The Oxhorn Music Mix

Django Reinhardt, the gypsy guitar great, picks out the melody of the beautiful Kahn/Jones song I’ll See You in My Dreams. Fluid movements fill the spaces, flying off the swinging rhythm guitars. Django bends each note, wringing every ounce of meaning from it.

I’ll See You in My Dreams

Listening to this song, a huge hit in the 20’s, brings you back to another world. It’s been played by the best musicians, and Django certainly fits the bill. The war to end all wars is over, Jazz is exploding, and in cafes and bars across Paris, Django and his quintet (featuring violinist Stephane Grappelli) smoke cigarettes and create a uniquely European interpretation of Jazz that fills gramaphones across the earth.

Joe Brown and George Harrison

Joe Brown offers a stirring performance of I’ll See You in My Dreams on ukelele at the end of the tribute to George Harrison, Concert For George. Check out this highly recommended tribute:

Lips that once were mine
Tender eyes that shine
They will light my way tonight
I’ll see you in my dreams

Like the Reverend Gary Davis, Django sounds like the love child of: A world long gone.

Download I’ll See You in My Dreams

Download “I’ll See You in My Dreams” on eMusic along with 25 FREE Music Downloads.
Get The Best of Django Reinhardton Amazon.com
Get A Concert for George on Amazon.com

Photo from The Triplets of Belleville

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The First Annual Hip Hop & Peacebuilding Festival is the brainchild of Stacy Willyard, is a George Mason University grad student at the Institute of Conflict Analysis and Resolution. The event is designed to bring together artists, diplomats, intellectuals & peacemakers from the US, Africa & the Middle East to increase understanding and awareness of political and social turmoil. The conference will focus on the role hip hop can play in empowering youth to speak out, organize and act to secure more peaceful future outcomes.

This conference represents everything good and awesome about this music. Hip Hop is a powerful art form and as such it has an incredible, if seldom recognized/realized, potential to be used for good. The medium can provide its practitioners an engaging forum to speak out about issues of real importance. And people listen. Whether or not the general populous is aware of this, real heads know it as truth.Consciously and conscientiously practiced Hip Hop is a positive influence on the communities in which it grows and provides otherwise disenfranchised youth with the means to affect real change on local and international levels. Hip Hop gives voice, gives direction, gives community, gives identity, gives understanding. Despite its somewhat sordid history, this art form can play an important role in peacemaking processes worldwide.The DC Hip Hop and Peacebuilding Festival represents the culmination of Stacy’s work with other GMU students, DC artists, and other foreign and domestic music groups to create a festival to promote co-existence and dialogue through Hip Hop. She is also a researcher at the United States Institute for Peace and is co-sponsoring the festival along with others such as Nomadic Wax, Rosetta Stoned, and Sol Productions, and GMU student group Project Nur. She deserves a hug, a handshake and a hardy round of applause.Word up.

Contact: transformationalart@gmail.com
Websitio: http://www.beats4peace.org/

Story by Ryn Burns

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Pavement’s swan song, Terror Twilight, reveals a muscular, mature band strutting a decade of indie cool without batting an eyelash. Speak, See, Remember is a Jekyll and Hyde romp. The first section is a jazzy number, pushed along by Mark Ibold’s walking upright bass and rippling guitar textures.

Stephen Malkmus, lead singer of Pavement
The second section of Speak, See, Remember explodes with full electric destruction. A landslide of sound is unleashed as Stephen Malkmus (of The Silver Jews and The Jicks) offers a searing critique of capitalism run-amok.

Buy now!
Develop the coast and raise the sight lines
The ocean’s moving out
And someday
Develop the coast and sell the air
You know if we could we’d sell the air
Stand back!
Expansion is what we do the best
I don’t see the grass and the fields
I see an epicenter with agendas
And you’re aware they must be next
I hope you’re aware they must be next

The tempo ratchets up, distortion kicks in. Classic rock riffs. Pavement takes the song to 11 with surgical precision, a triumphant refutation to anyone who’s ever accused them of being sloppy.

Sounds like the love child of: The Clash and The Replacements

Download Speak, See, Remember by Pavement

Download “Pavement” on eMusic along with 25 FREE Music Downloads.

Photo by NicolMC99

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Two basses twist together, playing out a deep, low groove. Chimes are heard in the distance. Up come the drums. Oh, Contorted Face of Mercury, what secrets do you hold? You twist back upon yourself, with grace and elegance. A snake stalks its prey, prepares to strike. Taughtly coiled, all energy and wicked intelligence.

The Roots of Orchis hint at the knowledge of good and evil, with a poison that seeps into your system, slowly drags you down into its melodic embrace. You are drawn to the drums of war. The diner bells rings, your mind a serpent’s feast.

Sounds like the love child of: The Black Heart Procession and Cal Tjader

Download Contorted Face of Mercury by The Roots of Orchis.

Download “The Roots of Orchis” on eMusic along with 25 FREE Music Downloads.
Get Crooked Ceilings on Amazon.com

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Roxy Music lead that glimmering wave of 80’s world-beat synth pop, that, for a brief, brief moment seemed set to change the timbre of music for eternity. Listening to Roxy Music, it comes as no surprise that Brian Eno - soundscape architect and Talking Heads/U2/Coldplay collaborator - was a founding member.

Avalon is the final album Roxy Music recorded. It remains a brilliant, thickly layered exuberance, bursting with acoustic peals and electric shivers. Avalon is best known for the hit More Than This, also performed by 10,000 Maniacs and powerfully by Bill Murray (as Bob Harris in the most poignant scene from Lost In Translation).

However, Avalon is full of powerful songs. The Space Between stands out as much for the deep groove as the mesmerizing improvised movements carried out across a dozen instruments drenched in syrupy effects. Ferry croons about a relationship not quite right.

The way I see it
This relationship ain´t right
The space between us
Better close it up tonight
The space between us
Close it up tonight
The way I see it
This relationship ain´t right
The space between us
Listen here listen, listen here listen
We better
Close it up tonight

After the initial theme is established by the bass, drums and a funky guitar, the wild things come out to play. Saxes, synths, percussion and un-nameables ricochet across the shimmering surface. Around 2:40 Roxy Music tighten the groove ever so perceptibly. What initially sounds like a blistering pattern on repeat shatters into a thousand, beautiful echoes.

Sounds like the love child of: Talking Heads and Brian Eno

Download The Space Between by Roxy Musicc

Download “Roxy Music” on eMusic along with 25 FREE Music Downloads.

Photo by Jlacpo

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A big, sluggish alternative rock song full of chunky chords, Candy lets Martin Sexton’s overpowering voice… overpower. Sexton’s range, from low to high, vibratto, falsetto, and a bunch of other latin words, sends shivers every time I hear them. Candy is one of the many highlights from Sexton’s album The American. Sexton is more than a powerful singer, though, he is a master story teller.

Hey little jail bait
Tell me a story
Let me bum a smoke and we can chat a while
I only need a moment
One moment in your glory

Lyrics delicate, precise, but obscured by the smoke as well. A metaphor so clear it’s meaning nearly disappears. When it does, Sexton’s voice remains, roaring and rising, raging and resigning.

Sounds like the love child of: Dave Matthews and Van Morrison

Download Candy

Download “Martin Sexton” on eMusic along with 25 FREE Music Downloads.
Get The Americanon Amazon.com

Photo by Peter Kelly

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Here’s a Romantic Mix of Downtempo Lounge Music for Valentine’s Day with a strong Brazilian flavor. Let’s call it something special for the ladies. Download these songs and press play. You’re sure to have an enjoyable night.

Valentine’s Day Romantic Downtempo Music Mix

right click to “save as”
Thunderball “Solar”
Phoenix “Definitive Breaks”
Lemon Jelly “Stay With You”
Basement Jaxx “If I Ever Recover”
Babel Gilberto “August Day Song [King Britt Remix]”
Eddie Harris “Theme in Search of a Movie”
Milton Nascimento “Clube Da Esquina No. 2″

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This recording of Cocaine Blues by Blind Reverend Gary Davis, sounds like it’s gonna fall apart under the crush of all the cobwebs and dust. But the Reverend’s brilliant, sparkling finger picking provides the momentum to keep the edifice intact.

Despite his backwoods birth in 1896, Davis’ unique guitar technique was a huge influence on the folk and blues revival of the 60’s, and can be heard in The Grateful Dead, Bob Dylan and Jorma Kaukonen.

Cocaine Blues evokes a stroll through humid country, fragrant pastures, religious revivals moonshine, barbecue, old men on rocking chairs chewing dip on their porches. You can hear it all in the steel plod of the bass notes, one-two, one-two, the march steady like a steam engine pulling a long train of cars. The treble arpeggio betrays the grace and majesty of the locomotive coming round the bend, while Reverend Gary Davis listens and plays this song.

Sounds like the love child of: Blind Lemon Jefferson and Robert Johnson

Download Cocaine Blues by Reverend Gary Davis

Download “Reverend Gary Davis” on eMusic along with 25 FREE Music Downloads.
Get The Complete Early Recordings.

Photo by Bill Smith

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Emcee/DJ/Producer/Musician/Artist Edan is a master of musical collage. His second LP, Beauty & The Beat is a rich psychedelic tapestry, punctuated with soundgems pilfered as readily from 60’s and 70’s rock & roll as from funk and rap. Combine this with blistering lyrical imagery steeped in hip hop history and a humorous, even humbling, dose of self aggrandizing and you have yourself one the best albums of 2005. Shedding the silliness that permeated earlier release Primitive Plus (which is still a damn good album), Edan comes into his own.

shoot my television walk out doors and explore
with the innocence of kids age four
I frolic in the sand with a colony of ants
my particles expand building oxygen in plants
from Rakim to Caz to Lakim Shabazz
illogically advanced with a knowledge of the past”Download Making Planets

Edan has associated himself with some of the rawest, most significant and established emcees and djs in the underground and in the biz at large. For example, check out his jam, Cut Chemist remix of Torture Chamber featuring Percee P.

In addition to time tested emcee, Beauty and the Beat features, Mr. Liff, Dagha and Insight.

Incorporating vintage pedals and digital effects keeps his show live, hitting hard on reverb and delays at key moments. Moving from the tables to the mic, to both at once is a feat few in the world can do well.

In addition to all that, dude does his own album art and has a singer/songwriter folk project on the side. Plus he’s environmentally conscious…“I don’t think human beings right now are doing too much to assess their relationship with nature, and just the natural ways of this world. Ultimately it’s about saving ourselves because once we cross that line the world will shit us out and revitalize and bloom once again as if we never even existed. It’s not really about save the earth as, respect the earth and save ourselves. And respect each other and love each other. And know that love is all we got here, and make most of our actions stem from that.”
- Grand GoodThe combination of all these seemingly disparate elements is Edan Portnoy, a hiphop jabberwok.

The artist receives an Oxhorn rating of “if you haven’t heard it, I will hunt your ears with a soundgun”

Check out Edan’s official page or his label Lewis Recordings.

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A lot of people have trouble with The Dismemberment Plans’ lead singer Travis Morrison (now of the Hellfighters). His voice grates. He released “the worst solo album. ever.” Other people find The Plan’s music full of anxiety. Or depressing.

Maybe.

But on this paean to a special soul in a big city, The Plan spin perfect poetry. With a simple guitar riff, distinctive drumming, a fat, dirty synth and heart-wrenching, vivid, lucid lyrics. Lyrics few writers have the depth or melancholy to draft.

Now I notice the streetlamp’s hum
The ghosts of graffiti they couldn’t quite erase
The blank-faced stares on the subway
As the people go home
The parks lay empty like my unmade bed
The streets are silent like my lifeless telephone
And this is where I live, but
I’ve never felt less at home
So I’m not unsympathetic
I see why you left
There’s no one to know
There’s nothing to do
The city’s been dead
Since you’ve been gone…

Sometimes I stand on my roof at night
And watch, as something seems to happen somewhere else
I feel like the breeze will pick me up and carry me away
Out and over this iridescent grid
Up and away from the bar fights and neon lights
Out and away from everything that makes me what I am
So I’m not unsympathetic
I see why you left
There’s no one to know
There’s nothing to do
The city’s been dead
Since you’ve been gone…

 

These are stark, stark words to describe a city no longer inhabited by anyone of emotional significance. A city that lacks its relevant animus. A mere entropic collection of humanity and decay. And yet it’s oddly beautiful.

All I Ever Say Now is Good-bye

As the song drives to its jerky conclusion, the drums hit: bang bang bang. Then sleek, drawn out notes float in, build up. Screams of “Good bye” rend the air. And then a gentle let down, like letting go, walking away from a lover forever, without looking back.

Sounds like the love child of: Controlling the Famous and Fugazi

Download The City

Download “The Dismemberment Plan” on eMusic along with 25 FREE Music Downloads.
Get Emergency & Ion Amazon.com

Photo by Kampers

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Editor’s Note: The following is a short story inspired by The Super Furry Animals’ Clouberries, please give it a listen while reading this post.

She cried, but not loudly. It was a low sounding drip, settling into the rhythm of busses and laughter that spread out from her ground floor window. How can you change? she thought. What kind of platform did she have to jump off from, at this point? It was an old, grey day; it had been too long since she thought in these comfortable spirals. She dropped to the floor, curled up next to a heating vent, and clicked the old stereo on.

Billy Allen, Billy Allen. It all came down to him, his cocky smile, his veiny fingers, his brusque way of existing in a world that was too simple for his tastes. The last time she saw him - the memory that set her emotions rustling out of the gate, a moment ago - he was wearing a too tight, over-clean suit, shaking her hand and that of her aging father, with a sideways smile. A few months later, she saw the headlines.

It was an old wood paneled floor, the kind that accumulated old dust and absorbed the creaking heat from the vent her back was pressed on. It was a shabby sort of comfort - she felt old fashioned, like she was existing in an old story that she had never properly visualized before, The Dead. The radio hummed slowly but with a strangely full sound, touching every harmonic, like a giant walking home from a too-easy victory, shamefully aware that he monopolized the attention of everything he passed.

She stretched her arms, almost touching the opposite wall - it was a narrow hallway. There was a rusty sounding guitar somewhere close, not coming from the radio. Perhaps out of fear, she only allowed herself to be halfway aware of it, but then the metallic hum started slipping from one side of her to another. Was it her imagination?

She stood up with a start, wringing out a spastic shiver, as if that would end the sounds - but it didn’t. They built up, playing scales, swimming carefully and sadly along the wave of sound flowing from the radio. And then she saw him. He walked through the door, with that same hesitant smile he gave her five years ago.

Do you hear it? she asked, her mouth drying up.

I think I hear something different, he said.He gave her a knowing smile, a loungey wink, snapped his fingers, and started dancing, pointing his fingers from side to side, looking at the floor with a bit lip of bemused concentration. The music came from every direction, it was a sort of old fashioned jazz lounge jive. Her cat slid on her back paws straight through the room. A pigeon slammed into the window, but wasn’t harmed. He put his arm around her, and they shimmied across the overlapping wooden slats of the hallway, laughing at the giddy beat.

It was a perfect moment, though she knew that some part part of it proved that she had, right there, given up her sanity. As soon as that thought fully formed, he turned and slammed his hands on the wall, in an all together over dramatic scene, from what she remembered of him. No, he said, this will only be a moment. I’ve demasted, sure, I’m out there, drinking what’s left in the liquor cabinet and drifting farther into the Atlantic. The newspapers are right. But you’ll keep going, you’re changing already, look at your hair - it’s shorter than I’ve ever seen it. But I thought you needed this.
So this is it?

He gave her no answer.

Of course, she thought. She closed her eyes, endlessly depressed, slinking to the floor, forgetting him again.

When she opened her eyes - just a second later - everything was the same again. Just her and a dusty hallway. She thought she heard the radio still playing, but it was only a car horn, some disgruntled driver, blowing through the street. The song must have ended.

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Black Keys Tour & Release New Album w/ Dangermouse

The Black Keys will tour, release new album this year, so says Muzzle of Bees. Looks like they’ll be in New York, Washington DC, Chicago, San Diego and everywhere in between.

In what could be the most interesting moment in music, Danger Mouse will be producing the New Black Keys’ album, “Attack & Release.” Maybe I’m crazy, but I’m looking forward to this madly come April 1.

Flight of the Conchords Manager Murray Hewitt’s New Year’s Plan

NME is reporting that Murray Hewitt, Flight of the Conchords’ mild-mannered manager has offered to be Oasis’ new manager. Considering the recent success of “The Doggy Bounce,” and Oasis’ fall from pop graces, what have they got to loose?

What advice does Hewitt offer?

Im not sure about the name. What does it mean? Basically it’s a small pond of water in a dry desert. OK, it’s not too bad, but you could do better? From the experience I’ve had I don’t think brothers is going to work. I might have to split you up into two different bands to be fair. One can be Oasis and the other one can be Mirage - that’s another desert name.

In other Flight of the Conchords news, the complete first season is now available!

Kinks REUNION??? Nope.

The Daily Swarm is the front-runner for the 2008 Buzzkill of the Year Award, dismissing reports of a Kinks reunion tour. Thanks for nothing.

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Listening to The Zutons is like walking through a carnival fun house - your body maintains its character, but it gets reflected in all manner of mutations. These Liverpudlian’s debut album Who Killed The Zutons? is a frenetic romp through front man Dave “Dickhead” McCabe’s twisted mind.

Featuring multi-part boy/girl harmonies, catchy guitar riffs, arena-rock drums, manic bass playing and highly original use of the Saxophone, The Zutons create an EXTREMELY compelling series of texture. The album includes, “Havana Gang Brawl,” arguably one of the top-ten English language songs written about the Cuban Revolution this Millennium.

Simply put, this is a really exceptional album that rocks hard but makes space some surprisingly touching ballads.

“You Will You Won’t” sounds like a modern stomp in the vein of Credence Clearwater Revival, complete with raspy vocals, anthemic choruses and sizzling guitarwork. It’s the lyrical equivalent of the eternal Loony Toons debate between the angel and devil on Bugs Bunny’s shoulder. I think.

Well the devil’s standing tall on the top of the hill
Pointing down his fork and betraying your will
You gotta make decisions whether old or new
Then god comes from the heavens and he’s saying to youYou will you won’t
You do you don’t
You’re saying you will
But you know you won’t

Sounds like the love child of: Kiss and Credence Clearwater Revival

Download You Will You Won’t

Download “The Zutons” on eMusic along with 25 FREE Music Downloads.
Get Who Killed The Zutons? on Amazon.com

Photo by Splendour in the Grass

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Although Tenor Saxophonist Eddie Harris got paned by critics for his commercial success outside the Jazz establishment, he knew how to write and perform a mean song. Theme in Search of a Movie seems to borrow as much from Burt Bacharach as Bill Evans, and succeeds as a statement independent of any one genre.

“What sort of movie are we talking about?”

Maybe a James Bond film? A psychological thriller? Maybe weekend at Berny’s III? Surreal horizons and tropical breezes, magical strings, an unspoken current, warm and gentle. They point South, the drums click, lead the way. Eddie maps the territory with a throaty sax and the aid of some well placed piano chords.

Sounds like the love child of: Burt Bachararch and Stan Getz

Download Theme in Search of a Movie.

Download “Eddie Harris” on eMusic along with 25 FREE Music Downloads.
Get The Electrifying Eddie Harris/Plug Me In on Amazon.com

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