WELCOME TO THE POCKIT ROCKIT BLOG!
For kicks, here are a couple of options for background music/downloading. They're meant to feel good as you read the blog intro. To be clear, these tracks are meant for discovery purposes. So, if you like any of these songs, you are warmly encouraged to buy as much material as possible by the artist in question. Artists: if you do not wish for your songs to be presented here, please feel free to contact me and your song will be removed immediately, with respect.
Nostalgia Track: Free To Be You And Me by Marlo Thomas and Friends. I never realized this song's associative power until I started getting responses after I put it on my wedding CD. They used to play this movie for us in grade school.
Uplifting Indie Pop Track: Tonight We Fly by Divine Comedy. Well-known to legions of (primarily European) fans, this is too life-affirming of a song to fear its familiarity. In that sense, it's similar to Earth Wind & Fire's "Fantasy."
Out-Of-Print Funk Track: Shoot-Kickin' Instrumental from the Chains & Black Exhaust compilation. No idea who recorded this. What is clear is that it has one of the coolest intros in funk history. Kicks my booty every time and it always feels great.
Underrated Alternative-Era Classic Rock Track: Stardog Champion by Mother Love Bone. Theoretically, these guuys woulda been the bridge between Guns 'N Roses and Pearl Jam. The band did, in fact, become Pearl Jam, after their star front man OD'ed and they recruited a new vocalist, Eddie Vedder.
I'm Ari and, towards the end of 2005, I compiled a Zagat-like music guide book called The Pockit Rockit Music Finder 2.0. The gist was to make music discovery as fast, fun, and easy as possible by using the classic, "if you like X, then you might like Y" methodology. I've decided to put together this blog as a sort of backwoods and sideroads appendage to that book and its web-site, pockitrockit.com. While on that site, I'm trying to compile every conceivable musical connection that you and I can think of, this blog is where I can focus on highlighting a song or two a day. Songs that strike me as special in some way. Songs that I'd like to share. Songs that might connect to something you already know and love and help to take you down roads you've never explored. Songs that might simply connect to a certain mood and the feeling that it conjures. The goal is still the same: getting turned on--discovery.
A friend of mine has records worth over $2500. I don't. He looks for albums that have been printed in editions of four and a half copies. I don't. When I think of spending $2500 on an album, my mind immediately turns to the comparable value of 400 hypothetical CDs I could explore instead, hopefully unveiling some mysterious revelations that could never be forseen: the disc with the bizarro-bikers-in-space artwork, to the disc whose band lists 15 vocalists, 10 keyboardists, and a drummer, to the disc from 1972 that was never officially released but lists Black Sabbath's guitarist, Tony Iommi, as its producer. I'd have no idea what any of these discs would sound like but I'd be very certain that I'd really, really like to know.
So that's what it's about: that kind of curiosity and the ultimate thrill of discovery. That thrill 's where most of the fun happens, more than in prizing obscurity for its own sake (as tempting as that can be). The discovery I'm hoping to share could be in the shape of a lesser-known song by a very well-known artist. It could be a track by an artist you may have heard of, but never really listened to. It could be a track by a band known well within a little niche but not so well-known outside of it. And, then again, it could be a completely, hopelessly, out of the blue rarity. If I can be at least useful on a daily basis, while providing a little dusting of magic every now and then, then we're on the right track.
Last note: if you're really trying to find tasty stuff that's similar to some of your favorite artists, definitely let me know. No promises but, if the inspiration kicks in, I'd love to help you find what you're looking for.
Cheers,
Ari
For kicks, here are a couple of options for background music/downloading. They're meant to feel good as you read the blog intro. To be clear, these tracks are meant for discovery purposes. So, if you like any of these songs, you are warmly encouraged to buy as much material as possible by the artist in question. Artists: if you do not wish for your songs to be presented here, please feel free to contact me and your song will be removed immediately, with respect.
Nostalgia Track: Free To Be You And Me by Marlo Thomas and Friends. I never realized this song's associative power until I started getting responses after I put it on my wedding CD. They used to play this movie for us in grade school.
Uplifting Indie Pop Track: Tonight We Fly by Divine Comedy. Well-known to legions of (primarily European) fans, this is too life-affirming of a song to fear its familiarity. In that sense, it's similar to Earth Wind & Fire's "Fantasy."
Out-Of-Print Funk Track: Shoot-Kickin' Instrumental from the Chains & Black Exhaust compilation. No idea who recorded this. What is clear is that it has one of the coolest intros in funk history. Kicks my booty every time and it always feels great.
Underrated Alternative-Era Classic Rock Track: Stardog Champion by Mother Love Bone. Theoretically, these guuys woulda been the bridge between Guns 'N Roses and Pearl Jam. The band did, in fact, become Pearl Jam, after their star front man OD'ed and they recruited a new vocalist, Eddie Vedder.
I'm Ari and, towards the end of 2005, I compiled a Zagat-like music guide book called The Pockit Rockit Music Finder 2.0. The gist was to make music discovery as fast, fun, and easy as possible by using the classic, "if you like X, then you might like Y" methodology. I've decided to put together this blog as a sort of backwoods and sideroads appendage to that book and its web-site, pockitrockit.com. While on that site, I'm trying to compile every conceivable musical connection that you and I can think of, this blog is where I can focus on highlighting a song or two a day. Songs that strike me as special in some way. Songs that I'd like to share. Songs that might connect to something you already know and love and help to take you down roads you've never explored. Songs that might simply connect to a certain mood and the feeling that it conjures. The goal is still the same: getting turned on--discovery.
A friend of mine has records worth over $2500. I don't. He looks for albums that have been printed in editions of four and a half copies. I don't. When I think of spending $2500 on an album, my mind immediately turns to the comparable value of 400 hypothetical CDs I could explore instead, hopefully unveiling some mysterious revelations that could never be forseen: the disc with the bizarro-bikers-in-space artwork, to the disc whose band lists 15 vocalists, 10 keyboardists, and a drummer, to the disc from 1972 that was never officially released but lists Black Sabbath's guitarist, Tony Iommi, as its producer. I'd have no idea what any of these discs would sound like but I'd be very certain that I'd really, really like to know.
So that's what it's about: that kind of curiosity and the ultimate thrill of discovery. That thrill 's where most of the fun happens, more than in prizing obscurity for its own sake (as tempting as that can be). The discovery I'm hoping to share could be in the shape of a lesser-known song by a very well-known artist. It could be a track by an artist you may have heard of, but never really listened to. It could be a track by a band known well within a little niche but not so well-known outside of it. And, then again, it could be a completely, hopelessly, out of the blue rarity. If I can be at least useful on a daily basis, while providing a little dusting of magic every now and then, then we're on the right track.
Last note: if you're really trying to find tasty stuff that's similar to some of your favorite artists, definitely let me know. No promises but, if the inspiration kicks in, I'd love to help you find what you're looking for.
Cheers,
Ari
posted by pockitrockit at 1:56 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home