RADIO HANNIBAL

What's Your Least Favorite Christmas Song?

I love Christmas music.  You know that by now.  There's certainly some songs I could do without though.  There's plenty of cringe-worthy Christmas crap.

How about those dogs barking out "Jingle Bells" or "Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer".  There's two that should be destroyed.  So what's your least favorite holiday song?

Mine isn't a particular version of a song.  It's the song itself.  I really can't stand "Little Drummer Boy".  I don't care who's singing it and many have.  That "pah rumpah pah pah" is like fingernails on a blackboard to me. 

Even Bing and Bowie's version, which happens to be my wife's favorite Christmas song isn't tolerated by me.  It's somewhat salvaged when Bowie starts singing another song.  Still, even Bing Crosby can't pull off that annoying drum thing. 

 

Loving Music Means Show Tunes As Well

I'm not very knowledgeable about Broadway music, better known as the show tunes genre.  It's a minefield of guilty pleasures.  I like what I like but often keep it to myself.  A guy who likes show tunes, well, for some reason his sexuality comes into play.  Come on, aren't we more mature than that?

I'll grant you it's a generalization that holds water.  I'm sure, if surveyed, gay men enjoy musicals more than straight men.  But I'm not ashamed to call The Wizard Of Oz one of my favorite movies of all time.  And it's the songs that place it there. 

Musicals were part of my childhood.  Before Disney got into Pixar their big moneymakers were animated musicals that remain classics.  And films like Mary Poppins and The Sound Of Music helped form my musical appreciation as much as anything else. 

But I kind of abandoned show tunes for rock and roll early on.  Still, there's songs from musical theater that can't be denied.  In the '80s I saw Mandy Patinkin sing "Over The Rainbow" on David Letterman.  I've been a fan of his ever since.  Here's an encore performance of it he did for Letterman in 1989.

I feel more comfortable with my professing a love of show tunes when someone like Hugh Jackman comes along.  Jackman is known by most for his macho movie roles but the Australian actor is a song and dance man, having won a Tony award.  He's on Broadway this holiday season doing a one man show.  It's the hottest ticket of the season and completely sold out. 

The New York Times did a great story on the two sides of Jackman, Hugh Jackman Keeps His Pants On. "For some women his double-jointedness makes him the perfect platonic lover: part leading-man seducer (who gives you the best sex you never had), part gay best friend (who picks up your spirits by singing show tunes with you)." 

In the show he sings the aforementioned "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" and opens the performance with "Oh What A Beautiful Morning".

I doubt that a musical soundtrack will ever make my end of the year lists but there's no denying that I enjoy a good show tune now and then.

 

 

Radio Hannibal Top 40 Singles Of 2011

1. Foster The People - Pumped Up Kicks
2. Azealia Banks ft. Lazy Jay - 212
3. Lana Del Ray - Video Games
4. Ana Calvi - Desire
5. Kurt Vile - Jesus Fever
6. M83 - Midnight City
7. The Dodos ft. Neko Case - Don’t Try And Hide It
8. The Head And The Heart - Lost In My Mind
9. St. Vincent - Cruel
10. Neon Indian - Polish Girl
11. Lykke Li - Sadness Is A Blessing
12. Tom Waits - Bad As Me
13. PJ Harvey - Let England Shake
14. Kate Bush - Wild Man
15. Washed Out - Amor Fati
16. The Black Keys - Lonely Boy
17. Nicki Minaj - Super Bass
18. Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues
19. The Horrors - I Can See Through You
20. Junior Boys - Banana Ripple
21. Eleanor Friedberger - My Mistakes
22. Cut Copy - Take Me Over
23. Girls - Honey Bunny
24. Yuck - Georgia
25. The Civil Wars - Barton Hollow
26. Gruff Rhys- Sensations In The Dark
27. The Jayhawks - She Walks In So Many Ways
28. Fountains Of Wayne - Someone’s Gonna Break Your Heart
29. Raphael Saadiq - Radio
30. Cornershop - United Provinces Of India
31. King Creosote & Jon Hopkins - Bubble
32. Adele - Rolling In The Deep
33. Metronomy - The Bay
34. Friendly Fires - Hawaiian Air
35. Florrie - I Took A Little Something
36. Herzog - Silence
37. Robyn - Call Your Girlfriend
38. Hayes Carll - Kmag Yoyo
39. Dave Alvin - Harlan County Line
40. Mayer Hawthorne - The Walk

Radio Hannibal Top 40 Singles of 2011 on Spotify

Radio Hannibal Top 50 Albums of 2011

1. M83 - Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming
2. Jonathan Wilson - Gentle Spirit
3. St. Vincent - Strange Mercy
4. Tom Waits - Bad As Me
5. The Black Keys - El Camino
6. White Denim - D
7. Kurt Vile - Smoke Ring For My Halo
8. Clive Tanaka Y Su Orquestra - Jet Set Siempre 1 Degree
9. Baxter Dury - Happy Soup
10. DRC Music - Kinshasa One Two
11. Washed Out - Within And Without
12. Neon Indian - Era Extrana
13. The Horrors - Skying
14. Wild Flag - Wild Flag
15. Gang Gang Dance - Eye Contact
16. Amor De Dias - Street Of The Love Of Days
17. Cut Copy - Zonoscope
18. Drive-By Truckers - Go-Go Boots
19. Wilco - The Whole Love
20. Raphael Saadiq - Stone Rollin’
21. The War On Drugs - Slave Ambient
22. Pedro Soler, Gaspar Claus - Barlande
23. Gruff Rhys - Hotel Shampoo
24. Girls - Father, Son, Holy Ghost
25. Kate Bush - 50 Words For Snow
26. Fountains Of Wayne - Sky Full Of Holes
27. Tinariwen - Tassili
28. Panda Bear - Tomboy
29. Jason Isbell And The 400 Unit - Here We Rest
30. Bombay Bicycle Club - A Different Kind Of Fix
31. Brent Kirby - Coming Back To Life
32. The Felice Brothers - Celebration, Florida
33. Cass McCombs - Wit’s End
34. Garland Jeffreys - Don’t Call Me Buckwheat
35. The Jayhawks - Mockingbird Time
36. Paul Simon - So Beautiful Or So What
37. PJ Harvey - Let England Shake
38. Marissa Nadler - Marissa Nadler
39. Woods - Sun And Shade
40. Metronomy - The English Riviera
41. Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues
42. Hayes Karll - KMAG YOYO
43. Bright Eyes - The People’s Key
44. The Field - Looping State Of Mind
45. The Dodos - No Color
46. The Head And The Heart - The Head And The Heart
47. Atlas Sound - Parallax
48. Robag Wruhme - Thora Vukk
49. Nicolas Jaar - Space Is Only Noise
50. Josh T. Pearson - Last Of The Country Gentlemen

Radio Hannibal Top 50 Albums of 2011 on Spotify

The Black Keys, With Success Comes Missteps

The new Black Keys album is being released today.  It's called El Camino and it's another damn good album from them.  In fact, I think their trajectory has been perfect thus far.  The two Akron natives, now living in Nashville, have upped the ante with each album maintaining their musical integrity while moving away from the stripped down sound of their early work.  

Dan Auerbach is looking like the sly manipulator, contouring their sound and adding components that are garnering new fans while keeping the core base happy.  But recent missteps by the band have me worried they are feeling a bit too content with themselves. 

The Black Keys tour schedule was released last week.  They play the Q here in Cleveland on March 20.  Now that's quite a leap from small hall to massive arena, even if their last tour saw them selling out most venues. 

At first I suspected that it was a matter of Live Nation not having a good midsized venue here in Cleveland.  But then I saw that they booked the United Center in Chicago, Madison Square Garden in New York and the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit. 

It's obviously a calculated risk by the Black Keys.  They see this new album as being the one that places them in that upper echelon of artists capable of pulling off an arena tour.  Time and sales will tell. I just don't see their act as being compelling enough to engage a crowd of 20,000 in a cavernous arena. 

The New York Times did a story on The Black Keys last week, First, Hit It Big. Then Change.  In the story Auerbach distances himself from, even disses, the blues. 

"I don’t think many people understood, from the beginning, what we were into," Mr. Auerbach said. "Everybody thinks we’re a blues band. Pat hates blues music, and I haven’t even listened to a blues record in a long time."

Really?  The Big Come Up wasn't rooted in the blues?  This dismissal of the blues has musician friends of mine quite upset.  One local musician put it this way, "so, if you "hate blues music," then by my account you basically hate America, and many of the most important forms of American music and culture. Good one, idiots. It's like making a million dollars selling pizza to kids, and then stating you hate flour, water and pizza sauce."

The statement by Auerbach is a contradiction to past interviews where he's spoken lovingly about blues music.  I suspect he's either trying to be controversial or working at being as enigmatic as Bob Dylan who, by the way, loves the blues. 

The Snow Is Falling And It's Time For Christmas Music

As I look out the window of my office at the first snow fall of the season I think of two things.  One, thank God the rain has stopped and, two, it's time for a story on Christmas music for the 2011 holiday season. 

Christmas music is such a strange genre.  It's hardly a genre at all as every conceivable style of music has been used as a Christmas song.  It's also an easy way for an artist to make a quick buck.  I dislike saying that sort of thing this time of year, you'd wish it were always for reasons from the heart,  but it's true. 

That's not to say that there isn't truly earnest Christmas music being made each year.  And even those blatant attempts to cash in can capture the spirit of the season.  There's a hokey quality to much of Christmas music, a guilty pleasure if ever there was one. New holiday releases in 2011 give us a little of both as usual. 

The best of the bunch is the new Kate Bush album called 50 Words For Snow.  It's her first new material in five years and simply gorgeous.  Bush's ethereal voice and minimalist piano are the perfect accompaniment to watching the snow fall. 

She's joined on the album by Elton John and British renaissance man Steven Fry.  And those are the lesser songs on the album.  She's best by herself, singing in that haunting yet childlike voice about making love to a snowman. The real joy of this album is that it's an album that can be played throughout winter and not just during the holiday season. 

Kate Bush - 50 Words For Snow (Spotify)

My affection for Zooey Deschanel has wained recently.  Why, oh why, did she have to do a sitcom?  Her musical act She & Him, him being M Ward, has produced three albums with diminishing returns.  The new one, A Very She & Him Christmas, unfortunately exposes her somewhat weak vocals.  That being said, it really doesn't distract from the charming material here.  Anyone who does a good job with Sinatra's "Christmas Waltz" gets extra points from me. 

She & Him - A Very She & Him Christmas (Spotify)

Michael Buble seems to have every woman wrapped around his finger these days.  So his new Christmas album is the perfect soundtrack for couples.  He released a holiday EP two years ago that only left you wishing for more.  Here's that gift.

Michael Buble - Christmas (Spotify)

My favorite kind of Christmas albums, regardless of musical style, are the ones with original songs.  How many versions of "Little Drummer Boy" have we all heard?  The best example of this, from a Clevelander's point of view, is our own Ohio City Singers.  This changing cast of local musicians led by Chris Allen have released their third, well second proper, album titled Snow Days.  I love Christmas music and when the lyrics (" when the snow melts 'cross the snow belt") hit home, well, I'm on a sleigh ride with Santa.

I bought numerous copies of their other CDs as they make perfect gifts for fellow Clevelanders.  You can buy them at their shows around town, like the one this Saturday at 2:30 at the House Of Blues.  2:30?  Yes, it's a show for the entire family.  Bring the kids. 

The Ohio City Singers - Snow Days (Spotify)

I've gathered together some other new Christmas releases along with many more from years past on Spotify.  Subscribe to it as your go to source for Christmas music both tried and true and, well, odd too.  

Radio Hannibal Christmas Albums On Spotify

Streaming Music Services Still Foreign To Many

If Radio Hannibal were as big and influential as I'd like, streaming music services would be common by now.  Spotify, Rhapsody, MOG, Rdio and the like would be well known brands.  The fact is they are still foreign to many.

I'm still of the opinion that Spotify will, far and away, be the leader of streaming music services so I'll focus on it.  Being the evangelist I am for Spotify, the topic comes up quite often in my conversations with people.  And the vast majority tell me they've never heard of Spotify.  In fact, they aren't even aware of streaming music services. Once in awhile, I'll get something like, "oh, you mean like Pandora?".  "Hardly", I'll reply.

This ignorance of Spotify isn't just from people with little interest in music.  Hardcore music friends of mine are clueless as well.  That includes the vast majority of local musicians I talk to.

The weird thing is that when I explain Spotify, that you can listen to just about any album or song you want with one click, they are suspicious.  They assume it's illegal. 

I understand.  It is hard to comprehend.  Especially when I tell them it's free if you don't mind the ads interspersed between songs.  That's when I'll pull out my iPhone and tell them that for ten bucks a month I can listen to Spotify anywhere I want. 

Now comes the demo.  I tell them to pick an artist, a band.  Ok, if they say The Beatles I'll explain that there are some significant holes.  Maybe they'll say Bob Marley.  I'll do the search and watch as every Bob Marley album populates the screen.  Yet even then they are skeptical.  It's like they're afraid to be amazed.  What's the catch?, they wonder. 

I had one friend tell me that the concept seemed out of reach for him, like it must be for the music intelligentsia or something.  No, it takes about two minutes to sign up and download the software.

And still, even after I've wowed them, I'll see them again and ask if they got Spotify.  Most of the time the answer is no.  It's astonishing to me. 

I guess it's like the male fantasy of having more than one woman in bed.  In fantasy it's thrilling but in reality it may be too daunting.  Are you capable of handling having 90% of recorded music at your disposal...for free?

 

End Of Year Music Lists

I've talked about how music geeks love making lists.  Just watch High Fidelity for the running list of tops fives throughout the movie. 

There's a staggering number of music lists put out at this time of year.  Every publication in the world seems to create one.  And it's not merely the best albums lists.  There's best re-issues, best box sets, best videos, etc.  It's going to be a couple of weeks before I lay mine on you.

I used to go to a site called Fimoculous which gathered links to all of these lists for one stop browsing.  Last year he decided to call it quits. 

Fear not, I've found another blogger more than willing to take up the task.  Presenting Large Hearted Boy's 2011 Year-End Online Music Lists.  Remember that this list grows nearly every day so you'll want to bookmark it.

Rumors About The End Of The Compact Disc

I have two blogs.  This one generally deals with music and the other, AV Adviser, generally deals with how to play that music.  Sometimes the stories I write are a good fit for both.  Such is the case with this story which I wrote about yesterday.  So why not post it here too.  It's started some good debate.

Last week Side-Line Music Magazine, surely you've heard of them, reported that major label sources have confirmed that the compact disc (CD) will be discontinued by the end of 2012 if not earlier.  Here's the story, CD-format to be abandoned by major labels by the end of 2012. 

I did some Google news searching to see if any major news media had reported this and came up empty.  In other words, take this Side-Line story with a large grain of salt.  Though it is true the CD's demise is inevitable. I've contended for a few years now that the vinyl LP will outlast the CD in the marketplace. 

Here's the problem we as consumers would have if the CD were to stop being produced too soon.  No CD versions of new releases, though there would be smaller players still making CDs, would mean we'd be stuck listening to the inferior sound of an MP3.  Before the CD is abandoned there needs to be a better digital format, one with a better sampling rate. 

There's been some lively discussion over this story on the internet.  Those that contend one can't hear the difference between a 320 MP3 and a CD.  Although there's plenty who wouldn't be able to tell them apart there's a great number of people who would.  Being in the business I've trained my ears to be a critical listener.  Granted, at 53 I've lost some high end sound but I've done blind testings for kicks with colleagues in the past and we hear the difference.  I can also take an untrained listener and point out the differences at which time they, too, will be able to separate the good from the mediocre sound. 

There's digital formats with better bit rates like flac and other high res files available at boutique on line shops, but these superior digital downloads need to be widespread and available in places like iTunes before I'm comfortable with saying goodbye to the CD.

What about the artwork and liner notes that the CD format offered?  Tablet devices can show even better graphics than a CD booklet.  Some digital releases already come with digital booklets. 

Someone also worried that without physical media some music will be lost forever.  On the contrary, the internet has given us a place to store everything ever recorded.  Take a look at the plethora of vintage Youtube music videos that have been rescued from decaying VHS tape.  Those rarities were only enjoyed by a few who owned copies but are now available to everyone in the world.  All physical formats eventually deteriorate.  The fact that they've been uploaded into cyberspace will preserve them. 

The future is streaming anyway.  Unfortunately right now we're only able to do that at less than desirable bit rates of 160.  Bandwidth will increase in the future and should solve that issue.  Ownership will slowly diminish.  That's not to say there won't be those who want physical copies.  There will always be collectors. 

And lastly, someone posed "what if there's no electricity, as in some apocalyptic scenario?".  In that case we're back to live music on acoustic instruments. The music never stops. 

 

New Quadrophenia Box Set, Coming Of Age All Over Again

Most people have a seminal "coming of age" album they relate to.  The one that they can point to as being both influential and helpful in that awkward time.  Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon and The Wall are often sited as the definitive examples. 

For me it was The Who's Quadrophenia, the tale of a troubled teen growing up in early 60s London.  It was released in October of 1973 when I was 15 years old, perfect timing.  Since I already loved The Who I bought the album right away.  The album resonated not only with me but with many of my friends as well. 

The power of those songs complete with orchestration, the lyrics full of yearning, it spoke to me.  I could look beyond the mods and rockers setting, alien to my life in suburban America.  At the core was a teen who was as conflicted as me and, well, all teens. The double album ebbs and flows with angst, lust, anger, and love. 

For my son's 13th birthday last year I gave him 13 albums that were influential in my teen years.  It's an idea I heard from an NPR listener.  Quadrophenia was among the albums I chose.

Today Quadrophenia is being released as a box set, The Director's Cut.  It's a remastering of the album along with Townsend demos, an eight track 5.1 sound DVD and more.  You can stream the four disc set on Spotify.

There's word of a Quadrophenia tour in 2012.  That I can do without.  Been there, done that.  They brought that to Cleveland in the 90s with Billy Idol and Gary Glitter in key roles. 

When I listen to this album my heart rate quickens, my mind flashes back to memories of my youth and I'm invigorated.  Today I am young again.