links, songs, videos, etc.
Here are a bunch of links and thoughts and things that have come up over the last few days.
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Yup, Michael Jackson died. I’ve been pondering whether to post about it. If you want a proper tribute and a truly excellent MJ mix, head to Soul Sides.
I think something that people do realize and what I think is most amazing is that Jackson holds the record for best selling album of all time by a factor of >2X. That is, if the second best selling album ever (Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon and AC/DC Back in Black) sold twice as many records as they ever had, Thriller would still beat them by 20 million units. And with the way that record industry is going, I doubt that record will ever be broken. It had seven top 10 singles on it. You can say what you want about radio payola and major labels force-feeding people music, but I doubt a single record will ever capture so many people’s attention again.
Here’s a nice post with reminiscences by engineers and producers that worked with MJ. It gives a bit more insight into the musician Jackson was.
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Ali Akbar Khan also died last week. He was one of the foremost proponents and teachers of classical music of North India. A master of the sarod, Khansahib was recognized, along with Ravi Shankar and Nikhil Banerjee, as having been instrumental in bringing Indian music to the west. The Ali Akbar Khan College of Music was local here in San Rafael and Khansahib lived locally so this is also a great blow to the local music community.
Listen to this beautiful piece that really shows his mastery of the sarod.
Ali Akbar Khan – Tarana in Bhupali (mp3) (buy
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On a lighter note, The Octopus Project (myspace) have released the first track off of their forthcoming EP, Golden Beds. I have a bit of a think for their rare tracks with vocals and this one works well. (via MBV)
Octopus Project – Wet Gold (mp3)
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Over the weekend I watched Adele’s (myspace) performance of “Hometown Glory” (a song I wrote about recently) about half a dozen times. It’s gorgeous and her voice is spot on. I can’t find a video of just the performance, but you can find it within this full episode:
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Who doesn’t love seeing some pure joy in music? See it when the Gaslight Anthem performs “‘59 Sound” with the Boss, one of their most obvious influences. I’m still enamoured with the song (and I know the words better than Springsteen). Brian Fallon, Gaslight’s lead singer, understandably milks this for everything its worth.
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Finally, I don’t really get ripping on P4k. I don’t really pay attention to much that they do anymore (except for their news section), but Popsense took a different take: they reviewed every thing Pitchfork did for a day. Their final rating? 6.7. Pretty well done.
