Sorry, but today’s all about tackling a major project, rather than scooping out a small portion of my brain to share with you good people. Please content yourself with the high-brow electronic music above, as well as the following snippet of anti-jazz hysteria from the April 11, 1921 edition of the Chicago Tribune: Home was [...]
Entries Tagged as 'music'
Landing on Planet Mercury
August 31st, 2010 · 2 Comments
Unlike everyone’s favorite intergalactic MC, I am not bio-enhanced. And that means I must occasionally steal a day to focus on a single project, rather than multitasking as if I’d been blessed with multiple brains. Today is such a day, which means no meaningful Microkhaning ’til after the next sunrise. Apologies, and hope y’all understand. [...]
Interview Zero
August 18th, 2010 · 4 Comments
It’s not very often that I can boast of a warm personal connection to a recently deceased celebrity, so please let me take a moment to vouch for the key role that Sir Frank Kermode played in my development as a writer. No, I never had the privilege of studying under the lit-crit master. And [...]
Tags:music·Richard Kermode·Santana·Sir Frank Kermode·writing
The Way Back
August 16th, 2010 · No Comments
Back to world headquarters today, via the skies. Many thanks to the Grand Empress for the excellent packing job.
In Transit
August 10th, 2010 · 6 Comments
Off the Canvas
August 3rd, 2010 · No Comments
Apologies for deserting you yesterday, but I was completely pancaked by what appeared to be the dreaded Osaka flu. A good night’s sleep and some orange-flavored Gatorade seems to have restored me to halfway decent health, so I’ll soon be posting anew about Chadian kidnapping, Malaysian snake control, and the challenges of increasing adult literacy [...]
Tags:housekeeping·Joe Higgs·music
Ring the Alarm
July 28th, 2010 · No Comments
A Wired deadline just snuck up on me, so off to hit the keyboard. In my brief absence, please check out this excellent history of Tenor Saw, the dancehall legend who never made it to his 23rd birthday. The singer’s violent demise remains one of music’s great unsolved mysteries: It shouldn’t have come as a [...]
The Father of Boom
July 27th, 2010 · 2 Comments
During my guest stint over at Ta-Nehisi’s place last week, a commenter reminded me of my all-time favorite Otto von Bismarck quote: “Politics is the art of the possible.” The unsmiling German statesman may have meant that all successful negotiations must end in compromise, but I’d like to think he also had faith in politics’ [...]
Tags:gadgets·Horace Leslie Galbraith·Jamaica·music·Otto von Bismarck·politics·sound systems·technology·World War II
The Vanishing Artist
July 19th, 2010 · No Comments
(Cross-posted from Ta-Nehisi Coates) I’m eternally fascinated by great artists who seemingly fall off the face of the Earth. Many disappear because they lose battles against their demons, but others simply decide to change paths and opt for stability. Bettye Swann certainly falls into the latter category, as detailed in this excellent 2005 piece from [...]
Tags:Bettye Swann·Las Vegas·music·R&B
Nose and Grindstone
July 12th, 2010 · No Comments
As we pound away at day-job matters this afternoon, please take a moment to enjoy our favorite X-Clan track above. We’ve taken the liberty of fast-forwarding past the esoteric sermon that precedes the actual music. But if you’d like to learn more about the concept of, er, “white kryptonite,” by all means, please rewind.
Becoming Aquaman
July 8th, 2010 · No Comments
This morning’s all about taking Microkhan Jr. to his first-ever swim class, so no meaningful posting ’til a bit later on. The next time you hear from us, our first-born progeny will hopefully have the skills necessary to cross the Chuluut River—or, at the very least, the ability to kick his legs.
Tags:drumming·housekeeping·music
Buffer Overload
June 30th, 2010 · 2 Comments
Sorry for the slow start to the day. We’re working on a couple of solid posts, including a great kidnapping yarn from the ’70s, but getting clear of our other chores is taking longer than anticipated. That’s in part because of the five million e-mails that currently sit unopened in our inbox—the Times piece on [...]
Ye Olde Tyme Robo-Banjo
June 28th, 2010 · No Comments
We can trace our lifelong fascination with technology to a few choice childhood experiences: our first time playing Pitfall on an Atari 2600, watching The Black Hole on Betamax, and, perhaps above all, visiting The Magic Castle. The foyer of said castle featured a self-playing piano, which responded to audience requests (as long as those [...]
Tags:1980s·Encore Automatic Banjo·music·musical instruments·robots·technology
Push Out the Jive, Bring in the Love
June 25th, 2010 · No Comments
We couldn’t bear to leave an AA-related post atop the blog all weekend, so let us instead sign off with another addition to our growing Asha Bhosle collection. Back on Monday with more AA extras, as well as the standard Microkhan fodder that hopefully makes the drudgery of existence a little brighter for all involved.
Tags:Asha Bhosle·Bollywood·music
Waylaid By Progeny
June 21st, 2010 · No Comments
So much for our grand plans to start this momentous week on the right foot. Microkhan Jr.’s sitter canceled on us last minute, and unlike our Mongolian forebear, we don’t have a legion of fur-clad handmaidens waiting in the wings to take over childcare duties. And so we must dedicate our morning to tackling a [...]
Asha on the Beach
June 17th, 2010 · 5 Comments
Once again, a fresh track has led us to discover a gem from distant shores. In this case, Gonjasufi’s haunting “Sheep” inspired us to seek out its source material, “Yeh Hawa Yeh Fiza” from the 1983 Bollywood classic Sadma. To our great delight, the singer is one of our all-time favorites, Asha “The Enchantress” Bhosle, [...]
The Sacred Exchange of Knucklebones
June 11th, 2010 · 6 Comments
We’ve been lassoed into some emergency parenting today, and Microkhan Jr. is tugging on the hem of our deel as we type these very words. So let us just quickly share with you two things that bring much gladness to our collective heart: the above Donny Hathaway gem, an Afro-Cuban spin on “The Ghetto,” and [...]
Tags:Donny Hathaway·Genghis Khan·Jamukha·Medieval history·Mongolia·music·R&B
Krinklebein’s Poor Russian
May 28th, 2010 · No Comments
We’re still in northern Michigan with the Grand Empress, and you’re hopefully prepping for a raucous three-day weekend. As you pack or purchase beer, enjoy the sonic stylings of a talking fish and his feline arch-nemesis—one of Microkhan Jr.’s favorites. It really is a fine piece of animation, save for the fact that Mr. Krinklebein’s [...]
Tags:cartoons·Cat in the Hat·music·Russia·TV
“This is a Titanic Above Water”
May 27th, 2010 · 1 Comment
Okay, here’s the deal: Ever since Microkhan Jr. entered the picture, we’ve been able to spend a grand total of one night alone with the Grand Empress. But all that’s about to change, starting today: By the time you read these words, the Microkhan crew will (hopefully) be winging its way to Detroit, en route [...]
The Sons of Gumby
May 25th, 2010 · No Comments
Our beloved WEFUNK just celebrated its 600th show in grand fashion, with sets dedicated to late ’60s soul, Clinton-era hip-hop, and the fine art of locking. Given the show’s Montreal base, they also couldn’t help but throw some north-of-the-border rap into the mix, including the gem above from DJ Format (whose British by birth) and [...]
Beyond Bulgarian Metal
May 19th, 2010 · 3 Comments
In discussing Bulgaria’s long and healthy tradition of heavy metal last week, we briefly lampooned the first act that popped up when we Googled “Bulgarian hip-hop”—a buffoonish rapper named Ustata. As fate would have it, a Bulgarian reader chimed in to gently upbraid us for highlighting her nation’s most embarrassingly awful MC: I’m amused that [...]
Room 118
May 18th, 2010 · 2 Comments
If all goes according to plan, this post will go live right as we exit a federal courthouse. That where we plan on spending the better part of the morning, in search of a case file that is likely jaundiced with age. Wish us luck in dealing with the quizzical looks of the clerical staff; [...]
Tags:housekeeping·music·Syl Johnson
Lessons from the Thin White Duke
May 14th, 2010 · No Comments
Even if you never owned the cassette version of Use Your Illusion II, this recent interview with Slash can’t help but entertain. We’ve loved the man ever since seeing him avoid self-immolation by ever-so-calmly removing a dropped cigarette from his knee-high boot. (Such are the perils of falling asleep on talk-show couch, apparently.) Oh, and [...]
Tags:cigarettes·music·Slash·snakes
Angels With Dirty Faces
May 11th, 2010 · No Comments
We were gonna hit you with another Bulletproof Project entry this afternoon, but paying gigs and prior commitments have conspired against us. The next few hours are all about writing FOIA requests and researching an upcoming “Mr. Know-It-All” column for Wired, before we bolt downtown for an evening of industrial design, Pakistani food, and Cavs-Celtics. [...]
Sofia Rock City
May 10th, 2010 · 6 Comments
Okay, quick word association game: When we say “Bulgaria,” what’s the first thing that pops to mind? For us it’s french fries slathered in partially melted sirene, but heavy metal is a close second. And so you can only imagine the great times we’ve been having sifting through the archives of this stupendous site, inarguably [...]
Tags:Bulgaria·heavy metal·Legs McNeil·music·scorpions·Soviet Union
Representing the +95
May 5th, 2010 · No Comments
The sitter’s deathly ill and the Grand Empress is at JFK picking up a shipment of lacey undergarments (slightly NSFW), so Microkhan Jr. is our sole responsibility ’til his afternoon playdate. That means no time for words o’ wisdom this morning, an announcement we make with heavy hearts. Hope to get back to y’all once [...]
Once More Into the Maw
April 29th, 2010 · No Comments
Apologies, but gotta check out early today—we’re back on the WIRED beat, ironing out the kinks in our addiction yarn. Back in the a.m. with some more of the good stuff; in the meantime, hey, puppets and Madlib’s helium-throated alter ego.
The Battle and the Bulge
April 29th, 2010 · 5 Comments
Did the codpiece come into vogue because a bunch of Italian counts were trying to conceal their fights against syphilis? An Australian doctor makes the case: The treatment of the disease was for the most part empirical with multiple agents applied locally, which along with the bulky dressings would give large frontal bulges, impossible to [...]
Tags:codpieces·Italy·Larry Blackmon·medical history·music·Renaissance history
Faking the Crates
April 27th, 2010 · 2 Comments
Hewing to that most time-honored of journalistic axioms—”Two equals trend”—we’d like to declare that we’re living in the era of the ersatz sample. Way back when, we were introduced to a whole host of R&B classics by reading the liner notes of various hip-hop albums. (We discussed, for example, how Dr. Dre led us into [...]
Only a King (Wears Overalls Like Those)
April 19th, 2010 · No Comments
From the Mighty Sparrow comes one of the silkiest-smooth videos of all time, featuring overalls that only a true legend could ever pull off. We’d love to try, but we fear we wouldn’t even make it to Lenox Avenue before the howls of derision became unbearable. The Sparrow, though, makes the orange-and-blue combo work. More [...]
Tags:fashion·Mighty Sparrow·music
