Worldly Wednesday: “Glasgow,” Shout Out Louds

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Hej, Sverige!  It’s two-for-one day at The Daily Tune-Up!  This fun indie band is from Stockholm, Sweden, and the first half of this track has been going through my head all week.  I love the driving energy of this song, which makes it good for a mid-week pick, and also explains why it’s been in heavy rotation on my running playlist.  The lyrics are amusing, memorable, and fun to belt out when you’re commuting to and from work.  And it also sounds like a song that would be used in a slick TV ad to sell shoes or beer or cardigans or something – so now you can feel even cooler having heard it here first.  You’re welcome.

The second half of this track sounds like what the protagonist in the song would listen to the morning after the adventures in this song take place.  I really like it when artists complete the thought, as it were – when the music switches gears to give you a glimpse into the next part of the story the lyrics portrayed.  It’s like the end of the movie “The Graduate,” when the camera just keeps rolling after the young lovers made a break for it.  It sounds like real life.  There’s always a next stage.

Termagant Tuesday: “Walking Stick,” Leon Redbone

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Two words: Tuba, castanets.  Question: Could there be two instruments so perfectly suited? Answer: No.  Postscript: Duh. I admit, I had a bit of a problem figuring out what “mood” this song puts me in.  I don’t know whether there are words that exist to explain whatever mood it is.  That probably goes for the whole Redbone oeuvre.  I always get a kick out of the fact that Leon clearly enjoys playing this song so much that it speeds up to almost twice the original tempo.  What a strange, inexplicable song.

Modernism Monday: “Wind From The South,” The Gertrudes

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This respite from that wretched “polar vortex” gag has me dreaming of spring already, so of course The Gertrudes popped into my head.  This is such a chipper, happy song.  It’s also a great driving song, and, as your Yankette got home from a super fun road trip late last night, it’s vaguely apropos.  And, because I got home from a super fun road trip late last night, this is a very short post, so I apologize I’m not more verbose, Tune-Up fans.  I promise I’ll be extra wordy on Tuesday.  Happy Monday!

Sacred Sunday: “St. Ludmila,” Antonin Dvorak

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Good morning! This will put some adrenalin in your coffee. The bassoon that supports the tune at 0:42 makes me smile every time. And of course the chorus at 1:31 and 2:59 grabs you by the lapels until you get out of bed. This is sacred music, Czech style. Hospodine, pomiluj ny! Mighty Lord, have mercy on us.

Salubrious Saturday: “Walking in the Sun,” Fink

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You ever have those moments where you feel like you can look at yourself from a removed vantage point?  I had one of those moments not too long ago.  I was sitting in my office at work, and, all of a sudden and out of absolutely nowhere, I was able to look behind me (in my mind, of course) and see the path I’d walked on to get to where I was in that exact moment – doing what I was doing, wearing what I was wearing, all of it.  It was the strangest and most wonderful feeling.  I could see the places I had made an active decision, the places where an outside force had cleared a few feet of the path ahead, the places where I’d stumbled and made a slight course correction.  There were It made my life today seem both inevitable and accidental at the same time, in that everyone is a product of their own decisions but no one exists in a vacuum.  It was a beautiful moment.

That is what this song reminds me of.

Funk Friday: “Hold On, I’m Comin’,” Sam Moore & Dave Prater

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Stax Records is an absolute legend, so of course this recording of this song is, according to me, the very best one out there.  No doubt these guys have amazing voices, but layer them on top of some serious horns and a tight groove, and you get something on a whole other plane.  This has been one of those weeks when I have really leaned on my friends and man oh man am I grateful.  Happy Friday, Tune-Up fans!

Throwback Thursday: “Piano Concerto No. 1, BWV 1052, First Movement,” J.S. Bach

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One wonders why it took me this long to play Bach, since he is one of the major reasons I adore classical music.  This piece in particular makes me beside myself with happiness.  It’s slightly more constrained than the Schumann piano concerto I posted a few weeks ago – far more regulated – but it still has the same fire underneath.  I especially love Perahia’s interpretation here, which takes it at a wonderfully assertive clip.  The slow build-up beginning at 6:02 is so exciting, and you think it’ll resolve but psych!  There’s more!  Oh, Bach, you card.  You slay me.

Bach and Steve Reich both wrote music that satisfies the same craving: music that sounds like the part of my brain that is constantly jumping up and down, wanting to play.  Putting this energetic piece on allows that part of my brain to go on a play-date, leaving the calmer, quieter side behind to get some work done in peace.  Bach alone got me through about a quarter of grad school.  I should put some flowers on his grave or take one of his descendants out for a beer.  (Aside: how incredibly cool would it be to have a beer with a Bach descendant?)

Worldly Wednesday: “The Man in the Desert,” Yoko Kanno

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Something wakes up, stirs, and evolves in this piece.  It starts so simply but builds to a massive and complicated climax before resolving back to the six-note lilt with which it began.  It’s so hopeful throughout.  It feels like running your fingers over an angora blanket.  (Now is probably a good time to mention that your Yankette has mild synesthesia, which is when the senses get a little jumbled and, in this case, sounds have colors and textures.)  The beginning especially sounds like a convergence of Aaron Copland and Steve Reich, both of whom I love.  Yoko Kanno is a modern Japanese composer from Sendai, Japan.

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She is mostly known for her soundtracks to anime films and video games.  This is my favorite piece of hers.  I have been looking everywhere for the words.  Intrepid readers, if any of you can find them, I would really appreciate it.

Termagant Tuesday: “Blues My Naughty Sweetie Gave To Me,” Sidney Bechet

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Boy oh boy, this song really cooks.  The drums are just a hair ahead of the other instruments, the piano is ever so slightly behind, and the resulting mismatch in tempo gives the song the sexiest syncopation this side of a liberal Joplin cover.

And the harmonies when the horns come back in at 2:51.  I mean come on.  Just stop it.  And when Bechet lets it rip at 3:48.  Listen to how the piano settles down to match the drums’ tempo to allow Bechet to get loose.  This is such a gloriously American sound, a fusion of Tin Pan Alley and a New Orleans jazz funeral, with a dash of Django Reinhardt.

If you need me I’ll be in a smoky jazz club in Paris with a French 75, my man on my arm, and a whole evening of hedonism ahead.

Modernism Monday: “Giuliano’s Tune, Something, Eleanor Day’s #2,” The Duhks

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I feel a strong urge to post something unabashedly cheerful today to kick off the week, and The Duhks certainly deliver.  The Duhks are from Winnipeg (that’s above North Dakota, for my geography-challenegd friends), but the music they make really sounds like it’s from Newfoundland, or Scotland for that matter.  This song makes me want to participate in some type of organized group dancing that heavily features the swinging of one’s partner round and round.  If any of you have ever been to a ceilidh (Scottish country dancing) and know the dance “Strip the Willow,” this would be absolutely perfect.  Slàinte!