Historic

Category

Ryan Adams Writing Songs for 30 Year Olds

Not that I have made any great forays into the research, but I am assuming a fair number of us grew up with a pet bird in the house.  Some friends had a parrot, others a cockatiel, maybe something else we never knew what to call. In my house we had several parakeets at different times throughout my childhood.  They were messy and high maintenance, often shrill and relegated to a corner of the house so their sounds were made...

Sonikseek: Revisiting the Underrated Brilliance of Labi Siffre

  A medium-sized tangent to start things off (before the main topic of Labi Siffre): There are those who listen to the music before the lyrics, and then there are those who need serviceable lyrics before they jump on-board with a song. Everyone leans in one of these directions, yet it’s certainly never cut and dry. It’s a slowly-peeled discovery to find the direction a person gravitates, and always an illuminating discovery. You can probe by asking some questions, though...

Turning Over Rocks: Buried Gems Found When Sourcing Samples

The rich heritage of sampling in Hip-Hop has given many artists second and third lives. Quite appropriately, it’s often the obscure and/or forgotten artists who either get their first day in the sun or receive a nostalgic dousing of warmth when a notable modern Hip-Hop act samples their music. Most other forms of music can’t make such claims even if there are great influencers we can hear in the music. Rock, Folk, Blues, Jazz, and Dance-Electronic build upon the work...

Borrowing For The Game: Classic Samples Making Classic Tracks

Venturing into the endless tunnel that is music sampling only makes you a better music aficionado. I learned that on my recent journey into the unknown, sparked by a friend giving me one song: Betty Wright’s phenomenal “Clean Up Woman”, to begin this whole thing. Ironically, the only song I couldn’t get on the playlist was the song that sampled “Clean Up Woman”, Chance the Rapper’s “Favorite Song” featuring Childish Gambino. Chance can have all his principles about music ownership...

The Last Rays and Skeleton Shadows: Best Late Fall Records

These are the days of odd shapes and acute angles. It’s not summery bliss anymore, now it’s wonder and melancholy. We wear our knit sweaters and drink steaming beverages, watching the air form from our breath with mild curiosity. The air is musty and half bitter with the smell of damp leaves on the ground- everything glitters either from a soft frost or the waning light. Those warm sunny days are over, and whatever you wanted to make happen in...

Memory Crusades: Is This It? The Strokes

  Sometimes our memories pick odd items to hold onto. A seemingly innocuous moment from our life is given over to the past, and is somehow framed with far greater importance than we believe it deserves. Nevertheless, it takes hold in our mind, shapes itself into a memory worth cherishing and brings forth either a warm nostalgia or a wistful melancholy. There is certain music that takes me back to a definable moment when I could remember the vivid details surrounding...

Memory Crusades: A Periodic Post

Do you remember the smell of your first girlfriend’s perfume? I still remember that perfume. It was distinctive, it smelled both fruity and brimming with youth. It was junior high. I actually smelled that exact perfume just the other day when I was walking down the street. It was unmistakable. It hit me like a ton of bricks, and all the feelings from that first relationship came sweeping forward in waves. I was instantly transported back to that school corridor, walking...