The poor, lowly accordion. An instrument of scorn and ridicule. The butt of so many jokes (not as many as the bagpipes, maybe, but those things deserve it)…
This kid, however, shows that the accordion can go beyond the normal polka fare. In fact, this video shows that playing the instrument can actually be impressive.
As you may know through design or accident, you can play multiple videos simultaneously on YouTube. Darren Solomon discovered the same fact and hit upon the idea of recording videos of a number of instruments being played, the mix controlled by the viewer.
Originally, he recorded himself playing six instruments – the glass marimba, electric guitar, Kaoss Pad/synth, Rhodes electric piano, and the electric bass. Sending out invitations and setting up an open call for more videos for more people playing or singing in B flat, Solomon evenutally ended up with 20 videos.
Users of inBflat can now control the mix by selecting which videos to play and adjusting the appropriate volume sliders. It is a fascinating experiment in musical crowdsourcing that has the added benefit of being visual.
Certainly there will be more examples of this type of creativity in the future. What can groups create that eludes the individual?
What do you get when you take the Red Army Choir (yes, that Red Army), a Finnish rock band called the Leningrad Cowboys, and Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama”?
I’m not exactly sure of the answer either, but I’ve posted the video here for you to decide.
Apparently, this concert took place in 1993, so some of you may have seen this video before. I hadn’t. So there.
Don’t judge me.
Artist Erika Simmons is a Georgia-based artist who, among other things, unspools the magnetic tape inside cassettes and turns them into portraits of musicians. I was struck by the Clash one, above, but she’s also got fantastic ones of Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix and Michael Jackson.
One of her most recent pieces is a portrait of The Dude made out of a Big Lebowski VHS tape.
I read a cool interview with her at Go Media Zine, where she explains a little about how she creates this art (draw the portrait in glue, cut the tape as little as possible) as well as the inspiration:
The cassette tape series came out of a desire to explore a theme of recursion… tangled hierarchy. Where is the music? On the cassette tape? In the head of the musician portrayed? Where does one begin and the other end? But you don’t have to look at it in that way to enjoy it. I tried to make something fun and easy-to-understand, but with deeper things to think about, if you so choose.
She’s got a website of her own, but it links to her Flickr page for her full portfolio. There’s also an online store, if you’re interested in owning an original (MJ will set you back $2,000 but she doesn’t do prints, so this is one of a kind).
I never really thought about it, but Saturday morning cartoons may have gotten a bad rap. They’re often portrayed as brain-rotting, attention-span-diminishing garbage — like sugar cereal for the mind.
But upon reflection, I think that some of the cartoons I grew up on may have been much more than that. Many of the Disney cartoons, whichever characters they may feature, rip off (or riff off) storylines from classic literature. And no, it’s not the same as the original, but it’s at least an introduction to the classical canon.
It goes for the soundtrack, too. Check out this list of classical compositions used in cartoons:
While the vast majority of the cartoons of the 1930s-1950s made excellent use of popular music and original compositions, they also used classical music to great effect, creating some of the finest animated masterpieces of all time.
Rossini’s overtures were popular with cartoonists, as were Liszt’s Hungarian rhapsodies and Brahms’ Hungarian dances. In cartoon-land, Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata became synonymous with quiet, moonlit scenes, while the opening notes to his Fifth Symphony were used to introduce Nazis during World War II. The final movement of Liszt’s Les Preludes frequently introduced some cartoons.
Here’s an example, cited as No. 4 in the list:
Music: Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody #2
The Cat Concerto won the Academy Award for Short Subjects-Cartoons in 1946. Warner Bros. released a nearly identical cartoon the same year, Rhapsody Rabbit, which had many of the same gags. Both MGM and Warner Bros. accused the other of plagiarism, but nothing official came of it. It’s a toss-up as to whether The Cat Concerto or Rhapsody Rabbit is the better cartoon. Also watch Rhapsody in Rivets, an Oscar-nominated Warner Bros. cartoon that features the construction of the “Umpire State Building” while the foreman/conductor leaders the show.
I was stunned to see that much of the cartoon relies on an audience that can understand the spoof of concert pianists. And, even if you’re not a musician, you’ll get a fairly-true-to-life education in the mechanics of a piano here.
13-year-old Scott Campbell had never seen a Walkman before. At least, not one like this. With up to 90 minutes of hissing music, it was the killer accessory of the 1980s. But Scott wasn’t born until the late ’90s, and he’s grown up with digital music his whole life. Still, for a week, he swapped out his latest-and-greatest, going retro.
Best line in the whole piece? “It took me three days to realize that there was another side to the tape.” I also liked how he thought that the “metal” switch was for metal music.
But the whole article is funny and also illuminating. It’s nice to take a bit of time to really realize how things have changed.
From the BBC: “Giving up my iPod for a Walkman”
(via BoingBoing)
I was listening to CBC radio yesterday, and they were getting ready for Father’s Day in the typical radio way — asking hosts for recollections about their dads, talking about the roles that fathers play in the lives of their children, and asking people what it meant to be a dad.
There were some really touching stories — I particularly recall one about a man who described in intimate detail the hopes and dreams and questions he had had about his son before he was born. And when his son was born severely autistic, and would never ski, for example, how he had dealt with that.
But then they took a music break and played this song, by the United Steel Workers of Montreal:
It’s a great song, albeit a little country for my tastes. But I question the message, for a Father’s Day segment. Perhaps there’s a paucity of tunes about fathers, but playing a song that is all about a son trying to take revenge for his father’s killing, only to find out that his dad was a wife-beating awful man, and the killer did the world a favour, seems like a tasteless choice to honour dads.
Can you imagine a CBC host deciding to play a song called “Your Momma Was a Drunken Slut Who Gave You FAS” on Mother’s Day? Or marking Grandparents’ Day with a little ditty called “Hurry Up And Die, You Wrinkled Old Crone”?
Fathers get little enough respect as parents — and I’ll be the first to admit that they often do it to themselves — but maybe we can use the one day a year known as Father’s Day to perhaps celebrate the ones we do like, rather than pick on the ones we don’t?
I can’t decide what I like best about this “Duelling Banjos” video. Is it:
a) Muppets playing bluegrass?
b) The explosive finale?
c) The fact that Steve Martin appears to be dressed up like Han Solo?
Found this clip at Boing Boing, where they inform me that it’s from 1977, and it’s Martin with “Lubbock Lou and His Jughuggers.” Great band name.