I've recently been thinking concurrently about the Venetian Renaissance masterpiece Hyperotomachia Poliphili and cute hip-hop mama Rye Rye. There seems to be some connection there, somewhere. Then I came across this Rye Rye Dirty Dancing video mash-up that Adam Murfet made, and the Eros/Venus/hot-and-awkward dance floor action all joined together, from Venice, 1499 to the Catskills in the '80s to Baltimore, now. He says:
After watching "Dirty Dancing"... I thought with some technical touch up's this scene would work well with the Rye Rye Track Wassup Wassup. I created a music video for the song with edited clips from the 80's classic "Dirty Dancing". Love to Mad Decent, Rye Rye and Dirty Dancing.
Who authored Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, translated as The Strife of Love in a Dream, in English? Odds are it was a monk kicked out of the convent for sexual transgressions.
31 March 2009
Rye Rye, Patrick Swayze, & The Crew: Wassup Wassup
26 March 2009
Spinning Answers
I recently noted that Elis Regina sits the whole time she sings during a performance with Milton Nascimento. The Brazilian music cognoscenti over at Spinning in Air responded with this conjecture as to why, as well as coming up with an educated guess about who the drummer and pianist might be:
Indeed, why are there no comments at this blog? I dunno. But you can always send a message to theheretohear@gmail.com.
21 March 2009
Olde Goodies: Chubb Rock Treat 'Em Right
It's 1990. A backup chorus shouts "Yo/Go" on the upbeat and there's a little reverb on Chubb Rock's big vocals as he spreads a positive message: "Leave the guns and have fun." There's a crazy honking synth solo about three minutes in, and Chubb Rock picks up again with, "Well, coming back..." and rocks the last refrain. It all ends with some swooping violins tightly looped. Where'd they come from? Check out the last page of Wax Poetics Issue 33 and learn the history of First Choice, the group behind "Love Thang," whence those strings and the chorus came.
Treat Em Right - Chubb Rock
20 March 2009
Sublime Frequencies Tour with Group Doueh & Omar Souleyman
The Sublime Frequencies tour is fully booked and the European dates and venues are posted here. Group Doueh, Omar Souleyman, and Alan Bishop's Maghreb DJ set will be coming to a UK/Euro city near you this spring.
Now you (... I) just need to convince your (... um, my) boyfriend to go.
Rico Rodriguez Sings In 2009
My friend Eric was hanging out with Rico Rodriguez a couple of weeks after he sang L-O-V-E on British television for New Year's Eve. He said people were coming up to the legendary trombonist in awe, thanking him for the performance.
18 March 2009
Chuck D Talks and Public Enemy Plays With The Roots
When will I stop being annoyed that I missed Chuck D's talk last night because I didn't know about it ahead of time? Probably never.
But at least okayplayer has "Bring The Noise" with The Roots and Public Enemy. So I can try to console myself with this, and you can, too. We could also go to Philly for the second annual Roots Picnic.
Elis Regina & Milton Nascimento
I recently saw this video posted on confessiones nocturnae. Here's what's notable about it, in my opinion:
Elis Regina sits in an armchair the whole time.
Milton Nascimento is wearing a crazy-quilt dude hat and sings a mean high-pitched backup.
Elis Regina makes up for not moving her tush with intense facial expressions.
Brazilian Portuguese singing in the mid-'70s.
Nice drum set. Who is the man behind it?
12 March 2009
Girl Accordionist Yeime Arrieta Ramos Is "Dangerous"
The Smithsonian Magazine online has a video about the first female to ever win the Valienato King's festival. Called Mastering a Man's Instrument, it tells young Yeime's rise to stardom thanks to her stunning skills which she mastered at the Turco Gil Academy in Colombia. Smithsonian reported on the school previously with a profile of another exceptional student who is blind.
Group Doueh and Omar Souleyman Tour the U.K.
International traditional pop label (I don't know how else to describe it) Sublime Frequencies and QuJunktion are organizing a concert tour this spring: Syria's Omar Souleyman and Western Sahara's Group Doueh will perform ten shows in almost as many days in the U.K. The European leg in June is still being organized. The schedule posted at Sublime Frequencies' site includes some videos and more information. Is this world music? No. It's some of the world's best music.
03 March 2009
X-Ecutioners Majorly Deconstruct It
Grandmaster Flash's new album is out and I haven't even gotten around to reading his autobiography yet. Which I really want to do but in the meantime I've been watching DJ videos at Fried My Little Brain. Here the X-Ecutioners take LL Cool J's olde schoolie hit and rip it to essentially one little bitty repeating shred.
Gainsbourg Overdose, Part 5: Le jeu de la vérité
The recent "make your own album cover" game on Facebook, which uses the genius of randomness to put together an image, band name, and title, reminded me of Jackson Mac Low, one of my favorite poets. Mac Low was a big fan of digging up random information to create art. A friend of mine took a class with him (lucky!) and told me about the somewhat elaborate rules he'd give students to write a poem, things like go to the library, and when you see someone wearing red, head down the third stack from there, take the sixth shelf of books, and the twentieth book from the top... etc.
I've been wanting to write about Gainsbourg again, and decided that it was time to apply some random rules. OK, actually just one random rule. I took the eleventh posting at Google.fr and found Serge Gainsbourg on the French TV show Le jeu de la vérité (The Game of Truth), in 1985.
The show runs one hour. What follows below is a loose translation of the first 10 minutes. Maybe I'll do the rest of the show over the next couple of weeks. Who knows?
It begins with Gainsbourg on the piano playing a sad Charles Aznavour song. When the host asks him why he chose that song, he says he used to play it when he worked in piano bars and "C'est comme ça que j'ai tombé les gonzesses," i.e. that's how he scored chicks. Then a quick wordplay - he says "like flies" - because the verb tomber means to drop or fall, so falling like flies. The host asks him if that's an invitation for tonight; Gainsbourg replies in English, "Why not? I'm free."
The host tells him it's now time to swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Gainsbourg interprets that as fascist. Then the host says he read yesterday in a magazine that Gainsbourg has been on the wagon for several days now. Gainsbourg says it's depressing and hard. The host says, "The first question at 787 22 22 (i.e. the phone number)." And it's time to answer random questions from a rather hostile public.
The host remarks that Gainsbourg has six packs of Gitanes for the hour and a half he'll be there. The host goes through the rules: he's allowed to use two jokers... Gainsbourg says he's going to change the game. He wants four jokers. And he says that each time he uses a joker he's going to tell a joke.
First call:
A lady from Toulouse who's on a very tight budget asks Gainsbourg about what he did on 7 sur 7, a TV show. She's referring to the famous money-burning incident. Gainsbourg did this at the time to protest heavy taxes in France. He sidesteps a straightforward answer to the woman's question - like he'll do to with every call. First he pulls out a stack of bills and says he's got more. He says that gamblers in essence burn their money and that he did the same thing, except that it bought him a lot of publicity. Good point. The host intervenes and says that what he did on the show was provocation; Gainsbourg replies, "I am myself." Good point! The lady first seems to be asking what would you do if you were in my situation, then she changes tack and asks him if he's ready to once again burn a 500 franc bill. Which doesn't make much sense. Serge says he's not going to and starts mocking the lady's accent. She laughs, tells him her kids are fans of his, and that she knows he feels trapped - because of the high taxes, she must mean - but that she herself isn't the one putting him in the tough spot. Then he shows her a pin he's wearing on his lapel, saying, "Look, my darling." — "Regarde, ma cocotte." She says she can't see because she's not in the same room as the TV. I don't know what this pin is, but Gainsbourg tells her "Ta gueule!" and says, "Next call." (Ta gueule! basically means Shut up!) The host says that it's true that Gainsbourg's answer doesn't have much to do with the question the lady asked. Gainsbourg answers: it's not her TV show, it's mine. Then he says goodbye, imitating her again.
The next two calls are much more risqué, so stay tuned for more quick translations...
