May 2012 Music

Barbara Mason - Girls Have Feelings Too // Hello Baby

Billy Preston - Volcano

Boots Sex Dread - Rinka
Oh how I wish this anonymously released reggae record about the pleasures of gay sex was real and not a prank by British comedian Keith Allen!

Harry Mudie - Heavy Duty Dub

Isley Brothers - Who's That Lady (Early Version)

Michael Washington - Cupids Corner

Nicolai Gromin - Corrida

Pedro Iturralde - Las Morillas de Jaen

Additionally:

A scene from Richard Pryor's brief variety show in which his heavy metal band kills the entire audience over the course of one song:


This winning entry for a recent Ableton contest looks like the game Simon but for aliens:


WFMU's two hour MCA tribute was the best I heard:


Some pre-Illmatic teenage Nas demos:

Escher + Moebius



Do Not Remove

Spotted on the street near Penn Station. The internet turns up other images of this plaque in different places. What's going on?!

Oscar Wilde — The Picture of Dorian Gray


I have grown to love secrecy. It seems to be the one thing that can make modern life mysterious or marvellous to us. The commonest thing is delightful if one only hides it.

He was always late on principle, his principle being that punctuality is the thief of time.

There is a luxury in self-reproach. When we blame ourselves we feel that no one else has a right to blame us. It is the confession, not the priest, that gives us absolution.

"My dear boy," said Lord Henry, smiling, "anybody can be good in the country. There are no temptations there. That is the reason why people who live out of town are so absolutely uncivilised. Civilisation is not by any means an easy thing to attain to. There are only two ways by which man can reach it. One is by being cultured, the other by being corrupt. Country people have no opportunity of being either so they stagnate."

"To get back my youth I would do anything in the world, except take exercise, get up early, or be respectable."

Met Museum Highlights 5/12/12

Albrecht Dürer
Six Pillows
Pen and brown ink
1493

Pair of eyes
Probably Greek
Bronze, marble, frit, quartz, and obsidian
5th century B.C. or later

Nicolas Poussin
Blind Orion Searching for the Rising Sun
Oil on canvas
1658

Chatelaine
Gorham Manufacturing Company
Silver, red glass, and black beads
1887

Marble anthropoid sarcophagus
Graeco-Phoenician
Last quarter of the 5th century B.C.

Edward Weston
Nude on Sand, Oceano
1936

From the current exhibition Naked Before the Camera


Francesca Woodman
Blueprint for a Temple
Diazo collage
1980

March & April 2012 Music

Two months at once because I'm an idiot and locked myself out of my FTP.

The Alessi Brothers - Seabird

Aretha Franklin - Bridge Over Troubled Water // Skylark
Finally found the sample source of my favorite song of 2010.

Azealia Banks - Fuck Up the Fun f. Diplo // L8R

Björk - Mutual Core

Bob Azzam & His Orchestra - Batucada Por Favor

Brentford Road All Stars - Love At First Sight

The Dave Pike Quartet - Why Not
Vibraphonist Dave Pike's response to Miles' legendary So What. Interesting to hear Bill Evans playing in response to a song he was a part of (and was one of his last recordings as a session player).

Dave Van Ronk - In the Pines

Devon & Brentford Rockers - Sexual Healing Version

Doreen & Alton - I'm Still In Love (Version)

Ebo Taylor & Uhuru-Yenzu - Love and Death

Iron Maiden - Children of the Damned

J Dilla - Marvin & the Fam

Jack White - Freedom at 21

Jerry Butler - (Strange) I Still Love You

Kid A - BB Bleu // PPPONEY

Lee Fields & the Expressions - You're the Kind of Girl

Lyn Christopher - Take Me With You

Nas - The Don

Novos Baianos - Acabou Chorare // Brasil Pandeiro

Oneness of Juju - African Rhythms // Funky Wood

Prince - Vibrator (Unreleased Vanity 6 Song)

Risco Connection - Ain't No Stopping Us Now

Sabu Martinez - The Oracle

Secos & Molhados - Assim Assado // Fala // Prece Cosmica // Primavera Nos Dentes
I love this album! Heard it playing at Tropicalia in Furs, the Brazilian record shop in the East Village. I like to think Primavera Nos Dentes is a weird Portuguese version of Neil Young's Down By the River

Zoot Simms - See Them A Come

Additionally:

James Joyce or Kool Keith?

Peanut Butter Wolf and Mike D sitting around playing records and bullshitting on the newest Stones Throw podcast.

Tito Puente on Sesame Street:


Bone Pugz-N-Harmony:


An Adrian Younge video:


A surreal Italian short film featuring Chet Baker wandering around:


Just found this Richard Brautigan album (download here).

It was meant to be the third album released by the Beatles' spoken word and avant garde Zapple Records label following John and Yoko's Unfinished Music No. 2: Life With the Lions and George Harrison's Electronic Sound. The company folded before it came out.


And lastly, Michael Jackson narrates the LP version of E.T.!