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The bass, vibraphone and drum trio Benko have realized a swell video for “The Eurohit” off its soon-to-be-released LP. The talented Erik Grostic, a well-read drinking buddy and sushi bar cohort from Austin, is on vocs and bass.

Video on YouTube

Monkey: Journey to the West is a Cirque de so gay-style opera designed by the brains behind Gorillaz and featuring a full 70+ piece Chinese orchestra along with the squiggly synths and bumpin’ beats you’d expect.

The score was the most compelling part of the multisensory treat of a Monkey show I saw during Spoleto here in Charleston in May which featured not just great music but acrobatics, projected animation, and eye-bending sets.   So far it’s played in London, Berlin and Paris, and will undoubtedly be back to the states eventually. In the meanwhile, the soundtrack is coming out on September 23rd.

West Texas Plant - Photo Credit

I’m a pretty big music geek, so I rarely come upon an older album I haven’t heard already that really hits it out of the park for me.   Those times you listen to something and it punches a new hole into your idea of what music can be comes slower and slower as you get older–the swiss cheese of how I hear music becomes easier to see through but there’s less left to punch off.

I came across this list of Tom Wait’s favorite albums, many of which are terrific selections that would be near tops on a list I’d make too.

The feeling that I call punching a hole –Waits describes it when listening to the Nessun Dorma aria from the opera Turandot as:

I had never heard it. He asked me if I had ever heard it, and I said no, and he was like, as if I said I’ve never had spaghetti and meatballs - ‘Oh My God, Oh My God!’ - and he grabbed me and he brought me into the jukebox (there was a jukebox in the kitchen) and he put that on and he just kind of left me there. It was like giving a cigar to a five-year old. I turned blue, and I cried.

There were two albums I hadn’t heard on the list–one was an eponymous album by Houndog.

Punched a hole!  My adjectives won’t suffice here, so I’ll leave it to Waits again:

Now that’s a good record to listen to when you drive through Texas. … Those guys are so wild, and they’ve gotten so cubist. They’ve become like Picasso. They’ve gone from being purely ethnic and classical, to this strange, indescribable item that they are now. They’re worthwhile to listen to under any circumstances. But the sound he got on Houndog, on the electric violin … the whole record is a dusty road. Dark and burnished and mostly unfurnished. Superb texture and reverb. Lo fi and its highest level. Songs of depth and atmosphere. It ain’t nothin’ but a…

The 7th track “All Fired Up, All Shook Down” just slams.  I couldn’t find any legal full song links, but Amazon (and iTunes, if you’re into the DRM) has 30-second samples that give a decent idea.

Skip forwrard to 1 minute in for the action.

It shares the ease of control–only the shoulder buttons are used, excellent music (the trailer music is exactly what’s in the game, which is a sort of chripy Japanese twist on It’s a Small World), and the cutest graphics this side of Helly Kitty.  The physics of the “blob” you are controlling make the game, though–a nicely tactile controle scheme, despite its simplicity.

A delicacy in the South is bread & butter pickles.  Instead of sour dill pickles, these are super-sweet with a slight bitter taste.  Why they are called bread and butter I have no idea, as they have neither.

I found some pickles recently by a local canner that mixes jalapeños & cucumbers.  Superb!  Sweet, spicy, and sour.  As a sidenote, homemade pickles are always better–store brands are nearly always soggy and rubbery because they’ve been canned for too long.  Pickles should be crunchy!

Here’s an easy recipe.  These are great by themselves, on a tapas platter with olives and cheese, or finely chopped on a grilled bratwurst/tofu dog with some mustard.