March 2013
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Finally waking up from a “moving into a new house” funk. Looking forward to blogging music again soon…. promise!
(I’ve been working on an “Intro to Electronic Music” playlist similar to the intro to Radiohead and Wilco playlists of yesteryear. Still a work in progress, but I hope to publish it soon.)
February 2013
1 post
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December 2012
6 posts
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“Father Christmas, give us some money / Don’t mess around with those silly...”
– The Kinks, “Father Christmas” (the most rockin’est Christmas song ever)
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“And the boys from the NYPD choir / were singing Galway Bay / And the bells were...”
– The Pogues, “Fairytale of New York”
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New Kavinsky song "Odd Look" used in an awesome... →
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“Smokin’ long black Cadillac, the engine’s windin down /
He’d park it up on the...”
– Todd Snider, “Play A Train Song”
(although I like the REK version better)
November 2012
12 posts
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“I’ll be your Emmylou and I’ll be your June /
If you’ll be my...”
– First Aid Kit, “Emmylou”
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Scott McCreery Elf on the Shelf →
This year my wife and I started the “Elf on the Shelf” game with our three-year-old daughter. I can’t help but remember last year’s great Farce the Music posts.
The name of our elf? I’ve been lobbying hard for “McCreery.”
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AKB48 - "Sugar Rush"
We took the kids to see Wreck-it Ralph this weekend. Can’t get this J-Pop ditty out of my head. Warning: ear worm!
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Watch“Gypsy Jane” by Strung Like a Horse is not only a great Jazzy, Bluegrassy song, but it’s a helluva a fun video too. (It really picks up around the 45-second mark, stick with it.)
Strung Like a Horse is a Chattanooga-based no-rules-holding-us-back “Bluegrass” band in the vein of the Old Crow Medicine Show or Red Stick Ramblers, but with the old-time and Cajun...
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Kavinsky - 1986
Imagine you’re a twenty-something millionaire in 1986, just minding your own business, high on cocaine and driving your Ferrari Testarossa just a tad too fast in the California desert. (Like say, oh 90 miles an hour or so.) And you crash. But your body disappears from the wreckage.
Got all that? Good, now hang on for the weird.
Now imagine your disappeared body wakes up as a...
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October 2012
13 posts
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“I saw a werewolf drinking a pina colada at Trader Vic’s. His hair was...”
– Warron Zevon, “Werewolves of London”
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The Sword - "Tres Brujas" (or "Three Witches")
The Sword is an Austin-based vintage Metal quartet that’s been kicking my ass for the past year. Their most recent album, “Apocryphon,” hit the #4 spot on the iTunes Rock Chart last week.
Their music sounds a bit like “the D&D-playing Son of Black Sabbath.” It’s mostly fantasy-based, with a thick, thick, dark guitar sound. Very retro and fun and great...
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NPR Music app on iPhone - a mixed bag
I recently took the NPR Music App for a spin on my iPhone. Here’s what I found.
The Good:
There is what looks like thousands of hours of great music and music podcasts both curated with loving detail and available for streaming straight from your phone.
A fun & easy to use user interface for browsing all that content.
Full episodes of Thistle & Shamrock! Woohoo!
The Bad
The...
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Laura Marling - "Devil's Spoke"
If you’re a fan of Mumford and Sons or Johnny Flynn, new-fangled Brit-folk, have you heard Laura Marling yet? Her album “I Speak Because I Can” was released in 2010, but I’ve only recently stumbled on her. This song, “Devil’s Spoke,” features Mumford and Sons as her backup band.
Her material runs between Nick Drake slow songs like “Made by...
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Ten Years of HickoryWind.org
So, ten years ago today, just a couple weeks away from my 27th birthday… I set up HickoryWind.org and wrote my first blog.
Why did I do this? Why do single, almost-27-year-olds do anything? To meet women. And to geek out with them about cool, roots music.
Been there, done that, got married and had the kids. Mission accomplished.
So, then the site languished. I’d had ten of...
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Lord Huron - "Time To Run"
A lot of Indie folk these days, while sometimes good, can lapse into moody, sleepy, boring low-key-ness if not too careful. Even Iron & Wine loses me sometimes in his lo-fi almost-not-there-ness. You’re not gonna have that problem today.
An almost never-before-heard-of mix of high energy and moody folk, Lord Huron’s album “Lonesome Dreams” evokes both the rave-up...
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“A singer of these ageless times…
With kitchen prose and gutter...”
– Jethro Tull, “Songs From the Wood”
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Source of Led Zeppelin's "Black Mountain Side"
I just discovered that Bert Jansch’s “Black Water Side” was the direct reference for Led Zeppelin’s “Black Mountain Side.” It was Jansch’s rendition of an old Irish song, and the guitar part was incorporated almost verbatim by Jimmy Page. He was a big fan of Jansch, studied his style directly, and “Black Mountain Side” became an important component of the “Led Zeppelin...
