Happy Labor Day!

Before I Fall to Pieces

Here's the British band Razorlight with their 2006 song, Before I Fall to Pieces.  This song includes perhaps my favorite lyric of all time.

Now I'm just waiting for something that might never come 

If it's a million to one shot I'll make sure I'm one.

Enjoy!

Epic Guitar Solo by Prince

Tom Petty, Steve Winwood, Prince and more play George Harrison's "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" at the 2004 Hall of Fame.  It is amazing.

The Rap Guide to Evolution

Baba Brinkman has put together an album called The Rap Guide to Evolution.  He produced 16 songs which are pretty guide.  I will post one track called Natural Selection which will actually roll through the whole album.  To hear the rest, you can follow this link.

Killer Queen Clone Cover

Would a band composed of clones be considered a one-man band?  Okay, I know this video doesn't actually contain any clones.  But this guy creatively covered Queen's "Killer Queen".  He sings all of the parts and plays all of the instruments.  I love it.

Enjoy!

Musical Preferences

Scientific American has an interesting article about how teenagers choose their music. Apparently it is much like how people choose anything, through peer pressure.  Miley Cyrus sold 4 million albums last year dispite having little to no talent.  Similar things happened when Brittany Spears, Ashley Simpson, any boy band, etc became popular.  Kids tend to choose their music based on what they perceive other kids will like.  Anyways, here is the article.

But how do these paradoxical success stories take off?  It probably begins like any movement.  Popular people make their choices and others copy it.  Malcolm Gladwell describes this phenomenon in The Tipping Point.  The people that can start the fire on a popular movement are called connectors, mavens, and salesmen.  They usually have good skills, but they have to be respected by their peers.  The salesmen group may have the most effect on Miley Cyrus.  No one advertises better than The Walt Disney Company.

The Common Controversy

I wanted to post about this on Friday, but Blogger experienced some difficulties that prevented me from accessing my account.  So I will just talk about this today.

Last week, the Obama's invited the Chicago rapper and lyrical poet, Common, to perform at a poetry reading event in the White House.  Fresh off of the President's birth certificate revelation and Bin Laden extermination, the right wing needed something new to attack him for.  In this case, they chose to question why he invited Common to the White House.  Fox News and their hosts provided the most idiotic statements about this non-event while attempting to resurrect the "dangerous black man" routine.  They claimed that Common raps about drugs and cop-killing.  He doesn't.  In fact, Common may be one of the most positive rappers in today's music.

This was nothing more than another attempt to play to the racist elements of those who oppose President Obama.  People do exist who hate our President for nothing more than being black.  The birth certificate issue, his name, his school records, and now the Common Controversy, all have the same basic intent.  To emphasize that Barack Obama is not white.

Hannity, Beck, Palin and others can say that they are not racist, which might be true.  But they are playing to the racists in their followers by promoting this kind of racially and culturally motivated animosity.  I bet they do it unintentionally.  They reflexively attack anything our President does and will use anything to smear him.  If it comes off as racist, then that is just liberals playing the race card.

I will leave you with Jon Stewart's segment on Fox News' latest hissy fit.  Below the fold, you will also find Common's performance at the White House.

The Daily Show - Common Performs at the White House
Tags: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Redemption Song

I love this song.  And this is a great version with people playing together from across the globe.

Just sit back and enjoy!

The Pachelbel Rant in D

Rob Paravonian has this great routine about his hatred of Pachelbel's Canon in D.  Most people recognize the song when they hear it, but never realize how the same chord progression shows up in a lot of pop music songs.  Here is the chord progression :

D  A  Bm  D/F#  G  D  G  A

Enjoy!

A Pentatonic Population

At the 2009 World Science Festival, Bobby McFerrin provides this amazing demonstration of the Pentatonic Scale.  He truly helps with the search for a common chorus and shows us the music is a universal human trait.


World Science Festival 2009: Bobby McFerrin Demonstrates the Power of the Pentatonic Scale from World Science Festival on Vimeo.