Wednesday Morning Music Shuffle - Ziggy, Elvis, and Rex Mix

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January 8th!  E2TG sends out a heartfelt Happy Birthday! to four individuals who helped shaped my musical tastes.  Elvis Presley and David Bowie need to introduction.  Rex Silo and Ron Ruelle were by my side through many of my musical adventures and shows in the late 80s to early 90s. They remain good friends and I hope they will both raise an Old Bru (mentally add umlauts) today.

On to the shuffle which does not include Elvis or Bowie, but in honor of Rex and Ron (and purely by happenstance) does include several artists I know he likes....)

Friday Morning Music Shuffle - Questioning the Answers Mix

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In rare moments of insanity, I get this overwhelming desire to blog about something outside of the scope of music. To pontificate and philosophize on matters both urbane and banal or greater or lesser import - in short to offer the world the gift of my wisdom on matters geo-politcal and inter-stellar.  Fortunately for me and more importantly for you, those moments pass and then I hear some great new music that blows me away.

 The Velveteens formed in the summer of 2012. The band's sound seamlessly blends influences as diverse as sixties girls groups, Morrissey and hip-hop with classical theory and a buoyant spirit that is instantly infectious.  Do you remember?, from the band's two song Bedroom Demos release, is pure pop heaven.  Check out Velveteens.

 

I couldn't find any videos for The Velveteens, so here is the Velveteen Rabbit

We first told you about Bright Little Field when we talked about their ukulele tribute to The Replacements.  Today, we have an original song by the band called Rubber Chicken.

In case you missed it, here is information on the Replacements tribute:

 A couple of videos from the Replacements Tribute

 

The Skeleton at the Feast is fronted by Belmont University student Levi Gordon and lays down some dope and fly... okay I'll stop... I just can't pull that off.  These Kids is part of a Noisetrade sampler released in conjunction with Urban Pop Showcase at the university.  Production on the song is by the one and only Hayden Coleman who we have featured here a few time.  Self-described as
"Hip-hop with a brain", this track is pretty darn cool. Check it out.

Here's an older live performace by The Skeletons at the Feast

Sarah J. Hyland is a jazz-influenced Australian singer. Flying into Your Arms is the lead track from her 2007 album A Girl Like Me.

 

Here's a promo for A Girl Like Me CD

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Books by Ron Ruelle use the pics below to get the Amazon info then go Here to purchase. 

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Monday Morning Music Shuffle - Sno-Cone Mix

It's all but officially summer.  Temps are supposed to climb into the mid to upper 90s here this week, and I'm sure the humidity will ratchet up and few notches.  Here in the South, we know it's not the heat, it's the humidity....

Reminders:  The Band of the Month polling has begun - exercise your right to check out righteous music and pick your favorite's here. (Voting continues until the end of the month, and this time you can come back and vote as often as you like).


Over the weekend, we offered the World Premier of the brand new promo video for our April Band of the Month - The Disappointment.  The post which is here, also offered detailed to purchase and download the band's latest release and provided details for checking out the band live in Brooklyn.  Again - it is here.


Finally - Ear to the Ground's favorite cartoonist (and an early and often influence on our tastes in music - as well as our partner-in-crime at a number of live shows in the late 80s and early 90s), Ron Ruelle has released a new book featuring the Sunday strips from his At the Zu/Darwin & Co. strips. 

 You can order the book here. And check out the dedication page!  

One last thing before we get to the morning shuffle - Today is the 70th Birthday for the "Cute" Beatle (Paul McCartney) and another Paul (Weller) of The Jam & The Style Council, has released version of  the Beatles' Birthday which you can download today only on Amazon:

 

Tonight, we plan to load in a ton of songs into the mix, but before we did, we thought we should take a shuffle through some of the coolest songs in our archives.

Blue Sky Mine the sort-of title track to Midnight Oil's 1990 album Blue Sky Mining found the Australian band and their politician/activist/environmentalist lead singer offering up a scathing indictment of the greed over people and the planet mentality, and doing so in an amazingly danceable format. 

   

Don't Be Cruel was recorded in the summer of 1956 in New York City buy a 21 year old singer from Tupelo, Mississippi named Elvis Aaron Presley.  The song was written by Otis Blackwell. The Jordanaires sang back-up on the record. When my daughter was in 4th Grade, I helped chaperone a trip to Memphis which included a tour of Graceland and accompanying us on the field trip was the grandfather of one of my daughter's classmates who happened to be Gordon Stoker - one of the original Jordanaires, how cool is that?

  

And finally, we have Free Man in Paris by Joni Mitchell from her classic 1974 album Court and Spark.

 

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 Affiliated Links:

Midnight Oil Midnight Oil

Elvis Don't Be Cruel Framed Record This beautifully framed and matted record has been silverized and is presented along with an image of Elvis. High-quality components and hand-cut mats. Black metal frame measures 12" X 16". Limited edition of 5,000.Made in the United States

Court and Spark Court and Spark isJoni Mitchell's most overt attempt at making a hit record, full ofglossy production, catchy choruses, and even guest stars from everystratum of rock culture, high (Robbie Robertson) and low (Cheech andChong). The record was a smash, reaching number two on the charts inMarch of 1974, spawning three hit singles; Help Me, Free Man in Parisand Raised on Robbery and cementing Mitchell's position as a commercialas well as an artistic force. Sean Nelson, a well known musician himself (Harvey Danger, the Long Winters), is particularly well equipped to understand all the elements that went into the making of this classic album, and he does so with clarity and wit.

Ticking in my head....

 

At the time I am writing this there are less than 27 hours to go.  To date, over 1,500 votes have been cast.  Today has been the heaviest voting day since the poll began, and this has resulted in a dramatic shift in the leader board.


Please note:  the U.N. Election monitors have failed to show, so everyone is encouraged to vote as often as you like.


More importantly (to me), please check out all 27 of the bands and artists.  In my opinion, all of the bands are great.  The run a pretty mind-blowing gamut from Indie Folk Pop to Punk/Metal to Cello Folk Rock to pure Alternative (whatever that means).....  So......  yeah.... vote and vote and vote!

It Ain't What They Call Rock and Roll

Some are going to say this post is off topic. I am going to strongly disagree. This post is about the comic strip artist Ron Ruelle.  Full disclosure requires me to tell you that I have known Ron since we were in 3rd grade together. However, any potential conflict of interest is assuaged by the fact that I think he is an arrogant S.O.B. (just kidding*)

So, why is a post about a comic strip artist, whose characters have included various animals and angst ridden guys, not off topic for a music blog?  Well there a number of reasons... for one, the aforementioned artist is one of the significant influences on my musical life. In high school, he wrote record reviews for our school's award winning (no kidding) newspaper.  It was through his reviews that I was first introduced to X and other cool bands.

During college, we stayed in touch and traded notes on the latest discoveries in the world of music.  In those days (oh so many years ago) one had to work hard to find out about obscure bands. (i.e. no internet facebooky stuff). 

After college, Ron and I eventually both ended up in Nashville and we could frequently be found in front of the stage at cool shows...

As for his comics...  You can find information about and BUY the books he's published here:

So yeah and rock and roll - he named a cockroach character in his college strip after the lead singer of the Germs. His syndicated strip At the Zu (umlauts intended) featured a slacker lion with a Kurt Cobain hair-do.

Ron's college strip - Stoner's Aquarium was ground-breaking and pretty darn funny.  While in college, he began doing a recurring strip for the Knoxville News Sentinel's college insert called Stoopid Zu (there should be umlauts here as well, but I'm too lazy to figure out how to add them.). Stoner's Aquarium is available on his site.

During 1991 and 1992, when Ron and I were not perusing the aisle's of local record stores.  He was cranking out some incredible ideas. In 1995 he began writing a daily strip called At the Zu (he hated the name just like Charles Schultz hated the name Peanuts). That strip ran from 1995-1998.  He then continued on his own site as Darwin & Company.  You can grab the collected At the Zu and Darwin & Company strips at his site or here:

 

 

 

 

 

A later strip - Food, Shelter, Cable written under the name Rex Silo (so now you know) was more adult-oriented.  The main character of that strip has kind of a Burris Weems/Holden Caulfield quality - I think.

Most recently, Ron has been participating in the annual Denver 24 Hour Comics Challenge.  You can purchase years 2 through 4 of 24 Hour Comics here: 

Ron Ruelle on Amazon

This fall Ron published a compilation of his contributions to the comics challenge which you can get here:

 

 

So, do yourself a favor - check him out.  It's only rock and roll, but I like it.

 

 

*not really**

**really***

***not****

****so*****

*****so not... wait what was I saying?....