cult,” the colonel nodded. I stood next to Steve, gaping at Mr. Howard Stark who smiled at me. I spared a look at Steve to see he was more interested in what the colonel and Peggy were talking about that he wasn’t paying the slightest attention to me. I approached Stark with Bucky in the back of my mind. “Hi,” I said shyly, reaching out a hand. “Hello, Miss,” Howard said, taking my hand and pressing his lips against it. “I’m Howard Stark, and you are…?” “Oh, I’m Madison Rogers. I’m Steve’s sister.” “Oh you’re the sister?” Howard nodded his head in understanding but turned back to the colonel when addressed. He looked back at me. “Did you hear what he said?” “No?” “He’ll tell me later,” he shrugged nonchalantly. Jeez, I thought Bucky was suave, but this guy… “So where were we?” Just as I begin to speak of a new topic – his flying car – I heard the colonel utter three words about Steve that made me very angry. “You’re an experiment.” I excuse myself from Howard’s presence and rush to Steve’s side as the colonel tells Steve his new plans before plainly saying Steve wasn’t enough. “Hey – listen here…” I start but Steve grabs my arm and practically forces me behind him as a voice asks, “Who said that?” Steve let me go after I heard the footsteps of the colonel fading away. Just as he’s about to berate me for acting on my aggressive impulses, a man approaches Steve, promising him a position to be a part of the war. I thought it sounded too fishy, especially after the colonel’s harsh words, but Steve looked like he was willing to do anything at this point. “Are you his sister?” The man eagerly asked once Steve looked at me. I looked back at Steve and I slowly nod. “Would you like to come along with us and be apart of Steve’s team? I’m more than sure we’ll find a spot for you!” “Um, that sounds lovely, sir, but I have my own responsibilities here.” The man deflated, and taking note of me being in a rush, gave me a business card and said to call by five tonight if I change my mind about it and I agreed.

#powerless #bucky barnes #steve rogers #captain america #the first avenger

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ray-rabies · 6 years

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multiples of 5 for that ask meme

this is gonna be a slightly abbreviated version just cos of how many songs i have on here but here we go (under the cut so i’m not internationally hated)5: Which songs have “dream” in the title Dream Lover-DionDream Police- Cheap TrickDon’t Dream It’s Over- Crowded HouseDream a little dream of me; california dreamin’-the mamas and the papasSweet Dreams-EurythmicsDream- Mahavishnu OrchestraAnd Dream of Sheep;An Architect’s Dream;The Dreaming- Kate BushAmerican Dream;Dream For Him;Find A Dream;House Of Broken Dreams;In My Dreams-CSNYDream-Tally HallAsleep and Dreaming; Busby Berkeley Dreams-The Magnetic FieldsApocalypse Dreams-Tame ImpalaBoulevard of Broken Dreams-Green DayCircle Dream-10000 ManiacsCountry Dreamer- WingsCowboy of Dreams;Shinin On Your Dreams- Crosby NashCity of Dreams; Dream Operator- Talking HeadsCaught In A Dream-Alice CooperDeadly Dream of Freedom- TriumviratDream Again;Lucid Dreams-Franz FerdinandDream Attack-New OrderDon’t Let Me Lose This Dream- Aretha FranklinDay of The Dreamer-RenaissanceDream Away;Dream Scene-George HarrisonA Dream Away-The CarsDream Clock-Weather ReportA Dream Goes On Forever- Todd RundgrenThe Dream Nebula-NektarDream of The Archer;Dreamboat Annie-HeartDream One;Dreaming From The Waist-The WhoThe Dream of Blue Turtles-StingDream Police-Gary NumanDream Time;The Planner’s Dream Goes Wrong-The JamDream Within A Dream-PropagandaDream Within A Dream-SpiritDream Within A Dream-Alan Parsons ProjectThe Dream’s Dream-TelevisionDream World-The MonkeesDreamer-SupertrampThe Dreamer-Nicky HopkinsDreamer’s Ball-QueenDreaming-PolystyreneDreaming;Dreaming Is Dangerous-Bruno CoulaisDreaming of 4000;One Summer Dream;Ordinary Dream-Electric Light OrchestraDreaming of Me-Depeche ModeDreaming While You Sleep-GenesisDreamline;Middletown Dreams-RushDreams;Flash’s Dream;Only A Dream-The KinksDreams-Fleetwood MacDreams-Allman Brothers BandDreamtime;Endless Dream;Sweet Dreams-YesDreamy Lady-T RexxEverybody Has a Dream-Billy JoelFever Dream-Nash The SlashFurther Than Funk Dream-Medium MediumGirl of My Dreams-Charles MingusGasoline Dreams- OutkastHad A Dream (Sleeping With The Enemy)-Roger HodgsonThe Gunner’s Dream;Julia Dream;Post War Dream-Pink FloydHere I Dreamt I was An Architect- The DecemberistsI Don’t Sleep I Dream-REMHung Up On A Dream;Is This The Dream- The ZombiesI Dream Myself Alive-A -HaI Dreamaed There Was No War-The EaglesI Had Too Much To Dream Last Night-The electric PrunesI’m Only Dreaming-Small FacesIn Every Dream Home A Heartache- Roxy MusicInfinite Dreams-Iron MaidenIs It A Dream;Street of Dreams- The DamnedIt’s Only A Dream-TrapezeJohnny Panic and The Bible of Dreams-Tears For FearsLittle Dreamer- Van HalenKeep Dreaming-Pineapple ThiefMaximum Dream For Evil Knieval-Flaming LipsMoney Honey Impossible Dream-The Sensational Alex Harvey BandMusic In Dreamland-Be Bop DeluxeNew Gold Dream-Simple MindsNice Dream-RadioheadRainy Day Dream Away;Still Raining Still Dreaming-Jimi Hendrix ExperienceQueen of Dreams- StrawbsRed Brick Dream-XTCRunnin Down A Dream-Tom PettyRado’s Dream-FoxygenSex Sleep Eat Drink Dream-King CrimsonSleep of No Dreaming;Stupid Dream-Porcupine TreeSome Dreams Come True-BanglesThe State of Dreaming- Marina And The DiamondsSweet Dreams- BeyonceThese Dreams-Jim CroceTomorrow’s Dream-Black SabbathWeird Dream-HarmoniaWest County Dream-Mountain GoatsWhen Poets Dreamed of Angels-David SlyvainWildest Dreams-AsiaYou Make My Dreams Come True-Hall & Oates40 Day Dream-Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeroes10: Which songs have “blue” in the titleBlue;Blue Boy;Blue Motel Room-Joni MitchellBlue-Fine Young CannibalsAcute Schizophrenia Paranoia Blues-The KinksAll Blues;Blue In Green-Miles DavisAeroplane Blues-Black KeysAmbulance Blues;Blue Eden-Neil YoungAntichrist Television Blues-Arcade FireBaby Blue-BadfingerBaby’s Tears Blues- Mort GarsonBacklash Blues;Blues;Central Park Blues;Gin House Blues;Little Girl Blue-Nina SimoneBallet For A Blue Whale-Adrian BelewBehind Blue Eyes; Red Blue and Grey;Summertime Blues-The WhoBeyond The Blue Horizon;9 Times Blues-Michael Nesmith And The First National BandBirmingham Blues;Mr Blue Sky;Boy Blue;Bluebird;Bluebird is Dead-Electric Light OrchestraBlonde Over Blue-Billy JoelBlowing The Blues Away-Max WebsterBlue As a Jewel-Be Bop DeluxeBlue Beard-Band of HorsesBlue Cheese- Courtney BarnettBlue Days Black Nights-Buddy HollyBlue Eyes- Elton JohnBlue Jay Way;For You Blue-The BeatlesBlue Letter;Jigsaw Puzzle Blues-Fleetwood MacBlue Light-Mazzy StarBlue Light-UltravoxBlue Monday-New OrderBlue Oyster Cult (Subhuman)-Blue Oyster CultBlue Overall-XTCBlue Orpheus;Drunken Blue Rooster-Todd RundgrenBlue Nile-Alice ColtraneBlue Rhumba-Aqua VelvetsBlue Ridge Mountains;Blue Spotted Tail- Fleet FoxesBlue Room In Venice-Rick WrightBlue Sky-A-haBlue Sky;Come And Go Blues-Allman Brothers BandBlue Suede Shoes;Cocaine Blues;Folsom Prison Blues-Johnny CashBlue Sunday;Runnin Blues-The DoorsBlue Turk-Alice CooperBlue You-Magnetic FieldsBluebird-WingsBluebird-Buffalo SpringfieldBluebird Revisted-Stephen StillsBluejays and Cardinals;Blues In Dallas-Mountain GoatsBlueprint-FugaziBlues De Luxe-Jeff Beck GroupBlues From An Airplane;Chauffer Blues;Eskimo Blue Day-Jefferson AirplaneBlues Man-ManassasBrilliant Blues-Pete TownshendBlue Angel-MarillionBristol Steam Convention Blues-The ByrdsBullet The Blue Sky-U2Buried Alive In The Blues;Kozmic Blues-Janis JoplinCan Blue Men Sing The Whites-Bonzo Doo Dah Dog BandCharlie Manson Blues-Flaming LipsCatfish Blues-Jimi HendrixClear Blue Skies;Suite Judy Blue Eyes-CSNYCrazy Lady Blue-UtopiaComputer Blue-PrinceDamn Right I Got The Blues-Buddy GuyDeep Blue;Electric Blue-Arcade FireDeep Blue;Devil And The Deep Blue Sea;Marwa Blues-George HarrisonDeeper Blue- Bruford Levin Upper ExtremitiesDachau Blues- Captain BeefheartEarly Morniing Blues and Greys;Papa Gene’s Blues;Some of Shelly’s Blues-MonkeesElectric Blues- HairEmpty Bottle Blues-TMBGEvening Blues-TrafficEstablishment Blues-RodriguezEveryday I Have The Blues-Rolling StonesFeelin Blue-CCRGoodbye Blue Sky;Jugband Blues-Pink Floydh20gate Blues-Gil Scott Heron and Brian JacksonHobo’s Blues-Paul SimonHoneymoon Blues;Cross Road Blues;Me and The Devil Blues;;etc-Robert JohnsonI’m So Blue-Michael JacksonInner City Blues-Marvin GayeInvitation To The Blues-Tom WaitsIt’s All Over Now Baby Blue;Tangled Up In Blue-Bob DylanJeff’s Blues;The Nazz Are blue-The YardbirdsOut Of The Blue-Roxy MusicLooking Good In Blue-BlondieMy Melancholy blues-QueenNew Blue Moon-Traveling WilburysNight Owl Blues-Lovin SpoonfulOoby Scooby Doomsday or The D Day DJ’s Got The DDT Blues-GongOtherness Blue-Sun RaPink And Blue-OutkastPoor Boy Blues- Barclay James HarvestProtex Blue-The ClashProzakc blues-King crimsonRainbows All over Your Blues-John SebastianRunning Gun Blues-David BowieSame Old Blues-Bryan FerrySeem To Have The Blues All The Time-Procol HarumSepository Nihlist Blues-FoxygenScrew You (Young Man’s Blues)-Elton JohnSky Blue-Peter GabrielSittin And Cryin The Blues-Willie DixonTurn Blue-Iggy PopWildwood Blues- NazzWinter Is Blue-Vashti BunyanWoman’s Blues-Laura NyroWorn Out Blues- Gotye9-5 Pollution Blues- Neil Innesi give up -_-

15: Which song titles start with “Where”Where Have All The Flowers Gone-Joan Baezit’s 3 am now i am giving up

20: Which song titles start with “Good”

25: A song with a strange title In And Out The Chakras We Go (Formerly Shaft Goes To Outer Space)- Todd Rundgren30: The very last song on your list of songs35: A song longer than 10 minutes (a sampling) (i apparently have hundreds) Singring And The Glass Guitar (An Electrifyed Fairytale)-Utopia (18:22)Healing-Todd Rundgren (20 min)Supper’s Ready-Genesis (23 min)Echoes- Pink Floyd (23 min)A Plague Of Lighthouse Keepers- VDGG (23 min)Ommadawn-Mike Oldfield (32:50)Mountain Jam-Allman Brothers (33:50)Treatise on Cosmic Fire- Todd Rundgren (35:19)Thick As A Brick-Jethro Tull (42:53)The Ikon (live)-Todd Rundgren’s Utopia (45 min)Journey To The Center of The Earth-Rick Wakeman (54:20)40: The first 5 songs that play when you hit “shuffle”Breakaway-The CarsMutual Surrender (What A Wonderful World)-Bourgeois TaggPassover-Joy DivisionLunar Sea-CamelJingo-Santana

#Anonymous

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audreysmusicaljourney · 3 years

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Album #103: De La Soul “3 Feet High and Rising” (1989)

I had never heard of De La Soul before this journey, and now I can’t get enough of them. This album was tough to track down.

I love the playfulness of the introduction of this album. The fact that this transitions to an adaptation of “Three Is a Magic Number” from Schoolhouse Rock! makes this one of my favorite albums ever. The rhymes are incredible on the track “The Magic Number.” I can’t place a lot of the other samples on this track, but they contribute to a catchy beat. I love the rhythm of the track “Change in Speak.” The rhymes are delivered with a clear and confident tone on “Jenifa Taught Me (Derwin’s Revenge),” but I love the interjection of Chopsticks on the piano by Derwin. “Ghetto Thang” is a sincere narrative about life in the ghetto that effectively conveys a message without resorting to the gangster rap styles typically employed by emcees in the ‘80s and ‘90s. There is an ingenuity to the track “Transmitting Live from Mars.” De La Soul was definitely ahead of their time. I love the whistles on the track “Eye Know.” There are definitely some dated pop culture references on “Take It Off.” I love the interlude “A Little Bit of Soap.” The track “Tread Water” is a great catchy track with a good message.

“Potholes in My Lawn” has a really good beat. The backing vocals confused me as they sounded like they were being coming from a different speaker due to the balance of them. I like the sample containing the yodel on this track. It took me a minute to catch that they are sampling a Hall & Oates track on “Say No Go.” How awesome is that? I love the playfulness of the track “Do As De La Does.” It’s a really fun track to which to listen. “Plug Tunin’ (Last Chance to Comprehend)” does have a hardcore hip hop rhythm but it is lighter lyrically. I have never heard “Buddy” before but it is incredibly catchy. This track has a jazz sound, which really works with the vocals of the emcees. “Me Myself and I” is an awesome track. How have I never heard it before? I don’t recognize any of the samples on this track, but I like them. The are definitely some samples from some funk songs. I love the beatboxing on the skit “I Can Do Anything (Delacratic).” The stripped-down sound of “D.A.I.S.Y. Age” allows for the focus to remain on the rhymes, but the beat and the background vocals are pretty good too.

Rating: 10/10

How I Listened: Youtube

Takeaway: According to Wikipedia, this is the album “credited with introducing the hip hop skit.” That’s monumental. Also according to Wikipedia, “Potholes in My Lawn” was the first hip-hop song to be played on Mars. That’s also monumental. How did I never hear of this album before?

#rs500albums #nowspinning #nowstreaming

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playitbyear-laz · 4 years

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Still tryna live by the message I wrote about in 025. I’ve been noticing the benefits of embracing the simplicity of ‘being’ more and more each day & I hope you have been too.

much love always,

laz

PLAY IT BY EAR 026

curated by laz

Link to all platforms HERE.

Can’t Go For That - 2 Chainz, Ty Dolla $ign, Lil Duval

WHERE: random Spotify queue

WHY: Wanted to begin this playlist with a more upbeat track since I’ve been feeling in brighter spirits lately but still wanted it to feel chill since the past few playlists have been more reflective overall. I love this interpolation of one of Hall & Oates’s most iconic songs -- the track itself checks so many marks I try to hit with these playlists -- fusing different genres and eras seamlessly together.

Ladies - Lee Fields & The Expressions

WHERE: randomly queued after playing ‘Maggot Brain’ by Funkadelic

WHY: Love how soulful Lee Fields’ voice is -- it trips me out that this was released in 2009. Also just found out this was the sample used in the ‘Gatorade’ beat by Yung Lean, which I remember bumping in my dorm room so much during my freshman year of college.

Sweating Me - Jayla Darden

WHERE: Discovered Jayla Darden’s ‘Idea’s Vol. 1 & 2′ when it came on randomly at the office.

WHY: Jayla is crazy talented, constantly creating catchy melodies/hooks & even producing a lot of her own beats. She’s mastered that early 2000s era sound (Cassie vibes) but still makes it feel current.

Truk Di Pan Nights - Cookin Soul

WHERE: The homie Abey (habibeats) IG Story I believe.

WHY: Just makes me miss finding Cookin Soul beats on SoundCloud (again, mainly during my college era). Also, love the sound of that synth and the different ways it’s chopped throughout the beat.

Don’t Let Your Love Fade Away - Gene Williams

WHERE: IG Story - N8

WHY: Another one with tons of soul that feels like a throwback but released this past decade.

Squint - Ivan Ave

WHERE: n/a

WHY: You know I always have to throw in a rap song with a positive message in it. This one talks about the literal act of shifting your perspective.

“Could it be it ain't that bad after all? Could've sworn I had demons at the door they was looking like All my fears squadded up shit was mad odd but I don't see them anymore long as I squint”

Give It Up - CARRTOONS, Joanna Teters

WHERE: CARRTOONS is another amazing artist I found through Mac Ayres new album.

WHY: My go-to genre for pretty much this past year has been that relaxed, lead female vocal, soulful wave (Little Dragon, St. Panther, SAULT, Hiatus Kaiyote, etc.,), so you have no idea how happy I was to find this track and CARTOONS in general.

Without Sun - Swim Mountain

WHERE: Hablot Brown’s weekly spotify playlist.

WHY: I’ve heard a few Swim Mountain tracks and they all sound pretty different from each other, which I appreciate a ton. This is a light & cheerful track that reminds me a lot of Toro y Moi. Love the theme of starting over, which is something I’ve been reminding myself I have the ability to do at any given moment.

“You can't live without the sun You've been sat here for too long And there's things you have to leave behind There's something bigger on your mind”

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easyfoodnetwork · 4 years

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In Pursuit of the Perfect Bowl of Porridge

A porridge creation by Swedish competitor Per Carlsson | Clarissa Wei

Each year, gruel fanatics from around the world compete for the Golden Spurtle trophy in the small village of Carrbridge, Scotland

In 2015, Lisa Williams was vacationing in Scotland when she stumbled across a glitzy bagpipe procession and a line of people in aprons holding flags from countries around the world. She took a closer look, inquired around, and discovered it was a porridge parade, celebrating the contestants of a world porridge championship.

“And then you go into the village hall [where the competition is held], and it’s decorated in tartan and heather and with all the flags from all the people and their countries,” she says. “It was amazing. I was hooked. I just said to my husband that I want to take part in this. I want to do it.” Four years later, Williams returned to Scotland, and her porridge was crowned the best in the world. “When they called my name out, I was absolutely stunned,” she says.

Like Goldilocks chasing down that perfect bowl, Williams is among a dedicated class of professional and amateur cooks around the world who compete each year to serve the best bowl of, essentially, gruel. They gather in the small village of Carrbridge, Scotland, on the edge of a national park in the Scottish highlands, for the Golden Spurtle World Porridge Making Championship. Judges for the competition, which is split into “traditional” and “specialty” categories, are mostly recruited from the culinary industry, and rank each bowl by color, texture, hygiene, and taste. The “golden spurtle” refers to both the traditional Scottish utensil specifically designed for porridge-stirring, as well as the shape of the trophy awarded to winners.

James Ross

The bagpipe parade to kick of 2017’s Golden Spurtle championships

What began as a tourism initiative in 1994 to attract winter crowds to the quaint, 700-person Scottish town has grown into an institution, drawing in hundreds of spectators and up to 30 competitors each year. “I read about it in the newspaper and thought that if this isn’t a joke and it’s for real, it’s the most silly and insane thing I ever heard,” says Saga Rickmer of Sweden. She signed up immediately, and went on to compete in the 2016 world championships and ultimately win the Swedish Porridge Competition, a national spinoff competition, in 2019.

This year, due to COVID-19, the competition will move online, with competitors submitting short video recipes and winners announced over social media on October 10 — World Porridge Day. But while the thrill of softening stodgy grains in real time might be missing, the weight of the endeavor seems to resonate more than ever. Anyone who has been cooking and recooking the same simple meals from pantry staples during the pandemic will understand the quest for the platonic ideal of gruel.

The 2020 competition will also be slightly different in that it will focus entirely on the specialty category, where pretty much anything goes. Competitors can add a bunch of milk, shape the oatmeal into tapas, brulee it, steam it, or bake it. Per Carlsson of Sweden snagged the 2017 specialty win with a cloudberry-liqueur porridge brulee. Neal Robertson from Scotland won in 2011 with a cinnamon and nutmeg-spiked porridge topped with a blueberry compote. Other wins have included a mushroom porridge torta in 2012 and a sticky toffee porridge in 2014.

Nick Barnard of London, a two-time winner in the specialty category, says the key to dressing up an award-winning dish is knowing what the judges like. “The Scots love sugar, salt, and fat,” he says. “So I’ll give it to them in spades.” Barnard won in 2019 with his maple pecan porridge, a mix of pecan butter, maple syrup, dry milk powder, and cream, all topped with pecans sauteed in ghee.

Clarissa Wei

The tattoo on Carlsson’s forearm reads “Porridge Champion”

This year’s competition won’t include the traditional category, but normally competitors in this genre are required to make porridge with just three elements: oats, water, and salt. Minimally processed oats are a prerequisite; precooked oats like instant and rolled oats are not allowed. Almost everyone who has won has used steel-cut oats and soaked the porridge overnight.

While it may seem simple by comparison, the challenge — and honestly, the fun — of the endeavor lies in elevating what’s widely recognized as an archetype of culinary austerity into something worth awarding a large spoon-shaped trophy to. Many home cooks believe all oatmeal tastes mostly the same, but it’s a point of pride for a porridge connoisseur to rise above this stereotype to make a truly distinguished bowl of oats.

“Many older people have grown up with this traditional, gloopy porridge and have a distaste for it,” says Carlsson, who also won the traditional category in 2018. “But I usually give them a sample of my porridge to try, and they say, ‘This isn’t porridge. This is something else!’” At his bed and breakfast in southern Sweden, Carlsson used to rotate porridge duties with two friends, and guests always complimented their meals on days when he cooked. Now Carlsson is behind the stove nearly every morning. A small corner of the dining room is also demurely decorated with porridge paraphernalia: a spurtle, a ladle, Swedish porridge merch and slogans, plus Carlsson’s own book of recipes.

Fans generally believe that the ideal oat porridge should be thick enough to offer some resistance, but smooth enough to go down easily. There should definitely be salt, but not enough to make you reach for a glass of water. It should be thick enough, but not at all watery. Not too much, and not too little. Not too cold, not too hot — just as Goldilocks would have it.

“It’s fascinating. In a competition, porridge is cooked 24 different ways, and they all taste different,” says Robertson, who has competed for a decade and occasionally judges at the Swedish Porridge Championship.

courtesy Saga Rickmer

Saga Rickmer read about the competition in the newspaper and went on to compete twice since

James Ross

Everyone is pushing for the coveted Golden Spurtle trophy, shaped like the ultimate porridge-making tool

Competitors cook porridge every day for months, even years, to drill down the minutiae of the stuff. “You start preparing pretty much the day of the competition for the next year,” says Williams. Carlsson even recruited outside help from Dr. Viola Adamsson, a medical doctor and food nutritionist who has written several books on porridge and made porridge for the Swedish Olympic ski team in 1998 and 2002. “She practically has a doctorate in porridge,” jokes Carlsson’s wife, Catarina Arvidsson. Carlsson and Adamsson trained via Skype and telephone several times a week for a month, perfecting the water-to-oat ratio.

Among niche porridge circles, conversation often lands on four critical elements: oat-to-water ratio, type of oats, and salt. “One part oats to three parts water,” Williams insists. “Soak the oats overnight and use more salt than you think you would. I use Maldon sea salt — the same salt the queen uses.” Williams prefers half steel-cut oats and half stone-ground milled oats from Hamlyns of Scotland. “You get a nutty texture, but it’s not completely nutty. It’s more of a smooth nutty,” she says.

Robertson agrees on steel-cut oats from Hamlyns, but he does one part oatmeal to 2.5 parts water. “I tend to use sea salt,” he says. “It’s a bit softer and a bit more forgiving. And you should always stir it anti-clockwise. It keeps the devil at the bay.”

Carlsson does one part oats and 4.5 parts water. “I cook it for at least 25 minutes, then it is allowed to swell,” he says. Unlike Williams and Robertson, Carlson uses Swedish steel-cut oats from Saltå Kvarn, which are creamy but toasted for a “nice burned flavor,” he says.

In opting for Swedish oats, Carlson throws down the gauntlet in a nationalist sub-debate among porridge cooks. “Countries mill their oats in different ways,” says Anna Louise Batchelor, who won the specialty title in 2009. “Bob’s Red Mill [in America], they sell a really lovely rolled oat that’s very coarse. It’s very shiny and flat and it takes a long time to cook. Scotland loves their salty oats. And in Sweden, their milling is quite rustic.” Batchelor prefers coarse oats from English brand Mornflake.

Even the namesake spurtle is a topic of debate. Unlike spoons, spurtles allegedly don’t drag and prevent lumps. Many swear by them. “If you want to whip porridge in a pan without getting it all over yourself, the spurtle is the best tool,” says Barnard. “It brings air and stops it from overheating at the bottom of the pan and distributes the salt.” In 2016, Bob Moore, the founder of Bob’s Red Mill, won using a handcrafted myrtle spurtle from Oregon, where he lives.

Charlie Miller, the current organizer of the competition, says more eccentric attendees often bring specialty equipment too. Pressure cookers, microwaves, and bain-maries are commonly spotted in the competition hall. “Neal Robertson one year brought water that he claimed came from a stream that fed his local whisky distillery,” Miller recalls. In 2018, competitor Lynn Munro brought oatmeal she milled herself and cooked it with water she harvested from the loch at her childhood home. One woman even grew her own oats for the competition.

“Some people are so serious, it’s quite charming,” Barnard says. “The Swedish dress up like Swedish milkmaids and make a lot of noise. Some people have spreadsheets. It’s a circus, really.” But competitors are accepted into the fold regardless of skill. “I met one man at the competition who had never prepared a bowl of porridge in his life,” Miller says, laughing.

Robertson commemorated his 2010 win with a tattoo reading “World Porridge Champion 10.10.10,” rousing envy among friends and competitors. “Neal Robertson had [a tattoo] and walked around showing it off. Then I thought I should get one as well,” Carlsson says. Shortly after his own win, Carlsson shocked his children by getting his forearm inked with the words “World Champion” spiraling around a ladle.

But beneath the braggadocio and heated competition, the Golden Spurtle is, at its heart, about a bunch of people hanging out in a room cooking oatmeal. “It’s just the best time,” says Rickmer, who often visits her fellow Swede, Carlsson, as a guest chef at his bed and breakfast. “Competing in porridge is so cozy and cute. Everyone is so nerdy, which I love.”

Even this year, as competitors dive deep into their individual porridge pots, in their own kitchens, in their own countries thousands of miles apart, they are bound by a shared appreciation of well-cooked grains and what they symbolize. “It’s an ancestral food,” says Barnard. “All cultures around the world have a type of gruel.”

As with any competition, there are plenty of tears and laughter. “When I won, I was absolutely stunned. My face was bright red and I almost burst into tears,” Williams says, beaming as she holds up her trophy. She says she plans on going back to Scotland as soon as the competition is held in-person again, this time to add a specialty category win to her victory in the traditional category. “I have my china all picked out already.”

Clarissa Wei is an American freelance journalist based in Taiwan.

from Eater - All https://ift.tt/35tYL5K https://ift.tt/35rwxIB

A porridge creation by Swedish competitor Per Carlsson | Clarissa Wei

Each year, gruel fanatics from around the world compete for the Golden Spurtle trophy in the small village of Carrbridge, Scotland

James Ross

The bagpipe parade to kick of 2017’s Golden Spurtle championships

Clarissa Wei

The tattoo on Carlsson’s forearm reads “Porridge Champion”

courtesy Saga Rickmer

Saga Rickmer read about the competition in the newspaper and went on to compete twice since

James Ross

Everyone is pushing for the coveted Golden Spurtle trophy, shaped like the ultimate porridge-making tool

Clarissa Wei is an American freelance journalist based in Taiwan.

from Eater - All https://ift.tt/35tYL5K via Blogger https://ift.tt/2DQpX2Y

#Blogger #cooking #Eater #food #recipes

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epzik8 · 7 years

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Regular Show - Chester’s vinyl collection

Listed below is every LP vinyl record owned by my Regular Show original character Chester. Chester himself is here to commentate on every album.

A Flock of Seagulls - A Flock of Seagulls (1982) "I bet you didn't know they had more songs than 'I Ran'!"

A Flock of Seagulls - Listen (1983) "Yes, The Flock have more than one record as well."

Big Audio Dynamite - No. 10, Upping St. (1986) "That dude Mick Jones quit The Clash and launched this seminal sample-based electronic post-punk dance group."

Billy Idol - Rebel Yell (1984) "I suggest stepping beyond the title track for 'Eyes Without a Face' and 'Flesh For Fantasy'."

The Cure - Japanese Whispers (1983) "'The Walk' is my absolute favorite Cure song."

The Cure - Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me (1987) "I got this one just for 'Just Like Heaven'."

Daft Punk - Random Access Memories (2013) "My only 21st-century vinyl set."

Depeche Mode - Some Great Reward (1984) "'People Are People' was their first big US hit."

Depeche Mode - The Singles 81-85 (1985) "I got this shipped straight from the UK. Here in the US a different compilation was issued."

Depeche Mode - Violator (1990) "I love to listen to the final five seconds of 'Personal Jesus' on repeat."

The English Beat - I Just Can't Stop It (1980) "Just called The Beat in the UK, this six-man group exemplified Britain's two-tone ska sound of the late-70s and early-80s, with the goal of black and white working together."

Eurythmics - Touch (1983) "Annie Lennox is a goddess."

Genesis - Duke (1980) "Forget 'Misunderstanding'. 'Turn It On Again' is where it's at."

Hall and Oates - Rock n' Soul Part 1 (1983) "The title is a play on 'rock and roll' because their pop-rock sound adds soul and R&B touches."

Howard Jones - Human's Lib (1984) "This is filled with synths and drum machines programmed by Howard himself."

INXS - Listen Like Thieves (1985) "Probably the strongest LP by Michael Hutchence and the gang."

INXS - Kick (1987) "This one, on the other hand, showcases some nice stylistic diversity."

Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures (1979) "Hear 'Transmission' once and you'll be hooked to the entire record."

Joy Division - Closer (1980) "Did you know that Ian Curtis outed himself the same day Mount Saint Helens erupted?"

New Order - Brotherhood (1986) "The definition of 'alternative dance'. Post-punk meets synth-pop."

Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark - Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (1980) "Another UK import, not the US version with 'Enola Gay'."

Peter Gabriel - Security (1982) "Features the full and better version of 'Shock the Monkey'."

The Police - Ghost in the Machine (1981) "'Every Little Thing She Does is Magic'. Enough said."

The Police - Every Breath You Take: The Singles (1986) "My only beef with this one is they felt it necessary to re-record 'Don't Stand So Close to Me'."

Prince and the Revolution - 1999 (1982) "The start of something big for His Purpleness."

Prince and the Revolution - Purple Rain (1984) - 2 copies "My favorite album of all-time in any genre. Such a masterpiece that I have two copies. This was Prince Rogers Nelson at his absolute peak. It merges pop, rock, funk, R&B, soul, neo-psychedelia, and even a bit of new wave quite well. It was dubbed the Minneapolis sound."

Prince and the Revolution - Around the World in a Day (1985) "Call me stupid, but this is a good record. People seem to love 'Raspberry Beret'. I sure do."

Prince and the Revolution - Parade (1986) "The final album before Prince ditched The Revolution, which was a mistake."

The Psychedelic Furs - Mirror Moves (1984) "A victim of being sandwiched in between 'Love My Way' and 'Heartbreak Beat'. It's a shame considering this one opens very strong with 'The Ghost In You'."

Public Image Ltd. - Public Image: First Issue (1978) "PiL were the brainchild of the dude from the Sex Pistols, John Lydon AKA Johnny Rotten."

Ramones - Ramones (1976) "Gabba Gabba Hey!"

Ramones - Road to Ruin (1978) "This one has a drummer who is not Tommy Ramone but it's okay because 'I Wanna Be Sedated' is on it."

R.E.M. - Document (1987) "'Exhuming McCarthy' was written about the lame-ass excuse for a 'President' we had at the time named Ronald Reagan and now that song is relevant again because we've got a lame-ass excuse for a 'President' named Donald Trump. Also, something something 'The One I Love'."

R.E.M. - Eponymous (1988) "They called this compilation that to make fun of self-titled or 'eponymous' albums. I hear you, Michael Stipe."

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Blood Sugar Sex Magik (1991) "People asked me why I didn't get this one on the CD. I asked them why they prefer that shitty compressed digital sound over pure, loud analog vinyl. How can you not love that cracking and popping?"

Talking Heads - Talking Heads:77 (1977) "Psycho killer! Qu'est-ce que c'est!"

Talking Heads - Speaking in Tongues (1983) "This was basically recorded by the Stop Making Sense ensemble."

The Teardrop Explodes - Kilimanjaro (1980) "These guys blended post-punk with the psychedelic beat sound prevalent in California in the 1960s. The singer's name is Julian Cope. Check him out. He's something else."

Tears For Fears - The Hurting (1983) "I put this one on whenever I'm moody. You know 'Mad World' from the Donnie Darko trailer? Curt Smith and Roland Orzabal did it first."

Tears For Fears - Songs From the Big Chair (1985) "Number one in the US thanks to 'Everybody Wants to Rule the World'."

XTC - English Settlement (1982) "A quirky guitar-pop outfit fronted by a quintessential Englishman named Andy Partridge. He's the hero Britain deserves but doesn't seem to think it does."

And those are all of Chester's LP records!

#regular show #original character #music #vinyl

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earthyshelley · 5 years

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Copenhagen Eats

If we’re being completely transparent, I wasn’t overly psyched to visit Copenhagen, which—I’m fully aware—is a bratty thing to admit. Mostly, I was excited to visit my sister who was studying there for the semester. HOWEVER, let’s be thankful for the low expectations I set because my entire Copenhagen experience was flawless, and it effortlessly exceeded my (dumb) premature judgments.

Let me preface that for me, it was so easy to find vegan food in Copenhagen. Every café had oat milk along with other plant milks (oat is my favorite), every grocery store had pre-made (and surprisingly delicious) vegan wraps and sandwiches, and every 7/11 had vegan ice cream bars! However, if you have a certain spot on your list that you really want to hit, make sure you check the hours ahead of time since European hours in my experience have been somewhat erratic.

Here are the top places I ate at in Copenhagen (in no particular order):

Souls -- Melchiors Pl. 3, 2100 København, Denmark

The motto of Souls is: “Eat like you give a fork.” Very cute. I ate here twice and got (i) the warm potato salad and (ii) the avo smash. The warm potato salad was a legitimate salad with roasted sweet and white potatoes, marinated tofu, truffle dressing, artichoke, roasted nuts, kale, hummus, garlic bread, and cashew-curry dressing. The avo mash was avocado toast on rye bread topped with radish, sprouts, pickled onion, and cherry tomatoes.

Souls is a little pricey but the portions are good and the food is high-quality and filling. The staff was super friendly and the atmosphere was really chill. You wouldn’t know the entire place was vegan unless you were looking for it. They also offer take-away.

The Organic Boho -- Prinsessegade 23, 1422 København, Denmark

The Organic Boho has a much more vegan-y vibe, if you know what I mean. Full of very granola looking people, earthy tones, and woven wall hangings. I’m all for it. The food was so photogenic that when it’s served to you, you are convinced you’ve “made it” as an influencer. My mom, sister, and I split a falafel burger, fried cauliflower burger, and “The Love Plate,” which was a platter of avocado toast, fried cauliflower, sweet potato fries, chili mayo, falafel, salad bowl, veggie chips, bread, and plant based butter. Every morsel we inhaled was divine, and all of the meals were adorned with edible flowers. Zero complaints.

Madenitaly – Holbergsgade 22, 1057 København, Denmark

This was one of the places we had plans to go to before finding out they were closed. Madenitaly is an entirely vegan Italian restaurant. I recommend the ravioli, and if you’re with a big party I recommend getting a variety of pizza slices to sample since there are so many you should really try them all! Make a note to stop here on the day you visit Nyhavn (where everyone takes “the” Copenhagen picture – see above) since its close in proximity.

Nicecream – Elmegade 30, 2200 København, Denmark

Before or after you snag a vegan Magnum ice cream bar from 7/11, make a note to visit Nicecream! A vegan, organic, fair-trade ice cream shop, they have a cute poster inside with graphics for all the reasons to go vegan, and their ice cream is so good it rivals Boston’s FoMu. I got a chocolate frappe and I’d get it again and again. All of their ice cream is coconut milk based.

Torvehallerne -- Frederiksborggade 21, 1362 København, Denmark

A giant food hall with sneaky vegan options. By sneaky, I mean there aren’t giant green “V”s posted over everything. You just have to look, and ask. Everyone I inquired of here spoke perfect English. Expect some touristy prices.

Reffen – A, Refshalevej 167, 1432 København, Denmark

Reffen is a gathering of street food vendors hidden amongst shipping containers. It’s trendy, it’s cool, and it’s got some of the best food I’ve ever had in my life. Not kidding. It’s difficult to get to, but the journey is well worth it. Grab whoever you can find, order everything you can afford, and then feast.

#denmark #copenhagen #travel #restaurantreview #vegan #foodie

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boozedancing · 5 years

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When one travels the majestic New Jersey and Pennsylvania highways and byways (now pothole free!) with G-LO (also now pothole free!), the sights are never-ending. The Great Rust Belt is now but a skinny tie, but many of the skeletons still sit, waiting to be turned into hipster coffeehouses and record stores. Some are already boring monolithic warehouse/fulfillment centers for the Amazons and Walmarts of the world, no doubt filled with robots that turn into middle managers when not packing a pair of Bombas socks surrounded by an army of packing air pillows in a 16″ x 16″ x 16″ box. We call this progress, by God!

A Google Maps Aerial View of the Meadowlands / American Dream Sports/Shopping/Entertainment Complex

As we headed south from New York City on a recent site visit to The Home Office, something called American Dream rose up from the swamplands to our right; a massive edifice to retail entertainment alongside the turnpike. Supposedly, if you can believe anything on the world wide web, inside those massive walls there was a waterpark, an ice rink, a ski and snow resort, an amusement park, and…hold your breath, Kids, a candy department store (GASP!). And 500 retail stores OPENING SOON! WOW! Just WOW! Who knew New Jersey was so breathtaking?

G-LO’s Trusty Silver Chariot

Once in the grand old city of Philadelphia, G-LO drove down a street (THE Broad Street of Broad Street Bullies fame) that was entirely populated by mortuaries. “The Walking Dead: South Philly” seems like a no-brainer in a streaming world looking for content, content, and more content. I made note of a few of the businesses for future reference as The G-LO Tour Bus moved on. It was Day 1 of a weekend with the Home Office, and our fearless leader would not disappoint in his scheduled activities for us…

First stop, lunch and cocktails, of course, at American Sardine Bar on Federal Street. A corner location in an older mixed-use neighborhood with narrow streets, this was an excellent place to rest our darkened souls after a long drive. Saddling up at the end of the bar, we ordered a bit of everything including every version of sardine on the chalkboard. Grilled, sautéed, plancha, and fried. We devoured them all. We were more than pleasantly surprised by the quality of the chow. Harissa glazed carrots, roasted Brussels sprouts, and fries all hit the spot with a craft beer for G-LO and an Old Fashioned for me. Well-fed and well-quenched, we motored on.

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Had some #sardines at @americansardine bar with the West Coast Office. And they were #DELICIOUS! . . #lunch #fish #philly #foodiechats . .

A post shared by Papà G-LO 🥃🍸🍻 (@boozedancing) on Feb 7, 2020 at 4:38pm PST

G-LO scheduled us a visit to Art in the Age in Old City, not far away from lunch and but a stone’s throw from Betsy Ross’s home (she made a fortune with her home sewing business, Google her). Art in the Age is a quirky little retail spot in a building that once was a store for medicines and liquors. What goes around comes around. Part tasting room, part home bar supply store, it’s a fun mix of most anything you need at home to fashion your cocktails. Glassware, muddlers, juicers, spoons, shakers, doodads and widgets galore all nicely set in displays reminiscent of a bygone era when craftsmanship was the rule, not the exception. And there is an array of bitters of various brands to help the budding cocktail maker. It would be easy to go a little crazy with a credit card in there.

But we weren’t there to shop, no, we were not. Our goal was the back end of the shop where the Tasting Room was. It wasn’t really a room so much; it is a nice L-shaped bar, our favorite shape. We saddled up – see a trend? – where we were delightfully led through a tasting of AITA’s spirits. Their lineup, all made at New Liberty Distilling in Philly and Tamworth Distilling in New Hampshire, ranges from whisky and rye to flavored cordials and other spirits. We ran through a flavor-forward list of Maple Jack (maple syrup flavored apple brandy), Cherry Bounce (a brandy recipe based on Martha Washington’s very own), Black Walnut Damson Plum cordial, and Mountain Berry cordial made from New Hampshire raspberries and Aronia berries. The flavors were all over the board. Sweet to tart, savory to dry. There were others as well that come and go with the seasons, all seemingly perfect for the pro and amateur cocktailer wanting flavor in their recipes.

On our departure, G-LO took me by Ms. Ross’s home. Bit of a fixer-upper and maybe a good project as a home renovation on one of those HGTV shows. Betsy must have some “flag” dough socked away at this point, right? Then it was a stroll down Elfreth’s Alley – the nation’s oldest residential street. So quaint. Could use sidewalks with curbs and maybe a Starbucks, but what do I know?

Day 2 added another Musketeer to our entourage as Limpd drove us back into the heart of historical Philadelphia. The Boozedancing Trio (available for weddings, bar AND bat mitzvahs, and quinceaneras) had a spirited lunch at Red Owl Tavern which is right across from the grassy mall of Independence National Historical Park, Independence Hall, Independence, MO, Independence Coffee, Independence Dry Cleaners, and the Liberty Bell. At this stop, we built an important base for our next stop.

The enormous Bourse building on 5th Street was the world’s first to be home to a stock exchange, maritime exchange, and grain-trading exchange at the same time back in 1891. Today, it’s…a food hall. Now that’s not a bad thing at all. We like food. And we like choices. We also like whisky, which is perfect since Bluebird Distilling has a bar inside the Bourse smackdab in the center of the first floor without any walls surrounding it.

Bluebird Distilling is located in Phoenixville, which is about 30 miles northeast of the bar at the Bourse. The distillery is a “grain-to-glass” operation (no sourcing we’re told) and makes everything from vodka and gin to aged spirits of bourbon, rye, single malt, and rum. This day we were lucky enough to saddle up [NOTE: TREND] and run through about 10 spirits including a couple of one-offs that our bartender pulled from under the bar. It was an odd feeling sitting in the middle of a 19th century building, circled by food kiosks that ran the gamut from pizza to poke, Mexican to Filipino. All the while we sat back and sampled through Bluebird’s extensive list. We each picked our own flights. My list was Sugarcane Rum, Dark Rum, Rye, Wheat Whiskey, Rye finished in a Madeira cask, Single Malt, “Phoenixville” – a 60% Bourbon-30% Rye-10% Oat spirit, and a single malt finished in a Pedro Ximénez sherry cask. Thankfully, the pours were small, so we were able to walk out instead of pass out. It was an excellent tasting of young craft spirits from the Philadelphia area.

Our drive home included a stop at Central Taco & Tequila for…TACOS! Limpd and G-LO obviously knew I was homesick for Los Angeles, and the stop was a great end to our afternoon.

Two days of yammering, eating, and spirit tasting in Philadelphia. A wholly successful trip!

The West Coast Office gives The Home Office 4.5 Stars!

_________________________________________________

Many thanks to Kylie Flett of Punch Media PR for setting us up at Art in the Age & Buebird Distilling!

The WCO (@AaronMKrouse) visits @AmericanSardine @artintheage @RedOwlTavern BBIRDDistilling + @CentralTandT with The Home Office Crew. When one travels the majestic New Jersey and Pennsylvania highways and byways (now pothole free!) with G-LO (also now pothole free!), the sights are never-ending.

#American Sardine Bar #Art in the Age #Bluebird Distilling #Central Taco and Tequila #Old City #Philadelphia #Photography #Photos #Spirits #The West Coast Office #Travel #Whisky

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airadam · 6 years

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Episode 114 : Enter The Midnight

"...we fighting back - sorry Martin."

- Erick Sermon

This month marks twenty-five years (!) since the release of two monumental albums - "Midnight Marauders" by A Tribe Called Quest, and the Wu-Tang Clan's "Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)". I still remember going to buy each of these albums which have had a huge influence on me over the years, and I thought that this episode would be a good time to feature them both. We have a mix of original tracks, alternate versions, covers, and original samples, alongside plenty of other tunes to keep your head bobbing!

There are still a few tickets left for Schoolly D and DJ Code Money on December 15th in Manchester - but you might want to be quick!

The Mouse Outfit are playing an Xmas special at Band on the Wall on December 18th - a few advance tickets left for that one too.

See Children of Zeus on tour!

Twitter : @airadam13

Playlist/Notes

Minnie Riperton : Inside My Love

An excerpt of a soul classic from one of our departed greats. Minnie Riperton was well capable of singing well into the whistle register, and demonstrates that to spectacular effect at the end of this track from the essential "Adventures In Paradise" album, which I first encountered as part of "Lyrics To Go"...

A Tribe Called Quest : Lyrics To Go

This sample use was absolute genius. When I first heard this as a teenager I didn't have a clue that the high tone running through the whole track was actually a singer and not a keyboard, and it still stuns you the same way twenty-five years after release. Perfect production, together with Q-Tip and Phife (RIP) on the mic, make this album cut from "Midnight Marauders" every inch of a classic.

Funky DL : Midnight

London's Funky DL first came to popular notice as an MC, but clearly also has major skills as a producer, arranger, and keyboardist! His "Marauding At Midnight" album is a tribute to "Midnight Marauders", with instrumental versions of every track played with no sampled breaks/loops - just instrumentation, as well as backing vocals. "Midnight" was one of my low-key favourites on the original LP, so it's great to hear his take on it here. I couldn't resist the opportunity to cut a few samples over the top :)

Wu-Tang Clan : Clan In Da Front

On my first listen to "Enter The Wu-Tang", this was the track that made me know for sure that the album was a classic. The Wu members regularly battled to see who would get to be on any particular RZA beat, and you can hear for yourself how undeniable GZA was on this one - one of only two tracks on the album to feature just one MC.

The ARE : Clap Ya Hands

The "Manipulated Marauders" project is much older when I look at the release date (2007) than it feels, but still gets solid play from me on a regular basis. The ARE tears up the classic Bob James "Nautilus" sample amongst others to bring some freshness to the familiarity of the Tribe "Clap Ya Hands" track from "Midnight Marauders".

Rockwilder ft. Erick Sermon, Method Man, and Redman : Clutch Reloaded

I missed the original version of this track, but this remix is absolute fire! This might be the most aggro I've ever heard Erick Sermon, and I can't be the only one struck by the combination of "bunch a n****s walking down the block like it's Selma" and the lyric that gave us this month's epigraph. Following Erick, the match made in blunt smoke, Meth & Red, continues the lyrical assault, and Rockwilder's beat is a banger that reminds you of a classic sample atomised. A must-purchase!

Ice Cube : Arrest The President

The man who brought us "I Wanna Kill Sam" back in the 90s is back to burn and has absolutely no problem going in on Mango Mussolini! Atlanta's Shawn Ski provides a stomping, horn-laden beat while Cube calls out Agent Orange for being an asset of Russian intelligence, and his general devilish behaviour. This tune definitely puts you on notice for the upcoming "Everythang's Corrupt" album.

[DJ Quik] Nate Dogg ft. Eve : Get Up (Instrumental)

One of those singles I somehow picked up a couple of a while back and still barely play! The first single from Nate Dogg's third album, it's not crazy but does have that Quik flavour and the beat a good bridge between the bombast of the Cube track and something a little more subdued...

Public Enemy : See Something, Say Something

I was looking for something funky in this spot and this fit the bill perfectly. Chuck D is from the right kind of era to know what to do with a groove like this, and has the experience and intelligence to drop wisdom all over it. Gary G-Wiz is on production on this lyrically clever flip of the Department of Homeland Security slogan, an overlooked track from "How Do You Sell Soul To A Soulless People Who Lost Their Soul?"

El Michels Affair : C.R.E.A.M

Much harder to mix with than I thought, but that's often the case with live bands - tempos are much more likely to shift within the track than with electronically sequenced music! Anyway, this is just one of the many great Wu instrumental cover versions from El Michels Affair, who gave us this tribute to the 36 Chambers classic on "Enter The 37th Chamber". It's always interesting when a band is sampled by a Hip-Hop producer as part of a composition, and then another band interprets that new version.

A Tribe Called Quest & Busta Rhymes : God Lives Through

The original "God Lives Through" included the voice of Busta via a sample from Tribe's own "Oh My God" on the same album, but he wasn't actually on the track. As he says, he always wanted to rhyme on it and here he gets his chance! This version is from the Q-Tip and Busta mixtape "The Abstract and the Dragon", and here I've just gone with the Busta verse and then Phife's - which is the same as the original, hopefully you own it by now :)

Black Milk ft. Fat Ray and Elzhi : Sound Of The City

Detroit time! Black Milk covers the low end lovely with well-engineered kicks and bass driving this track along. The title track to his first solo LP is a worth headliner, and I always laugh at the shade thrown at Mike Jones at the end of the second verse!

Hall & Oates : Method Of Modern Love

A new one to me, but after reading recently that this was the song that inspired the hook to "Method Man", I took a listen and thought I'd play a snippet here. You hear the first eight bars looped up for a couple of minutes, then we let it go so you can hear the introduction of the chorus - then stop the track and merge into...

Wu-Tang Clan : Method Man (Home Grown Version)

...the tune that drew from it! This isn't even the version from "Enter The Wu-Tang", but an alternate version that was on the 12", and is even more raw and lo-fi than anything on the album. It sounds like it was recorded in a basement and probably was, and I'd bet that this was the original, later re-done for the LP. For the turntablist heads, this is the version Mista Sinista used for his killer juggle - solved a mystery for me!

Cypress Hill : How I Could Just Kill A Man

Classic Cypress! Back in the pre-internet days, some New Yorkers thought this crew were locals from the Cypress Hills housing project, but in fact they were from all the way over in Los Angeles. The first album is still my favourite after all these years, and this track was fierce - a hit without even an attempt to soften up for the radio. DJ Muggs layers up legendary breaks for the beat and even has a few bars on the mic at the start of the second verse, while B-Real spits memorable bars on the kill-or-be-killed lifestyle, and Sen Dog jumps in for the hook. Early 90s heat.

Slum Village (ft. Young RJ) : Nitro

Detroit in the mix again, with the 2009/10 lineup in full effect, along with family member Young RJ on the boards and rhyming as well. The beat actually has a lot of RZA feel to it, and I could easily have imagined this on one of the early Wu albums. No slacking on the mic either, everyone represents and make this a tune worth tracking down - I got it on the "Villa Manifesto" LP, but it's not on all versions so look out for that when buying.

Inspectah Deck : R.E.C. Room

I'd forgotten that it wasn't until six years after the release of "Enter The Wu-Tang" that we finally got a solo album from Inspectah Deck, but "Uncontrolled Substance" did eventually arrive - maybe it needed that incredible verse from the start of "Triumph" to create the momentum! I believe this was the lead single, a tribute to the rec room parties from the Wu's youthful days, with a characteristically Wu-Tang beat courtesy of True Master, who cooked up some great tracks over the years.

[DJ Premier] Gang Starr : Just To Get A Rep (Instrumental)

One of those tunes everyone either knows or really should! I think the 12" will have an instrumental on it, but this is taken from a white label instrumental version of the whole "Step In The Arena" LP.

Air Adam : 13th Chamber

I wondered if this was worth including, but if not now, then when? I recorded this maybe 10-15 years ago, and while some of the plain movie samples were just layered over the top from my DVD collection, everything else comes from the turntables! The bassline is a plain tone being modified with the 33/45 button and pitch slider, the drumming is all done with scratches, and then the kung-fu samples that were available on battle tool vinyl (no Serato back then!) were scratched over the top. This was my tribute to/version of Wu's "Wu-Tang : 7th Chamber - Part 2" from the first album, derived from a battle routine I once developed, and was on my "Sleight of Hand" mixtape - a few of you might still have it!

Please remember to support the artists you like! The purpose of putting the podcast out and providing the full tracklist is to try and give some light, so do use the songs on each episode as a starting point to search out more material. If you have Spotify in your country it's a great way to explore, but otherwise there's always Youtube and the like. Seeing your favourite artists live is the best way to put money in their pockets, and buy the vinyl/CDs/downloads of the stuff you like the most!

Check out this episode!

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intoabrownstudy · 7 years

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Sonic Review of 2017 (so far):

I listen to a lot of stuff. I devour audio content. Be it new music, podcasts, radio, bird song. Quality is the only prerequisite. I have been meaning to start commenting on what I listen to and so David requesting that I submit something in print has been the stimulus to sit down and collate. The idea for future weeks is to present audio highlights on a week-to-week basis, but this submission is a summation of the best bits of sound so far this year. I’ll be covering the podcasts and radio programmes, the albums and individual tracks, and the live shows that I have made an impression on me so far this year.

So here goes. The descriptions will be fairly brief this time around, as I’m going to cover six whole months, but here’s what I have enjoyed sonically so far in 2017, starting with my favourite albums so far this year:

There are 11 here; these are albums that have made an impression on me and that I have continued to listen to. I’ll say a few words about what to expect from each them, as well as a little bit about why I have chosen them:

San Fermin; Belong

My favourite. From soup to nuts, a consistently wondrous collection of tunes that hop from genre to genre effortlessly. Beautifully arranged and performed.

Highlight: the emotional-charged title track, Belong.

Fleet Foxes; Crack Up

New music from Fleet Foxes that’s not a minute too soon. Essentially, it is more of the same acoustic sound and the divine close harmonies we have come to expect from the Seattleites. There is definitely more chances taken in the way the album is produced, so there is enough to distinguish this album from their others. Gorgeous.

Highlight: Third Of May/Odaigahara

Cigarettes After Sex; Cigarettes After Sex

This album travels at it’s own glacial pace. Majestic, with definite nods to New Order.

Highlight: Apocalypse. No K. No Apocalypse. No K.

Roger Waters; Is This The Life We Want

Not being the most ardent fan of Pink Floyd, I hadn’t been in too much of a hurry to listen to this album. But I am so glad to have got round to it. Roge ain’t happy with how things are just now, and he’s going to tell you about it. I was just as riled by the end. It’s also an old-fashioned album in the sense that this tells a story with each tune morphing into the next.

Highlight: Picture That

Kendrick Lamar; DAMN.

Goodness. Where do you start? After I had seen Old Country For Old Men, my immediate impression was that I knew it was brilliant, but I wasn’t sure how I’ll be able to prepare myself to see it again. I had exactly that same thought after listening to this utterly overwhelming piece of documentary. Mesmerising.

Highlight: DUCKWORTH.

Public Service Broadcasting; Every Valley

Continuing with their M.O. of sampling old public information announcements; this time focusing on the fate of the Welsh Coal mining industry. This may not sound too exciting or indeed, to some, even interesting, but somehow, again they are able to tug at the heart strings with tape recordings, empty spaces and fine musicianship.

Highlight: Progress

Father John Misty; Pure Comedy

Lyrics so dry, I was on a drip by the end.

Highlight: Total Entertainment Forever

Com Truise; Iteration

The slightly 80s-tinged instrumental EDM is making a bit of a comeback following the Stranger Things soundtrack. this is some of the best electronica so far this year.

Highlight: Memory

London Grammar; Truth Is A Beautiful Thing

The vocals are the main event here, ably supported by the stark production surrounding them.

Highlight: Routing For You

Run The Jewels; Run The Jewels 3

Certainly gets the heart pumping. Lyrically charged ebullience.

Highlight: Legend Has It

The xx; I See You

Somewhere between the minimalist production of The xx’s previous releases and the more poppy output of Jamie xx, this album offers very judiciously-deployed samples of Hall & Oates and stonking vocal performances.

Highlight: On Hold

-o-

One of my favourite things to do is to collate new tracks that I hear from my various sources into quarterly playlists on Spotify. I am phutch1977 on Spotify so feel free to follow. Below is a link to what individual tracks I have enjoyed between January 1 and June 30 this year. I’m going to pick out a couple of my favourites:

https://open.spotify.com/user/phutch1977/playlist/4HDLGq11dknFaTLwBIJQ2v

UNKLE (feat. Mark Lanegan and ESKA); Looking For The Rain

Thumping beats with swooping orchestrations and one of my favourite baritones. Ticks a great many boxes for me does that.

Young Fathers; Only God Knows

Off the new T2: Trainspotting soundtrack, which incidentally is a thoroughly captivating watch, it highlights the changing of the guard of what is current within the British music scene. See also, Slow Slippy, Underworld’s remix of their classic, Born Slippy, that became so synonymous with the first movie.

The War On Drugs; Holding On

An exciting amuse-bouche for what is to come from their new album released later this year. Sounds like more of the same, which gets two thumbs up from this reviewer.

-o-

These are the podcast that I have gone back to consistently and those that I look forward have a new episode showing up each week:

Revisionist History; http://revisionisthistory.com/

This is the second series of Malcolm Gladwell’s attempt to revisit and/or reinterpret an event, a person or an idea from the past that he feels has been overlooked or misunderstood. At time of writing, there are 4 episodes of the new series available, but so far he has covered topics as diverse as terrorism, civil rights and rich folks addiction to golf. I like how he picks out something relatable to the present day. The first series is also worth digging out.

S-Town; https://stownpodcast.org/

This is produced by the same team that created the Serial podcast. I didn’t actually fully embrace Serial, however this series did I great job of hooking me in. The focus of S-Town shifts continuously throughout the series, and just when you think it has run out of puff, there is a new revelation that makes you do whatever the equivalent of page-turning is with a podcast. All of the episodes were released at the same time, so you could genuinely binge-listen to this story. Brilliantly put together and extremely poignant right now, S-Town is fantastic.

30 for 30 Podcasts; https://30for30podcasts.com/

Short and sweet. If you’ve seen the supreme sports documentaries on ESPN, well now there are some for your ears.

The Political Party with Matt Forde; https://soundcloud.com/thepoliticalparty

I have a bit of a crush on Matt Forde. In this podcast, he does a few minutes of super-topical (and super-funny, which doesn’t always happen concurrently) stand-up and then interviews a prominent political figure from either side of the aisle. Matt Forde, a stand-up by trade, is able to really humanise his guests with his very disarming style and focus on a side of their personality that doesn’t usually shine through in more formal interviews. He even managed to show that even William Hague is a right craic. Really good fun.

Special mentions:

The Adam Buxton Podcast; https://soundcloud.com/adam-buxton (especially The Steve Coogan episode)

Song Exploder; http://songexploder.net/ (especially the Fleet Foxes episode)

This next section are still podcasts but are based on actual live radio shows:

James O’Brien’s Mystery Hour; http://lbc.audioagain.com/presenters/6-james-obrien/368-the-mystery-hour-free

This is the pure sharing of knowledge. It’s the audio equivalent of when you used to have to write into a newspaper, before Google, if you had a question you wanted the answer to, and wait two weeks for it to be answered. This show rewards and celebrates acquired knowledge. The minutiae of life attempted to be explained.

Russell Brand on Radio X Podcast; http://www.radiox.co.uk/radio/podcasts/download-the-russell-brand-on-radio-x-podcast/

Russell Brand reminds me so much of Peter Cook. Previous forays into cinema might show that it may not his medium, but radio may very well be. He is just allowed to explode for a couple of hours on a Sunday, riffing on everything and nothing. Sublime stuff.

Johnny Vaughn on Radio X Podcast; http://www.radiox.co.uk/radio/johnny-vaughan/highlights/download-johnny-vaughan-on-radio-x-podcast/

Again, Johnny Vaughn is just so good on the wireless. Lightning quick. And there is a more sport-focussed show at the weekends called The Kickabout which is also hilarious.

Loose Ends; http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qjym/episodes/downloads

So happy that the BBC made the decision to start podcasting this live show with its wide ranging guests from film, stage, literature, comedy and all parts in between with excellent musical guests who perform live in the studio. Everyone is encouraged to contribute and interject throughout the show, even if the focus isn’t particularly on them at that time. Clive Anderson is the perfect host for this kind of format.

Friday Night Comedy from BBC Radio 4 Podcast; http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02pc9pj/episodes/downloads (especially the Dead Ringers episodes; not so much The Now Show)

A lot of the time, the comedy writing doesn’t match the performances when it comes to impressionist shows. For Dead Ringers, they are definitely on a par with each other. Highlights are Jeremy Vine and Andrew Neill’s exasperated utterances of “Diane Abbott..?!?!”

All Songs Considered Podcast; http://www.npr.org/podcasts/510019/all-songs-considered

Bob Boilen has my job. That is all. Great new music in a handy hour-long package.

-o-

And finally… I have been lucky enough to get to see a good number of live shows so far this year. Here are a few of my highlights:

Kate Tempest @ The Casbah

She performed her second album, Let Them Eat Chaos, in its entirety, from track #1 to track #last. Performed from the heart, you could hear a PBR tallboy drop such was the respect for performance. Amazing. Amazing.

San Fermin @ The Casbah

The sound created by this very talented bunch will live long in the memory. They simply crushed it. And there is a horn section. Even the sax solo was well done. Highly recommended.

Timber Timbre @ Soda Bar

Obviously there to push their new album, Sincerely Future Pollution, but I would have liked for them to have played more off their eponymous first album. Lively, intimate show.

Blossoms @ The Casbah

Stockport’s own. I felt very old watching these fresh-faced whippersnappers. Great set and went down a storm.

I’m excited that I have more shows lined up for the rest of the year. Public Service Broadcasting play the Soda Bar. I’ve managed to secure a ticket to see Fleet Foxes at The Observatory in September, as well as an outdoor show with Future Islands & Explosions In The Sky on the same bill. And the great Elbow are in SoCal in November, so I’m going to see them in Santa Ana. All very thrilling.

-o-

Hope you find something interesting out of all this. Going forward, this will be hopefully a little more concise, listing a few highlights of what I’ve enjoyed listening to week by week. I’d also be very interested in your own suggestions, be that podcasts, radio shows, albums, tracks or live performances.

open.spotify.com/user/phutch1977/

twitter.com/IntoABrownStudy

tumblr.com/IntoABrownStudy

#newmusic #newalbum #livemusic #radio #bbc #podcast #bestof

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ratingwithears · 8 years

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The xx- I See You REVIEW

It's been five years since the last album by The xx, their previous album, Coexist, was slightly bigger than their debut, but it still felt like the group could push themselves into a larger sound. And now they have with I See You. Member Jamie xx, fresh off his great kaleidoscopic solo album, In Colour, brings in a good dose of what made his solo album so compelling. Big sounds, punchy samples, it's nothing new, but for The xx, it's a big step. That's not to say that this album is a bright one, there's very little optimism here. The coldness that made their first two albums so powerful is still here, and in some ways, it's even better. There's little denying the songwriting chops here, songs like "Say Something Loving", "Perforance" and "I Dare You" carry a heavy amount of insecurity, fear and longing that could only be done by a group like this. Although other pop acts have been getting more in touch with their emotions recently, there's still something very alluring about The xx and how they blend emotional coldness and validation. Bigger sounds pop up from the start with "Dangerous" having a heavy horns sample at the very beginning and then continuing with a huge dance beat. "Lips" has a weird choir sample that opens the song, "Perforance" tones things down until the strings get astoundingly dramatic (it's almost like an Adele song!). "Replica" and "Brave For You" almost could have fit on the band's previous album, but even then, it's clear that these songs are just different enough to be placed on this album. "Test Me" closes out the album with a quiet precision that seems like an odd way to close out things out, but upon further listens, it's clear that the song perfectly placed here. "On Hold", the album's single, is the strongest here, and also the most danceable. Cold, and removed at the start, but then it quickly heats up with a Hall & Oates sample. Bigger sounds work in the band's favor here, and "On Hold" uses a clear build that's seamless, and it would have been a mess in the hands of a lesser producer. I See You is just enough for The xx to continue their odd reign of cold pop music. Dislocated emotions mixed with brutal honesty, chilly, isolated beats mixed with huge, commercial dance beats. The xx bring in the best of their previous work, and a needed change of pace when necessary. Rating: 8.3 out of 10.

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easyfoodnetwork · 4 years

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A porridge creation by Swedish competitor Per Carlsson | Clarissa Wei Each year, gruel fanatics from around the world compete for the Golden Spurtle trophy in the small village of Carrbridge, Scotland In 2015, Lisa Williams was vacationing in Scotland when she stumbled across a glitzy bagpipe procession and a line of people in aprons holding flags from countries around the world. She took a closer look, inquired around, and discovered it was a porridge parade, celebrating the contestants of a world porridge championship. “And then you go into the village hall [where the competition is held], and it’s decorated in tartan and heather and with all the flags from all the people and their countries,” she says. “It was amazing. I was hooked. I just said to my husband that I want to take part in this. I want to do it.” Four years later, Williams returned to Scotland, and her porridge was crowned the best in the world. “When they called my name out, I was absolutely stunned,” she says. Like Goldilocks chasing down that perfect bowl, Williams is among a dedicated class of professional and amateur cooks around the world who compete each year to serve the best bowl of, essentially, gruel. They gather in the small village of Carrbridge, Scotland, on the edge of a national park in the Scottish highlands, for the Golden Spurtle World Porridge Making Championship. Judges for the competition, which is split into “traditional” and “specialty” categories, are mostly recruited from the culinary industry, and rank each bowl by color, texture, hygiene, and taste. The “golden spurtle” refers to both the traditional Scottish utensil specifically designed for porridge-stirring, as well as the shape of the trophy awarded to winners. James Ross The bagpipe parade to kick of 2017’s Golden Spurtle championships What began as a tourism initiative in 1994 to attract winter crowds to the quaint, 700-person Scottish town has grown into an institution, drawing in hundreds of spectators and up to 30 competitors each year. “I read about it in the newspaper and thought that if this isn’t a joke and it’s for real, it’s the most silly and insane thing I ever heard,” says Saga Rickmer of Sweden. She signed up immediately, and went on to compete in the 2016 world championships and ultimately win the Swedish Porridge Competition, a national spinoff competition, in 2019. This year, due to COVID-19, the competition will move online, with competitors submitting short video recipes and winners announced over social media on October 10 — World Porridge Day. But while the thrill of softening stodgy grains in real time might be missing, the weight of the endeavor seems to resonate more than ever. Anyone who has been cooking and recooking the same simple meals from pantry staples during the pandemic will understand the quest for the platonic ideal of gruel. The 2020 competition will also be slightly different in that it will focus entirely on the specialty category, where pretty much anything goes. Competitors can add a bunch of milk, shape the oatmeal into tapas, brulee it, steam it, or bake it. Per Carlsson of Sweden snagged the 2017 specialty win with a cloudberry-liqueur porridge brulee. Neal Robertson from Scotland won in 2011 with a cinnamon and nutmeg-spiked porridge topped with a blueberry compote. Other wins have included a mushroom porridge torta in 2012 and a sticky toffee porridge in 2014. Nick Barnard of London, a two-time winner in the specialty category, says the key to dressing up an award-winning dish is knowing what the judges like. “The Scots love sugar, salt, and fat,” he says. “So I’ll give it to them in spades.” Barnard won in 2019 with his maple pecan porridge, a mix of pecan butter, maple syrup, dry milk powder, and cream, all topped with pecans sauteed in ghee. Clarissa Wei The tattoo on Carlsson’s forearm reads “Porridge Champion” This year’s competition won’t include the traditional category, but normally competitors in this genre are required to make porridge with just three elements: oats, water, and salt. Minimally processed oats are a prerequisite; precooked oats like instant and rolled oats are not allowed. Almost everyone who has won has used steel-cut oats and soaked the porridge overnight. While it may seem simple by comparison, the challenge — and honestly, the fun — of the endeavor lies in elevating what’s widely recognized as an archetype of culinary austerity into something worth awarding a large spoon-shaped trophy to. Many home cooks believe all oatmeal tastes mostly the same, but it’s a point of pride for a porridge connoisseur to rise above this stereotype to make a truly distinguished bowl of oats. “Many older people have grown up with this traditional, gloopy porridge and have a distaste for it,” says Carlsson, who also won the traditional category in 2018. “But I usually give them a sample of my porridge to try, and they say, ‘This isn’t porridge. This is something else!’” At his bed and breakfast in southern Sweden, Carlsson used to rotate porridge duties with two friends, and guests always complimented their meals on days when he cooked. Now Carlsson is behind the stove nearly every morning. A small corner of the dining room is also demurely decorated with porridge paraphernalia: a spurtle, a ladle, Swedish porridge merch and slogans, plus Carlsson’s own book of recipes. Fans generally believe that the ideal oat porridge should be thick enough to offer some resistance, but smooth enough to go down easily. There should definitely be salt, but not enough to make you reach for a glass of water. It should be thick enough, but not at all watery. Not too much, and not too little. Not too cold, not too hot — just as Goldilocks would have it. “It’s fascinating. In a competition, porridge is cooked 24 different ways, and they all taste different,” says Robertson, who has competed for a decade and occasionally judges at the Swedish Porridge Championship. courtesy Saga Rickmer Saga Rickmer read about the competition in the newspaper and went on to compete twice since James Ross Everyone is pushing for the coveted Golden Spurtle trophy, shaped like the ultimate porridge-making tool Competitors cook porridge every day for months, even years, to drill down the minutiae of the stuff. “You start preparing pretty much the day of the competition for the next year,” says Williams. Carlsson even recruited outside help from Dr. Viola Adamsson, a medical doctor and food nutritionist who has written several books on porridge and made porridge for the Swedish Olympic ski team in 1998 and 2002. “She practically has a doctorate in porridge,” jokes Carlsson’s wife, Catarina Arvidsson. Carlsson and Adamsson trained via Skype and telephone several times a week for a month, perfecting the water-to-oat ratio. Among niche porridge circles, conversation often lands on four critical elements: oat-to-water ratio, type of oats, and salt. “One part oats to three parts water,” Williams insists. “Soak the oats overnight and use more salt than you think you would. I use Maldon sea salt — the same salt the queen uses.” Williams prefers half steel-cut oats and half stone-ground milled oats from Hamlyns of Scotland. “You get a nutty texture, but it’s not completely nutty. It’s more of a smooth nutty,” she says. Robertson agrees on steel-cut oats from Hamlyns, but he does one part oatmeal to 2.5 parts water. “I tend to use sea salt,” he says. “It’s a bit softer and a bit more forgiving. And you should always stir it anti-clockwise. It keeps the devil at the bay.” Carlsson does one part oats and 4.5 parts water. “I cook it for at least 25 minutes, then it is allowed to swell,” he says. Unlike Williams and Robertson, Carlson uses Swedish steel-cut oats from Saltå Kvarn, which are creamy but toasted for a “nice burned flavor,” he says. In opting for Swedish oats, Carlson throws down the gauntlet in a nationalist sub-debate among porridge cooks. “Countries mill their oats in different ways,” says Anna Louise Batchelor, who won the specialty title in 2009. “Bob’s Red Mill [in America], they sell a really lovely rolled oat that’s very coarse. It’s very shiny and flat and it takes a long time to cook. Scotland loves their salty oats. And in Sweden, their milling is quite rustic.” Batchelor prefers coarse oats from English brand Mornflake. Even the namesake spurtle is a topic of debate. Unlike spoons, spurtles allegedly don’t drag and prevent lumps. Many swear by them. “If you want to whip porridge in a pan without getting it all over yourself, the spurtle is the best tool,” says Barnard. “It brings air and stops it from overheating at the bottom of the pan and distributes the salt.” In 2016, Bob Moore, the founder of Bob’s Red Mill, won using a handcrafted myrtle spurtle from Oregon, where he lives. Charlie Miller, the current organizer of the competition, says more eccentric attendees often bring specialty equipment too. Pressure cookers, microwaves, and bain-maries are commonly spotted in the competition hall. “Neal Robertson one year brought water that he claimed came from a stream that fed his local whisky distillery,” Miller recalls. In 2018, competitor Lynn Munro brought oatmeal she milled herself and cooked it with water she harvested from the loch at her childhood home. One woman even grew her own oats for the competition. “Some people are so serious, it’s quite charming,” Barnard says. “The Swedish dress up like Swedish milkmaids and make a lot of noise. Some people have spreadsheets. It’s a circus, really.” But competitors are accepted into the fold regardless of skill. “I met one man at the competition who had never prepared a bowl of porridge in his life,” Miller says, laughing. Robertson commemorated his 2010 win with a tattoo reading “World Porridge Champion 10.10.10,” rousing envy among friends and competitors. “Neal Robertson had [a tattoo] and walked around showing it off. Then I thought I should get one as well,” Carlsson says. Shortly after his own win, Carlsson shocked his children by getting his forearm inked with the words “World Champion” spiraling around a ladle. But beneath the braggadocio and heated competition, the Golden Spurtle is, at its heart, about a bunch of people hanging out in a room cooking oatmeal. “It’s just the best time,” says Rickmer, who often visits her fellow Swede, Carlsson, as a guest chef at his bed and breakfast. “Competing in porridge is so cozy and cute. Everyone is so nerdy, which I love.” Even this year, as competitors dive deep into their individual porridge pots, in their own kitchens, in their own countries thousands of miles apart, they are bound by a shared appreciation of well-cooked grains and what they symbolize. “It’s an ancestral food,” says Barnard. “All cultures around the world have a type of gruel.” As with any competition, there are plenty of tears and laughter. “When I won, I was absolutely stunned. My face was bright red and I almost burst into tears,” Williams says, beaming as she holds up her trophy. She says she plans on going back to Scotland as soon as the competition is held in-person again, this time to add a specialty category win to her victory in the traditional category. “I have my china all picked out already.” Clarissa Wei is an American freelance journalist based in Taiwan. from Eater - All https://ift.tt/35tYL5K

http://easyfoodnetwork.blogspot.com/2020/09/in-pursuit-of-perfect-bowl-of-porridge.html

#EasyFoodNetwork #ComfortFoodRecipes #EasyRecipes #GoodFood #BestComfortFoodRecipes #TastyFoodv

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