Morning Music: Bon Iver

Morning Music: Monk

Joni Mitchell : California

I love this song so much and this is beautiful performance from The Johnny Cash Show.

Chet Baker : Almost Blue

From somewhere in the darkness of an Amsterdam night, Chet Baker’s soul is calling out to you and wishing you peace and rest. Listen to this with the lights out…

Zbig Week! Rush — Time Stand Still

More from director Zbignew Rybczy?ski. Even though this isn’t a groundbreaking video, there are oh so many reasons. One of my favorite Rush songs. Aimee Mann! Geddy Lee’s feathered hair. The look Neil gives to the camera. Alex being Alex. The irony of the band looking so much younger while playing Time Stands Still.

Zbig Week! Simple Minds – All The Things She Said

Sony has it so I can’t embed this video — because, god knows they don’t want people to see their videos (which would run with THEIR ads, btw) on other sites — so go watch it here.

What’s this song about? Here’s a bit from an interview with Jim Kerr, the lead singer and songwriter…

I was reading an interview in an American magazine, it was two or three years old and it was with the wife of the Polish Solidarity leader Lech Walesa at the time when he had been taken into captivity. And reading it made me think about women in general…It inspired me to write ‘All The Things She Said’

And I knew that part. But what hadn’t occurred to me until I was posting this was how fitting it was that Zbignew Rybczy?ski directed this video since he had escaped from Poland just a few years earlier before Lech Walesa help change its face forever.

A few other things occur to me…

  • Doing this many layers of compositing in the 80s was pretty amazing.
  • Boy, this sure sounds like it could be a U2 song and it’s unclear to me whether Bono influenced Kerr or vice versa — the sound, the moves.
  • Nice pants.
  • Zbig Week! Art of Noise : Close to the Edit

    Zbigniew Rybczynski rules. He’s a true media pioneer and was there doing important, fun to watch experiment at the cusp of the switch from analog to digital. I’ll be posting a different Zbig video all this week. I spoke to him on the phone once; that was effin’ wicked cool..

    Van Morrison – Tupelo Honey

    Totally transcendent version of the song with more or less the same amazing band from the Live At The Grand Opera House Belfast album.

    Amanda Palmer, Part 2

    The second part of my interview with performer Amanda Palmer. She talks about wanting to be a rock star, insecurity, Madonna and reaching a wider audience.

    On Tour With Zykos x3

    This is my current favorite song in the whole wide world – It’s Okkervil River’s On Tour With Zykos from their great album The Stand-Ins. It’s beautiful and interesting songwriting in that it’s sung from the perspective of a girl whose boyfriend (or ex) is in a band. I’m a sucker for songs about unrequited or broken love.

    The album version is my favorite, but here’s a nice live version.

    After the jump, two more versions and lyrics…

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