Unlikely Words » Music

List of 1000 Jazz Standards

aaron cohen — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 17:23:56 +0000

This list features 1000 Jazz standards. For some reason, the list is ranked, letting us know that while 1930's Body and Soul is the number one Jazz standard, 1946's To Each His Own is number 1000. How you quantify the 1000 top Jazz standards is so far beyond me, it's on another blog, but these guys have done it.

Via Balloon Juice.

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forgetters at Great Scott, Allston, MA – 10/4/09

aaron cohen — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 14:45:12 +0000

Forgetters at great scott When I interviewed Blake Schwarzenbach a couple weeks ago about his new band, forgetters (small f, no the), Schwarzenbach had mentioned that when Thorns of Life started last year, they weren't interested in trading on anyone's past to get a head start. That's apparently still the case as forgetters took the stage at Great Scott on Sunday night for around 125 or so people, the last of 3 bands on a $6 bill. I imagine if they felt differently about playing up the past, the show could have been at a bigger venue, promoted differently, and more widely attended. At the very least, the ticket price at Great Scott could have been doubled. Still, 125 fans for a band's 5th show is a strong showing, and I expect it will be a harder ticket it the next time they're in town.

On stage, everyone looked to be having a good time, and Blake is back to eyes shut, neck strained screaming. I never saw Jawbreaker, but I didn't see this the 2 times I saw Jets. The band seemed more polished than I'd expect for a 5th show, though there was a flub or two ('Fuck You, Dad' stopped after a few beats, reintroduced as 'I'm Sorry, Dad, and started again). Although I don't think I've heard any of the songs, a lot of them sounded familiar. There was the syncopated drumming of Kevin Mahon that punctuated a lot of the early Against Me! catalog. Aside from the drums, the songs sound like a mix between pre-Dear You Jawbreaker punk with bits of Jets to Brazil pop sprinkled in, which, you know, is nice. I don't know how to explain it, but the songs sounded like they wanted to be recorded, which bodes well for the 7" recording in October. Most importantly, the songs are good enough to stand on their own. They're good enough to allow forgetters to build a following of it's own, without trading on anyone's past. I could probably get away with saying that everyone at Great Scott on Sunday was there because of Jawbreaker, but if forgetters lasts for 5 years (or more) as Schwarzenbach expressed hope that they would in our interview, that won't always be the case. I'm looking forward to seeing them again after hearing their record.

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Dumb Things Music Fans Say

aaron cohen — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 16:16:41 +0000

diesel sweeties is right on with these.

Via Punknews

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The Last Pale Light In The West – Ben Nichols (2008)

aaron cohen — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 01:29:13 +0000

Based on the book Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy, The Last Pale Light In The West is a solo effort by Ben Nichols of Lucero. It's weird, an EP based on a book, but every song, even the my least favorite, is great. 4 stars, instead of 5, because all of the songs sort of sound the same, which ends up being fine, actually, but might rub some of you the wrong way.

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Which is Better?

aaron cohen — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 18:50:59 +0000

Tell me what you think. Is this little dude dancing on stage with Lucero better than Courtney Cox onstage with Bruce Springsteen? Hopefully he becomes famous and this video gets played a zillion times 10 years from now.

Another view here.

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Lucero, The Paradise – Boston, MA 4/16/09 Review

aaron cohen — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 15:34:36 +0000

After only seeing Lucero in divier venues (The Middle East, The Living Room, and a dingy boat riding around the Boston Harbor), I was interested to see what they did in a classier venue, like the Paradise. While the sold-out crowd was into it from the get go - singing along and finger pointing - the band started out a little stiff. Whether it was playing some new songs or the newer arrangements to older standards or the apparent complete sobriety, something wasn't clicking on stage for the first couple songs. The situation turned around quickly, though, and after the audience carried the band out of gate, they were treated to the Lucero performance they were expecting. [I don't know if there's ever been a more vanilla opening paragraph, blech. Writing about things dispassionately sucks!]

The band was joined on stage by a slide guitarist and keyboardist (and at one point towards the end, some random bald guy from the audience singing a Replacements cover) adding extra heft to the songs and all told, Lucero played for two and a half hours, which is NUTS. It got sloppy towards the end of the night, which is hard to avoid when 2 of the members are drinking straight from bottles of Jameson, but this was still the most polished performance I've seen - Ben only forgetting the words to one song and mixing around the verse order of another - and really, what did you expect?

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24 Redemption Live Blog

aaron cohen — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 00:59:56 +0000

I can't remember the last time '24' was on. It's been a year and a half, or so. When it was on before, I blogged it. I'm a little out of practice, and I don't know if I'll remember all the characters and whether they're good or bad. That's a lot of qualifying, isn't it? Let's just get on with it.

Here's some other '24' related posts you might be into.
Season 7 Episode 1 and 2 Live Blog
Season 7 Episode 3 and 4 Live Blog
Season 7 Episode 5 Live Blog
Season 7 Episode 6 Live Blog
24 Season 7 Episode 7 2 PM - 3 PM Live Blog
24 Season 7 Episode 8 3 PM - 4 PM Live Blog
Redemption Live Blog
24 Tag from UnlikelyWords featuring season 5 and 6 Live Blog.

Click more to get below the jump and refresh for constant updates.

8:00 - Child soldiers. Training camp. Is this the main bad guy?
8:02 - '24' broke ground over the last couple seasons by popularizing torture. Are they going to break ground again by showing children executing prisoners?
8:03 - I guess so.
8:04 - Theme music changed a bit. Still showing events in real time...
8:06 - What is Jack Bauer doing in Africa? Still whispering I see.
8:08 - Oh, excellent, it's the guy from 28 Weeks Later... Jack Bauer vs zombies!
8:08 - Jack Bauer does NOT want to be served. I don't think it counts if he doesn't actually touch the envelope, right?
8:11 - Ahhh, the US government is supporting the rebels who use child soldiers. Last couple years, it was torture, now it's secretly supporting wars... I always have the question as to whether the writers know how bad they make the government look. But they're crazy right wing nutters, they think this is good?
8:11 - Does John Voight ever play a good character?
8:15 - And we have our first "Damn it".
8:17 - This truck driver sure is a schmuck. He first was hassling Jack Bauer and now he's being dumb.
8:19 - Here we go... I like to think that the kids would have been able to scatter a little better than that. Guess not, though.
8:20 - "Are you a baby, Steven?"
8:21 - Finally, kids making a run for it... Oh man... They're no good to you dead, homie.
8:21 - 3 people dead in the first segment, that's middling compared to history, though, it's going to be difficult to keep count in real time.
8:25 - There's a new president. Is it one of these 2? Nope... I looked at the cast and I don't want to ruin anything for you. It's a she.
8:26 - Cars going to blow up!!!!
8:27 - It didn't blow up.
8:27 - So we're supposed to believe this guy is the President's son and needed a junkie to get him a job?
8:28 - First a black president, now a female president? '24' looks toward the future.
8:28 - Oh, it's the Ally Macbeal guy.
8:28 - Oh, the VP, now the P.
8:29 - Look, teleconference by Cisco. I wonder how much that cost.
8:31 - "Nothing in Sengala worth protecting."
8:31 - I wonder what the precedent is for a international incident on Inauguration day?
8:32 - "Let's talk after you've been sitting in my chair for a while. Until then, we still have some transition issues to go over." On Inauguration day? Really? They couldn't finish that yesterday?
8:33 - Vultures. Wow. Nice touch.
8:35 - Pumiyah. A white person. Can't see ghosts. If Willie only knew. Jack Bauer sees ALL the ghosts.
8:37 - "Benton on Direct Connect." Sponsor #2.
8:37 - Why is the American school run by an Australian?
8:37 - Jack's not whispering. That was a first.
8:38 - The writers are portraying the UN as a bunch of clueless ninnies. Nice.
8:39 - "Wait. Wait for me!" OK, UN dude.
8:40 - Jack Bauer Knockdown Count 2.
8:40 - JBKC 3.
8:40 - JBKC 5.
8:41 - JBKC 7. Knife and gun!
8:42 - JBKC 10. Dy-No-Mite!
8:42 - Really, Jack Bauer? You couldn't take those guys?
8:43 - I'm going to need a few more commercials.
8:48 - "Last chopter laving in an hour." Is that going to be the climax?
8:50 - Jack Bauer is constantly getting himself situations like these. And now his ear is going to be all melty.
8:51 - That car mirror signal was SOS, right? And now I can add 'torture' to my tags. So I've got that going for me, which is nice.
8:52 - JBKC 11. Broke that dude's neck with his knee. Is that even possible?
8:53 - "The United Nations remains neutral in this incident." What a ninny!
8:58 - The time coming back from the commercial was 2 minutes fast. Not sure why they mess it up like that.
8:59 - I think they're using this actor for the junky because they couldn't get John Leguizamo.
9:01 - I don't think the President's son takes stuff like this to his mother. I don't think the junky is going to make it.
9:02 - "Check your email in one hour." But the show will be over!
9:03 - Christ, this UN guy is such a dick. Seems like he gave a lot of information for no reason.
9:04 - So the bus is only hearing this stuff now. What good is the walkie talkie? What needs to happen is Jack needs one of those jeeps with the .50 caliber machine gun. That's the type of escort the bus needs, not a silly UN ninny.
9:06 - I guess I spoke too soon when I was asking for more commercials... Now we're getting commercials every 5 minutes.
9:10 - "As much as I'd like to, it's still a little early." 4:00 PM is too early. She's a ninny, too.
9:11 - Excellent. You still call him Mr. President until you get sworn in.
9:19 - Now I'm having internet connectivity issues. Perfect timing.
9:20 - Who is in there, buddy? That guy has a GIANT forehead. And a gun.
9:21 - When he answers the questions. He's going to get shot. Watch. Just watch.
9:24 - I KNEW the Secret Service agent was a bad guy.
9:26 - And we're back!
9:28 - Is Robert Carlyle in this movie of '24' to promote his new series?
9:29 - We all think Benton is going to die, right?
9:30 - Shooting the helicopter with the pistol was a waste of time, we know that.
9:31 - Land mines!
9:32 - I've gotta ask, if he saw the trigger in the ground, why did he step on it when saving the boy?
9:34 - We knew he was going to die, but we don't feel good about it being this way.
9:35 - Why did he need Jack's rifle then, if he was just going to give up?
9:35 - Also...Is the coup going to be a failure because the colonel is driven mad by revenge?
9:37 - The mine isn't going to kill the colonel, right? It couldn't be '24'.
9:38 - I like that this show is functioning as a holiday movie preview, Ben Button, Seven Pounds (Will Smith!), Australia, and... Can't remember the 4th. I also like the comercials against children soldiers and mosquito nets. That's good citizenry right there, '24'.
9:42 - "Mr. Benton died to make sure that you would be safe." "We have to go, it's what Mr. Benton would have wanted."
9:43 - JBKC 14.
9:44 - Talk the child soldier down! Talk him down!!! How come it was all those guys and one child soldier? That's odd.
9:45 - How you not going to pick up the rifle?
9:45 - Is Ethan the warden from Shawshank Redemption?
9:46 - "If he finds Nichols, he could find me."
9:47 - Jack Bauer time is now 5 minutes fast. How come?
9:47 - "Who are you?" "JACK BAUER!"
9:48 - He's going to give him the paperwork and the guy's going to make Jack Bauer come or else he won't accept it.
9:49 - "I don't have a choice, you son of a bitch."
9:50 - Jack Bauers going to punch that guy the next time he sees him, you'll see.
9:51 - Yeah, so the junky got it and now he's getting made part of a building.
9:52 - Alison Taylor isn't very charismatic.
9:53 - Really? They're going to do a people running after the helicopter scene? Weak sauce.
9:54 - I still don't think the colonel is dead.

10:01 - So that went pretty good. I can't believe it, but I'm pretty jazzed for the next season. I was trying to remember how the last season ended... I actually don't think I ever posted the final episode from last year. I'll have to find that and put it up. Hasn't Tony Almeda died twice already? Like... Really? They couldn't come up with a different bad guy or just have a new one? They had to go there? Oh well.

'Redemption was pretty good, but mostly in the sense that we didn't have to wait a week in suspense to be disappointed by a crappy let down. There were no let downs here. Though it did have the feel of a TV season that gets rushed (See Jericho season 2).
Here we go. See you in January! Or tomorrow, depending on if you are a regular reader or '24' only...

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Apples In Stereo, New Magnetic Wonder

matt — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 16:46:37 +0000

OK, this album has too many tracks: I still haven't even heard all of them through shuffling my "recently added" playlist. Still, I've found some great songs on here so far, especially "Energy," "Same Old Drag," and "Sunndal Song." If you like smiley, bouncy pop, you really can't find a better exemplar of it than Apples in Stereo.

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Of Montreal, The Sunlandic Twins

matt — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 14:35:51 +0000

I'm supposed to like Of Montreal, right? They've got some songs I really enjoy, like "Heimdalsgate Like A Promethean Curse" from Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? and "Disconnect the Dots" from Satanic Panic in the Attic, and they certainly deserve some kind of award for their quirky song names. And yet, I just can't seem to get into a groove with them—perhaps they're just a little too weird for my conventional tastes.

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The Broken West, I Can’t Go On I’ll Go On

matt — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 16:29:59 +0000

Second in the series of albums bought after liking a single track. In this case, the song was "So It Goes" which may be my favorite new song of 2008: perfect indie-pop-rock-whatever. The rest of the album is a little uneven, but it's still pretty good. ###Possibly related posts:The Last Pale Light In The West [...] ### Possibly related posts:

The Revival Tour – Chuck Ragan (Hot Water Music) – Tim Barry (Avail) – Ben Nichols (Lucero). The Middle East, Cambridge, MA

aaron cohen — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 01:07:47 +0000

So there's these punkers, right, and usually they're playing with electric guitars and amps and drums, and then they go on the Revival Tour without their bands and with their acoustic guitars. They bring along a slide guitar player, a stand up bass player, and a fiddle player for support, and then the awesomeness happens. I liked it better when they were all playing together, but then Ben, Tim, and Chuck in that order.

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Lucero – Boston, MA – Rocks On Boat Cruise

aaron cohen — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 02:58:42 +0000

It was terrible weather for a cruise around Boston Harbor, but Lucero is one of my favorite bands and I was on a boat with several of my friends. The sound wasn't so good, but Lucero is one of my favorite bands and I was on the boat with several of my friends. You couldn't see the band at all, but Lucero is one of my favorite bands and I was on the boat with several of my friends.

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Lucero, The Middle East, Cambridge, MA

aaron cohen — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 02:12:16 +0000

These guys were even better than when we saw them in April, maybe because they used a couple of the opening band's musicians (pedal steel and keyboards from Bobby Bare Jr (who was great in his own right)). There was less beer throwing this time, but, really, when has that been such a bad thing? At the end, my friend broke up a fight, which is also, not such a bad thing.

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Avail, The Middle East, Cambridge, MA

aaron cohen — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 02:30:18 +0000

I saw Avail for the first time about 10 years ago and they're still rocking the finger wagging sing along punk. You now get thrown out of the club for stage diving (which I'm too old for anyway) so the band kept promising to "announce when it was the last song". They did, and mayhem ensued, which reminded me of the first time I saw them, every song was the last song, and they didn't kick people out for stage diving (which I wasn't too old for).

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Rocky Votolato, The Middle East, Cambridge, MA

aaron cohen — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 02:46:47 +0000

If Lucero is music that sounds like getting really drunk, Rocky Votolato is music that sounds like the next day. I would have thought more people would be there for this, but alas. With songs this full of hooks, I have to believe more people will be there next time. ###Possibly related posts:Avail, The Middle [...] ### Possibly related posts:

Rufus Wainwright, Release The Stars

matt — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 23:20:47 +0000

I really, really wanted to like this album, but... man. I feel like I could go into detail about what bothers me about every song, but that would be a little too long; suffice it to say that Rufus needs a lyricist. None the huge exuberant arrangements even come close to something like "Go or Go Ahead" and the best song on the album, "Going To A Town," is a much better video than it is a song.

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Paul McCartney, Memory Almost Full

matt — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 18:22:37 +0000

Man, I really wanted to like this. It's... fine, I guess? But, on one listening, the only song that stands out in my mind is the one that's been on TV. Sorry, Sir Paul.

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Ratatat – Classics, 2007

aaron cohen — Wed, 09 May 2007 14:09:57 +0000

Classics isn't as good as Ratatat's first album, but that was an impossible task. Lex and Wildcat are solid tunes. Sometime in the past someone introduced synthesizers and guitars to these guys and that person deserves a Nobel Prize.

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Lucero, The Living Room, Providence, RI

aaron cohen — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 03:14:15 +0000

Watching Ben Nichols, I was struck by how much he seemed to be influenced by Jawbreaker/Jets to Brazil's Blake Schwarzenbach - same singing/guitar playing stance, even the same hair. I can't remember the last time we left the house at 10:30 on a Monday night, but we timed it perfectly and arrived right before Lucero started. That Much Futher West opener, Nights Like These, and The War solo semi-encore were memorable, as was the fact that the bass player seemed to only play during 75% of the music, taking his bass off constantly and walking off the stage on at least two occasions.

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Week In Review

matt — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 15:28:46 +0000

Dude, what happened to this feature?

I got busy, okay? I kept meaning to do it, and-- and-- shut up.

Julie Sokolow–"Seasons", from IndieFeed. "Spare?" Sure, but there's "spare" and then there's "boring." This is boring. [1 star]

The Moore Brothers–"The Puppet", from IndieFeed. Quirky, I suppose. It's definitely quirky. It's just not particularly, like, good. It's not bad, either. It's just not recommendable. [2 stars]

Warm In The Wake–"Tame Thoughts", from IndieFeed. Finally, my head is moving back and forth while listening to one of these. It's well-written, it's catchy. "Acoustic, cosmic folk?" Sure. [3 stars]

I'm easing back into this; can you tell?

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