• Friday Five

    The Friday Five: December 4, 2009

    https://ickmusic.com/pics/FridayFive01.png

    Friday Five : ˈfrī-(ˌ)dā,-dē ˈfīv : On the sixth day of every week I hit the shuffle button on my iTunes and share my five and drop a little knowledge and insight for each track. Sometimes there is a playlist involved, sometimes there isn’t. Sometimes we have guest, but most of the time it’s just me. The rest is up to you, our friends and readers! Fire up your media player of choice and share the first five random track of your shuffle in the comments.

    The Five:

    Great Lake Swimmers – “Unison Falling Into Harmony” (from Lost Channels, 2009)

    Largely overlooked in favor of the indie folk-pop of Fleet Foxes, Canada’s Great Lake Swimmers released one of the most lush, yet intimate folk-rock records of the past year.

    U.S.A. for Africa – “We Are the World” (from We Are the World: U.S.A. for Africa, 1985)

    I’m fairly certain I could fill an entire page writing about “We Are the World”, what hearing  it again reminded me of was the time in which Michael Jackson could do no wrong and how, even at eleven, I was in awe of his considerable talent.

    Miles Davis – “All Blues” (from Kind of Blue, 1959)

    To say Miles is a force in my life and my musical DNA would be an understatement, I even named my son after him. Part of Davis’ magnum opus, “All Blues” is eleven and a half minutes of pure bliss.

    The Notorious B.I.G. – “Sky’s the Limit” (feat. 112) (from Life After Death, 1997)

    I never connected with the tunes on Life After Death nearly as much as I did Ready to Die.

    Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention – “Happy Together” (from Fillmore East, June 1971, 1971)

    It occurred to me as this track started – and it is a brilliantly crass take on The Turtles classic – that only one of the artists featured on the Five this week is still with us. Not the thought I want to leave you with on a Friday, so I highly suggest hitting play on the track above and regaling in the joy. Baa-Ba-Ba…

    Okay, so who’s next!

  • Friday Five

    The Friday Five: February 27, 2009

    Shuffle It! Shuffle It Good!

    For those who have not joined in the Friday Five here is all you need to know; each Friday I hit the shuffle button on my iTunes and share my five and drop a little knowledge and insight for each track. Sometimes there is a playlist involved, sometimes there isn’t. Sometimes we have guest, but most of the time it’s just me.

    The rest is up to you, our friends and readers! Fire up your media player of choice and share the first five random track of your shuffle in the comments. The more the merrier!

    The Five:

    “18 Months” by Kingsbury (from This Place is Coming Down, 2004)

    Kingsbury is a brilliant experimental indie rock act out of Orlando, Florida. Intensely personal and emotional it’s hard to imagine that they originate from the “Happiest Place on Earth”. Watch this space for much more on Kingsbury in the coming month.

    Squeeze Me Macaroni” (mp3) by Mr. Bungle (from Mr. Bungle, 1991)

    By now the news of Faith No More reuniting has taken every corner of the internet by storm, but I’ll be damned if I would only be more excited if Mike Patton reformed Mr. Bungle.

    Here on Earth/The Opening” (mp3) by Leerone (from Imaginary Biographies, 2007)

    I can’t get enough of Leerone‘s quirky piano driven singer-songwriter sharp-tongued pop (which she describes as “The musical equivalent of an ice-cream sundae with a vodka chaser”). She is an incredibly talented artist who goes as far as handwriting every correspondence with humble small-time blog editors (which is deeply appreciated). I expect that we’ll be seeing much more of her in the future.

    “O salutaris hostia” by Jan Garbarek & The Hilliard Ensemble (from Officium, 1994)

    This record takes the Gregorian Chants that your mother loved in 1994 and added the ‘smooth jazz’ sounds of Norwegian saxophonist Jan Garbarek to a nauseating soothing effect.

    “White Winter Hymnal” by Fleet Foxes (from Fleet Foxes, 2008)

    I still do not care much for this record, but if I had to pick a track to listen to it would be this one. The folk-rock revival sound just does not depart enough from the forefathers enough to entice me to listen more, now where’s my copy of “Horse with No Name”…

    What’s bringing the weekend home for you?