Joe Cocker – With A Little Help From My Friends

Amazing video.  B&W, lots of crazy camera tricks and angles, excellent.

Tom Waits – Eggs and Sausage

A capella in a greasy diner.  Very Tom Waits.

Steely Dan – Deacon Blues

My favorite Steely Dan song, great performance and quality recording.

Sa Re Ga Ma Pa (or SaReGaMaPa, I’ve seen it both ways) seems to be some type of singing competition in India. I’m not entirely sure as I’ve found little information about it. Anyways, YouTube suggested the above video to me, and I was quite impressed. I believe the girl’s name is Smita and from what I could gather she’s somewhere around 12 years old.  The song she covers is from the Bollywood film Hare Rama Hare Krishna, which so far is the only Bollywood film I’ve seen.  The song, which I’ve seen listed both as I Love You and as Hare Rama Hare Krishna is my favorite from the movie, and this little girl does a fantastic job singing it.  I hope she does well in the contest!

Here for comparison is the original:

Classic Ike & Tina Turner.  I love how raw this one is, lots of crazy camera angles, two spotlights, B&W.  This one also appears on the film Sound of the City: London 1964-73 which I previously mentioned.  Love those Ikettes!

Chain saws… you didn’t know an electric chain saw was a small appliance did you?  Well, It’s got chain saws in here, electric ones.

This Ebay seller’s videos on YouTube are really great… I just love listening to him describe the various wares he has for sale as he goes over them in great detail.  He really makes sure you know what you’re buying.  The above video for a small appliance repair manual was my favorite, but he has several others that I loved as well.  Everything from rifle shell pens, motorcycle frames, wire strippers, pen boxes and a pretty dish with lid.  His videos are all very down-to-earth, honest looks at the products he sells, and for me at least they have a certain personal charm to them that I think was more prevalent on Ebay in its earlier days, before all the whole sellers and mega-auctioneers took it over.

This excellent performance by Joe Cocker’s Mad Dogs and Englishmen touring band is featured in the concert documentary Sound of the City: London 1964-73 (alternatively titled Rock City in the USA.)  It was recently shown on VH1, and my God, it is one of the most amazing things I have ever seen.  I might be exagerated a bit, but it really is an impressive look at the London music scene is the last 60s/early 70s.  The video is very raw, and that’s exactly what I love about it, it really gives a feeling of being there.  Modern concert videos are so well planned and produced that they end up feeling more like movies than concerts.  Besides Joe Cocker, this movie featues the likes of Jimi Hendrix, The Rolling Stones, Ike and Tina Turner, Pink Floyd, Rod Stewart, and many others.  I only caught about an hour of the movie, and I can’t wait to see the entire thing.  There are several complete performances, plus a few interviews here and there.  It’s a rare film, hard to find, but The Video Beat has it and  you can order it here.  I did, and I’ll be sure to add what I think about the quality of their DVD transfer here when I do.  For more information, you can check out the NY Times review, but trust me: there’s nothing like actually seeing it for yourself!

The last couple posts were pretty heavy, so let’s lighten the mood.  If you’re not familiar with Exotica, it’s the genre of psuedo-tropical music by caucasian American composers popular in the 50’s and 60’s.  Now, I know from that description that it sounds a bit corny, and to some (many?) it probably is.  White Americans making tropical music records featuring cheesecake covers doesn’t exactly sound like “serious” music.  But it doesn’t have to; it’s fun, and that’s what counts.  It is also a very relaxing genre of music, and fits in perfectly with a nice cocktail on a hot day.  The big three artists of the genre are Lex Baxter, Martin Denny and Arthur Lyman.

My first taste of Exotica came from Thievery Corporation’s DJ-Kicks mix album, with the song Tropicando by Les Baxter.  It is a very relaxed song with some fantastic instrumentation from his album Que Mango! My research into this song led me to learn more about Exotica, and I became hooked almost immediately.

So far, the two albums that have really stood out for me are 1970’s Que Mango! by Les Baxter (with 101 Strings), and 1964’s Paradise by Arthur Lyman (re-released on CD with bonus tracks as Pearly Shells.)  I’ve also enjoyed Martin Denny’s 1959 album Quiet Village.

Here are some videos from YouTube for those curious to learn more about Exotica.  Enjoy!

Martin Denny – Quiet Village

Arthur Lyman – Yellow Bird

Waitiki – Adventures in Paradise

Waitiki is a modern-day Exotica band from Boston, MA.

Acoustic recording of Teenager done for the BBC at the 2008 Connect Festival:

Short film about Camera Obscura

The film is slow to start, but it’s worth waiting for. It features some background on the band, the band members discussing each other, their likes/dislikes, and looks at some of the song on their album Let’s Get Out Of This Country.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Jacob M. Ruefer – Country Mile

Beautiful cover of Camera Obscura’s song Country Mile. It seems like it ends rather abruptly, but that’s the only criticism I would make, it’s very lovely. Includes a link to a free MP3 of the song. Video features clips of Louise Brooks, and is well done IMHO.

Jefferson Airplane – White Rabbit

Very psychedelic.

Santana – Europa (Earth’s Cry, Heaven’s Smile)

Beautiful instrumental from the album Amigos.

Conway Twitty – Want To In Your Eyes

Country classic. If you’re a fan of Family Guy this may seem vaguely familiar.