Post for January 14....

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Band of the Week - Year 2 Week 6 (or something) - Makar

Makar, I'm told, is a 15th Century Scottish term for poet. Makar is also this really killer duo from New York City.  We already recommended them based on a couple of tracks I heard from their 2005 debut 99 Cent Dreams.  Now, I've had the chance to hear their long awaited follow up Funeral Genius, and it's time to start shouting from the roof tops.  Actually, I just like shouting from rooftops, but Makar is worth shouting about.

Makar | Funeral Genius | CD Baby

Makar is husband and wife Mark Purnell and Andrea DeAngelis.  They play piano and acoustic guitar driven alt-rock.  It's intelligent, catchy and unique.  In short it's everything, got me into this type of music in the first place.  The bands list of influences reads like a playlist off my MP3 player, and includes Nick Drake - so bonus points there.

Here's a video of a live performance of  the title track from the one:




If you remember from the Ear to the Ground recommends post (and I know you remember everything I write), this is the band that does my anthem of late - Hate My Job.  Go check out that video.

Here's how to hook up with the band:

Facebook  Twitter Website

I'll leave with another track from Funeral Genius:


I Wanna Know What I Don't Know by MakarMusic

Thursday Morning Music (Covers) - Pride & Joy Mix

Day 3 of no morning music: the crisis continues.  Today is  the day, I would normally be presenting some interesting covers songs, and  but so, I was thinking about Covers on my way in to work - what makes a great cover, a good cover, a failed cover or a pointless cover.

Of course it is all subjective, but here goes my take on that subject at least for the time being:

A great cover can happen when a great artist takes on a great song and owns it.  In many cases, over time, some people may even forget that the song is a cover - take Janis Joplin's definitive version of Kris Kristofferson's Me & Bobby McGee.  Or this cover:




Another situation which can produce a great cover occurs when an artist you love deconstructs some over-produced popular song of the day.  I recently heard Ryan Adams version of the Ratt song Round and Round.  But, one of my all-time favorite examples is this track:




Of course,there are also some really cool deconstructed versions of some really cool songs.  Case in point, Grant Lee Phillips outstanding album nineteeneighties which features tracks like this one:






Here are some tracks mentioned or referenced in today's post:














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The Best Cover Songs The Best Cover Songs

Under The Covers: Classic Lookout! Records Cover Songs Under The Covers: Classic Lookout! Records Cover Songs

Wednesday Morning Music - Crossroads Mix

Day 2 without music for my morning walk... thought I would enjoy the sounds of the city - cars splashing through puddles left by a hard morning shower, a car horn as a bus makes a right turn just as the light turns green in the other direction and show tunes coming from the traffic light control box on the corner.

Opened up FB and my sources had some good selections this a.m.:

Chris Frantz offered up this appropriately funky start for the morning with the classic One Nation Under a Groove by Funkadelic.

(click this pic to purchase and download the compilation young soul rebles feat. Mica Parks, War, The O'Jays, Sylvester, Parliament and the aforementioned Funkadelic track.)

Next up Will Kimbrough (Will & the Bushmen etc.) offers up his lick of the day which happens to be a Funky Banjo solo in E.  Kimbrough, besides being the Will in the Mobile, Alabama based Bushmen, has been in great bands like Bisquits and Daddy (with Tommy Womack of Government Cheese fame).  Most recently, he has been playing with Emmylou Harris.

 

(click on the album cover to purchase and download Gawk the classic album by Will and the Bushmen featuring one of my all-time favorite songs Neil)

Finally - Bill Lloyd (Foster and Lloyd) offers up this treat from Slim Gaillard - Cement Mixer

  

(click on the album cover to purchase and download the album Cement Mixer by Slim Gaillard)

In Cages - Our First Ever Band of the Month (December 2011)

Voting is now closed and In Cages staged an 11th hour rally to capture the title of Band of the Month.  All these bands are great so no matter who you voted for or even if you didn't get to vote be sure to check out The Dead Exs, Jesse Payne and Spencer Walters.

But hats off to In Cages.  Here's some tunes.  The band will be celebrating their win on the 21st when they play The Loop Lounge in Passaic, NJ.  If you are in the area, check them out.


In Cages will now go one to compete in the Second Annual Band of the Year Competition which will take place in early December 2012.  Stay tuned.

Tuesday Music - Ascenseur pour l'échafaud Mix

Yesterday, I found out what happens when you drop a cell phone into the gap in the doorway of an elevator.  Hint: The phone can be retrieved, but even rugged phone will not escape unscathed. 

Long story short, my phone which doubles as my MP3 player is out of commission at least as a MP3 player and playing hurt as a phone.  Texting is still possible, though. With no way to shuffle music this a.m., I am forced to do something different - I hope you dig it.

Every day, some really awesome people post really awesome music to Facebook. Here is a a sampling from this morning/late last night:

Hello Mary Lou (Goodbye Heart) by Ricky Nelson - posted by Chris Frantz (Talking Heads/Tom Tom Club) 

Click below to purchase and download Ricky Nelson's Greatest Hits:

 We're Gonna Groove by Led Zeppelin posted by Mary Brace (Morning DJ on Nashville's progressive radio station Lightning 100)


Click below to look at, purchase and download Coda by Led Zeppelin.

 Pile Up by Plimsouls from their 1998 reunion album Kool Trash posted by Peter Case (Nerves, Plimsouls)

(click below to purchaase the CD of Kool Trash by the Plimsouls)







When I Hear My Name by White Stripes also posted by Peter Case from The White Stripes self-titled album:

Finally Helden (the German language version of Heroes) by David Bowie.

Posted by Richard Barone (Bongos).

Click to purchase and download the Heroes/Helden EP by David Bowie

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Monday Morning Music Shuffle - Lights and Sirens Mix

blah blah blah.... some mornings the words just don't want to come. And, I write anyway.  Sitting and thinking. I always think life would be easier if only... but the if only rarely comes around and when it does it never works they way I thought it would and also, there is always something more.

It's when I can find some measure of peace in the moment I am living....

Monday morning - so everyone is dragging a bit. A gray day which doesn't really help all that much, but there is supposed to be sunshine later:

The Replacements are up first with a song from their first LP, Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out the Trash.  Takin' a Ride typifies the raucous early sound of the boys from Minneapolis. Looking back at their discography, it's kind of amazing that there was just nine years between this album and All Shook Down.

(Click, purchase & download an expanded version of Sorry Ma with 31 songs)


Lone Justice are up next with a nifty little rave up from their second album Shelter, it's I Found Love . As always Maria McKee is in fine voice and I dare you not to tap you feet to this one.

  (Click, purchase & download Shelter now)

Marshall Crenshaw, now, with a live version of his Life's Too Short song, Fantastic Planet of Love.  This one comes from the 2004 Razor & Tie release Live...my truck is my home


(click, purchase & download Live...my truck is my home now)

 Finally, just some syrupy ear candy to round out the days selection. I know songs like this turn off some of my regular readers, but I freely admit, I'm a total sucker for silly pop songs.  Wham! were all the rage back in my young life, while I was trying to stay cool and maintain my musical creds, I'm pretty sure I danced around my room to this one... but that's a story for another blog post... I give you Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go from Make it Big

  (click, purchase & download the song here-come on, you know you want to... :-))

 Whoa, quite a ride from Replacements to Wham! Until next time, "Jitterbug into my heart..."

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Don't You Know Who I Think I Was?: The Best of the Replacements Great as the Replacements were, it's a little difficult to recommend one of their great albums as an introduction to the band. Sure, it's easy to see Let It Be as a masterwork of the '80s underground, capturing the group's ragged humor and heart, but it d