Archive for October, 2009
HALLOWEEN SPECIAL EDITION
With Legos.
Happy Halloween.
Album: Thriller (1983).
Devo, “Gut Feeling / (Slap Your Mammy)” (1978)
Last Halloween Soul Purpose played a gig at D.Coy Duck’s. I wanted the band’s costume to be Devo, but that meant I had to provide the costumes. I bailed on the idea.
Anywho, “Gut Feeling” is little more than five major chords repeated (E – G – C – A – D) as the arrangement adds [...]
Joe Walsh, “Life of Illusion” (1981)
Joe Walsh writes pocket symphonies like this one disguised as drunken buffoonery. Ever thought about how much thought must’ve gone into writing and recording “Life’s Been Good”? And yet we don’t take it that seriously. That’s his genius.
This song crept up on me after first hearing it during the opening credits of [...]
Villanova Junction – EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW (II)
J: With the recording of the CD, what made it so interesting, is that nobody was in the studio at all when we recorded it. Ryan had to plug in, and I sat behind the drums and we had soundboarding and a sheet around the drum set, and there were no [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 1 so far )Fela Kuti & Africa ‘70, “Kalakuta Show” (1976)
FELA ANIKULAPO KUTI & AFRIKA ‘70, “KALAKUTA SHOW,” FROM KALAKUTA SHOW (1976)
In 1992, my girlfriend – now my wife – went to Nigeria for six months on a study group. She came back with hundreds of cool pictures and a musical name I hadn’t heard: Fela.
Fela was a musical giant and [...]
Villanova Junction – EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW (I)
The occasional Tuesday at 4GBs will be dedicated to local bands. All bands are local to SOMEWHERE, of course, but by this, I mean young, unsigned bands who just like to go out and make music.
Here’s an interview I did with a Sarasota band called Villanova Junction about six or [...]
Wilco, “You Never Know” (2009)
This song is fairly new to me (the album came out in June). I grabbed the CD it at the public library last week, so I don’t have all that much cash invested in it. I haven’t been into Wilco for awhile. After Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, A Ghost is Born failed [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 3 so far )Sam & Dave, “I Thank You” (1968)
A little more than a year ago, I was setting up equipment for a gig with my band, Soul Purpose, at a small bar on Holmes Beach on Anna Maria Island. The bar is called D.Coy Ducks, and it’s located a few streets from the beach itself. After setting up, I [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 5 so far )Floating Action, “Say Goodbye” (2009)
Float along with this song, which has very little harmonic action. Then, get hit with the chord change that announces the chorus (at 0:49, 1:42, and 2:52). The simple introduction of an chord that falls outside the key (a “chromatic harmony” as opposed to a “diatonic harmony”; here, the secondary dominant of the supertonic key, or V7/ii). A simple, elegant move. The introduction of [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Funkadelic, “Hit It and Quit It” (1971)
I’ve been on a real Funkadelic tear for a couple of weeks now. The whole Maggot Brain album is basically flawless.
It doesn’t matter how many times this song shows up on my iPod. Chances are, I’ll still listen to it all the way through. Savor the time signature jolts, the female vocalists singing along [...]
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