jWiltshire.org » Music

Artists of 2008

jWiltshire — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 04:58:37 +0000

This was originally supposed to be albums of 2008, but there was no way to get that data out of iTunes without doing xml→sql conversions and all sorts of nasty work, so instead I took the lazy route and went with my most played artists of 2008, since Last.fm has that data stored for me. And rather than doing top artists that came out in 2008, or that released albums in 2008, but just the top artists that I listened to in 2008, regardless of all that. Cuz c’mon, new music is shit. There ain’t really been anything good recorded after around 1981. So let’s dig in.

Los Amigos Invisibles- This one isn’t all that surprising. This Venezuelan acid jazz electro funk group has five albums out, all of them very good. Their newest album, 2005′s Super Pop Venezuela, has the fantastic tracks “Si Tu Te Vas” and “Yo Soy AsÃ”, definitely worth checking out.
David Bowie – No explanation needed. Bowie is legendary. I’ve been listening a lot to his most popular songs, but also been digging around for some of his lesser known songs. There’s always something good to be found with Bowie
The Decemberists – Old-timey maritime indie folk rockers The Decemberists have an album coming out early next year. It’s hard to believe that it’s been two years since the lush, progressive The Crane Wife came out. Listen to The Island trilogy here:

Rush – C’mon. It’s Rush. Good old hard progressive Canadian Ayn Rand-inspired Rush. Good stuff.
Steroid Maximus – One of the many side projects of avant-garde composer J.G. Thirwell, Steroid Maximus contains elements of jazz, big band, avant-garde, soundtrack and exotica styles. Les Baxter on industrial-tinged drugs. Really out there instrumentals that make you feel like you’re in a spy movie. Worth checking out. Ecotopia is relatively easy to track down, his other albums are not so much.
16 Horsepower – This one kinda came out of left field. 16 Horsepower was a neo-gothic country group. One of the big reasons why I want a banjo. They’ve got the kind of songs that tell a story, about the dark side of the south. Here’s “Black Soul Choir”, off of Sack Cloth and Ashes:

That’s the top six. I don’t feel like writing any more, so good night.

Went to a Concert Last Night

jWiltshire — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 19:22:13 +0000

At Lincoln’s Zoo Bar, Tyler, Matt and I went to go see The Bellflowers, Little Brown Jug, and Black Squirrels. It was a great lineup, we drank too much, and we enjoyed the show.

First up was The Bellflowers (MySpace Link), a good old fashioned country band from here in Lincoln. Their pedal steel player is one of my wine reps, and so that’s how I found out about these guys in the first place. You may remember them from a concert I went to a while ago, where they played with Loup River Band. From that came this video of them performing. I didn’t get any video of them this time, unfortunately. Bonus awesomeness for this band: They have an honest to god singing saw. You never see singing saw players any more!

Little Brown Jug from Joshua on Vimeo.
Second act was Little Brown Jug. The only video I shot last night with the D90. It was really dark and I was really drunk, so the cinematography is pretty bad, and I’m still getting used to the controls. But it’s a good song. Go to the Vimeo page to see HD. You can kinda hear Tyler and Matt yammering in the background, but it adds to the bar vibe. They have the cutest fiddle player ever in this band, by the way.

The final act was from up in Omaha, Black Squirrels (MySpace link). They were a little less old-timey with their sound but were very good. They had an accordion player, so it was a night for unusual instruments I guess. Definitely worth checking out.

Be sure to check the Flickr for the rest of the pictures from the evening, there were some good ones.

iTunes Stats

jWiltshire — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 16:46:59 +0000

My Top Ten Played Songs in iTunes

4th Avenue Jones – Fabulous Dramatics (53)
Tiefschwarz & Matty Safer – Warning Siren (43)
RJD2 & Ric Ocasek – Through the Walls (42)
Buck 65 – 463 (37)
The Decemberists – 16 Military Wives (33)
Matthew Sweet – Girlfriend (32)
Berlin – Erotic City (30)
10cc – I’m Not in Love (30)
Miri Ben-Ari – Sunshine to the Rain (29)
David Bowie – Space Oddity (29)

Looking at my iTunes library, I notice a weird trend in my most played songs. A lot of them make sense (The Decemberists, Bowie, or RJD2, for example) but others are songs that I wouldn’t expect. 4th Avenue Jones, I haven’t listened to in months that I can recall. The same goes for Miri Ben-Ari. And I certainly wouldn’t have expected 10cc to make the list, catchy though they may be. It may be a matter of songs/sounds I once was really into have now fallen out of favor, or perhaps I was just in a mood then. Except for that Berlin track. I’m not sure what’s up with that.

Sunday Listening Post

jWiltshire — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 16:46:16 +0000

For today’s Listenin’ Post, I thought I would dig through YouTube for some great videos from The Old Grey Whistle Test, a classic BBC2 music show along the same lines as the Midnight Special (I will give guest post status to anybody who buys me that set of DVDs…) Anyway, here’s some good stuff here.

David Bowie’s Queen Bitch, a rollicking classic from The Life Aquatic soundtrack. If you poke around YouTube you can find an excellent duet with Lou Reed.

Roxy Music comes at you with Ladytron, and with some costuming so fruity, the BBC ordered that it could only be shown after ten pm. But still, it’s a good track, and it’s got a lot of vintage synth porn.

Maddness’s Night Boat to Cairo. A lot of the “punk” kids today don’t realize how much they owe to second wave ska. Bands like Blink 182 and that obnoxious goofy looking band who’s name escapes me at the moment draw more from this movement than the early ’80s punk movement.

Talking Heads performing Psycho Killer. Thirty years ago I totally would have had a crush on Tina Weymouth. Cute girls that play bass are pretty much the best thing ever.

XTC – Statue of Liberty. This one’s just plain good. And more old school synths.

Gary Numan’s Tubeway Army performing Are Friends Electric. I just picked up the “Replicas” album last week. There is definitely some very good very early electro right there. This is the album that really shows you how the electro movement evolved out of the 1970′s prog and hard rock scene.

Finally, Bill Withers singing Ain’t No Sunshine. I will argue with anyone, any day, preferably after I’ve been drinking so I get all shouty, that Bill Withers was the greatest male soul singer that ever lived. This performance is just amazing, and the band is, as always, so tight.

Concert Footage

jWiltshire — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 04:15:01 +0000

At the risk of becoming a video blog, here’s some video I recorded from the show at Duffy’s last night. The opening band was Amy Ana Huffman and the People’s Family Band. I’d never seen them before, but they were quite good. Here’s a video of them, uploaded to Viddler because I used up my Vimeo upload quota for the week.

Good stuff there. Then Weezil Skweezins took the stage. They are definitely a fun show. And once you hear “Up the Butt”, it will get stuck in your head for two days. I should mention, there’s some NSFW language, but you probably figured that out from the title.

Weezil Skweezins – Up Your Butt from Joshua on Vimeo.

There are a few more videos up over at my Vimeo. It was a fun show, and I drank nasty bar scotch. Good times.

Oh, and I should mention, I followed DB‘s lead in incorporating video comments. (DB hat-tips me in that post, and now I’m hat-tipping directly back to him. It’s a blogging reacharound.) Iffin you have a webcam, and a Viddler account, you can record video comments directly in the browser window. It’s pretty keen. Thanks, Colin Devroe!