Maryam Motamedi

Maryam is a lover and fighter from Los Angeles. She loves travel, music, and languages. "...And if the whole world's harp should burn up, there will still be hidden instruments playing, playing..." From 'Where Everything Is Music' by Rumi. Follow her on Twitter.

Apr 152017
 
HBO Girls music

The first episode of Girls aired on April 15, 2012, exactly five years ago. Six seasons in five years is more aggressive than the usual one-season-per-year pace of most shows. You could say Girls was growing up fast.

The series has featured more than 389 songs (per Tunefinder), not including the music of the finale tomorrow. Music writers routinely covered episodes, reveling in the impact the show’s music had on the depth of the storyline.

Covers of male songs performed by women were sprinkled across the episodes, in many cases spotlighting younger and less famous females. HBO could certainly afford the rights to the original recordings, so using these covers became a deliberate choice, not a plan B. Continue reading »

Jun 152015
 
the doors tribute

During the six years Jim Morrison was alive and leading vocals for The Doors, 1965-1971, the group produced six albums. That is quite a feat, especially given the number of singles and hits they produced. The Doors’ music has lived on and tribute albums and covers have been made. The latest tribute from May comes from Murder Studios Presents. The nineteen cover songs each lend their own unique sound to decades-old songs that seem to never expire. Continue reading »

Jun 102015
 
RESIZE-PHIL-MANZANERA

Samples in hip hop are a main ingredient of many successful hits. “No Church In The Wild” is no exception. That beautiful looped guitar riff comes from the talented master, Phil Manzanera, of Roxy Music. Phil’s solo work, “K-Scope” from 1978, was sampled by Kanye West and Jay-Z in their 2011 song. Continue reading »

May 012015
 
britney-spears-toms-diner-cover-giorgio-moroder1

Suzanne Vega’s “Tom’s Diner” has likely popped into your head many times since the late 80s’, when it was first released. With a simple melody, a visual storyline for lyrics, and recurring “da-da DA-da, da-da DA-da da-da DA-da, da-da DA-da”, it’s a song to which possibly a tiny baby could help sing along. Like one of Suzanne’s contemporaries, The Terminator, this song has had multiple lives. Originally released in 1987 as an acapella piece, it was re-released as a bootleg with a dance beat by DNA in 1990, and there have been multiple versions since. Thankfully, Suzanne has had the grace to see these copyright infringements as creative pursuits and has not filed any lawsuits to limit versioning. Continue reading »

Mar 182015
 

Right now, Peter Katis’ resume reads 365 album credits. His contributions range from engineer, to producer, to mixer, to instrumentalist with well-known artists and bands such as The National.  A seasoned musician, Peter recently enlisted his talented eleven-year-old nephew, Henry Katis, to sing lead vocals on a beautiful cover of Supertramp’s ’70s hit, “The Logical Song” with his band, The Philistines, Jr. Continue reading »