Playlist for February 25th, 2011

If you haven't noticed, I like not only music, but movies as well.

Cinema has the ability to tell stories in a completely different way from other mediums.

Not always a better way, but a different way.

Another great thing about film is the music.

I have learned about many artists, present and past, through movies.

Our playlist this week contains music from some of the movies I have enjoyed over the years.

Some of the tunes were created for the movies they are associated with and some are originals made years before being put into a film.

They are not necessarily my favorite movies, mind you (and some of the movies I didn't like), but the music...that's a different story.



Enjoy!

Playlist for February 18th, 2011

Auto race; circa 1920's

Out here on the prairie, the cold, dreary winter weather has broken (for the time being) and has graced us with sun and mild temperatures.

When the weather starts getting nicer, it makes me think of gardening, barbecuing and getting outdoors.

But first things first...

My poor car (a 2008 black Volkswagen Beetle named Bert) has been in dire need of a good cleaning and some general maintenance since October.

This weekend, I'm workin' on the car and maybe even taking a little joy ride, so I'm gonna need some good tunes.

This week, we have lots of songs dealing with cars, roads and driving.



Enjoy!!!

Movie Night - 100 Rifles

Jim Brown, Burt Reynolds (with a horrible fake moustache)
and Raquel Welch in 100 Rifles

Opening with the prelude to an execution and ending with a battle involving Yaqui Indians, WWI-era German officers and Jim Brown (former Cleveland Brown and all-around Renaissance Man), the film 100 Rifles involves stolen money, illicitly purchased firearms and a counter-culture sensibility that bleeds through.

Brown stars as Lyedecker, a sheriff from Arizona sent to track down Yaqui Joe (Reynolds), who has stolen $6000 from a bank in Phoenix in order to procure guns for the native Mexicans fighting against the "federales".  Welch portrays Sarita, a local who cares about the native cause and fights with everything she has.

Not a great film, but not a bad one either, you should....

Check it out!  (WP)(AMG)(IMDB)

Playlist for February 11th, 2011

I procured this graphic from the Internet.
I don't know who originally did it, but if you know,
fill me in and I'll properly credit.

No theme this week...just good tunes.

A mix of rockabilly, R & B, surf, psychedelia and blues are here for your enjoyment.

Remember to tell your friends and acquaintances about the blog and help spread the word.



Thanks for listening and enjoy!

Playlist for February 4th, 2011

THERE ARE SOME SELECTIONS IN THIS WEEKS PLAYLIST THAT INCLUDE ADULT LANGUAGE!!! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

Lux Interior, vocals
Poison Ivy Rorschach, guitar

So, as the blog progresses, I will periodically put out a list as a tribute to an artist or group that I greatly admire.

This weeks list is just that.

On February 4th, 2009, the musical world lost a great artist, Lux Interior, the lead vocalist of the Cramps, who died of an aortic dissection.

The Cramps were a band that mixed good ol' rock 'n' roll with a love of monster movies, trash culture and things that are so wrong, they are good.

Over the course of their 3 decades, the Cramps, with their core of Lux Interior and Poison Ivy Rorschach, helped bring the music world a vision of delinquency, political incorrectness and good times for all to enjoy.

Many great artists were a part of the Cramps galaxy, including Kid Congo Powers from the Gun Club and Jim Sclavunos from Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds (who has been described as an "infamous elegant degenerate").

With their sound firmly rooted in blues and rockabilly, the Cramps have performed many great covers over the years and, one day, I'll begin a series of "songs the Cramps taught us" (a phrase that not only plays on the Cramps album "Songs the Lord Taught Us", but is also the name of a great series of albums)

As a side note, if you want to see something beyond description, check out the Cramps Live at the Napa State Mental Hospital, a live show the band actually held and recorded at the Napa State Mental Hospital in California in 1980.

Crazy, man, crazy!!!

This week's list includes tunes from many of their albums along with a few live recordings.

Enjoy!

Movie Night - Barton Fink

Barton Fink stares down the hallway of the Hotel Earle

Barton Fink is a serious writer.

He takes pride in his knowing, deep down, what the "common man" is thinking and wants in life.

When he is hired by Capitol Movie Studios to write a wresting picture starring Wallace Berry, he moves from New York to Los Angeles, taking up residence in the Hotel Earle.

After an uncomfortable meeting with his neighbor, Charlie, it becomes clear that Barton is in the throws of a bad case of writers block.

Struggling to, not only finish his movie script, but keep his sanity, Barton Fink is a movie that has been dissected and written about since its debut.

Check it out!  (WP)(AMG)(IMDB)

Movie Night - American Grindhouse

In what will be the first of at least a couple/few movies I'll be watching today (thanks to the weather event I am calling "The Big Dump"), I present to you a documentary on movies to begin my cinematic day.

The claim is made that about 5 seconds after the invention of motion picture film, the first idea for an exploitation movie was thought up.

This is very believable when you watch this movie, a brief but thorough filmography with clips of movies from the late 19th century to 21st century (bound to be) classics such as Black Dynamite.

Running the gamut from sex, violence, drugs and other "taboos", American Grindhouse gives a good rundown of, not so much a genre of film, but a cinematic movement.

A movie that, as many of the taglines from the clips claim, is for ADULTS ONLY!!!

Check it out! (WP)(AMG)(IMDB)

Playlist for January 28th, 2011

Jayne Mansfield...under the covers

Under the Covers

This week, after what had to have been too much celebrating this past weekend, the Lady of the Manor had taken ill with the sinus yucks.

There was lots of orange juice and chicken soup consumed and she spent most of the week in bed and under the covers.

I'm pleased to report that she is on the upswing and is up and at 'em.

This week's playlist contains a treasure trove of cover tunes from the famous to the not so famous.

A recipe for a Sazerac cocktail

Dating from around 1850, the Sazerac is known as one of the first "cocktails" known.

It was my friend, Lippy from Austin, Texas, who turned me on to this, and let me tell you, it's a good one.

Originally a mix of cognac and absinthe, the modern Sazerac has a few different recipes, but this is how I mix mine:

First, chill a rocks glass.  I usually put mine in the freezer for at least 30 minutes or you could pack it with ice for the same amount of time.

Once the glass is chilled, take a small amount of absinthe, just enough to coat the glass (I like Lucid, made in France and the first genuine absinthe to gain approval for legal distribution in the U.S.) and swirl it around the glass.  If you have any absinthe left over (and you shouldn't if you can mix good), discard it (but shame on you for throwing away such a great thing).

In a shaker, mix a sugar cube, two shots rye whiskey and 5 to 7 dashes of Peychaud Bitters.  Mix it in with the coated absinthe.  Take a lemon peel, twist and garnish.  Enjoy!

Movie Night - The Killing

Sterling Hayden (with his hand on the paper) goes
over the plan with the gang in "The Killing"

Sterling Hayden stars as Johnny Clay, a hood just released from jail, who decides to set up one last heist before leaving town with his girl, Fay.

Clay brings together a rag-tag group of guys, from a crooked cop to a sharpshooter, to help pull off a $2 million haul from a race track.

After plotting the robbery and feeling as if everything will go as planned, the theft begins to fall apart after one of the gang, a window teller at the track, begins to tell his gold-digging wife about the plan.


Other issues crop up, from a drunken money man to a racist exchange with a parking attendant, and Clay has to work hard to keep the plan together.


Stanley Kubrick, in his first major film, sets up a complicated heist film that is, while slightly non-linear, still a good story that has helped inspire other crime flicks over the years.

Check it out! (WP)(AMG)(IMDB)