Tuesday night, Wilco appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman, with special guest vocalist Feist, to perform “You And I.”
The next day, 66-year-old ex-Beatle Paul McCartney and his band played a 22-minute concert on the roof of the marquee of the Ed Sullivan Theater. They flew through “Coming Up,” “Band on the Run,” “Let Me Roll It,” “Helter Skelter,” and “Back in the USSR,” and sounded tight as f!@#, in this author’s opinion.
I actually remember seeing this commercial on the air as a six-year-old boy in 1984. It sparked my desire and my need to own one of those red jackets. Also appearing in the commercial is Alfonso Ribeiro, Carlton Banks from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
If “Michael Jackson” and “Pepsi ad” sound like something you’ve heard in the same sentence before, you’re probably recalling how in the same year, while recording a Pepsi commercial on stage in Los Angeles, Jackson was apparently seriously burned by malfunctioning equipment, which may or may not have led to some of his later plastic surgeries.
For what we assume will be a very limited time, Pitchfork is streaming the entire epic Guided By Voices documentary Watch Me Jumpstart on its site, for free.
The 1998 film tells the story of the unlikeliest of rock stars (featuring Dayton, Ohio born Robert Polllard, an ex-4th-grade teacher) who never actually became rockstars to the general public but still managed to spawn a new sub-genre of DIY music-making, from recording albums on cassettes to printing T-shirts and album covers in their garage.
You can watch the whole thing by following the link below the jump:
Phil Spector was photographed by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation in June 2009 after his arrest on murder charges (Spector was sentenced to 19 years in prison following his conviction for murdering actress Lana Clarkson, whom he shot to death in his Los Angeles home in February 2003) . And it turns out that crazy hairdo he sported in court (seen here) was not actually his real hair. Why would a man wear such a strange looking wig? Maybe because without it, he resembles Gollum from the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Last night, rumors about a new Pixies album hit the web after this image appeared on ainr.com (Artist In Residence):
Well, it turns out Minotaurwill not be a new Pixies studio album, but a box set of all their studio albums, with revamped artwork and extras. The set will be available in both Limited Edition and Deluxe Edition forms and will include the band’s four albums and the Come On PilgrimEP. Vaughan Oliver and Simon Larbalestier, the photographers who shot the covers for those albums, will be in charge of the repackaging.
Artist in Residence founder Jeff Anderson told Rolling Stone that the albums won’t be remastered because he didn’t want to touch the original masters. Read the rest of this entry »
Leilani joins Stephen and Joran in the studio to welcome Jim Morey and his band as they perform two tracks live and talk about their strange brand of Neo-ragtime, NOLA jazz, stumblin’ roots rock.
Yes, they brought in a monkey, and yes, we got it on video.
Download the MP3s of Gypsy Wind and Wishing Well after the break.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs were the musical guests on Saturday Night Live this weekend. They played Zero, the single from their new album It’s Blitz! (reviewed here) and, rather strangely, an older song, Maps. Old but good at least. here’s Zero:
It was a long time coming for session number six, but well worth it, as Clearwater-based hard rockers Soulfound join Joran and Stephen in the studio to talk about playing locally and nationally, recording and playing together for a decade and their decision to go on hiatus. They also bring their amps and put them to good use. MP3s of Temper Temper, Occupation and Looking For Me can be downloaded below the jump, along with pics.
Here’s the brand new video for Now We Can See by threesome the Thermals. According to the band’s Web site, the track is #1 on commercial specialty radio, tied with Silversun Pickups‘ Panic Switch. Fancy…
For session five, Stephen and Joran talk with the foursome about touring, knife play and a newer sound, plus, the band performs three songs: Lips, Pretty in Pale and Whipsering Sin. Download.
Britney Spears got caught with her mic on while leaving the stage for a wardrobe change during her concert last night at the St. Pete Times Forum. Not realizing the mic was still live and says, “My pussy is hanging out!”
For humans, 30 isn’t too old — not even middle age is old these days. But for technology, any age measured in decades denotes something downright ancient. Enter the CD, first demonstrated on March 8, 1979.
To date, over 3.5 billion audio CD players have been sold along with 240 billion compact discs. Sales are in steep decline, however, as the age of physical delivery systems for music ends, with the MP3 now reigning king.
The CD hasn’t nearly the passionate fanbase of vinyl or even cassettes, and probably never will, but many music fans, when blowing out the candles on the CD, will continue to lament the demise of cover art and the idea of the album as a cohesive artistic statement.
Potential lesbian and singer Miley Cyrus revealed this week on Tucson morning radio show Johnjay & Richthat she was rebuffed by Radiohead (her favorite band, “the only one she would cry over” according to her agent) during the Grammy Awards last month.
Radiohead was in a dressing room only four doors down from Ms. Cyrus. Miley had her manager request a little face time with Thom and the gang. Their response? “We don’t really do that kind of thing.”
Cyrus told the radio hosts she thought it was “rude.” She even left the ceremony and missed Radiohead’s live performance on the show. “I left ’cause I was so upset. I wasn’t going to watch. Stinkin’ Radiohead! I’m gonna ruin them, I’m going to tell everyone,” she said.
So far, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon has failed to impress many, but the show’s first week of music wasn’t too shabby (the Roots as house band, Van Morrison, Justin Timberlake). Last night Clap Your Hands Say Yeah ripped out a new single, called “Statues” to a very excited audience (what’s with the people on the side of the stage, anyway?).
There’s been this new sound swirling around; it sounds like hip hop but with an electro beat … I’m no music critic and my vocabulary to breakdown the proper terminology is laughable. All I know is this sound is propped up by new female “alternative” artists, and they all have a killer style.
In our first Fusionistas podcast (embedded below, check it) my guest is Shunda K, creator of the group Yo! Majesty. We have a candid conversation about where she’s been and where shes going, and how she was a forerunner of this new sound. Shunda has been collaborating with many artists on different tracks and we’ll link you some so you can hear for yourself. (check ‘em down below)
Ultimately, Case says, the songs on Middle Cyclone are more about the universal need for love, regardless of what form it may take.
“What other people might call ‘love songs,’ I think of as homages,” she says. “They can be to a person, a region, a feeling, even sad feelings.”
In addition to 12 new tracks, Case also covers two songs on Middle Cyclone: “Never Turn Your Back on Mother Earth” by Sparks, and “Don’t Forget Me” by Harry Nilsson.
Middle Cyclone was produced by Case, with Darryl Neudorf, and recorded in Tucson, Brooklyn, Toronto and Vermont. It features Case, backed by her core band: guitarist Paul Rigby, bassist Tom V. Ray, backing vocalist Kelly Hogan, multi-instrumentalist Jon Rauhouse, and drummer Barry Mirochnick. She’s also joined by a number of guests, including M. Ward, Garth Hudson, Sarah Harmer and members of The New Pornographers, Los Lobos, Calexico, The Sadies, Visqueen, The Lilys and Giant Sand.
Among the 17 songs is a Beatles cover for the song I’ll Be Back.
Considering how much material has been uncovered, we’d expect to be hearing really rough and diluted material at this point, but these recordings are anything but.
Recognizing the release (and very good reviews) of Morrissey’s new album, Years of Refusal, out today, Paste has released a list of the 10 best Smiths songs. Let’s see if we at CL agree with it:
10. “Bigmouth Strikes Again”—One of three Queen Is Dead songs on this list, “Bigmouth” features a nice anachronistic lyric about Joan of Arc and a Walkman. The song rocks fairly hard by Smiths standards; a colleague recently told me that “Morrissey actually growls on the live version off Rank,” then played me the clip. (Sure enough, he does.)
9. “Ask”—A highlight among highlights on Louder Than Bombs, in which our narrator spends “warm summer days indoors / writing frightening verse to a buck-toothed girl in Luxembourg.”
8. “Rusholme Ruffians”—An underrated Meat Is Murder track, which makes our list for three reasons: Johnny Marr’s jangly guitar, Morrissey’s schoolboy angst and the hopelessly romantic lyric, “I might walk home alone / but my faith in love is still devout”
7. “Girlfriend in a Coma”—A vicious two-minute pop song that leaves you reeling.
6. “How Soon Is Now”—Thanks to Marr’s epic riff, this may be the most widely known Smiths song amongst the general public. For a band that specialized in intimacy, “How Soon” works surprisingly well as an ’80s anthem.
5. “Panic”—I’ve always wanted a radio show with this as my theme song. (Bonus points if you can watch the video without vomiting.)
New Jersey based Parlor Mob play what best can be described as a mashup of Janis Joplin, Led Zeppelin and Bon Jovi, without a hint of irony. They converted a few local skeptics with an absolutely frenetic live show. One attendee said, “I never listen to this kind of music, but these guys put on an amazing show.”
Speaking of frenetic live shows, Jacksonville’s B.L.O.R.R. (Bastard Love Child Of Rock ‘n Roll) managed to work a dozen young fans into a torn shirt, dancing tornado of hormones with their synth-driven set. Fearless Tampa Calling contributor Aly Carr managed to take a picture with their pants-less drummer.
In a new, thorough interview with Pitchfork, Stephen Malkmus talks about his memories of albums past and about the possibility of a Pavement reunion.
SM: Well, I don’t think about it too much. It’s sort of an out-of-sight, out-of-mind type thing. It’s just standard question #10 on the interview circuit for Real Emotional Trash. It’s almost as if it’s a script. Most bands will tell you, make sure you like your press release, because everything is going to come off of that, and you know what’s coming. That’s part of the formula, so I usually just say “No, it’s not happening.” People say stuff about Pavement, and I say that I’m really honored and proud that a lot of people at the show are into Pavement, and there wouldn’t be as many people there, we wouldn’t have the dialogue, or play the same venues, frankly, if we were just a new band. So I’m happy about it. But I’m into the new thing.
Pitchfork: Do you think your bandmates in the Jicks ever feel weird about it?
SM: I think they’re used to it at this point. Maybe for Janet it was a new thing. She was in Sleater-Kinney, and that’s it own thing.
Pitchfork: Yeah, “When are Sleater-Kinney going to get back together again?
A simple poll today. Do you care about the Grammys, airing tonight?
For an event whose most-cited moments include Milli Vanilli’s 1990 Grammy for Best New Artist and the Bob Dylan soy bomb dancer, we’re guessing probably not.
Thirty years after the death of Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious, a new documentary called Who Killed Nancy? argues Vicious was not responsible for death of girlfriend/groupie/heroin addict Nancy Spungen.
Former Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren says the idea was bollocks in the first place, according to a new article he penned, called Sid Didn’t Kill Nancy:
So many people have cursed me, accused me, of murdering Sid, including John Lydon. That’s not true. Sid’s mother did. Some felt that because I was the manager, the “responsible adult,” I could have prevented Sid’s death. But try managing a junkie—especially if you’ve never been one yourself. I guess that’s show business and the media. The questions never stop, even now, 30 years since his death. “How Vicious was he?” “What went wrong?” Did he kill Nancy? To the last question, I can say, definitely not …
On Feb. 3, 1959, a four-seat airplane carrying Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper (J.P. Richardson) crashed into a cornfield eight miles north of Clear Lake, Iowa.
The term “rock ‘n’ roll” had only come into widespread use about three years before.
The seeds planted between 1958-1964, between Elvis and the Beatles, go often unheralded in rock history. Motown got its start; it was Roy Orbison’s peak — same for the Beach Boys and the Four Seasons, not to mention Phil Spector, Stax and Muscle Shoals, the Shirelles, Del Shannon and James Brown.
Here are some Buddy Holly tunes for your listening enjoyment, below the jump:
Last night, Manchester Orchestra sold out the Orpheum (this reporter only made it in thanks to the door work of CL Marketing + Promotions Director Joran Oppelt). Lead singer Andy Hull (looking every bit Grandaddy frontman Jason Lytle’s little brother) impressed with his vocal chops, mixing in a good deal of Ben Gibbard-influence to go with the band’s loud/quiet sing-a-long numbers, some which have been featured in the Gossip GirlTV show.
Lily of Inertia! welcomed Ryann Slauson and Nikki Navarro of Giddy-Up Helicopter!,for her set. I then found out Giddy-Up are calling it quits in the spring when Nikki plans to leave for Chicago.
Super Secret Best Friends played their first show at New World since their first-ever show early this year. SSBF drummer Alex told me it’s their favorite venue. Agreed.
The diminutive troubadour Butcher (who sounds more like a young Neil Young with each listen) and crew of six knocked out some great harmonies, especially on the title track. Lead guitar and pedal steel work filled things out nicely. As a friend commented, “it’s just enough country, but never too much country.”
Bombadil overcame some questionable wardobe choices to knock out really tight set of twee pop/Indie/Irish sea chanties for children.
The Beauvilles debuted their new album, Whispering Sin, Thursday night with a show at Crowbar.
Tampa’s Lush Progress, Lakeland’s Mousefire and DJn8 warmed up a very healthy weeknight crowd.
A pack of wild youths, including CL streetteamers Emma Salz and Kelly Brophy, Kelvin Ma, the Beauvilles’ Chris Tolan, Joran Oppelt and an unknown dude, jumped a lot. Tell us who you are, unknown jumping dude…
It was a long time coming for session number six, but well worth it, as Clearwater-based hard rockers 
Potential lesbian
Recognizing the release (and 
In a new, thorough interview with Pitchfork, 
A simple poll today. Do you care about the 
Thirty years after the death of Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious, a new documentary called 
On Feb. 3, 1959, a four-seat airplane carrying Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper (J.P. Richardson) crashed into a cornfield eight miles north of Clear Lake, Iowa.
