While arranging a new oldies mix last month, I did a little research on Sam Cooke. I’ve always been a fan of “Bring it on Home to Me,” “Cupid,” “(What A) Wonderful World,” and “Twistin the Night Away” and figured he had more songs that a) I liked but never realized were his or b) had never heard before but would enjoy equally as much.
After doing a bit of research, I committed to “Another Saturday Night” being part of my mix, and downloaded Portrait of a Legend, a thorough collection of his recordings from 1951-1964. Much to my delight, I found plenty of other songs that I fancied.
“Sad Mood”
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“Win Your Love For Me”
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“Having a Party”
I never realized this was a Sam Cooke song, but thankfully hearing it erased my memory of the Rod Stewart cover version.
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But “Another Saturday Night” is still my favorite.
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After loving every minute of my new Sam Cooke collection, I wondered why he hadn’t done much after that. It crossed my mind that he probably died, so of course I went to Sam Cooke’s Wikipedia page to find out.
I’m leaving the details out b/c they will put a damper on my lovely post, but this is not what I expected to read about how he died and it gave his otherwise (mostly) uplifting music a strange undertone.
My brother and I danced like fools to this album when we were little:
I’m not sure if we asked my mom to buy it for us, or if she did so at her own discretion. If it was the latter, I am forever grateful. Mousercise LP set: $12.98. Memories of dancing around in the basement in Pittsburgh: priceless. Hehe.
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Michael Penn image borrowed from somewhere on the web
I’m not entirely sure when/where I first came across the Michael Penn song ‘No Myth.’ Probably heard it out and about someplace and did some googling to figure out who sang it; possibly looked up the lyric ‘Maybe she’s just looking for someone to dance with.’ (I have a weakness for songs about dancing.)
I didn’t bother to do much more research about his music, which is rare for me, but I’m not entirely in the dark about him either. He’s married to Aimee Mann, who’s album Bachelor No. 2 will forever be a mainstay in my collection. He’s also the brother of Sean Penn and the late Chris Penn of Reservoir Dogs fame (among other films; that’s him in the back with the windbreaker).
Reservoir Dogs
Yet another interesting tidbit is that he composes film scores, including that of one of my all-time favorites, Boogie Nights. He’s a cool dude, and even though the song in question may sound a bit 90s it also happens to be a perfect pop song:
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After giving it a few recent listens, I dove a little deeper into Michael Penn’s music and read that one of his videos was a collaboration with The Brothers Quay. This piqued my interest, particularly since it was also a hit at Sundance.
Pretty cool, eh? I am now officially a Michael Penn fan if anyone asks.
The album artwork for Broadcast has long since been on my list of things to further investigate. ‘Long since’ meaning almost ten years. It’s consistently eye-catching and has always accentuated their sound and allowed me to imagine their music as an artistic undertaking, setting them apart from other musicians working in electronica.
These pieces have always been reminiscent of Futurism to me, particularly the softer works such as below by Varvara Stepanova…
As an aside, I first heard Broadcast in 2001 when a young man I met during RISD’s summer transfer program put the song below on a mix tape for me: “Come On Let’s Go,” from the album The Noise Made By People. Perhaps still my favorite Broadcast album.
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In celebration of the Cap’n Jazz reunion tour this summer, I’m posting an ages old flyer I managed to keep intact, despite the fact that it spent the latter half of the 90s hanging on my bedroom wall with scotch tape rolls on the back.
Ashamedly, I never attended the show and wouldn’t officially learn about Braid or Cap’n Jazz for a couple more years. They ended up defining a musical era for me and a bunch of other youngsters looking for the best new music and a place to fit in, but in Lancaster, PA circa 1994, they were a couple unknown bands from Illinois playing at a firehall. Or in someone’s basement.
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A friend recently bought me the DVD “Celestial Navigations: The Short Films of Al Jarnow.” I’d sort of been waiting for the right moment to watch it – a day when I needed a good dose of inspiration or a rainy Sunday afternoon. Today was neither one of those but my internet was out for a good 7 hours, leaving me with some spare time and a lot of irritation. Irritation which quickly disappeared as I watched a few of Al Jarnow’s shorts.
Time flies by these days. It’s been almost a year since my friend Isabella dumped the entire catalog of Orchestral Manoeuvres In the Dark albums onto my hard drive. Up until that point, I was aware of the fact that they had a lot of albums due to my job of re-stocking LPs at a record store 10 years ago, but had officially only heard two songs: “If You Leave,” which obviously needs no further explanation, and “Enola Gay,” which I came across while watching “Waltz with Bashir.”
It was thoughtfully worked in with the score, arranged by Max Richter.
In the interest of furthering my musical knowledge, I intended to slowly but surely work my way through all the OMD albums. I started with Organisation, mostly due to the fact that it contained “Enola Gay.” The album proved worthy of my attention, particularly because of the opening track, “Motion and Heart”…
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…and “Promise,” which is admittedly quite 80s but ear-catching none the less.
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I went on to read a bit about them online, and found two interesting tidbits:
1) “[The title Organisation] refers to the band Organisation, a precursor to Kraftwerk. The album is notable for its melancholy tone. The band said that at the time they had been heavily influenced by Joy Division; this can be traced through [the] use of jarring drum sounds and moody songs.”
2) “In an alternative rock compendium published by Rolling Stone magazine in 1996, McCluskey is quoted as saying, “I wake up some nights and think ‘Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark’? What a stupid name! Why did we pick that one?” The book’s editors also chose the moniker as one of twelve “Really Pretentious Band Names” – alongside Fields of the Nephilim, Mussolini Headkick and An Emotional Fish.”
Also of note is that much of OMD’s album art was designed by Peter Saville, one of my personal favorites. Saville was also responsible for the majority of Factory Records artwork, including New Order & Joy Division.
Selection of some of Peter Saville's fine work for OMD
More often than not, I get my haircut at Chic Elegance in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, NY. Most women I know go someplace verrry particular and pay anywhere from $60-100 per haircut. Not me. I pay $35 and walk a couple blocks down the street, because that’s how I roll.
I've been out and about all morning and don't feel like going back out to take a photo right now
Everyone who works at Chic and/or stops in is a) italian and b) very friendly. Half my extended family is italian, so you could say I feel at home amongst the talk of food, family and neighborhood drama. Everyone knows everyone, and at Christmas, they had a table set-up with all those delicious bakery-style cookies and a few cordials. Perfect.
Now, I’ve gotten a few surprised looks after divulging the fact that I get my haircut at a seemingly uncool italian spot in my hood. Someone even went so far as to appallingly inquire why I would do that to my hair. I admit, it’s a little risky having short hair such as mine and not being nit-picky about who cuts it. Occasionally, I bring along a photo as a guide (most stylists can follow a photo without issue), but if Anthony’s working, I don’t even need that. He knows how to cut my hair. Period.
Who is this Anthony, you wonder, as you scratch your head. Anthony is the owner of Chic and one of the most interesting people I’ve met in Brooklyn. He won me over immediately by asking where I was from (Pittsburgh, PA) and commenting “Ah, you’re blue collar, like us.” His family has been in Carroll Gardens for almost a century. Although he no longer owns it, he was co-founder of my one of my favorite bars, Abilene. His step-daughter played Butterfly in “Death Proof.” And as if that’s not enough, his nephew Mark owns Brooklyn’s one and only Lucali, arguably one of the best pizza places in the NYC area.
Pizza made right before your eyes at Lucali
In case you’re unfamiliar with Lucali, let me give you the rundown. They have two foods for sale: pizza and calzones. It’s very difficult to forego the pizza for calzones. I’ve yet to try them and therefore cannot vouch for their awesomeness, so I’ll get back to the pizza. The basic crust (somewhat similar to Grimaldi’s) is topped with tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese, but you’re free to add toppings from a variety of daily options. (My personal favorite is plain ol’ pepperoni, with nothing else to distract me from its deliciousness.) It’s honestly the type of pizza where you feel slightly intoxicated after eating it, which is appropriate considering they don’t serve alcohol – it’s byob.
Unfortunately, Lucali can be difficult to get into. There’s a few tricks you pick up on if you live in the hood, but I can’t give them away here. That being said, I advise you to stop by between 5–6pm and see what happens.
How cool is Anthony? And how amazing is Lucali? Hopefully you’ve learned enough about both to agree with me now or at some point in the near future after giving it some thought. By the way, if I ever want a table at Lucali, Anthony informed that I should stop by Chic or give him a call and I’m in, just like that. And just like that, Anthony got a customer for life.
I had dinner with my friend Garrett last night at Charles in the West Village. They serve a delicious (albeit salty) tapenade with thin grilled pita slices as a complimentary appetizer. Upon tasting, I commented that I needed to make an appetizer for a bbq on Saturday and that I might steal the idea. (We could even grill the pita!) I then went on to mention that Ingrid Croce‘s recipe for tapenade is my absolute favorite. She has all these secret ingredients in there that would be pretty tough to guess but make for a delectable overall flavor.
Ingrid Croce, I explained to Garrett, was married to Jim Croce, late singer/songwriter of the classic “You Don’t Mess Around With Jim,” thinking he would find this factoid semi-interesting. Only… Garrett didn’t know who I was talking about. No clue. I was a little bit surprised, but when we met up with his girlfriend afterward and she said she hadn’t heard of Jim or the song either, I started to wonder how I’d gotten so lucky to have come across this song myself.
Back when I had a car, I did some listening to classic rock & oldies on the radio. Most of my driving took place in Pennsylvania, Jim’s home state, so maybe the song was played more frequently ’round those parts. I can only speculate, but man, people who haven’t heard this gem are certainly missing out.
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