RIP Cesaria Evora/Vaclav Havel

Cesaria Evora may not be a well know name in mainstream music, but if you liked worldbeat music, then you'd know her work well.

Born in Cape Verde, she's probably the best known musician to ever come out of that tiny country. She was known as the "Barefoot Diva" for her penchant for performing in bare feet. She had 12 albums to her credit and she won a world music Grammy in 2004 for her album Voz D'Amor. She died on December 17, 2011 in Cape Verde from resperatory problems. She was 70.

http://youtu.be/dNVrdYGiULM



Not music related, but Vaclav Havel also died on December 18th. As the first leader of the modern Czech Republic, Havel asked Frank Zappa to be a consultant on trade, culture and tourism, which Zappa agreed to. According to Zappa, Havel sat down with Zappa, lit a joint then told Zappa he really liked Bongo Fury.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49XUP2gS-2s

Can Con Round Up for December 15, 2011

As usual, the erratic schedule of the Canadian Soundscan charts means there hasn't been a Canadian Top 40 posted in three weeks. Here's the latest

Cancon in the Top 40: Victoria Duffield (top Canuck at #8), Hedley, Nickelback, Anjulie, Mia Martina, Carly Rae Jepsen, Drake, Kristina Maria, Danny Fernandes, Craig Smart (10/40=25%, still well below the nationally mandated 35%)

Chart chat: Ugh, another Glee song in the Top 40 on the US Charts. These things usually show up for one week (the week the song is featured on Glee), then disappear. They are the epitome of the short attention span in music. Oh hay! A new Glee song. Oh wait, it sucks, what else is on? On the Canadian charts, we have the return of Bush to the charts for some reason, and the first single from the new Black Keys up at #26.

It begins: Best of 2011 albums coming in

First Paste Magazine:

1) Bon Iver - Bon Iver
2) Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues
3) My Morning Jacket - Circuitual
4) Tune-Yards - whokill
5) Middle Brother - Middle Brother
6) Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. - It's a Corporate World
7) Wilco - The Whole Love
8) Dawes - Nothing is Wrong
9) M83 - Hurry Up, We're Dreaming
10) The Decemberists - The King is Dead
11) St. Vincent - Strange Mercy
12) Iron and Wine - Kiss Each Other Clean
13) Girls - Father, Son, Holy Ghost/Radiohead - The King of Limbs
14) Adele - 21
15) Deer Tick - Divine Providence
16) Yuck - Yuck
17) The Civil Wars - Barton Hollow
18) Wye Oak - Civilian
19) Cults - Cults
20) Beirut - The Rip Tide

And Rolling Stone:

1) Adele - 21
2) Jay-Z and Kanye West - Watch the Throne
3) Paul Simon - So Beautiful or So What
4) Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues
5) Radiohead - The King of Limbs
6) Lady Gaga - Born This Way
7) The Decemberists - The King is Dead
8) Wilco - The Whole Love
9) Wild Flag - Wild Flag
10) Robbie Robertson - How to Become Clairvoyant
11) My Morning Jacket - Circuitual
12) The Black Keys - El Camino
13) Tune-Yards - whokill
14) Beastie Boys - Hot Sauce Committee Pt. Two
15) Cage the Elephant - Thank You Happy Birthday
16) R.E.M. - Collapse Into Now
17) TV on the Radio - Nine Types of Light
18) Feist - Metals
19) Eric Church - Cheif
20) Foo Fighters - Wasting Light

Comments: This year's music seems like a weak crop to me. It seems it's the year of the brooding hipster neo-folky, with the Top 3 in Paste's list falling into that category and even more beneath it. I'm surprised to see that Iron and Wine album on any list. I thought it was one of the most disappointing albums of the year. Bon Iver is decent, but very overhyped. No way it deserves to be anywhere near #1. The Rolling Stone list is predictably stacked with buzz-worthy acts and old bands that trotted out new albums, which only a few challenging picks (Wild Flag and Tune-Yards are nice to see in the Top 20). They had Bon Iver at #21. Proving that Rolling Stone loves old time rock, no matter how bland it is, they had Superheavy at #34. This is a collaboration between Mick Jagger, Damien Parley, Joss Stone and A.R. Rahman, which sounds great in theory, but turns into a sleeping pill on CD.

RIP Gary Garcia

The music world is abuzz about the death of legendary jazz drummer Paul Motian, I'll focus on a much lesser known artist this entry, Gary Garcia. Who?

Gary Garcia was one half of novelty musician duo Bucker and Garcia. Who? You probably know them best for this song:

http://youtu.be/kBdAPkk8yMM



The two met in Akron, OH (home of DEVO!) in the late 70s and recorded a few novelty songs, until they became cult heroes with the song "Pac-Man Fever" in 1982, which became a top 10 hit. This led to a major label deal with Sony, who then pressured them to release a full-length album about video games, which they called Pac-Man Fever. The duo never had another hit, but continued recording sporadically through the years. This year, the entire Pac-Man Fever album was released for the Rock Band video game.

Gary Garcia passed away on November 17, 2011. He was 63.


http://bucknergarcia.com/gary-garica-r-i-p/

Cancon round up for November 18, 2011

Been a while since I did one of these, but, as usual, little has changed in the commercial radio world:

Cancon roundup: Hedley (Top Canuck at #8), Anjulie, Victoria Duffield, Nickelback, Kristina Maria, Craig Smart, Simple Plan, Drake, Jason Aldean (9/40=23%, well below the national law of 35%).

Chart notes: In the US Charts, it's Taylor Swift day, with three new singles debuting in the Top 40. In Canada, it's the same old artists. Jason Aldean checks in with the latest horrible song title, "Tattoos on This Town".

RIP Heavy D

Heavy D and the Boyz, led by Jamaican-born Dwight Myers, were part of the late 80s surge of hip-hop/R&B hybrids, blending elements of vocal R+B love songs, dance style hip-hop and rapping. Heavy D was a big more on hip hop side of things, but they had several very successful hits in the late 80s and early 90s. Their first hit came in 1987 with "Mr. Big Stuff", but they are best known for the song "Now that We Found Love".

I was never a big fan of the band's work, but my brother loved this stuff in the early 90s. While I was starting into college in 1988, often all I would hear coming from my brother's room was Heavy D, Keith Sweat, Jon Secada and Bobby Brown. His work is written on my brain, but not for a love of his work.

Myers was in Jamaica when he passed away. He had recently begun to record reggae music. He apparently passed away from respiratory problems. He was 44.

http://youtu.be/NNEgUPKxk7A

Covers Courageous #3: Revolting Cocks - Physical

Back in the early 80s, it was impossible to turn on mainstream radio without hearing the pox of OliviaNewton-John's "Physical". I remember long car trips with the AM radio on, with some sweet voiced chanteuse singing every second song. Sometimes it was "Never Been to Me", but mostly it was Newton-John. To be fair, she captured the post-disco zeitgeist and turned in into sweet, sweet AOR fodder and made a tonne of money with what was probably her last hurrah in mainstream music. Good on her.

Enter Al Jorgenson.

Old Uncle Al has a knack for turning pop culture into sheer ugliness. His main band, Ministry, had been subverting music for years before he started branching out into numerous side projects, which included the infamous Revolting Cocks, formed with fellow industrialists Richard 23, Luc Van Acker and Chris Connelly. While they sounded a lot like Ministry, the Cocks were much more subversive, meldling sleazy disco with pounding industrial. In 1990, the Cocks released Beers, Steers and Queers, which featured a brutal and sleazy cover of "Physical".

Now, when this song came out, it was like a bomb going off. I remember being at CKUL in Lethbridge listening to the 12" that came in for this song. There had been rumours going around that the band was forced to change the song due to Newton-John's people having trouble with the sheer ugliness of the cover version. And, the rumours turned out to be true. There's an original version of the cover, and a cover that appeared on the album itself. The differences are significant. The original version's lyrics are much closer to the original Newton-John song. The second version can be more rightly termed as an homage to the original song, with altered lyrics and less obvious references to the original song.

The original (censored) version:


http://youtu.be/vpvHeTsgdUk



There's no Youtube video for the studio version of the album track, but there are plenty of live versions.