Diabolical!

Diabolical!

H/t Allen Varney​
https://youtu.be/JpfbDLFSZb4

This AI-generated Christmas carol is without doubt the best seasonal music I've heard this Yuletide. The Guardian:

This AI-generated Christmas carol is without doubt the best seasonal music I've heard this Yuletide. The Guardian:

Known to its creators as “neural karaoke”, the project from the University of Toronto can take any digital photo and transform it into a computer-generated singalong. It is a whimsical demonstration of what artificial intelligence (AI) might do for us beyond the familiar: giving voice to chatbots, wiping billions off the stock market, and ultimately destroying the human race.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/nov/29/its-no-christmas-no-1-but-ai-generated-song-brings-festive-cheer-to-researchers

On the turntable at Frontier Cafe, a laid back desert oasis in Yucca Valley, Ca. On the road again...

On the turntable at Frontier Cafe, a laid back desert oasis in Yucca Valley, Ca. On the road again...

You Want It Darker (feat. Cantor Gideon Y. Zelermyer) - Leonard Cohen

You Want It Darker

Leonard Cohen

Lyrics

If you are the dealer, I'm out of the game
If you are the healer, it means I'm broken and lame
If thine is the glory then mine must be the shame
You want it darker
We kill the flame

Magnified, sanctified, be thy holy name
Vilified, crucified, in the human frame
A million candles burning for the help that never came
You want it darker

Hineni, hineni
I'm ready, my lord

There's a lover in the story
But the story's still the same
There's a lullaby for suffering
And a paradox to blame
But it's written in the scriptures
And it's not some idle claim
You want it darker
We kill the flame

They're lining up the prisoners
And the guards are taking aim
I struggled with some demons
They were middle class and tame
I didn't know I had permission to murder and to maim
You want it darker

Hineni, hineni
I'm ready, my lord

Magnified, sanctified, be thy holy name
Vilified, crucified, in the human frame
A million candles burning for the love that never came
You want it darker
We kill the flame

If you are the dealer, let me out of the game
If you are the healer, I'm broken and lame
If thine is the glory, mine must be the shame
You want it darker

Hineni, hineni
Hineni, hineni
I'm ready, my lord

Hineni
Hineni, hineni
Hineni


https://play.google.com/music/m/Tbevw7lsqyny53p37gt5pynw2ay?t=You_Want_It_Darker_feat_Cantor_Gideon_Y_Zelermyer_-_Leonard_Cohen

I'm fairly confident that my six-year-old is the only kid in America who knows the words to "Whiskey in the Jar" in...

I'm fairly confident that my six-year-old is the only kid in America who knows the words to "Whiskey in the Jar" in Russian.
https://play.google.com/music/m/Tyywdfyxriw7m7pnfutnodehvv4

Tanya Tagaq's new album is intensely and unrelentingly brutal --- a sound that I can only describe as pre-Industrial.

Tanya Tagaq's new album is intensely and unrelentingly brutal --- a sound that I can only describe as pre-Industrial.

Her previous album won the Polaris Prize for Canadian music in 2014, beating out Arcade Fire and Drake. Via Pitchfork:

She wins $30,000, and in her acceptance speech, she encouraged people to wear and eat seals. "And fuck PETA."
https://play.google.com/music/m/Bmcif7u4n76emxksihyjh2zwbxe?t=Retribution_-_Tanya_Tagaq

Enter Hevisaurus: four insanely popular Finnish dinosaurs (and a dragon) that play power metal for all the children...

Enter Hevisaurus: four insanely popular Finnish dinosaurs (and a dragon) that play power metal for all the children around the world. The story goes that Herra Hevisaurus, Milli Pilli, Komppi Momppi, Riffi Raffi and Muffi Puffi hatched from 65 million-year-old metal eggs in 2009, which were unearthed on a mountain by lightning bolts and a witch’s spell. They are bloodthirsty warrior beasts yes, but ones that drink milk, eat cookies, and stay in school! And since formation they have become a Finnish institution, selling over 170,000 albums in their home country, and spawning tribute versions in countries around the world (in Argentina they are called Heavisaurios)
https://noisey.vice.com/en_uk/article/meet-hevisaurus-from-finland?utm_source=dmfb

Animism by indigenous Canadian throat singer Tanya Tagaq starts with a startling cover of The Pixies' "Caribou" and...

Animism by indigenous Canadian throat singer Tanya Tagaq starts with a startling cover of The Pixies' "Caribou" and then veers into progressively weirder chants and grooves. This track made my captive audience passenger on a long car ride declare "Why are we listening to this? It's HORRIBLE!"


https://play.google.com/music/m/Tksgx5syqi3h3p7rrvamwqtuioe?t=Damp_Animal_Spirits_-_Tanya_Tagaq

This makes me happy!

This makes me happy!

H/t +Kee Hinckley

Originally shared by PostmodernJukebox

New Video! Remember Gunhild Carling, the Swedish virtuoso that rick rolled us on bagpipes, trumpet, trombone and recorder? She's back, and she's got a few more talents to show off on the 1920s version of "Material Girl," filmed aboard the Queen Mary!

Get tix to see PMJ on tour in North America this month: http://www.pmjtour.com

Download this song: http://smarturl.it/pmjmaterial
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUuQ4hoXsCM&feature=autoshare

I'm not sure what to make of the Bob Dylan's Nobel Prize for Literature.

I'm not sure what to make of the Bob Dylan's Nobel Prize for Literature. The literary merit of his early work is unquestionable, but is opening the doors to literary Valhalla to a wandering minstrel a capitulation to popular culture? Perhaps not a bad thing. Via WSJ, some men of letters are skeptical.

Gary Shteyngart, meanwhile, appeared to disagree with the academy’s decision. “I totally get the Nobel committee,” the author wrote. “Reading books is hard.” Irvine Welsh was even stronger in his dissent, writing, “I’m a Dylan fan, but this is an ill conceived nostalgia award wrenched from the rancid prostates of senile, gibbering hippies."
http://www.wsj.com/articles/nobel-prize-in-literature-awarded-to-bob-dylan-1476356723

Björk's version of "The Fool on the Hill" in Icelandic!!!

Björk's version of "The Fool on the Hill" in Icelandic!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBWpAGfj0fA&feature=share

On the birth of the Irish traditional music revival:

On the birth of the Irish traditional music revival:

Between 1961 and 1969 Ó Riada lead the Ceoltóirí Chualann group. They played in concert halls dressed in black suits with white shirts and black bow ties, but relied on traditional songs and tunes. An ordinarycéilidh band or show-band would have musicians who competed with each other to grab the attention of the audience. Ceoltóirí Chualann played sparse lucid arrangements. Ó Riada sat in the middle at front playing a harpsichord and a bodhrán, a hand-held frame-drum. This was an instrument that had almost died out, being played only by small boys in street parades. Ceilí bands generally had jazz-band drum-kits. Ó Riada also wanted to use the clarsach or wire-strung harp in the band, but as these were as yet unavailable, he played the harpsichord instead – in his opinion the nearest sound to a clarsach. The harpsichord he used on a regular basis was made byCathal Gannon. Unknown to Ó Riada, Irish folk music was being played ensemble-style in London pubs, but for most people of Ireland this was the first time they heard these tunes played by a band.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Se%C3%A1n_%C3%93_Riada?wprov=sfla1

Smeceno Horo - Planxty

https://play.google.com/music/m/Tnibuxeehjtaelrmcf6yo4t6d34?t=Smeceno_Horo_-_Planxty

_It is known all over the world.

_It is known all over the world. According to an article by Hiromi Oketani in the Osaka Shoin Women's College Annual for 1994, it is known in Japan as Neko Funjatta (ねこふんじゃった, I Stepped on the Cat), in Spain as La Chocolatera, in the Netherlands as Vlooienmars (Flea March), in Belgium as Valse de Puce (Flea Waltz), in Russia as Sobachiy Val's(Собачий Вальс, Dog Waltz), in Poland as Kotlety(Cutlet), in Bulgaria as Koteshki Marsh (Cat March), in Hungary as Szamárinduló (Donkey March), and in Majorca as Polca de los Tontos (Fools' Polka). In Mexico it is called Los Changuitos (The Little Monkeys), in Finland Kissanpolkka (Cat's Polka), in the Czech Republic "Prasečí valčík" (Pig Waltz), in Sweden Kalle Johansson and in Slovakia "Somársky pochod" (Donkey March). In China it is called “跳蚤圆舞曲” (Flea Waltz). In the United Kingdom, the melody is known as Chopsticks, while in the US that name refers to another melody._
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Der_Flohwalzer?wprov=sfla1

The Mathematical Hamilton Parody You Never Knew You Needed

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/roots-of-unity/the-mathematical-hamilton-parody-you-never-knew-you-needed/

NYTimes reports on the breakup of SMAP, a perennial Japanese boy band (now a middle-aged man band):

NYTimes reports on the breakup of SMAP, a perennial Japanese boy band (now a middle-aged man band):

To understand the bedlam unfolding here, think of the Beatles’ breaking up, the airing of the final episode of “Seinfeld” and the “conscious uncoupling” of Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin all rolled into one — the end of an era on the Japanese cultural landscape.

SMAP’s most famous saccharine single, “The Only Flower in the World,” is regularly taught in Japan’s schools. But SMAP is not just a wildly popular band whose albums have sold more than 35 million copies, making it one of the most successful musical acts in Japanese history.

For two decades, its five members — Masahiro Nakai, Takuya Kimura, Goro Inagaki, Tsuyoshi Kusanagi and Shingo Katori — have also hosted one of Japan’s top-rated television programs, “SMAP X SMAP,” a family-friendly variety show in which they cook for celebrity guests, compete in games, perform comedic skits and, of course, sing. Each has starred on his own in numerous television series, movies and commercials. The frontman, Mr. Nakai, has been a newscaster for several Olympic Games.

The group, whose members started out as teenagers performing on skateboards and now range in age from 39 to 44, managed to both broaden its audience beyond adolescent girls and hold on to them over the years. Many of their most ardent fans are women who grew up with them.

SMAP, an acronym for Sports Music Assemble People, also has legions of fans in China, South Korea, Taiwan and elsewhere in Asia.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/20/world/asia/japan-smap-breakup.html

Hellig Usvart is a seminal 1994 album by Australian metal multi-instrumentalist Jayson Sherlock.

Hellig Usvart is a seminal 1994 album by Australian metal multi-instrumentalist Jayson Sherlock. Dubbed "unblack metal" or Christian death metal, it's unclear whether the album is a proclamation of Christian faith in a death metal idiom, or a deadpan parody of death metal's Satanic tropes. Consider the track list:

1. "A Church Bell Tolls Amidst the Frozen Nordic Winds"
2. "Blasphemous Abomination of the Satanic Pentagram"
3. "Behold, the Rising of the Scarlet Moon"
4. "Thine Hour Hast Come"
5. "Release and Clothe the Virgin Sacrifice"
6. "Drink From the Chalice of Blood"
7. "Silence the Blasphemous Chanting"
8. "Invert the Inverted Cross"
9. "An Abandoned Grave Bathes Softly in the Falling Moonlight"
10. "Crush the Bloodied Horns of the Goat"
11. "Weak, Feeble, and Dying Anti-Christ"
12. "The Day of Total Armageddon Holocaust"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hellig_Usvart

The new film Florence Foster Jenkins, starring Meryl Streep and Hugh Grant, tells the story of a wealthy New York...

The new film Florence Foster Jenkins, starring Meryl Streep and Hugh Grant, tells the story of a wealthy New York narcissist who imagines herself a great performing artiste -- a political allegory for our times without the frightening edge of fascism.

Here are the reminiscences of Madame Jenkins' accompanist Cosmé McMoon, who had no illusions about her lack of skill. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r42IE6DX9io

For Google Play Music-using Geeps, here's a list of recordings I found fun/interesting.

For Google Play Music-using Geeps, here's a list of recordings I found fun/interesting. Discussion or recommendations for further listening welcome!
https://play.google.com/music/playlist/AMaBXyl0JeKIbTA2T5q4jao8jzp3jEFnRfFB6NZ6w3eLYbdWf7Con9uMxRDnpIFXsu4EpXufE906i47clq_vzNjKsL72KufBWw%3D%3D

Music is present in every culture, but the degree to which it is shaped by biology remains debated.

Music is present in every culture, but the degree to which it is shaped by biology remains debated. One widely discussed phenomenon is that some combinations of notes are perceived by Westerners as pleasant, or consonant, whereas others are perceived as unpleasant, or dissonant1. The contrast between consonance and dissonance is central to Western music2, 3, and its origins have fascinated scholars since the ancient Greeks4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. Aesthetic responses to consonance are commonly assumed by scientists to have biological roots11, 12, 13, 14, and thus to be universally present in humans15, 16. Ethnomusicologists17 and composers8, in contrast, have argued that consonance is a creation of Western musical culture6. The issue has remained unresolved, partly because little is known about the extent of cross-cultural variation in consonance preferences18. Here we report experiments with the Tsimane’—a native Amazonian society with minimal exposure to Western culture—and comparison populations in Bolivia and the United States that varied in exposure to Western music. Participants rated the pleasantness of sounds. Despite exhibiting Western-like discrimination abilities and Western-like aesthetic responses to familiar sounds and acoustic roughness, the Tsimane’ rated consonant and dissonant chords and vocal harmonies as equally pleasant. By contrast, Bolivian city- and town-dwellers exhibited significant preferences for consonance, albeit to a lesser degree than US residents. The results indicate that consonance preferences can be absent in cultures sufficiently isolated from Western music, and are thus unlikely to reflect innate biases or exposure to harmonic natural sounds. The observed variation in preferences is presumably determined by exposure to musical harmony, suggesting that culture has a dominant role in shaping aesthetic responses to music.

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v535/n7613/full/nature18635.html

Renaissance Swiss Army Man sound track.

Renaissance Swiss Army Man sound track.
https://play.google.com/music/m/Bxnk2iizfmfm5uwoodjymcml6ke?t=Gesualdo_Sacred_Music_For_Five_Voices_Complete_-_Carlo_Gesualdo

Imagine Brian Wilson and Carlo Gesualdo stuck on a desert island. Thanks for the tip, Andreas Schou​!

Imagine Brian Wilson and Carlo Gesualdo stuck on a desert island. Thanks for the tip, Andreas Schou​!
https://play.google.com/music/m/B5arra3tilf5i4cw36kkpfhbj5m?t=Swiss_Army_Man_Original_Motion_Picture_Soundtrack_-_Andy_Hull_and_Robert_McDowell

The Wall Street Journal on the enduring influence of Kill the Wabbit, a miniature Wagnerian masterpiece:

The Wall Street Journal on the enduring influence of Kill the Wabbit, a miniature Wagnerian masterpiece:

“I could sing you the entire cartoon before I knew what opera really was,” says Elizabeth Bishop, who performs the part of Fricka, wife of Wotan, king of the gods, [in the current Kennedy center production of Wagner's Ring Cycle.]

The rabbit in question is Bugs Bunny, who, in the 1957 Warner Bros. cartoon “What’s Opera, Doc?” finds himself hunted by Elmer Fudd, in the part of the hero, Siegfried.

“Kiww the wabbit! Kiww the wabbit!” Elmer, in an ill-fitting magic helmet, sings to the urgent strains of Ride of the Valkyries as he jabs his spear into a rabbit hole.

Bugs flees, dons a breast plate and blond braids, climbs atop an obese white horse, and for two minutes and a ballet interlude, fools the smitten Elmer into thinking he is Brünnhilde.

“Oh, Bwünnhilde, you’re so wovewy,” Elmer croons.

“Yes, I know it,” Bugs answers coquettishly. “I can’t help it.”

“Those of us who didn’t freak at the sight of a rabbit in a winged helmet sliding off of the back of a fat horse—we went into opera,” says Ms. Bishop, 49, who grew up in Greenville, S.C.


http://www.wsj.com/articles/singers-wecall-how-elmer-fudd-bugs-bunny-tuned-them-to-wagner-roles-1463753848

I wonder whether there is a parallel musical trope in Asian or Middle Eastern music that denotes exotic...

I wonder whether there is a parallel musical trope in Asian or Middle Eastern music that denotes exotic Occidentalism?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oriental_riff?wprov=sfla1

A fun retrospective look at Heavy Metal Parking Lot, a gonzo documentary showing the scene outside a Judas Priest...

A fun retrospective look at Heavy Metal Parking Lot, a gonzo documentary showing the scene outside a Judas Priest concert in 1986. 

The film itself is a miniature masterpiece of cringe-inducing behavior and aesthetics. There are many nice touches--- look for the juxtaposition of the Jewish and Confederate Judas Priest fans.
http://theconcourse.deadspin.com/the-deranged-true-story-of-heavy-metal-parking-lot-the-1758026762

Emerson, Lake and Palmer playing their version of Aaron Copeland's Fanfare for the Common Man in Montreal, 1977.

Emerson, Lake and Palmer playing their version of Aaron Copeland's Fanfare for the Common Man in Montreal, 1977.
https://youtu.be/0OLWgrr671g

A fantastic George Martin track with Stackridge, a quirky English pop act from the mid-1970's.

A fantastic George Martin track with Stackridge, a quirky English pop act from the mid-1970's. It's like the Beatles without the Beatles.
https://play.google.com/music/m/T7lkuxf7uac5db2ntgiidhpy6pa?t=To_The_sun_and_Moon_-_Stackridge

How to get my ears on this?

How to get my ears on this?
http://www.allmusic.com/album/d%C3%B8dens-triumf-mw0000767981

Bazaar, a long-running instrumental trio from Denmark, is best known for spacey Balkan- and Afro-Cuban-inspired folk...

Bazaar, a long-running instrumental trio from Denmark, is best known for spacey Balkan- and Afro-Cuban-inspired folk jazz from the 1970's. This relatively recent album shows Bazaar is breaking new ground late in their careers. Truly superb stuff. 
https://play.google.com/music/m/Baamnrqtansv7me3imfyjfvyxvu?t=Triology_-_Bazaar

David Bowie's 1972 appearance on BBC's Top of the Pops was a breakout performance that won him a mass UK audience.

David Bowie's 1972 appearance on BBC's Top of the Pops was a breakout performance that won him a mass UK audience. 

Captivated by the garish theatrical flourishes and sexual ambiguity of Bowie's character Ziggy Stardust --- a glamorous, messianic space alien --- the public subsequently remembered him primarily in that role and judged his later work in reference to Ziggy. 

This fallacy --- the inability to perceive Bowie's subsequent work as a series of entirely different artistic personas --- could be called a Starman argument.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYej6RTmICo&feature=player_embedded

The New York Times notes that for the last 25 years, David Bowie was a regular though ultrawealthy Manhattanite who...

The New York Times notes that for the last 25 years, David Bowie was a regular though ultrawealthy Manhattanite who managed to move through the masses almost invisibly.

[Bowie's wife] Iman once described Mr. Bowie as a “homebody”;The Onion imagined him as a “pansexual alien” staying in to “do lasagna for dinner.” He led a pretty normal-seeming life. He shopped for groceries once a week at Dean & DeLuca. He loved the chicken sandwich with watercress and tomatoes at Olive’s on Prince Street. He liked to rise at 6 a.m. and get his “buzz” by walking the still-empty streets of Chinatown.


http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/01/17/fashion/david-bowie-invisible-new-yorker.html?referer=

David Bowie and Brian Eno's finest hour.

David Bowie and Brian Eno's finest hour. 
http://www.davidbowie.com/video/heroes-1977-50826

The video is even weirder than the song.

The video is even weirder than the song. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kszLwBaC4Sw&feature=share

Happy 69th birthday, David Bowie​​. Your new album is excellent and fits well in this Collection.

Happy 69th birthday, David Bowie​​. Your new album is excellent and fits well in this Collection.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackstar_%28David_Bowie_album%29

Happy 90th birthday to George Martin, the producer of the entire Beatles catalogue.

Happy 90th birthday to George Martin, the producer of the entire Beatles catalogue. My household has resounded with the sound of the Beatles for days, as they have recently become available on the music streaming services. Martin's wizardry accounts for at least 20% of the Beatles' brilliance.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Martin