"Had A Dream"
Bird York

MySpace doesn’t do this cut justice.  But you MUST check it out: Bird York.

They must stream at about 56k, or use some kind of compression that does the music a disservice, on MySpace.  Because even the MP3 I stole ripped at 128 sounds completely different/much better.  Oh, to hear this on VINYL, enveloping the room in rich sound.  You can BASK in analog, you’re INCLUDED, you’re TAKEN AWAY!

When I first heard this at about 2:15 this afternoon on XM’s Loft I thought it was good, but not spectacular.  It was the instrumentation that got to me.  Clive Davis says it’s all about the SONG (and now Jimmy Iovine too!  Ears wide open ), but sometimes it’s about the RECORD!  The production, the ATMOSPHERE!

I read on Kathleen’s, yes, that’s what her Website says her real first name is, MySpace page that she co-composed the Oscar-nominated song for "Crash", but who KNEW??

Her album came out on Narada, I think most people have classified it as jazz, but THIS is Starbucks music.  Howard Schultz should stop fucking with dead people and play stuff like THIS at his outlets, then CDs will blow out the door!

Really, check this out.  It’s the coldest night of the season in L.A.  It’s good to be inside, with a record that wraps you up and makes you feel warm, ALIVE!

"Nightingale"
Norah Jones

This followed "Had A Dream" on the Loft.

This is contained on Norah’s diamond-plus debut, "Come Away With Me", but it never registered previously.  It needed to be set up, by a deejay, who already had me HOOKED!

This sounds like early Bonnie Raitt as opposed to smooth jazz.

People have the illusion, the BUSINESS has the illusion, that it’s the single that propels you to multiplatinum.  Whereas it’s the ALBUM tracks that keep a record selling.  And keep people coming back for more.  If you don’t know this, you should.  As for stealing it…

There are so many spoofs of this four year old track in cyberspace, it’s laughable.

I own a CD.  Maybe many.  But who knows where the disc(s) IS?

But with the label fucking with me, there’s NO WAY I’m gonna buy it, certainly not again.  I was determined, I got it.  Monetize this behavior, don’t try to hold it back.  I only heard the track once, I didn’t know if needed to own it, lower the threshold of acquisition.

"(We Ain’t Got) Nothin’ Yet"
Blues Magoos

When I went to download this, I found out it was on the "Big Chill" soundtrack.  I thought it was more UNDERGROUND than that.  But then I realized "Big Chill" was over TWENTY YEARS AGO and this sixties hit has been forgotten again.  God, the THROWAWAYS were classic back in the sixties.  And this MESMERIZED me, ENRAPTURED me last Monday afternoon when I heard it on XM’s Sixties on 6.  But the real reason I’m mentioning it now is because of the FOLLOW-UP!

"B-A-B-Y"
Carla Thomas

Maybe I’m not that familiar with this take, the original, because it broke in the summer.  A summer I went cross-country and then was interned in Boy Scout camp.  I’m more familiar with the remake.

We were all Stiff-entranced.  That’s what Elvis Costello and his producer Nick Lowe did.  Elvis wasn’t exactly king, as he proclaimed on the cover of his debut, but he was QUITE the breath of fresh air.  He was post-punk.  He wasn’t polished, but he wasn’t dumbed-down either.  I still love the debut most.  But he had quite a streak for a while there.  I heard "Green Shirt" on my iPod the other night, and it was a REVELATION!

If it said Stiff, I bought it.  Not only Ian Dury and the Blockheads, but Rachel Sweet.  Who wasn’t even twenty and didn’t write her own songs and was from OHIO for god’s sake.

But Rachel’s well-worn remake isn’t even in the LEAGUE of the original.  Carla Thomas’ take SWINGS!

The lights are low.  Someone has just dropped the needle on the 45 on the record player in the corner.  And the music, it motivates you…TO GET UP AND DANCE!

Beats can’t compare with this.  Beats can make your body move, but they can’t make your blood BOIL!

It’s like Carla Thomas is on the dance floor.  You can see her swinging her hips, TWISTING.  She’s not showing off, she’s in it WITH YOU!

The Knickerbockers’ fantastic "Lies" followed this, right into my garage, but it’s "B-A-B-Y" I haven’t been able to forget, that I’ve been playing in my mind for a week.

"Here (In Your Arms)"
Hellogoodbye

I got so much hate mail, I tuned into XM’s Ethel, just to see what was going on in the alternative world, the home of Coachella.

You’ve got to get in the mood for modern alternative, but once a few tracks set the tone, you’re open, stuff REACHES YOU, like this.

I couldn’t get out of the car.  I wanted to see where it went.

And when I got in my house, I fired up Amazon to find out the album came out in…September?  And it’s number…517?

It’s on Drive-Thru, it’s got the stamp of hip authority, but it’s like it wasn’t even released.

And then I drove by the House of Blues Friday night.  LONG before showtime, the boulevard was PACKED, with people waiting to get in.  On the marquee was HELLOGOODBYE!

In the eighties, shit like this was ALL OVER MTV.  To the point where we started to get suspicious, we started to believe the acts were one hit wonders.  Disco might have killed AOR, but at least it died.  MTV lived for years, until nobody believed in anything but the single, to the point where it wasn’t about the act, but the TRACK!

If MTV still ruled, this would be a giant hit.

If it hasn’t been in a commercial yet, "Here (In Your Arms)" SHOULD be.  It will not only sell the product, but break ITSELF wide open.

When you can’t get  the OBVIOUS stuff on mainstream radio, you KNOW we’re in trouble.

Hellogoodbye

"High And Dry"
Jamie Cullum

I know, I know, the Radiohead version is better.  And, IT IS!

But there’s magic here.  The trappings are removed, the vocals are not so raw, the track is not so HEAVY!  It has a WHOLE NEW MEANING!

The original is intimate, but this is too.  It’s just that it’s for a different audience.  One that can’t digest Radiohead, one that likes its music slicker, more akin to Elton John.

This guy has gone too jazz for me.  At times he reminds me of Peter Allen, and that IS NOT good.  But he hits here.  Listen to this.

Although you might have a hard time finding it, stealing it, there are a ton of spoofs out there.

Heard originally, on you guessed it, the Loft, with wider boundaries, encompassing more music, than even I thought the station did.  It’s not about niche, it’s about SENSIBILITY!