Buckethead and his perfidious minions have hosted a "prime" nineteenth Carnival of Music.

Go check it out, and be sure to review the many fine articles linked therein.

Some favorites:

• November Musings' er, musings, about Trent Reznor's background


• The ever-reliable Bart at The Well-Tempered Blog found this interesting toy piano.


• Lynn's submission of this online mandolin collection

Be sure to check the archive page to read earlier entries in the Carnival, to submit a post, or volunteer to host. Many thanks in advance to Elisa Camahort for hosting our 20th Carnival next week.

Posted by: JohnL at 08:31 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Funny how you'll buy things you normally wouldn't as long as it's not really your own money being spent. (This is such a basic human impulse that I'm surprised anyone would be surprised by bloated government spending).

I recently got a $10 iTunes gift certificate as well as an iTunes Music Store card good for 10 songs. As the result, I purchased the William Shatner spoken word collection entitled Has Been.

I never thought I would say this about a Shat album, but, well, GET THIS ALBUM. It is produced by one of my favorite contemporary musicians, pianist Ben Folds, and features such noted guests as Joe Jackson and Aimee Mann.

In particular, check out the song "Common People." It starts off with a great retro new-wave riff straight out of the late 70s/early 80s (high bass guitar, Vox/Farfisa organ bleeping), and Shatner sets the stage with an atypically restrained reading of these lyrics:

And it just gets better from there, with a strong punk/new wave vibe, a children's choir, Joe Jackson singing, and Shatner emoting as only he can.

Check it out. You won't regret it.

Update: I should note that "Common People" was originally written and recorded in 1995 by the UK band, Pulp, on their Different Class album.

Posted by: JohnL at 10:34 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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If you have iTunes installed on your computer, go to the Music Store and look in the lower left for the category Celebrity Playlists. Be sure to click "see all" to access all 180 of the lists.

The songs themselves are fun enough to check out. But even better are the comments that the list authors add to explain why they picked the songs on their lists. (It's very bloggy).

Turns out that Penn Jillette (a libertarian comedian whom I shamefully confused with Al Franken for many years) has a playlist. Number one on his list, Sie Glauben Nicht from Alban Berg's opera Lulu, made me laugh out loud for this commentary: "Sometimes you just got to listen to really depressing, 20th Century 12 tone music. If you start thinking that rock 'n roll got far out, listen to this and shut up."

I love it.

The playlists served their purpose, as I found and bought (using a 10-free-tunes code) a few new songs from the Blue Man Group's playlist.

Posted by: JohnL at 08:40 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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The Carnival of Music remains in hiatus until we can find someone to host it.

Meanwhile, you may recall that I highlighted the very cool ukulele-ist Jake Shimabukuro in the second Carnival of Music.

Well, INDCent Bill has linked to a very nice video of Jake covering the Beatles' "While My Guitar Gently Weeps." Check it out.

Posted by: JohnL at 10:56 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Check out this article on the new Silbermann/Bach-style pipe organ recently completed in Paris.

I have played both electromechanical and tracker (i.e., analog) organs and found the action of trackers to be more immediate and satisfying than the fly-by-wire organ consoles.

Via Lynn (at her nicely redesigned and renamed blog, A Sweet, Familiar Dissonance).

Posted by: JohnL at 09:35 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Devin Hurd is this week's host for the Carnival of Music, now in its 18th installment.

I continue to be amazed and entertained by the breadth of musical subjects, from discussions of microtonal music to Jessica Simpson videos. Keep up the good work, people!

We don't yet have hosts for the next several weeks. I would like to point out that our last Music Carnival in October will fall on Hallowe'en. I'm certain someone would like to solicit and publish some posts about spooky music through the ages... Anyone? Anyone?

Volunteer to host or send your submissions for the next Carnival here. Use The Conservative Cat's handy online submission form here. And check out the archives here.

Posted by: JohnL at 10:20 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Bart Collins at The Well-Tempered Blog turns in a brilliant performance this week for the Seventeenth Carnival of Music.

HurdAudio is up to host next week, and after that we have an open schedule. Check out the main archive for links to past carnivals, to learn about hosting, and other useful information about the carnival.

Please volunteer to host here. Send submissions to the same address, or use the convenient online submission form at Conservative Cat's site.

Enjoy some good music!

Posted by: JohnL at 11:16 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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