Edshugeo The GodMoor

Written for the Minnesota Vikings. Not really into football or sports for that matter, except maybe girls volleyball which I used to catch on cable. Also participated in Superbowl pools at work. I think I won like twenty bucks one year. Anyhoo, I dunno what a football fight song is supposed to sound like. Some people are saying that he got it right, except for the falsetto, while others disagree.

A poster on Prince.org, Comegetwild, had this great comment; "It sounds like the national anthem of a small baltic country..."
True, and probably why I like it.
The song itself.
The recording... not so much. Even though it's probably just a demo, the performance is just so devoid of life and imagination, and the keyboard sounds, so cheesy... One wonders, how a guy like Prince, who never leaves his residence without eyeliner, hair immaculately done, and pimped out clothes, isn't somewhat embarrassed by what is the sonic equivalent to seeing the man garbed like a cracked out homeless person.

I, on the other hand, am occasionally dressed like a cracked out homeless person, so it's okay that my demos sound like that.

But the song itself, I like. He should'a got the guys from Queen to back him up. That would'a been a fight song. Or at least a song on the next Highlander soundtrack.

Labels: music, odd, Prince

Caught the end of Letterman (waiting for Craig Ferguson) and saw one of the Jonas Bros (forgot which one, Pete? - Nick) performing with one of Prince's old backup bands plus a bass player whom I didn't recognize. The song wasn't bad. The only Jonas song I knew was also from a previous Letterman performance; the nightmarishly bad "Freaking Out". But this one was alright. Good even. I likes.

January 15th - Now flavored with Youtube:

Labels: Prince, tv, wha?, youtube and other video

From Wired:

At a time when record labels and, to a lesser extent, music publishers, find themselves in the midst of an unprecedented contraction, the last thing they need is to start losing valuable copyrights to ’50s, ’60s, ’70s and ’80s music, much of which still sells as well or better than more recently released fare. Nonetheless, the wheels are already in motion.

“The termination that’s going to be coming up is going to be a big problem for the record companies and publishers,” said attorney Greg Eveline of Eveline Davis & Phillips Entertainment Law.

“It’s written into the statute,” said entertainment lawyer Robert Bernstein. “It’s just a matter of time.”

The Copyright Act includes two sets of rules for how this works. If an artist or author sold a copyright before 1978 (Section 304), they or their heirs can take it back 56 years later. If the artist or author sold the copyright during or after 1978 (Section 203), they can terminate that grant after 35 years. Assuming all the proper paperwork gets done in time, record labels could lose sound recording copyrights they bought in 1978 starting in 2013, 1979 in 2014, and so on. For 1953-and-earlier music, grants can already be terminated.

The Eagles plan to file grant termination notices by the end of the year, according to Law.com. “It’s going to happen,” said Eveline. “Just think of what the Eagles are doing when they get back their whole catalog. They don’t need a record company now…. You’ll be able to go to Eaglesband.com (updated) and get all their songs. They’re going to do it; it’s coming up.”

So, I take it Prince is just playing a waiting game in regards to his long standing quest to regain the rights to his master recordings. It's just a matter of time, and whether or not the RIAA can sneak in a law that defuses this "timebomb" as they tried back during the Clinton administration.

The record labels tried to defuse this bomb in 1999 by sneaking an amendment to the Copyright Act through the House of Representatives that would add sound recordings to the Act’s list of copyrights that were considered “works for hire,” which would make them exceptions to the grant termination clause. According to one source close to the situation, the labels told Congress that the Copyright Act already covered sound recordings as exceptions because albums of music are “compilations” — but that “just to be absolutely clear, [the labels] wanted to put it in so nobody can debate it.”

After musicians, including Carly Simon, reacted negatively, the amendment was withdrawn amid public outcry... (also from Wired)

Carly Simon is not to be underestimated as evidenced from this story from just about a year ago.

Labels: music business, Prince, rules and regulations

A French Television performance streaming on the show's website. Man, that dude can whip ass on guitar! And I speak more on the rhythm licks than on lead. Not that he isn't great on lead, just that he has more of a unique voice on rhythm.

Part one: Dance 4 Me (seems to start with the song already in progress)
Part two: No More Candy 4 U
Part three: 1999, Controversy w/ just a touch of All Day, All Nite (These songs are where his playing really shines)


Hopefully a Hi-def capture emerges on usenet. I don't expect Prince to be putting out Blu-Rays anytime soon.

Bonus - Yoko Ono w/ Sean Lennon on piano looking a little like Jim from The Office. Not bad, considering what she's capable of. Though I thought Thin Ice was kinda decent back in the day.

I dunno how long any of these links will last.


Oct. 15th 2009 - forgot to credit Prince.org

There's a 1 gig-ish file on alt.binaries.boneless. Usenet is kinda difficult (for me) to explain, so if one is unfamiliar, maybe bittorrent is best, otherwise read this or Google for more info.

Speaking of usenet, that douche, Andrew Cuomo has been discussed as a potential candidate for NY Governor in 2010, due to Patterson not being Mr. Popularity right now. I've already mentioned why he'll never get my vote. I'll either vote Republican or third party.

Labels: Awesome, music video, Prince, That's what I'm talkin' about, tv, youtube and other video

Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad, a song from a rehearsal from a couple of days ago is streaming on Dr Funkenberry.com. Sounds pretty decent. The song first saw light of day 30 years ago (Holy Fuck!) on Prince's second album, Prince.

Labels: downloads, music, Prince

Hitler is funny cuz he says what we're all thinking.

Labels: funny-ass shit, Prince, youtube and other video

In A Large Room With No Light (once known as Welcome To The Rat Race) is a twenty-ish year old song popular with Prince collectors, but never released outside of bootlegs. Musically ambitious, but I found it difficult to listen to. Others believe it to be a great song and a great recording. This is the original.

In A Large Room With No Light - Prince

Prince is playing the Montreux Jazz Festival this weekend, and to help promote it, he's dropped off a recording to the shows organizers; a very nice recording of what turns out to be a decent song. I likes. I Likes.

New and Improved.

I don't expect either one of those links to last too long.

To keep the Montreux version, one would need the Firefox browser, the program Free Download Manager, and the plug-in Flashgot. Once on a page like the one above (or Youtube, etc), click on Tools > Flashgot > Flashgot Media and if Flashgot Media isn't greyed out, Free Download Manager will open and you can get to downloading the song or whatever. Doesn't work everywhere, though.

Hat tip to Prince.org for the Montreux link.

Labels: downloads, music, Prince, That's what I'm talkin' about, web apps

Why is Billy Crystal turning into Jackie Mason? It felt weird enough seeing Tom Hanks on Letterman last week. It almost feels like a whole world that I know is dying before my eyes. Of course, part of it is that I haven't seen Crystal in anything since... I don't know, Saturday Night Live? And Hanks in Saving Private Ryan Charlie Wilson's War, which wasn't too long ago, though I still can't help but think of him as the guy from Bachelor Party, or Splash. Letterman has done a crap load of aging, but since he's been on nearly every night since the eighties, it's a gradual change that occurs like that of some one you've known and grown up with. Not the type of thing that puts you face to face with your own mortality. Then again, contrasted with Leno, he really has gotten really fucking old. He had some heart problems a while back that may've been a contributing factor.



Couldn't find the clip of Billy Crystal playing Prince on SNL singing "I Am Also The World", so the above will have to do.



And then there's Prince from the same tonight show appearance as Crystal. He's not aging the way anyone would expect. "He's had work done" doesn't cut it, either. We've seen muthafukkas who've had work done and that is not a "work done" look. Prince is fifty, which is only about six years older than I am. He'll probably outlast me, and I can live with that.

Labels: I know I shouldn't even care about this shit, media, movies, music, nostalgia, Prince, tv, youtube and other video

From a performance on Ellen Degeneres' show last week. Don't expect it'll last too long on YouTube, but it's pretty decent. The performance, that is.



There's a Tavis Smiley interview coming up (soon-ish?*) and yet another Jay Leno performance (next month, I think).

*Tonight at midnight with part two tomorrow (NY time - PBS channel 13).

Labels: music, music video, Prince, youtube and other video

Courtesy of Hulu.

Labels: music, music video, Prince, That's what I'm talkin' about, tv, youtube and other video

Lotusflow3r.com officially launched last night. $77 membership fee for those who could solve the fill in the blank riddle at the start (1986 and Los Angeles - Thanks, Prince.org). Some would be members faced other riddles as well; browser incompatibility, username issues and credit card nonsense.

My experience wasn't soo bad.
Had to go to prince.org to figure out the ticket riddle mentioned above. The cryptic shit has to go. I know it's Prince, but if he's charging people 77 bucks to access a website, then some courtesy should be a given. Of course, I say this having paid the damn fee anyway. I'll have to keep relying on prince.org as a supplement to the official site, just so I know what's going on and what's been made available (I guess Housequake's not coming back?).

I signed in okay within an hour of the site's opening. During that process I saw a link to system requirements. Clicking on it brought me to an error page. Once on the site, I found a preview video which was slow and choppy as hell. I figured that was because the servers were being taxed by the high demand being the first night and everything, but I find that the videos are still slow and choppy.

The three albums are available to download in both mp3 and wav formats. I had trouble downloading the zipped wav files (first an error page, then incomplete downloads), but the mp3s were not a problem. I don't remember if I downloaded the mp3s before taking a break or if I took an hour away from the computer, and came back. I managed to download two albums in wav. Still having a problem with MPLSound.

Edit: An apology from the web designers to Prince.org:

We understand that several people have had issues with the site, and we're working diligently to address them all as quickly as possible. With the great amount of traffic that we've received there have been some issues getting the large amount of content in the site out to everyone simultaneously. We're currently doubling the size of our server farm in order to make sure that fans can get all of the albums and videos they desire. To accommodate our friends overseas we've relaxed some of the normal security checks put in place by American banks. Since the vault has 3D and video, which is pushing the boundary of the web and current technology, only newer machines can adequately handle it. If fans are experiencing choppy videos in the vault, they should click the fullscreen button on the video and it should improve their experience. Thanks to everyone for their patience while we scale up LotusFlow3r.com to accommodate the great response from Prince fans all over the world.

Thanks so much,
Scott

3/26/09 UPDATE: the MPSoUND zip was fixed last night, and they're working on optimizing video playback...

The fullscreen option does improve video playback considerably. Not great, yet, but watchable.

Haven't spent much time with the music, yet, but my first impression is that MPLSound is crap. Except for Dance 4 Me. And maybe No More Candy 4 U, which is... interesting.

Lotus Flow3r sounds pretty damn decent. Will require more investigation.

Elixer also sounds good, which I didn't expect.

I dunno if I should'a spent the 77 bucks though. I avoided one of his previous ventures, NPG Music Club when it was 100 bucks and was wise to do so. The three albums will be available in a single package at Target this Sunday for only twelve bucks.

Oh, yeah. Prince is on Jay Leno tonight, tomorrow and Friday. That should be pretty cool...

March 25th performance (Hulu.com)
March 26th performance
March 27th performance

Mo' edit (March 27th): efforts to improve the site continue. I was actually able to enter the site and view the Crimson and Clover video via the PS3's browser. The video played fine in fullscreen. The rest of the site was pretty slow, though, and eventually the browser ran out of memory (!!!??). That might be a PS3 issue, though. The PSP's browser does the same thing. Then again, the PS3 hasn't had that issue with Hulu. Not in my experience, anyway.

If Lotusflow3r is aspires to include more longform video (Sacrifice Of Victor is currently up), I would prefer to watch on my TV rather than PC. I have Yellow Dog Linux installed on the PS3 as well. I'll have to see how well the site works on that combination...
It dosen't. I haven't installed Flash on Firefox, yet.

Labels: bullshit, downloads, music, online retailers, Prince, youtube and other video

That should be three live Prince performances on Jay's Tonight Show, March 25, 26 and 27.

If true, it was reported by a fan site, Prince.org, while Prince's own site, Lotusflow3r.com simply throws a hint by playing a tiny video of his last Leno performance.


Addendum: And one more night in May, to say bye bye to Jay, who isn't really leaving, just moving to prime time (though I can't see that lasting too long)....

Labels: music, Prince, tv

All three of them (the third by a protege), sold as a set for twelve bucks! At Target, who also sell Altoids at a decent price.

More news at Prince.org (R.I.P. Housequake*), which includes some bits about the what Prince's website will be like when live, a commercial shot for Target and a branded Lotus Flow3r Flip video camcorder, which will no doubt be confiscated from fans at his concerts.

3 CDs for twelve bucks? That's a deal! Hopefully there's enough good music across the bunch to make one great playlist.


*I hope Housequake's demise is temporary, though the reluctance of promoting an artist who doesn't appreciate their efforts is understandable.

Labels: Anticipay-yay-shun..., good deal, music, Prince, That's what I'm talkin' about

http://www.lotusflow3r.com/

At the moment the site streams three new songs, Crimson & Clover, (There'll Never B) Another Like Me and Here Eye Come. One track each from (I'm guessing) the two new records and one from the protege album that may be coming soon. Though right now only the rock record sounds very promising. Another Like Me sounds like a Linn drum remix of a Bobby Brown song with the robot voice thrown in to make it sound more modern. Not that there's anything wrong with Bobby Brown songs (It might be a bit too early to re-visit the nineties just yet). There's some good stuff on the track, but the song itself sounds like leftover crap from the past few years. Something that didn't make it onto the NPG Music Club. Maybe the other tracks will be better. Here I come sounds competent, but not good enough to make me wanna pay for the record.

Via Housequake

Labels: Anticipay-yay-shun..., music, Prince

We'll see what happens.

One retro eighties electro funk album, one guitar rock album (containing a song inspired by Dick Gregory), and a "quiet storm"/Sade type thing featuring a protege.

And it appears (so far) that none of these will be attached to a useless hardcover book of photos. That's good news. Now we just need this new music to materialize.

Details at Housequake.

Labels: Anticipay-yay-shun..., music, Prince

Four tracks premiered at radio station Indie 103.1. Still available for streaming as of this writing.

via Housequake.

Sounds good. Can't wait for more.

Labels: Anticipay-yay-shun..., music, Prince, radio

I dunno about that, but he's damn good.

Hat-tip to Vavoom at Housequake.

Labels: funny-ass shit, music, music video, Prince, youtube and other video

For years, even.

Well, he's had enough ass for several lifetimes (or so I've heard). Prince deserves a vacation. I doubt it'll last long.

There's a book/CD package coming out next week, 21 Nights. List price is fifty bucks, though as of this writing, Amazon has it for 31.50. The CD contains bits of live music from last year's run in London. It's just one CD, and I'm not interested in the photo book, so this price is too high. It looks like the CD isn't being sold separately, so I'll just have to "find" the music.

USA Today's article

I read it at Housequake.

Labels: downloads, feats of strength, Heroes, music, Prince

Even though he supposedly doesn't celebrate birthdays anymore.

Labels: Heroes, music, Prince, Songza, youtube and other video

If you have good taste in music, set your DVRs, VCRs or whatever. If not, please disregard this message.

Source: Housequake

Addendum -
The performance, courtesy of Hulu (hat tip: Undercover BlackMan):

Labels: Anticipay-yay-shun..., music, Prince, tv, youtube and other video

Prince is being a dick, again. Is there no end to his dickery?

Labels: bullshit, Prince

Prince responds in song (recorded last night) to the shitstorm he started. And what a funky ass song it is. It seems he's still being an ass in the lyrics (or so it's been interpreted), but who cares? Listen.

Labels: bullshit, civil rights, downloads, music, Prince

Prince is being a dick again. He has to be stopped.

Labels: bullshit, Prince

http://www.3121.com/jam/

Niiiiice! I like it much better than the version on 3121 (the album).

Tip o' de hat to Housequake, as usual. I'd not know if not for them.

Labels: music, Prince

A video, that is. Up for 21 days at his website, 3121.com. Joy In Repetition , AnotherLover, and Peach.

Discussed at Housequake.

Labels: music, music video, Prince

There's a backstory to this, but I don't quite know where to begin. One day I may try to sort it out best I can. To make a long story short, there's an upcoming "Prince" album, Swell Tree Lens, that will revolutionize the way music is experienced. "News" about this album has been posted on the usenet group, alt.music.prince such as the following message which includes mention of George Benson's involvement in Matreshka...

Prince actually called at my house briefly in the wee hours of this morning.
He wanted a wee. Also he wanted to vomit up some bad vegetarian tripe he'd
eaten. Before he left, he managed to tell me a few more details about Swell
Tree Lens v.2 (he did struggle to talk inbetween the dry heaving).

Prince is apparently rather concerned about the modified record, as the
apartment housing made from the jewel case has, in tests, caused spontaneous
skin-peeling. Unless the host lark carrying the antibodies to this condition
can be located amongst the 12 billion larks on his Ohio farm, he will have
to instead release Swell Tree Lens version FOUR (version three caused the
extinction of the pigme echidna).

Version 4 contains all the same songs and surprises as originally intended
but with some new inclusions. The track "Matreshka What A Doll" has now been
remixed to include the sound of George Benson being horse-whipped in place
of a guitar solo, and one of the other songs (he didnt tell me which) is now
three songs.

The packaging is hoped to turn into a giant frisbee of death that gouges
people with spinning blades when thrown, although safety testing is still
underway.

Darrell

More here...

It's basically just a long running spoof of rock star self indulgence, but aimed at Prince fandom, sort of.

Labels: funny-ass shit, music video, Prince, youtube

Yikes! Got a heads up from the Undercover Black Man that the recording in question is Albert Brooks, not Nick Nolte, and as a result not quite as funny. A link to an interview with Mr. Brooks is posted in the comments section. Cue my own Krusty groan. My apologies to all, especially to Mr. Nolte and his family.

Back in the early nineties, James Brooks shot a musical called I'll Do Anything. The cast, which included Nick Nolte and Tracey Ullman sang and danced to songs mostly written by Prince. Test audiences weren't crazy about the result, and the movie was re-edited into a dramedy. I saw it on cable years ago and didn't think it was that bad of a movie, but I always wanted to see the original version out of curiosity. As a Prince fan, I'd be compelled to purchase a special edition DVD with the musical on it, if it were ever made available.

A non-Prince tune stayed in the film and the lyrics to Don't Talk To Strangers was used as dialog (or was it the other way around?).
A number of the songs appeared on the bootleg Platinum, and then (3 songs) on The Vault: Old Friends For Sale (officially released and excellent). Don't Talk to Strangers was covered by Chaka Khan on Come To My House. The Prince version of that song and I'll Do Anything hasn't been released officially, I think.

Recently, 30 Years Of Unreleased Funk Vol. 3 appeared on usenet. I haven't listened to the whole thing yet (and may be missing a track or two), but I jumped right to the I'll Do Anything tracks, particularly the one's with Nick Nolte. Man, it would be tough to try and sell this soundtrack. He even does a Krusty The Clown like groan somewhere in there. Using the mug shot pic above will probably seem like a cheap shot till you hear this tune... (took that down out of fairness)

I'll Do Anything - Nick Nolte Albert Brooks

I'll Do Anything - Prince Demo

I'll Do Anything - Prince from Platinum

The above are megaupload links. I don't know how long they'll last...

Labels: downloads, funny-ass shit, movies, music, oops, Prince

Recently, some rare-ish (never before released on CD) 80's b-sides and extended versions from Prince were made available from 7digital (and iTunes?) in Europe*. Fans are expressing some disappointment that these tracks are badly encoded vinyl rips complete with audible scratches, pops and surface noise. Read here to see what one fan had to go through to get some of his money back.

Hold on to those bootlegs. They won't be obsolete for a long while.

*these may not be available in the U.S.

7 Digital sells DRM'd wma files, by the way.

Labels: bullshit, downloads, music business, Prince, ripoffs

Planet Earth - The title track is epic, breathtaking and, for the first few times I heard it, a little exhausting. The rest of the album is almost unnecessary. Prince could do a whole show on this one song and just about get away with it. Just about. Luckily, most of the tracks that follow are strong enough to avoid the type of disappointment that could result from trailing behind a show-stopper like this. Do I know what it's about? No, but who cares? Don't pollute. Do unto others, blah, blah. It's fucking epic, and thats all that matters.

Guitar - I dug this version when it emerged about a month and a half ago. The song keeps the momentum Planet Earth built up, by continuing the six stringed assault on our senses. I'm almost embarrassed I wrote that. I'm just trying to say it rocks, man. That's all. And it does.

Somewhere Here On Earth - 2nd favorite track here, though this is the better song. Slightly reminiscent of Heatwave's Always And Forever and old school slow jams in general ("No, my brotha. You got to buy your own.") This song's a thing of beauty, though not as good as Adore. Then again, what is? If Prince does a video for this, he needs to sport an Afro-Sheen wig. Don't let him too close to the fireplace, though.

The One U Wanna See - I don't dislike this Shania Twain sound-alike as much as I did initially, but I still don't really like it at all. Country fans like their performers to be a bit more fan-friendly, so I'm not sure where he's going with this. He's covered Shania once with You're Still The One. If I remember correctly, only a snippet of that song was released. He must be a huge fan, though.

Future Baby Mama - Another nice, groovy slow jam. More contemporary in feel than "Somewhere".

Mr. Goodnight - Prince in Playa mode. Fun. I thought it was corny at first, but it grew on me big time. Video with he and Morris Day competing for a woman's affections? Would be cool. Maybe Kat Williams if Morris don't wanna do it. Do they still make music videos?

All The Midnights In The World - The return of whimsical Prince. A Wendy & Lisa contribution? I don't have the CD, yet, so I dunno. I like this.

Chelsea Rodgers - A nice, funky, and energetic groove. Disco influenced, but not disco. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Lot of speculation about who she is. Real or fiction? New protege, or long hidden love child? ChelseaRodgers.com shows a model showing off his new perfume. Just to be irresponsible, I'll suggest that "Might as well dance" isn't just a throwaway line, and points to this girl (whatever her real name is) as last year's Lolita from 3121. All that's beside the point, of course. The only thing that matters is that this is yet another great song. Go on Chelsea.

Lion Of Judah - Ugh! What the fuck is this? This isn't good enough to be filler on a stellar album like this. Not diggin' it. Not diggin' it at all.

Resolution - Another track that sounds like it's got Wendy & Lisa's influence on it and makes me appreciate at least some of what their fans have been saying for years. A great track to end the record on. Start with a torrential rainstorm, end with sunshine and a rainbow.

Overall, Planet Earth, despite two bad songs out of ten, has turned out to be my favorite Prince Album in the last few years. If I delete One U Wanna See and Lion Of Judah (and I will), it might even be better than The Rainbow Children, but it's too early to tell.

The CD hits U.S. stores on Tuesday. I'll get it Wednesday or Thursday.

Labels: music, Prince

Swiped from Housequake from Music Week;

Sony BMG pull Prince album in covermount row
28 June 2007 - 17:03:03

Sony BMG has ripped up its UK contract to release Prince's (pictured) new album, Planet Earth, after it emerged that his management company has agreed a deal to give it away as a free covermount with The Mail On Sunday.

The newspaper’s Stephen Miron confirmed to Music Week today that the album will be offered to all readers, even before it ships to retailers in the UK. "The first time anyone will be able to hear Planet Earth will be exclusively through The Mail On Sunday," he said. "No artist has ever given away a new album by launching it free with a newspaper and clearly the music retailers will be up in arms."

Explaining the decision to renege on the deal, a spokesman for Sony BMG says, "Before the deal [to release his album through Columbia in the UK] was set in place, [Prince and his management] had a number of other deals in place, including the deal to give away the album to people attending his shows at the O2 in London.

"At that time the Mail On Sunday deal was not something that we were aware of - that came to light a few days ago. With that in mind it, we decided it was ridiculous to have a UK deal when 2m albums are going out free with papers. We don't want to muck around our retail partners, so out of respect for them we're not going to release the album over here."

"It doesn't change the fact that we're delighted to be working with him though," the spokesman adds, "and the global deal remains unaffected; this is a UK-only exemption."

News of the initiative caused widespread anger among many music industry executives at today’s London Calling conference in London.

Entertainment Retailers Association co-chairman Paul Quirk says, "It would be an insult to all those record stores who have supported Prince throughout his career. It would be yet another example of the damaging covermount culture which is destroying any perception of value around recorded music."

Quirk also hinted that record stores may now boycott Prince’s back catalogue, quipping, "The Artist Formerly Known as Prince should know that with behaviour like this he will soon be the Artist Formerly Available in Record Stores."

When I first read this I thought it was going to be packaged with the newspaper, The Mail on Sunday (meaning this weekend). Didn't realize the name of the paper was Mail On Sunday. I was hoping for an internet leak of the new album, soon.

I'll still buy the CD, assuming it's not complete crap, as I did with his last after getting an early download.

Update: Slashdot readers respond to music industry douche-bags.

Labels: funny-ass shit, good deal, Heroes, music business, Prince

Albums

A Weekend In The City - Bloc Party
Didn't care much for this when I first heard it, but I've since warmed to it. What did I mean by "mellow"?

Eat Me Drink Me - Marilyn Manson
Nothing he's done has been as good as Mechanical Animals (my favorite MM cd), but since then, Manson has rocked with a consistency not unlike ACDC back in the day. Something's different about this one. A lot more guitar solos. What else? Jury's still out.

Grinderman - Grinderman
I know almost nothing about Nick Cave, save an appearance in Wings Of Desire (watched the DVD a few months ago). Time to find out more, maybe.

Still Stuck In Your Throat - Fishbone
They're back! And they actually sound like Fishbone. Good Fishbone. Oh, shit!

Supreme Clientele - Ghostface Killah
Just starting to get into this one. If nothing else, it's good to have the theme from the Iron Man cartoon. I'm forcing myself to not listen to Fishscale for a little while.

Songs

Too Sexy - Sheila E
Instrumental b-side. I wonder who plays guitar on this.

Still A Thrill - Jody Watley
Funkiest guitar ever? Almost.

Myung Theme and Voices by Yoko Kanno
From the Macross Plus soundtrack. Beautiful.

Wu-Tang Clan Ain't Nothing To Fuck With - Wu-Tang Clan with Rage Against The Machine
'Nuff said!

ルパン三世 '80 [Sunaga T Experience 9849 Mix]
The Lupin III theme played in a similar fashion (if not a variation of) the jazzy theme from the car chase in Cagliostro's Castle. From the 30th anniversary remix album, Punch The Monkey.

Catch My Disease - Ben Lee

Guitar (2nd version) - Prince

The Imperial March - John Williams
Before I realized that James Earl Jones was providing his voice, I figured the reason Darth Vader walked like a Black man was the kick ass pimpin' theme he was given in The Empire Strikes Back.

New Toy - Lene Lovich

Pleasures (Old Denim Mix) - Pushim
Japanese reggae. This song triggered all sorts of emotional chemical reactions the first few hundred times I listened to it. That was before I even realized she was singing in English. Powerful stuff.

People Get Ready - Jeff Beck And Rod Stewart
As great as Curtis Mayfield is, I still prefer this version (which was the first I heard). Love Beck's playing on this.

Scandalous: The Passion and The Rapture - Prince
From a CD single. The original version is from the Batman soundtrack. I normally just listen to The Rapture, which is mostly an awesome guitar solo. The Passion appears to be a mash-up of Scandalous and some other unknown Prince song. Possible, but I'm guessing it's just a really interesting embellishment that almost sounds like an altogether new song. Also love how the two pieces (Passion & Rapture) flow together as one.

沧海一声笑
This song can be heard in the movie Swordsman, sung (lip-sync'd) onscreen by Wu Ma and Lam Ching Ying (if I remember correctly) aboard a boat. Always loved this song. Listen to it on this page. Swordsman was based (loosely) on Louis Cha's Smiling Proud Wanderer.

All on my PSP, of course.

Labels: music, Prince, wu-xia

Now this is much more like it. Guitar is the first single from Prince's new album Planet Earth, coming out in about a month or so. This song was first released a little while ago on Prince's website, 3121.com for 2 bucks. This tune, available through Verizon if you have one of their phones, is a different, much better, much live-r version. The video above ain't too bad either.

I'm getting my hopes up that Planet Earth won't be the disappointment that 3121 was.

I don't have a Verizon phone, so I found the song through "alternative" means.

Labels: downloads, music, music video, Prince, youtube

Some of these were obviously jokes:

"I find it highly unacceptable to have a family watching a sporting event only to find Prince stroking, manipulating and fondling his guitar behind the curtain. This image only made him look extremely large which made the rest of us feel small, and unable to perform this evening."


Some others, I'm not so sure of. Funny stuff, in any case.

These and more at The Smoking Gun.
Thanks Housequake.com.

Labels: bullshit, funny-ass shit, Prince, tv

The only team I'm rooting for is Prince's band. He better kick ass tonight.
The picture above is of the late Kwan Tak Hing, the actor who portrayed Wong Fei Hong from 1949 'till about 1972 or something (not counting cameos in Magnificent Butcher and Dreadnaught). I put it up because I think he kinda resembles Prince in this photo. Also it's been a few days since I've mentioned kung fu movies.

Labels: kung fu, music, Prince, tv

Prince's new song is up at 3121.com. It's called Guitar and it's a buck ninety-nine for a tune slightly over three minutes. I've made it clear that iTunes is too expensive at ninety-nine cents (cant use iTunes songs on my PSP anyway). There's no fuckin' way I'm payin' two dollars on an mp3, not even one by Prince. So I'll have to wait 'till I can "find" it. If it's on a new CD, I'll end up buying it, anyway. Sometimes, that man is not very bright.


Feb 4th, 2007 - Having heard the song a few times now, I rather like it. It's not great, but even if it was, I wouldn't pay two bucks for it. Looking forward to this evening's halftime show.

Labels: bullshit, downloads, music, online retailers, Prince, ripoffs

Gettin' kinda heavy with the guitar, there. Which is good news for long time fans, as well as football fans. Prince gave a "press conference" this afternoon on the NFL network, that consisted of a performance of three songs, Johnny B. Goode, anotherloverholeinyohead, a little bit of a B-52's song (?) at the end of AnotherLover, and Get On The Boat. The latter is one of the better songs on his last album 3121, but didn't come across so good here, in my opinion. Go to the title above to watch the performance. It's at Housequake.com and will probably require you to sign up. It'll show up on YouTube eventually, but won't look or sound as good. Tomorrow should see a new song available for download, called Guitar. Sunday, he plays the Superbowl during halftime. I expect awesome-ness! In addition to the millionth playing of Let's Go Crazy and Purple Rain.

Update: 2/2/07 - Somebody camcordered the event; here's the vid...

Labels: music, music video, Prince, tv

Guitar is the name, and it'll be downloadable at 3121.com (his website) sometime on Friday. The NFL Network is supposed to air a press conference held by Prince on Thursday afternoon, at which, he is gonna perform some music, but answer no questions. This will be followed up by his Superbowl Halftime show, which will likely be a hits set with some new music thrown in for good measure and hopefully the release of a new album or something.

via: Housequake.com
The best source for Prince news

Labels: downloads, music, Prince

If you watched Good Morning America yesterday morning, you know Prince showed up to do three songs live. I heard about it a little in advance, thanks to Housequake.com as well as an email from Prince's NPG Music Club (I'm a member). I initially wasn't gonna go, but changed my mind last week. I had to arrange with a co-worker to switch our schedule a little so, I could come in a little late.

I knew I'd be on line for a while and would need some extra content and power for my PSP. There was also the train ride both ways from Hempstead to NYC, as well as the commute to and from work and breaks in between. So I got an extra memory stick (2 gig) from eBay. I wanted to wait for the price to come down a bit on the 4 gig, but that won't happen to any great degree untill the 8 Gb one comes out at the end of the year. Then I'll want to wait to get that one. I also got an extra battery from Game Stop at the Roosevelt Field Mall to be safe.

For music, I listened to David Bowie's Diamond Dogs, Eagles Of Death Metal's Death By Sexy, Feist's Let It Die, Saul Williams' self titled second album, and Transmutations by Praxis. These while walking or on the subway.

While on the LIRR, I either played K.E.T.M. (Kill Everything That Moves) or watched episodes of Romance Of The Three Kingdoms. The video game came in handy whenever I got drowsy. I'd only had three hours sleep, in part because I had to work the night before.

I'd left home about 4:30am to catch the 5:01 train to New York. Got there a little before six. I could'a walked to Bryant Park. I knew it was near the NY Public Library, and I had a vague idea where it was, so it wasn't too far from Penn Station, but I had subway directions from Housequake, so I figured why waste time.

When I got off the train at Penn, I went to the closest subway platform, since every train there stops at 42 st. I don't remember if it was the A, C, or the E, but it was the express. I didn't need the express, obviously (I was going to the next stop), but I was there, so I didn't care. So I waited, and waited, while train after uptown bound trains stopped and passed on the platform across from me. I stayed put, cuz I knew the minute I crossed over, the train would come to the platform I'd been waiting on all along.

Approximately 30 minutes later, I crossed over (going down one set of stairs and coming up another, and sure enough, here comes a train, and where was it going? I need say no more. I managed to cross back over in time got on and got to 42nd. From there I walked a little to the 7 train and got on. I realized I hadn't checked which direction I was going in and convinced myself I'd gotten on the wrong train (happens to me a lot). One stop later I was at Bryant Park and everything was cool.

Out of the train station, and right away I see people lined up. I thought I'd read that they start to let people in at 5am. It wasn't far from 7 at this point. I head towards the end of the queue and stare at disbelief at all of the people there. I'd been on long Prince lines before, but the term, "line around the block" takes a new meaning when the block contains a public park like this (it's no Central Park, but still) and the huge New York Public Library. And people weren't lined up single file either.

I occuppy myself watching Three Kingdoms and I notice the line start to move. Around 7:30-ish, I hear the sound of "Get On The Boat" being played. "Crap! They're starting early." I expected the mini-show to start at 8:30. It turns out, what we're hearing is just a sound check. Still, it sounded pretty good and a decent indicator of what was to come. As I get closer to the entrance, I see someone is passing out little bottles of flavored water (fruit 2O) from a cooler, so I take one and put it in one of my lower pockets (I was wearing cargo pants, I think that's what they're called) for later. On my way to the 7 train, I bought a Snapple which I'd finished just after getting on line.

Once in the park, things seemed a bit more open, and less crowded, unless you counted the area near the front of the stage which was closed off. Regular viewers of the show may be aware that emailing them in advance may get them VIP tickets to that area. Didn't know that myself till the day or so before the event. No biggie.

Throughout the wait we keep hearing bits of Get On The Boat played by parts of the band, but sounding pretty full. During the soundchecks, the stage is covered by these large black partitions. You could hear cheers from the audience from the front. I wasn't sure at the time if they were in front of the partitions or behind them with the band. They were in front.

I mentioned once that Get On The Boat was one of the better songs on Prince's new album, but I was getting to the point of being tired of hearing it.

The show begins at around 8:30 with Get On The Boat. I'm not tall, so I have to be on my tippy-toes to glance at the onstage action. Prince in blue, playing guitar and singing on the left side of the stage. Tamar and The Twinz do their background dancer/singer things. While I'm not crazy about dancers on stage, I thought they looked good up there. Perhaps there's a different effect live, than when watching this sort of thing on TV. Unfortunately, the music wasn't as loud as I would've liked. Somebody next to me suggested it had to do with where we was positioned, but I doubt it, reading other reports on the show. The guy also noticed that Prince didn't have any extra guitar players with him. I prefer it that way. It has him playing more and dancing less. Not that crazy about Prince, the dancer either. At his age, it appears, neither is he, anymore. Good for Prince I say.

The next was a rocker, sung by Tamar, with Prince on guitar. I've read that this one was called Red Headed Step Child. Couldn't hear the vocals well enough to know it one way or another, but the band sounded good. I'm looking forward to her album, whenever it comes out. A woman near me says "Less Tamar, more Prince." I laugh in agreement, if only because I know they'll likely only be three songs performed here (there was hope for more...).

The last was an abridged Let's Go Crazy. Not much as far as the lyrics were concerned, but lots of guitar. When it was over, the announcer on stage said something that kinda indicated there might be a little more. I forget exactly what, but I wasn't the only one who was fooled. No encore.

Was it worth it for only three songs? Hell yeah! Would I do it again? I dunno. Maybe.

Also on stage was Maceo Parker (James Brown, P-Funk) on sax and Sheila E on percussion.

A streaming video of the performance can be found at Housequake. You might have to register, though.

There's also a short (cellphone?) video at Youtube as well. It's only about 30 seconds long.

The flavored water was appreciated but tasted like crap.

When it became clear there would be no encore, I decided to head home. I had to pee (restroom at Penn) and I had to go to work. Earlier, while on line on 42nd, I saw the marquee to the Loews theatre, so I knew where I was exactly and decided to walk to Penn Station. I had about 20 or so minutes to catch the next train, and I did so with no trouble. On the train it was back to playing K.E.T.M. to remain conscious, but the lack of sleep didn't seem to affect the rest of my work day/night.

Labels: dead links, music, Prince, tv

Here's a bit of news I missed when it was, uh, news; Warners will begin distributing content on Bittorrent sometime this summer. Could be interesting, but I understand these files can only be played on one's computer, and not backed up to be played on a standard dvd player. Pricing seems to be an unknown at this point as well. Warners states it would like to convert file sharers, but by making pay-for files less convenient than free files, they'll be fighting a losing battle.

Right now I use Bittorrent almost exclusively for Chinese dramas. Movies, I can get on usenet, as well as mp3s not available on eMusic or Prince's website. I still buy CDs and DVDs, of course.
Prince's music is sold as DRM encrypted Windows Media Audio, but at least they can be burned to (standard) cd and then dealt with as I see fit. Still not an ideal situation, but he gets away with it cuz he's Prince. The same can't be said of videos sold on his site (playable on PC only), so I just don't buy them.

I've critisized iTunes once before for their pricing of videos, but I'm seeing some interesting stuff, lately, like the first season of Clone Wars for $10.99 and 16 episodes of The Daily Show for ten bucks. I really, really miss The Daily Show. I haven't bought any of these yet, but I might.

edit (August 28, 2006) - I still haven't checked these out. I understand that iTunes videos are DRMed, like their music, so there's no compatibility with the PSP. So, for me iTunes is only good for ripping CDs and downloading podcasts. The Prince website mentioned above is currently out of service for the time being.

Clone Wars, which I've never seen, sounds like good material for my PSP to watch in between episodes of Romance Of The Three Kingdoms.

Labels: bittorrent, downloads, online retailers, Prince

The following are found on his 1987 album Sign O' The Times. An uneven collection like much of Prince's work, it contains two songs which are among my favorites.

The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker ( LP Version )
Starfish And Coffee ( LP Version )

You'll have to sign up to Napster.com, to hear the songs (a limit of five times), but at least you can hear them for free in their entirety (for the time being).

Labels: music, Prince

Housequake.com has an excellent interview with Susan Rogers, who engineered for Prince from 1983-1988. I dug it.

Labels: Awesome, music making, Prince

I said a bit about how I felt about this record, before. Having listened to it for over a month now (actually bought the CD 2nd week of it's release - no purple ticket), I'm gonna say just a little bit more.

The songs -

3121

Solid but soulless drumming by Michael Bland. Among Prince-fans, I'm in the minority with many of my opinions. One of them concerns Michael Bland. A very powerful drummer, sure, but to me, he feels like a machine playing a preset. There may be some exceptions, but at the moment, I can't think of any, and this song isn't one of 'em.

Don't like the keys nor the horns.

Vocal flows (at first) a bit like Chubb Rock, which is okay, and it's pitch shifted to evoke memories of Camille, but like the drumming, there's nothing here.

Nice guitar work, rhythm, bass (Sonny Thompson) and lead.

Don't really care for this one. A bad intro for the album. A good theme song for a vampire film named 3121, cuz this song is dead and soul-less. Skip this track.

Lolita

This is much more like it. This actually sounds like music. Nice, organic (sounding) and fun.

Te Amo Corazon

Warmed up a bit to this one. Didn't care for it when the video was first released. Nothing wrong with the video as far as I can tell, except that it does nothing for the song which sounds better without the visuals. Still, it's decent album filler, and not much more than that.

Black Sweat

Annoying as hell. I've gone from kinda liking it, to kinda not and sometimes back. The Dre/Snoop G-Funk synth has to go. Where's the remix? It's a skipper.

Incense And Candles

One of two songs included to make the record company happy, I think. Still, I like it

Love

the second of the two I just mentioned. The Timbaland (or somebody) like intro makes me think of those MTV promos for Sucka Free Sundays from a coupl'a years back. The first few times I heard this I half expected to hear Sway's loud, annoying ass voice.

The rest of the song sounds like it might've been written for Michael Jackson, the verses especially. However, I like this one as well, though I didn't at first.

Satisfied

Not as good as the live version from last year's NAACP Awards, but not bad.

Fury

Not as good as the recent performances on Saturday Night Live or The Brit Awards. Actually, it's just a little weird hearing the studio version. The keys are way more up-front here than in the live versions. I still like this, for it's live band feel (though, as with Lolita, all the instruments were played by Prince). Great guitar playing.

The Word

I think it's about the bible or something. I dig it, though. I previously spoke about an alternate track sequencing for this album which had this song play first. Not a good idea. I think I had it switch places with Get On The Boat.

Beautiful, Loved And Blessed

One of the better songs on this set, but really doesn't belong here with Tamar singing most of the tune. I don't get putting this song both here and on her album. I'm deleting this from the 3121 tracklist along with Black Sweat and 3121. I'll listen to it with the rest of her CD when it comes out.

The Dance

A lush, over production of a track that was originally included in the internet only release, The Chocolate Invasion. Not bad.


Get On the Boat

Nice live sounding funk jam. It's not about New Orleans. That was S.S.T. and Brand New Orleans. Had to explain that to a friend.

Would'a liked to hear more songs like this, Fury and Lolita as far as the music/sound is concerned.

So the album has some decent songs, but overall, I find it disappointing. And where is drummer John Blackwell, dammit?

Labels: music, Prince

3121 isn't due until the 21st, but naturally it leaked a little early through the normal channels.

Wasn't that crazy about what I was hearing as a whole. I'd seen videos to Te Amo Corazon and Black Sweat. Corazon took me some time to warm up to, mostly by not watching the video. Black Sweat was okay. Princed performed Fury and Beautiful, Loved and Blessed on Saturday Night Live recently and those performances were great (Fury) and pretty good (BLaB). The album version of Fury doesn't quite sound right to me. BLaB sounds better here, though, than it did live, and I find it to be one of the albums better songs. Also pretty good are Lolita, Satisfied, and Get On The Boat.

A poster on alt.music.prince called Pharoah suggested an alternate track order for the songs which makes the record much more listenable. Still, I'm a bit disappointed in this effort. It's not bad. It just isn't as good as his recent output (Rainbow Children, Chocolate Invasion, or even Musicology).

It goes something like this (the altered track order, that is) :

01. The Word
02. Lolita
03. Black Sweat
04. Fury
05. Love
06. Incense and Candles
07. Get On The Boat
08. 3121
09. Te Amo Corazon
10. The Dance
11. Satisfied
12. Beautiful, Loved & Blessed

I'll still buy it to at least particpate in the Purple Ticket Lottery. Winners get to attend an intimate live performance.

Labels: music, Prince

I finally got homebrew running on my PSP (2.6 firmware), thanks to this article. Once that was done, I had to look for stuff to play with.

Among my favorites, so far...

KETM - Kill Everything That Moves: To me it's a pretty version of Space Invaders/Asteroids/Galaga, etc., but actually a port of some other game I've never heard of. Lot's of fun, though.

Art Of Fighting 3 - this requires a Neo Geo emulator called NeoCDPSP to run. There are a number of game ROMs available. I've only tried this one (which I like a lot) and Sengoku 2, which is okay, so far. I also have a GBA emulator, but it's slow and apparently soundless.

PSPRhythm - this one has me giddier than a schoolgirl. Here's a quote from it's creators:

Inspired by classic drum machines such as the Linndrum and Roland TR-series, PSP Rhythm has been created to use the simple, yet effective 16 step style drum sequencer. PSP Rhythm incorporates the use of audio sample playback instead of drum synthesis. PSP Rhythm has been directly influenced by one of our favorite modern drum machines, the Elektron MachineDrum. The most significant is our use of "parameter locks" (as used by the MachineDrum). Parameter locks enable you to change the pitch, volume, balance, start and end time per step to create moving, changing melodies and effects. This control over your sounds will give you much more creative freedom and allow you to not only use drums, but to use instruments in your music.

I've barely gotten started with this, and there's still much for me to figure out, but so far it sounds great. There's a great deal of potential here. My portable video game system/movie player/mp3 player/e-book/e-comicbook is now also a pocket song writing tool.

It also means that when Sony releases the next firmware update, I'll have to pass.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Other stuff on my PSP...

Andy Richter Controls The Universe - why the FUCK isn't this on DVD, yet? I'd downloaded a bunch of these a couple of years ago. I saw a few, but stored the rest. I watched the first ep from the second season, yesterday. Brilliant!

Romance Of the Three Kingdoms - The kung fu isn't all that great and the male bonding a bit over dramatic, I still find this entertaining so far (I've only watched 3/4 of the first episode).

A few bizarre Golden Age Comicbooks that are apparently in the public domain. A few of these characters have appeared in Alan Moore's Terra Obscura. I may lift a few myself.

Super Spy - I've read the first two and I have the third. There are four more up as of this writing. Got some catching up to do, and I still haven't finished MPD Psycho.

Various mp3s from Hello Gina - standouts are
The Man Machine by Kraftwerk. Do I remember this song, or the song that sampled it in the early to mid eighties?
Catch My Disease by Ben Lee - there are some songs that cause these feel good secretions that I can sometimes feel happening in my brain. Adore and She Loves Me 4 Me by Prince, and Europa And The Pirate Twins by Thomas Dolby are among those. So is this. I love it.
Unite by Tiger Tunes - They can make you dance.

various mp3s from wherever, including:
Battle Without Honor Or Humanity by Tomoyasu Hotei - the fight song from Kill Bill.
Slave by Nadir - I still love this song.
American Woman by Lenny Kravitz - don't look at me like that.
Take Me To The River by The Talking Heads

Prince stuff like Black Sweat, S.S.T./Brand New Orleans, Beautiful Loved and Blessed as well as his recent performances on SNL and the Brit Awards.

and some of my own recent demos and projects as well as the originals to songs I covered by Cry For Life and Sinister Dexter.

Labels: comics, Crystal Walters, dead links, dorama, downloads, fun, music, music making, possibilities for creative expression, Prince, PSP, PSP Rhythm, video games

A great performance of Te Amo Corazon, Fury, Purple Rain and Let's Go Crazy. If you know how to use usenet, you can snag a DVD quality video from alt.binaries.multimedia.prince (much more enjoyable), but otherwise, there's this...


But not anymore. Video removed.

Labels: dead links, Prince, youtube

Couple of nights ago I dreamt Prince was trying to kill me. I don't remember why. I only remember the end of the dream. Prince had a gun, and he was gonna bust a cap upside my head. I manage to get a door in between me and him, but it didn't seem like it was gonna be enough. It seemed hopeless, but I was optimistic that there was some way out. Luckily, the cavalry came to the rescue in the form of "Morris day: NYPD".
End of dream.

I figured it was time I dusted off the Purple Rain DVD I bought in 2004 and give it a look see. I'd watched Graffiti Bridge and Under The Cherry Moon not long after I bought them, and made it a point to watch them first because they would likely pale in comparison to the movie that made Prince a star. Though I took a look at some of the special features on disc two, I hadn't before yesterday, watched this DVD. It's also been years since I watched the film in any form, despite being a huge Prince fan. The VHS copy I bought when it first came out (one of the first films released at a "sell through" price of $19.95) was loaned to someone I barely knew and was never returned. A DVD was released by Warners, but was full screen. While I'd been willing to put up with that shit with video tape, it wasn't happ'nin' for me on DVD, so I avoided that copy.
In 2004 Warners decided to put out some decent editions of Princes movies (except Sign O' The Times - available through amazon.ca) and I bought them all (except Sign*).

Purple Rain stars Prince as the son of an ex-cop turned failed musician (Clarence Williams III reprises his role as Linc Hayes from the Mod Squad, now known by his stage name, Francis L.). Linc spent a short career doling out beatdowns during the sixties and apparently suffered a breakdown of sorts. He retired from the force, settled down with some chick he must've met on a case and moved to Minnesota. He tried to leave the violence behind him, but he finds, not only do old habits die hard, but also that his son may inherit his curse, despite his efforts to raise him as a girly-man.

Visually the film is quite the spectacle (thanks to director Albert Magnoli), with Prince doing what he does best; sing, play guitar, dance and being a complete ass to the people around him. His acting would be easier to criticise if not for Appolonia Kotero and Jill Jones. In their defence, they do look hot (who was the chick next to Jill Jones during Computer Blue?) and I don't remember complaining about them when I saw this movie three times in 1984. Morris Day was potentially a star in the making, but didn't live up to that potential. Ditto Jerome Benton. If Morris had played Christopher Tracey in Under the Cherry Moon, that would'a been the shit.

Yes, this is Prince's film, but to me, this is a standout role for Clarence Williams III, who shows a willingness to commit 300% of his energy to Francis (Linc) Hayes despite an obviously shitty script. Good actors make bad movies all the time. Rare is the thespian who treats every role as though it were gold, and Clarence Williams III is that thespian.

Anyway, I recommend Purple Rain. Get the two disc special edition. The other one is crap.

*January 21st, 2008 - I now have the Canadian disc of Sign O' The Times and it is magnificent. Much better than I remember it being.

Labels: dreams, DVD, movies, music, music video, nostalgia, Prince

Heard a couple of audio samples from Te Amo Corazón over the last couple of days and thought I liked what I heard. I caught the music video here, and after watching it, I find I'm not so crazy about it after all. I still look forward to the new album, 3121, which is due sometime new year.
The girl who plays Jennifer Garner's half sister on Alias is the love interest in the video, which is directed by Selma Hayek. I think she does a good job. It's the song itself that doesn't bowl me over.

Oh, yeah. It has to be viewed in Internet Explorer, which is inconvenient for me. I have no intention of returning to that site, naturally.

Labels: music video, Prince

Prince has a new song for which proceeds will go to the efforts to help the victims of Hurricane Kartrina. Get it here, if you're so inclined. If not, there's http://www.redcross.org/ for direct donations.

Labels: downloads, music, Prince, society, solutions?

No. Not about politics, the latest disasters, or terrorist attacks. We get that shit shoved in our faces whether we want it or not. I mean the other, important stuff, like...

Prince. Let's say you're like me, and you still find this musician's musician interesting and you wanna know what's happening in his world or Prince fandom. Where do you go? Well he's got a site, but it kinda sucks for a number of reasons I won't go into right now. Once in a blue moon, there is music there to be purchased and/or downloaded, but right now we're talking news so I recommend Housequake.com. It's unofficial, but it's the definitive Prince site. The thing is, his activity has kinda slowed down in the last few years, so there isn't a great deal to report until a record is announced and whatnot, but Housequake remains interesting throughout the year.


Movies. I've been told I have odd taste in film and video, but I think I'm fairly mainstream, though I lean heavily toward geek territory. In other words, yes I like foreign movies, but a lot of them have kung fu in them. Occasionally I go for the art film or two. General movie news, I get from Aint It Cool News, a site that gets it's name from a line spoken by John Travolta in John Woo's Broken Arrow. I have some issues with that site as well, but again, won't get into them today.
A lot of my favorite movies come from Asia so I often check sites like Kaiju Shakedown, Kung Fu Cinema, and Kung Fu Cult Cinema (or KFC Cinema). Kaiju Shakedown is connected to Variety.com and is described as an Asian movie blog. I only recently found this site and find it to be both hilarious (at times) and informative.

Comics. I don't read as much of these things as I'd like. I'd pretty much sworn off the old pamphlet format. Something so obviously disposable should not be close to three bucks a pop (or more), collectible or not. Twice a year (maybe) I binge on graphic novels, a fancy name for comics collected into hard or soft cover compilations, and sometimes I'll grab a couple of traditional comics to preview something I might like.
I hadn't kept up with comics news in a while, so I was glad to find Newsarama.com, a site connected to View Askew/Kevin Smith. I think I found them through Aint It Cool, or JamesHudnall.com. There's also The Alan Moore Fansite. As the name suggests, they concern themselves with all things (comics/movies/performance art) related to Mr. Moore. He's my favorite comics writer, so even though there isn't always a great deal of activity, I check the site often.

Hmm. I thought I'd had a longer list, but apparently I don't.

Labels: comics, movies, Prince

Just started listening to these fellas on the recommendation of a friend who suggested that I had a similar sound. I don't know how accurate the comparison is, but it's probably closer than comparisons I've heard before. Perhaps I say this because I like this music a lot and it's not too easy to describe. I'd be tempted to compare them to Radiohead, but that isn't quite right, either.

A video can be found here. Click on Featured Clips to watch "Staring At the Sun".

==========================================================
Fox is broadcasting the NAACP awards tonight (03/25/05) at 8 pm (eastern). Why is this important? Prince is performing. Set your VCRs, DVDRs, TiVo's or whatever cuz you'll probably want to see it again.

Labels: music, music video, Prince, tv

On the show on which they reviewed Purple Rain (two thumbs up, if I recall correctly), Siskel and Ebert took some time to address the possiblity that Prince might direct his next feature. They practically begged him not to do it. Not so soon after making such a good first impression. Of course , he went ahead and did it anyway, after pissing off the film's original director, Mary Lambert.
Some see this film as an absolute disaster. Sure it's bad, but still very enjoyable, if you ask me. As with the later Graffiti Bridge, the cinematography is mostly well done. There are a couple of slow pans which seem a little jittery, only one of which was noticable on my li'l 19 inch TV and not as jarring as I remember it being on the big screen. The soundtrack is great, the comedy, not so great and the story, more than tolerable until the pointless ending.
Still, like I said, I enjoyed it, and I'm glad it's on DVD.

Now I have to get Luc Besson's Subway on DVD. This movie, which I think came out a year before Cherry Moon, is more like the film Prince should've made. It starred Christopher Lambert (Highlander) as a safe cracker on the run from both the law and the mob. He hides out in the Paris subway system, and while there, he seduces the mob boss' daughter and puts together a band using the local homeless musicians (one of whom, is played by Leon: The Professional's Jean Reno). Been a while since I've seen this. I wonder if it holds up?

Labels: DVD, movies, Prince

A cut and paste of a comment I made on alt.music.prince a day or two ago:

I hated everything about this movie when I first saw it. Having seen it
again a couple of days ago, I think the visuals were pretty good, actually.
The sets, while obviously artificial, look quite nice in most instances. I
also see almost nothing wrong with the cinematography. The only thing I hate
about this film now is, most of the music, and the FUCKING dialog. Bad
acting I can handle and sometimes find enjoyable. That the cast were able to
deliver their lines with straight faces (for the most part) is commendable.
The trailer was pretty cool, though. I don't remember that scene with
Morris and Jerome in the limo being in the movie. Where's the uncut GB?

Labels: DVD, movies, Prince

The post below contains some historical information that may be flat out wrong. For more information on Prince, visit housequake.com or order The Vault from http://www.uptown.se/ if you're looking for an informative book on the man. I haven't read or even ordered it yet. Just letting you know it's there.

For official news and occasional music, see http://www.npgmc.com/ http://www.3121.com/

Info on unofficial recordings by the man, see (again) housequake.com

Labels: music, Prince

Went to Best Buy after work to get the three Prince films on DVD; Purple Rain, Under The Cherry Moon and Graffiti Bridge. Unfortunately, GB was out of stock. Wouldn't be that big a deal except that there's an extra five bucks off for buying all three. So I didn't get any, went home and ordered them online from Overstock.com for just about the same price. Maybe less considering NY sales tax. That Best Buy under-ordered GB is understandable. That it's possible to sell out that movie is almost astonishing. Yes, it's bad, but I still want it.

Some bad movies are great but it often takes the passage of time (since the release of such a film, not the first viewing) to reveal it's true value. Most of the time that value is unintentional laughter. Jackie Chan's Fantasy Mission Force was probably less amusing in 1980 (or whenever it came out) than it is now. It happens to be a comedy, but not all the laughter is generated as intended. FMF was actually more of a (Jimmy) Wang Yu vehicle than a Chan film by the way. Chan owed Wang Yu a favor and repaid him by appearing in this bizarre movie and Island On Fire (U.S. title: The Prisoner) or maybe not. IMDB.com has a different story for IOF. Whatever.
Anyway I look forward to the Prince films and will probably watch GB first and PR last as this will be the most painless way to watch all three, saving the best for last.

Graffiti Bridge is supposed to be the sequel to Purple Rain, but in my mind, the sequel elements were thrown in to get what little financing this movie ultimately received. This story is less about Purple Rain: six years later, and more about Prince's state of mind following a rumoured bad ecstasy trip that inspired Lovesexy, a sort of spiritual album that took the place of the dirtier Black Album that was initially to be released. It seemed to me that GB was to be a sequel to the Lovesexy album, but with visuals. I don't remember what clued me into that possibility (song titles? The movie trailer?), but Lovesexy had been among my favorite Prince records (I think the Batman "soundtrack" followed) and I was looking forward to a development of those themes or perhaps I came to that conclusion AFTER hearing the soundtrack.

Anyhow, listening to the soundtrack was the first sign that something was wrong. I don't remember if this record followed or was released at the same time as The Time's Pandemonium, but those two albums were like night and day (no pun intended) especially where tracks on GB attributed to "The Time" were concerned. It should be noted that The Time is pretty much one of Prince's musical alter egos, but one that apparently has taken on a life of it's own. This may've been true as far back as the early eighties when they reportedly upstaged him as his opening act. It was certainly true in 1990 when these two albums were released.
The music on Graffiti Bridge is generally lifeless, due perhaps to the mis-use of computers which allow Prince to fullfill his perfectionism to a fault. Due also to some bad songwriting as well, though this album contains one or two of my all time favorites; Joy In Repitition and Question Of U. I think there were about four songs attributed to The Time, which as far as I know, in this case consisted of Prince and Morris Day. Prince is largely (though not completely) responsible for the music on the first three Time albums which are classics. The touring group which included Day, Jam & Lewis, Jesse Johnson and others had been long disbanded and it seems Prince was ready to re-team with Day to create another Time album without the guys everybody associated with the group. It sounded like a plan, but it just didn't work. Most of the songs on the aborted Coporate World sucked. The songs by "The Time" on GB sucked. Pandemonium was another story, though. It included songs written by Prince, as well as the "original" line-up of the band. The best songs on the album were written by Jesse Johnson while the Prince tunes were okay, but better than the one's on GB, except maybe Data Bank, and It's Your World or something. The original Data Bank recorded by Prince and the Revolution is excellent. Whoever's responsible for the re-working on Pandemonium deserves a flogging, as long as they're not into that sort of thing already.

Too late to make a long story short: The first full album by this assembled band produced better results than Prince's attempt to continue a tradition of pretending to be the band by doing everything himself and throwing Morris Day's vocals on top.

So the soundtrack was generally bad. I chose to avoid the theatrical release of the movie after reading a few reviews and after my best friend warned me to stay away; "Yo! This guy snuck into the movie, sat there for a while, and then snuck right back out."

I eventually rented the tape and saw for myself how bad it was. It became for me the worst movie ever, and remained that way untill I viewed a bootleg of Moulin Rouge.

Now I wonder how the passage of time will affect the way I enjoy this movie as well as the other two which I haven't seen in quite some time. I'll have to wait and see.

Labels: DVD, movies, music, Prince