I don’t know about you guys, but I generally enjoy Woody Allen’s movies. Yeah–there are a lot of people that have a problem with him marrying his stepdaughter, or something like that, but his movies are actually so good. I’ll admit his most recent film, To Rome With Love was not as promising as I had hoped, but Midnight in Paris will always be one of my absolute favorite movies of all time. It definitely helps that most of his films take place in either New York City or some beautiful city in Europe.
Aside from the gorgeous scenery and the wonderful simplicity of Woody Allen’s films, his choice in music never fails to disappoint. Now, this may not apply to some of you, but have you ever been in a certain situation or been in a sort of mood where you can just feel how perfect it would be if this one song played? I get that feeling all the time, whether I’m drinking hot chocolate in my sweats and a blanket, or walking down Newbury on a sunny, spring afternoon. I even get it when I’m studying! When I’m asked what the soundtrack to my life would be (which doesn’t actually happen often, mind you), Woody Allen is always the first thing that comes to mind because I honestly think anything he put together would be perfect. Of his movies that I’ve seen, the genres of music that he includes in his movies tend to be jazz and swing, which I think can be perfect in any situation and any mood.
Not all of these songs are from Woody Allen movies, but they’re in the same genres as his, so here are a few of my favorites.
Let’s Do It (Let’s Fall in Love) // Conal Fowkes
Moonglow // Benny Goodman & His Orchestra
Out of Nowhere // Django Reinhardt, Coleman Hawkins
had her believing it was always something that she’d done.
But I don’t wanna live that way, and you shouldn’t either. Kimbra is widely known for her American debut in the Gotye song Somebody That I Used To Know. Now, I am not here to debate whether the song is great or not; I personally love it and it has been on my top 25 played since I first saw the music video. I am here to tell you about why Kimbra is amazing and why you should think that, too.
Kimbra (also known as Kimbra Lee Johnson) is a New Zealand singer-songwriter-guitarist-musician. She is pretty great. She is mostly known for her jazzy, soul-filled sound. Now, first reactions to the word jazz are usually negative. Jazz? Nah, not my scene. But, somehow Kimbra transcends her own genre with her unique sounds and beautiful voice. She utilizes voice looping to literally make her voice the instrument in the background. It is absurdly awesome and sounds so much better than I am describing it here. She is fantastic! And honestly, whenever I hear pop-rock or I hear ear-shattering dubstep, I lose faith in music, and then I listen to artists like Kimbra and it comes right back. I feel as though she is ushering in a new era of beautiful music.
Kimbra hasn’t been screwed over, but I feel as though her American debut should have been her own solo work. She is talented enough and famous enough to be on the radio just as Gotye was. Perhaps this will push radios to play more of her music more. One can only hope!
Hey Dale, I looked ahead and I saw videos. What is up with that?
Kimbra is amazing in herself, but the videos below are an entirely different tale. I’ll let this article speak for itself, but I want to draw attention to some of the film aspects of these videos.
“The trilogy of videos Franklin has created for Kimbra are elaborate vignettes filled with precise choreography and tricky visual elements (burning plastic in Settle Down, confetti canons in Cameo Lover and extensive period costuming and set design in both Good Intent and Settle Down) that many novice directors—and even some with more experience—would try to steer clear of, but Franklin knew they were pivotal for communicating his star’s songs.
“I remember, very specifically, that Kimbra had said that, by the [Cameo Lover] clip’s end, it needed to feel “joyous”. I went away, with this in mind, and came up with a story structure that felt engaging to watch and would allow us to build, bit by bit, to this climactic outro. All I can really say now is thank goodness we used the confetti! I think everyone was a little bit nervous about how the confetti would show up on camera, so we were very hesitant to use it… but, every rehearsal we had, Kimbra would ask, “Have you organised those confetti guns?” She seems to have a sixth sense, that girl…”
Sorry Emily, but these are the new jams of the week.
Comment below on which song is your favorite. Have a great rest of your week!
This week I’ve been listening to some strange music. According to the world’s most trusted source of answers about anything, Wikipedia, experimental music is something that “pushes the boundaries of the genre, or incorporates unorthodox, new, distinctly unique ingredients.” Whatever it is that I’ve been listening to lately, it certainly is unique. This experimental mood of mine has brought me down two very different musical paths: experimental jazz, and experimental electro.
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One of my favorite jazz bands “Medeski Martin & Wood” (who is actually coming to the House of Blues tomorrow 11/18) is a great example of experimental jazz fusion. The organ/drum/bass trio love to jam and try new things. Most of the time it works out, but sometimes not so much… Last time they came to Boston, they improvised a few songs that sounded like a woman going through labor and a hippopotamus having a bad acid trip accompanied by a blindfolded gorilla drumming with his eyes closed. But hey, that’s what sound experimentation is for!
Here is a good example of an strange, but enjoyable MMW song: Beeah
And if you don’t like that, give them another chance! This is more Jazz, less experimenting: Last Chance to Dance (Perhaps)
On the other end of things is Mr. Oizo, a French music producer/director/DJ. I’ve fallen in love with the album “Lambs Anger”, which is more mainstream than his earlier albums. I’ll let the music speak for itself here.
Listen to Half a Scissor off his second album “Moustache”:
Weird stuff right? Yah, I know, but I can’t get it out of my head. I love it! The entire album is like this: glitchy, fuzzy sounds over a strange beat. (This is kind of what I would imagine a waterfall would sound like if Tron were real life.)
His later album “Lambs Anger” has more of a dance beat to it, and isn’t so terrifically odd. Still, some of his songs are just so random.
Like, for example Bruce Willis is Dead:
But my favorite song my Mr. Oizo, and definitely my favorite song of the week, is Positif. The only lyrics are some lady or robot (not really sure which) saying crazy things in French like “Stop Reproducing Yourselves” and “You are animals!” It sounds so much better when she says it, trust me.
Well, that’s all I got for this week… Au revoir!
- Tim
This post was supposed to come earlier in the day (like actually on Sunday), but alas, not everything goes as planned. Among the things I want to put up here is a solo guitar cover of a catchy song we all know. You may have noticed I’m really into instrumentals, especially guitar ones. Recently, I’ve also been trying to get into the world of Jazz, and Pat Metheny is on everyone’s list of “must-hear” jazz guitarists. So, in my vigilant Youtube research I came across this gem, which has gotten “Don’t Know Why” stuck in my head the past few days:
Also stuck in my head is “No Sensitivity” off of the Deluxe Edition of Jimmy Eat World’s Bleed American CD (originally on a split CD with Jebediah). This band is probably most well known for it’s pop hits “Sweetness” and “The Middle” which, while both are great songs in their own right, are not representative of their whole catalog. The band has just released Invented on September 28, it’s first album since their 2007 release Chase This Light. I haven’t had a chance to listen to the full album yet, but maybe I’ll post a review in next week’s post. JEW (as they are lovingly referred to by their hardcore fans) is going to be performing at the House of Blues here in Boston this October 15:
