Ben Harper - Diamons on the Inside

It's retro album review time again!  This time I'm listening to Ben Harper's 2003 offering, Diamonds on the Inside.

This is a really, really good album.  Just the right mix of blues and funk, each song has the feeling and emotion to evoke something inside of each of us.  The album starts out stronger than it finishes, in my opinion, but that last track makes my heart hurt, it's so sweet and sad.

The title track is just so, so good.  I feel like the past week or so, I just can't get enough of it.  I've always loved this song, and it's what made me pick up the album in the first place so many years ago, but I feel like I'm only just now rediscovering how great the whole album is.  There's something a little gospel-soul-revival about the album at times, and it's great.  But this song!  You just want to crank it up on a sunny day, and smile and sing along.  And maybe sway a little.  Reading Keith Richards' book has had a profound effect on my music tastes and the way that I listen to music lately, and in my hunt for more blues and R&B in my iPod, I put this album on the other day.  Lately, I find that I'm focusing more on the roll and less on the rock (Thanks, Keef).  Some standout songs:

With My Own Two Hands - I've somehow gotten more familiar and comfortable with the Ben Harper/Jack Johnson slow, lullaby-esque duet version of this track, and allowed myself to forget how cool this album version is.  A little reggae rhythm, a little bluesy guitar - it strikes just the right chord.  This totally makes me want to dance, while the slowed down version is such a sweet lullaby.  A good tune overall.

When It's Good - I feel like this is a classic old blues song rather than a BH original, but maybe that just goes to say how good Mr. Harper is.  He's an old soul, I reckon.  Or maybe it is an old song.  I'm not entirely sure.  I just feel like I can hear an older, rougher version of this playing in my head whenever I listen to this song.  The version in my head is playing on vinyl, and was recorded on 8-track or something.  Maybe at Muscle Shoals.  I don't even know - I feel that way about 1/2 of this album, I think.  This is tied with the title track for my favorite on the album.

Brown Eyed Blues - It's killing me that I can't currently think if the classic mo-town song that this reminds me of.  But I can't think of the damn song.  Either way, this song has a great, funky feel to it, and there are some cool riffs in here.  It really does have sort of a cool mo-town feel to it.  

Touch From Your Lust and Temporaty Remedy - Since Keef has me paying more attention to guitar sounds lately, it's worth pointing out how cool the fuzzy guitars on these two tracks sound.  These songs are both a little more rock and have a slightly more modern feel than most of the rest of the album, too.

Bring the Funk -   Ummm, duh - I love the funk. This feels a little like Bushwalla's funk to me.  I guess maybe that's a function of the whole modern funk thing, but I'll just throw it out there again - if you haven't checked out Bushwalla yet, you don't know what you're missing.  If you like Ben Harper, BW will totally do it for you.  Check him out.

So High So Low - I feel like the Black Keys are screaming out of this song at the beginning.  It's just got a really cool, down and dirty sort of feeling to it.  It's a great song, and another one that's a little more rockin than some of the rest of the album.
 

Amen Omen and Blessed to be a Witness - These are nice little tunes, and this is sort of what I mean about the church-y feeling, I guess, is these few soul tracks the album has got going on.  But church-y lyrics or no, get down to the music, and these are pretty cool tunes.  There's a lot going on with Blessed to be a Witness (more than you pick up at first listen, but give it a few trys), and it all comes together really nice.

She's Only Happy in the Sun - So sweet, but also SO sad.  Like I said at the outset, this song makes my heart hurt.  Pay attention to this one, and it'll really rope you in.  Might be my new favorite lullaby.

I like Ben Harper a lot; new and old, and whoever he's playing with, I seem to always be drawn into his stuff.  I've seen him live with DMB once or twice too, and he puts on a great show live.  Either way, this album has been on heavy rotation this past week or so, so I thought I'd throw something out there in support of it.  If you don't have it, check it out.

Rock & Roll Hall of Fame class of 2011 - the nominees

Last week, I was checking out the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame website for some information about last year's 25th anniversary concerts (which were amazing, by the way - if you have a chance to check out the DVDs, please do it.  There were some amazing performances, and you can watch a bunch of them on YouTube, too).  Anyway, while I was there, I saw that they have listed this year's nominees.  Inductees will be announced "in the coming weeks," according to the site, but here's the list of those nominated:

Alice Cooper

Beastie Boys

Bon Jovi

Chic

Neil Diamond

Donovan

Dr. John

J. Geils Band

LL Cool J

Darlene Love

Laura Nyro

Donna Summer

Joe Tex

Tom Waits

Chuck Willis

 

The norm of how many make it in each year seems to have grown in the past few years, with a whopping 11 inductees last year (one of which was not the Red Hot Chili Peppers, much to my chagrin, and I'm sorry, but if Bon Jovi gets into the Hall of Fame before RHCP, something is tragically wrong with the universe).  I confess to not knowing who a couple of these artists were when I first saw the list, and even on learning a little more about them all, I'm still unsure what a couple of them doing on the list.  But I confess to having not listened to all of their music as of the time of this writing, or even to have listened very objectively to the couple of tracks I did check out.  Either way, that's the case every year for me when I see the nominees list, but such is life.  That's why I'm not on the Hall of Fame board, I guess.  

If I'm being honest, I don't think the Beasties and LL will go in the same year.  I'd love to see it, but I think the Beasties make it in first.  I predict Dr. John and Tom Waits both being inducted this year.  I'm sort of surprised that Neil Diamond's not in yet, so I pick him, too.  But after that, it's anyone guess - Chic?  Donna Summer?  J.Geils? Alice Cooper?  I like all of their chances.  Ditto for Joe Tex and Donovan.  I hate to sound like a hater, but I give Bon Jovi a big thumbs down.  Sorry New Jersey.

So what do you think, dear readers, who will make the final cut?

Change in Terms?

I got one of those "change in terms" letters in the mail from the bank that owns one of my big-box store credit cards.  As I was walking over to throw it in the recycle bag, I noticed that the spanish translation of it had one more paragraph than the english version.  So, with my minimal Spanish-fluency equivalency ability, I tried to figure out what it said.  And I did it!  And I'm surprised by what it says, but at the same time, I want to start using it on any Spanish-translations that we have to do for work.  Here's what it said (I have no idea how to make my computer type in Spanish, so please pardon my leaving off all of the accents or whatever - you'll still get the point, I think):

La traduccion al espanol de este documento sirve unicamente como referencia.  De haber alguna discrepancia entre este traduccion y el documento original en ingles, se usara la version en ingles.

Now, if you read Spanish, wonderful, you're all caught up.  If not, let me give you my rough translation: The Spanish translation of this document serves only as a reference.  If there are any discrepancies between this document and the original in English, use the version in English.

So, my question and the source of my slight amazement is the fact that, if you can't read in English, how the fuck are you supposed to be able to tell if there are any discrepancies?  You would do what I just did, and see that the approximately-the-same sized paragraphs match up along the documents, and the same paragraphs are emboldened, you'd see that the dates and amounts and numbers all match between the two, and you would move on.  And really, That's all I read in English anyway - what are late fees being raised by, and for what amount of balance, and when is this happening.  Those are pretty much numbers and a few big, bold words.  I didn't read a lick of the text on this letter. So I guess it doesn't really matter if you can't read the English version, as long as you can check that they both have the same numbers and all that, but still.  And yet, as I said, when we do public notice documents at work, and they have to be translated in Spanish, I want to start adding this language to those documents.  I'm such an effing lawyer.  Eeew.

Atlantic Records: The House that Ahmet Built

This was an installment of American Masters that I caught on PBS a month or so ago, and which has stuck with me ever since.  I missed the beginning, but I caught the last hour and fifteen minutes or so, just by chance as I was flipping past and finally saw something on television that was actually about music.  I need to re-watch it from the beginning.  I don't have much love for major record labels these days, but I respect that you needed them to make things happen back in the day.  Without proper recording and distribution, not to mention the networking and marketing that labels provided back in the day, we wouldn't have the music that we have today.  Just for up-and-coming artists to be exposed to other artists - it served an important role that the internet has now come to replace in spades.  Anyway, this was an absolutely excellent documentary about Ahmet Ertegun, the co-founder of Atlantic Records in 1947.  He was one of the rare breed, then as much as now I'm sad to say, that was really and truly into it for the music.  Because of that, he drew so much real and amazing talent to that label, at such an important time in music history.  He was personally responsible for getting Eric Clapton into the studio with Aretha Franklin.  He negotiated the deal that brought the Stones indie label into contract with Atlantic, even though it paid them less dough than what they could've had with some other labels - because everyone involved cared more about the music than the cash.  He "discovered" Led Zeppelin.  He wrote Mess Around for Ray Charles.  I mean, the man is responsible for SO MANY amazing things that have happened in music history, and this documentary about him and Atlantic Records was really, really well done and really interesting.  If you're looking to watch something engaging, about some really pivotal moments in music recording history, or just interested in learning some more about a genuine, great guy who truly cared about the music and about making some amazing music happen, definitely check this out.

1/2 way through book review - Life by Keith Richards

This is one of those books where I can't stop thinking about it, and I even want to be sitting at the computer as I'm reading it, in order to look up and learn more about what I'm reading.  And it's all I want to talk about, much to the chagrin of those around me.  And I'm only about 1/2 way through.  And part of me doesn't want it to end.  So that's why I have this blog.

One day last week, I woke up from the weirdest dream about the Stones, and about Keith in particular.  I'm SO not getting into that right now, but suffice it to say, Gimme Shelter was stuck in my head when I woke up that morning.  I was in the middle of reading The American by Martin Booth at the time, but over the course of listening to the Stones all day at work, I quickly decided that I wouldn't be reading that anymore, because Keith Richards' new autobiography, Life, had been subliminally working its way into my dreams, screaming to be read.  It had been on my shelf for only about three days before this happened.  Severe.  And there's a reason: it's SO GOOD.

Seriously, though, I'm awestruck by the depth and passion of Keith's love of music.  And I know that he's an artist and a songwriter, but I'm also loving the way that he expresses himself.  The writing is so conversational that I sometimes find the book hard to put down.  He goes off on these tangents and asides, and it's just wonderful to read.  From the very start, I've been rebuilding the roots of my appreciation for music through this book.  Most of what I've been looking up as I read has been some of the music that he cites as influences, and I've been ordering CDs from the library like mad this week.  Jimmy Reed.  Chuck Berry.  John Lee Hooker.  B.B. King.  I've been listening to the Muddy Waters albums that I already owned a lot, and to Big Al Carson covering a lot of classic blues.  Blues and R&B has pretty much been my MO for the past week.  And lots of the Stones, of course. 

I've said before how much I think knowing the background to what you're listening to gives you a whole new appreciation, and this is like that on crack.  I even like the Stones a ton more now that I ever used to, which was bound to happen, but I was already a pretty big fan.  I've always been a fan, but this is ridiculous.  Did you know Keith wrote the main structure of "Satisfaction" in his sleep?  Literally.  He used to sleep with his guitar and with a tape deck by his bed, and he woke up in the morning to see the tape was full - played it back and there was "Satisfaction" plus about 40 minutes of him snoring.  I also just learned the background to "Ruby Tuesday," and now that song kind of breaks my heart.  And the pictures in the book are great.  Turns out Keith was pretty hot back in the day.  Maybe that's just me.

I don't know.  This is me just about half way through reading this brick of a book.  And while I'm finding it hard to put down and I just want to devour the whole thing, I also don't really want it to end.  More to come when I finally finish it.

The infamous religion quiz

I think most people have probably heard about the religion quiz set up by the Pew Forum that the majority of Americans failed, and which showed that Athiests and Agnostics seem to know the more about the various religions of the world than most people who practice an organized religion, and that Catholics know the least among various groups.  Not a surprise, if you ask me.

None of it is a surprise to me, really.  I feel like Athiests and Agnostics tend to reach the decision to believe as they do after a lot of consideration.  Religions came to exist for a reason, and to walk away from believing in any faith at all is not a decision that I think anyone could make lightly.  So I feel like people who have no faith in any higher being, or who believe in something, but they're not quite sure what, tend to have weighed their options within existing belief systems before getting there.  I will keep my opinions on the Catholic church to myself.

It's 32 questions long, and I strongly encourage everyone to take it and see where you fall.  Here's the link.

And here's a summary of the average results:
Americans overall: 16/32 correct
Athiests/Agnostics: 20.9/32 correct
Jews: 20.5/32 correct
Mormons: 20.3/32 correct
Protestants: 16/32 correct
Catholics: 14.7/32

For the record, I got 29/32 correct.

Tags of the week! 10-20-10 edition

Yay!  It's been SO LONG since I did this!  These are definitely not all radio songs, but they're all worth checking out.  Without further ado, here are my top 5 today:

1) Mumford & Sons: Little Lion Man



The first time I ever heard this song, it was stuck in my head for four days.  I adore it.  Check out the whole album - Sigh No More - it's all good stuff.  Something about a banjo and an upright bass . . . it's part folky Irish coffee shop feeling, and part downhome bluegrass jam session, but all awesome.

2) Florence and the Machine - Dog Days Are Over



This is another one where I chose the radio song, but the whole album really is excellent.  Her voice is so rad, and the songs are so catchy.  This is like the rockin' version of that chick Adele.  Love.

3) Seether - Careless Whisper



Dude, I like the Wham version of this song, okay?  And I love Seether.  I think they did a great job on this.  Maybe better than the original.  Not Johnny-Cash-doing-Hurt better than the original, but real, real good.

And while we're talking about covering old 80's songs:

4)  Chris Cornell - Billie Jean



I actually haven't researched where this came from at all, if you can believe that.  J found it and played it for me, and I almost had a heart attack.  I could listen to this man sing all. day. long.  Nevermind acoustic and covering an MJ classic.  Alien Ant Farm did an AMAZING job on Smooth Criminal a few years back, too.  Check that out, whenever you have a chance.

5)  The Black Keys - Chop And Change



This was a toss up between this song, which I heard on the Twilight: Eclipse soundtrack or The Black Keys' Tighten Up, which is a tagged radio song in my phone.  They're just a really rad band.  Kind of southern funky.  I dig their bass lines.

There's gonna be more music recs coming soon.  I have so much new stuff that I'm into right now.  On the off chance that you're in the market for something completely different - check out Sigur Ros.  They're Icelandic, and they sing in either Icelandic or this other language that they created.  My high school intern introduced me to them, and I can't thank her enough.  It makes awesome working or driving background.