I'm a HUGE, huge fan of Rufus Wainwright. I've seen him perform live a few times and he's a seriously talented singer and performer. His new album, produced by Mark Ronson, is out in April. And he's just released the first single. Love it.
I'm pretty jealous of my Sydney friends at the moment. The Sydney Festival starts tomorrow and there are quite a few great acts on the events listings. Manu Chao, Mike Patton, The Whitest Boy Alive and Lambchop are playing shows in the next few weeks. So jealous!!!!
The Sydney Festival always seems to pull some great acts. I saw two of the best concerts ever at the Festival. In 2005 when the Leonard Cohen tribute show "Came So Far For Beauty" played at the Opera House. Nick Cave, Rufus Wainwright, Jarvis Cocker, Antony, Beth Orton and others sang Cohen tunes. Truly amazing. And in 2008 when Bjork played a show in the Opera House forecourt.
Anyway, back to Manu Chao. In 2001, I travelled around Europe for a summer with some friends. We'd bought an old van in London and after catching a ferry to Bilbao,we drove for three months through Spain, France, Italy, Greece, Slovenia, Slovakia, Austria, Czech Republic and Germany. It was a fantastic way to spend a summer. And the soundtrack to our journey was Manu Chao's Proxima Estacion: Esperanza. It was all over the radio and I just fell in love with his mish-mash sound.
And Mike Patton. Well he's a dude. As a teenager, I fanatically loved him in Faith No More. Kinda got into him with Mr Bungle. Totally loved his work on Bjork's Medulla album. It's kinda crazy to think he's gone from growling and screaming metal then to crooning Italian pop music on Mondo Cane now. I must admit I downloaded that album last year but still need to give it a proper listen. I'm still stuck in my love for the '90s-era Patton. King for a Day... Fool for a Lifetime is still one of my favourite albums of all time. But mostly I just love his propensity for DRAMA. He always brings some bravado and crazy eyes. Love it.
Vocally, he has serious range. From this...
...To this (which will be his Sydney Festival persona):
And I love this clip from a few years back where he rips into Wolfmother. "Can I get an Amen?"
Since downloading last year's debut solo album from Alexander Ebert (frontman for other bands Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros and Ima Robot), I've been playing it obsessively.
I particularly love this track. And I've just realised it was played at the end of the killer first episode in season four of Breaking Bad. Oh I love it when my pop culture loves combine!
I'm loving my organic vegies lately. They're just so damn tasty. And they're good for my growing baby. Best of all: they really don't require all that much work to deliver a tasty meal. Here's an idea for a quick lunch/dinner.
STEP ONE ("We can have lots of fun!" Go NKOTB)
Pre-heat the oven to about 180°C. Chop up the vegetables roughly (this will take about five minutes, tops). I've used pumpkin, red onion, zucchini, carrots and whole garlic pieces, but you can use whatever you like. Normally I leave the pumpkin skin on, but today the skin was a bit too dirty so I chopped it off. A bit of a shame as I love when the skin caramelises.
STEP TWO ("There's so much we can do!" Ok I'm going to stop)
Pop the vegies into a roasting tray. Cover with a drizzle of olive oil, sea salt, cracked pepper and some freshly-chopped rosemary. Pop in the oven for about 30 mins. Walk away. (See, easy.)
STEP THREE ("It's just you and meeee..." Sorry couldn't help it)
Pop the vegies into a bowl or on a plate, then drizzle with a salad dressing (I used a mix of dijon mustard, lemon juice, salt and pepper and olive oil - all shook up) and scatter with fresh parsley, sea salt and pepper.
Yum, yum and yum. And healthy to boot.
And for those who have no idea who or what NKOTB is, here's a flashback (go to 2:45). You could play this while you're chopping your vegies! Dance moves and bad fashion are optional.
I love The Black Keys. And I love this video! Check it out.
How can that not make you dance?!
I can't wait for their new album El Camino, which hits stores on December 6. I'm ready for a new album after flogging their 2010 release Brothers for the last year. If you've not got into them before, you'll love this Ohio rock duo for their mix of blues and indie rock.
Sad news. Heavy D died overnight in LA. He was only 44.
I absolutely LOOOOOVED his song "Now That We Found Love" so much when it was on the charts. Well, it was 1991 and I was 14.
I just re-watched this video and so many memories came rushing back. Mainly about how I thought I knew the lyrics at the time. Obviously not! I just looked them up. Check them out in full here. Man, they're hilarious. And clearly I had no idea what I was singing about. The opening lyrics should have given me an idea:
One two, tell me what you got
Let me slip my quarters inside your slot to hit the jackpot
Battles is their name. You may have heard of them. They're not to everyone's taste. But man I love them. The way they can manipulate a beat is genius.
We actually saw them live in Singapore a couple of years back. Super weird gig. Everyone was sitting down in a concert hall on a Wednesday night at 7pm politely listening and clapping at the end of each song. So Singapore. We should have been in a small dark bar at 1am drinking beer and headbanging.
I challenge you to listen to these two songs and not enjoy them. Different for sure, but super cool.
The first, "Futura", is from their current album Gloss Drop.
The second song, "Atlas", is from their previous album Mirrored.
I absolutely love Canadian singer Feist. Her previous albums Let It Die, Open Season and The Reminder are so perfectly mellow and atmospheric. Over the years, I've loved her collaborations with Kings of Convenience, Gonzales and Grizzly Bear.
So I'm glad she's back with a new album, Metals. It doesn't have any immediate hits like "1,2,3,4" but I love how simple and subdued it is. Here's the first single:
Aussie dance duo Yolanda Be Cool - best known for last year's hit "We Speak No Americano" - have released a preview of their next track, which features dance music singer/songrwriter Crystal Waters. She had one of my favourite early 90s Top 40 house tracks, "Gypsy Woman". It still holds up well too. La da dee la dee da. Check it out:
And for fun: here's Yolanda Be Cool's "We Speak No Americano" which became the theme tune of a girls' weekend I had last year in Perth with one of my best mates. We heard it for the first time there while cruising around Fremantle in our hire car and it set the mood for our trip. Great driving tune!
Adele's song "Rolling in the Deep" has been a massive worldwide hit. And as with every hit song, there have been a tonne of remixes and mashups.
Some may say it's been remixed to death. But you can also argue that it's given new life to the song, certainly on dancefloors (or in my case, on treadmills!). I love how creative some of the amateur mashers and unofficial remixers can be. I'd love to know which ones Adele has heard and likes. Here's a selection:
Why does Gwyneth get to hang out with Lenny Kravitz and not me? I bet she doesn't know every word to every song on Let Love Rule like I do. Another reason to hate Gwyneth.
I love Adele. She's one of the hottest artists going at the moment with a bestselling album and sold-out concert tours. I'm loving that British Vogue have put her on their October cover. It's something I don't think Anna Wintour would do with American Vogue. Even though she's a Brit, she seems to hate anyone over a size zero and Adele is far from that. But her face is gorgeous, she's talented and incredibly popular. Good ingredients for an appealing magazine cover methinks.
I was pondering this very question today as I was reading about the nuptials of Petra Ecclestone, the daughter of Formula One's Bernie Ecclestone (who is worth £2.5 billion). The less said about the looks of the groom the better.... But I digress....
For her £1.3m wedding this weekend, she's chosen the same Italian castle where Katie Holmes got married to Tom Cruise (and pretended to be shorter than him in the wedding pic by crouching. See here). But I digress again...
Back to the important stuff -- the entertainment!
Petra's Dad has booked Eric Clapton (playing for free because he's a friend) and the Black Eyed Peas (playing for £1 million because they're not). Pretty great choices I must say, and certainly better than some other celebs' big day choices:
Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries - Robin Thicke and Earth, Wind and Fire (oh dear) Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes - Italian singer Andrea Bocelli (booorrrrring) Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston - a Latin Jazz band and a 40-piece gospel choir James and Erica Packer (Aussie media mogul) - Canadian crooner Michael Buble The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge - English pop star Ellie Goulding and a DJ Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban - Hugh Jackman, Neil Finn and a 16-piece big band Donald and Melania Trump - Tony Bennett, Billy Joel Catherine Zeta Jones and Michael Douglas - a Welsh choir, Tom Jones, Art Garfunkel, Gladys Knight, Mick Hucknell Prince Albert and Princess Charlene (ha!) - American rockers The Eagles, French artist Jean Michael Jarre Kate Moss and Jamie Hince - Bryan Ferry and a DJ
Yikes. Clearly money doesn't buy taste in a lot of cases. If I was a billionaire and could book ANYBODY in the world to pay you can bet your bottom dollar it wouldn't be Earth, Wind and Fire.
So who's on my list? Let's see...
Kings of Convenience and Feist - bit of cool chill-out stuff to get the party in a good mood The Pixies - as a present for my husband The Cat Empire - Aussie ska/jazz/funk band to get the party grooving Lenny Kravitz - so he can play "Let Love Rule" live for me Eric Clapton - so he can play "Cocaine" and we can all watch my Dad go batshit crazy The Rolling Stones - get the whole party rocking out Rihanna and Groove Armada - now we can dance!
And if I was going to bring a band out of retirement for a couple of tracks, it's gotta be Fine Young Cannibals. "Good thing..where have you gone..."
Failing that - you could just make a playlist and play all the artists above, just like I did. And my party rocked!
I was just listening to Foster the People's album and found myself whistling away on their track "Pumped Up Kicks". It's a cracker. The whistling kicks in at 2:53.
So all this pursing of my lips got me thinking of other memorable songs with whistling. Here are some of my faves:
1. "Young Folks" by Peter, Bjorn and John.
If you don't dance and whistle to this happy tune, you're a pop hater.
2. "La La Love You" by Pixies
It's only a tiny whistle, but it's the Pixies. 'Nuff said.
3. "Wind of Change" by Scorpion
How could we ever forget this German gem. I need a sparkler and a perm. Now.
I've just finished reading the autobiography Just Kids by Patti Smith. She recounts her life in the '70s when she moved to New York City in her early twenties and hooked up with Robert Mapplethorpe, who was to later become a renowned photographer and artist. I've been a fan of Patti's music for many years, but this book made me appreciate her even more as she sheds a new light on her absolute devotion to artistic expression. She is a fascinating individual.
Horses is one of the greatest songs ever written. I'd not listened to it for a few years and this weekend I went a bit crazy for it again. It's an epic. Give it a listen:
I love a good rock 'n' roll autobiography. The genius. The excess. The drug use. The clean-ups. The drug use. More clean-ups. It's modern history told in such a raw, creative way.
I've just finished Life by Keith Richards and it's fantastic. I couldn't put it down.
It's an over-used word, but this man is indeed a legend. The fact that he is still alive is unbelievable. But he's clearly got the constitution of a tank. The tale of his life is incredibly entertaining, moving and insightful. You really understand his love for the blues, his devotion to music, his loyalty to his friends and bandmates and his mad, mad mind. Told in a dynamic conversational style, it's a must-read.
And if you've not read any rock autobiographies, here are some of my favourites:
Faithfull: An Autobiography by Marianne Faithfull with David Dalton.
My brother-in-law put me on to this (thanks Patto!), and I've replayed it a million times. I love it. Aussie music at its finest. And it's a pretty great music video too.
Gotye's new album, Making Mirrors, is expected on August 19. Can't wait. In the meantime, I might go back and re-listen to his last album, 2006's Like Drawing Blood.
