Peaky Blinders

I have lately found myself in the grip of Peaky Blinders, a Netflix offering of a Brit TV two-season set of episodes set in post-WW1 gangster-ridden Birmingham and London.  Just finished it, and am eagerly awaiting a forthcoming season three.  Part of what makes Peaky Blinders great for me is the music, mostly from Nick Cave, but also including PJ Harvey, The White Stripes, Tom Waits, The Kill, The Arctic Monkeys, and more.  Did I mention Nick Cave?  Anyway, there are playlists to be found through the simple act of Googling, such as this YouTube playlist which includes ...



Or something like this. Or this (Spotify).

One thing DOES lead to another ...

Today I was wandering around on the Wall Street Journal's site, looking for an article I had read about in my morning's Quartz newsfeed that purportedly suggested that the Web is dying, but as I am not a subscribed WSJ user, I could only read the first paragraph or so. (But I later was able to track down the rebuttal, which bears out my experience in my professional life working in the Web industry.)  So I started looking at other WSJ stories and came upon this one about the origins of Joni Mitchell's "Carey" track on her famous Blue album.  And here it is.  Turns out that Carey [sic] was real and part of her experience in 1970.  Listen up.

Roomful of Teeth

This cutting edge choral group hits NPR's Tiny Desk Concerts recently.

Meshell at KCRW

It's no secret that I am a fervent Meshell Ndegeocello fan. Here is a recent performance at my old hometown station in Santa Monica:

Yasmine Hamdan

The songs of Lebanese singer-songer Yasmine Hamdan from her Ya Nass album, with its arresting arrangements, a recent addition to my music library, have been filling my ears for the last couple of days. Here is a performance, said to be unrehearsed, with guitarist Gabriel Gordon whom she met only a few hours earlier.

Sister O.M. Terrell

Who is Sister O.M. Terrell? Check out this NPR piece by musicologist Bruce Nemerov

Storyboard P

Kim discovered this guy from a New Yorker read and passed it along.  Here are just a couple of the many terrific video clips of Storyboard P you can find on YouTube: