Category: Music

  In my opinion, one of the best albums of the year is one you may not have heard of: Picaresque by The Decemberists, released in May of this year. The Decemberists, if you haven’t heard of them, write some brainy-yet-catchy indie pop with a dark sense of humour, with their subject matter often set in old Europe in the age of empires. If Melville’s Ishmael (Moby Dick) or Conrad’s Marlow (Heart of Darkness) had packed MP3 players to pass the time while on their ships, they’d have included Decemberists MP3s in their sets.

I have a couple of favourite tracks on this album — the anti-war Sixteen Military Wives (the video for which is available via Bittorrent) which features some of the catchiest pop hooks this side of Ben Folds, and The Mariner’s Revenge Song, a sea chanty in which the accordion is very prominently featured. It’s a delicious tale of a man who seeks revenge on the man who seduced and then bankrupted his widowed mother. I offer this song to you as today’s Advent calendar goodie [6.0MB, MP3] and recommend that you buy the album. Enjoy!

In Tagalog, “Merry Christmas” is “Maligayang Pasko”,

and I’m going to try and dig up some MP3s of Filipino Christmas songs

for this Advent calendar. A combination of the warm weather and Spanish influence makes Filipino carols

a little bouncier than your typical North American or European ones,

many of which are a bit too solemn for this party animal’s liking.

Filipino traditions have considerable overlap with Mexican traditions

thanks to the fact that the distances involved made it necessary to

administer the Philippines not from Original Recipe Spain, but Extra

Crispy New Spain, a.k.a. Mexico. I can’t think of  better way to

celebrate this overlap and Christmas at the same time — other than

throwing a tequila-fueled bacchanal at my apartment — than to share this cover of Feliz Navidad (that’s “Merry Christmas” in Spanish) by El Vez [4.0MB, MP3] the Mexican Elvis. Enjoy!

Enter the Dragon was the movie that introduced Bruce Lee (Lee Jun Fan) to North

American audiences. Lalo Schifrin composed the original Theme to Enter the Dragon [2.9 MB, MP3], a 70’s

action-flick approach to kung fu movie music. A couple of decades

later, the Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra would update this number with a

rollicking ska rhythm. Here you go: Enter the Dragon (Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra version) [3.7MB, MP3].

Some music for day eight of the Accordion Guy Advent Calendar — all the way from Algieria, here’s Rachid Taha’s Rock el Casbah [5.7MB, MP3], his cover of The Clash’s Rock the Casbah. It’s off his album Tekitoi, a term that is derived from the French “T’es qui, toi?” — “You — who are you?”.

Here’s a little blurb about Taha:

‘My music has always been more influenced by chaabi

(old style pop, mainly from Algiers & Ed) which I’ve always loved

because of its poetry and rebelliousness.’ After leaving Carte de

Sejour at the end of the 1980s, Taha teamed up with the British

producer and trance meister Steve Hillage to record a series of classic

albums including ‘OlÈ OlÈ’, the most recent ‘Made in Medina’ and the

classic ‘Diwan’, which features Taha’s monster hit cover of ‘Ya Rayah’,

an old song written by the Algerian Berber legend Dahmane El Harrachi.

With its expert blending of North African roots, rock and house

inspired electronica, ‘Diwan’ is nothing less than a template for the

future development of North African music. Above all Rachid Taha is a

great showman, delivering rude-boy witticisms and hilarious insights

with sweaty passion whilst his band fire off raucous rock riffs and

snakey Arabic melodies. It’s a clear case of never mind the world music

bollocks, here’s Rachid Taha.

For day 6 of the Accordion Guy Advent Calendar, how about something a little more Christmas-related? Here’s The Joys of Christmas [5.1MB, MP3], an essay written and narrated by British musician, DJ on BBC’s excellent 6 Music radio station and all-round cool guy Tom Robinson. Tom’s show is The Evening Sequence

and runs from 7:00 p.m. to 9:30 pm UK time (2:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Eastern Standard Time). The music selection is quite good and he often

has great interviews and presentations to boot.

(Those of you around my age may remember Tom’s songs: Power in the Darkness, 2-4-6-8 Motorway, War Baby and Atmospherics. Accordion City residents may remember Atmospherics as Listen to the Radio, which was also covered by odd-but-good band The Pukka Orchestra.)

P-Nort and the crew IN THA HIZZLE TO CAP THA VIZZLE! And hopefully, it won’t slow down your procizzle or thrash your hard drizzle.

[via Teaching the Indie Kids to Dance Again] Here’s a little musical biscuit you might want to choke down only once: Symantec Revolution [2.6MB MP3], a song promoting Symantec (the people behind Norton Antivirus) based on the 1991 hit Good Vibrations by Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch.

The lyrics name-drop Symantec CEO John Thompson and boast of how “No-ki-a and Chevron think we’re tough!”. Here’s a sample from the breakdown:

Enterprise is hot, I’m telling you

Do we know e-commerce? You bet we do!

Shelf space means the world to us

‘Cause our brands are causing quite a fuss

(Bass!) We’re the leader in internet security

People trust our work implicitly

This world-wide conference is to prove

Symantec is hot, hot, hot, so raise the roof!

Any more street and they’d be “C.J.” from Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

If this song doesn’t want you to jump up and install some anti-virus software on your computer right this instant, you’re probably in good company.