RADIO HANNIBAL

Radio Hannibal Best of 1983

Still counting backwards through time as reach 1983 and the best songs of that year.  I kept noticing how much great music came out in 1982.  I look forward to putting that together. 

 

24 hours of zen music

About a year ago I began to practice yoga.  It coincided with my fundamental change in diet.  In other words, my 2015 new year's resolution was a major success through discipline and a strong mindset.  I can't wait for the 2016 resolution to reap rewards. 

Yoga is very much about music.  Music that's sometimes maligned by the music snobs.  The new age genre elicits plenty of snide comments on it's lack of true musicality, whatever that might be.  It was announced that Yanni is coming to Cleveland this summer and, sure enough, the comments popped up on Facebook.  

I used to be one of those who derided spiritual music of this sort.  With maturity comes wisdom.  This sort of music can be good for the soul.  It's not so much about listening as it is creating a vibe in your environment. 

I've been using SiriusXM's Krishna Das Yoga Radio for my yoga sessions but it tends to be more about chanting and meditation.  I decided to create my own Spotify playlist.  All I did was google search for articles on the best yoga music.  I ended up with 24 hours of bliss.  Enjoy. 

Namaste - 24 hours of yoga music

There's a starman waiting in the sky

How did I miss the reports of David Bowie battling cancer for the past 18 months.  Knowing that would have certainly helped soften the gut punch I took upon awakening to the fact that one my musical idols was gone.  That was two hours ago.  I'm still stunned and deeply saddened. 

David Bowie is the artist who truly opened up the world to me.  The discovery of Bowie's music and, in particular the Ziggy Stardust record which is my second favorite album of all time, coincided with my move from top 40 to progressive rock on the radio dial.  He influenced my musical taste at the time, turning me on to the likes of Roxy Music, Mott The Hoople, Kraftwerk, Iggy Pop, Lou Reed and others.   

I can recall as a naive kid stopping in Disc Records at Westgate weekly to see if the Aladdin Sane album had been released yet.  Obviously I bought it the week it finally did arrive.  The same pattern of waiting anxiously for new Bowie continued for years and every album seemed like a new beginning with a new character.  The original rock and roll chameleon.  

I was curious to see what radio stations might abandon their format this morning to concentrate on the music of David Bowie.  Surely WNCX, Cleveland's classic rock station would.  Nope.  I knew the BBC's 6 Music would be though and have found great solace in listening to the songs and shared remembrance texts and emails being read and shared by the DJs.

I want to go to a bar after work and singalong to Bowie's music with friends.  I hope you can join me.  

 

 

Revisiting the 101 best Springsteen songs 5 years later, a throwback Thursday

Today's Thursday or on Facebook some know it as "throwback Thursday".  That got me to wondering what I was blogging about, say, five years ago.  Well, I took a look and discovered that one of the rare contributors to Radio Hannibal was in the midst of a very lengthy project, The 101 songs of Bruce Springsteen.

 

The countdown, which included lengthy and personal essays on each song, was written by an Aussie I'd met through a music message board.  It took months to write and publish the entire list. 

With Springsteen kicking off his tour a week from Saturday in Pittsburgh I thought it would be fun to look back on it. 

Who we lost in 2015

RIP...

Lemmy

 

Bonnie Lou

 

Stevie Wright

 

Scott Weiland

 

Allen Toussaint

 

Cory Wells

 

Phil Woods

 

Gary Richrath

 

Rico Rodriguez

 

Cilla Black

 

Chris Squire

 

Ornette Coleman

 

James Last

 

Ronnie Gilbert

 

BB King

 

Errol Brown

 

Ben E King

 

Percy Sledge

 

Ralph Sharon

 

Jack Ely

 

Lesley Gore

 

Little Jimmy Dickens

 

Billy Joe Royal

 

Lynn Anderson

 

 

 

 

Andy Cirzan's annual Christmas obscura

If you've seen the documentary Jingle Bell Rocks then you know of Andy Cirzan.  He's one of the colorful characters who collect obscure Christmas music that are featured in the film.  By day he works at Jam Productions, a Chicago concert promoter, and in his spare time rummages records for the musical oddities of the holiday season.  Well, he collects jazz records too.  

Every year for a couple of decades now he puts together a mix of his latest discoveries and shares them with the world.  It used to be just a mailing list of friends and music folk but now the compilation is offered as a download for a limited time each holiday season. 

You can find this year's edition, The Holiday Hangout at Hillbilly Holler, here.  It also comes with front and back cover art.

A music video for each of the Rock Hall class of '16 inductees

Radio Hannibal Top 40 Songs of 2015

Radio Hannibal Top 40 Songs of 2015

1. Belle and Sebastian - Nobody’s Empire
2. Fr. John Misty - Chateau Lobby #4
3. Tame Impala - Let It Happen
4. Jason Isbell - 24 Frames
5. Florence + The Machine - Ship To Wreck
6. Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats - S.O.B.
7. The Weeknd - Can’t Feel My Face
8. Foals - What Went Down
9. Lord Huron - Fool For Love
10. Carly Rae Jepsen - Run Away With Me
11. Grimes - California
12. CHVRCHES - Leave A Trace
13. My Morning Jacket - Compound Fracture
14. Rhett Miller - Most In The Summertime
15. Houndmouth - Sedona
16. Destroyer - Dream Lover
17. Natalie Prass - My Baby Don’t Understand Me
18. Tobias Jesso Jr. - How Could You Babe
19. The Decemberists - Cavalry Captain
20. Jack Fords - Big Sky Blues
21. The Mavericks - (Waiting For) The World To End
22. Leon Bridges - Smooth Sailin’
23. JD McPherson - Let The Good Times Roll
24. Adele - Hello
25. Kurt Vile - Pretty Pimpin’
26. Beirut - No No No
27. Calexico - Falling From The Sky
28. Mercury Rev - Are You Ready?
29. Mac DeMarco - No Other Heart
30. Dawes - All Your Favorite Bands
31. The Arcs - Stay In My Corner
32. Matt and Kim - Hey Now
33. Hot Chip - Need You Now
34. Courtney Barnett - Depreston
35. Sufjan Stevens - Should Have Known Better
36. Alabama Shakes - Future People
37. Mark Knopfler - Beryl
38. Brian Wilson (wth She & Him) - On The Island
39. JR JR - Gone
40. Deer hunter - Breaker

Radio Hannibal Top 50 Albums of 2015

1. Jason Isbell - Something More Than Free

2. Belle & Sebastian - Girls In Peacetime Want To Dance

3. Father John Misty - I Love You, Honeybear

4. The Mavericks - Mono

5. Tame Impala - Currents

6. Sufjan Stevens - Carrie & Lowell

7. The Jack Fords - There It Is

8. Grimes - Art Angels

9. Ryan Adams - 1989

10. My Morning Jacket - The Waterfall
11. Lana Del Rey - Honeymoon
12. Sleater-Kinney - No Cities To Love
13. Natalie Prass - Natalie Prass
14. Tobias Jesso Jr. - Goon
15. Mbongwana Star - From Kinshasa
16. Ryley Walker - Primrose Green
17. Punch Brothers - The Phosphorescent Blues
18. Carly Rae Jepsen - Emotion
19. Foals - What Went Down
20. CHVRCHES - Every Open Eye
21. Kurt Vile - B’lieve I’m Goin’ Down…
22. Mercury Rev - The Light In You
23. Destroyer - Poison Season
24. Florence + The Machine - How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful
25. James McMurtry - Complicated Game
26. Brent Kirby & His Luck - Patience Worth
27. Dwight Yoakam - Second Hand Heart
28. Alabama Shakes - Sound & Color
29. Songhoy Blues - Music In Exile
30. Leon Bridges - Coming Home
31. Sun Kil Moon - Universal Themes
32. Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats - Nathaniel Ratliff & The Night Sweats
33. Beach House - Depression Cherry
34. Josh Ritter - Sermon On The Rocks
35. Rhett Miller - The Traveler
36. Mac DeMarco - Another One
37. Darlene Love - Introducing Darlene Love
38. Jesse Malin - New York Before The War
39. FFS - FFS (Franz Ferdinand & Sparks)
40. Roman a Clef - Abandonware
41. Viet Cong - Viet Cong
42. Kamasi Washington - The Epic
43. Deerhunter - Fading Frontier
44. Dawes - All Your Favorite Bands
45. Best Coast - California Nights
46. Julia Holter - Have You In My Wilderness
47. Blur - The Magic Whip
48. Dan Deacon - Gliss Riffer
49. Car Seat Headrest - Teens Of Style
50. Peace - Happy People

Another list of new holiday albums for 2015

A few days ago I posted my list of new holiday releases worth a listen.  The music staff at the New York Times has compiled their own choices, Making Merry With Music.  Some of them match my list while there are others I was unaware of that I quickly added to my playlist like The dB's Christmas Time Again and Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. 

What's that you you ask?  Where can you get a look at my playlist?  I've been curating Radio Hannibal Christmas Music on Spotify for years now.  This massive selection (close to 300 hours) holds no prejudice and includes some truly cringe-worthy albums.  For some reason I'm much more tolerant of mediocre music when it's wrapped in Christmas paper.