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Happy 76th to Yoko Ono.

"Hell in Paradise" - 1985

Sorry this is becoming a Yoko Ono blog as of late, but I'm immersed in her work for a project. Cool vid though. Notice it was on 120 Minutes!

Review: Yoko Ono - Yes I'm a Witch (2007)

This review is overdue. I didn't get the disc until a month or so after it was released, and then I had to ship it back for a replacement. Wait no longer, dear readers!

Following the incredibly disappointing Stooges record, I'm pleased to report that the latest project from another one of my favorites was well worth the purchase.

Of course, this isn't really a 'new' Yoko Ono album. Rather, it's a compilation of tracks spanning Ono's career, remixed and reinterpreted by a slew of contemporary artists. I can't even call this a straight 'remix album,' because it isn't. Certainly, that's true of some tracks (Peaches, Blow Up, Shitake Mushroom, etc.), but others are somewhere between covers and remixes (The Flaming Lips, Cat Power, Antony) - so I'll call them reinterpretations. I hesitate to say that they effectively 'update' Yoko Ono's music for the modern age, because so much of her work was ahead of its time to begin with (a point illustrated by her reevaluation in the last decade ).

The artists involve are essentially a who's who in modern music: Peaches, Le Tigre, DJ Spooky, Apples in Stereo, Cat Power, The Polyphonic Spree, Antony (of Antony and the Johnsons), The Flaming Lips, Public Enemy's Hank Shocklee and The Sleepy Jackson (another group I discovered via IckMusic). There are also a handful of artists that I'm not familiar with yet, based on their contributions to Yes, I'm a Witch, I'm compelled to check them out (particularly Shitake Monkey and Blow Up).

I'm not going to say every track is great. But each is at least interesting. I'm not particularly fond of Jason Pierce's reworking of the classic "Walking on Thin Ice," for example. But I applaud him for completely altering the feel of the song. Whereas the original is indisputably dance oriented, Pierce has made it into a sparse, low tempo piece. It's a complete recontextualization, which is what remixes ought to be - not simply slapping a throbbing house beat over a track.

Along those lines, perhaps the most impressive of these tracks is The Flaming Lips' take on "Cambridge 1969," originally from Unfinished Music no. 2: Life with the Lions. The original is a 25 minute sonic experiment (performed live, I might add) featuring only Lennon's guitar feedback and Ono's voice. The Lips have taken the piece and reworked it with a melody, making it almost (note I said *almost*) a pop track.

Other highlights are Blow Up's take on "Everyman Has a Woman Who Loves Him," Le Tigre's "Sisters O Sisters," DJ Spooky's "Rising" (the original being a personal favorite of mine), and Peaches remix of "Kiss Kiss Kiss."

I'll share the latter with you. Even before hearing it, I thought to myself "This is the perfect song for Peaches to remix." And it doesn't disappoint.

Peaches-"Kiss Kiss Kiss"

For some reason, Amazon has waited a week to ship my order of Open Your Box, a compilation of remixes from the last 7 years of Ono's work. Ah well. Enjoy the track, and enjoy the weekend.

Again, posts will be sporadic for the next month or so, but I'll try to post when I'm procrastinating (like right now).

Live Hate at Beatlefest

This is one of the better things I found this weekend. The band is the Tater Totz. I used to play them on my radio show in college, although I've forgotten about them until coming upon this clip. From what I remember, they were basically a noise rock band who did a lot of covers of 1960s rock, including a lot of Beatles. For their appearance at a Beatlefest convention in the late 1980s, they figured the Plastic Ono Band was fair game for a tribute battle of the bands. I applaud them loudly for doing so.

recent mix#2: Onomix.

A while ago I told my friend Stephanie that I would make her an all Yoko Ono mix. Admittedly, my offer was more self-serving than anything. What would an all Yoko mix even look like? I ended up making her a different mix instead, and it fell by the wayside. Then, following a recent presentation in my sound and voice seminar where I played "Don't Worry Kyoko" for my classmates, Matt asked for an all Yoko mix. So they're both getting copies.

This was actually much more difficult to pare down to 80 minutes than I would have thought. After working through all of my Yoko discs (Onobox, Rising, Blueprint for a Sunrise) and ripping what I wanted, I ended up with a playlist over 3.5 hours long. I kept paring it down, but when it got to be about 2 hours, this got very difficult. I had to make some sacrifices. Who would have thought? At any rate, I'm pleased with the result. It spans her entire career (save the latest disc, which isn't new originals anyway), and is extremely varied in styles. Coincidentally, I finished this earlier today, only to find out that it is her 74th birthday today. Crazy coincidence! So happy birthday to Yoko. I actually think I'm going to do a paper on her this semester, but more on that later.

1. Mind Holes
2. Open Your Box
3. Don't Worry, Kyoko (Mummy's Only Looking for a Hand in the Snow)
4. Yangyang
5. Approximately Infinite Universe
6. I Felt Like Smashing My Face in a Clear Glass Window
7. What a Mess
8. Woman Power
9. Yes, I'm a Witch
10. O'oh
11. We're All Water
12. Walking on Thin Ice
13. Kiss, Kiss, Kiss
14. Give Me Something
15. Every Man Has a Woman Who Loves Him
16. You're the One
17. Ask the Dragon
18. Talking to the Universe
19. I Want You To Remember Me -A-
20. I Want You To Remember Me -B-
21. It's Time for Action!