Lounge Music

[compared2what?]

Hard to beat "In Dreams" for rigint lounge, so I'm going counterintuitive. Except that it's cryptically in Portuguese, there's not a rig-int thing about it.

Just lounge. I'd never seen this video until moments ago. I always wondered why she starts laughing in the run up to the end, but you barely notice that she does, when there are pictures in front of you. Whereas just listening to the record, it's unmissable. Funny. By which, you know, I mean, "Funny, boring," not "Funny, ha, ha."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97BwLXtLTT0

Great, great song though, here done in duet by the artists to whom it had previously separately belonged.

[brainpanhandler]

C2W,

I had never heard the Sonic Youth cover of Superstar. Very cool. When I was a kid growing up in the seventies I couldn't go to sleep at night without the radio playing. I had a Mickey Mouse AM/FM portable radio that I put under my pillow. The Carpenters figured heavily into my lullaby pop radio soundtrack. I think my parents must have gone through a fortune in batteries.

I own the 4 cd boxed set of The Carpenters, From The Top. Karen's voice resonates with my skull like a wetted finger being rubbed around the rim of a wine glass.

Not necessarily "lounge music", but...
Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft- The Carpenters

[compared2what?]

Mm-hmmm. That was nice to hear. The late lead sister is a way, way underrated vocalist.

The Sonic Youth cover is from a tribute record, called "If I Were a Carpenter," on which it was the only true gem. Babes in Toyland fielded "Interplanetary Craft" nicely enough, though. I think Red Kross got "Yesterday Once More."

Chrissie Hynde (also an underrated vocalist, primarily because she is, like, one of the very best interpretative vocalists of the post-guitar era, period, not because people don't know she can sing) also covered "Superstar" for....maybe "Wayne's World 2"? Something like that. Under the nom-de-chanson (nom-de-chant? I don't know French, I'm just pretentious) of Superfan.

If you haven't seen it you might enjoy:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 0713940545

It was made by Todd Haynes when he was just a little semio-tot, and didn't yet know that narrative was too oppressively patriarchal and evil to put all over your movies and stuff.

I actually like his work more than I don't like it, typically. Haven't seen the one out now yet, tho. But I've always thought the above-linked and "Safe" were his best. Richard Carpenter sued the former into obscurity before it had a theatrical run, however, so it's not among his best-known.

Speaking of Todd Haynes, I am reminded that I had better go look for something to restore the dignity I stole from Mr. Bowie over on the what-choo-listening-to thread. He deserves better than the clip I put up. He might even belong here, he's got enough range for lounge.

We'll see.

[brainpanhandler]

LOL
I ran into Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story here-
http://www.watch-basketball-videos.com/watch/?vid=19942

I have it paused on the first shot of an EX-LAX box.

I found it by googling Karen Carpenter UFO. I'm wondering if Karen ever claimed to see a UFO or had contact.

[compared2what?]

Here we go! I actually was sitting in the seat with the clearest view at this clusterfuck, and have also seen him knock it out of the park in a more conventional sense at venues large and small, like, six times since he started doing this just-with-Mike-Garson arrangement. And if I coulda found one of those I might have picked it.

But I might have chosen this anyway. Because it is my considered opinion, as a frequent Bowie-concert-attender, that the emotional vocal catches are both sincere feeling and intentional performance -- it was his first time on-stage since that not-announced-as-a-heart-attack incident brought the "Reality" tour to a halt. And he's totally capable of breaking down for real and with impeccable artistic forethought, if he feels like it, the man has supernatural powers. Anyway. Whatev. I find it very moving. Plus, thematically congruent with the last song queued up in the interplanetary lounge:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIFmNRDu ... re=related

And...it's a Bowie sings a planet-mentioning lounge-song two-fer!

This one's from the tour that reality interrupted. Luckily for me, I wouldn't wanna be anyone other than myself. But if, for some reason I absolutely had to be, and I had any say in the matter, I'd want to be Gail Ann Dorsey. Because she is so fucking cool:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNCEURBYEGo

[brainpanhandler]

David Bowie - Life On Mars Lyrics

It's a God awful small affair
To the girl with the mousey hair,
But her mummy is yelling, "No!"
And her daddy has told her to go,
But her friend is no where to be seen.
Now she walks through her sunken dream
To the seats with the clearest view
And she's hooked to the silver screen,
But the film is sadd'ning bore
For she's lived it ten times or more.
She could spit in the eyes of fools
As they ask her to focus on

Sailors
Fighting in the dance hall.
Oh man!
Look at those cavemen go.
It's the freakiest show.
Take a look at the lawman
Beating up the wrong guy.
Oh man!
Wonder if he'll ever know
He's in the best selling show.
Is there life on Mars?

It's on America's tortured brow
That Mickey Mouse has grown up a cow.
Now the workers have struck for fame
'Cause Lennon's on sale again.
See the mice in their million hordes
From Ibeza to the Norfolk Broads.
Rule Britannia is out of bounds
To my mother, my dog, and clowns,
But the film is a sadd'ning bore
'Cause I wrote it ten times or more.
It's about to be writ again
As I ask you to focus on

Sailors
Fighting in the dance hall.
Oh man!
Look at those cavemen go.
It's the freakiest show.
Take a look at the lawman
Beating up the wrong guy.
Oh man!
Wonder if he'll ever know
He's in the best selling show.
Is there life on Mars?

I actually was sitting in the seat with the clearest view at this clusterfuck

This was intentional, wasn't it?

He swallows hard after trying to hold that second mars.

What's with the bandage? There's a stain on it just above his thumb that makes it look like a recent, still oozing wound. In fact, it looks like it was applied shortly before he came out as it looks more like a field dressing than a proper bandage.

[compared2what?]

Yes. !t was an intentional uninflected retroactive callback, a literary device that I am inventing as I type this sentence!

Shorter answer: Yes, reference consciously intended.

It was a costume -- he also has a cosmetic black eye. He only agreed to do the gig if Arcade Fire, who were not then at the Conde Nast Organized Clusterfuck Gala Performance level of success were added to the bill, and he joined them on two songs without the apparent wounds.

Who knows what his intention was? His lyrics have always dealt with issues of mortality and suicide quite a bit, but he is pretty close to 100 percent unwavering in his refusal to acknowledge any part of his work as explicitly autobiographical. The only thing I could say for sure is that he went out of his way to look like he was in bad shape. Sometimes the persona aspect of his work is inflected (Ziggy Stardust, duh) and sometimes it isn't. The heathen persona on "Heathen," which is, btw, a really good record, is barely perceptible, and as far as I ever noticed has one intentional attribute, which is his blindness. Evidence: Eyes blanked out on cover art, and during the tour supporting the record, at the end of the show he always left the stage walking behind Gail Ann, with his head down and his hand on her shoulder, a la the Five Blind Boys of Alabama, fr'instance.

I understood the costuming for this song to suggest: Persona who has been so badly beaten up it almost killed him, with some connotation of suicide (wrist bandage) and some of natural disaster (highwater hem-length of suit trousers). And the evident pain of the performer goes with that. He really was crying a little at one point, I did have a clear enough view to see that, but...he's a very good live performer.

So. I don't really know what's with the bandage. Battle dressing implications would be consonant with more than the most obvious external reality. The show was a benefit, but it wasn't originally designed as one -- it just happened to be scheduled about a week or so after the unscheduled Hurricane Katrina. And even Conde Nast and CBS understand that it would be tasteless to blithely rock fashion for purely private benefit under those circumstances. That'd explain the highwaters, at least.

But, but....To me, that much analysis is....not exactly overdetermined but unnecessary, as my enjoyment is as great when experienced in the context of loosely grasped principle as it is when a chance collision between the little signifiers of any given persona and some part of my prior and independently acquired body of knowledge give me a seat with a clearer view of those particular details. They may be telling details, but they're still details. The damaged-in-some-unspecified-way heart of the art beats just as strongly without 'em.

Here, on an EPK for his last studio release, you may watch Mr. Bowie not only lie through his beautiful, post-sobriety teeth about what his work means, but also frankly admit he's lying while so doing, a confession that functions as a lie in spirit, though it happens to be true in both letter and spirit. He's a tricky one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQCr0Q06PRE

"Reality" is about (more or less) post-9/11 realities, including but not limited to political realities. Manifestly and brutally and beyond dispute. But I doubt he's ever going to say that when addressing it in interview persona, beyond a little mild and general en passant observation.

That's just how he rolls, and long may he, from my perspective. Obviously, I'm a fan. But to me, personally, his work and especially his live shows have shamanistic qualities, too. So they have added-value in the World of Me. I mean: "added to their value as kick-ass rock thrills."

Which are, needless to say, already a high-value commodity in the World-of-Me currency system, all by themselves.

[brainpanhandler]

A youtube search for lounge musicians turned this up.

And I tell you, the revolution is never so dangerous to a country as when it is successful

Oh, I don't know, my own country you've got to remember was founded on a successful revolution.

Exactemente.

(Laughter) You don't have to translate that

And this made me laugh:

You'll listen and like it or the gravy goes with the mashed potatoes

[brainpanhandler]

C2W,

I really need to watch The Man Who Fell to Earth again. Watching the opening scenes here I am immediately struck by the reference to Planet of the Apes that I had never noticed.

[compared2what?]

I need to go to sleep now. But interplanetary-art-dedicated-thread on the morrow?

[compared2what?]

On a parting note, not lounge, and only interplanetary by technicality, since I it's an earthbound metaphor, but, fwiw, "New Killer Star," the first track on Reality. This record really was made to be played at maximum volume, so I don't know that video is its best reflection.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_KBqoktTl0

Oh, yeah. First line: "See the great white scar/Over Battery Park."

Remember when I said this cd was about post-9/11 reality? And now wanna ask me what was my first clue, or just whether I got my degree in insights at the University of Duh?

I had forgotten that. I do believe the part of the chorus that includes the title is having a little nihilistic laugh at the expense of our President's pronunciation problems, tho.

[brainpanhandler]

Nuclear star... I think you're right. That's brill...

University of Duh? You're an alum? Shut up! Maybe we know each other. When did you attend?

I need to go to sleep now. But interplanetary-art-dedicated-thread on the morrow?

Sounds like a plan. I need to go to work now.

[IanEye]

The Sonic Youth cover is from a tribute record, called "If I Were a Carpenter," on which it was the only true gem. Babes in Toyland fielded "Interplanetary Craft" nicely enough, though. I think Red Kross got "Yesterday Once More."

c2w, nice call with the "Águas de Março", what truly makes that youtube clip "lounge" for me is that about two thirds of the way through the song, Ms. Regina suddenly appears to have a joint in her hand.

I have that tribute album to the Carpenters. My favorite track is Grant Lee Buffalo's rendition of "We've Only Just Begun". They seem to tap into the "Rosemary's Baby" vibe of that track quite well.

I had the DJ play the Langley Schools Music Project's version of "Calling Occupants" at my wedding reception. Their version of that song has reduced me to tears many times. There is something about a gathering of rural school children chanting "we are your friends" into infinity that gives me hope.

[compared2what?]

I haven't listened to those Langley kids in far too long. Thanks for reminding me of them. Since I'm in the Total Bowie Immersion course mentioned on the interplanetary whatever thread, they are just the kind of palate-cleanser I need. As I was just saying over on that other thread I'm blathering on ceaselessly, let the children boogie.

[thurnundtaxis]

Seu Jorge - Life On Mars

Seu Jorge - Lady Stardust