2 posts tagged “design in quick rotation”
Update 11 Sep 2007, 11:08pm: Marco Mahler have decided to offer his entire album to download for free on his website! If you like the album, please recommend it or donate.
In the latest W♥M Podcast, I spoke with Trevor from Ariel Publicity.
We got to see Trevor's views on traditional media (Television, Radio, & Newspaper) versus internet media and where he thinks it's heading.
I also asked what some of the bands he's working with that he enjoys
and I thought I'd break them down for you with a brief biography and
song.
♥ Marco Mahler
www.marcomahler.com
We've previously mentioned Mahler before. This is a New York singer/songwriter. His lyrics are inspired by Bob Dylan and his amazing guitar work inspired by Bert Jansch. You can hear his inspiration to Jansch's "Angie" in Mahler's "Otmar Elmer", so check it out if you haven't read my previous post on Mahler.
♥ Lez Zepplin
www.lezzeppelin.com
These are an all-girl Led Zeppelin tribute band. They recently released a self-titled debut album last July, produced by Eddie Kramer (who's also worked with Zeppelin).
I have always thought that "Lez" was alluring to Lesbian, and it's just a really clever name.
Hopefully I can do a proper writeup on them later down the road, they've already been featured in Spin, CNN, and the Times. Plus, as you know, I am a huge cover lover.
You can hear even some more Robert Plantesque styling at their myspace.
♥ Adam Von Baron
www.vonbaronmusic.com
I ended the interview with Von Baron's "In My House", which has a Yanni feel to it. It's a very easy-listening. We don't feature too many New Age-type of music, so this may be a first for W♥M.
Reading his biography, he's been performing and recording music for over twenty years. He's currently based out of Honolulu, Hawaii.
I thought
this interview turned out really well. It was originally over 30 minutes, but I've condensed and edited it down to about 10 minutes (my goal is to keep the podcast less than 15 minutes).
I'm hoping to do random interviews with different people in the music industries as a feature. Anywhere from marketing, record companies owners, other bloggers, traditional media, to musicians. As a critic and consumer, I actually really enjoy hearing what they have to say about the field they work in and how the internet have affected them.
So, once
again, I just wanted to thank Trevor for taking his time out to chat
with us. If you are in the music industry and are interested doing a
very short Q&A session with us, please send me an email. I have a
few musicians that are lined up to talk to us, but please keep in mind
that I don't want the podcast format to just be interviews so they may appear only as weekly or semi-weekly specials.
Hopefully our regular showrunner, Ryan, will be back today, so we'll get his insight on the Bestival Festival.
September 11, 2007 7:43 AM
vu
my♥posts
vu@weheartmusic.com
www.arielpublicity.com
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As you might have guessed, I have about five or six articles already pre-written and I queue them up to be published days in advance. This article below, I had meant it to go live on Sunday, but I got such a positive feedback (and great working material) from the artist, that I've decided to publish the article tonight. Please let me know what you think! There will be a surprise treat for you!
Anyway, according to Marco Mahler's press release, he's influenced by Stephen Malkmus, Belle and Sebastian [W♥M] and Bert Jansch. Since I liked all those musicians, I decided to give Mahler a try.
Reading his biography, it would seem that Mahler has a dual citizen in the US and Switzerland. He's currently based out of Brooklyn, New York, and he released Design In Quick Rotation last month.
My favorite track off of Design In Quick Rotation is "Otmar Elmer". You can just hear Mahler's very skilled guitar-playing in this song.
Unfortunately it's an instrumental track, so it's a bit unfair to represent Mahler's sound with this song. I suggest you head over to his myspace and listen to any of his songs he has on there. "Orange Chinese Car" is a pretty solid track.
I was curious about Otmar Elmer's origin and why it seems to conjure up images of a Spanish/Flamenco music when I first listened to it. I asked Mahler, who wrote back this very detailed reply:
I see it (even though it is somewhat different) as sort of my contemporary version of Bert Jansch’s “Angie” (from his 1965 debut album “Bert Jansch”). Sort of an evolutionary step/version. Bert Jansch got it from Davey Graham’s “Angi” (from his 1962 debut album “3/4 AD”) who, if I remember this right (I just googled it but couldn’t find anything on it off hand), got it from a tune by Thelonious Monk. I think “Otmar Elmer” has, in an abstract way, simple elements of electronic music and hiphop to it, which I’ve listened to a lot, too, over the years. I also think there’s a lot of hiphop in Bert Jansch’s guitar playing.
Bert Jansch is a major influence on my music (if you’re not familiar with his music I recommend his first album “Bert Jansch” as well as “Jack Orion” and the 1968 debut of his band Pentangle called “The Pentangle”). When I really got into playing music I got all of his records and figured out how to play them. I lived in Switzerland at the time and I hitch-hiked up to London a few times and went to see him play at the 12 Bar Club and a bunch of other places. I thought about calling it “Otmar Elmer (for Bert Jansch)” but then I thought it just isn’t as strong as the meaning his music had and still has to me.
As far as you saying it reminds you of Spanish guitars/flamenco: The chord progression (Am, G, F, E) is quite common in traditional Spanish music. But also, Davey Graham, when he came up with “Angi”, was strongly influenced by Steve Benbow, who was strongly influenced by Moroccan music, which shares elements with Spanish music.
So go ahead and listen to "Otmar Elmer" and let me know what you think. Does it exceed the original Angi song or does it a pale comparison? I personally think they're both equally great! And they are two different songs.
PS, As a special treat, I've dugged up Simon & Garfunkel's version of "Anji". This is a live version that appears on their Old Friends (1997) boxset. I believe the studio version appears on their 1966 album Sounds of Silence.
PPS, Unfortunately I have never heard of Davey Graham prior to this article so obviously I don't have any of his music. But judging from Jansch's version, I would have to agree that it's very good.
I did check up on Davey Graham and he is going to be on tour in the UK in October.
Bert Jansch released a new album The Black Swan last year, and have finished wrapping up tour a few weeks ago.
July 28, 2007 12:02 AM
vu
my♥posts
vu@weheartmusic.com
marcomahler.com
