Featuring a hometown group today: Pony Death Ride, the married, half-Canadian musical comedy duo. This is the group that gave us the theme song for the Chargers’ departure: Goodbye Chargers (We Don’t Wanna Buy You a Stadium) This number, though, is about kitties and how nice they are, although they do tend to use some not-so-nice language occasionally; crude but not cruel.   [Read more…]

Those of us in Southern California rarely have the opportunity to enjoy a “snow day” so I thought I’d try and convey some of that excitement by sharing a video that the Hopewell Valley Regional School District prepared to have available should the need to declare a snow day arise. Given what I’ve been reading about the weather back east, there may be the need to rerun this a few more times.   [Read more…]

The Russian dance group Berezka Ensemble, aka the Little Birch Tree Choreographic Group has perfected a dance step which when combined with their folk dress costume, creates the illusion of the dancers gliding across the floor as if on ice. The effect is quite mesmerizing and captivating. “Берёзка” (“Beryozka” or “Berezka”) means “Birch” in Russian. More info, including vintage versions of the dance, a version featuring costumes with LED lights, and video of rehearsals illustrating the “secret” of the dance step on the Open Culture website.   [Read more…]

One year ends, a new one begins. Themes of death and rebirth, transfiguration transcending death, play out. Here is the French-Cuban twin-sisters duo, Ibeyi, with their vision: Deathless (featuring Kamasi Washington).   [Read more…]

This last year we suffered the loss of the enigmatic and evocative voice of Leonard Cohen. Even when his material is dark and moody, there is a strength and resilience that pushes us on. Though this song may resonate with the sentiment, at times, of this last year, we go on. And so it goes.   [Read more…]

There’s something wintry in the high clear vocals by Peter Auty for Howard Blake’s “Walking In the Air” from the 1982 animation The Snowman. I’ve cued up the four minute portion for this song, but for those who are curious, after the excerpted clip plays, the entire animation can be viewed by clicking on the “replay” button in the lower-left corner of the YouTube frame.   [Read more…]

How about a little spicy fare for the Christmas holiday. Here’s the Cajun group BeauSoleil with a tune about Papa St. Nick. He’s got a mountain of toys on a red bateau. Papa St. Nick is comin’ up the bayou!   [Read more…]

The group Toko Telo (group of three) brings together a trio of musical stars from Madagascar: D’Gary, Monika Njava and Régis Gizavo. From the YouTube page notes:

Relaza
(Régis Gizavo)
Semi-autobiographical, this song tells of Relaza, who comes from a big family. Among 15 children he’s the eighth. The word has a second meaning: enemy. But Relaza’s no enemy, he’s nice to everyone.   [Read more…]

Catching us up with the rest of the world, a Boing Boing article informs us that the top trending video globally (currently with over 186 million views since June 2017) features a masked singer in a costume that resembles a clutch of oysters, if anything.

The song is titled “Until we become dust” and is featured as an entry in a televised game show called The Mask Singer. Don’t know whether this was the show’s ultimate winner, but globally it’s a hit. What am I missing?!   [Read more…]

Audiophile Christa Blackmon over at Lawyers, Guns & Money, has a post that explores one of the songs—Nature Boy—written in 1947 by an odd character from that period, eden ahbez. It’s one of those songs so captivating that many performers over the years have been seduced into covering it. Here are two versions that resonate with me. The first, performed by Nat King Cole, is the one that brought the tune to wide national attention.

The second, more contemporary version, is performed by David Bowie & Massive Attack for the soundtrack of the 2001 Baz Lurhmann movie Moulin Rouge!   [Read more…]

Steven Schick conducts the La Jolla Symphony and Chorus in the 2008 West Coast premiere of Evan Ziporyn’s Frog’s Eye. The performance was a collaboration with Tijuana-based dance troupe Lux Boreal under the direction of Henry Torres.

The concert hall space pulsates as the musicians and dancers explore the feelings of motion, stillness and survival in Ziporyn’s composition.

The full video includes a brief interview at the beginning with Schick, Ziporyn and Torres.   [Read more…]

LADAMA is a group of four women, virtuosic musicians, and educators — Lara Klaus, Daniela Serna, Mafer Bandola and Sara Lucas—each from a different country and culture of the Americas, who are sisters in song, rhythm and spirit. Harnessing music from their respective countries of origin –Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela and the United States, the group utilizes traditional and non-traditional instruments from across the Americas, but with a modern twist, to produce Latin Alternative music.   [Read more…]