Tag Archives: music

What the "Mad Men" Theme Music Has Been Trying to Tell Us All Along

by KennethDiesendo Posted on May 15, 2015

Mother Jones

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This Sunday we bid Don Draper and the rest of the Mad Men characters a final farewell. The question on everyone’s mind: Will Don ride off into the sunset or will he fall to his death and reunite with Bert Cooper in the big ad agency in the sky?

Many have opined on whether the animated opening title sequence, in which the silhouette of a man plummets from a skyscraper, represents a literal or metaphorical window into Don Draper’s future. Beyond that soon to be settled matter/question, has Matthew Weiner been trying to tell us something with the show’s opening title music all these years?

Weiner originally wanted Beck to write the music. Beck declined, though, betting that a show about 1960s ad executives would be a bore. Weiner later chose RJD2’s “A Beautiful Mine” after he stumbled on the song while listening to public radio. I suspect that Weiner wanted from Beck something similar to what he ended up with: a delicious collage of pop postmodernity. And while the RJD2’s music wasn’t created for Mad Men, it was scrupulously cut from its original length of 5 minutes, 29 seconds to just 37 seconds. It has a “big old movie quality to it, and updated beat to it, it had drama,” Weiner has said. “I just loved it.”

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What the "Mad Men" Theme Music Has Been Trying to Tell Us All Along

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Re-live the Kingbees’ Rockabilly Revival

by KashaLuciano Posted on May 4, 2015

Mother Jones

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The Kingbees
self-titled
Omnivore

The rise of punk and new wave back in the late ’70s and early ’80s was accompanied by a mini-rockabilly revival, the most notable commercial success being Brian Setzer’s Stray Cats. Another eminently satisfying act was Los Angeles’ Kingbees, a spunky trio fronted by Jamie James, a spirited dude seemingly possessed by the ghost of Buddy Holly. There’s nothing profound on the expanded edition of this crisp 1980 debut album—just a bunch of snappy originals, including the semi-hit “My Mistake” and deft covers of Don Gibson (“Sweet Sweet Girl to Me”), Eddie Cochran (“Somethin’ Else”) and Buddy himself (“Not Fade Away”). But if you need a quick pick-me-up, check out “Shake-Bop” or “Ting-a-Ling.” They’ll put a spring in your step, guaranteed.

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Re-live the Kingbees’ Rockabilly Revival

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The Mountain Goats’ New Album Takes On the Noble Warriors of Professional Wrestling

by Latasha4980 Posted on April 13, 2015

Mother Jones

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The Mountain Goats
Beat the Champ
Merge

Don’t be fooled by the easygoing folk-pop melodies and likable everyday-guy vocals: John Darnielle, leader of California’s long-running Mountain Goats, writes some of the sharpest, most thoughtful songs around. On Beat the Champ, he turns to professional wrestling, one of his cultural fixations (another being death metal), and as usual, treats his characters with perceptive compassion, savoring the orchestrated drama of the “sport” without a hint of condescension. While “The Legend of Chavo Guerrero” (“I need justice in my life”) highlights the uplift that wrestling’s morality plays provide for the fans, more often Darnielle depicts the daily struggles, emotional and physical, of its participants in and out of the ring. From “Choked Out” (“I can see the future, it’s a real dark place”) to “The Ballad of Bull Ramos” (“Get around fine on one leg/Lose a kidney, then go blind/Sit on my porch in Houston/Let the good times dance across my mind”), his noble hard-luck warriors are not soon forgotten.

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The Mountain Goats’ New Album Takes On the Noble Warriors of Professional Wrestling

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This New Country Blues Compilation Is the Best Kind of History Lesson

by TameraT93qf Posted on April 6, 2015

Mother Jones

Various Artists
The Rough Guide to Unsung Heroes of Country Blues
Rough Guide

There are any number of ways to approach this fine 24-track compilation of performances from the ’20s and ’30s. First, it’s an intriguing history lesson, showing how ragtime, jazz, folk, and other styles were blended to create the music that would ultimately become the blues. If that seems too much like eating your vegetables, instead consider it an exploration of the roots of more celebrated artists. The Lovin’ Spoonful covered Henry Thomas’ “Fishing Blues,” while Cream updated Blind Willie (Joe) Reynolds’ “Married Man Blues” and Muddy Waters turned Hambone Willie Newbern’s “Roll and Tumble Blues” into a landmark of the genre.

It’s easy to imagine the Stones cribbing from any of these songs. But the best way to appreciate The Rough Guide to Unsung Heroes of Country Blues is on a strictly musical level. There’s infinite variety and subtlety to be found in the artful singing and inventive acoustic guitar playing of the men—and a handful of women, including the elusive Geeshie Wiley—represented on this excellent set. Start with Lane Hardin’s spooky “California Desert Blues,” or practically any other song, and prepare to be hooked.

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This New Country Blues Compilation Is the Best Kind of History Lesson

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Laura Marling Just Keeps Getting Better

by CarrollWilder Posted on March 30, 2015

Mother Jones

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Laura Marling
Short Movie
Ribbon Music

With her clear, forthright voice and ringing acoustic guitar (not to mention enormous songwriting smarts), Britain’s Laura Marling has always been a bit intimidating, and this stunning fifth album may be her strongest work yet. Short Movie is an extended meditation on the endless tug of war between the fear of loneliness and the desire to be free from the affections and expectations of others. “Is it still okay that I don’t know how to be alone?” she asks in “False Hope,” while “I Feel Your Love” finds her declaring, “You must let me go before I get old / I need to find someone who really wants to be mine,” throwing cold water on romantic clichés with her usual blunt vigor. In “Don’t Let Me Bring You Down,” she exclaims, “Did you think I was fucking around?” Another cut, “Howl,” finds her parting from a lover in far gentler fashion. Short Movie varies its textures with occasional drums and electric guitar, as well as lovely dashes of cello, but Marling’s restless, relentlessly honest songs remain the main attraction. Despite superficial similarities to the young Joni Mitchell, she’s her own amazing creation, and just keeps getting better.

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Laura Marling Just Keeps Getting Better

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Everything Changed on 9/11, Starting With Ted Cruz’s Musical Taste

by CorinaBadilla Posted on March 24, 2015

Mother Jones

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During a segment of CBS’s This Morning show, Senator Ted Cruz attempted to explain how the attacks on September 11 moved him to shun the soulless genre of rock music and pick up country:

You know, music is interesting. I grew up listening to classic rock and I’ll tell you sort of an odd story. My music tastes changed on 9/11. And it’s a very strange—I actually, intellectually, find this very curious, but on 9/11, I didn’t like how rock music responded. And country music collectively, the way they responded, it resonated with me and I have to say, it—just as a gut level, I had an emotional reaction that says, “These are my people.” And so ever since 2001 I listen to country music, but I’m an odd country music fan because I didn’t listen to it prior to 2001.

September 11, the day the music died for our only declared presidential candidate and now the phoniest dude you’ll run into at a country concert. This is going to be a wildly entertaining road to 2016.

(h/t Slate)

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Everything Changed on 9/11, Starting With Ted Cruz’s Musical Taste

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Music Review: "Mama Let the Wolf In" by Allison Moorer

by EvonneAutry Posted on March 10, 2015

Mother Jones

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TRACK 9

“Mama Let the Wolf In”

From Allison Moorer’s Down to Believing

EONE NASHVILLE

Liner notes: Allison Moorer sheds her honeyed country twang on a nasty swamp-rock rave-up inspired by her son’s autism diagnosis, shouting, “I’d do anything to take your place.”

Behind the music: Moorer gets personal throughout the album, addressing the end of her marriage to Steve Earle in the title track and pondering her bond with sister Shelby Lynne on “Blood.”

Check it out if you like: Musical storytellers like Emmylou Harris and Kacey Musgraves.

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Music Review: "Mama Let the Wolf In" by Allison Moorer

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John Coltrane for Experts

by GiselleBatson Posted on March 9, 2015

Mother Jones

The John Coltrane Quintet Featuring Eric Dolphy
So Many Things: The European Tour 1961
Acrobat
So many “things” indeed! This intriguing four-disc collection of concert performances from November 1961 features six different renditions of the standard “My Favorite Things, each running 20 to 29 minutes, along with more compact versions of “Blue Train,” “I Want to Talk About You.” and other Coltrane favorites. These previously bootlegged concerts were taken from radio broadcasts and suffer slightly from thin sound, but are more than listenable. If So Many Things isn’t for beginners, it’s great extra-credit listening: With multi-instrumentalist Eric Dolphy briefly in the lineup, Coltrane was pushing his tenor and soprano sax chops into new territory, leaving behind traditional melodies and song structures in a restless search for fresh ideas and approaches—a quest he would continue until his death in 1967. The harsher extremes of his final years are yet to be reached, and there’s a mesmerizing, meditative quality to the music throughout that’s dreamy, yet subtly urgent.

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John Coltrane for Experts

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Music Review: “Head on the Curve” by James Williamson

by MabelISSrj Posted on February 20, 2015

Mother Jones

Track 1

“Head on the Curve”

From James Williamson‘s Re-Licked

LEOPARD LADY

Liner notes: Jello Biafra (of Dead Kennedys infamy) makes like a wildman, whooping and snarling as he attacks “motherfuckers trying to run this world,” with scorching guitars and pumping piano providing tactical support.

Behind the music: Re-Licked features new takes on songs Stooges guitarist Williamson wrote and demoed with Iggy Pop in the ’70s before the band imploded. Other singers include Ariel Pink, Mark Lanegan and Alison Mosshart, but not Iggy.

Check it out if you like: Pioneering renegades (MC5, Ramones, New York Dolls).

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Music Review: “Head on the Curve” by James Williamson

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Noveller’s Multicolored Soundscapes Will Make Your Head Spin

by ElvisBorders Posted on February 2, 2015

Mother Jones

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Noveller
Fantastic Planet
Fire

Oozing, pulsing and humming with energy, the multi-colored soundscapes of Noveller, aka Austin’s Sarah Lipstate, will cause your head to spin. Unlike much ambient music, which functions best as background listening, her wordless songs reward close attention, with guitars and synths intertwining to generate a dazzling host of tantalizing noises. Tracks blend seamlessly into one another, just as moods shift slowly from somber to joyous and back and textures range from dense to airy. Stimulating and soothing at once, the aptly named Fantastic Planet makes everyday life seem more vivid and full of endless possibility.

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Noveller’s Multicolored Soundscapes Will Make Your Head Spin

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