MOG - Rebecca Turner's Posts

The Long and the Short of It

Rebecca Turner — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 02:49:08 GMT

I'm always impressed by the ability to pull off a long song. Mostly because I usually don't like them, so when I do, it's exciting. The new Jenny Lewis, Acid Tongue, is very 60s and 70s, more accessible to me than her first solo album, but with a wacky, Hollywood-girl edge (intensified by a lot of Zooey Deschanel on backing vocals). My favorite song is "The Next Messiah." It appears to be about someone's (Jenny's?) father, a roguish character who lives in the woods "with a cocktail waitress/who things she's an artist" and who survives cancer, and is a "chancer." etc. It's got a "Tobacco Road vibe, and evolves into different sections and tempos, and ends with what sounds like a choir of Zooeys singing "I want...to...tell you I love you!" PS, I found an interview with Jenny where she says "It's an ode to Barbra Streisand and the devil."

When I heard "The Next Messiah," I was reminded of another longie about roguish lovers, Judy Henske's "Snowblind," which my friend Erica Smith covers to brilliant effect on her album of the same name. It also tells a longish tale from the POV of a knowing narratress, and takes you on a scary trip and flings you out the other end wonderfully. As with Jenny's record, but in a more folky and jazzy way, Erica and band are going for bits and pieces of old styles but making them their own. Her voice is deeply pure. I love the whole shebang -- from the amazing Dann Baker's just-right guitar parts to Annie Sommers' pink-and-black abstract cover art, which looks like something I would fall in love with at MOMA.

And speaking of Dann Baker, he and Erica and another friend, Dan Sallitt, played the Saturday Afternoon Song Swap (an in-the-roundy thing I'm involved with in NJ) on 11.8. Dann did a long song too...it was about Raymond Chandler, and it was ten minutes, but he split it into three segments. Here's Paula's video of the first section.

Man, I realize now I've mogged about long songs before...funny thing is my absolute favorite song right now is "Magick" off the new Cardinals, and it's under two minutes.

under the weather

Rebecca Turner — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 03:12:05 GMT

My anxiety/sadness is hardly ever an overall/blanket kind of thing but usually focuses on specific events that I fear, dread, regret. My mind can hardly ever relax as it has to run up to the next "bad thing" it can find and worry over it...whether it's in the past or future (Living in the moment? Not my specialty.) Sometimes these issues are valid; sometimes they're irrational. In any case, yesterday, after a long day of worrying, I was crossing the little street outside my office, which leads into a park and isn't very trafficky and has a sort of wind-tunnel effect to it. This is bad in winter, but in other seasons, it's like you're suddenly in a video, with your hair blowing romantically, and if you happening to be listening to something nice on your iPod, it really all kind of comes together. So crossing this street yesterday I heard "Under the Weather" by KT Tunstall. Here are the words:

Under this national rain cloud

I'm getting soaked to the skin

Trying to find my umbrella

But I don't know where to begin

And it's simply irrational weather

Can't even hear myself think

Constantly bailing out water

But still feel like I'm gonna sink

Coz I'm under the weather

Just like the world

So sorry for being so bold

When I turn out the light

You're out of sight

Although I know that I'm not alone

Feels like home

You say you feel like a natural person

You haven't got nothing to hide

So why do you feel imperfection

Cut like a sword in your side

Coz you're under the weather

Just like the world

So sorry for being so bold

When I turn out the light

You're out of sight

Although I know that I'm not alone

Feels like home

Coz I'm under the weather

Just like the world

And I need somebody to hold

When I turn out the light

You're out of sight

Although I know that I'm not alone

Feels like home

I'm not totally sure what this song is about, but it's a pretty little acoustic guitar number that has a really rocking, freeing electric-guitar part in the middle. Something about KT's voice is very soothing and she seems to be saying, I'm blue, you're blue, the weather sucks, even when you think you're doing OK, you still let things get to you, I just need a little someone to hold, I like being with you. It's kind of a living-in-the-moment sort of song, actually. And its very English in that English pop music way that I love, that goes well with rain. (Although on this particular day, it was not raining.) So, when I was crossing the street, it happened to be right at that freeing, lovely electric guitar part, and my hair was blowing, and for a split second, for just that second, I was happy. And then the next second, I wasn't again. But I kept thinking about that little shred of happiness...it was real, it was really there, for a second, and just 'cause it's not there now, doesn't mean it didn't exist. Because that song exists, and the wind exists, and my iPod exists, and here I am, able to remember what that felt like, even though now I'm onto worrying about something, and walking through the park, and it's getting dark and I'm hot and sad and annoyed and mad at myself and it's late and I'm overwhelmed. And I thought, maybe that's the most that I can hope for, the miniscule sweet moments that come and go, and trying to remember them when I'm down. I know that is so much more easily said than done, but for me, the next day, that tiny shard of contentment is still -- for the momement -- accessible. Here's the video. (For some reason that's not the version of the song on the record, but it's a nice video.)

Commutes of the Ages

Rebecca Turner — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 16:12:25 GMT

I got my own iPod for Xmas, and I'm now back in a mode that for me, previously reached its zenith in around 1988, and then around 10 years later, two time periods in which I walked around the city glued to my Walkman. (Some Walkmen faves: Sweet Honey in the Rock, a Ray Charles/Betty Carter tape DeeDee lent me, The Rooks, The Roches Keep on Doing album and now on the iPod, Suzzy and Maggie's Zero Church). When I think about it, I tend to need portable music most when I'm getting adjusted to living in a new place or era (post-college life, the East Village, and NJ in my case) and the music seems to aid me in the adjustment as I travel around. At first with the iPod, I just listened to my own stuff that I had loaded in. It's also really helpful when recording, to listen to what we've tracked, and now with the Saturday Afternoon Song Swap, when I'm trying to figure out what to post on our MySpace page. But the most fun is discovering music and then instantly obtaining it, like the Duffy single "Mercy" (thanks, emscee). And then the other day, S. and I met for dinner at Soul Fixins, and as we ate our creamed spinach and baked chicken and the door kept flying open with the wind, which seemed to be spring trying to get in, we heard the Alicia Keys song "If I Ain't Got You" and it just put me in a great mood. On iTunes I found this beautiful version that's just her and the piano. And it sure brightens up the PATH train.

Their timeless majesties impress

Rebecca Turner — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 01:51:09 GMT

Over the years I'd heard bits and pieces of Goldfrapp and thought, gee, for newfangly electronic music, that's kind of nice! But then I found their new album, Seventh Tree, streaming on AOL Music...and now it's gone, and I'm seriously missing it. (So, I just bought it, which means their evil plan worked!) The album opens with a nylon-string guitar and then Alison Goldfrapp's voice comes in -- and she's a real singer -- with something unintelligible about clowns, followed by a surge of strings and heartbreaking sustained chords. it's like the Cocteau Twins driving down Abbey Road. (Although that's the only song with garbly lyrics.) Ms. Goldfrapp is a breathtakingly pretty fashion chameleon, like a character in a movie about a rock star, but a really good movie. Their music energizes me (which I need), but also: every now and then, some British music comes along that encapsulates my long-distance (haven't been there in 10 years) anglophilia. The Beatles do it, no matter what the song. The Stones do it even better in some ways, capturing punk anger as well as stately home debauchery. The Verve's "Bittersweet Symphony" does it. Odd music that I've picked up there still brings it back, like a 45 I'm still carrying around of Japan covering "I Second that Emotion." And even the perfect adorableness of Rockpile did it, with their 80s charm and faithful 50s rock vibe. What it's capturing is how I feel about London, which is a place I went often in my youth, but there's also something timeless and sexy in a been-around-hundreds-of-years way. Like, dudes in tight pants shopping in a used bookstore near the Portrait Gallery and then going to see the Small Faces, but flash back and they would be poets in velvet waistcoats, headed to an assignation. I know, it's a fantasy, but Goldfrapp and many others fulfill it. Here they are in the woods, with their new single "A&E."

We're halfway there...

Rebecca Turner — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 03:08:53 GMT

Coming home on the train this evening, looking at the cold sparkle of NJ, I was listening to Aretha Franklin's "Somewhere," produced by Quincy Jones, from 1973. Could there be a more perfect day for this track? A quick look around shows that plenty of other people find this track a wonder. But forgive me for taking you on a brief tour. It starts with triumphantly simple piano chords, with which it also ends. Strings start to softly come in as she sings, very slowly and thoughtfully, the familiar melody, with a few twists and turns all her own. Then the jazz click-clock comes in, she steps out and it gets almost funky, taking you on a little adventure. Finally, as if to say, do not forget this is serious, the swingin' eases to a stop, Aretha and the strings come back and they finish the song dazzlingly. It's a love song, of course, but this reading is also quite holy. No matter how many times I hear it, every time I'm jolted up into the night sky, and I can see all of New York, all of America and the world from above. Which is why when she sings, "Take my hand and we're halfway there..." it's not hard to say, well, this is what we all should know. There's a place for everybody, and we can help each other get there.

The Ship has Come In

Rebecca Turner — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 23:12:03 GMT

I've long been known as a hyperbolic person, so forgive me, but I'm Not There is the best movie I've ever seen in my life. 1. There are movies that I love almost as much and maybe in some ways more, but this one seemed somehow on a higher plane due to its non-linearity; I don't see super-arty movies a lot, so maybe its artiness was a new thing to me, but the fact that it was arty and I understood it made me love it even more. 2. It was a rock movie, which I generally love, but with the songs not just adding to it, but being the movie. 3. Cate Blanchett 4. The amazingly accurate (except for the telephone that had a 310 area code on it, which didn't exist until 1991) L.A. 60s/70s house, with Charlotte Gainsbourg and her hair with rain in it and her leather jacket and the trees and art books everywhere. (Here is The Devastationalist Manifesto on a C. Gainsbourg song that he likes.) 5. Ditto their 1960s New York, with the poetry and motorcycles 6. Heath Ledger being his usually impossibly loveable dude 7. The crazy early 60s black-and-white surreal vibe of the Cate Blanchett parts, but instead of being weird for weirdness's sake, and pretentious, and going over my head, it was showing how someone could seriously get lost and confused in all that 8. The amazing weird beautiful song performed at that town pavilliony thing in the Richard Gere part. 9. This is obvious, but the fact that it showed all these different sides of someone's personality and artistic makeup, and how important each side is, and how that makes up the whole. Even the gospel dude (Before I learned John Doe was singing for him, I thought, man, Christian Bale should make a gospel album!) 10. The fact that the protagonist escaped, was freed at the end, away from all his confusion and jerkiness and people not getting him, and was able to continue being an artist because that's what he needed to do. And we know the end of the story...he was/is a great artist.

One more note: when I was a kid we had a bunch of Dylan records around and I certainly knew what he was all about, but my biggest BD memory was of this guy who would sit on his apartment balcony (here's a map showing pretty much the exact spot of his apartment) down the street from us and play Dylan songs for hours. I would wander down there and listen to him, standing on the sidewalk, and that's how I really learned most of the songs. I don't think I ever talked to him, or that my parents even knew I did this. It's a very L.A. memory, with apartments, and apartment-type foliage, and whiling away the afternoon in lovely weather, but loneliness and adventure too. I've been meaning to write a song about it forever.

secret journey

Rebecca Turner — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 00:19:44 GMT

Well, a musical snapshot of me right now would feature a few things:
1. Me streaming Carrie Underwood's Carnival Ride off CMT.com for the jillionth time, wondering if they put drugs in her music.
2. Me thrilled that after watching Excalibur, my stepson is walking around humming "Carmina Burana." He's already a chorushead, and also percussionist in the school band...
3. ...which leads me to the biggest thing: me at the Police concert, 10 rows or so behind the stage, in the Stewart Copeland Seats, where you could watch him dance manically at his 3-sided percussion rig, including his giant Paiste gong. I've always adored Stewart, and although I wouldn't really count the Police as among my favorite bands, they made some killer records, and he did a great job on drums. Their vibe wasn't for all day every day, but sometimes it was beautiful ("Secret Journey") and sometimes it was funny and sometimes dark ("Bombs Away") and sometimes so positive (all of the Garden dancing to "Every Little Thing..." was lovely). Sting solo is a whole other story of course. Anyway, here is Stewart humorously posting to his own site, and here are pix of him then and now, and here are some amazing photos Andy Summers took back in the day.
Hopefully I'll have more to Mog about after CMA night (Wednesday).

Rebecca Turner — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 15:26:39 GMT

Of course, when I should be finishing songs for my next record (4 to go!) I'm mogging about songs I heard while driving. It is lovely to be flying along a ruraly road with the window rolled down, getting a country station in pretty clear. So, some of the stuff I heard last night while heading west: I caught a great Friday night soul show on WMFU, and loved this song, by a teenaged Betty Wright: "Girls Can't Do What Guys Do." And I grooved to "40 Acres and a Mule" by Sound Experience. Once I could get the country station, I heard a Rascal Flatts song I sort of liked: "Take Me There." This is amazing, because they usually give me the heebie-jeebies. Also heard a pretty funny song by Brad Paisley, "Online." It occurred to me that this is a topical song that a middle-aged folkie might sing in a coffeehouse in New Hampshire, but because he's Brad, it's a country radio hit. And having classic rock programmed in always comes in handy. Steve Miller's "Rockin' Me" is great for a Friday night drive. P.S., while I was mogging (yes, I was watching GAC on a Saturday morning) the video for "Online" came on, and it has William Shatner and George's mom from "Seinfeld" in it.

musical explosion!

Rebecca Turner — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 03:00:42 GMT

Lots of stuff happening musically "all a sudden." One o' my idols, Kim Richey, has a new album out, called Chinese Boxes, and it is quite lovely in a Bacharach-meets-Beatles-meets-Nashville kind of way. It's produced by Giles Martin, George Martin's son, by the way. I've loved her for years and she's been off the scene a bit so it's nice to see her at the top of her game.

I've also become nutso over my beloved Ryan Adams' guitar player, Neal Casal. An amazing singer, guitar player and songwriter, his MySpace page drew me in and then I was given his latest album for my birthday by my wonderful spouse...it's called No Wish to Reminisce, and it's so totally California in a pleasantly retro, but not entirely un-forward-looking way. I cannot recommend it highly enough. There's a lot of him, and him playing with Ryan, on You Tube, for you to be impressed by; but below is him doing the Ryan song "Dear John" at the Living Room...there is also an astonishing version of them doing it together here . (Hell, I couldn't post just the one video, but watch all of this so your mind will be blown by both Ryan and Neal.) Neal also takes very nice pictures.

Finally, I put this funny little player somewhere between "Calm" and "Positive" and I discovered a lot of great stuff, from Swedish pop-jazz singers, to fun British pop girlgroups.

Rebecca Turner — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 02:44:50 GMT

Driving through NJ this afternoon, listening to WFUV, I heard this amazing song, which I figured must be some gem off some Little Feat or Band album, sung by one of the dudes whose voice I'm not as familiar with. Sometimes WFUV will do that, pull out something obscure like that. I immediately imagined myself covering it at Banjo Jim's or Jalopy, and turning everyone on to this great song. It reminded me a lot of certain non-single tracks off some of my fave Linda Ronstadt or Bonnie Raitt albums: unisex or unclear in terms of the persona, a bit complex musically and imaginative lyrically, a showcase for a great voice to be sure. Examples would be "Too Long at the Fair" or "Takin' my Time" by Bonnie, or "Keep Me from Blowin' Away" by Linda, which I heard Mary Lee Kortes do amazingly last weekend. Anyway, the joke was on me as it turned out to be a new song called "Grand Design" by Assembly of Dust. And I won't cover it because I have a rule about cover songs being over 10 years old, which I occasionally break, but not in this case, I don't think... I couldn't find any videos of the songs I mention above, but I did find a rare one of Bonnie and Linda singing a song together which they both had on albums, called "Blowing Away" (not the same song mentioned above). This is sort of the kind of song I'm talking about above, but not quite. But the performance is astounding. And I was there!

I am Ryan to break your heart

Rebecca Turner — Sat, 19 May 2007 18:50:53 GMT

I don't think I've mogged about my Ryan Adams thing, really. It began with falling hard for his album Cold Roses, my second-favorite double album next to Exile on Main Street. From there it moved on to a full-blown musical crush. My next favorite Ryan is Gold, then Heartbreaker, then Jacksonville City Nights. He's an odd bird, if you don't know that; wacky, prolific, insanely talented, known as "difficult," puts tons and tons of bad hip-hop up on his website under the pseudonym "DJ Reggie," etc., etc. But at his best, to me he is every genre, every song, every band I've ever loved rolled into one astounding performer. I think he's someone people go either way on (he's like musical cilantro, or coconut!) but I'm for sure on the lovin' side. His new album Easy Tiger comes out June 28th.

I like Mr. D better than Jeff Foxworthy right now

Rebecca Turner — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 03:57:36 GMT

The mysterious Mr. D and the Honky Tonks asked to be my MySpace friends, and I’d never heard of them and I love them. Who are they? I dunno, but they’re wonderful.

Max Greene, a.k.a. Roderick Hohl, is a deeply talented songwriter, guitar player, arranger, etc. He’s working on a new album, and I’m very excited. Listen to "Summer" from his last record.

So, I’m a little freaked out by country music right now, or at least Jeff Foxworthy. I watched the CMT Awards last night, which were great, and he made this speech at the end, which started out fine, about why country music is good and country fans are different…it’s about real life, and kids, and family, with two-timin’ dudes thrown in for spice, etc. etc...you’ve heard it before, but then he said that country fans believe in God, and go to church, and the proof of His existence in their everyday lives "trumps your opinion about whether or not He exists." Then Martina McBride got up and sang, totally amazingly, this very deep song, "Anyway," which reminded me, actually, that I do believe in God, but Jeff, it has to be OK, I think, if some people don’t. Real life contains, and country music fans are, people who believe all kinds of things, or not, and who go to things other than church, and some more people believing in God might help, or it might not. Especially now, when it's clear that horrible things happen, and we all have to get by and push through in our own way. This doesn't mean I'm going to break up with my beloved country music, and I'm not even totally surprised, but it gives me pause.

The music of the few-cha

Rebecca Turner — Sun, 25 Mar 2007 19:27:20 GMT

If you can believe it, I just started watching American Idol. Part of it was the below-mentioned lack of cable, part of it was fear that I would be driven mad by Simon Cowell and feel so awful for the performers that I would not be able to watch, and part of it was not wanting to be a lemming. But it got to the point where I knew everything about the show without ever having watched it, so I figured what the heck. Also, there was my own Idol-ish experience...I felt I could withstand watching having gone through it myself. Of course, I've heard this season is not the best. But I'm still having fun. My first full night of watching was the British Invasion night with the crying girl. It really is an odd experience...sometimes it's more like watching a baseball game than anything else. I'm told Simon and Paula's thing is really an act, but there is a very dark element to their interaction; I guess that's the part I least enjoy. I wonder, is this Idol-style entertainment going to last? Is it going to mutate into something else? Is it having any effect on actual music? I know it's producing stars, but are they doing anything forward-looking? (My money's on Kelly Clarkson.) Sometimes I wonder how to make my own music sound "future"-y, and I don't mean futuristic really, but new and different sounding, while still being pleasant to listen to...if it's possible considering how much musical output there has already been. Two artists that I've been hearing about I think do this; they sort of stun me in terms of how they're really doing something different but are still enjoyable to listen to: Amy Winehouse, who I heard about through Philip's site, and Lily Allen, who I've heard about all over the darn place. See, it's not all CMT with me.

It's Opry Live!

Rebecca Turner — Sat, 24 Feb 2007 21:52:24 GMT

We have cable now after a while without, and I'm getting to know all the famous shows. I don't like Lost, I don't like Grey's Anatomy, I do like 30 Rock and Ugly Betty. But the thing I missed most about cable was Opry Live, which is on 8:00 ET, on GAC (Great American Country). I started watching this show 10 years or so ago, when it was hosted by Porter Wagoner. The show always had a mix of younger and older artists, and Porter would interview everyone in the same back-slapping way, sitting on a stool and adjusting the lapels of his Manuel suit. With the older stars, he would say things like, "Why, I was over at your house last week, and your lovely wife made such a good meal..." The younger ones were just thrilled to be there. The show is now hosted by what the British call "presenters," so you don't have as much of a community element, but it's still fun. Sometimes it's at the Gaylord Center (the "new" Opry) and sometimes it's at the Ryman (where the Opry used to be in the good ol' days). There are still a decent amount of old-timers on there; in the last couple of weeks, I saw Little Jimmy Dickens and Charley Pride, and tonight's George Jones. The commercials are for country sausage. The house backup singers sound still have that "ooh"-y sound of the 70s. I get so excited when this show is on; I literally stand in front of the television, and sometimes (like last week, when Kellie Pickler was on singing "Red High Heels," which is a great song), I dance.

Are You Really Ready for the Country?

Rebecca Turner — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 16:04:58 GMT

Since I'm going to attempt to Mog more regularly, I thought I'd explain my Country Music Thing, as it's bound to bewilder some folks when I start going on about Dierks Bentley and the like. It started when the folks took me to see the movie Nashville when I was 11. The music was so much fun, and funny, and pretty sometimes, and fun to sing, and I actually kind of adopted an Altmanesque view of the country music world. It was and is a great story to me, with a varying cast of interlocking characters, some embarrassing, some astounding, some just normal folks. I listen to country radio, watch GAC and CMT, won't make plans on CMA night, and when I really need soothing, will always reach for a country record first. That is not to say I did not listen to Jimi Hendrix this morning, or that my own music is country at all -- I want to be Matraca Berg, but I can't make it come out that way! It's kind of my security blanket. I'll leave you with a few things: CAT Country (real commercial country, listen to it when I'm in that 'hood) WDVX (an Internet radio station from Knoxville. Emmylou and her ilk.)

The Dad Tapes

Rebecca Turner — Sun, 10 Dec 2006 00:33:59 GMT

My first Mog. As you can see I'm all over the map, and like some things many people may deem scary. Anyways, my own music is sort of country/rock/folkish. I do mostly my own songs but some covers too. At a recent gig I started something called The Dad Tapes, a tribute to my dad. When I was a kid my dad would tape songs off the radio (NYC in the early 70s) and I would listen to these tapes incessantly into my teens. So I've started covering the songs that were on the tapes. The first one was "Are You Ready For the Country" by Neil Young. We did it without a drummer (just two audience-participation tambourines). Thoughts on what that song is about?