Random Sample 11-21-08

Last week I was on my deathbed with a cold and didn’t have the energy to post.  But like all colds, it eventually went away, and I’m happy to report that I’m feeling much better.  🙂

This week’s randomness has a little home cookin’ in the musical goodies.  What do I mean by that? Read on, my friends … read on…

“BreakUp the Concrete (Ted and Eric Mix),” The Pretenders 

(Download)

A few weeks ago, Eric came over to go bike riding.  Afterwards, he wanted to show me a new music program he got and after playing with the instruments the program could duplicate, I told him that I entered a contest to remix a Pretenders song on Garageband.  Intrigued, he wanted to know more about how Garageband worked, so I opened the session containing the song the Pretenders allowed Apple to basically give away to people who wanted to try their hand remixing the song.  And for those who don’t know, Garageband has loops of drums, guitars, keyboards and a bunch of other instruments that allows you to put together music which you can use for whatever you want to use it for.  It’s pretty cool and it gives semi-novices like me a chance to create music without recording the individual parts.  However, it also allows you to embellish songs with loops that aren’t part of the original mix.  The Pretenders liked the idea of letting fans rearrange their music and said, “Let’s see what you’ve got, and if we like it, your mix is going on the digital download version of the album.” Well, how could I pass that up?  So, Eric and I worked on this song for about an hour and a half … and here it is!  For comparison/contrast fun, you can listen to the original version, too: “BreakUp the Concrete (Original Version) (Download)

“Nattura,” Bjork

(Download) 

Just when I thought Bjork couldn’t surprise me with new, novel, and weird ways to create music, she comes up with this!  It’s a nice taste of what’s to come later when she records a full album worth of material — or at least I hope so.  Bjork is one of those artists that people like to make fun of because of the way she dresses, or even some of the music she makes, but I’m not sure I would have bought much music in the ’90s if it wasn’t for Bjork’s imaginative work. 

“Cath…,” Deathcab for Cutie

When you think of music that has a wimp factor of 10, it’s easy to lump Deathcab in that group.  However, this new album (while wimpy at times) has some really wonderful songs that are much more raw in terms of musicality. The gloriously hypnotic “I Will Possess Your Heart” was an amazing lead track, and I wasn’t sure they could equal the brilliance of that song. “Cath…” comes very close, however. 

(Download)

“Freakshow,” The Cure

(Download)

I reviewed this album for Popdose last week — which meant I’ve spent a good deal of time listening to the tracks over and over prior to writing up the review.  And while I wasn’t impressed with the second half of the album, the first half has some very potent songs that combine the pop sensibilities of Head on the Door with the more atmospheric and ethereal qualities of Disintegration.  There’s nothing on this album that reaches the greatness of “Love Song,” or “In Between Days,” but there are moments when Robert Smith shows that he’s still got it when it comes to that classic Cure sound.  Does it make you feel kind of old to know that the Cure has been around since 1978? Yeah, me too.