Dancing Mattress Productions: 4/1/08

30 April 2008

Episode 93: The 100th Show (Math Is Hard)

Continuing for three more episodes on the minimal production side ... I apologize in advance for long pauses, clicks on the recorder, etc. The machine I'm working with has no sound currently, so I can't edit ... hope to be back on the Mac for the next recordings.

Here's what you'll hear today (direct download here):

You Me & Iowa: "Dress the Stage" (direct download for just the song)
Sean Costello: "How in the Devil"
Sunspot: "Viking Funeral"
Josh Woodward: "Afterglow"
Constantines: "Hard Feelings"
Vincent Bergeron: "Nostalgie-Euthanasie"
The Afronauts: "Eeeze Now"
Gentlemen Losers: "If We Are Faded"
Jess Pillmore: "Anytime"
Cake: "Rock 'n' Roll Lifestyle"

Track one was submitted by Glenn at On Target Media -- the band's promotion company -- in advance of the May 6 release of their new album, The Adventures of You, Me & Iowa, and is played with gratitude. The fourth song comes from Josh Woodward's new double album, The Simple Life, which you can download at his site ... name your own price.

Songs 2, 5 and 10 were discovered at the IODA Promonet and may be downloaded below. Track 9 is a Garageband discovery; everything else comes courtesy of the Podsafe Music Network.

Amazon.com Widgets

I'm pretty sure I misspoke on the late Sean Costello's label ... his latest album was released by Delta Groove Productions.

And by the way ... this is episode 93, but when you add in the strangely numbered episodes I do now and again on special occasions (not the contest blurbs, but full-length episodes), this is the 100th show. Yay!

Sean Costello
"How in the Devil" (mp3)
from "We Can Get Together"
(DELTA GROOVE PRODUCTIONS)

Buy at iTunes Music Store

Stream from Rhapsody

Buy at Amazon

More On This Album

Cake
"Rock 'n' Roll Lifestyle" (mp3)
from "Motorcade of Generosity"
(Upbeat Records)

Buy at iTunes Music Store

Stream from Rhapsody

More On This Album

Constantines
"Hard Feelings" (mp3)
from "Kensington Heights"
(Arts & Crafts)

Buy at Rhapsody

Stream from Rhapsody

More On This Album

28 April 2008

Pacifika: "Me Cai"

Sorry to be away all weekend. The paying job intervened.

Six Degrees Records is giving away a free download of "Me Cai," the Pacifika song featured in Episode 90 of the podcast. If you like what you see in the video and hear in the song, visit the band's record label site to learn more about this wildly international band.

Pacifika - Asunción

25 April 2008

Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds: "Weeping Song"

The juxtaposition of the song's lyrics and the silliness which Nick Cave and Blixa Bargeld (also of the band Einstürzende Neubauten) are up to in this video is something to behold.

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - The Good Son

Fact: The Good Son was the album that hooked me on this band, after hearing them on the soundtrack to Wim Wenders' film Until the End of the World and on the Leonard Cohen tribute album I'm Your Fan about the same time.

24 April 2008

Sean Costello: "Simple Twist of Fate"

Blues singer/guitarist Sean Costello died April 15 -- one day shy of his 29th birthday. Here we see him performing a cover of a Bob Dylan classic, which he also included on his self-titled album.

Sean Costello - Sean Costello

It's entirely possible that I met the man, briefly, in passing. He worked with Susan Tedeschi on her album Just Won't Burn, and she gigged at my college a couple of times before winning a Grammy and hitting the big time. If he was along on any of those stops, I probably did shake his hand once.

Susan Tedeschi - Just Won't Burn

Regardless: The man could play. You'll hear one of his originals from his recent album We Can Get Together in next week's episode, which by the way is my 100th full-length show. (It's episode 93, but when you add in Pi and other strangely numbered episodes, that makes 100.)

Sean Costello - We Can Get Together

Sean Costello - Cuttin' In

Sean Costello - Moanin' for Molasses

Nina Simone: "Love Me or Leave Me"

Here's a very, very young Nina Simone. The chatter accompanying this says it's a 1960 appearance on Ed Sullivan, for what that's worth.

Nina Simone - Little Girl Blue

Nina Simone - Nina Simone: Anthology

I've rearranged the tagging system here ... some of the big-name artists (Tom Waits, Steve Earle) who've been featured in past videos and have released at least one podsafe track that I've played are now tagged by name even on videos of non-podsafe songs.

I've done away with the "video" tag entirely, and only use "not podsafe" as a tag if the song doesn't fit with a broader theme. Ms. Simone is no longer with us, so she gets a "rock n roll heaven" tag even though I'm not planning to do several days around that theme. (That said, the next video is also someone who's no longer with us ... and didn't get to have the long career Ms. Simone had.)

23 April 2008

Episode 92: An Experiment Gone Horribly Right

The last of three episodes recorded with a stripped-down, Plan B arrangement. Unless, of course, I end up doing a fourth or fifth consecutive show this way. Time will tell.

Here's what you'll hear today (direct download here):

Alice Cooper: "No More Mister Nice Guy (Live at Montreaux)"
R-Three: "Celluloid Erosion"
Athena: "To Be With You"
The Majestic Twelve: "Condoleeza, Check My Posse"
Del the Funky Homosapien: "Bubblepop"
Suzanne Teng: "Topanga Dreams"
Tokyo Police Club: "Nature of the Experiment"
DeVotchKa: "Transliterator"
Abby Travis: "Blythe"

Tracks 3, 6 and 7 were obtained through the IODA Promonet and may be downloaded below. Tracks two and four come from CD, and everything else was found at the Podsafe Music Network.

Amazon.com Widgets

Fun fact: DeVotchKa did the soundtrack for the movie Little Miss Sunshine. Another fun fact: That's Cheeta the Chimp, former sidekick to Tarzan, in the icon. He recently turned 76.

I do hope today's show works and that everything's there: I did it on the PC instead of the Mac, and a problem with the speakers kept me from verifying that everything was in place ... there may also be long pauses and clicks before and after the one spoken bit, because I couldn't edit the sound file, just had to drop it in as part of the combination of MP3s that made up the episode.

(Bizarro Files will be posted around midday. Forgot I hadn't finished today's entry, though I recorded the episode itself at the start of the month.)