Ben Folds & Rufus Wainwright "Careless Whisper"

Scenes from Saturday's mvyradio Thank You Party:

Saturday night at the Ag Hall was just about the perfect, uniquely-Vineyard kind of get together, with lots of friends and familiar faces coming together to enjoy some music, as the station celebrated, well, just being alive.

We reached our goal of raising $600,000 to keep the station afloat and online, and we were very thankful for the community effort and relished the opportunity to thank folks in person.

Jess had the great idea of setting up a "Tech Table" where we could show listeners different ways they can listen and connect to the station, if they've never listened online.

I spent a good chunk of the night there, showing folks how to load the App on their phones, and demonstrating some of the simple devices you can buy to make car-listening easier.

One of the very-Vineyard things about this event, was that many people brought their kids---an event at the Ag Hall automatically implies a warm, friendly environment that you'd feel perfectly comfortable letting your children run free in.

Somewhere later in the evening, when the music, no doubt, had lost interest for a few of the kids, I found myself surrounded at the Tech Table by a group of youngsters who didn't need the technology explained to them---they wanted to use it.

"Can we listen to hip-hop on this?"  "Can you turn this on?"  "Do you have 'Gangham Style"'?"

So that's what Laurel came upon when she snapped this picture.  Me, trying to locate Katy Perry's "Firework" on my phone, so I could play it for the kids:

While it was most certainly a family event, there were also folks who did brown-bag it.  And when one fairly tipsy gentleman careened through the front door later in the evening, I was happy that we'd hired a cop.

It's always good practice, if you've going to have a large crowd, to have a police officer on-hand.  And the strapping young Tisbury police officer (who was covering for a West Tisbury officer/friend), was dispatched immediately to ensure that the large man bumping his way through the crowd and the walls was going to sit and listen to the music, peacefully.  (He did)

A few minutes later, I took a Tech Table break and headed into the bathroom.  Right behind came the officer, shutting himself in the stall next to me.

I heard the faint sound of music.

Now, I'd been in the bathroom earlier that night and hadn't noticed any music or P.A.  It wasn't Muzak.  It was definitely coming from in the room.

I recognized the melody too.

"Careless Whisper."  The Wham! song.

The officer didn't look like a Wham! fan.  But who am I to judge?

Listening more closely, I realized it wasn't the Wham! version.  I could hear Rufus Wainwright.

Oh yeah, Rufus Wainwright did "Careless Whisper" with Ben Folds.

Well now I had a very new perspective on this officer.  He was doing his detail, and rocking out to a Wham! cover on his headphones.  But it was this hip version that I remembered can only be found on the Ben Folds boxed set---so only a real music junkie would know about it or have it on their . . .

Wait a minute.

I took my own iPhone out of my pocket.

And the music got louder.

Yeah, the music wasn't muffled because it was coming from the officer's headphones in the stall next door.  It was muffled because I had "pocket-dialed" my own iTunes library and was inadvertently playing songs from my pants.

I'm sure the officer has great taste in music.  But I think we can all rest easier knowing the local police force is probably not the one rocking out to Wham!


Hear the song on Youtube.

Rufus Wainwright "Going To A Town"

(I started writing this post a long while back, but didn't finish it.  Then the election ended and it didn't make sense to post it in the quietude of the post-election season.  But with the inauguration a few days away, and folks thinking about being happy/sad about who is our President, I thought I'd complete the thought and post it) 

When we started playing this song in 2007, I wondered if we'd get any flack for it.

I ended up having an interesting and enlightening conversation with a listener, that has really colored my views of other people's views.

First, I'll point out that he was not an angry caller. He was extremely polite, holding back on any anger or frustration he felt (though it was there). And he wanted to let me know that he was, politically, on the left.

That being said, he didn't like the anti-American sentiment of the song.

"Anti-American sentiment?" I asked.

"Well, he keeps saying 'I'm so tired of you, America.'"

"What does he mean by that?"

"Well . . ."

By asking him, I'd thrown him off a little bit. I continued:

"I don't really know the lyrics. What leads up to that line?"

He didn't know.

The rest of our conversation was pleasant, brief, non-confrontational. But in short, neither of us could really say what the song is about, what Rufus was getting at, or if it were truly an anti-American song.

Here's the larger point. Larger than just music, it extends to whole belief systems.

People tend to hear the repeated chorus and then make a determination about the meaning of the song, without often without ever getting into the details of the verses.

I've just run across so many folks who, out of hand, reject The Tea Party, the Occupy Movement, Presidential candidates, environmental science, and a million other things. And their rejection is based solely on the one-sentence tag placed on these things. Or worse, they perceive that the idea is aligned with the political side they are "against," and not with the side they are "for."

And I'm not talking about stupid people. I'm talking about otherwise intelligent folks who won't entertain the notion that someone on the other side has a salient point, simply because they are on the other side. Or simply because they have heard they are on the other side.

It's discouraging when you think about it. That to make your point, you're not just having to make your point, you're having to get people to consider that they shouldn't just disagree with you because of the uniform you wear.

The political process becomes exhausting.

Rufus, I hear you. I'm tired too.


Hear the song on Youtube.

The Shins "Wonderful Christmastime"

Despite all the turmoil of this week, the parade marches on, figuratively and literally.

I can spend all night returning emails and strategize-ing and working on Saving mvyradio, but they ain't post-poning Christmas just for me.

So this weekend, I'll put the Campaign on hold (in my mind) and do some Christmas shopping, co-host the Falmouth Christmas Parade with Barbara Dacey and listen to some Christmas music.

While there is a lot of marginal Christmas music out there, every year there's usually at least one record that's worthy of attention.

I think "Holidays Rule" is particularly good.  Lots of good interpretations by lots of good artists.  You can listen through the sampler below, or skip down to The Shins doing an admirable job of lifting one of my least favorite Christmas songs, to pretty decent levels.




Hear The Shins on Youtube.


Hear .fun on Youtube.


Hear Rufus Wainwright and Sharon Van Etten on Youtube.

Rufus Wainwright "April Fools"

I just wanted to post this as a way to say I hope you have a happy April Fools Day today!

Rufus Wainwright "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?"

As much as I've complained about artists using their songs in commercials, I do appreciate that commercials can sometimes introduce an artist to an audience they'd otherwise never reach.

This 1998 Gap commercial perfectly illustrates that Rufus Wainwright is young and cool, but is really less comparable to any modern artist than he is to Frank Loesser or George Gershwin.

Rufus Wainwright "Zebulon"

Just by coincidence, I read a book called "Slam" last fall---the coincidence being that it's written from the perspective of a guy who's girlfriend is pregnant, just as my wife was. But fortunately, we're not teenagers, and the pregnancy wasn't a surprise, like it was for the characters in the book.

The author, Nick Hornby, is a major music fan. You may have read, or seen the movie version, of his "High Fidelity." And all his books have sly and/or cool music references.

In "Slam," the music the young Dad-to-be/skate punk has picked for the delivery room, turns out to be non-conducive to a peaceful labor, so his mother-in-law pops her iPod in. Everyone likes the gorgeous piece of music that is playing at the moment the baby arrives, and so they decided that the baby's name will be "Rufus."

I fussed over a playlist for our recent trip to the maternity ward, searching for the perfect pitch of songs---not too loud, not too sad, focusing on peaceful and warm tones. And yeah, I couldn't help notice that there was a lot of Rufus Wainwright on our list. And I worried:

I was not ready to name my kid, Rufus.

Over the course of the evening, as contractions came more quickly, I kept an eye on the list, trying to guess where things would land---Elton, Elvis, Marvin, Otis---I suddenly realized that I hadn't much considered "Slam" while trying to please my pregnant partner's musical preferences.

Then something else that I hadn't considered, happened:

She needed an emergency C-Section.

The iPod became a long gone afterthought, as she was whisked away with a surgical team, and little Noah was born into a room where music was not cranked, or fussed over, or even considered.

And I suppose, on a "Slam" level, I can say we're lucky that coincidence didn't stick us with a strange name. Though the woman with the scar on her abdomen would probably argue with my choice of the "L" word.


Rufus Wainwright's new album is out this week, and it closes with another name I was happy to not give to my kid. Zebulon.



Zebulon


Rufus talks about the record