So, what are you listening to these days?

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Back to music. I've been on a 70s flashback on Hoopla:





Yep, Fleetwood Mac, specifically 1975's self-titled album and the 1977 classic Rumours. All the songs above are from one of those albums. This was a seriously talented band and I had kind of forgotten about them in recent years. 3 good to great singers (Lindsey Buckingham, Christine McVie, Stevie Nicks) and 4 accomplished musicians (Lindsay, Christine, John McVie, Mick Fleetwood).
 
More Fleetwood Mac.


This next song may be better known these days from the Dixie Chicks' terrific cover, but no one sings it quite like the lady who wrote it.


And all 6 songs that I have posted come from only two albums, showing just how packed with quality those seventies Fleetwood Mac albums were.
 
After Dark. I am almost horrified at the speed with which I could switch my allegiance from Tim Tam to Odario's smoother, much more varied offerings. Damn. I'm still enjoying Lila Bialli on Saturday nights, miss my regular jazz a bit, but when I get tired of the pop, there's nice jazz classical streams, so hey... I'm still all CBC. Think of the BBC's wider variety a bit fondly at times, but there is Netflix. Does me just fine, and it's very cheap.
 
I don't listen to After Dark much but I do like it. I want Terfry gone, though. I could listen to Raina Douris or Angeline Tetteh-Wayoe (Radio 2 Morning) for hours but he drives me a bit crazy. He reminds me more of a commercial DJ, rather in your face and putting the spotlight on himself rather than the music.
 
I sort of agree with you. I adore Shift, but then I get a bit bored between him and whatever special occurs before 8. He's a bit pompous, and honestly, some days I listen to that "stuff for you to talk about over the dinner table" for the five millionth time and I think, "meh".
 
Mendalla said:
Back to music. I've been on a 70s flashback on Hoopla:





Yep, Fleetwood Mac, specifically 1975's self-titled album and the 1977 classic Rumours. All the songs above are from one of those albums. This was a seriously talented band and I had kind of forgotten about them in recent years. 3 good to great singers (Lindsey Buckingham, Christine McVie, Stevie Nicks) and 4 accomplished musicians (Lindsay, Christine, John McVie, Mick Fleetwood).
Click to expand...
One of my favourite albums (Rumours) , still - since I was about 6.
 
Mendalla said:
More Fleetwood Mac.


This next song may be better known these days from the Dixie Chicks' terrific cover, but no one sings it quite like the lady who wrote it.


And all 6 songs that I have posted come from only two albums, showing just how packed with quality those seventies Fleetwood Mac albums were.
Click to expand...
The 70s was possibly the best decade for quality rock music, of various sub-genres.
 
this mornz Good Morning playlist (and us makin brekfast together)
Cat Stevens Morning has Broken
Oliver Good Morning Starshine
Singing in the Rain Good Morning
Charlie Pride Kiss an Angel Good Morning
Kayne West Good Morning (sweet video as well)
American Authors Best Days of my Life
Katrina and the Waves Walking on Sunshine
Bastille Flaws
American Authors Luck
Ingrid Michaelson Be Good
Arctic Monkies Mardy Bum
American Authors Believer
The Vamps Wild Heart
The 1975 Girls
The Royal Concept On Our Way
Group Love Tonguetied
The Naked and Famous Youngblood
Insomniac's Lullaby Ed Sheeran
Sufjan Stevens Mystery of Love
Macy Gray Beauty in the World

Heard some new ones. Enjoyed some goosebump songs.
 
BetteTheRed said:
I sort of agree with you. I adore Shift, but then I get a bit bored between him and whatever special occurs before 8. He's a bit pompous, and honestly, some days I listen to that "stuff for you to talk about over the dinner table" for the five millionth time and I think, "meh".
Click to expand...

"Musical cousins" is the one that bugs me. It's a silly feature, he just recites the same goddamned opening every day, and most of the suggested "cousins" barely qualify. Having a few of the same chords does not a musical cousin make. Most modern popular music uses the same few chords for God's sake.

Shift is great because, hey, Tom Allen. I loved him on the morning show and don't get to hear Shift often enough. Really, I preferred that old CBC2 format. In spite of their protestations to the contrary, they are sounding more like commercial radio now than they did a decade ago.
 
My musical discovery of 2018 may have happened.




That's two originals, including their latest, plus a cover.

Lake Street Dive is a quartet of graduates of the New England Conservatory of Music who have been playing together since 2004 with 7 albums out and an eighth in the pipe (due out on my b-day!!). A mix of influences like swing jazz and classic pop music gives them a unique sound and lead singer Rachael Price can belt it out with the best. I kind of stumbled across them on Youtube and now have their 2015 album Side Pony (from which the second song above is taken) queued up in Hoopla.

Wish I'd found them earlier but happy I finally did.
 
A set Lake Street Dive did at a station in Kansas City while touring for Side Pony. The interview portions are good (though I found a couple of them hard to hear, maybe the mikes had a problem) and so are the performances.


FYI, the name is taken from Lake Street in Minneapolis, where guitarist/trumpeter Mike Olson grew up. The street is apparently where the "dive" bars are located in that city.

Odd fact: they started out thinking they would be a country band even though they didn't really know much about country. They changed their minds quickly. :D

Oo, and I see they're playing the Ottawa Jazz Festival. And Little M might be staying in Ottawa for the summer depending what he comes up with for a summer job. I see a possible trip itinerary here.:whistle: Or maybe their appearance at the Toronto International Jazz Festival around the same time. No London date, though.:(
 
Lake Street Dive (I resist the temptation to acronymise their name for obvious reasons:D) having some fun:


Rachael's porn 'stache as Freddy is something else, isn't it?

And this is how I first discovered them, a set from NPR's "Tiny Desk Concert" series:

 
Mendalla said:
Lake Street Dive (I resist the temptation to acronymise their name for obvious reasons:D) having some fun:
Click to expand...

So apparently dressing up as a another band and covering one of their songs is an annual Halloween thing for Lake Street Dive. This is the one from 2013:


I like how they harmonize here, with Rachael pulling back a bit to fit in with the others.
 
Okay, I promise to stop talking about Lake Street Dive. The next two posts won't be about the band. They will be about solo work by two of them (waits for the groans to die down).

First up, perhaps naturally, is Rachael Price. She was an award winning jazz singer before she even went to conservatory and met the others, cutting her first album at 17. So it's not surprising that during breaks from the band, she mostly focusses on jazz.

Her biggest collaboration outside Lake Street has been a jazz guitarist and singer named Vilray. They sound wonderful together, combining tight harmonies with his guitar-playing.


Unfortunately, most of their videos together don't have the greatest sound quality, so that's the only one I'll post for now.

However, while hunting around for more of her non-Lake Street work, I discovered that last fall, she sang on Prairie Home Companion, in one instance backed by the legendary Preservation Hall Jazz Band. I think her vocals here may be even stronger than in her Lake Street Dive work and I hope she does a full jazz album someday. A couple clips from that show:


 
And, not to be outdone, bassist-singer Bridget Kearney put aside her upright string bass last year to cut a surprisingly contemporary pop album. Bridget does sing solo in the band from time to time, but it's nice to see her shine on her own.


 
While my interest in the show Friends itself waned after a couple seasons, I loved the theme song, "I'll Be There For You" by The Rembrandts. And I really like this version, released to promote the show's arrival on Netflix in 2014, better than the original.

 
As mentioned in the "Movies you'd like to see" thread, I have been listening to the soundtrack of the original movie musical (original in that it is not an adaptation of a stage musical like Les Miz was) The Greatest Showman. I really don't know much about the plot beyond it being about legendary circus impresario P. T. Barnum (played by Hugh Jackman) but I am quite enjoying the songs all the same. Keeping an eye out for the movie to hit Netflix or Hoopla or some such service so I can see it. We really don't get enough original movie musicals these days save for the Disney animated stuff so I was happy to see this one is a popular success, though I know it was hardly a critic's darling (5.5 on Rotten Tomatoes IIRC).

"This is Me" features Keala Settle, of whom I had not heard until now. From a bit of searching, I see that she is apparently a Broadway star of some note, with a raft of nominations for her performance in the show Hands on a Hardbody in 2013. A strong, uplifting anthem sung by the circus' bearded lady, based on the clips I've seen. Even her stage performance at the Oscars nailed it.


And "Rewrite the Stars" is the inevitable lovers' duet (just about every musical has to have one), sung by Zac Efron and Zendaya. The clip is below and I just love the choreography and how they work her role as an acrobat into it.


And it is a measure of the quality of the songs and popularity of the movie that these songs are getting covered right and left on Youtube. I actually first heard the music through covers by Peter & Evynne Hollens ("This is Me" by Peter, a mashup of "Never be Enough/This is Me" by Evynne)
 
Mendalla said:
As mentioned in the "Movies you'd like to see" thread, I have been listening to the soundtrack of the original movie musical (original in that it is not an adaptation of a stage musical like Les Miz was) The Greatest Showman. I really don't know much about the plot beyond it being about legendary circus impresario P. T. Barnum (played by Hugh Jackman) but I am quite enjoying the songs all the same. Keeping an eye out for the movie to hit Netflix or Hoopla or some such service so I can see it. We really don't get enough original movie musicals these days save for the Disney animated stuff so I was happy to see this one is a popular success, though I know it was hardly a critic's darling (5.5 on Rotten Tomatoes IIRC).

"This is Me" features Keala Settle, of whom I had not heard until now. From a bit of searching, I see that she is apparently a Broadway star of some note, with a raft of nominations for her performance in the show Hands on a Hardbody in 2013. A strong, uplifting anthem sung by the circus' bearded lady, based on the clips I've seen. Even her stage performance at the Oscars nailed it.


And "Rewrite the Stars" is the inevitable lovers' duet (just about every musical has to have one), sung by Zac Efron and Zendaya. The clip is below and I just love the choreography and how they work her role as an acrobat into it.


And it is a measure of the quality of the songs and popularity of the movie that these songs are getting covered right and left on Youtube. I actually first heard the music through covers by Peter & Evynne Hollens ("This is Me" by Peter, a mashup of "Never be Enough/This is Me" by Evynne)
Click to expand...

The movie was pretty good. Only too much singing, not enough story, for my taste.
 
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