Posts filed under 'Recordings'
In honor of Tax Day, at least that’s what we’re celebrating here in the US today, here’s a clip from the old Beatles cartoon where they discuss tax policy with Robin Hood. Well, they don’t discuss tax policy as much as run around in a poorly animated fashion while “Taxman” plays on the soundtrack. Oh, and does anyone else think the line about declaring the pennies on your eyes when you die is perhaps a bit morbid for a children’s cartoon?-MJS
April 15th, 2008
On this day, January 10, in 1949, RCA introduced the 45 RPM record. Here on the FJ blog we’re going to celebrate by Mousekedancing and linking to this page of old record sleeves from the collection of our contributor Derek See. What are you going to do?-MJS
January 10th, 2008
When I first saw the headline I figured they meant tax records or something like that, but no, it turns out that thousands of reggae LPs, 45s and CDs have been pilfered from the Jamaican National Archives.-MJS
January 7th, 2008
Now, it may seem that Elvis Presley and Yahtzee go together about as well as, say, kumquats and carburetors, but just take a gander at Mondo Elvis, a documentary about ultra-hardcore Elvis fans and you’ll see it’s not so far fetched. The relevant portion comes about 5 minutes into Part 1, the segment with the twins who believe they’re The King’s illegitimate offspring. The complete video lasts about 30 minutes, is in three parts and is well worth watching. Part 1 is here, Part 2 is here and Part 3 is here.-MJS
January 7th, 2008
Did you know the Federal Highway Administration maintains a very good list of road songs? Actually, I think that’s an excellent use of my tax dollars.-MJS
January 2nd, 2008
This is Spinal Tap, as we all know, is the funniest movie ever made. What I didn’t know was that Christopher Guest, who played Nigel Tufnel, had experimented with rock parody before. Here’s a page, complete with soundclips, of Guest tweaking prog rock for The National Lampoon in 1975. Behold, the glory of “The Art Rock Suite.” Also, it turns out that the 1979 Lenny and the Squigtones LP, with Michael McKean and David Lander reprising their Lenny and Squiggy roles from the TV show Laverne and Shirley, featured Guest playing guitar and credited as Nigel Tufnel a few years before Spinal Tap was formed. If the next issue of the Fretboard Journal is delayed, it’s because I’ve been spending too much time looking stuff like this up on the Web.-MJS
December 21st, 2007
Here’s a fascinating article written by David Byrne about the business of making records, where the money comes from and where it goes. It’s must reading for anyone who makes money playing music. I wonder if he made those nifty PowerPoint-style images himself?-MJS
December 21st, 2007
Here’s a website devoted to Sleeveface, the art of “one or more persons obscurings or augmenting any part of the body or bodies with record sleeve(s) causing an illusion.” Just try and have that much fun with a folder for an MP3 file.-MJS
December 19th, 2007
Paul Fucito has posted 35 Christmas MP3s on his blog. Did I mention that they are taken from wax cylinders and that a few of them are over 100 years old? It always amazes me that its possible to hear a sound recorded over a century ago. Every now and then I drag out my Victrola and listen to some of my 78s. It’s a bother, at least compared to listening to my iPod, but I do occasionally enjoy the entire process of cranking up the machine, cleaning the record and changing the needle. A friend once compared the complicated ritual of listening to old records to a Japanese tea ceremony, which is not far off. I do know that after going to all of that effort I sure do listen to the music more carefully.-MJS
December 18th, 2007
Our pals at the Bluegrass Blog have scored a coup. They will be debuting Four Days of Infamy, a 30-minute documentary about the Infamous Stringdusters on their site today. The documentary was produced by Craig Havighurst of String Theory Media. Craig spent four days traveling with the band and he was able to shoot footage throughout the trip. There are scenes in the band’s van, on stage, backstage and everywhere in between. I’m very jealous the Bluegrass Blog gets to show this documentary first but I can find some consolation in that fact that Craig has written a couple of great articles for the FJ which will be published in upcoming issues.-MJS
August 27th, 2007
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