Am just discovering the artist known as Moondog, aka the Viking of 6th Street, aka Louis Hardin, 1916-1999, born in Kansas, dead in Berlin. If he weren’t real I’d have insisted that Thomas Pynchon made him up. A homeless, blind street musician ends up composing symphonies for the London Philharmonic and dying a respected genius in Germany. Yes, please! Have so far loved the 1969 self-titled Moondog and am listening currently to 1997’s Sax Pax for a Sax.
In other news, the latest My Morning Jacket kicks ass.
This Moondog loon is pretty remarkable. Another outSTANding OWA recommendation. I’m listening to the self titled record now. Actually, I have no idea who titled it, so let’s just call it the eponymous record. Anyway, I’m following Knox’s lead and will eagerly move on to Sax Pax for a Sax. Just the other day I was thinking about how much I love saxophone ensembles (don’t @ me) and how much I love the World Saxophone Quartet in particular and that I should dig up the music of theirs I have, so this is an especially serendipitous discovery.
Riffing off of that, I’m now listening to Aztec Camera (while I e-sign a pile of docs), who had a couple of World Saxophone Quartet cameos back in the day.
It’s amazing to contemplate how great Roddy Frame was when he was 19. He quickly veered off into areas that didn’t interest me very much (I don’t know Stray, for example, and allow that he might have veered back by then), but that first record and parts of the next two or so are astounding.
I remember as a kid listening to Janis Joplin Live in Concert and before introducing “All is Loneliness” she refers to Moondog as the writer (Paraphrasing) “This guy who stands on a New York street corner selling songs he’s written.” Many years later, I finally looked him up online and couldn’t believe all he had done. Good stuff.
MMJ has been my favorite band going on 17 yrs now. I discovered them on a layover in NYC listening to NPR’s World Cafe and was hooked. I’ve seen them going on 10 times now and recently saw them at The Santa Barbara Bowl last September- they are a superb live act and always bring it. Bought tickets yesterday for their upcoming show in Austin in late April and of course in Santa Barbara in August.
And yes, the new album is solid.
The continuing adventures of the boys and girls at Blang is now an ongoing YouTube magazine: “Blanguished”. Of course, they put Paul as the thumbnail for Ep 1, ensuring that no one actually clicks on it.
