Put Your Records On

 

This last Saturday across our great land was “Record Store Day,” celebrated by hipsters and audiophiles alike in musty smelling shoebox sized buildings masquerading as retail establishments. 

Cactus Music even got into the spirit with live music!

 

One of my prized possessions is a record player I got several Christmases ago.  When I informed my parents it was what I wanted they seemed perplexed.  “You mean… … … like vinyl?”

It’s like the iPod version of a record player

 

One of the best things about this one is that it is completely portable and can work off batteries if needed.  It has it’s own speaker so in a pinch you don’t have to plug into anything else to listen.  I have many great memories on the screened-in porch at the Broadway house in Ann Arbor with this lil’ biscuit providing the entertainment. PLUS, I can hook it up to my computer and digitally transfer the record into mp3’s which is buh-mazing because a lot of the records I have aren’t available on CD at all.

Very appropriate, I might add, seeing as how all my friend’s Facebook wall’s in Michigan have been lighting up because of the recent snowfall there this week!

 

I’ve amassed a nice little collection since then and take any opportunity to at least peruse stores when in another city. Ann Arbor had a really great store, Encore Records, and when visiting Jeremy, Clinton, Nate or Jamison I always reserved at least three hours for Cheapo Records.   Luckily, Houston has a handful of them and I spent several hours just hopping across the city and looking at their choices. 

There are some albums that I will ALWAYS buy, and on the top of that list is anything that Martin Katz has played on.  For those of you not in the know—Martin Professor Maestro Katz, called “the gold standard of accompanists” by the New York Times, is the professor of collaborative piano at the University of Michigan.  Oh, and he’s played with basically every great opera singer of the last thirty years, written a book, and is basically a musical genius (and I’m not just throwing that word around willy-nilly). In the four years I was a student at Michigan I had the privilege of taking every one of his song classes and being conducted by him in two operas (Puccini’s La boheme and Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin).  Needless to say, any chance I see one of his records I snnnnnnatch it up, and on this most recent trip I got TWO!

  

                  It’s the return of Flicka!!!!!                             Martin Katz + Stephen Sondheim= BUH-LISS!!

 

One of the other reasons I really wanted to get out on this day was that Adele was releasing a special edition remix of some songs from her album just for “Record Store Day.”  I’ve extolled my love for her before (here and here) so it should be no surprise that I was on the hunt for the disc! The first three places I visited had sold out and it was at the last stop that I was able find one—and it was their last copy!!! 

 

And, if anyone out there is making a list—though to be fair, I am still waiting on that watch—if you ever run across Astor Piazzolla records puh-lease get it for me and I’ll pay you back.  The guy who owned Encore in Ann Arbor was a big fan and would always hoard them away for himself whenever someone brought one in!

 

Artist: Corinne Bailey Rae/ Album: Corinne Bailey Rae

Crazy for You

 

I am ridiculously obsessed with Adele’s sophomore album, 21 (which, like her first album 19, is a reference to her age).  Now, I loved the first one a little too much and even talked about it on just the second post ever of this blog.   This new one is even more fantastic.  It’s like the Godfather II of her career.  That’s a thing, right?

So here’s a live performance of my favorite track on Later… with Jools Holland:

And here’s the first music video from the album:

 

Artist: Adele/ Album: 19

A Foggy Day

If you've ever listend to a mix CD while riding in my wonderfully Texan truck, affectionally heretofore referred to as "The General", then you probably know I have a particular affinity towards singers of the British and female persuasions.

It all began with Amy Winehouse... you know, before the beavers moved into her hair weave and started construction on a semi-aquatic rodent equivalent of the Empire State Building. Then came Adele, a more demure, introspective, sober, and yet no less soulful doppelganger of Ms. Winehouse. Just think of it as a mirror with two faces. You know, one squeaky clean and the other covered with dust. And by dust I mean cocaine. Next came Duffy... whose voice is just SCREAMING to sing the next Bond theme song. Sexy, gritty, sweepingly haunting. And just for good measure I've thrown in a little Shirley Bassey, who HAS sung Bond songs and could beat you to a bloody pulp with fabulousness and class and most likely a double prescription of Boniva. Take that Sally Fields!!! She's 73 and sings Pink better than Pink WISHES she ever could. I mean, "Get This Party Started" is veritable Cuisinart of Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut meets J. Strauss' Die Fledermaus meets Bond title sequence meets Snow White's "mirror, mirror on the wall" meets Marie Antoinette via Alexander McQueen. And that's quite a bit of introductions to manage concomitantly.

Now, though, I am completely ub-sessed with Florence and the Machine. Their CD "Lungs" is FULL of great songs. It's the rare type of CD in which I can listen to it over and over again and each time I think I have a favorite song until the next track starts. Well, to be frank I don't quite like track 2, but the rest are buh-rilliant.

Below is what I can only imagine is Florence and the Machine's ode to Rusalka, as well as videos from those other great dames of Anglo-Saxon singing mentioned above. It's all great, so WATCH THEM-- you'll be a better person because of it. Sure, some of these may been more antiquarian than au courant, but it doesn't make them any less amazing.

Florence and the Machine- You've Got the Love:



Amy Winehouse- Tears Dry on Their Own:



Adele- Hometown Glory:



Duffy- Mercy:



Shirley Bassey- Get This Party Started: