Elliott Carter in Conversation

Elliott Carter (with Daniel Barenboim and James Levine) in conversation with Charlie Rose late last year for Carter's birthday. Barenboim and Levine especially do a lovely job of explaining why Carter's music is heads above much "contemporary classical" music of the last few decades.

Meow Meow Performs Laurie Anderson

Meow Meow performs Laurie Anderson's "The Dream Before." (Unfortunately, the video only gives selections of the song, which is one of my favorite songs.)

Exile in Guyville

We all know the commonplace story about Liz Phair--that after her brilliant work on Exile in Guyville the quality of her work quickly dropped to nothing as her determination for fame grew--and I'm neither going to argue or agree with that story. Quite frankly, I've haven't heard a song off of any of her other albums that made me interested to listen to any of her other work. But Exile in Guyville has been re-released, and as I can't afford the album right now, I've gone looking for other ways to celebrate.

Below is that album as best as I could construct it, although a few songs don't exist in the land of You Tube. The songs remain beautiful and painful, even in some low-fi formats. It's especially wonderful to listen to "Fuck and Run" again--I forgot how tragic Phair's voice sounds as she strains beneath her vocal range into the awkward whisper of "I want a boyfriend/ I want a boyfriend."

We might never see this Liz Phair again, but let's remember here she was an artist to admire.


6'1"


Help Me Mary


Glory


Dace of the Seven Veils


Never Said


Explain It to Me


Canary


Mesmerizing


Fuck and Run


Girls! Girls! Girls!


Divorce Song


Flower


Stratford-on-Guy


Strange Loop

Peter, Bjorn & John

I'm enjoying these singles from Peter Bjorn & John:


Young Folks


Objects of My Affection

Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck

Fantasia:


Malle Sijmen:


Sweelinck on a Virginal Harpsichord (Toccata XVI):

Two Pieces by Olivier Messiaen

"Feuillet inédits"



Organ Improvisation