Brush Your Teeth / Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch

Of all the things he could possibly shill for, Frank Zappa chose the American Dental Association.

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCMENT 1981-82 -- but still relevant today, ladies and gents!



Mm, yes. Raffi agrees.


(via openculture)

The Angels Wanna Wear My Red Shoes

That's pianist Yuja Wang performing in a dress that - gasp! - shows her legs!

It turns out people care about (lady)Musicians' Fashion Choices:
Mark Swed at the L.A. Times cares.
Amanda Ameer at Life's A Pitch cares.
Anne Midgette at the Washington Post cares (that other people care).
Sue Gilmore at Mercury News cares.
And of course the Youtube commenters care.


You know what I think? I think she plays the piano beautifully:



(via therestisnoise)

I'm Sittin' On Top Of The World

This is a today-only kind of blog post, friends, because Today Only google is celebrating what would have been Les Paul's 96th birthday with a guitar logo you can strum with your mouse. Even better: using the little black box, you can record thirty seconds of your very own Les-Paul-inspired guitar(computer) song.

Also courtesy of google: everything you ever wanted to know about Les Paul.


Oh, there he is.

(Forever link - to prove it really happened.)

She's A Lady

The news reporter is watching you! Right there from his 1984 vantage point!

Charlotte Moorman (who has a much thicker southern accent than I ever would have expected) plays Nam June Paik's TV Cello.

This would take place in 1984. What a woman! What an instrument!

Drop It Like It's Hot

What's in a name? Women's Division.

Pat Benatar - Patricia Andrejewski
Dido - Florian Cloud De Bounevialle Armstrong
Macy Gray - Natalie Renee McIntyre
Wynonna Judd - Christina Claire Ciminella
Chaka Khan - Carole Yvette Marie Stevens
Peggy Lee - Norma Deloris Egstrom
Mama Cass Elliot - Ellen Naomi Cohen
Joni Mitchell - Roberta Joan Anderson
Cat Power - Charlyn Marie Marshall
Joss Stone - Joscelyn Eve Stocker
Donna Summer - LaDonna Adrian Gaines
Tina Turner - Annie Mae Bullock
Bonnie Tyler - Gaynor Hopkins


*I got these stage/original name-pairs from sources of questionable repute: who even KNOWS if they're true!
(shoutmouth and digitaldreamdoor)

I Choose To Celebrate The First

The NPR classical music blog Deceptive Cadence just finished up a week devoted to "First Loves" - stories by famous musicians about the moment when classical music grabbed on and wouldn't let go. Tim Munro on Ives, Nico Muhly on Byrd, Zuill Bailey on Rostropovich, Nick Cords on Nadien, Jason Vieaux on Villa-Lobos, and Marian Alsop on Brahms.

That's quite a line-up - but maybe my favorite part of this feature is the invitation extended to blog readers to post their own "first loves". It'll warm the cockles of your heart.

There's No Point To This Profession / Without The Occaional Obsession

Here I am on a Saturday morning: sitting on my couch, drinking Lady Grey tea with heavy cream (because I'm out of milk, but not heavy cream. Turns out that's not so unusual.), and giggling like a five year old girl. WHY?

John Moe's Pop Song Correspondences

Featuring:
A Retort to Carly Simon Regarding Her Charges of Vanity ("First of all, that party took place on a yacht. So the way I walked in was perfectly appropriate.")
A Letter to Elvis Presley From His Hound Dog ("I admit it: I do cry all the time. I think a doctor would call it severe clinical depression, if you ever took me to a doctor, like a responsible owner would.")
Marvin Gaye Explains What He Heard Through the Grapevine ("It all started about six months ago when I bought a sack of grapes from an old man on La Cienega.")

The complete series is comprised of twenty episodes.



(I also giggle when people fall down in movies.)

This Is My United States Of Whatever

I practically inhaled Susan McClary's Feminine Endings on the plane ride home last week. And if I had a dollar for every time McClary mentioned Laurie Anderson, I would have - a chapter's worth of dollars.

The point is: I was pretty excited when metafilter pointed out this great Introduction to Laurie Anderson on the Awl's Difficult Listening Hour. Great selection of videos, great performance art, great intro.

Here We Go Loop-De-Loo

In which: Zoe Keating compares her live-looped cello music to information architecture.



ZK has played with Rasputina / Amanda Palmer / Imogen Heap, but I like her solo stuff best. Most of her music is her own; also check out her looped Beethoven.

I've Been Cooking You A Nice Hot Supper / And You Can't Even Eat It On Time

"My food ain't pretty, but it's good," says Dolly Parton.

Dolly's Dixie Fixin's: What. A. Cookbook.

Please preview this free recipe from the website (I'm curious as to how that much lard might effect the vocal cords?):

Hush puppies are to fried fish what pickin’ is to grinnin’. You just can’t have one without the other. The story goes that hush puppies is what camp cooks shouted to the yelping hounds when they tossed them the fried scraps form their skillets. Whatever the origin, they are easy as pie to make, just whip up the batter and drop it by the spoonful into piping hot fat.

Serves 6, makes 2 dozen

1 ½ cups cup self-rising white cornmeal
3/4 cup self-rising flour
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1 egg
1 cup buttermilk
Lard or shortening for frying

Combine the cornmeal, flour, salt and sugar in a medium bowl. Add the egg and stir until combined. Gradually stir in the buttermilk, adding enough to make a thick batter that will easily drop from a spoon.

Meanwhile, heat enough lard in a deep skillet to reach 2 ½ to 3 inches. When the fat is hot enough (about 375°F), drop the batter by the teaspoonful into the skillet. Fry, turning occasionally, until the hush puppies are golden brown. Transfer to a paper-towel lined plate with a slotted spoon. Serve warm.

Play That Funky Music

You didn't go to the Sxip Shirey metafilter post I suggested yesterday, did you?

IT'S OKAY.
Follow-up: an interview posted by NewMusicBox.org asks the question "Is Sxip Shirey an overly serious novelty composer or an underly serious experimental musician?"



And check out that hair, right?

Make It Up

I like this video because:
1. It's a new instrument! The Sxipenspiel.
2. Said instrument was created by Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer.
3. It just so happens that I was the Flohmarkt am Mauerpark yesterday.



(Metafilter contributor jennyjenny has a great post on musician Sxip Shirey. What a fantastic guy!: check it out.)

And That's The Way It Is

Celine Dion is a crazy? Pop-history.



(via Jezebel)

Oh, Live Like It's The Style / Whoa, Waltz On Your Front Porch

Henri Chopin is known as the father of the Sound Poets. Sounds like a college IM team. Maybe broomball.

Sound Poetry! Think: the manipulation of the human voice, "verse without words." Right up my alley, kittens.
I've embedded this video (Chopin was 85 years old, by the way), but I also recommend poking around the ubuweb page for more audio bits.

Someday We'll Find It / The Rainbow Connection

The music world is notoriously small. Which is why EchoNest has created a 6-Degrees style database devoted to tracking relationships between musical figures/groups/songs. Ch-ch-check it out:

Philip Glass
-who collaborated on Philip Glass and Foday Musa Suso
-who was a member of Mandingo
-that has member Bill Laswell
-who was a member of Praxis
-that has member Bryan "Brain" Mantia
-who was a member of Cobra Strike
-that has member DJ Disk
-who was a member of Invisibl Skratch Piklz
-that has member Mix Master Mike
-who was a member of Beastie Boys

Success! Another, you say?

Bob Dylan
-who created the track Huck's Tune that was performed by Tony Garnier
-who was member of The Million Dollar Bashers
-that has member Nels Cline
-who was a member of Wilco
-that created the track You and I that has vocal performed by Feist
-that is a performance name for the person Leslie Feist
-who was member of Broken Social Scene
-that has member Emily Haines
-who was a member of Metric

(Find your own: 6 Degrees of Black Sabbath; via metafilter)

I Could Be Purple / I Could Be Anything You Like

"Opera's coolest soprano" (that would be Danielle de Niese) teams up with Mika on "Pop Star to Opera Star". So...that happened.

Swing 42

Joscho Stephan & Swing Manouche: sitting around in a café playing Gypsy jazz. This is very much how I imagine my life in sideways-world.

Mama / Thinks I'm Living In A Convent

Rock Stars and Their Parents

Circa 1971.

(via nerdcore)

I Fall In Love With You Multiple Times

Sorry, Paul Dateh cannot hear you, he's kind-a bu-sy. Mostly because it must have taken approximately 7000000 hours to make this video.




(via neatorama)

Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend

I have a friend who, as long as she stays with her current employer, gets 25% off an ice sculpture on the occasion of her wedding. She wants a working water wheel that dispenses champagne, but I think she should get this statue of Marilyn Monroe.



I mean, right?

(via Global Ice)