Friday is for all the things

9:06 Mar 9, 2012 33

This week's Media7 chat with It's In the Bag producer and director Libby Hakaraia and Tainui Stephens is online here. It was one of those discussions that could have happily have gone on for an hour, so engaging were they.

I'm going to be popping up to Whangarei for the recording of the grand final tomorrow, and I'm really rather looking forward to that.

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So, rather than working over the weekend, I'll be spending most of the rest of today in prep for next Wednesday's Mind Reading? event at Auckland Museum. I'm the MC, Associate Professor Brett Cowan and Dr Donna Rose Addis are the experts, and we'll be looking at what a Functional MRI scan of the brain can really tell us about what a subject is thinking, via live analysis: does a genuine memory look obviously different to an invented one?

The event runs from 7pm to 8.30 (I'll be whisked up the hill from theMedia7 recording -- I daresay in some sort of glamorous luxury vehicle, or at least a taxi) and you can buy $10 tickets here.

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I was most flattered to be invited on to the judging panel for the 2012 Taite Music Prize (finalists here). Extra bonus for judging purposes: a copy of the Beastwars album on vinyl. The cover immediately attracted the attention of the young men in the house, and thus the digital version was purchased on Bandcamp and employed last night as accompaniment to the slaughter of many pixel-based aliens.

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My tastes in alt-ish country music are fairly limited (although I am greatly looking forward to again seeing Lucinda Williams play in Auckland), but I have been greatly taken with First Aid Kit and their new album The Lion's Roar. Here is the title track:

Would you have guessed that they are Swedish?

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On a completely different tip, I kinda can't stop playing this big, warm, dubstep remix by Montreal producers Love Thy Brother of 'Youth' from the new EP by English folkie Daughter (it takes so long to type the names of records these days!)

And waddaya know, I check the Hype Machine this morning and the same duo have worked some heavy science on Lana Del Rey's 'Radio':

After a billion remixes of 'Video Games', 'Blue Jeans' and 'Born to Die', I'd been hanging out for a take on 'Radio'. They explain: "With this track we wanted to combine two things that people love and hate on more than anything on this planet: Lana Del Rey & Dubstep." Heh.

Meanwhile, in how-much-more-meta-can-you-get news, neo-soul singer Novel samples 'Video Games' and reimagines it from the point of view of Lana's slacker boyfriend. It's actually pretty cool.

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More neo-soul, from LA's Electric Guest:

More tracks, downloads etc, via Hypem.

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And finally, a couple of nice edits from Soundcloud. Leftside Wobble reworks Grace Jones' 'Walking in the Rain':

And a light touch on the Yoko Ono classic:

Righto. To work. Your turn ...

33 responses to this post

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peter mclennan, 11:25 Mar 9, 2012

Brand new music from Bobby Womack, last seen in NZ with Damon Albarn's outfit The Gorillaz. Produced by Albarn and Richard Russell, off his new album, out June. Free DL, gorgeous tune.
http://dubdotdash.blogspot.co.nz/2012/03/new-bobby-womack.html

AK Central • Since Nov 2006 • 159 posts Report
Paul Williams, 12:08 Mar 9, 2012

Loving First Aid Kit, but agree, would never have thought them Swedish. They're touring Sydney and am seeing them later this month... try the track Emmylou

Sydney • Since Nov 2006 • 2273 posts Report
Richard Stewart, 12:18 Mar 9, 2012

"Would you have guessed that they are Swedish?"
Are they actually trying to sound American?

Pt Chev • Since Feb 2012 • 73 posts Report
Paul Williams, 13:08 Mar 9, 2012

In my very limited experience, Scandanavian people tend to have an oddily American accent. I assumed it was a function of whatever language resources they use in their schools.

Sydney • Since Nov 2006 • 2273 posts Report
Martin Lindberg, 13:11 Mar 9, 2012

Love First Aid Kit. No, I wouldn’t have guessed that they are Swedish, but since I knew I didn’t have to. What I can’t get over is that they are only 19 and 21. And sisters. They are currently at No 1 in the Swedish charts.
ETA: I would assume that the accent is deliberate for the genre.

Stockholm • Since Jul 2009 • 802 posts Report
3410, 13:28 Mar 9, 2012

The style they're doing is close harmony singing, which is essentially an American style.
That said, the area where that sort of American country music developed largely corresponds with the areas of greatest Swedish settlement in USA in late the 19th / early 20th centuries (Minnesota, Nebraska, the Dakotas...), so maybe that singing style was partly Swedish in the first place. (?)

Auckland • Since Jan 2007 • 2618 posts Report
Paul Williams, 13:33 Mar 9, 2012

I've missed PA for all the reasons evident in 3410's post above.

Sydney • Since Nov 2006 • 2273 posts Report
Mark Thomas, 13:53 Mar 9, 2012

The latest White Rabbits album came out this week. "Temporary" is probably the catchiest song, but the whole album is full of subtle and interesting tunes. Similar to Spoon/Radiohead/Beatles
http://music.aol.com/new-releases-full-cds/spinner#/5

Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 317 posts Report
Chris Bowden, 14:02 Mar 9, 2012

My understanding is that most Scandanavians sound American because movies and TV programmes over there are not dubbed, but subtitled. Therefore, kids grow up on a diet of American English.

Auckland • Since Apr 2011 • 27 posts Report
Marcus Turner, 14:41 Mar 9, 2012

This might not be your sort of music, but it’s a pretty impressive audience/performer interaction.

Since Nov 2006 • 212 posts Report
Marcus Turner, 14:44 Mar 9, 2012

And I just discovered the sabretoothed vampire. Where have I been?
http://culturepulp.typepad.com/culturepulp/the-sabretooth-vampire/

Since Nov 2006 • 212 posts Report
Danielle, 14:58 Mar 9, 2012

I like the way the mix of Yoko's vocals makes her sound even more delightfully unhinged.

Charo World. Cuchi-cuchi!… • Since Nov 2006 • 3828 posts Report
Lilith __, in reply to Martin Lindberg, 15:32 Mar 9, 2012

Love First Aid Kit
We all need one of those in the cupboard ;-)

Dunedin • Since Jul 2010 • 3895 posts Report
Lilith __, 15:39 Mar 9, 2012

Would you have guessed that they are Swedish?
Well….they’ve clearly been using Norsica shampoo!
[Edit: which the internet hasn't heard of! But we all remember the blonde on the white horse, right?!]

Dunedin • Since Jul 2010 • 3895 posts Report
Richard Stewart, in reply to Chris Bowden, 15:40 Mar 9, 2012

My experience of Swedes through dealing with them regularly at work is that they speak exceptionally good English, but i have never noticed an American accent as such.
I believe though that this First Aid Kit album was recorded in the US - and this is more likely to have been an influence. Sort of like the way early Kiwi hip-hop artists used to mimic US artists before they found their mojo.

Pt Chev • Since Feb 2012 • 73 posts Report
Hebe, 15:46 Mar 9, 2012

Ok, so I haven't got a link to a video or picture or anything, but I will ask you to use your imagining to conjure up an ordinary, but somehow special thing today...In the Cashel Street container mall, in a courtyard area off to one side, sunny and warm because it was out of the biting north-easterly. Billy Vallance and Jon Hooker brewing up a quietly good set while me and beloved had a quick flat white under the tree from the caravan and others chomped through lunch souvlaki and sushi. So good just to be; in that place at that time. A snapshot hour I will carry with me.

Christchurch • Since May 2011 • 2899 posts Report
BenWilson, in reply to Richard Stewart, 16:02 Mar 9, 2012

It's kind of odd to me how virtually every good vocalist sings with an American accent. Is it an especially musical accent? Perhaps it's because singers are expected to be capable of high volume, and the American accent is especially appropriate for that? It's quite high pitched and clear. Words like "I" and "my" become "Ah", and "mah".

Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 10657 posts Report
George Darroch, 16:15 Mar 9, 2012

Thanks Russel. What a spread of wonderful music… on such a delightful early autumn Auckland day.
Loving the new Bobby Womack tracks. His voice is still golden, and the Albarn production is a lively counterpart. I’m so glad Womack’s still around.
Dropping this here, because this album is blowing up my speakers. Rich deep Barcelona house:

WLG • Since Nov 2006 • 2264 posts Report
Marcus Turner, in reply to BenWilson, 16:26 Mar 9, 2012

I think it's how we learn to sing. We hear American accents (which have long been prominent in popular music) and, consciously or otherwise, copy them. It's no longer "American", necessarily; simply part of the genre. I remember a series about popular music on TV years ago, in which one interviewee traced a lot of it back to the Appalachian influence in Country music which, itself, had a strong influence on early Rock and Roll.
I can remember singing teachers (and others) of the 60s and 70s being really disparaging about American accents. (Actually, I remember some people being pretty negative about the Kiwi accent(s) in singing. The word "the", for example, pronounced in a NZ accent, was anathema to one choir conductor. I think that was partly because of what it tended to do to the length of the sung note.)
A similar thing used to happen in theatre with English accents.
One of the best ways to learn is by imitation. In the early stages, we don't know which parts of what we're imitating are going to be most important to us. As we become more confident and experienced, we find our own "voice" (see "mojo" above).
If market forces are important to us, then we might tend to stay with an "American" pronunciation. It does seem to be easy to sell to the "world market" by comparison to other accents.

Since Nov 2006 • 212 posts Report
BenWilson, in reply to Marcus Turner, 16:59 Mar 9, 2012

It does seem to be easy to sell to the "world market" by comparison to other accents.
Mind you, Hip hop, whilst predominantly American in origin, has accents all of its own and seems to have little trouble selling. Similarly with one really obvious non-American one, the Jamaican. But when they go melodic, then it blends back. So again, I can't help but think there is something strangely apt to that kind of singing in that accent.
It could just be what we've modeled, as you say.

Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 10657 posts Report
Russell Brown, in reply to Hebe, 17:06 Mar 9, 2012

A snapshot hour I will carry with me.
When music meets the moment. I get you.

Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report
Richard Stewart, 18:04 Mar 9, 2012

More Swedish gold - but with a more natural accent

Pt Chev • Since Feb 2012 • 73 posts Report
Martin Lindberg, 18:33 Mar 9, 2012

Since we’re on Swedish music, I thought I’d share this from a few years ago. It won the best music video award and is kinda cool. This one’s in Swedish (or more accurately, in Skånska).
ETA: Forgot to say, it's Familjen - Det snurrar i min skalle

Stockholm • Since Jul 2009 • 802 posts Report
Peter Darlington, 18:38 Mar 9, 2012

What you need right now is Four Tet to hook up with Burial and create, well, this: Nova (Hat-tip Charles @DocRaccoon).
http://soundcloud.com/four-tet/burial-four-tet-nova

Nelson • Since Nov 2006 • 949 posts Report
Hebe, in reply to 3410, 20:37 Mar 9, 2012

That's good. Sounds like some of the Gram Parsons-Emmylou Harris songs.

Christchurch • Since May 2011 • 2899 posts Report