Some Velvet Blog

The Guy Who Wrote Thriller

2009-07-10T10:50:00.002-04:00

Just the other night, hanging with some friends, we were all talking about MJ and I happened to mention to the folks I was with that - with all due respect to MJ - it was a guy named Rod Temperton whose part of the story was one that very few people know about. Originally a member of Heatwave ("Boogie Nights, "Ain't No Half Steppin'") Temperton wrote "Thriller." He also wrote "Rock With You," "Off The Wall," and "Burn This Disco Out" from Off The Wall. In addition to the title song from Thriller he wrote "Baby Be Mine" and "The Lady In My Life."

Temperton's hits didn't start or end with MJ. In Heatwave he boogied out some of their best disco hit songs. He co-wrote "Yah Mo B There" that was a massive hit for James Ingram and Michael McDonald; wrote George Benson's mainstream hit "Give Me The Night," co-wrote with Quincy Jones on "Secret Garden," and wrote for Herbie Hancock, Donna Summer, Anita Baker, Rufus, Bob James, and many more.

Temperton was born in Cleethorpes, a small town in northern England. He moved to Germany where he answered an ad in Melody Maker from a band looking for a keyboard player - that band was Heatwave. And it was in their 1976 Too Hot To Handle where you can hear the birth MJ's Off The Wall & Thriller. If you don't own that record, you should - because it remains a blueprint for the launching of the "King of Pop" phase of MJ's career. Here's a couple Heatwave classics - and by the way - Temperton is the skinny white guy with the bad 70's mustache playing keyboards.

New Forro In The Dark

2009-07-09T10:26:00.003-04:00

New York based Brazilian ex-pats Forro In The Dark have a new album on the way on September 29th called Light A Candle on the label launched by National Geographic - here's a new song from the forthcoming album.

Perro Loco - Forro In The Dark

More new These United States

2009-07-08T16:12:00.002-04:00

As I posted here last week These United States are releasing a new album on September 1st called Everything Touches Everything. Here's another song from their album. It's a good one.

I Want You To Keep Everything - These United States

Alex Metric remixes Bloc Party

2009-07-07T11:05:00.003-04:00

One More Chance - Bloc Party (Alex Metric remix)

via NME's The Daily Download

Sweet Tea cover Tim Hardin

2009-07-07T10:13:00.004-04:00

Sweet Tea is a a side project formed between Alex Maas of the Black Angels and Erika Wennerstrom from the Heartless Bastards. They recorded a couple of songs together which are being released on Fat Possum as a limited edition single - Side A is a cover of the classic Tim Hardin song; the B-side is a Ray Price cover of "Crazy Arms." Here's Alex and Erika doing their take on Johnny and June Carter.

If I Were A Carpenter - Sweet Tea

Nicole Atkins covers MJ's "Ben"

2009-07-06T14:57:00.002-04:00

The wonderful, lovely and talented Nicole Atkins covers Michael Jackson's "Ben."

Ben - Nicole Atkins

Keep It Goin Louder - new Alvaro/Mad Decent remix

2009-07-06T12:00:00.003-04:00

Jam on it, jam on it. Here's an Alvaro remix of Keep It Going Louder featuring Nina Sky & Ricky Blaze from the new Major Lazer album that just oozes with massive dancefloor hotness complements of Mad Decent

Keep It Going Louder - ALVARO remix

These United States

2009-07-03T10:34:00.005-04:00

Slowly, steadily, and surely over the last several years These United States have become a band to reckon with. And with their new album Everything Touches Everything, singer, songwriter and lead statesman Jesse Elliot has grown completely into one of indie-rock's - no, make that American rock's best kept secrets. With diligence and hard work, Elliot has become a formidable songwriter. On the band's new album everything comes together musically (literally everything touching everything); some Petty classic rock touches, some indie-rock Pavement-like noodling, some psych-folk coloring ala Dr. Dog, and a deep rooted love for Dylan. Dig the artwork by John Mallow. The album is set for release on September 1; the band is currently on tour through October when they hit CMJ.

New:
The Secret Door - These United States

Something older:
Honor Amongst Thieves - These United States

TUS blog

The Gentle Lurch

2009-07-02T20:43:00.003-04:00

From Dresden, The Gentle Lurch remind me of a cross between Wilco, Tindersticks, Beach House and Giant Sand (how's that?). Their new album The Beat of The Heart is The Beat of The Boss is required listening, a stunning sprawling two album (CD) set that requires a little patience but you'll be well rewarded. This is sort of late night listening material, with elements of some orch-pop and jazz layered in to the lengthy songs. The trio consisting of Lars Hiller, Cornelia Mothes and Frank Heim is all about the mood and it is definitely blue.

New:
What Are We - The Gentle Lurch
Older:
Something For The Sun - The Gentle Lurch

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Song of The Moment (over and over and over) by Drake

2009-07-02T11:37:00.000-04:00

Drake "Best I Ever Had" from kwest on Vimeo.

Blue Roses

2009-07-01T22:53:00.003-04:00

Blue Roses is Laura Groves from Yorkshire, UK. A fan of Joni Mitchell, Laura creates ambient based "singer-songwriter" music that's sensual, sad and simply gorgeous. Here's a song taken from her self-titled debut album coming out on XL Records

Doubtful Comforts - Blue Roses

Summer Cats

2009-06-30T12:34:00.003-04:00

Melbourne, Australia's Summer Cats should give you all the shiny, noisy indie pop you need to make it through the summer and then some. These kids rock a mess of early Who, The Ronettes, Jesus & Mary, The Left Banke, Silver Rocket/Sonic Youth, Go-Betweens, Teenage Fanclub, Big Star and such. The band's album Songs For Tuesdays is out July 14th on Slumberland Records (which should tell you a bit about their C-86 indie-pop aesthete). Turn this one up.

Hey You - Summer Cats

After Michael Jackson Died

2009-06-29T22:15:00.002-04:00

After Michael Jackson Died by Sean Michaels who writes Said The Gramophone

I

After Michael Jackson died
the first thing he learned
was quiet.
His spirit slipped lightly from his body
It was as light as he had dreamed of being for
years
like diamonds, grass pollen,
the dust that sits on mirrored surfaces.

His spirit slipped like steam from a kettle's spout.
Briefly he thought of his grandmother,
and he wondered if he would see her soon,
now that he was dead,
now that his spirit was being lifted
lightly;
and as he saw the doctor from Las Vegas leaning over his body, pushing at his old bones, at his chest, at the muscles he had earned this spring under silver machines, he saw himself as beautiful; strange but beautiful; in sunglasses.
It was so quiet.
Like the desert
Like honeymoon mornings
He was lifted up out of the bedroom and the house, and he could not hear the chattering televisions nor Frank's pleading shouts, nor the water lapping at the 50-foot swimming pool. He could not hear the sounds he had heard for the past forty years: cars starting, flashbulbs, photographers' patent leather voices; clink and praise from men in expensive suits, sipping from straws.

At the rehearsals
the music had been so loud,
so loud!
like monsters roaring
and the dancers strutting, leering,
Michael so old and so heavy
raising his feet and putting them down
on the floor.
Now Michael was lifted away from the house and the city and he learned quiet.
He re-learned quiet.
A lesson he had forgotten.
He thought of the leaf he had watched once in the window at Neverland
he had watched it do nothing
but be.

II

After Michael Jackson died
the second thing he learned
was remorse.

At the moment his spirit was lifted
lightly
through the veil of cloud and atom
that separates Los Angeles
from other realms,
God came to Michael.
He came like a season.
Michael saw signs, tremblings, promises in wind
and then God was there
raining through him
hailing
sun
and so inconceivably large.
God touched the bottom of Michael Jackson's heart
the place where it shivers
and God showed Michael Jackson
everything he found there.
Every shadow pellet and lie and dark marble of sin,
and every half-sin,
broken promises, professional betrayals, deliberate acts of neglect,
that time with the glass ashtray
& in 1989 with the little knife
someone had left out
because although nothing really happened
something small had happened
and God saw.
God showed these things to Michael Jackson.
God showed even the worst things, the things no one understood, not the tabloids nor the courts, the sugary tarry seconds with boys whose names reminded Michael Jackson
of baloney sandwiches.
God slipped these mistakes from Michael Jackson's shivering spirit heart
& he turned them in the dark
so Michael Jackson would see.

Michael Jackson's mistakes flickered and gleamed.

And for an instant that lasted ten thousand years he felt the exactly sufficient amount of remorse
because God is a capable mathematician
when it comes to remorse.

III

After Michael Jackson died
the third thing he learned
was everything he had never known.
He passed through the purgatory of justice & regret & forgiveness and passed into somewhere else
where he donned a fedora
and a glitter glove
and the world was presented to him in balletic montages
images painted on velvet
messages painted in green June leaves.
Every truth and mystery revealed.
He had lain in bed at night, alone or with others, with friends, with people he loved or strained to love,
and laying stilly his heart had bucked and leapt
had dreamed of answers:
Why did he feel so alone?
Why still did he feel so alone?
Why still still did he feel so alone?
Stilly he dreamed of answers.

Now, behatted, beglitter gloved, all these answers came streaming in hungry undeniable technicolour veracity. Michael Jackson relinquished himself to them. He understood why he had felt so alone, still & still still felt so alone. He understood why his father had hated him. He understood Tito's gift, and Janet's loss, and his own greatest mistake. He understood his willowy love, why Lisa Marie had said the things she said in precisely the way she said them. He understood why he had seen his father's face in the mirror. Michael Jackson understood what had made him so special, for a handful of years in the history of human beings; understood the magic of the moonwalk, of a wild, free "Woo!"; of grabbing your crotch and dancing like a switchblade, a salmon, a moonbeam. He understood that "Billie Jean" was not a song about paternity but instead about bassline, thrust, a certain neon yearning. He understood the liberated sing
of his childhood songs, the worlds concealed in his boyhood choruses, wants he found words for, even then, before he knew what such wants could be, before he knew the meaning of "darling!", back in the days where he still thought he would find this, find "darling!", before he had given up, turned instead to monkeys and children, to dandelion joys; he understood that lust lasts, that it does not go away just by drinking cold water and eating apricots and chewing tiny white pills; nor by sleeping; and he understood who killed JFK, what killed Elvis, understood finally the stuff those engineers had told him about the "Smooth Criminal" shoe patent, exactly the way the mechanism worked, not just how to use it but how it worked! so simple and so genius!; and Michael Jackson learned how if he had not been a singer and dancer he could have been an award-winning zoologist, would have in this other life worked at Northwestern University, and been happy, but still lost, a little lost, and he would have died in a car accident at age 46, four years ago, in this other life, and never have been married; but Michael Jackson learned as well that it was no use to think What If.

He learned that Uri Geller was a scam artist, and Dr Tohme Tohme was a scam artist, and that Leonard Muhammad and Shmuley Boteach knew scarcely of God;
He learned that he had a true gift;
He learned that the best song he had ever recorded was "I Want You Back", and that his new album, the one with T-Pain and Will.I.Am, was not very good.
Michael Jackson learned everything, he learned the whole universe, became wise as a sage, as the wisest sage
looking upon a garden
knowing the name of every flower

and then he ascended to Paradise.

IV

After Michael Jackson died
the fourth thing
he learned
was
peace.

He arrived at the place
where the dead go
when they are ready.

By the time Michael Jackson
arrived
he knew everything
and so he did not hesitate;
he came in
where it is safe &
good
and he felt the things you feel
in paradise.

He looked down upon the Earth and saw his sons, his daughter, his friends;
all of his friends. He
did not want them to be
crying.
(Okay
maybe a little bit; but
just a little bit.)
But when they were done their mourning
he wanted his beloveds to
be so
happy, so
cherished
& he knew now that they would be
probably
and that the probably is all right.
He saw his mother weeping and
he dispatched angels to
let her stop.
He did not think of his father.
Not in paradise.

Michael Jackson saw a million people playing "Bad" and "ABC" and "The Way You Make Me Feel", all over the world, in river towns and desert towns, skyscrapers and huts
and he saw them moonwalking and
doing the robot
under the stars.
John Lennon came out to see Michael Jackson.
"Hello," he said;
Michael Jackson had always liked English accents.
John Lennon was not angry about all that publishing rights stuff because he was dead and Michael Jackson was dead and both of them understood everything now.
They watched the people of the world doing the robot.
"Nice one," said John Lennon.
James Brown came out too. And Sammy Davis Jr. And even Louis Armstrong
for some reason
and they hung out for a while
watching humankind
sing lyrics like, "the doggone girl is mine",
or "darling!"
all of these late entertainers understanding how much these elegies matter
and how little.
In time he broke away from the famous men
and went in among the others
in paradise
to dwell. And at this point Michael Jackson was
no longer
who he was
(nor was he a child:
he was something freely
in-between;
released from certain shapes & sizes
to live
forever
as he is)

also he could fly
and turn into a switchblade
or a salmon
or a moonbeam;
or into a whole season
a whole summer of sidewalk glitz and starlit yes
for the world to inhabit
all of us loving and singing and dancing
and not knowing that this is Michael Jackson
in whom we are thriving
and making out
and inhaling the smell of mock orange blossoms.

(Michael Jackson is here
and he can still move
like he has figured out
the secret
of it.)

The original moon walker

2009-06-26T09:57:00.001-04:00

Buzz Aldrin's Rocket Experience from Buzz Aldrin

Classic J5 cartoon show

2009-06-26T08:57:00.002-04:00

As we remember the incredible Michael Jackson, let us not forget the classic J5 cartoon show.

The Carleton Singing Knights

2009-06-26T08:16:00.003-04:00

According to their web site The Carleton Singing Knights are an acapella group from Carleton College (in Northfield, Minnesota) that began back in the mid-50's. Since then the group has been singing their way around numerous genres of music however the kids today, well you know they're in to the indie rock. Check out some of their performances of songs by Vampire Weekend, My Morning Jacket, Dirty Projectors & Fleet Foxes. Take that Ben Folds.

Singing Knights' set list

Michael Jackson RIP

2009-06-25T22:21:00.001-04:00

RIP Sky Saxon

2009-06-25T14:49:00.003-04:00

RIP Sky Saxon

Weathervane Music

2009-06-25T08:25:00.004-04:00

Like many great arts & cultural initiatives it all starts with a vision. Singer-songwriter and producer Brian McTear came in to my office about 6, maybe 8 months ago and laid out a very basic concept: to start a non-profit dedicated to supporting the independent music community by collaborating with independent musicians to produce and promote music and video productions. To harness the power and the opportunities that the growing community of independent artists had in front of them as a result of the ever-changing music business environment. I was down with the idea immediately, told McTear he was a genius and to go forth and do more good work. Over several months McTear baked the idea with some colleagues (including myself) and launched Weathervane Music.

To say they've been busy is an understatement. This month, Weathervane launched their first two projects with the Philly band East Hundred and the Austin band Sunset. Songs and videos were produced from these sessions produced by McTear and Engineer Amy Morrissey along with Quentin Stoltzfus formerly of the band Mazarin who produced the Sunset session.

Tonight at Kung Fu Necktie Weathervane Music is holding a benefit with Philly bands Papertrigger and The Armchairs. The party starts at 8PM.

WV Project Series 2009: East Hundred from Weathervane Music on Vimeo.

Slow Burning Crimes - East Hundred
When Perfect Flames Expire - Sunset

New Peter Himmelman song/video

2009-06-24T23:14:00.002-04:00

Last night on Peter Himmelman's Furious World he debuted a new song/video called "Raining Down From Satellite from his forthcoming album, The Mystery and The Hum. Brilliant song, intensified by the images of a continuing world gone crazy.

New Avett Brothers Song

2009-06-24T23:04:00.002-04:00

When I was at SXSW this year I had the pleasure of hearing about six new songs from the forthcoming Avett Brothers album and my jaw dropped from it's brilliance. The sound of this record is gorgeous; the songs - their best yet. Check this song out - it's the title song to their Columbia Records debut due September 29th.

I And Love And You - Avett Brothers
via Spinner.com

Book your passage for Sun Airway

2009-06-23T20:43:00.004-04:00

Sun Airway is the groovacious new electro pop project from a couple of the guys from Philly's ultra-suede A-Sides, Jon Barthmus & Patrick Marsceill.

They sound like their name; poppy and full of wonder. They sound like Yes if Panda Bear and Jimmy Tamborello in the band instead of Jon Anderson and Rick Wakeman. If you have a soul and believe in magic you will love this. And don't let the Yes part scare you.

Oh Naoko - Sun Airway
Swallowed By The Night - Sun Airway
Waiting On You - Sun Airway
Your Moon - Sun Airway

Zip it here

And if you miss or missed A-Sides, here's some music:
Diamonds - A-Sides
We're The Trees - A-Sides

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The Budos Band has that Fela feeling

2009-06-23T13:43:00.005-04:00

The Budos Band drop a new 6-song EP today that as expected, is smoking. This simmering tune captures the essence of the Budos with a nice Fela Kuti flair.

Proposition - The Budos Band

Buy the EP here

The 6,234,319th reason why I love music

2009-06-23T13:06:00.003-04:00

Stumbling through the blogosphere I often find great joy in the art of discovery and today's been one of those days. And often it's a little double take on something so familiar that leads me down the trail; like when I thought I saw Roy Orbison's name attached to a dub project but it was actually Joy Orbison from the UK. Found it at No Pain In Pop a record label & blog that's got some very cool stuff on it. I don't think I even read anything on this blog about Perez Hilton and that blonde, which is a very good sign.

Anyway, back to the matter at hand, which is Joy Orbison - real name Peter O'Grady - DJ of some sort. Now, I am not an electronica DJ snob or such an aficionado hipster who only plays/listens to white label shit; I'm just a fan. And this shit has completely caught my attention.
Float on; dig the music.

DLDRMS001 - Joy Orbison
via No Pain In Pop (quite possibly your favorite new music blog)

Casper & The Cookies playing Philly

2009-06-22T08:51:00.005-04:00

Casper & The Cookies July 23rd at Danger Danger Gallery. The band's latest album and joyful ode to many things pop - Modern Silence -was released digitally last month. The album is like a great collection of some of AM radio's most fun 45" singles moments through pop history.

Little King - Casper & The Cookies