The Kleptones are making videos to go with their latest album, Uptime/Downtime (download it here), and here are their first few efforts …

Voodoo Sabotage (The Kleptones Mash-Up) from DJ Tripp on Vimeo.

But, in my opinion, this one is much better …

Welcome Back by The Kleptones (Instamatic video mash) from The Videotones on Vimeo.

Jelly Roll Morton claimed to have invented jazz in 1902 … highly unlikely, but it does not diminish his musical skill or achievements! Born and raised in New Orleans, he started work as a piano player in a brothel in his teens. Because of his early position in the history of jazz, his piano style cannot be easily categorized, as is evident by this track – a pure boogie woogie.

The track, called Boogie Woogie Blues, can be downloaded from the Internet Archive.

Enjoy!

One of the guys from Kleptones was up on the plinth in Trafalgar square and the mix produced during is online (it totals a little over 48 minutes) … you can find it here.

It is not the most polished piece of work, but it is still a very solid piece of music from the ever-reliable Kleptones!

Additionally, they have a new album coming out soon called “Uptime/Downtime” and I imagine that once it comes out, I will add it to my collection since all of their previous work has been of such a high quality.

Here is another video from the boys of Hayseed-Dixie …

Here is a video from the boys of Hayseed-Dixie …

A couple of years ago, the Kleptones produced a great mash-up of Bohemian Rhapsody covers.  I have thoroughly enjoyed the track over the years but have always wondered what tracks they used … I could identify a handful of them but never all of them.  So, they have published the list over on their blog …

And, they have reposted the link to the track … so, if you have not heard it, download it now.

The great creative minds that make up the Kleptones have produced another great track, mixing up the now infamous freak out of Christian Bale with Who Cares? from Gnarls Barkley.

Go check it out!

Just downloaded the new tracks by the Kleptones, condensing the best of 2008 into five tracks (available on their blog – go here for no. 1, no. 2, no. 3, no. 4, or no. 5). The tracks range from 30 minutes up to nearly 55 minutes and, from the limited amount of listening I have done today, they do provide a good round-up of 2008. If you want to have a track list for each one, see the pages for each track.

If you want some more of the Kleptones, check out the stuff on their downloads page.

If, for some reason (like being dead), you did not know that the Live 8 concerts occurred last night, they did and I watched them from the relative comfort of the TV room at the St Cross Annexe. I did not win a ticket to the concert in London and I think that watching it on BBC was a good as being there … but first, let me talk about the concert.

The two highlights for me were: Paul McCartney & U2 singing Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band & Pink Floyd’s reunion

Macca and U2 were a great opening and, at how many concerts will you see two acts like that open … I would say none! Plus, as Sir Paul latter said, it was the first time that Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band were ever played live by him … and, you could download it from iTunes within 45 minutes of the performance (gotta give Apple some congrats on that one)! So, if you did miss that song, go download it and support Live 8.

Okay, now to the real reason that I watch close to ELEVEN hours of BBC yesterday … the first time in my LIFE that Pink Floyd has played together. Let me just say that it was nothing short of amazing … you could tell that there was a little rust from not playing together for 24+ years … but that did not stop them from putting a great set together for a great cause. On top of that, I thought that they looked like they enjoyed being back together a lot and that could mean that they will be stay together. Being a fan of great music, being able to go to a Pink Floyd concert would be truly amazing!

Now to say something for BBC, they did a great job keeping the air full of music and message. With the few exceptions, especially the decision to interview Robbie Williams at one point, the BBC team was able to make the Live 8 and the Make Poverty History messages come across but not seem to be beat into the audience. I knew that public TV could be great TV, unlike it is in the States, and the BBC team proved it yesterday! The ability to watch a concert (or any TV show without commercials is a great feeling and yesterday, it will wonderful).

Okay, well, I hope that they come out with a DVD of the concert (or maybe even of all the concerts)!

The Independent Online Edition > Blues Feature

An interesting article about what place the blues has in today’s music scene. I think that it has some good points, especially talking about what was the real influence of blues on rock-n-roll … the emotion! For me, this has a real connection to several of the bands that I really enjoy, esp The Holmes Brothers, Hayseed-Dixie, and Southern Culture on the Skids. Both of them are about getting on stage (or in the studio) and letting it all out … having fun and not sticking to a single genre of music. Unfortunately, many people think that it is not commercially viable to be a reall musician like that, but there are a lot of people who support great musicians who are not bound by a single genre.

Get out there and listen to some real music today! For some great live music from a lot of musicians that put their emotions into the music, check out the Live Music Archive.