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Post by Mighty Jack on Aug 17, 2012 3:52:05 GMT -5
There are so many talented women I want to share with you in this blog, the number is overwhelming - so here's another for tonight. Sandy Denny She is considered by many to be the finest folk singer-songwriter to emerge from the British music scene. Highlights include: singing a duet with Robert Plant on Led Zeppelin's "The Battle of Evermore", taking over as lead singer for Fairpoint Convention after Judy Dyble left, and recording a host of solo albums. She also was messed up -- a result of her addiction to drugs. She died in 1978 from a brain hemorrhage about a month after falling from a staircase and striking her head on a concrete floor. She left behind some absolutely brilliant numbers, here are a couple, including 2 versions of her most famous song.
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Post by Mighty Jack on Aug 18, 2012 0:03:21 GMT -5
The Go-Go’s We Got the Beat! Catchy damn song – it makes you wanna get up and hop around and dance and just be a happy goon. The Go-Go’s made a splash in the early 80s with their straightforward, bright, California pop (the pop came when guitarist/keyboardist and songwriter Charlotte Caffey joined the band), which was given a boost by the heavy bass/drum combo provided by Kathy Valentine and Gina Schock. Their videos were fun – their concerts were fun – the whole damn band seemed fun. Course things weren't always fun and the fab 5 split up after only 3 releases. Their 1st record, Beauty and the Beat, was a classic - the 2nd LP, Vacation was fair, and their 3rd, Talk Show is arguably their best... and a reunion album (the brilliantly titled, "Return to the Valley of the Go-Go's") started off great, before fizzling in it's second half. While Belinda Carlisle had some success as a solo artist, I missed the band as a whole (Jane Wieldin rocks!) The girls (because these ladies will always be girls) are on a farewell tour, and I do hope they stop in my town (so far, that's a big no) because I need the beat in a bad way. Judy Dyble And since I did Sandy Denny, I might as well throw in Judy, one of the original members of Fairpoint Conventions (and a member of the band that eventually became King Crimson). Poor Judy pretty much wound up under Sandy's shadow, which is understandable. While she didn’t have Sandy’s talent, she wrote some nice songs and had a pleasant voice -- so here she is, and here's a song... and a link to another... www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmfjPjAxLjs
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Post by Mighty Jack on Aug 20, 2012 23:48:08 GMT -5
The Bangles Filling the pop ‘girl group’ gap left by the Go-Go’s were the Bangles, with their catchy hooks and tight four part harmonies. Part of L.A.’s Paisley Underground, the gals met through a newspaper ad. Susanna Hoff’s answered that ad in December 1980 and bonded with guitarist Vicki Peterson over a shared love of the Beatles and their grief over the recent murder of John Lennon. With Vickie’s sister Debbi on drums, they added bassist Michael Steel (who had a short stint as the Runaways first lead singer) and recorded their first album, "All Over the Place". But it was the second, "Different Light" in 1985 that rocketed the foursome to hitsville. While the cover songs from that release, Manic Monday, If She Knew What She Wants and Walk Like an Egyptian are all wonderful; producer David Kahn pushed the radio friendly soft pop (and novelty) aspects and striped the guts right out of the group. I saw them live and believe it or not, they had a tougher, garage-band sound. Debi Peterson’s drums really kicked your ass in concert. Rick Ruben produced their next smash, a cover of Paul Simon’s "Hazy Shade of Winter", which showed off more of the heavier bass and back beat aspects. A third album -1988s "Everything", produced by Davitt Sigerson- gave the ladies 2 more hits, the Hoff's penned "In Your Room" and the ballad "Eternal Flame". But tensions within the group caused them to break-up. In 2003 they reunited to record a song for the new Austin Powers flick, and later released another record -- "Doll Revolution". And again in 2011, without Steel, and Matthew Sweet as producer, "Sweetheart of the Sun". The Supremes The Supremes of course are Motown legends and 60s icons who recorded one monster hit single after another. I’ve never owned an entire album, never was overly fond of Diana Ross, and don't really consider them one of ‘my groups’. But I include them because they are great when your driving down the freeway and a song comes on -- you can't help but turn up the volume. There are album groups and there are singles groups, and for me, the Supremes are the later.
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Post by Mighty Jack on Aug 21, 2012 23:35:03 GMT -5
Mother Maybelle Carter Most people know June Carter as the singer/songwriter wife of Country legend Johnny Cash, and because of the movie "I Walk the Line" many more came to know (what long time fans of Country already knew) that she was part of a large family of country music stalwarts. The women include sister’s Helen, June and Anita and at the head was mother Maybelle. From Wiki - She was a member of the original Carter Family, which was formed in 1927 by her brother-in-law, A. P. Carter, who was married to her cousin, Sara, also a part of the trio. The Carter Family was one of the first commercial rural country music groups. Maybelle, who played autoharp and banjo as well as being the group's guitarist, created a unique sound for the group with her innovative 'scratch' style of guitar playing, where she used her thumb to play melody on the bass and middle strings, and her index finger to fill out the rhythm.Although Maybelle herself had first picked up this technique from the guitarist Lesley Riddle, it became widely known as Carter Family picking, an indication of the group's pivotal role in popularizing the style. A link to song performed with her daughters... www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXDxm8Y3kDQJulee Cruise This ethereal singer is best known for singing the title song for David Lynch’s TV show "Twin Peeks" – Lynch would produce and write lyrics for many of her songs, the music was composed by Angelo Badalamenti (who scored Blue Velvet & Mulholland Drive). I liked what the trio cooked up - it was dreamy and odd and Julee had the perfect voice for the material.
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Post by afriendlychicken on Aug 22, 2012 0:07:19 GMT -5
I've been having fun reading your choices of women musicians. I admit to not knowing a number of those you've mentioned. I'll name a few of my favorites who you may or may not list later, just to be a pain-in-the-neck and interrupt your flow. Ella Fitzgerald, Joni Mitchell, Linda Ronstadt; yep, I said it; and Annie Haslam. I even like Paula Cole and Tori Amos. Scary, huh?
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Post by Mighty Jack on Aug 22, 2012 2:38:36 GMT -5
That's alright with me, no flow interuptus from my end. There are soooo many I can cover that I know I'll run out of gas before I get to them all. And Ella, I'm not much into jazz... but ah what an amazing voice she had.
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Post by mummifiedstalin on Aug 22, 2012 9:21:24 GMT -5
One for the somewhat "unusual voice" category: June Tabor. She started primarily as a traditional English folk singer, as in *real* English folk tunes, not 60's stuff.
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Post by Mighty Jack on Aug 22, 2012 23:22:14 GMT -5
That was amazing, thanks for sharing mums - I have such tunnel vision for 60s folk (and people who started their careers in that decade, like Denny), that I often out of the loop on anything that came in the 70s. In the 70s I moved on to Alice Cooper and American Punk and New Wave.
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Post by Mighty Jack on Aug 22, 2012 23:23:30 GMT -5
Björk The first time I saw Bjork was on MTV as a member of the Sugarcubes in the video "Hit" – there was something about her, something magnetic. I bought the Cubes 2 albums, they were kind of an Icelandic B52’s, only you wished the guy would shut up so you could get more of Bjork. I later learned that she had been performing since she was 11, and played in projects such as Tappi Tikarrass. Eventually she went solo and music lovers and critics took notice of her unconventional style and sound. She looked sweet and innocent-as aspect accentuated by her vocals – and she once stated early in her career that he hated how people treated her like a child because of the way she looked. We soon discovered that she was anything but. She was eccentric, strong, and assertive and if you pissed her off, she was downright scary. I love her videos -- I'll share 2: One with the Sugarcubes and the amazing, "Human Behavior", directed by Michel Gondry Strange Fruit – Billie Holiday It began as a poem, and when first recorded by the great Billie Holiday in 1939, her expressive vocal rendition in gave that poem an added strength and poignancy. It would become -what Time Magazine considered- the song of the century. The lyrics create a chilling image of racism and lynching that is disturbing - and I don't know that I’ve ever heard anything as powerful and haunting.
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Post by mummifiedstalin on Aug 23, 2012 12:04:03 GMT -5
Love Bjork. Vespertine was like a revelation. I'd always liked her before, but that album did "quiet" like nothing else I've heard before.
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Post by Mighty Jack on Aug 23, 2012 23:43:36 GMT -5
Carrie Brownstein Brownstein is one of the linking talents for the Pacific Northwest "Riot Grrrl & Queencore" bands Excuse 17, Sleater-Kinney and later, Wild Flag -- and this posting is for all the ladies who played in each. Sleater is the best known of the three. I've heard that they are one of actress Ellen Page's favorites (they showed up on the soundtrack to her movie Hard Candy). The sound is like chaotic, punk, pop and Carrie's lead guitar was frequently and wonderfully off kilter -- rumbling like the end of the world in numbers such as What’s Mine Is Yours. The Seattle born guitarist (named in a 2006 Rolling Stone readers' list as one of the 25 "Most Underrated Guitarists of All-Time.") has branched out from her rock roots: Working as a writer for NPR and as an actress/developer of the TV skit comedy show, Portlandia, co-starring Fred Armisen. Here's a great one from Sleater-Kinney, played live on David Letterman’s show -- The Fabulous Stains Lou Adler's "Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains" is a film about 3 girls who form a punk band and -even though they can’t play worth a lick- become a sensation. Produced in 1981, it was never given a formal theatrical release, but eventually showed up on late night cable shows (like Nightflight) and which set it on the path to becoming a cult favorite. It stars a Diane Lane, Laura Dern and Marin Kanter as the Stains. With members of the Sex Pistols, Clash and Tubes showing off their acting chops. The original title was "The Washouts", and that fits. As all the groups here are one hit wonders or losers living off past glories -- no one is likable in this flick, and rock and roll is shown as a nasty, dog eat dog pile of B.S. But it’s a good movie, and when it was finally released on DVD, I got a copy right away. Warning F-Bombs –
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Post by Mighty Jack on Aug 24, 2012 23:42:04 GMT -5
Aimee Mann Aimee Mann breaks my heart. She doesn't have the prettiest voice and musically she rarely strays from the safe and familiar, but her lyrics... her lyrics devastate. They are not happy, ‘Sunday afternoon in the park’ kind of numbers. Aimee writes about the broken, the disenfranchised, the addicted, the lost, the losers, the fools and the liars. Her albums are windows into the souls of this dispirited cast of characters… and not everyone likes what they are shown, because sometimes what we see is ourselves. "It's Not" is a song I’ve been trying (and failing) to successfully write for years: It speaks of a sinking depression, and a longing to move, and not being able to move - of loving someone and feeling that they could make it all better, when in truth, they can't. Christ, those lyrics cut to the bone, its too damn real -- but brilliant. In her concept album, The Forgotten Arm, she tells the story of a woman who loves a man struggling with addiction. The track - "That's How I Knew This Story Would Break My Heart"- drops me every time I hear it. Because I've been in that place she is singing of. I wonder if she has this affect on other people? (Director PT Anderson was so moved that he based his script for "Magnolia" on her songs.) And I wonder if we are all a little surprised that the spiky haired singer from Till Tuesday became such a perceptive essayist on our sorrows? BTW, I saw Aimee live, and it was an incredible show. It was in a smaller venue, which added an intimacy (she took requests). She came off smart and funny - not bleak, or troubled as the personalities she writes about. The band consisted of only 2 other musicians, but the sound was full, warm and beautifully performed. Her next tour doesn’t bring her any place near me, and that’s unfortunate because I'd see her again in a heartbeat. There are so many numbers I’d love to share, but here are two from her best album, the brilliant Bachelor No. 2Link to another... www.youtube.com/watch?v=XS_8ILEzxfs&
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Post by Mighty Jack on Aug 27, 2012 23:02:36 GMT -5
Stevie Nicks I had a mad crush on Stevie Nicks when I was a teenager – I didn't like Fleetwood Mac in the least, but I was in love with Stevie and always hoped there would come a day when I could just get the Nicks songs alone. My girlfriend said she sang like a goat -- oh jealousy. Oh, okay - Stevie did have a distinct, goat like voice - BAAAAA! I had the old Buckingham/Nicks LP and bought her first 3 solo albums and taped her concert off HBO, which I'd watch all the time. Eventually I saw her live, in Nashville. My wife liked her better than my old GF did. The only problem was that I suffered a major kidney infection a few days before and it knocked me on my arse. I was in a lot of pain and on medication but I was damn well not going to let those tickets go to waste. It was an outdoor concert and for most of it I lay doubled over on the grass, drenched in a cold sweat and feeling nauseas. Sheryl Crow was a guest performer and from what I heard (and saw when I'd stand up on occasion) it was a top-notch show. I just wish I had been in better shape to appreciate it. (This was also not long after 9-11, and there was still a somber and paranoid vibe in the air) I haven’t listen to Stevie for a few years. But watching this old Midnight Special performance was a nice trip back to memory lane... And oh man, but did I love Landslide www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIh-amV-dVsHere’s a bit of that HBO special, Stevie doing Edge of Seventeen www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAVA_8bjdl8Linda, Linda, Linda A 2005 movie about a group of Japanese girls (and one South Korean exchange student) who start a band in order to play in their School’s talent show – this is a coming of age-style charmer and features a hook-heavy song at the end - the kind that sticks in your head and (happily) wont leave. Note: In the clip, the girls were caught in a rainstorm trying to get to the gig (that's why their hair looks like that). The bass player in the band is Shiori Sekine, who is the bassist for the well known (in Japanese rock circles) "Base Ball Bear". The lead singer is played by South Korean actress and model Bae Doona, who is best known as the archer in "The Host", she was also the title character in "Air Doll".
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Post by mummifiedstalin on Aug 28, 2012 0:03:10 GMT -5
Someone bought me Mann's Whatever right after I graduated high school, and it defined that summer for me. I'm not really sure why because I didn't necessarily relate to the content of her songs. But something about the style: the weird being-out-of-place with "Fifty Years After the Fair" and "Mr. Harris" both struck me as exactly like that odd space when you don't really belong anywhere immediately after high school.
And "I Know There's a Word for This" has always struck me as a perfect little song
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Post by Mighty Jack on Aug 28, 2012 23:09:19 GMT -5
And now for some electronic freak-outs… Dorothy Moskowitz They were called "The United States of America" and in December of 1967 they released one amazing LP – it wound up being their only LP. Band members fought over pretty much everything and split within months of the albums release. Leader Joe Byrd stated that "...his aesthetic aims for the band and album were to have an avant-garde political/musical rock group with the idea of combining Electronic sound (not electronic music), musical/political radicalism and Performance arte". The album employed specially made electronic devices and wave oscillators etc, all of which went into creating an avant garde sound that is bizarre to say the least. Though an imperfect experiment, it's an album that should be listened too at least once in ones life. Dorothy Moskowitz provides the vocals, which sometimes has a Grace Slick feel to it (as well as anticipating the next lady on the list). After the USA, she toured with County Joe MacDonald as Keyboardist/backing singer. Dorothy later married and today works composing and teaching music. A link to the song "American Metaphysical Circus" www.youtube.com/watch?v=sb8Q4EHozjUThe Garden of Earthly Delights is the most straightforward tune on the USAs record -- Trish Keenan Broadcast was a Bermingam band that drew inspiration from the electronic sounds of the USA, with singer Trish Keenan taking up where Dorothy Moskowitz left off. Broadcast’s style varies from album to album: Sometimes they amp up the ambient sound and go off in on all manner of tangent – at others they adhere to more traditional (though never fully traditional) structures. But whatever the release, their sound is 60s psychedelia, mixed with a touch of early 70s Kraftwerk. While on tour in Australia Trish contracted a form of swine flu and died from pneumonia at the age of 42. Pat Long wrote in her obituary... "Keenan's lyrics were inspired variously by Gertrude Stein, Edgar Allan Poe and, latterly, HG Wells, while in live performance the band updated the 1960s arts lab "happenings" by playing in front of projected short films, with Keenan's static stage presence, heavy black fringe and pallor giving her a slightly detached and icy demeanour totally at odds with her offstage manner."Mary Hanson and Lætitia Sadier Carrying on with this musical theme -- Mary Hanson sang and played guitar, and Lætitia Sadier sang and played keyboards for the 90s Indie electronics band, Stereolab – I never was that hot for lab, sometimes they were too plastic, a little too “Human League” for my tastes. But every once in a while they’d rock… as in this youtube performance of “French Disko” Sadly, Hansen was struck by a truck and killed while riding her bicycle in London on December 9th 2002. She was 36 years old.
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