Here’s a song I wrote a couple of months ago. It’s a collaboration with my nephew, really. He’s 15, and he asked me to write a song for a school project. They were making a fictional short film about a dysfunctional family, and the song was meant to reflect the teenage daughter contemplating suicide. The lyric ideas are all his - pretty great, I think - a lot of emotion and teenage angst in there.

I put a gazillion effects onto the vocals, and I’m pretty happy with the end result. There’s a chilly ambience to the vocal and the track in general which is exactly what I was aiming for. I’m good!

OK, enough with the self indulgence already. Here is the track:

No Hope (Terje Fjelde / Endre Storli) © 2008 [download link]

Create Digital Music pointed me to Alltop, a headline aggregator with a really nice music page.

As CDM says, a great alternative to my already overloaded RSS flow in Google Reader.

I can’t see them lasting very long due to the intricate legal web that entangles the entire music industry, but the guys over at Muxtape (I’m assuming they’re guys here) have set up a cool service where you can create your own mixtape by uploading a maximum of 12 mp3s to their servers for streaming.

It’s a nice concept - people really seem to put some effort into their playlists, and I found more than a few of them to be quite agreeable (the lists, I mean. I don’t know anything about the people.)

I created this fine set of guilty pleasures (damn, I swore I would never use that phrase again) I mean, this fine set of classic pop and r&b [link to playlist here] Click and play, it’s that easy - and it’s just as easy to set up an account.

What the world needs now: A blog post about the voice behind “Theme from The Love Boat”.

My good blogger pal Robert just came up with a rather absurd reference to The Love Boat show in one of his entries, and of course that instantly reminded me of the *groovy* theme song by the distinguished Jack Jones (how couldn’t it?)

The Love Boat - Jack Jones

From my rather rural and definitely non-American perspective I never knew the first thing about mr. Jones until quite recently, when I listened to his 1997 album, New Jack Swing, where he performs swing versions of songs like “Every Breath You Take” and “She’s Leaving Home” - years before Paul Anka did the same on Rock Swings (2005).

I did some investigation and it turns out mr. Jones started his career almost 50 years ago as a kind of ‘1960s Michael Bublé: He won a couple of Grammys early on with his traditional pop records, combining old chestnuts with new material in the same vein. One of his biggest hits was “Wives and Lovers” (1963), something of a pet target for feminists in the 1970s, not without reason, mind you:

Hey, little girl, comb your hair, fix your make-up
Soon he will open the door
Don’t think because there’s a ring on your finger
You needn’t try anymore

Now that’s the way to talk to a lady, all you wimpy singer-songwriters of the 1970s! He still performs it, but always with a humorous approach to the sexist lyrics, he usually delivers a line like “It’s my biggest hit dammit, so I’m gonna sing it”.

After swaggering through the 1960s with his suave James Bond-style, he loosened up a bit post-Summer of Love - let his hair grow long(ish) and in 1973 he rocked out with an entire album of Bread-covers! (incredibly, another reference to Robert’s post)

This enjoyable Jack Jones Special aired around that time.

Jones also has several acting credits to his name. In addition to his guest appearances on “The Love Boat”, he was the star of the minor British horror flick “The Comeback” (1978) and he starred alongside Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon in a British TV comedy, “Cruise of the Gods” in 2002. I’m a bit curious about that one, as I loved the Coogan/Brydon-feature “Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story” (2005), and I’m also a big fan of Coogan’s Alan Partridge character.

At 70, Jack Jones continues to perform in Las Vegas and around the world, apparently to rave reviews, and nowadays he kinda looks like Moses without a beard. The silverfox!

He released his last album in 1998, a tribute to Tony Bennett.

Here he is, performing “The Days of Wine and Roses” with George Shearing live on Larry King:

I’m a piano player. Not a real piano player, but I play the piano. I know where to find the notes and the chords I need for my music. I’ve played the piano since I was 8, but I never had a single piano lesson due to unfortunate circumstances: a band instructor told me early on that the piano was for girly boys. Real men played the horn. I believed him.

Still, my band years did teach me to read notes. The problem is that I can’t read them fast enough when I’m sitting in front of the piano. So I’m basically playing by ear, and I’m not half-bad at it. And I have a pretty good ear when it comes to arrangements and piecing musical elements together.

But more than anything else, I feel like an impotent piano player. I will never have the drive, the overview, the fluency or the style of a trained pianist. It’s immensely frustrating, but the piano remains the most important thing in my life along with the people that I love and care for.

That feeling of impotence is never stronger than when I’m listening to jazz pianist Bill Evans. He’s my favorite piano player, and he moves me in ways no other musician has ever done. But every time I listen to his music I get just a little bit frustrated. To be quite honest, I sometimes even get frustrated beyond belief.

I know it’s completely irrational. He’s a world-class jazz pianist, possibly the finest the world has seen. Why would I even begin to compare myself with him?

It’s probably because his music describes my emotions so acurately. He describes my feelings way better than I’ll ever be able to domyself, musically or verbally. And even though I can hear what he is doing technically (sort of), I’ll never be able to replicate it, not even remotely so. Due to my limited technical abilities, my music will never be based primarily on raw (or refined) emotion, like his, but rather on the careful assembly of different parts. I’m not so much a musician as I’m a musical engineer.

Whatever. I bought the first tracks on Evans’ “The Last Waltz” yesterday, and they’re absolutely perfect.

“The Last Waltz” contains the final recordings of Bill Evans - he played nine nights live at Keystone Korner, San Francisco in September 1980. His trio at this point consisted of himself, Marc Johnson on bass and drummer Joe LaBarbera, and the support is flawless. It is widely considered as one of Evans’ finest recordings.

A week after his last performance at Keystone Korner, he died at 50.

Listen to the tracks on eMusic.

Dear friends. Here’s another song written, arranged and performed by yours truly.

As the title promises it’s heavily influenced by Prefab Sprout and Paddy McAloon. My beautiful wife plays the part of Wendy Smith and I’m the crooner, McAloon-style.

I’m trying to be a just a little bit clever lyric-wise, but alas, I’m no lyricist… I hope you enjoy this modest tribute to one of my favorite bands anyway.

The Prefab Song (Go Through That) [download]

If you read this, Jason: Sorry ’bout the parentheses, but I had no choice. It’s a good title.

Musical trends is a peculiar thing. I’ve given it some thought lately, and there really doesn’t seem to be much logic to it.

A major contribution to the shifting trends in music is the innate impulse for journalists to boost acts all the way to heaven with nothing but the highest of praise, only to tear them down unceremonially after a couple of years.

That seems to be the “golden” (not so golden in my eyes, though) rule of just about any kind of journalism - it’s some sort of self-containment: The journalists (or bloggers, for that matter) create their own universe with their little stories and reviews, and when we, the public, read them, they become real.

Think about poor Steve Forbert, for instance. A young fellow who released a couple of wonderful, smart and unassuming records in the late 1970s. The press hailed him as “the new Bob Dylan.”

Oh dear. That’s the kiss of death for any young, aspiring artist. What do you do when the world wants your next record to be “Highway 61 Revisited”, but you’re stuck with the fact that you’re Steve Forbert, 25, living in 1980?

You do the only thing you can do. You release another good Steve Forbert album - but by then that’s not what the public (or the record company) wanted. They wanted the young Bob Dylan. Not even Dylan could provide them with that. So, another two Steve Forbert records goes by with poor record sales and mediocre reviews and then it’s bye, bye Forbert. Sad thing is, his music was good all the way through!

I remember I was actually surprised when I witnessed Phil Collins’ fall from grace in the 1990s. He was pretty cool in the 1980s, and I remember I thought he was kind of immune to criticism because of his self-irony and humour. It didn’t even matter that he had a receding hairline and that he was the same age as my dad.

Besides, in many ways he defined “the modern sound” of the 1980s - the booming drums and the rich, bombastic production which, believe it or not, sounded very fresh to a teenager’s ears in 1985.

But then he went all “…but seriously” on us, and I think that contributed immeasurably to killing his immunity to criticism forever after.

That, and a whole bunch of other factors, it must be said.

In one way, grunge guitars did to him what he did to the soft wisp of Dan Fogelberg and the simplicity of punk rock a decade earlier, when he boomed’em all with his echo machine (Just for the record: I know I’m oversimplifying my case, possibly even misleading you - but it’s my blog and it’s therefore my privilege to do so.)

Nowadays, of course, we’re told that the grunge revolution was totally overrated.

I remember reading Q Magazine in 1990, a well-renowned British music magazine at the time. They summed up the best records of the decade. I don’t think I’m exaggerating too much when I tell you that, according to Q Magazine in 1990, about 75% of the best records of the 1980s were released between 1987 and 1989.

And the poorest year in music in the 1980s was voted, well of course: 1980.

So sorry, Devo, Stranglers, Joy Division, Dexy’s Midnight Runners, Echo and the Bunnymen, Talking Heads, The Jam, The Undertones, The Specials. You lost BIG time to the likes of George Michael, Def Leppard, Everything But the Girl, Lenny Kravitz, Madonna, Neneh Cherry and Faith No More.

I’m not totally convinced the result would be the same today.

Why do we have to hate the music we used to love just to be cool? Why does every thesis have to come with an antithesis?

Me, I’m an accumulative music lover. I’ve never really related to musical trends, and I think maybe that’s why I find it such an intriguing subject. It’s interesting to notice how people use music to adapt - to adjust their cool factor.

Consider Facebook, for instance. Why do people remove bands from their “favorite music” spot all the time? And I’m not talking about kids removing Fergie or Nelly after a couple of weeks.

I’m talking about people in their 30s suddenly realising that R.E.M. or Dire Straits isn’t worthy of a spot on their profile anymore. C’mon, guys! It’s been 15 years since the last Dire Strais release! If you love that stuff, you’ll know so by now. Or haven’t you decided yet? Did mr. Knopfler say something silly in the news last week?

I’m not stupid. I know people are adjusting their profile to reflect themselves in the best possible light. We’re all vain. We’re all insecure. But I’m still a little amused every time someone removes the Eagles or Rolling Stones from their Facebook profile.

…or not.

Anyways, I’m making a lot of music these days, so here are links for three more songs in mp3 format.

True Love and She Said are upbeat pop-rockers. I sang more or less constantly for 24 hours, and something happened to my voice. I think it’s kind of cool, but I don’t know - too much Bryan Adams? Or Richard Marx??

Left To Cry is a drumless ballad, it’s very simple - only 4 chords repeating themselves, but it kinda works…

The lyrics were assembled - as usual - within 10 minutes and with very little regard to rhyme or reason.

I actually tried to make some money off these tracks just for the fun of it over on amiestreet.com. I got a couple of recommendations and the tracks made a few cents each, but my income stream seems to have dried out by now - I’ve been stuck with a total of $2.84 for weeks - so I think it’s safe to offer them for download here…

And hopefully I’ll come up with something interesting to write about soon… well - I never seem to write about anything interesting - but I’ll be back writing about something, that’s for sure.

My head is about as empty as the void between Ernest Borgnine’s front teeth these days.

Hurry! Head on over to the music site Amie Street this morning. They have a lot of new partners and labels, and you can get a a good deal on some pretty fine music at no cost if you’re fast enough. They’ve rolled out a bunch of really good artists on their site today.

Their model is quite brilliant, I think. All songs start out as free tracks, and then the price starts to rise as the tracks become more popular. All MP3 - no DRM.

At the moment there are free tracks by Barenaked Ladies, Josh Rouse, Griffin House, Melissa McClelland (brilliant), Adrienne Pierce, The Clumsy Lovers, Chantal Kreviazuk, Sarah McLachlan, Guggenheim Grotto - probably many more, but I haven’t got the time - I need to get back there to buy more music - for the price of free!!

I’m certainly no AC/DC fan, and thank God for that. Today the band announced that they skip iTunes in favor of an exclusive deal with Verizon’s online music store, PC World reports.

So, as iTunes move in a slightly more customer-friendly direction with their fresh deal with EMI, providing DRM-free files with better sound quality, Angus and Malcolm get concerned about their petty pennies and decide to locate their income base elsewhere.

If you’re an aspiring AC/DC fan and want to buy their “Highway to Hell” album online now, you’ll have to pay $11.99 for a DRM-infected, product-specific, Microsoft-dependent music file in an unknown quality (a quick browse on Verizon’s site didn’t reveal whether it was in 128, 256 or 56 kbps quality - I’m sure it’s there somewhere, though.)

In addition you cannot download a single track - you have to buy the entire album!

Now, you can get the same album on CD for $9,97 on Amazon. I don’t really know what AC/DC are trying to do here - a poorer product and a higher price - maybe they just want people to buy the CD? But I suspect it’s the same old concept that seems to drive most of the music industry at the moment - blind and stupid greed.