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Bjork records new swan songs

The music of Bjork, that Icelandic avant-garde rocker, is like that swan dress she wore on the red carpet at the 2001 Oscars: weird, discombobulating and so ugly that you begin to fathom an alien beauty once you get pass the shock you feel upon first encounter.
    
That makes Bjork the sort of artist whose works you want to preview before handing over your hard-earned bucks.
     
And so praise npr.org/music. The music segment of National Public Radio's Web site currently is streaming Bjork's new album, "Voltaic," in its entirety. The set features live-in-the-studio recordings of, er, songs from past Bjork albums.

Michael Jackson was a freak.
    
No, I'm not talking about that stuff -- having his face sculpted from man into pixie; the arrested development that led him to follow his private Tinkerbell into his own, literal Neverland; the bizarro antics ready-made for the tabloids.
     
Here's why Michael Jackson was the ultimate pop music freak: He became the King of Pop in a way no one else had before, or has since.
     
Unlike Elvis, Sinatra or Madonna, Michael the Man-Child and his music, even his fabulous dance moves, oozed all the sexual swagger of a mollusk.

Ever since the original Fourth of July shindig -- you know, that one in 1776 -- the event has been filled with a boom. Of course, the cannon and musket fire of George Washington's time have been replaced with the boom of fireworks -- and also, in our area, with the boom of concerts.
    
Country star Darryl Worley, known for his hit song "Have You Forgotten?," headlines a concert July 3 at the Bandshell in Daytona Beach. Meanwhile, the hard rock band Buckcherry, known for their song "Crazy Bitch," headlines a concert tonight at Destination Daytona in Ormond Beach.
     
So, what's a patriotic music fan to do? Which concert do you choose to show you're true to the red, white and blue?
     
Here's this music critic's handy guide to help you select the most patriotic event to celebrate this Fourth of July:

 

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Day of 'Reckoning' comes for R.E.M.

Back in 1983, when Spring Break was still welcomed in Daytona Beach, we remember heading out to the Bandshell to see a couple of bands do their thing. The headliner was Big Country, who had a fairly large hit with "In A Big Country," but we really didn't care and they quickly disappeared off our radar.
     
No, gentle readers, we were there to see the opening act, this scrappy little band that was about to release its influential second album, "Reckoning." That group, R.E.M., would go on to be the quintessential indie band, still making music today and doing things their way.
     
Fans of this simpler time can now rejoice. "Reckoning (Deluxe Edition)" has been rereleased and not only contains the original material ("So. Central Rain," "(Don't Go Back To) Rockville") but a 1984 concert from the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago. Both the studio material and the live stuff highlight R.E.M.'s early, ragged, scruffy, joyful glory, something that's sorely missing from today's music scene.

With apologies to all you fellow dads, I hereby make this confession: I've always been creeped out by the 1989 film "Field of Dreams."
 
Yes, I know, "Field of Dreams" is the dad movie. It's the flick that a lot of moms will prod their kids to rent on DVD this weekend, so that the youngsters can watch it with their dads on Father's Day this Sunday.
 
Heck, "Fields of Dreams" is only the second movie in the history of the universe at which it's OK for a grown man to cry. (The other? The 1957 Walt Disney 0flick "Old Yeller").

When Patricia Mae Andrzejewski saw a magazine ad featuring her in the 1980s, she noticed part of her top had been airbrushed away.
    
Patricia Mae -- better known to the pop music world as Pat Benatar -- could be "accommodating," writes Lucy O'Brien in her book "She Bop: The Definitive History of Women in Rock, Pop & Soul."
     
But Benatar "was never a floozy," O'Brien notes. "When her record company Chrysalis airbrushed part of her top off for a Billboard advertisement, Benatar toned down the sexy stage image and cut her hair short."
     
Now a wife and mom with two daughters, Benatar is still touring and recording with guitarist Neil Giraldo, her husband of 27 years and musical collaborator for 32 years. Benatar, Giraldo and their backing band will be in concert June 26 at Peabody Auditorium in Daytona Beach.

RICK de YAMPERT
ENTERTAINMENT WRITER
    
Steely Dan, that rock band with the jazz fetish and obtuse yet hip lyrics, resumed touring in 1993 -- 13 years after disbanding and 19 years after last performing concerts.
 
For the occasion, SD's front men, keyboardist-singer Donald Fagen and guitarist Walter Becker, "bought copies of the 'Steely Dan Songbook' to help them remember their old songs. But they soon learned that the music in these books were full of wrong (notes)."
 
So claims a passage on the duo's Web site, steelydan.com. They're kidding, right?
 
Of course. But the passage reveals some of the character of Mr. Fagen and Mr. Becker, as displayed in various interviews and media exposure over the years: Don and Walt have a mild disdain for popular success and the trappings of rock stardom, even their own. They have a legendary obsession with perfection. Their sense of humor is, well, a bit quirky.
 
And there's a touch of elitism (some might say pretentiousness) hiding behind that odd sense of humor -- Steely Dan's lyrics can sound like a conversation between a frat boy, a beat poet and a smirking college archaeology professor who thinks he's smarter than you.
 
But it's no joke that Steely Dan are touring again. Fagen, Becker and company perform June 15 in Orlando and June 18 in St. Augustine.
 
You have questions about the band? We've got answers.

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Olatunji drums up "Passion"

In 1959, the American music scene brewed such works as "The Sound of Music," Bobby Darin's "Mack the Knife," Johnny Horton's "The Battle of New Orleans" and Miles Davis' "Kind of Blue."
 
Meanwhile, Nigerian-born drummer Babatunde Olatunji had taken up residence in New York City and was crafting the first album of traditional West African drumming and chant to be recorded on this continent. His album "Drums of Passion" opened the door for so-called "world music" in the United States. Olatunji would inspire, and eventually work with, John Coltrane, Carlos Santana and Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart.
     
Six years after Olatunji's passing, his bangy, clangy, joyous "Drums of Passion" has been reissued in a 2-CD, 50th anniversary legacy edition, with bonus tracks, from Columbia Records.
     
The set is, as Olatunji shouts on one track, "Oyin Momo Ado" -- "sweet as honey."

Australian singer-guitarist Wendy Rule says her music "is my main tool for connecting to the divine world of nature and magic. Many of my songs explore the nature of Goddess and God through the characters in the ancient mythologies of the Celts and Greeks."
    
And, she says on her Web site, "As a practicing witch, naturally my music is going to contain many references to, and explorations of, my spirituality."
     
With six studio albums to her credit, Rule has performed in her native Australia as well as France, Germany, England and Scotland. Her current tour of the United States -- her tenth -- includes two area concerts: June 10 at the Ormond Beach Performing Arts Center and June 11 at the Colby Temple in Cassadaga.
     
Rule will perform songs from her album "The Wolf Sky," released in 2006.
     
"Witchcraft is a beautiful and wild spiritual tradition that honors and strengthens our deep connection with the cosmos, and especially with the magical planet Earth," Rule says. "My music explores many of the themes and symbols of modern witchcraft: a love of nature, a willingness to explore deep emotion, an acknowledgment of the spirit world, and recognition of the wisdom contained within the world's mythologies."

GO ONLINE
 
Movie site is a whiz
 
You're enjoying a film when disaster strikes: You need to go to the bathroom. What do you do?
     
Fret no more. Thanks to the good folks over at runpee.com, the problem is solved.
     
Simply head to the site, click the film you're planning to watch and you'll find out when to go, how long you have and what you'll miss -- all at the click of a button.
     
And it's not just for new movies, either. Your classic favorites from "The Thing" to "Jurassic Park" are also included.
     
You can also add your own times for films not listed, e-mail listings to friends and find out when times are added to your favorite films.