I don’t know a lot about The Jayhawks but I do know a few things. First of all, they seem to have just arrived, to the present, from the past. Seriously. Their music, their sound and their appearance is that of a band somewhere in the early 70′s, don’t you think? Their vocal styling, the way they’re recorded and captured lived, and even their harmonies are reminiscent of something much farther back in musical history. But this track is from 2006. It’s hard to believe.
The other thing I know about The Jayhawks is that this song is killer. On top of all the aged beauty of The Jayhawks style it’s simply a really good song. It’s simple and yet interesting. It lulls and soars and seems to be exactly the right length. Those harmonies do sound so good and the guitars, especially in this live version, are so crisp and clean and give the entire song a twangy kind of feel that I really dig.
Finally, I know that this song is perfect for a rainy, stormy day like today.
Yes, I like Fatboy Slim. He was pretty much all I listened to that one summer when I worked at Costco. Remember that summer? It was the last time the World Cup was on, in Germany. What a summer that was!
Besides being a fun, well-written and catchy song the video, like many Fatboy Slim videos, is really interesting. Oh, and I absolutely love the juxtaposition between the vocal acrobatics and the physical acrobatics on screen. Wonderful. Just you go ahead and try not to dance.
Here are the highlights from the pre-World Cup friendly between The Netherlands and Hungary. It looks like we’re ready for the World Cup! Now keep in mind, Hungary is currently ranked 57th versus the Dutch who sit at 4th…
I got into Sufjan Stevens on the cusp of the release of Michigan, his breakout album which would insure his rise to the top of the indie rock charts. Here was a guy doing something really new and interesting and, at the time, nobody had really heard of him. But, as it turns out, my future wife knew about him too, having seen him open for her Aunt and Uncle in a particularly unimpressive performance that must’ve surely been among his first as a solo artist—she even had a copy of his CD, I was impressed.
Of all the artists that write great songs Sufjan writes the best; it’s hard to choose my favourite track and if backed into a corner this probably wouldn’t be it. But I love this video too much not to choose it to share with you. So enjoy.
For the Widows of Paradise, For the Fatherless in Ypsilanti
In this special Victoria Day edition of Favourite Tracks I’d like to give a nod to two things: The fact that we don’t have to work today(!) and to the Monarchy who made all of this possible. To celebrate this great Canadian tradition, here are two tracks for one of the greatest bands of all time The Tragically Hip.
Music @ Work
After seeing the power and energy behind this performance I’ve decided that I could probably spare a couple digits to see The Hip live; that or I could just save up and pay for tickets.
Poets
And, of course, a classic piece of Canadiana. If you haven’t seen this before, you must. It’s The Hip performing live at the Queen’s Jubilee in Canada. I’ve never seen the whole Jubilee concert but if The Tragically Hip were on the bill I can’t imagine what other acts were involved, and what kind of wacky showcase of Canadian culture the Queen was treated too. Brilliant though, really.
In this new series Things I Swear By, I want to take a little look at some of the things that I swear by.
The rationale is this: we all have things in our lives that we depend upon, that we swear by. These are things: products, goods, services, routines, rituals, etc. that we’ve picked up somewhere along the way. They’ve become important to us, essential to us, and something that we couldn’t do without. I think we all have these things—we hear about them, or start doing them or using them, at the suggestion of a friend, a relative or a colleague… and they work. I thought it’d be fun to share a few of the things that I swear by, and maybe you can suggest some too.
Ricola
I first heard about Ricola from my wife, Maria, who knew about these wonderful cough drops from her aunt, a musician. Ricola are incredible. If you know nothing about them you might, at least, recall this commercial from the 90′s which featured two Swiss men alternately yelling, “Riiiiiiiicola!” and blowing into some kind of enormous horn. Does that ring any bells?
Ricola are cough drops made from all natural ingredients, some kind of mix of herbs found in the Swiss mountains, I gather, and they work great. As a teacher, I’m talking a lot so when I’m sick and have a sore throat it’s an absolute pain to try and teach. But Ricola are soothing and wonderful, and they taste good too. I personally can’t stand the menthol taste of Halls or the other alternatives but something like Ricola, which tastes pretty good and seems to be natural too, is really agreeable.
Out of all the stuff I’ve used for coughs and sore throats, Ricola is hands down the best. They’re natural. They taste good. And they work, tried and tested by musicians and teaches alike Ricola is something that I swear by.
I came across this brilliant individual on the Intertubes this morning and I just had to share.
Kenny “K-Strass” Strasser has been making the rounds on local American morning shows claiming to be a Yo-Yo Master with a non-profit organization called Zim Zam, LLC. The catch is, he is anything but proficient with a Yo-Yo. Strasser is a prankster and comedian of the highest order, it would seem.
A quick YouTube search reveals a plethora of appearances by K-Strass on the sets of unsuspecting morning news programs. Once on camera K-Strass is an awkward looking guy in green shorts, a white t-shirt with suspenders, and a yellow hat. He looks nervous, but I suspect that it’s all part of the act. The tricks K-Strass performs are hilarious. His special, the “Blue Flying Angel” involves him twirling around two handfuls of four Yo-Yos each—in one appearance, losing grip on one of them in the process. His tricks are clearly below amateur and don’t even involve any real Yo-Yoing, but he passes them off as genuine routines.
But his tricks aren’t the real trick. When given air-time K-Strass does anything but Yo-Yo, instead he talks about his failed marriages, his childhood and being spanked by his father, and even takes calls on his cellphone twice during one appearance. In one appearance he requests a “second of silence” after the loss of a supposed close friend, the “Garth Brooks of Yo-Yoing.” And, when he showed up for an appearance on another local morning news show, he told the hosts that he brought his Yo-Yos, but forgot the strings—instead describing the tricks he would’ve performed.
K-Strass is a master comedian and is already drawing comparisons to the late Andy Kaufman.
Here’s a clip of K-Strass from one local morning show:
And it’s not just pulling pranks, K-Strass, in my opinion, has reached the height of hilarity after an appearance on a local NBC station. Perplexed by his performance, the station was prompted to do an investigation segment on their own guest to find out who Kenny Strasser really was—something you think they’d do before having him on the show.
Strasser even remains in character under investigation.
Unfortunately, the station involved has pulled the video off of YouTube but as the NBC report suggests, that this might all be part of some kind of documentary that’s under production. I would love to see all the behind-the-scenes finagling of a guy pretending to be a Yo-Yo champion, and scamming American morning TV. Five stars.
