happy

Throwback Thursday: “Prelude and Fugue No. 3 in C-sharp Major,” J.S. Bach

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These two pieces together sound like three friends going on a road trip.  The Prelude is all of them excitedly discussing where they want to go.  Some voices are heard more than others at which point they start getting into a minor (ha ha…hm) disagreements that are quickly resolved amicably.  The Fugue is the trip itself.  Friend One gets in his car and drives to Friend Two’s house, picks up Friend Two at 1:10, then they pick up Friend Three (who’s gone and gotten them all coffee) at 1:15.  These friends then tootle on their way.  There’s a bit of backseat driving after they take a wrong turn (1:34), but they finally get to their destination (2:27) and happily natter on about how great it is for a while until it gets dark (2:47) and they turn for home.

At least, that’s what it sounds like to me.

Modernism Monday: “Don’t Fence Me In,” David Byrne

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I love good cover songs.  I love them.  When they’re done well, they’re really a stroke of genius – they take the song to an entirely new level.  This is such an example.  What was a melodic but fairly hum-drum song about and sung by (sorry, I have to say it) a white guy becomes a global human rights anthem, an immigration song, a manifesto about personal freedom, and all the good and bad parts of America and its history, sung to a world beat rhythm by men and women of every color and background you could cram into three minutes.  It’s magnificent and it supercharges my social justice batteries when I need it, which, let’s face it, is pretty frequently.

Sacred Sunday: “Izithembiso Zenkosi,” Ladysmith Black Mambazo

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In case you aren’t familiar with them, Ladysmith Black Mambazo is a ten-man acapella group from Durban, South Africa.  The name is a composite of three things: Ladysmith is the name of founder Joseph Shabalala’s hometown; Black refers to oxen; and Mambazo is the Zulu word for axe, which Shabalala chose to imply his group’s ability to “chop down” its singing rivals.  A well-chosen name, as the group has been singing for fifty years.

The group definitely sings about the Christian gospel, but Shabalala has said that he wants to make music that appeals across the religious spectrum.  “Without hearing the lyrics, this music gets into the blood, because it comes from the blood,” he says. “It evokes enthusiasm and excitement, regardless of what you follow spiritually.”  This makes me very happy.  This is my absolute favorite Ladysmith Black Mambazo song.  I love the rolling rhythm and the repetitive melody is very meditative while still being lively and uptempo.

Ladysmith Black Mambazo sounds like my childhood.  I grew up listening to my Mom’s cassette tapes, playing in one half of the basement while she refinished some antique piece of furniture in the other half.  Ladysmith Black Mambazo also sounds like springtime, and today is our last hit of warmth before the polar vortex closes in on us again.  Put this on and throw open all the windows.

Worldly Wednesday: “Amine,” Gaâda Diwane De Béchar

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I discovered these guys almost ten years ago outside Staoueli, Algeria, where I was spending a few weeks as an assistant trainer at a campaign training school for women political candidates.  The NGO I worked for at the time ran these incredibly cool schools that still help female political party members run for office.  Even though it was almost 11pm, it was finally cool enough to be outside, so dozens of families with young kids wandered around the open-air market eating ice cream.  The kids chased each other into and out of various stalls; parents tried to stop them but were too tired.  A pretty universal scene.  One of my colleagues, a lanky Romanian woman who was approximately nine feet tall, pulled me into a hut filled with CDs and the proprietor had this song playing on his beat-up Sony boom box.  I bought the album immediately.  I have absolutely no idea what the words mean but I sing vigorous phonetic approximations whenever this song comes on my music mixes.  I still don’t know what the lyrics mean but I do know that they play a type of very old Algerian spiritual music called Gnawa.

This song always puts me in a fantastic mood, and brings back wonderful memories of being somewhere sunny, hot, and interesting.

Modernism Monday: “Knock It Right Out,” Paul Westerberg

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Dudes and dudettes, I’m not going to lie – I’m a little grumpy.  Who has two thumbs and doesn’t have the day tomorrow?  This girl.  I mean, it’s Presidents’ Day, for God’s sake.  It’s a mattress holiday.  Unfamiliar with this term?  I coined it.  Let me explain.  A mattress holiday is one around which every major sleep accoutrement store in the country hawks their mattress for “40, 50, even 60 percent off!”  Just turn on your TV or your radio and sit through an hour and you’ll see what I mean.  It only happens around Presidents’ Day, Lincoln’s Birthday, and other interesting yet minor and ultimately “huh?”-inducing holidays.  So while I am thrilled some of my readership is getting a third day of weekend, you’ll forgive me if I want to make the price of admission a perfect score on a fifty-question test on Chester A. Arthur.

Beyond my annoyance of having to go into work when the rest of humanity will be out buying TempurPedics (as our founders would have us do to observe this most august – oh the hell with it), this is going to be a bananas week for your Yankette.  Work will go into hyperdrive, marathon training will go into hyperdrive, other things will go into hyperdrive – it’s just all going to be a little manic.  I need a good, grounding, up-tempo, pump-up song to get me ready to suit up.  “Knock It Right Out” will do just fine, I believe.  Everything about this song – from the perfect swagger tempo, the shrieking guitars, Westerberg’s growly voice – says, “I got this.”  So – bring it.

Enjoy your mattress.

Salubrious Saturday: “Unexplainable Stories,” Cloud Cult

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Cloud Cult is a fantastic band from Minnesota (doncha know).  This song has a pretty different vibe than some of their other work – this one is much more down-tempo and a little more synthesizer-y.  But I still love the message of the song (“Activate your force fields and just keep going”), and the long brass intro is absolutely gorgeous.  This is a good, calm song for a quiet Saturday after a long, long week.  I hope you enjoy.

Worldly Wednesday: “The Abraham Lincoln Brigade,” John McCutcheon

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I’m taking some liberties with this post, Tune-Up fans, but stay with me.  This pretty little song, though American, tells the very cool story of the involvement of about 2,800 Americans who went to Spain in the late 1930s to help the Spanish fight against Francisco Franco.  That group of volunteers was called the Abraham Lincoln Brigade.  The story of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade is pretty moving.  The Brigade, formed in 1937, was part of a larger group of tens of thousands of volunteers from the international leftist community, and suffered heavy losses during the Spanish Civil War.

And what day is it today?  It is Abraham Lincoln’s birthday.  (“Ohhhh.”  See?)

More information about this song (and the album it comes from) is here.  More information about the Abraham Lincoln Brigade can be found here, and here is an interesting and nuanced overview of US involvement in the war.

 

Modernism Monday: “Mr. Dabada,” Carlos Jean

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Have a good weekend?  That’s nice.  Get some sleep?  Have a few drinks?  Went for a hike, caught up on your scrapbooking, maybe tagged some buildings?  Did you “kick back” and maybe even “chillax?”  Cool, cool.  You know what?  Monday doesn’t care.  Monday thinks your social life – if that’s what you call your improv classes and the occasional “Thirsty Thursday” with those holier-than-thou Levant desk officers – is about as exciting as a Bob Ross marathon.  It’s kind of cute, in a way, how you saunter around on Saturday and Sunday, feeling all pleased with yourself, deliberately choosing to forget that Monday is going to jump off the top rope and drop a knee to your lower back as soon as you crank up your computer.  Five minutes until you present your new project idea?  Printer chokes on the sides.  That thing you delegated to that new guy to do last week?  Not only did he do it wrong, but he undid some of your own work, too.  Like yogurt?  Great!  It’s now all down the front of your black dress.

What Monday doesn’t know is that you have a secret weapon: Mr. Dabada.  Your music shields are up and your phasers are set to stun.  “Hey man – what the hell you doing?!”  “I…I’m going crazy!”  

Okay, Monday… let’s dance.  

Salubrious Saturday: “Living in Colour,” Frightened Rabbit

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Ach, the Scots are the greatest.  Frightened Rabbit is an indie rock band from Selkirk, Scotland, but based mainly these days in Glasgow.  (My sources tell me that the name of the band came from the lead singer’s mother, who called him a frightened rabbit when he was a kid because he was so shy.  I know.)  It’s so hard to pick a song from them to highlight, but this song fits my mentality the best.  This past week was pretty tops, for a whole variety of reasons, and the week sounded like this song: fast-paced, joyous, with shifting tectonic plates producing new, exciting formations.  And now it’s Saturday!  Hooray, weekend!

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.