The process of diligently, sometimes desperately, searching for number songs never fails to turn up interesting tidbits. In the early ‘70s, when women were paid 59 ¢ for every dollar earned by men (many of them male chauvinist pigs), proponents of women’s liberation wore buttons that read simply “59 ¢.” (If 21st-century feminists felt inclined to protest the wage gap, their buttons would read “77 ¢.”) Another thing this quest has taught me is that for every number between 1-100, some kind of connection can usually be made to Bob Dylan, and 59 is no exception. “The Ballad of Donald White,” which Dylan adapted from a traditional Canadian ballad called “Peter Emberley” and performed early on before concentrating on his own material, contains the lines, “And so it was on Christmas eve
/In the year of ‘59/It was on that night I killed a man,
 I did not try to hide.” Hardly an uplifting sentiment, but when you’re Dylan you don’t need to write an anthem every time out.

The Gaslight Anthem - "The '59 Sound"

I firmly believe that a band whose name incorporates the word “anthem” has a responsibility to render listeners physically unable to keep their fists from clenching and their heads from bobbing to its music. The Gaslight Anthem, punk rockers from New Brunswick, N.J, deliver the goods with “The ’59 Sound.” It’s the kind of song that would sound glorious blaring through a car stereo on the Jersey Turnpike beneath a splendidly polluted sunset, or even just ringing through headphones while waiting for your toast to pop. While it may not break any new ground (in fact, there’s an unsettling vocal similarity to the Gin Blossoms’ “Hey Jealousy”) “The ’59 Sound” succeeds; rock ‘n’ roll allows for almost infinite variations on a theme, and the force of good crunchy guitars and a sturdy melody will often carry you through with flying colors. “’59” by the Brian Setzer Orchestra is more specific to the year 1959 than “The ’59 Sound,” but this earnest but edgeless tribute to a great year in rock does little to evoke the spirit of the times.

For all you sidewalk social-scientist Blondie fans out there, please know that “11:59” has already nabbed top honors for the 11 slot, so chill. The Postmarks of Miami, Florida, perform a faithful cover version of the song on their By the Numbers CD, a collection guaranteed to warm the heart of numerologists worldwide: each song, from “One Note Samba” to “Five Years” to “11:59,” has a number in its title, proof positive that this author is not alone in obsessing about number songs. Speaking of covers, on the mini-album entitled 59, the adorable Japanese duo Puffy Ami Yumi performs a crisp rendition of “Joining a Fan Club” by Jellyfish, overlooked power pop proponents from San Francisco of the early ‘90s. Moving from the briefly appreciated to the largely unknown, “59.58” is a song by Headcase, a solo project from session man and former Curve bass player, Dean Garcia.

Imagine, if you will, that a songwriter ended up turning into a chicken. Wouldn’t you be tempted to look at his early work for references to laying eggs and clucking? It’s like when a singer commits suicide; one can’t help poring over song lyrics for intimations of his self-destructive plans. In that same vein, when a writer comes out of the closet, there is an urge to look back at his body of work for signs of self-loathing, or an over-reliance on neutral pronouns. Hüsker Dü provides a case in point; two of the three members of this seminal Minneapolis power trio eventually came out as gay. (Oddly enough, it was bassist Greg Norton, the one with the swishy handlebar moustache, who was the band’s lone heterosexual.) It’s hard to say how much of the angst that marked the band’s early records was fueled by Bob Mould and Grant Hart feeling forced to live a lie, but “59 Times the Pain” certainly exemplifies the inner turmoil of a deeply conflicted man. The song is brutal and grinding, with lyrics that speak of unbridled torment:

Husker Du - "59 Times the Pain"

The most intense of burning hells
Blasting expectations into smithereens
Never feeling normal, can’t accept the truth
Resign myself to hating it, I hate it all…
59 Times the Pain/I could never be like you

A Swedish hardcore band was so taken with the song that it took the title as a band name, and had a pretty successful 10-year run starting with a single called “Blind Anger & Hate.” Well, what did you expect from a band called 59 Times the Pain, “Feelin’ Groovy”? Ah, there’s my cue. As with no. 50, a composition by Paul Simon is the proverbial elephant in the room. But unlike the 50 slot, which offered a multitude of choices, this elephant can neither be ignored nor passed over for a more esoteric choice. “The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy)”—let’s be glad he named the song after a structure properly known as the Queensborough Bridge—is the quintessential feel-good song of the ‘60s or just about any other era. Oh, there are countless songs about feeling good, but most focus on something specific—like “a new dawn, a new day, a new life,” as Nina Simone sang in “Feeling Good” or “the only one who can bring me joy” in Otis Redding’s “Happy Song,” to name just two. In “Feelin’ Groovy,” Simon turns this idea on its head by appreciating what we tend to overlook. It’s easy to feel good because you just got paid, just got laid, just met the girl of your dreams, but the source of Simon’s groovy feeling is freedom (no deeds to do, no promises to keep) and the simple sweetness of ordinary things: the morning, cobblestones, flowers, and that lamppost he is moved to address by name. Taking stock, Simon concludes, “Life I love you. All is groovy,” and somehow it doesn’t seem trite or mindless, like the ‘80s equivalent, “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.”

Simon & Garfunkel - "The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)"

Simon & Garfunkel - "The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)"
(live in Central Park, NYC, 1981)

Cochise - "The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)"

Few of the cover versions of the song were half as groovy as the original. In 1967, Harpers Bizarre, then known as the Tikis, were a Santa Cruz surf band led by future Van Halen producer Ted Templeman. The music industry legend Lenny Waronker, who knew catchy when he heard it, approached the Tikis to record the song. Changing their name so as not to lose the hard-earned street cred of their Tikis fan base, the renamed Harpers Bizarre scored a monster hit with a lush, syrupy version replete with key change. Early in the ‘70s, a progressive-minded quartet called Cochise decided that “Feelin’ Groovy” needed an infusion of Heavy in the tradition of the Vanilla Fudge, who took the wired, sprightly intensity of the Supremes’ “You Keep Me Hanging On” and bludgeoned the song into submission. Cochise’s “Feelin’ Groovy” wasn’t quite as misguided, but it shared a common impulse to break a butterfly on a wheel. The debut LP by Cochise, whose members went on to play with Procol Harum, Foreigner, and Pink Floyd, was notable for its cover art, designed by future Pink Floyd cover-meister Storm Thorgerson. It depicted the sun rising over the Grand Teton-esque expanse of a woman’s naked breasts (quite daring for the time) and probably led to more than a few impulse buys by mammary-minded adolescents. Former street musician Ted Hawkins, who enjoyed a few years of notoriety before his death in 1995, did a soulful, stripped down version, and Jimmy Page liked to incorporate the melody into live versions of “Heartbreaker” and “Whole Lotta Love.” But the S&G original reigns supreme. During the duo’s 1966 concert tour, Simon explained the origins of the song to their audiences via the following charming spiel, which he tweaked from night to night:

"I came back from England to the United States in December of 1965, and “The Sounds of Silence” had become a big hit…. I had to make this transition from being relatively unknown in England to being semi-famous here. I didn’t adjust well. It was always slightly embarrassing to me, teeny bops, etcetera. So I used to think, all my sweets are gone, good times gone, left over in England. All the songs I was writing were very down type of songs, nothing happy, until about last June. For some reason last June I start to come out of it. I start to get into a good mood, I don’t know why….

So here I am getting into this pleasant frame of mind, and I was coming home one morning about 6:00, comin’ over the 59th Street Bridge in New York, and what a groovy day it was, a real good one, and one of those times when you know you’re not gonna be tired for about an hour. You know it’s gonna be nice. So I started writing a song that later became “The 59th Street Bridge Song” or “Feelin’ Groovy.”

Groovy little footnote: Simon & Garfunkel’s song was the first song to fully exploit the term “groovy,” which, along with “far-out,” “too much,” and “out of site,” vied for the title of essential superlative of the ‘60s. The cheesy “Groovy Kind of Love” swiftly followed, and years later came the Clash’s sublime “Groovy Times” and the acid house gem “Groovy Train” by the Farm.

Numerology is our pal Dave's ill advised quest to find the definitive song for every number from one to a hundred. The higher the digit, the lonelier the climb.

Previously: No. 1, 2-4, , 4 (redux), 5-7, 6 (redux), 7 (counterpoint), 8, 9, 10/11, 12/13. 13 (counterpoint), 14/15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26/27, 28 , 29 , 30, 30 (counterpoint), 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46 , 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, Footnotes, 57, 58

“This is the day of the expanding man…”

And that brings us to Aja. More than anything that preceded it Aja represents the culmination of where the boys wanted to be. On the perch, high above the other music of the day and finally on the receiving end of the near-universal acclaim they deserved. They had delivered their masterpiece and a piece of work they would never top again. The level of sophistication and elegance in the arrangements was staggering, the perfectionism of the sound pushed to positively fascist degrees. There is absolutely no trace left of the musical five o’clock shadow that filled their earlier albums. Aja moved further towards fusion and introduced more progressive elements with longer pieces and more elaborate jamming and yet is retains the pop sensibilities that gave the band such a large audience. As mentioned in my Royal Scam review this is where the music turned much dryer for better or worse, the dry sheen would carry into Gaucho making the two albums twins in style.

The album took a year to record with Gary Katz at the helm. The process was sometimes grueling as they would do take after take with various musicians looking for the one that was just right. Five of the seven tracks are radio favorites which gives the album a bit of a “Rumours” overkill factor for some, yet the songs hold up very well today. Both Fagen and Becker love “Josie”, Fagen saying it reminds him of the great R and B he so loves, “stuff like Charlie Parker.” All of these classic songs are beneficiaries of nuance and precision yes, but with the mission of also being something you want to hear. That’s what they emphasized in the documentary I just watched. Yes, they were shooting for perfection, but they wanted to take it beyond that by loosening it up and making it an album that would be enjoyable to hear. Last, they noted that on their previous albums they were New York transplants in LA, writing songs about New York characters to help them deal with being homesick. They acknowledged feeling a bit like characters in a Woody Allen movie where LA made them neurotic and disoriented. Then by the time they were ready to head back to New York in the late ‘70s, they were writing songs about California and maintain that Aja captures that California vibe. You be the judge.

Lyrically the album is another ode to characters of all sort, women and nostalgic fountain drinks. They claim Deacon Blues is the closest to autobiographical as they would ever get. Familiar characters are discussed, some aspiring losers and fading hipsters they would acknowledge freely. But as Becker said, referring to his character’s philosophies in these songs: “whose to say they’re wrong?” Indeed.

by Finnforest


STEELY DAN Music Online:
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I asked a while back if there were any generous erstwhile shredders out there, hoping to score a guitar for a friend’s studio in Botswana. I received enthusiastic responses from several people, a few of whom offered to send other things or, when shipping proved insanely cost prohibitive, carry an instrument to the continent (if they were traveling, say, to Ghana). One nice guy in Brooklyn even gave me a wicked pink strat (which, dude, you can either totally have back or can rest assured that Nico will be shredding in style before too long). And I was able to recoup my ol’ p-bass from a friend who’d had it on permanent loan.

But I couldn’t find a reasonable way to send these things to my bredda in Bots.

I first “met” Moemedi / Red Pepper a few years ago. He emailed me after finding my FruityLoops tutorials and teaching himself how to make beats and build riddims. He was grateful and gracious and did me the favor of pointing me in all kinds of interesting directions in kwaito and southern African music. He’s kept me up-to-date with his latest productions, and I’ve been following along for the last couple years as Moemedi’s been saving and applying for grants and working to build the studio of his dreams back home in Palapye.

Now, after years of planning, investment, and sweat, his ambitious, gorgeous, state-of-the-art studio is nearly complete. And he’s still hoping to score some gear to get it outfitted. A guitar would be great, allowing them to add the kind of kwasa-kwasa lines that could put a local mark on the crunky reggae they’ve been making. An electric bass too. Oddly/wrongly, it would cost me much more to send them second-hand from here than for Moemedi to buy new ones over there.

So, partly encouraged by the generous response my initial inquiry received and partly inspired by my friend Marco’s suggestion that Obama donors give as much as they did to his campaign this year to other worthy causes next year, I suggested to Moemedi that he might set up a PayPal button for people who’d like to help out. Far as I know, this isn’t any sort of tax-deductible thing; more like a turbo tip jar. If you’d like to support what he’s doing, you can do so here –

Buy a chunk of guitar! Support (trans)local music! More kwasa-kwasa crunky reggae!

Upfront/Konvict/SRC/Universal Motown multi-platinum selling artist, producer and entrepreneur, Akon, announced today that his third album - ‘Freedom’ - will be available on slotMusic™, a new form of DRM-free MP3 music on a microSD card beginning Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008 - the same date his album will be released digitally and on CD.

Akon on amazon.com

Akon on amazon.co.uk

The new slotMusic card will give fans a chance to enjoy Akon’s album in a variety of ways and on a host of devices - from their microSD-enabled mobile phones to their computers and MP3 players.

Going beyond the original thirteen songs that are on the CD version of the album, the slotMusic Freedom card will carry a mini-documentary video on Akon’s life and influences, the new video for “Right Now (Na Na Na),” and exclusive hi-res images and songs including fellow SRC artist Tami Chynn’s debut single “Frozen” featuring Akon.

“When I went into the studio to put together ‘Freedom’, I focused on making more than just a collection of songs; I made an album that tells a story from the first track to the last,” said Akon. “To me, slotMusic is the return of the album in all its glory, but updated for today’s mobile world.”

Steve Rifkind, Chairman of SRC Records and SRC Marketing, who was instrumental in establishing the slotMusic and Akon partnership stated “SRC has always offered its artists the freedom to share their music through new technology. slotMusic will allow Akon’s fans to listen to his new record on their phones, MP3 players and PCs that support the microSD format,” he added.

“The release of Freedom on the slotMusic card is a chance for me to give my fans a full entertainment experience using devices they already have in hand,” added Akon.

slotMusic is an innovative physical format for music with a pre-existing install base for DRM-free music. The plug-and-play slotMusic card eliminates the compatibility questions and the hassles of managing files, downloading here, transferring there by offering music in a physical format that is simple to use, works well with many different devices.

The near ubiquity of microSD slots makes slotMusic cards the ultimate format for creating a true portable music experience. SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK), inventor of the microSD format, is leading the technology development and standardization behind slotMusic.

To preorder Akon’s slotMusic card and for more information please visit:

slotMusic Official Website

About Akon
An internationally recognized Grammy-nominated, multi-platinum selling artist, producer, entrepreneur, and philanthropist, Akon is one of the most influential voices in music today. In addition to having two multi-platinum albums, 21 songs on the Billboard Hot 100 and over 145 guest appearances with artists such as Michael Jackson and Gwen Stefani to his credit, Akon is the only artist to ever accomplish the feat of holding both the number one and two spots simultaneously on the Billboard Hot 100 charts twice.

In addition to the anticipated December 2nd release of his third album Freedom, 2009 is shaping up to be the biggest year of Akon’s career as the Konvict CEO is prepping releases for T-Pain, Lady Gaga, Kardinal Offishal, Flipsyde Dolla and Colby O’Donis. His fashion line, Konvict Clothing is set to launch in January with an upscale line, aptly named Aliuane, is set for release in the Fall. Finally, Konfidence Foundation, the charity Akon has personally funded for four years, has teamed up with songwriter/philanthropist Peter Buffett to launch Is There Something I Can Do?, a Google of sorts for charitable foundations.

Akon Official Website
Akon MySpace

Kansas “s/t debut”, “Song for America” and “Leftoverture” are perhaps my favorite of their 70´s discography but only because they are more consistent in a prog point of view (they have monster epics). Let me say that I’m fan of all 70´s Kansas catalogue from debut to 1980 “Audiovisions” (they are 8 albums).

What I most like is that Kansas absolutely created a new style for prog ( but I only know 1 cd era band that learned their early lessons : the 90´s Sweden ZELLO “same” and “Quodlibet”). Surely Kansas deserved to have influenced more new acts. Kansas music is complex still very concise and tight. I suppose that because of after the 2 first albums they took some more hard rock and typical west American influences music, so many who don’t know their debut and “Song for America” tend to consider them not an entirely prog band…for example the fantastic “Leftoverture” opens with the prog- hard classic “Carry on …”

Their “s/t debut” has 5 fantastic shorter songs, 1 “mother nature…” showing the hard rock edges and 2 wonderful epic suites : “Journey from Mariabronn” and “Apercu” to me the album apotheosis. This is Kansas album where Robbie Steinhardt most shines both in violin and vocal performances. I never saw Kansas perform “Apercu” live, even in the good times revival with London Symphony Orchestra “Always never the same” or in recent dvd’s… Curiously “Apercu” is one of my favorite Kansas tracks (thanks Livgren and Walsh) ! It with “Journey from Mariabronn” and “Can I tell you” were “hits” at Rio de Janeiro 70’s ELDO POP radio station (please, take a look in my Satin Whale review for more details about Eldo Pop).

The 1974 Todd Rundgren’s UTOPIA is maybe my favorite American and even one of all times album, it played entirely in ELDO POP (not forgetting Fire Ballet “night on bald…”, Star Castle, Ethos, etc.), but later UTOPIA got popish tendencies, so the most brilliant 70´s american prog career is of Kansas.

by Prog_Veteran


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Tundra — who has remixed tracks for a diverse cast of artists, including The Strokes, Pet Shop Boys, Turin Brakes, Architecture In Helsinki, and Franz Ferdinand — is as charming for his near-impossible weirdness as for the precocious, chaotic earnestness of his music. For evidence, look no further than his website, where you can find a gallery of interesting photos (none of which are of Jacobs himself, though apparently he's a lomography buff), as well as a collection of links that is best described as "eclectic."  But an ordinary list hyperlinks would be boring, of course, so Jacobs has converted his into a multicolored array of toasters, each of which ejects two flat slices of Jacobs' face as the reader mouses over it. Anyway, all weirdness aside, why wouldn't you want to check out someone whose recorded output has been favorably described as "trance music for children" [Pitchfork]?

Now go check out the video for his latest single, "Will Get Fooled Again," over on the 'Tube!

Right from the opening piano notes of the 21-mins Fianchetto opening epic track, you can feel the different feel of this album, with a full-blown AnglaBerkDotian sound that includes trons of melo, some cello (played by yet another Swedish guest Stina Pettersen), flutes, crimsonoïd songwriting and the whole shebang. Expertly done, credible personification of drooling Vikings ready to abandon drakkars and conquer for Thor and Odin’s glory and such. Am I getting a little carried away here??? Possibly! I don’t even know what a Fianchetto is, and frankly don’t care to find out, really! Anyway, it’s nit that this track is bad, far from it, but like most of the album, it’s really nothing new under the sun, using the typical 70’s atmospheres and sounds, and it’s not refreshing, even if it pleases the ears of most progheads, yours truly included.

The following Returglas starts out folky, nearly turns into a jig, steels a starless guitar solo, and would be an instrumental if it wasn’t for some scats, while the 9-mins aptly-titled Chameleon has few things for itself outside being nearly audibly indiscernible in the mass of the album - unnecessarily filled to the brim. A couple of tracks seem to slightly alter the “formula with Om Tare and Tacenda, both laced with some jazz and jazz-rock roots. Probably my fave track on this album, the ultra-quiet When The Moon has some real hidden powers as it slowly builds up emotionally and dies down serenely. The short interlude Plaint is a cool change of pace, but the title track brings us back to some of the earlier tracks that didn’t move this reviewer.

Well after the first generation (Anglagard) that was truly groundbreaking, and its followers (Sinkadus) and third wave (Wobbler & Beardfish) that were both retreading the barren lands, we’ve had some out- of-Scandic pole group like Discipline and now the hybrid SwUK Thieves’ Kitchen to flog the dead horse to a pulp. Again, this is hardly a bad album if you consider all of the efforts involved, the love to carry it through, etc…. but it is hardly anything you’ve not heard at least a couple of dozen times before.

by Sean Trane


THIEVES' KITCHEN Music Online:
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Y’all remember Trick Trick, the homophobe rapper whom no one ever heard of until he started shooting his mouth off about gays in the media.

Great way to get publicity for yourself when you’re a nobody. Trick Trick told Allhiphop.com, “Homosexuals are probably not gonna like this album. I don’t want your f**got money any Goddamn way. I don’t like it. Carry that s**t somewhere else.”

Well, that sparked a response from all the gay rappers (the ones who are out, that is).

Gay gangsta rapper Deadlee told Allhiphop: “There is still a lot of hate against gays, and Trick Trick just perpetuates the hate… so if Trick Trick really does plan on putting an AK to my head, I ain’t going out like that! Trick Trick will be the only bitch that ends up dead!”

And the self-dubbed Godfather of Gay Hip Hop Tori Fixx adds, “It’s most peculiar that a straight man has so much time to be focused on us other folks, yet alone a group of people he so-called hates. But I surely hope no same-gender loving person supports this record.”

Gay ballroom rapper Melange Lavonne, host of gay rap reality show Urban Raiders, warns, “It is unwise for him to add fuel to an already lit fire that is getting even bigger. Trick Trick can spew all the hate he wants, but gays are no longer perceived as punks, sissies or wimps. We are fighting for equality and, if that means that our life is on the line, then so be it. We are willing and ready to die for our cause. These are not the days of sit down and shut-up anymore, but a national movement that is bigger and more motivated than his small feeble-minded thinking could’ve ever imagined”.

Guard your grill and your eyeballs Trick Trick!

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