Everything you always wanted to know about music genres but were afraid to ask!

On the amazing website Every Noise at Once you find samples of 1436 styles on one map:

For no reason a‘ all: My tribute to London pub rock duo Chas & Dave

I am predominantly into ‚black music‘ (resp., for the more politically correct readers, into funk, soul, hip-hop, blues, and gospel), plus gutsy and/or soulful country.

But there also are other kinds of artists, which – to me – are the musical equivalent of ‚comfort food‘. For many decades, I have been loving Chas & Dave – since „Ain’t No Pleasing You“ (1982) …

„Eminent Hipsters“: Grouchy Donald Fagen Slams TV Babies and Coco Chanel („She F*cked Igor Strawinsky Into a Reactionary Spin!“)

I had lots of fun listening to emusic’s audio book version of Donald Fagen’s „Eminent Hipsters“, read by himself. It is not a regular autobiography but a collection of articles, „from portraits of the cultural figures and currents that shaped him as a youth to an account of his college days and of life on the road“ (publisher’s description). The book is both insightful and hilarious.

The main piece is a grouchy diary of a The Dukes of September Rhythm Revue tour Steely Dan’s Donald Fagen did with Michael McDonald and Boz Scaggs from 2010. Favorite quote: „By the way, I’m not posting this journal on the Internet. Why should I let you lazy, spoiled TV Babies read it for nothing in the same way you download all those songs my partner and I sacrificed our entire youth to write and record, not to mention the miserable, friendless childhoods we endured that left us with lifelong feelings of shame and self-reproach we were forced to countervail with a fragile grandiosity and a need to constantly prove our self-worth — in short, with the sort of personality disorders that ultimately turned us into performing monkeys?“

Chris Isaak: Return of the Rockabilly Romeo (sowie ein paar Worte über Roy Orbison und Chris‘ Porno-Vergangenheit)

Falls sich jemand fragt, was Chris Isaak dieser Tage so treibt: Er hat gestern eine wunderbare Doppel-CD mit einem Tribut ans Rhythm- & Blues-, Rockabilly- und Rock’n’Roll-Label Sun Records aus Nashville veröffentlicht. Ein Label, das Künstler wie Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison und auch einen gewissen Elvis Presley bekannt machte. Titel des Tributs: „Beyond the Sun“. Eine kleine Kostprobe gefällig?