Joe Eglash

Ziggy, Platinum, & Vittles

2012-05-24T12:18:41Z

On a break from intergalactic conquest, Ziggy and the Spider With the Platinum Hair actually consume food like normal humans.

Yum.

Funeral for a King

2012-05-14T13:58:10Z

Levon Helm's funeral recessional (May 2012). Music speaks louder and more succinctly than anything else can.

Real Wild, Child

2012-05-08T11:04:44Z

This is just too cool for school.

Think Iggy Pop wrote Real Wild Child? Nope. It's a 50's B-Standard, as shown by this bad-ass version, credited to "Ivan" - that is, Jerry Ivan Allison - the drummer for Crickets.

And yup, that's Buddy Holly on guitar - to my ears, playing his Strat directly into the board, in 1958. That's about 10 years before it was considered an innovative studio trick, like when the Beatles did it on Dear Prudence. Talk about ahead of your time.

10,000 (Japanese) Maniacs

2012-05-06T20:48:18Z

As it is, I believe the fourth movement of Beethoven's Ninth symphony to be the most passionate music ever made. This performance just takes it to a level I can hardly describe.

We can imagine the debut of the symphony during Beethoven's life, and consider when imagining it that everything was smaller - the performance hall, the symphony, the choir, the stakes. Now compare that to what you are about to witness here: A 10,000-strong amateur mixed choir and professional orchestra (both from Osaka and Sendai) with a beautifully-meshuganeh maestro, Yutaka Sado. Truly breathless.

Passion

2012-04-21T01:19:13Z

Holy freaking expletive. The passion is insane here. The last chorus is amazing.

Thanks to Merlin Mann for posting this.

Moments of Reality In the Midst of Historymaking

2012-04-17T19:51:37Z

Rain Song

2012-04-12T13:57:19Z

A great example of how and when music speaks louder than words.

When I first discovered this piece at the beginning of high school, it was one of those feelings you get when you know you're witnessing something historic, classic, beautiful for all time. Like a new organ you'll have working in your system for the rest of your life.

Every time I hear Rain Song, it's just as magical, amazing, mysterious, other-worldly as the first time I heard it, when I was 14.

At age 37, now, I've gotten to the point, as a musician, where there's not many songs I can't figure out the music theory behind while I'm listening. Usually, I can sit down and figure out the guitar or whatever pretty quickly for just near anything. Rain Song is one of those that is beyond 'figuring it out' - it's impossible to reproduce the magic.

James Jamerson... Oh Mama.

2012-03-13T13:56:20Z

If you don't know him, you know his playing (and so it is for so many of the best bassists...). He was Motown/Tamla's house bass player forever. All the best songs, biggest hits.

To me, aside from Abbey Road and a couple other things, his bass playing on What's Going On has got to be the most natural of its time.

This vid is unique and amazing because it pulls out his playing from the mix so you can hear the intricacies.

Gracias to my buddy Nick (the best bass player I've ever played with) for the vid.

Roderick On The Whine

2012-03-06T02:05:43Z

This is a huge discovery... a beautiful, insane, sweet, discordant, bombastic sad tune. [exhale] amazing.

It seems like the adopted child of Major Tom, Jeremy, Yoshimi, and God.

This is the Long Winters, beautiful brainchild of John Roderick, with whose podcast with Merlin Mann I am currently obsessed. Mama.

Background Vox From Shangri Las

2012-02-13T15:23:32Z

Just listen to the background vocals. Blows me away - it's a sound I've often tried to get on my recordings, and even live with my band. It's like catching a platypus in Wisconsin.