Readers recommend: short songs | | Guardian Unlimited Arts

Found this 2006 article from the UK's Guardian Unlimited. Most of the tracks mentioned are staples on TMW, but a few were new to me. They'll be added soon. Click here for the story.

Kiwi!

The Beatles' "Love"

I've read many reviews that dismiss this album as sacrilegious or as no big deal -- just some beat matching and a few clever mashups.

But it's more like George Martin and his son were given permission to do a "Revolution 9" with the original multitracks. And the best parts are the really unexpected combinations, Like creating extra tension at the end of "Come Together" by grafting the end of "Dear Prudence" over it. Or hearing Ringo sing the opening of "Octopus's Garden" over the string arrangement from "Good Night." Or inserting the guitar solo from "Taxman" into "Drive My Car." Or the one that sold the surviving Beatles on the project: Adding the drums from "Tomorrow Never Knows" to "Within You Without You." And it all fits, like some great final puzzle that was waiting to be pieced together. I can't help feeling that the whole thing is a big love letter to John and George.

I recently heard Robyn Hitchcock describe The Beatles as an organism that could not survive without any one of its parts. I think this CD really shows how organic and interdependent that band really was.

Tracks added to the TMW library:

• I Want To Hold Your Hand
• Drive My Car/The Word/What You're Doing
• Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (reprise)
• Back In The U.S.S.R.
• Glass Onion
• Gnik Nus

The Beatles website

New station ID

I commissioned a station ID from Andrew at songtowearpantsto.com, whose brilliant short songs have been in regular rotation here at TMW. Andrew came through big time, so tune in and you'll hear the new ID after some of the commercial breaks.

songstowearpantsto.com

Short songs to the rescue!

Apparently, really short songs can help the environment when used for your shower singing:

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Save water - sing short songs

Miniatures: A Sequence of Fifty-One Tiny Masterpieces

In 1980, former Mott the Hoople keyboardist Morgan Fisher invited 50 musicians who he admired to send in tracks of up to one minute in length for this astounding album. They responded with unanimous enthusiasm, and as well as receiving tapes through the mail from all over the world, Morgan also packed up his Revox tape recorder and went to several musicians homes to record them there. Original artwork for the album was contributed by the notorious Ralph Steadman.

Needless to say, all the tracks are part of the TMW library.

Morgan Fisher's homepage.

Last Minute Jam (Vol. 2):Minutes To Millennium

From 1986 to 1996 musicians filled a bar on South St. in Philadelphia with the sound of free-spirit, improvisational music. The Last Minute Jam became a weekly institution at J.C.Dobb's from 1986 until its closing in 1996.

This CD, released in 1999, features 69 one-minute songs from Philadelphia's best artists, including The Soul Survivors, Tommy Conwell, Eltro, Lauren Hart, Chuck Treece, Ben Arnold, Nancy Falkow, Wobbly, Cory, and Stewkey of Nazz. In keeping with the free spirit of the Last Minute Jam, this CD was produced in the flavor of a "Live" session, with most tracks recorded in one or two takes.

Partial proceeds from the purchase of this CD benefit: Settlement Music School, Juvenile Diabetes Foundation & the Philadelphia Branch Recording Academy (NARAS).

TMW is thrilled to add this disc to the library.

CD Baby: LAST MINUTE JAM (VOL.2): Minutes To Millennium