Miles Davis

Talk about a cool cat! This guy is the coolest. Miles Davis is undisputedly one of the most important musicians in modern times. His career spanned a good 70 years and most of the evolutionary phases of jazz, particularly modal and fusion.

Of all his albums, my three favorites are Kind of Blue, Miles Smiles, and In A Silent Way. If you're a cool kitten who's new to Davis, I recommend starting with any one of these three albums.

Davis has partnered up with nearly all of the great blues and jazz players. John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley, Chick Corea, and my favorite, Herbie Hancock (pictured at left) are just a few. 
Try these samples from Miles Smiles: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkUULYE-LAA and In A Silent Way:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llVl62Ra9bQ. Here's a cut from Kind of Blue: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoPL7BExSQU

There's almost too much to say about Miles Davis and his musical contributions, and I probably could write all day on this cat and still just scratch the surface. Instead, here's a link to the Wikipedia entry, and you can read as much or as little as you want: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miles_Davis

Peace out!

Olu Dara & Daughtry

This artist may be miss-filed, alphabetically. My person contends that Dara is his last name. I was under the impression that "Olu Dara" means "God is good," which would make it his whole name. To settle our disagreement, we consulted Wikipedia and discovered that his name is actually Charles Jones, III, so now, we're really confused. For the time being, the album In the World is in the D section. This is what happens when you don't have opposable thumbs and have to depend on your person to get things off the shelf for you.

Whatever his name is, Olu Dara is a versatile musician. He plays the guitar, trumpet, and cornet, and sings. He plays jazz and blues, funk, reggae, and In the World also has an African flavor. The lyrics range widely from topics such as okra (who'd have thought to write a song about this vegetable?), shopping, rain, and his girlfriend's lips. My favorite line is "Your lips, your lips, your lips, your lips are juicy." Reminds me of when my own lips have been wrapped around a delicious mouse. Enjoy your own mouse while listening: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Qs1DDGjUw0

You probably remember Chris Daughtry as the intense, sultry cowboy contestant on American Idol in 2006. (Did I actually just describe someone as a "sultry cowboy?" Oh, well, if the boot fits...) After getting booted off the show, Chris turned down an offer to be Fuel's lead singer and formed his own band, which has been touring ever since. 

Chris' voice is very manly, as are his shaved head and exaggerated sideburns. My cat friends and I constantly wonder about humans and the odd things they like to do with their fur. The most well-known cuts on this first album are "What About Now" and "It's Not Over." The thing that disappoints me about Daughtry is that he has this powerful rocker voice, but he usually sings about insipid country music subjects: his truck, getting out of jail, getting married. Seems like a bad pairing of talent and genre. You can see what I mean at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQ92eyxnxmQ&feature=relmfu  It's another miss-file, if you ask me. 

Peace out!

The Crystal Method

No, this isn't me. I just saw this photo online and thought it went well with this week's review. Surely, this cat is a fan of The Crystal Method and has been to a rave or two in his life. The first time I encountered The Crystal Method's music was on the soundtrack of the movie, 3000 Miles to Graceland, so let me tell you a little bit about that, first. 

No matter what you've heard about the film, there are several reasons why you should watch it: 1) The animated, fast-forward introduction is amazing; 2) The casino shootout scene is perfectly choreographed and should be a music video by itself; 3) Kurt Russell is trans-splendent as an Elvis impersonator. Oh, and my person wants me to tell you a fourth reason. She says the sex scene between Courtney Cox and Kurt Russell is as hot as it gets. She says, "watch for the hand on the ankle." I can't explain this any further, because cat sex does not involve hands or ankles. 

The are only two flaws in the film: The final shootout is simply embarrassing. Bad-guy Ice T comes zooming across the screen hanging up-side-down from a cable, two guns a-blazing. He immediately gets shot to pieces and then just hangs there like a sack of kitty litter. Extremely lame. Also, there is a technical inaccuracy in the background scenery when the action moves to Boise, Idaho. I've been to Boise, and that's not what it looks like.

A line in the film, "some freaky-deaky level 9 kind of shit," perfectly describes The Crystal Method, which brings me (finally!) to my review. This is techno/electronic music at its best. The albums carry parental advisories because the lyrics concern sex and drug use ("Why don't you trip like I do" is typical), but I wouldn't classify them as "profane" in any way. It's The Crystal Method's energy that is intoxicating. My person always puts them on when she's cleaning house, and you should see her zoom around with the dust rag!

My favorite album is Vegas, one of their earliest. The strongest cut is "Vapor Trail," which was featured in 3000 Miles to Graceland. You'll recognize this cut and others from other films and (I think) even TV.
The Crystal Method sounds like a whole group of people, but it's really just two guys and a lot of electronic equipment. Not a problem: for this kind of music, that's all it takes.
Here's "Roll It Up," another of my favorites. Watch for the fish! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CC65vDqgHxc&feature=related 
Peace out!

Sheryl Crow

Again, with the crows! Although, this time it's just one person, rather than a whole group (see my February review of The Black Crowes). Sheryl Crow figures prominently in my person's "Angry Women of the '90s" collection, but she seems to have more staying power than most of the others, primarily due to an ability to successfully reinvent herself as a musician. 
We spent most of the afternoon listening to the Crow oeuvre and drinking beer, entirely because of the song, "All I Wanna Do," in which Crow describes her afternoon drinking beer with "Bill or Billy or Mac or Buddy" in "a bar that faces a giant car wash." Actually, my person drank the beer; I indulged in my substance of choice: catnip.
Enjoy the music video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6zIEfSxqkg

But I digress. Crow seems equally comfortable with rock, folk, hip hop, pop, and country music. Proof of this are the nine Grammy awards she's scored. Her music shows a lot of versatility; unlike many artists, she can be peppy and up-beat as well as pensive, hard-edged and sweetly soft. She's definitely not a one-note musician. She's also adept at performing with other artists, such as Kid Rock ("Picture"), Mick Jagger, and even Michael Jackson. She has sold over 35 million albums worldwide, and she's still going strong; her latest album, 100 Miles from Memphis, was released in 2010.
Crow just turned 50, and I heard that she appeared on the ABC TV show, Cougar Town, which is not, as I originally thought, about the great wild cats, but, instead, is about older women who like younger men. Not that there's anything wrong with that. (My person made me write that last sentence, because she's a bit of a cougar herself, but don't tell her I said so.)
Cougar or not, Sheryl Crow and her music have what it takes to make me sit up and say, "Mmrowl!"
Peace out!