Eleven's Song Reviews

Entries from November 2009

Angela McCluskey Finds Homes for Her Music in TV Ads, Cable Shows and MP3 Players – Why I Listen to Her Song, “Message,” Non-Stop

November 29, 2009 · Leave a Comment

(Want to hear the song first? Scroll toward the end of this posting.)

So I walk into Banana Republic and I’m fascinated by something. It’s not the clothes or the freakishly stylish sales attendants…it’s the sophisticated in-store music. Apparently, Banana Republic wants to accessorize my eardrums.

That’s the idea. In fact, the retailer employs music licensing and branding firm Rock River to provide “branded music strategies.” Why? By selecting the right tunes for its stores, Banana Republic helps influence consumers to buy expensive shirts (I bought two.).

Taking Artistic License
Scottish singer Angela McCluskey knows the value of music licensing. As part of the group, Telepopmusik, she sang the Grammy-nominated song “Breathe,” which was featured in a 2003 TV ad for the Mitsubishi Outlander.

In a 2004 interview with National Public Radio, McCluskey said she loved being associated with the car commercial. “If they associate it, then they could buy the album… Car commercials are the only way anybody’s ever going to hear your music anymore,” she said.

This year, she sang “I’m Not the Girl” for a TV ad featuring the Schick Quattro TrimStyle For Women Razor. See the bizarre video: http://www.quattroforwomen.com/media.php (hint – look for the computer-animated topiaries).

Recently, McCluskey performed on the Season Six trailer soundtrack for the TV show, “Entourage.”

In 2008, she sang “Dream,” the soundtrack to a TV ad narrated by Salma Hayek for a Pampers UNICEF campaign: http://www.theinsider.com/videos/1105674_Pampers_UNICEF_Commercial

Indie Evolves
Don’t assume that McCluskey is a lightweight because her music is attractive for commercial use. Just the opposite. Music branding companies such as Rock River, DMX, Inc., Shout It Out Loud Music and Elias Arts offer their clients the best musicians out there, including indies.

(Musicians James Allen and Angela McClusky attend the 2008 FilmAid International Power of Film Gala in New York City.)

Francis Garcia, creative director and founder of Shout It Out Loud Music (www.shoutitoutloudmusic.com), a New York City-based advertising, TV and film music company that has composed original scores and licensed music for Audi, Cadillac, Toyota, Ford, Walmart, McDonald’s, Discovery Channel, Nicktoons, Fuse and Fox Searchlight, recently shared the following with Eleven’s Song Reviews:

“Record labels have become more reliant on music licensing as a revenue stream as CD sales have dramatically diminished. Labels and publishers have become savvier at getting their music into the hands of advertising agencies.

“Concurrently, there’s been a stylistic paradigm shift that’s forged the way for recording artists, as advertisers have moved away from ‘jingles’ and toward album music. The indie music community has even become less denouncing of artists that choose to have their music licensed by a major brand. These factors have made the landscape of music business vastly different than what it was 10 years ago.”

To her credit, McCluskey is a Lilith Fair alum and has worked with R.E.M., Dr. John and Cyndi Lauper. She has also recorded several albums with the Wild Colonials, Telepopmusik and Tryptich and has released her own solo projects.

Message in a Bottle?
McCluskey’s song “Message,” from the album, “You Could Start a Fight in an Empty House,” (released Nov. 23, 2009, on Bernadette) is receiving a lot of attention from my MP3 player these days.

Listen to the song here (with Duke Bojadziev, similar version to the album)

Grooving to this electronic music track, I imagine myself speeding in a Porsche Cayman at 2 a.m., heading to an epic party hosted by “Brangelina.” McCluskey’s vocals, world-wise and mysterious, transport me to such places.

At the same time, “Message” is ripe for a slick marketing campaign. I can see the song backing a FedEx commercial. How about an Absolut Vodka ad (hence my message-in-a-bottle reference)?

What are your thoughts about the commercial use of indie music?

Sources: http://www.myspace.com/angelamccluskeymusic,  http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=3886110, http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1285/is_10_34/ai_n6338659/, and http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0566058/.

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Categories: Electronic · Indie
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A Review of Georgia Anne Muldrow’s Song, “Never a Day in Vain”: ‘60s Spiritual Soul with a Hip-Hop Fist

November 22, 2009 · 2 Comments

Is the world a big rubber band ball with everything connected to everything? Maybe. When you look for common threads among people, history, science…relationships start to surface. At the very least, you and I are connected right now through the Internet. So with this in mind, let’s play a game (not the Kevin Bacon game).

Question: What do “The Secret” (the Law of Attraction philosophy featured on Oprah), jazz artists Eddie Harris and Pharaoh Sanders (best known for their work in the ‘60s and ‘70s) and the year 1983 have in common?

Answer: Georgia Anne Muldrow.

Many of the universe’s funkiest wavelengths have converged recently to create the neo-soul hip-hopstress, Georgia Ann Muldrow (jahjahmuldrow on Twitter).

Born in 1983, Muldrow was raised in a musical home in Los Angeles. Her mom, Rickie Byars Beckwith, sang with avant-garde jazz saxophonist Pharaoh Sanders among others. Muldrow’s late father, Ronald Muldrow, was a jazz guitarist who played with artists such as soul-jazz pioneer Eddie Harris.

With this foundation, Georgia naturally gravitated toward music, and also appears to have incorporated her mother’s spirituality. Beckwith is the musical director of Agape Spiritual Center, a “New Thought” church founded by Muldrow’s stepdad, Dr. Michael Beckwith. The reverend was featured in the 2006 movie, “The Secret.”

 (Georgia Anne Muldrow’s mother, Rickie Byars Beckwith, and stepfather Michael Beckwith)
Take into account these influences along with the hip-hop voice of Muldrow’s generation, and you have the song, “Never a Day in Vain,” from the new album, “Early” (released Nov. 10 on Animatedcartunes).
Listen to the song here

 

Here’s an excerpt of the lyrics:

“My prayer is to be better, and to live a life of love
An honest human being, whose light heart can soar with the doves.
It’s hard to keep your head up, when life’s smoke obscures your gaze
I pray to see the beauty, even in that smoke’s dark haze
And when, I feel worthy to receive, the universe opens up to me
I’m a wide open vessel, true love expressin’,
I’ll never live a day in vain”

Another 1983 Connection
Steven Ellison (Flying Lotus), with whom Muldrow and her partner, Dudley Perkins have recorded and performed, called his debut album, “1983.” (I can all but confirm that this was the year he was born.)

Here’s a video of Perkins (a.k.a. Declaime) and Muldrow (a.k.a. Patti Blingh) performing to Flying Lotus’ beats.

Ellison’s background was similar to Muldrow’s in that he grew up in L.A. in a musical family. He is the great nephew of Alice Coltrane, the late free-jazz singer/mystic and John Coltrane, the late jazz god.

Now follow me here. Pharaoh Sanders, who played with Muldrow’s mom, also recorded and played with the Coltranes, who were big influences of Muldrow’s and just about all serious musicians out there.

And so our story comes full circle.

So check out Georgia Anne Muldrow’s song, “Never a Day in Vain,” on the album “Early.” Muldrow’s web sites include http://www.myspace.com/georgiaannemuldrow and www.myspace.com/theworthnothingskrew . She has a fan page on Facebook.

Sources: http://www.stonesthrow.com/georgia, http://www.billboard.com/artist/georgia-anne-muldrow, http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/musical/2008/12/01/081201crmu_music_frerejones, http://www.rickiebyars.com/bio.html, www.myspace.com/flyinglotus and http://exclaim.ca/articles/points.aspx?csid1=135 .

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Categories: Hip-Hop · Indie · Neo-Soul · R&B
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A Review of the Song, “Ambulance,” by Eisley: Soundtrack of Emotional Upheaval, Ready for Primetime

November 15, 2009 · Leave a Comment

(Let me know what you think of this song by leaving a comment.)

To your dismay, the couple you follow on your favorite TV drama has a nasty blowup over infidelity. In a dress by Vera Wang, the distraught woman sobs alone in her dark apartment with her back against the bedroom door. Her scorned lover races off in his 2010 Camaro. He shakes his head in disbelief about the betrayal and then suddenly punches the dash.

In my view, the song, “Ambulance,” by Eisley on the new EP, “Fire Kite,” was born for moments like this.

Listen to the song here

The track explores the kind of emotional hurt that only a romantic relationship can inflict – when your broken heart aches so badly you may need to call an ambulance.

(Eisley’s song, “Ambulance” – my vote for the next track featured on “Grey’s Anatomy”)

Here’s an excerpt of the lyrics, sung by the band’s keyboard player, Stacy Dupree:

“I need an ambulance, I took the worst of the blow
Send me a redeemer, let me know
If I’m gonna’ be alright, am I’m gonna’ be alright
Cause I know how it usually goes, I know how it usually goes

“I built a monument, for the love we used to know
But that is far removed, and you say
That I’m gonna’ be okay, and yeah I’m gonna’ be okay
But it doesn’t seem that way, no, love, not today

“Cause I was told to get out, told to leave
Told to have my things in the parking lot
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, baby, yeah
Just send me that ambulance, oh
Just send me that ambulance”

Intentionally or not, Eisley, a group from Tyler, Texas, made up of four sibling twenty-somethings and a cousin, has written a song that could fit nicely in the “Grey’s Anatomy” genre of music, an unlikely category that has emerged since the TV show debuted in 2005. Grey’s Anatomy has featured a who’s who of cool young artists, including KT Tunstall, Ingrid Michaelson, Anna Nalick, Brandi Carlile, Peter Bjorn and John, The Bird and the Bee and Feist.

In recent years, Eisley has toured with several well-known bands, including (you may have seen this coming) “Grey’s Anatomy” soundtrack alumni Coldplay, Snow Patrol, The Fray and Gomez.

To get a feel for the song, “Ambulance,” think of the emotional intensity of tunes like Sarah McLachlan’s “I Will Remember You,” along with the sweetness of Lisa Loeb & Nine Stories’ song, “Stay.”

So grab a box of napkins, a quart of ice cream and experience the song, “Ambulance,” by Eisley on the EP “Fire Kite” (Sire Records Company, released Oct. 9, 2009).

Eisley’s web sites include www.eisley.com and www.myspace.com/eisley. The group has a fan page on Facebook.

Sources: www.washingtonpost.com (Eisley: Rock and Relatives – These Four Siblings, Plus One Cousin, Are Truly at Home on the Road, April 18, 2008), www.purevolume.com/eisley, www.cbsnews.com (Grey’s Anatomy Music Revisited, May 17, 2007) and iTunes (Grey’s Anatomy search).

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Categories: Alternative · Indie · Pop
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A Review of the Song, “Ultimate,” by Gogol Bordello: A Musical Multi-Car Pileup with Confetti

November 8, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Eugene Hütz, founder of the acclaimed gypsy rock group, Gogol Bordello, was a teenager when the Chernobyl meltdown in 1986 displaced his family in Kiev, Ukraine. Since then, Hütz seems to have converted that chaotic, atom-splitting energy into “complete orgasmal hysteria” onstage  - which is how Hütz has described the group’s live performances (NPR Interview, 2007).

 (L to R: Gogol Bordello’s Yuri Lemeshev, Sergey Ryabstev and Eugene Hütz)

Here’s what a couple of my Facebook friends told me this week about seeing Gogol Bordello live:

  • Dana – I just saw them at Voodoo Fest in New Orleans and at Austin City Limits (ACL) Music Festival last year. I wanted to run away with them. Totally contagious.
  • Brian – I “lurves” me some gypsy rock. I saw them at ACL a couple years ago. Very high-energy – the crowd couldn’t help but dance.

Until recently, I had never heard of the band. I’m probably the last person who can claim that in indie listening circles, because Hütz, the group’s leader, knows how to draw attention to himself, thanks to his charisma, philosophical bent and sweaty decadence.

To date, the band has its own documentary, “Gogol Bordello Non-Stop” (Hoptza Films, 2008), has performed with pop powerhouse Madonna and has appeared at countless marquee music festivals across the globe. Hütz also played leading roles in the movies “Everything is Illuminated” (Warner Independent Pictures, 2005) and Madonna’s directorial debut, “Filth and Wisdom” (IFC Films, 2008).

New Album
On Oct. 6, 2009, Gogol Bordello released a CD/DVD set called “Live from Axis Mundi” (SideOneDummy) that includes footage from a concert in New York City as well as a BBC radio session.

The music attacks the senses. Every time I tried to settle into any particular beat or sound, Gogol Bordello pulled me by the ear to witness another jarring style or musical idea. The group smashes dub, gypsy music, punk, caberet and more into loud anthems that make me want to sing and cast my vote for something – with Gogol Bordello, that’s probably something extreme.

My favorite track is “Ultimate,” which was from a 2008 live performance on BBC- Radio 1’s “In The Company Of (with Colin Murray).”

Listen to the song here

Here’s a taste of the lyrics (word order is faithful to the recording):

“An evolution is eternal
An evolution isn’t over
Everybody shows
And everybody knows
That if we are here, not to do
What you and I wanna’ do
And go forever crazy with it
Why the hell we are even here?
Daaaahhhh!!!!”

When Hütz yells at the end of each verse, it’s time to party like a car crash.

Since words really can’t describe Gogol Bordello, here are a couple videos:

Gogol Bordello’s Web sites include www.gogolbordello.com and www.myspace.com/gogolbordello. The group has a fan page on Facebook.

Sources: www.punknews.org (Gogol Bordello Announces “Live from Axis Mundi”), www.npr.org (Gypsy Punk Group Gogol Bordello in Concert, July 18, 2007), www.imdb.com (Eugene Hütz page), www.hoptzafilms.com/gogol.html,

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Categories: Indie · Punk · World Music
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