more music more music more music

A few musical tidbits popped into my coffee-soaked morning in a way that seemed simultaneously random and oddly connected, so i thought i'd put them out here. Mix of alternative and way out there alternative stuff:

The good people at wfmu had paul collins (no relation to genesis drummer 'highest highs and lowest lows' phil) from the great underknown power pop band the nerves on their show this morning. Played some nerves tunes, a couple from his (slightly) more well known band the beat. Did not play any of nerve bandmate peter case's (considerably) more well known the plimsouls, at least not while i was listening. Just one of those bands that made good fun rocks in a time that was slightly out of joint - but only just slightly: everybody knows blondie's cover of the nerves closest thing to a 'hit' hanging on the telephone, which has hopefully kept those guys in diamonds and pearls all these years...

While collins was telling stories on the radio, i was reading magnet, which tends to be a pretty good source of indie rock news and reviews, and came across a not-bad sidebar on jazz titan/duke ellington partner billy strayhorn, particularly the new documentary 'lush life' that pbs put out, and the star-studded tribute soundtrack that was released recently. Such a great musician, such a great story, inevitably overshadowed by the duke but still a giant. The article referred to him as a triple threat (composer/arranger/lyricist) and i'd add that his piano skills put him into quadruple-threat territory (have you heard this great moment in the 'duke ellington meets count basie' disc where duke is conducting 'take the a train' and count basie has gone into hiding, not daring to play duke's theme song? Pretty funny, and there's billy covering the ivories - not that much of a challenge i suppose, since he wrote the song.) It continually boggles my mind that he wrote 'lush life' when he was 19 years old.

And, in the realm of the random, i ran across a great line in a review for the new bjork cd in the onion on the train yesterday: "Whatever Bjork was going for, it couldn't have been to sound like bad outtakes from Fleetwood Mac's 'Tusk'" Which, in my case, made me want to hear the cd even more. :) (The review was basically a favorable one, btw.)

Also ran into a sidebar on bunny rabbit, whom i had the good fortune to catch at tonic before it, sadly, lamentably, tragically closed recently.

Gotta run to 'journey's end,' then an audition, then 'easy anthems' tonight in brooklyn.

Ok, extra credit for you if you know where i picked up the title for today's entry (hint: think the who)