DK

If it wasn't for the social network I would never have met some many musicians and celebs. Here is some work by a friend I met on Facebook. All I can say is, 'AWESOME!!!' Artwork, and music. (David)

When Old Songs Become New Again

When I hear a song that really gets me crazy about it, you know, really crazy like on the edge of my seat crazy, I'm a loyal patron of it forever. I will listen to it at least a dozen times before I return to my senses. Well, I was in Nordstroms at Northpark Mall with some friends when I almost made what I will call the discovery of a life-time, songwise.

I say almost because I have an iPhone and I use the app Shazam, to find songs that I don't know or recognize. This was one those moments. I'm looking for my friends but in the background I hear this song. And I was like OMG! OMG! OMG!!!! I couldnt pull out my iPhone quick enough and punch the Shazam app to tag the song playing. So, I'm waiting for the app to tag the song and I get this message:

"Connection lost. Please try again later."

And then the song ends. Yah! I wanted to exclaim like Camden did in 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off', when Ferris talked him into joy-riding his dad's Porsche and afterwards trying to rewind the mileage back, and the vibration of the reving motor caused it to fall off of the bricks and backout of a window into a creek. Yah!

"NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!"

Later on, we went to eat and that song was still on my mind. You see, I go through a ritual in order to try retaining and remembering the most minute detail about a song, especially if what happen tonight happens. After getting that devestating message, I knew that I had my work cut out for me. But I was only discouraged not beat.

I went over to blip.fm to write something and for some reason I was thumbing through my WIFI settings. Oh yah. I was turning the WIFI settings off. I stopped by the Shazam app and saw those dead tags that had turned up nothing. But then I noticed that Shazam had found one of the songs it couldn't find back at Nordstroms. And I saw that last one, the song that I so wanted to know about. It just said untagged item. So I hit it and it started analyzing it's remains. And,...AND!....OMG! Was it true?

IT FOUND THE SONG!!!

Evidentally, all of the information was still stored into my phone. The song: "Erase and Rewind", by The Cardigans. I know the group but I could not distinguish that it was them singing. I bought the song from iTunes and have been playing, by now, 20 times in a row. Yes, during this writ. But I was surprised that it was a song from their Gran Turismo album, in 1998.

Wow! I love it either way but I am not imited by the age of the song, then throw itr away because I found a new song. No. It hit me also that many others are too pushing aside their differences about song age and bringing back the cool, tight and killer tunes, despite the song's age. There are some gems out there. Go out and keep making your discoveries. You will never be disappointed. Awesome! I will sleep rather soundly since this latest discovery.

(pressing play to hear "Erase and Rewind" again)...

If I were a singer....What would my cd cover look like?

I have been spending tons of time playing around with Juxtaposer, an app on my iPhone. I know, I know it's not really a camera. I have a friend, Jeremy McKane. Awesome photographer. His beautiful wife poses for shots, from time to time. Now, HIS camera is really sweet. It's one of those real expensive ones. Photographers would die hearing that jargon, '...one of those real expensive ones.' Anyway, his work will be featured the end of this month. Check him out on Facebook. He's pretty awesome, and Facebook only has a tiny collection of his work.

I once had a camera...and lets just say that it was stolen and it now has a new home, the pawn shop. Jeremy's work has caused me to pick back up my camera (Ok, iPhone) and just practice shooting. Since I am always gabbing about music and how much I love (you really have no idea how much) I came up with a so-called album/cd cover shot that, if I were a singer, this is what it might look like...

When Albums Are Known For Both Their Music & Cover

In October, 2005, the Canadian band, Nickelback, released their studio album, ‘All The Right Reasons’. Word buzzed around that even though their sound was unique it was becoming cookie-cut. I would say that about the track, “Rock Star”. But I wouldn’t say that about a few of my favorite tracks. The track “Animals” was...oh well, will make some, weak at heart and stomach, blush. “Savin’ Me” shows great promise of the band’s focus. (You will hear more of their focus from their new CD ‘Dark Horse’) But what I found rather beautifully complete about this album can be heard and seen.

What's beautiful when you hear this album come from two songs. One: from the song, “Far Away”, a song that I consider The Ultimate Love Song. It seems that everyone appreciates a love song, especially if that song can describe a person's love for someone. Two: from the tune, “If Everyone Cared”. This song sounds almost like a rock-gospel. Imagine that a song with a moral overtone and not too boring or sappy or overly religious. Hmm...

I sat down to write not just about the sound of Nickelback. I wanted to write specifically about this album's cover shot. I love photography. I think it interesting and quite unique, and that there is never an identical shot. This cover is one of my all-time favorites: It’s a simple photo shot. It's about a place we’ve all found ourselves, whether it was behind the wheel or as passengers, speeding down a highway and headed towards that party or vacation spot. One might say that this is just a photo of a vehicle on a highway. To me, this photo says a lot more. It is said that a picture can be worth a thousand words, and some of those words could be in the form of questions. Doesn't the cover invite you into the photo? Were you ready to hit the brakes when you first saw this shot? How fast do you think the driver is going? Can you can almost feel the horsepower of a fine engine as your back is pressed into plush seating? What song would you listen to while on that road and in that car? Can you imagine your vehicle of choice? (Mine would be the Maybach)

I must confess that most of the time, I do tend to choose music by the artists' album cover. To me, the more interesting and unique it is, the better. SOMEtime (shhh!) I will buy an album only for that reason and later try acquiring a taste for the artists' music. This method is not the way of finding better music but don’t count it out completely. There are some gems out there packaging great music. I have found my share of duds using this method, but every now-and-then, I come across that album cover that knocks my socks off and causes me to wonder if and when will I stumble across that next spectacular album cover?

Click here and keep up with so-called DJing @ blip.com

A Few Crossover Comedians

Carol Burnett
Jerry Lewis
Lucille Ball
Vicki Lawrence

What do these 4 stars have in common?










Carol Burnett was and is the woman to pattern yourself after when it comes to comedy. She never took herself too seriously, she always knew who she was, and she could sing-which you would find out after each of her shows.





Vicki Lawrence was a person I thought was mistreated by Carol. Boy was I wrong. And when I discovered that I had been singing one of songs, "The Night The Light Went Ot In Georgia", I was like....wha.....?



If you ever watched Jerry in any of comedy shows and movies, you knew that this was a super funny guy. But to boast his career further was to hear him sing, especially on his telethons.








I was and am forever a fan of Lucille Ball, for her slap-stick comedy. The timing she held was...well, it just left me laughing so hard. The bet she made with Ricky about him losing his temper before she would buy a hat. Awesome! Well, I never knew that Lucy sang, until I saw the movie Sorrowful Jones, and quite well. The reason I say this is she convinced me in her comedy shows that she could not sing.

[Solange] - ((((("T.O.N.Y.")))))

I wrote about Solange, Beyonce's sister April 18th. But I didn't find this video until after I had finished that blog. If you like R&B and NEO Soul, you will love this song and you will see the talent in this woman which has many people talking and looking in her direction. Enjoy your weekend.

[Shakedown]-((((("At Night"))))) & [David Bowie]-((((("Let's Dance")))))

Who is Music Fan Mic

(About MFM)

Over to your right (About Me: MFM) is a snippet of a bio about who I am, in a few choice words due to limitation of space. If I had the space to jot exactly who I am this site would be boring. So, my trek with this blog is to describe who I am through the passion I've developed and have for music. This might get strange but I can always fall back on the fact that while getting my start, I was but a boy: a child. [halo]((((TING!))))

I grew up in the small town of Midland, Texas. 7 kids to a struggling mom and her sort of new husband. He married my mom when she already had 4 children. They had 3 others to make the seven. But where I got my musical roots was first from my mom, (mom #1) and then from a lady whom I love so dearly, I call mom #2.

(Mom #1)

Mom #1 would sometimes rush into the house with a 45 and put on the record player. (the record player became a Turntable after the TV and radio were no longer attached) I remember one song, "Mr. Big Stuff", by Jean Knight. "Ohhoyeah... Whoo!... Mr. Big Stuff... Who do you think you are?..." I remember not REALly liking that song because I could tell it wasn't my type. But it made my mom dance and when she was happy, she was dancing and this made me happy. She worked so hard and got very little pay: this happens to most maids and back in the day, we were po. My dad drank all of his money until the 3 were born. From days like those, which didn't come as often as I would have wanted them to, I began to surrender to music she liked. This opened me up considering music's affect on people. No, I wasn't thinking those exact words back then, I was just remember the experience of watching people around music. When I look back on those days this is what I was what I was witnessing. Call it the Pied Piper's Effect, except also on adults and not just children. We moved from a shack to finally a house, where we lived on after I went off to college. In that house was where I learned about artists such as, Dionne Warrick, Burt Bacharach, The Temptations, B. B. King, Green Onion, The 5th Dimension, Jimmy Smith, Bobby Blue Bland. You know Bobby really traumatized me. My mom loved him so much that I thought she would run away with him and leave us in that house with our sometimey-Dad. But where I think I got my real passion for music was from mom #2.


(Mom #2)

My reason for saying is that mom #2 gave me a choice as to what type of music I liked. My aunt Doris. When I say her name come the flood of days when she would tell me about how black people can do anything that anybody else can do, they just have to be educated. I had never heard this from #1. When she told me this I remember stopping and thinking about what she said. "...and you can do anything, too, Michael." I don't hate my mother. I just realize that it takes a village...

Aunt Doris would kept me while mom worked, their schedules where different so everything worked out. Heck, I was a kid, and all I wanted was my record player.
One day, me and my aunt Doris stood in front of her door, while she tried unlocking it, and holding me at bay. All I thought about was that aqua colored record player that sat on the floor. From there, I would walk in, ok, I would run in and sit in front of it, turn it on, SHE would put a record on it, and as long as I didn't touch it, I could watch it play all day long. Aunt Doris exposed me to BT Express, James Brown, Roberta Flack, Barry White, Areatha Franklin, Isaac Hayes, Kool and the Gang, Stephanie Mills, Phyllis Hyman, Randy Crawford, and The Emotions.

(Mom #1)
My mom got wind of my being exposed to different music from my Aunt Doris, and she began allowing me to choose music for myself, just as long as it wasn't nasty, as she would put it. So, I would buy The Emotions, (everything they put out), Michel Jackson, Culture Club, Cyndi Lauper, The Police, Tom Tom Club, Lips Inc, Janis Joplin, Thompson Twins, General Public, Howard Jones, Toto, Chic, Rene' and Angela, Sugarhill Gang, and Cheryl Lynn. I remember my mom not liking two artists I would always listen to: The Emotions, and Cheryl Lynn. To this day I don't know why but my speculation would hone in on jealousy of better sounding music than hers. (just laying that on the table and I'm walking right out)


(Jr. High, High School & College)
School played an enormous part in my musical exposure to Rock, R&B, Jazz and Polka. The artists that I remember so well are Heart, Queen, ELO, Exile, Dolly Parton, Glen Campbell, Beethoven, Bach, Kansas, Led and Zeppelin. I was in the band for all 8 years of my junior and high school life. But what would always plague me is what the kids would say to me about my musical choice. Allot of them didn't like me because of it, and they were harsh critics. Some only hung around me after they had exposed me to their music choices and when I wanted to play my choices, they hit the road. But I had no idea that this life I lived was getting ready for something real cool, really sweet, and often controversial: standing up for my musical choices. That's a pretty brave thing to do when today people lose friendships for such pettiness.

And there were days when I would purposely go to Sound Warehouse and other music stores, to just help people find their favorite artists, or song. I remember this one incident where I ove-heard a couple talking and questioning about a song that I knew all too well. The song was "Am I Dreaming?", by Atlantic Starr. I just butted in and mentioned to them that it was Atlantic Starr, and that the reason why she, the wife. could not think of the group is because the group had two lead singers: Sharon Bryant being one first lead singer, followed by Barbara Weathers. I had to look up the 2nd lead singer, I knew it was Barbara but was uncertain about the last name, plus I never really liked the group after Sharon left the group. I don't know what they were thinking, maybe like psycho (((((Twilight Zone music))))). But they thank me and seem to think that I worked there. What would give them that idea?

AT&T launched a commercial that allowed viewers to make up a word best describing them. My conjucted word best describing me is:

MUSICFANMIC


(NOTE: I just had to tell this story because it will explain so such of the How's and Why's about this site and its direction)

Degrees of separation or just good ole' fashion record producing? Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis: The Kings of Music

Everyone has heard of the game 6 Degrees of Separation punned at Kevin Bacon. I think the same can be said about producers and musicians, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. But I think the degrees are a shrinking number.

(Swiffer)
Televison commercial about the cleaning product, Swiffer has a theme song by the band, Human League. Human League later recorded a song titled 'Human' and that song was produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis.


(Quincy Jones)
Quincy Jones worked with Rod Temperton, a member of the band Heatwave. Temperton and Jones assisted Michael Jackson with the song "Rock Wit You", from the 'Thriller' album, which also had a recorded track "PYT" with his sister, Janet, singing background. Janet recorded an album 'Control', produced by Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis.


(The Young & the Restless)
The soap, The Young and The Restless once had a summer promotional 'Heat' geared to recruiting summer viewers. The song used was "The Heat of Heat", by Patti Austin, from the album 'Getting Away With Murder', on Quincy Jones' Qwest label and the song was produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis.

(Geffen Records)
In 2005, Geffen Records released Mary J. Blige's project, 'The Breakthrough', with 19 tracks, two tracks were produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis.

(Paula Abdul & Debbie Allen)
Choreographers, Paula Abdul and Debbie Allen worked with Janet Jackson, who is famous for dwarfing her brother's career when she released her album 'Control', produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis.

(Carly Simon)
Carly Simon's recording of "You're so Vain" was remixed by a host of artists, Missy Elliot among them. Janet Jackson co-produced this track, alongside Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis.

(Toto)
David Paich, member of the band Toto, had a background singer, named Cheryl Lynn (song "Georgie Porgy"). Cheryl Lynn recorded a song titled, "Got To Be Real". Cheryl use to jam and play drums with Jam & Lewis in their early days. She would later record the song "Encore," produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis.

(Wham)
Former Wham lead singer, George Michael left band to pursue solo career and recorded a song titled, "Monkey", remixed and produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis.

(Bryan Adams)
Bryan Adams released his CD 'Bryan Adams Anthology' among the host of producers and playing keyboards are Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis.

(Prince)
Sheena Easton sang a song "Morning Train", and later recorded a song by a writer with a last name of Nevermind. That person (Nevermind) was Prince. Prince had a movie titled, 'Purple Rain', about love and band rivalry. The band in rival with Prince was, in real life, known as the The Time. The Time was formed by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis.

Today, Jimmy Jam holds a seat of Chairman at the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences and is a philanthropist. The Kings still produce and play for the artists they produce.

I can go on and on because the list of artists that these guys have worked with is extensive. Click link below to view this list.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_songs_produced_by_Jimmy_Jam_%26_Terry_Lewis

Soundtracks Can Make A Career & A Movie

From these 3 projects by Massive Attack sprang a few of the most eventful song contributions to the music & show business: Hugh Laurie's 'HOUSE' theme, Madonna's ode to the late singer, Marvin Gaye

Song colabs involving Massive Attack:

"I Want You" Marvin Gaye (re-make by Madonna)

"Tear Drop" theme to the television show 'HOUSE'

"Unfinished Symphony" the movie 'Sliver'

A God-given Name?

Everyone should be called by their name. Solange calls it your "God Given Name". From personal experiences, I think nicnames are only for those closest to the person penned them. Solange Knowles made this a subject matter on the first track of her cd, 'Sol Angel & the Hadley St. Dreams'.

I always find myself rooting for the underdog: If there are two brothers and society treats one brother slightly better than the other one because the other brother is better-looking, my tendency leans towards the brother that society has dumped.

You say the name Beyonce and tons and tons of songs come to my mind, and Jay-Z. And she does have a great voice. However, her does not sound great with every song she has chosen. When you say the name Solange, I'm sorry, but the information that comes to my mind is a black girl that got pregnant at a very young age, married, and is quite fiesty or rude, some have said. And to further boot, I never thought Diva, Songwriter, and Contender when hearing her name. Beyonce, yes. But as I also mentioned, song choice is key. Solange Knowles epitomizes a Diva, Songwriter and a contender. Why? Because she knows what she is doing and does not have to be Beyonce to accomplish that. If you know of a person who is fat, never use the phrase: "Big (and their name)." It's rude. People are sensitive, and not just that, nicnames really express a type of laziness.

With Solange, so many people never, at first, called her by her name. It was always "Beyonce's sister", or "What's Beyonce's sister's name?" Phrases like these would make me angry too. So, I'm not saying Solange should remain angry. I think she is quick-tempered and that can kill a music career. People tend to black-ball artists and actors in this business. Many do not like to play The Game in the Business to get ahead. I believe Solange is one of few that will never start to play the Game but instead change how the game is played.

About 30 years, a certain Jackson sibling, started carving out for herself the reason why a name is important, especially if your brother is Michael Jackson. Back then, that name dwarfed almost all of the Jacksons, except 3: LaToya, Jermaine, and Janet. Solange's cd has alot to offer, if a person is looking for great music. Yes. This cd has great music on it. Many people thought that from the stereo-typical assumptions attached to Solange would crush her career as an artist. Instead, her music has made Solange a force to be reckoned with, just like her sister.

Here are the tracks I enjoyed:

Rates Songs
*** God Given Name
***** T.O.N.Y.
*** Would've Been The One
**** Sandcastle Disco
*** I Decided
*** 6 O'clock High
***** Ode To Marvin
***** Cosmic Journey
**** This Bird
***** I Decided (pt.2)

A link to a really song, in video, by James Morrison (featuring Nelly Furtado)

"Broken Strings"

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid3338928001?bctid=3393346001

"Broken Strings", by James Morrison. From his cd 'Songs For You, Truths For Me'

"A Different Me"-Keyshia Cole

"What's going on?" The first 3 1/2 words uttered on the first track: "A Different Me" and is an appropriate opening to further define why Keyshia titled the cd 'A Different Me'. It fits a more personal, one-on-one touch, as if she is conversing with a beau. And anytime you want someone to really get to know you, it's gonna be one-on-one. Well, when each person pops this cd into a player or presses Play on their iPods and iPhones, mission accomplished.

The first cd I bought by the artist Keyshia Cole was her 'Just Like You' cd. I had heard that song that almost EVERYone was so upset about, "Love". Radio tends to over-play tunes. But it's still one of the cheapest ways to get your music out to the public, without having to sell your soul. When I heard the song, "Love", I thought, 'Wow, she really has guts to sing such a big song. I also remember thinking that this is not a bad singer. She can really sing. But I still didn't like it and humbly admitting, it was mostly due to the radio over-plays. But it was the way she sing the song that gave me more to think about her as an artist and her direction of music. She sing as if she didn't care if I nor anybody else hated her song. She was still gonna be the artist that she set out to be. Real and a challenge to herself. Yah, How did I get all of that from just one song. You might be quite surprised at what can be taken away from a song and how capitvating an artist can be through their prose, mixed with your own experiences in life.

Keyshia is someone I know very little about, and I think she has fallen through the cracks of society when comes to just giving her a fair listening. I did. And here are my favorite tracks found on her new cd 'A Different Me'.

Rates: Tracks

***** A different Me (should have been longer)

***** Make Me over (I can see a video a Missy E./P!nk-style)

***** Please Don't Stop (My most favorite track)

**** Erotic

***** No Other (My second favorite track)

**** Oh-Oh, Yeah-Yea

*** Playa Cardz Right

***** Brand New

*** Trust

***** Where This Love Could End Up

**** Beautiful Music

*** A Different Me "Outro"