It’s our weekly Twitter #MusicMonday recap of the tracks from last week that the folks in the press offices and PR agencies want you to be hearing. We post you decide.
Asking someone their Top 5 albums is pretty commonplace, especially after we all saw High Fidelity. (Admit it, you loved it.) But what if you got to ask Afrika Bambaataawhat his Top 5 are? Well, I did, and now I get to share! We continue our week-long feature of The Godfather of Electro-Funk’s Top 5 albums.
Today’s pick: Marvin Gaye’sWhat’s Going On
“Very Spiritual.”
DC-born Marvin Gaye signed to Tamla Records, a subsidiary of Motown Records, in the early 60s and was dubbed “The Prince of Motown” or “The Prince of Soul.” His contributions to that genre over his lifetime are immense; besides “What’s Going On,” Gaye is remembered for blockbuster hits such as “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You),”“I Heard It Through the Grapevine,” “Let’s Get It On,” and “Sexual Healing.” A lot of babies would not have been conceived if not for the work of Marvin Gaye.
“What’s Going On” is Gaye’s 11th studio album, released in 1971, and touches upon much darker themes than the lighthearted singles just mentioned. It chronicles a soldier’s return home from the Vietnam War to political injustice, poverty, discrimination, and drug abuse. The album was initially considered too conceptual by Motown, and its both critical and commercial success was a major breakthrough for Gaye and other artists who wanted more artistic control over what they released.
The title track peaked at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100. It promotes tolerance and peace in its straightforward lyrics:
Father, father, everybody thinks we’re wrong Oh, but who are they to judge us Simply because our hair is long Oh, you know we’ve got to find a way To bring some understanding here today
It is not difficult to understand why this album was so influential to Bambaataa, with its deeply spiritual message and advocation of social awareness. These premises are still valid thirty years later, in today’s political and social environments.
Stayed tuned the rest of this week as we bring you more classic picks. Skool’d by Bambaataa.
Today for our final tracks, we go across the pond with tracks available here at TVD Chapel Hill and at TVD UK. Our collaborative Bluebrain ‘Eat The Waves’ Remix Contest continues with another isolated track, or ‘stem,’ at each location for you to use as the basis of your own original creation. Grab one track below and visit TVD UKfor the other.
Email entries are due by January 17. Full background on the contest right here!
Run the TVD Network for a day and promote the shit out of your music! Our collaborative Bluebrain ‘Eat The Waves’ Remix Contest continues with 2 more isolated tracks, or ‘stems,’ below for you to use as the basis of your own original creation. Giddyup!
Email entries are due by January 17. Full background on the contest right here!
This is TVD2.0 the Remix. Are you busy composing your magnum opus yet?
Go visit TVD NYC today for two isolated tracks from Bluebrain’s ‘Eat The Waves’ for you to use in ourRemix Contest. Two tracks were released yesterday, and two more ‘stems’ will be released across the TVD Network tomorrow. Giddyup!
Would you like to run TVD for a day? We could use a mini-break from our TVD 2.0 launch. Whew.
Head over to TVD NOLA today for two isolated tracks from Bluebrain’s ‘Eat The Waves’ for you to use in ourRemix Contest. Two tracks were released yesterday, and more ‘stems’ will be spread across the TVD Network this week.
(And while you’re at TVD New Orleans, check out our post on Brian Stoltz’s month-long residency at the Maple Leaf Bar, which starts tonight!)
“Vinyl. The sweet smell of petroleum-infused phonographic paradise. As a kid, I loved the ritual of holding my newly purchased vinyl LP, tearing off the shrink wrap, and releasing the mysterious aromatic scent of a fresh LP. When the neighborhood cool kids proclaimed The Clash’s “London Calling” a must-have album, I skateboarded down to the nearby record store and exchanged my lawn-mowing money for a vinyl copy. CDs were OK for new music, I rationalized, but since the album was originally recorded for vinyl back in 1979, I wanted to hear it the way Joe Strummer, Mick Jones and company had originally envisioned it. I was going to party like it was 1979.
With my new purchase in hand, my friends and I ran into my bedroom, and plopped down in front of my record player as I slid a fingernail down the lips of the LP cover, splitting open the cellophane. Poof. Instant LP incense permeated the room. When I dropped the needle down and heard the blast of those first jagged guitar stabs introducing the title track, we all smiled as if we were privy to an inside joke. We always loved the first few moments of listening to a new album for the first time.
I was a little kid, so it was well before Myspace, iTunes and other online services gave you peeks into new bands. Finding new music was mostly earned by word of mouth from friends and self-discovery. So when we’d listen to a new album together for the first time, there was a collective anticipation of discovery and (hopefully) pleasure of our new find.
But it wasn’t always so easy for young music listeners to find new music. It took an even bigger discovery more than 100 years ago to bring songs to our speakers today. Back in 1877, Thomas Edison knew that sound consists of vibrating air that strikes our eardrums (something that Zeppelin drummer John Bonham maximized a century later). Our brain decodes these vibrations as sounds. The number of vibrations per second is the frequency, and the size of these vibrating waves are then interpreted as loudness or softness. Edison’s original phonographs used this principle to transfer sound from a tinfoil sheet to a stylus and then to a barrel-looking horn that blasted crooners into great grandmas living room.
Fast forward 100 years. Four 13 year olds were sitting on the floor around a turntable, watching the LP spin around and around while angry guitars distorted through paper speakers. If Edison’s theory was that the size of the vibrating sounds produced are then interpreted by our brains as loudness and softness, then I was convinced my brain was hungry only for loudness. We cranked the stereo knob to 10 and just nodded to the beats.
“London Calling” had temporarily morphed us into one collective tympanic membrane. We moved and swayed in unison, unaware of how absolutely ridiculous we must have looked. But we were oblivious. Music had taken over our teen brains and all other senses were anesthetized. Rendered useless. The only thing that mattered was Paul Simonon’s gargantuan bass lines, Joe Strummer and Mick Jones trading their attacking guitar melodies and voices, and the beats anchored by Topper Headon.
As a double-album, it was 66 minutes of escape from suburbia. It was escape from the chores my mom would surely ask me to do when she finished doing her exercises in front of the television upstairs. It was escape from Mr. William’s math homework. It was beautiful. —Dave Einmo
Head over to TVD Memphis today for two new isolated tracks from Bluebrain’s ‘Eat The Waves’ for you to use in our Remix Contest. Six more isolated tracks or ‘stems’ will be spread across the TVD Network throughout the week.
(And while you’re at TVD Memphis you might want to catch up with The Posies’ Ken Stringfellow and his Top Ten from last year OR download our original Memphis-based podcast which launched with Big Star’s Jody Stephens. Y’know – little stuff like that.)
As we’ve been somewhat beating to death all morning here and elsewhere,there are now nine cities that TVD is endeavoring to cover. Nine, cities, nine TVDs. Nine places for you to check out for local scene-specific coverage.
Let’s say you’re planning a trip to the UK—where can I go record shopping over there? I’m off to LA next week—anything happening? We’re going to have you covered. Or die trying.
And yes, it’s a bit overwhelming and we thought you just might need a tour guide or two. Have you met our friends in Bluebrain?
DC’s Bluebrain, brothers Ryan and Hays Holladay, are coming off quite the 2010 indeed, which began with an experiment right here at TVD which the Washington City Paper referred to as “A Mindfuck in Four Parts.” “Like The Flaming Lips’ Zaireeka,” WCP wrote, “The Last Place You Look” has four components that called for four separate listening devices for the best possible sound—unwieldly perhaps, but also a sort of assembly-required version of Bluebrain’s clever electro-pop.”
This year, to kick things off and introduce you to the nine TVD’s, Bluebrain’s put together one hell of a remix contest to introduce you to the TVD Network of blogs.
Bluebrain’s original track ‘Eat The Waves’ posted in its entirety and fully mixed above, has been broken down into nine components or ‘stems.’ All nine of these stems will be posted at a specific TVD blog location throughout the week and yes, we’ll tell you where they are. The first stem is just above.
You, as an aspiring or seasoned musician, are tasked with grabbing the nine stems and using them as the basis for one of your original compositions. You needn’t use all nine, but at least one has to be used as the structural basis of your piece. You’re not limited to any specific musical genre either. Jazz, classical, hip hop, indie—whatever niche you work in is cool with us. I’d love to see Bluebrain go bluegrass – but that’s just me.
Anyway, you’ll have all nine stems by Friday of this week and we’ll give you an additional week to produce your Bluebrain-inspired masterwork. Submissions are due on Monday, January 17 when we with Bluebrain choose our winner.
What do you win, you’re asking? Well, that’s a good question.
One winner will be given all nine TVDs for a one day ‘TVD Takeover’ to spotlight and broadcast your music internationally. The floor will be yours for whatever you’d like us to post. We’re handing you the keys to the joint.
So, tour the TVD Network this week and get to work. We’ll post everything we receive too, so get cracking, OK?
It’s our weekly Twitter #MusicMonday recap of the tracks from last week that the folks in the press offices and PR agencies want you to be hearing. We post you decide.
(And a little light this week, given the holidays, I’m thinking…)
