Lost Grateful Dead Show: 'Collectors Are Going to Flip Out'

Lost Grateful Dead Show: 'Collectors Are Going to Flip Out'

     Six months ago, some lost tapes of a Grateful Dead show in 1970 at the Family Dog in San Francisco were discovered among the late Jerry Garcia's belongings.  They were sent to David Lemieux, the bands arcivist.  He was able to confirm that these tapes were among ones not currently known.  The sound quality of the reel is great, even though it spent 43 years in less than optimal storage conditions.  The reel is significant because the band wasn't called the Grateful Dead back then.  They were billed as Mickey Hart and the Heartbeats and Bobby Ace and the Cards from the Bottom of the Deck.  They didn't perform a full set, only an 80-minute acoustic set.  Lemineux describes this as "transitional" time for them.  ""People are going to be pretty shocked by what's to come," [Lemineux} promised."  For Lemineux, as an archivist, this is exciting for him because fans will get to hear something that no one ever knew existed six months ago. "It's very rare, it's unique, and collectors are going to flip out on it," he said.

Miley Cyrus Revisited

Miley Cyrus Bambi Awards

    On Nov 14th, Miley performed "Wrecking Ball" at the Bambi Awards in Germany.  She made the news because in this raw version she was accompanied only by three acoustic guitars and she was wearing clothes.  Yes, she made news because she was wearing clothes.  The music video for this song was extremely controversial as she was nude throughout the video and it was feared she would be wearing something akin to the MTV performance.  When she took the stage she was wearing a neon yellow outfit that only showed a hint of her belly and legs.  And at another event she received award and blatantly took out a joint and smoked it on stage during her award acceptance.  She did not do that at this event.  She won the best International Pop act Bambi.

Bingo Players

Paul Oakenfold Talks EDM

     This is a nice short article from Rolling Stone.  Oakenfold is talking about how the new generation in America is really getting into EDM or Electronic Dance Music.  He talks about his album and how it is hard to stand out because everyone has access to the same sounds.  He mentions that music, for him, is meant to be shared, not just for the individual.  He feels like "America has finally woken up and started to dance...there's nothing wrong with that."  He feels like what has changed is that house music is now pop music.  He mentions some artists like Avicci and Danny Howard are a couple DJs that are catching his eyes.  "I think it's important to give back.  I think it's important to realize that things have changed and embrace the future."

Childhood - Jamta Kya

     This is one of the songs I helped compose and record for the group Jamta Kya a few years ago.  This song is also mentioned in the interview I did with one the band members.  This song is about childhood in general as they each had similar upbringings.  For them, childhood was walking down the street with friends, locking arms and talking about their troubles, frustrations, and dreams.  The beginning was meant to bring you back to a simpler time of sitting around the radio listening to the radio with friends, relaxing outside.  I and the band felt like we were able to accomplish that. This was a very special project for me.  I got to know four amazing Indian guys as well as learn a new culture and a sliver of its music.

     If you haven't noticed, I love covers.  Lindsay Sterling and Pentatonix released this cover last march, and it is amazing.  Pentatonix is an amazing a cappella group that was on the show Sing Off a few years ago.  Lindsay Sterling is an amazing violinist who caters to both the nerds and the pop crowd.  Her musical ability is out of this world and I can listen to her for hours on end.
    I chose this video because it's using human voices and violin to recreate a current pop song as faithfully is amazing.  Also their use of imagery within the video itself was powerful.  With the first thing you see is "everything must end".  It looks as if they are in a town destroyed by an atomic explosion.  A great piece of artistic work.

Fireflies Cover

     I am a huge Owl City fan and I love finding covers of his and other artists songs.  This is an amazing cover.  This video makes me feel like I am in a coffee shop or someones living room listening to someone play.  I could listen to him for hours.  He has other songs that he's covered and they are also extremely well done.  I found this video on YouTube and have since subscribed to his channel.

     For me, I feel like these are authentic acoustic versions of the songs as he plays through the entire song. If the respective artists were to make acoustic versions they would be his versions. His ability to recreate the opening to the Fireflies song while playing both the rhythm and vocal parts at the same time is just fantastic.  He uses other types of guitars in his other videos, including a ukulele and a guitarlele, which is ukulele with six strings tuned in the same tuning as a regular acoustic guitar.

Thai Bluegrass

     I was very amused when I read this article and by the videos shown in class.  It was interesting seeing a style of music, that isn't very mainstream for us, become elevated to the same place as current pop music.  I really enjoyed watching the guys with the cowboy outfits lassoing and gun-slinging as the girls went nuts.  What I also noticed is that they were able to emulate not just the instrumental elements and cowboy imagery, but also the vocal elements.  Being able to add the twang in the right parts and not overdoing it is difficult.  It makes me think of how here we have our different accents and the phrases we use when emulating those accents.

     It was interesting how serious they were at making this music.  Their focus on pronunciation was key to being successful for them.  When the ethnomusicologist commented on her subjects pronunciation, the person stopped singing and the tape was replaced by a different one after that.  This emphasis on pronunciation isn't strange to me.  They fear being misunderstood and being made fun of by fellow Thais and foreigners.  I experienced a similar situation when I was in China.  Many of the students wanted to practice their English, because they felt that if they mispronounced a word, it would change the meaning.  While, for us, that isn't necessarily true, it is for both the Thai and Chinese languages, which are tonal.  This means you can say the same sound, in Mandarin for example, in four different tones and it means four different words.