The ABC'S Of Rock!

Here is a little treat for those of you who have children and would like to get them interested in rock music at an early age. The ABC'S Of Rock by Melissa Duke Mooney and The Print Mafia is a dynamite little picture book that has an A-Z listing of some of Rock music's finest talent.

Music Will Take Care of U

The most beautiful thing about music is its nature as a collaborative art form. Imagine your favorite rock song without the drums, bass, and guitar all working together.  Would Beethoven's Ninth move us to tears without the power of a full orchestra? And now the internet has opened avenues of musical exploration and collaboration never before possible. There is no better example of this than my new favorite CD from the library collection: "We're New Here" - an amazing collaboration between jazz poet legend Gil Scott-Heron and "The XX" producer Jamie XX.

It is a strange pairing: the raw style of recently deceased "bluesologist" Scott-Heron with the industrial, dubstep beats of Jamie XX.  But "We're New Here" is one part social message, one part slam poetry, and one part club smash blended to perfection. On the track "NY is Killing Me," Jamie XX weaves Scott-Heron's somber words "fast city ain't livin' all it's cracked up to be...New York is killing me" into a frantic dance tempo like a nightmare merry-go-round spun out of control. The track "Running" races forward on an absolutely stunning bass line, Scott-Heron preaching, "It's easier to run...than staying and finding out you're the only one that didn't run." My favorite track, "I'll Take Care of U," is a remix of Scott-Heron's previous cover of Bobby Benton's 1959 smash hit, "I'll Take Care of You" (hooray for collaboration)! Scott-Heron's vocals, raw and wounded, are layered atop soothing island drums and an awe-inspiring tribal breakdown. It is an amazing song - so good that rap superstar Drake used it as the title track of his latest album, "Take Care" (also available from the library).

Road Trip

As I prepare for a short vacation in San Diego one of the most important things is to select CDs for the drive. I am low-tech when it comes to music and I still buy CDs to play at home and in the car. There are so many elements to consider when packing road trip music: location, time, mood, weather, etc. Of course, your idea of what music goes with all of these elements will be different than mine, but this may help you pack your own road trip music.

Juguemos a Cantar

I remember being in a department store in Nogales, Sonora, Mexico with my parents and falling in love with an LP with a yellow jacket. On the front it had a stick figure girl wearing the type of dress that stick figure girls wear. She was holding balloons. On the back, tiny pictures of kids, each with a song title attributed to them. It was the first record that meant anything to me and my first true introduction to bubblegum pop. It was in Spanish.

It meant so much to me, still means so much to me, that I never gave it up. The LP itself is in pretty bad shape, warped and little scratched but it's still on my shelf. About a year ago, in a fit of nostalgia, I downloaded it and bought a CD copies for my own daughter, my best friend and her niece. I still remembered most of the songs enough to sing along with them. One funny thing about all of it, aside from the fact that Juguemos a Cantar feels like the soundtrack to my early childhood, was that the Queen of Mexican Pop, singer and actress Thalia was on that record. I had no idea who she was at the time and had no clue that I already knew her when she sang "Amor A La Mexicana."

I have to admit to not being a tremendous fan of Thalia's. I bought the album with "Amor A La Mexicana" on it because I liked it so much. It's a great song, the kinda song that gets stuck in my head whenever I hear it. I still loosely follow Thalia though. I mean, I know that she's married to Tommy Mottola, influential music executive and ex-husband of Mariah Carey and there were rumors that she had a rib or two removed for cosmetic reasons. But I digress. I don't think I really ever loved her music. But I LOVE some of her songs. Enough to give her another listen, even if just for the Mexican pop fan that I have hidden deep down inside but still definitely influences me, even if I don't often admit it.

Ahhh... memory lane. I just remembered a band called Flans that I used to do choreographed routines to with all the girls at Pio Decimo Center.

The Tucson Beat

I bet you didn't know Tucson had a pretty thriving music scene? Or I'm sure you probably did if you've lived in this great desert city long enough. Either way, this month I invite you to explore some great local music and musicians that call Tucson home. If you've gone out on any given weekend to the Downtown area or 4th Avenue you have likely seen some great diverse solo musicians and local bands play live. To support our local artists Pima County Public Library has a growing collection of local music available for you to check out at your local branch. It's a varied collection and a great way to get started exploring what Tucson has to offer musically.

Some great local musicians featured in the collection are local indie rock favorite Calexico, folksy pop singer Leila Lopez (similar sound to Ani DiFranco), Gabriel Sullivan and Taraf de Tucson (sound is a real fusion of rock, flamenco, reggae, and even Balkan Gypsy beats), or The Jons (a great local rock/latin alternative group that sing in both english and en español). Or listen to some Sergio Mendoza y La Orkesta, a great local band that specializes in mambo similar to the big band sound of Perez Prado. There is some local music to fill everyone's musical tastes. So start exploring local music at your library (check some out here!) and then get out there and see the musicans live at a Tucson musical venue near you!

-Marissa

More Rockumentaries - The Last Waltz, Festival Express

Continuing with my recent stretch of blogs on music documentaries (I have not been out to much live music lately, things should pick up in the Fall), and because the Joel D. Valdez Main Library has a display this month featuring music documentaries, today I am blogging about Festival Express and The Last Waltz (Happy would-be 70th Birthday to Jerry Garcia as of yesterday, August 1).  Read on to hear more about these great films.

Yeah...THAT Lisa Marie Presley...

Lisa Marie Presley. What do you think when you hear that name? Elvis' daughter? A spoiled heiress? Ex-wife to both Michael Jackson and Nicolas Cage? How about a songwriter/singer? Yes, indeed, Elvis' daughter seems to have inherited some of her legendary dad's musical ability. I'm pretty sure Elvis didn't have much involvement in writing the vast majority of the songs he sang, but Lisa Marie writes her own material (she generally writes all the lyrics and various songwriters come up with the melodies) and I think it's pretty impressive.