Also, around that time and for a good chunk of the summer, we had a really awesome radio station in town. I actually didn't have to listen to my CDs because this station was so great. But it turned back into Jack FM and so here we are, 5 months later, and I'm getting back into the swing of things.
I may have missed a few CDs in the meantime, so I'm just going to start with the last two that I have been listening to lately:
35. Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot I can't believe this album is ten years old this year. But it is! And lucky me, I got to see them in 2002 and 2012. In 2002, it was Memphis in May and this album had just come out. My friend Leigh and her then-boyfriend came up to go to the show, and honestly I didn't know a lot about Wilco at that point in time. I think I had a copy of "Being There," but I didn't listen to it a whole lot. After this show I picked up YHF and it really blew me away. I kept it on rotation for a long time, and even now when I go back to it I tend to obsessively replay it over and over for a while before moving on to something else. This year, Jackson was lucky enough to have Wilco come play at Thalia Mara Hall, thanks to my friend Arden Barnett, of Ardenland. I got to know Arden when we worked together on the Crossroads Film Festival back in April of this year. He's been bringing some really great shows to Jacktown, from the Flaming Lips' world record 24-hour tour, to Kevin Costner's Western band, to Henry Rollins (he's performing tonight, as a matter of fact!). I am thrilled that Arden believes in Jackson enough to help bring this caliber of show to town, and I'm always excited to see who's coming next.
I don't know if Arden had anything to do with it, but Jackson has gotten a few other great shows this year that I've been lucky enough to attend. My sister and I got to see WAR a few months ago at the Tamale Fest, and then last month we were treated to Sir Elton John at the Coliseum of all places. He put on an incredible show, playing all the songs I wanted to hear except "Madman Across the Water," but at least he wore a jacket with that album's lettering in glitter on the back. He was so gracious and nice (not the diva that I expected at all), he thanked us for buying a ticket because he said he knew how tough the economy is and how expensive the tickets were (we were in nosebleed BEHIND the stage - but still a great view). He also came out before the encore and signed autographs for everyone in the front row. I've never seen anyone do that, especially someone like Sir Elton. It was a fantastic show.
Then last week some friends and I got to see Loretta Lynn at the Fair, for free! We didn't have a very good view, but we could hear ok and got to see her sparkly pink dress. There were debates over how old she is (Wikipedia says she's 80, other sites say 78 or even 75, so who knows?) - she's still got it though. Chubby Checker, who was scheduled to play the Fair the next day, even came out and did a couple of duets with Loretta, including my favorite, "Louisiana Woman/Mississippi Man." Conway was smiling down on her for sure.
It's not music, but I get to see David Sedaris again in a week or so. This will be the 2nd time in about a year that he's been to Jackson. I got to meet him last year when he came to Lemuria and literally signed every book and talked to every person in line. This time he'll be at Thalia Mara and most likely won't be able to sign everyone's book, but that's ok. I am already set to die happy because of last year's encounter. :-) Chuck Palahniuk came here last year too for a really fun event at Hal and Mal's - I would love to see even more events like this in Jackson, maybe combining books, music and art... we are a town that is hungry for cultural experiences.
36. Beastie Boys' Sample Sources
Some months ago, I think thanks to my friend Walter at Quiet Bubble, I stumbled upon the motherlode. Sample sources for every B-Boys album. Yes, even Paul's Boutique. Even though I recognize a lot of sample sources in the Boys' work, there is so much more that I never realized had been lifted from something else. Listening to these songs and then listening to the finished product on a Beastie Boys' album, you come to really appreciate how much work goes into creating something new out of a bunch of old songs. Some samples are obvious - "Root Down," for example, is not a lot different from the B-Boys version. Some drumbeats are instantly recognizable. But in other instances, only a small snippet of the song is used. It's amazing to me how they (and the Dust Brothers, and Mixmaster Mike, DJ Hurricane and probably Biz Markie) even thought to use some of these samples in the first place. Another thing I noticed is that the B-Boys like a phat beat. A lot of the drum samples they use are really rocking beats; something I haven't always appreciated in their music. Anyway, if you're a B-Boy fan, and even if you aren't, it's worth checking out this collection of tunes. If nothing else, there are a lot of cool '70s grooves to be had.
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